Through The Magnifying Glass: Touches, Tests, and Candidates (Oh My!) Part 2

by Nancy Drew

Throughout my mini-rewatch, I found that looking at all of the episodes together as a whole helped for me to see the bigger picture of the story they were trying to tell.  As I've sat now for days on end trying to figure out what message this block is trying to send, I am reminded of the scale in the cave that had one black rock on one side and one white rock on the other.  Not only were the rocks balanced in the science of their weight, but also in the meaning of their symbolism.  While the black rock would be significant to darkness, emptiness, and evil, the white rock would be significant to brightness, fulfillment, and innocence.  This scale, in one brief scene throughout six episodes, says it all to me.  Balance.

In Dr. Linus, we immediately become captivated in the story when we hear Ben, a Modern European History teacher in our other timeline, teaching his class about Elba and Napoleon's exile there.  He tells the class that, to Napoleon, it wasn't the banishment from his home that effected him the most, but the loss of his power instead.  It made him feel "meaningless".  It's difficult not to take information like this and apply it to something it might parallel in Lost's story line, so I decided not to fight the urge to figure this out and take a look at whose story this fact might be trying to tell.  I have come to the conclusion that we might find out that this is a similar situation to that of MIB and how he came to be on the island.  And although it isn't much to go on, if we consider that MIB's stay on the island is as a punishment, then we could assume that maybe Jacob is there as a reward.  Jacob does choose people to be "candidates" and we've been led to believe that, in itself, is a gift.

Another edge-of-the-seat scene in this episode that turned out to be a real eye-opener was the one in which Richard and Jack are sitting inside of the Black Rock with a lit stick of dynamite between them.  Richard explains to Jack that he hasn't been "back" since arriving on the island--leading us to believe that Richard came to the island on the Black Rock--and that Jacob's touch prevents him from committing suicide.  He tells Jack that in order for him to die, someone else needs to light the fuse on the dynamite, something which Jack does without hesitation as he sits down opposite Richard for a little "talk".  Jack, who has recently found himself by reflecting in the ocean view of the island, stands his ground with the dynamite and has confidence that his purpose on the island has yet to be served and knows from the dial in the lighthouse that showed his childhood home in the mirrors that he, too, has been given this gift from Jacob.  This scene is an example of balance where Richard, the one who has lost his faith in Jacob and the island, and Jack, one who has found complete faith in the two, sit opposite one another.  The "scale" is tipped when Richard releases his doubt and places his faith in Jack's hands believing that he can resolve the issues at hand.  But just as I sit and watch Jack restore Richard's faith, I am reminded of the recent events that led to Sayid telling Jack that he trusted in him to guide him through making the decision of taking that pill--the one Dogen made.  It suddenly occurred to me that Dogen wasn't trying to kill Sayid with that pill.  Dogen was giving Sayid another test. 

Richard said that he wasn't able to kill himself because of the touch, or gift, that Jacob gave him.  Sayid was also given this touch by Jacob and, therefore, should not have been able to take the pill, if Jack would have given it to him.  Jack was instructed to get Sayid to take it of his own free will and Dogen told him that it was poison, so I'm positive now that the purpose of the pill was to see if Sayid was really Candidate Sayid or if he was something else--like Christian Shepard.  When going back to rewatch that episode, it seemed perfectly clear that this was exactly what Dogen's intentions were--especially when we get to the part of the story where he asks Jack if Sayid took the pill.  Jack said that Sayid swallowed it right down and nothing happened.  I think Dogen saw right through Jack at this point because either something would have happened to make it impossible for Sayid to take the pill or the darkness inside of Sayid would have made him completely aware of the fact that the pill was poison.  But not only that, after witnessing the "dropping baseball" scene, I truly think that Dogen was, in fact, testing Sayid and not out to kill him.  When Dogen withdrew himself from the duel with Sayid, it was to keep his own inner scale balanced and not tip it in the wrong direction by having murder in his heart. 

Once I started to open my eyes to the possibility of Sayid not being able to commit suicide, I started to see that our other candidates have also had failed attempts.  John Locke tried to kill himself when Ben entered the room and stopped him.  Ben actually ended up killing John in the end, but it wasn't a suicide like it was made to appear.  Jack was standing on the top of a ledge on a bridge when Mrs. Arlen crashed her car because of witnessing his suicide attempt.  We watched as Michael repeatedly tried, despite Tom's warnings that it wouldn't work, and we saw Kate braving through the hailstorm of bullets that eventually killed Tom Brennan, but left her unscathed.  The one piece of the puzzle that I'd like to add to this list is Hurley, with his fearless treks through the jungle and remembering his time in the mental hospital, but Hurley stands separate from the rest of the candidates.  Hurley thwarted his own suicide attempts without the help of Jacob, as far as we know.  Jacob didn't come to see Hurley until he was released from jail--right before boarding Ajira Flight 316.  Maybe this is the reason why Hurley seems to have gained a special place at Jacob's side.

The biggest part of this ultimate balance, to me, seems to be with the other timeline.  As we've watched Kate, Jack, Ben, and John all look into a mirror in this second reality, it would seem as if they're peering through the looking glass hoping to find something about themselves on the other side.  In some religious beliefs, mirrors are a means for spirits to interact and cross over into the world of the living.  (Just reading that information made me think of John--who was actually MIB--saying that line to Ben when he woke up in the Hydra station, "Welcome back to the land of the living".)  Because of this belief, mirrors are covered during times of praying and times of mourning.  But for the purposes of this show and the story it's trying to tell, I can't help wondering if the "mirror" we're supposed to see is really the balance that this other reality is bringing to the timeline.  Everyone we've come across in the second timeline has a key personality trait that is mirrored, making their lives a little different than what we knew them to be in the first timeline.  And although their lives so far have seemed somewhat different, I believe that their destinies will not be changed.  Just as Ms. Hawking was describing to Desmond in Flashes Before Your Eyes, an episode that I think became our first glimpse into this other reality, a person's destiny cannot be changed--even when that means that it is their time to die.  But what about "balance" would explain the island sinking in this other reality?

I think it's safe to say that most viewers believe that the Jughead is the reason the island is at the bottom of the ocean, or that the Jughead and the Incident together caused it, but for me, I'm not convinced.  I'm not even convinced that it was the Jughead or incident that caused another timeline to be formed.  I believe that having that metaphorical and symbolic scale at a balance, meaning that BOTH MIB and Jacob were alive and serving their separate purposes in the grander scheme of life, ONE timeline was formed.  The mirror image to a balanced scale, isn't necessarily having a tipped scale.  The mirror to a balanced scale would have to be not having a scale at all.  We've been led to believe, given the view of the scale in the cave, that our original timeline is that of a balanced scale, but what if we've been watching a world with a tipped scale and our other timeline is the mirror of it being tipped in the other direction?  Regardless of presence or absence of balance, the island at the bottom of the ocean seems to me to be very like that of the side of the scale that sits below the other--all the way down to the base of the scale.  If this is, indeed, the way we're supposed to look at the sunken island, where is the side that has been hoisted up higher than the line of balance?  Is it with the Oceanic plane that flies overhead or is it something that would have happened years before the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles would have been scheduled?  No matter how the island came to be on the bottom of the ocean floor, it's apparent that it was caused sometime after life had been established there by the Dharma Initiative. 

Scales and balance set aside, there is one other occurence that has happened on the island that has shown us a clear view of the island disappearing under the surface of the ocean.  It happened when Ben turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel and landed in Tunisia.  As Frank flew the helicopter toward the island, viewers had a clear picture of the island vanishing, leaving ripples instead of land.  As a result of Ben turning the wheel, our on-island survivors began time-tripping on the island, but what happened to the island from that point and forward?  Are we to believe that Richard and the Others at the Temple did not experience the island sinking as we saw it happen?  And what about the other times that the wheel has been turned?  We did hear Ben (and yes, I know he lies) say that others had turned it before him.  Is the end result of the island being under water something due to the wheel being turned?

As I continue watching the next handful of episodes, there are a few things I'm going to continue to look for.  The first of those things would be anything referring to hands.  Whether it's the actual word "hand" or watching two people shake hands, I think there is something going on that we will see as significant, even if it's only in the mythology of the story.  The second thing I'll be watching for is the mirroring of the two timelines.  I know it's already being noted by many, but I believe that something in this other timeline will give us the answer we are looking for with the absence of the island.  The last thing I'll be watching for is balance.  Each episode has shown something about balance and I'm confident that the episodes to follow will continue to do so.  For me, it's no longer only about dark and light, good and evil, or fate and free will.  This show is also about being Lost or found.

Dr. Linus - Sides

by StefanyMac

I'm going to take the liberty to borrow TimeIsRelative's trademarked theory of 'Sides', for the theme of this article. Every fan is in the busisness of trying to figure out the sides. It's practically a bracket game at this point. The final contenders are obvious, perhaps too much so. Jack will be Jacob. Sawyer will be MIB. That's all fine and good, but I feel the need to point out, that one of the key reasons that viewers have had such difficulty assigning which of the two men on the beach was good, and which was bad, was because Jacob is such a master manipulator. " It takes a very long time when you're making the thread, but, uh... I suppose that's the point, isn't it?"

So who is going to be on which side. And who are the sides.

Well I think we can all agree that dispite his death, it's Jacob vs. MIB. Yes the ever mysterious man with no name. Why... will... they... not... name... him... already!? Originally I assumed it was because their was something so telling about his name that it would be too big of a giveaway. You know, the likes of Jesus, Lucifer, Judas, Job, Esau etc. That it was something that would immediately size up the character the moment we learned his name. But after watching him opperate these last few weeks, I am starting to doubt that. Dogen called him Evil Incarnate. The only image that we know is his, is that of Smoke. Any other human image is up for question. The man played by Titus Wellover is the earliest visage known to us. But it could just as easily have been some other poor soul's image that he was trying on for size. He could simply have been out tormenting some other suffering islanders with the image of some poor soul from their past, and taken a break to sit and ship watch with Jacob. It occurs to me that Ben's people had no name for it, because it was unnameable. It was never human to begin with. Perhaps it's some purer expression of evil, as Dogen said. Chaos?

As for Jack becoming the next Jacob, I'm not so sure. Jack has the goodness, no question. If we were to pit Jack against Sawyer, it would mirror the animosity mixed with friendship that Jacob and MIB share. But if we look at Jacob's character closely, it becomes clear that Sawyer would be the better fit. Sawyer can be the leader. We saw all through season 5 how capable 'Lafleur' is. Sawyer can be loving, kind and fatherly. We've seen his protective papa bear routine shown with Claire, Aaron and Hurley. Sawyer can think, even read his way through problem solving. This was punctuated in his confrontation with Jack over what was being done to help an imprisoned Sayid. Jack is a reactor, frequently flying off the handle. Sawyer can be patient, and take his time. He spent his whole life patiently researching and seeking out the man that led to his family's demise. He can sacrifice. He jumped out of the helicopter to save the others. And most importantly, he is a master conman. That is the one skill that Jacob perfomed over and over, that Jack doesn't have at all. And he's already decided that some people are just meant to be alone. It would seem that the role of either Jacob or MIB would lead to a very solitary existence. Even though Sawyer has seemingly had it with this island, I can see where he might just as well choose to stay. He has a daughter out in the real world, but he has no connection to her. The only happiness he's ever known all happened on the island. So now it seems that we have effectively changed the triangle. We've gone from whether Jack or Sawyer will be the one to end up with Kate, to whether Jack or Sawyer will end up with the island. Well it may still be a triangle, but I'll take the latter over the former any day of the week. So will the island be as fickle as Kate? Time will tell.

So now, as if we didn't have enough to figure out, they've thrown us a new curve. Charles Widmore is in the "They're Coming" group. We have long debated whether or not someone would in fact come to the island, or whether it was simply Jack and company returning to their proper time. Well now it has been revealed that Big Daddy Widmore is island bound, and nearly home. What is his plan? Who's side is he on? Who else is on board? Personally I was hoping for and predicting the entire Widmore clan: Charles, Penny, Charlie, Eloise and of course the long awaited Desmond. Likely I won't be that lucky. But it sure would be nice to have all the kids under one roof finally. We've been told that the island isn't through with him yet. Des promised that he'd never leave Penny. It would break my heart to have to see them seperated again.

I decided to take a closer look after my mother asserted her interpretation of the sub scene at the close of "Dr. Linus". God bless her, my 70+ year old mom is attempting to watch Lost because I love it so. Unfortunately I have not been able to get her to start at the beginning and watch them in order. She jumped in during mid season 5 and is struggling to follow the show. When you all wonder about why ABC bothers to do pop ups or clip shows, this apparently is their demographic. So her interpretation of the scene with Widmore was that he was out at sea, his shipmate saw that the island had castaways, but that Widmore didn't care and that he was just going to sail on by. It was difficult to explain seasons' worth of backstory to show her that there was no way that he accidentally 'found' the island, and that given his obsession with the island, there's no way he would just keep sailing on by without stopping. But dispite my internal eye roll, I was glad she made me take a closer look at the scene. My take on that dialogue was that his lackey was trying to beg for mercy for the islanders. He was saying that there were people on the beach, and that they should stop (not go through with their plans). Widmore said to proceed. His plans are going through, no matter what. The first 'plan' that occurred to me was his old plan that Keamy was preparing to execute. He was going to torch the island. Ben once said that Widmore was going to kill every single 'living' person on the island. The words of his lackey would seem to back that up as well. So if that is what he's planning, who's side is he on? That smacks of MIB if you ask me. We have to remember that he told Locke that a war was coming, and if Locke wasn't on the island when it happened the 'wrong' side would win. Getting John Locke back to the island seemed to spell disaster for most of the island, given that it allowed MIB's plan to succeed. So unless we have an Eastertime resurrection coming our way, it would seem that Widmore's machinations were towards MIB's end.

And even though some of our favorite character's are in MIB's clutches right now, I still hold out hope that they are not yet claimed. Kate is not a conformer, Jin is smart enough (and scared enough) to lie to Claire, and Sawyer is a wiley conman. I'm hoping as are many fans, that Sawyer is just running a big con on MIB. As the great Benjamin Linus once said, "the only way to gain a conman's respect is to con him"

Through The Magnifying Glass: Touches, Tests, and Candidates (Oh My!)

by Nancy Drew

With Season 6 about a third of the way in, Lost is still delivering story lines that leave fans wondering what this show is actually about and how it will be resolved by May 23rd.  Told in various ways and through several types of literary techniques, and through six seasons of keeping the die-hard fan hooked, the writers of Lost have raised the episode "bar" to a whole new level with our current episode, Dr. Linus.  For me, this seems to be the first major episode this season that starts to put some aspects of the story solidly together.  It was one thing to sit through watching and listening as Jack lit the fuse to a stick of dynamite sitting between him and Richard for a "talk", but when the scene between Ilana and Ben brought the sting of tears to my eyes, I realized that this episode would have been more fittingly named, "The Beginning of the End of the End".  We ARE in the final chapter.  The sides are lining up and the battle is about to begin, but who will these soldiers ask for protection?  Which ones will align with Jacob to save the ones they love and which will sell their souls to Flocke?

I thought it would be easy to just rewatch the episode and jot a few thoughts down for an article, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  There was so much that occurred to me while rewatching that I decided to shut it off and start at the beginning.  No, not the beginning of Season 1 like the hiatus-long rewatch, but the beginning of Season 6.  If there was one thing I learned through the rewatch over the hiatus, it was that some things were more noticeable in looking at the whole picture together that one episode at a time.  Our "blocks", as we called them, of episodes always seemed to fit together like mini-movies and helped us to see an entire situation at a time.  And using this line of thinking, I popped my bowl of popcorn, grabbed my diet coke, set up my favorite colorful markers, and grabbed a brand new pad of paper to begin again on What Kate Did (ABC didn't have both parts of the premiere available).  There are other things that became apparent to me after rewatching all of the episodes, so I've saved those thoughts for the end.  There were some neat things that had occured to me about the candidates, the tests, and the touches or gifts from Jacob.

What I learned in rewatching this episode was that I need to lighten up on Kate this season.  There were some really intriguing aspects to the episode and a lot of them had to do with Kate.  She is a strong character but some of her storylines just haven't played to her strengths.  This one was different.  I think I came to this conclusion when, at the end, Sawyer gets up and walks away and she doesn't follow him.  It also made me realize that later, when I would get to the Lighthouse, she would also decline in following Jack on his trek with Hurley.  Kate is finally on her own walkabout and I think it was Sawyer pulling at her heartstrings about losing something that was close to him that made her realize that.  Because of her actions, her best friend Tom Brennan, was killed, leaving behind a wife and daughter that would never have the opportunity to get to know him.  Kate's walkabout to find Claire and reunite her with her son will be Kate's way of feeling redemption and "cleansed" of her wrongs in life.  It will be only then that Kate's faith in anything will be restored and her soul will be healed from the pain she's endured.

There were also a lot of "hand" references in Kate's episode.  Aside from the use of the word "handcuffs", the word "hand" was used five other times, including by the mechanic that set her free of the handcuffs (saying he had a "steady hand") and by Dr. Goodspeed [Ethan], who said that Aaron would be a "handful".  Other significant "hand" references were Lennon standing in Dogen's room with an open book in his right hand, Dogen placing the poisoned pill in Jack's left hand, and Kate holding Claire's hand while she was in the hospital.  And while you're all sitting there reading this thinking that Nancy Drew has finally fallen off the deep end because of noticing things about "hands" in an episode, just keep in mind that this is the first season where we haven't had our usual "eye" references.  And I'm also reminded that in the Bible, the hand, God's Hand, has represented a shroud of protection and a power to be reckoned with.

Exodus 3:20 "So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go."

In moving on to the next episode, The Substitute, I began to lose my confidence in being able to see the "big picture".  I found nothing but the usual confusion and burning questions that we've had since originally watching it.  This was a classic Lost episode in that it showed us something new with the reveal of the cave with names and numbers written on its walls and ceilings, something mysterious with the appearance of a blood-covered young boy that made Doppleganger Locke nervous, and the sudden realization that sides are being formed again and a battle is waiting to begin.

I found myself wondering why it was that James was so easily persuaded to follow Locke through the jungle when he had a clear vision of what he really was.  James knew that it wasn't Locke standing before him and he knew that following him meant joining a side that wasn't good.  But in wondering, and in looking back with a rewatch eye, I started to think of what it was that Locke had over James to convince him to stay on his side.  It was in remembering Dogen's story of the loss of his son that I started to think it was the feeling of loss that brought this darkness upon someone and if what we're dealing with isn't dark and light or good and bad, but the lost and the found.  When John died--the real John Locke--at the hands of Ben Linus, he was in his heaviest state of feeling lost.  He had just found out that the love of his life was dead (lost).  His "tour guide", Matthew Abaddon was just killed (lost).  His mission to get the Ocean 6 to return to the island was not successful (lost).  At his very lowest, and as he was about to kill himself, he ends up dying with all of that loss as part of his "final thoughts".  The next thing we know, he's part of a plan involving a loop hole for the MIB.  MIB represents the "darkness" that grows inside of those he recruits, and those individuals are filled with loss, like Claire (Aaron), James (Juliet), Sayid (Nadia and Shannon), and Christian Shepard because he felt the loss of both his son and his daughter from his life.  If what it takes to be recruited is to feel extreme loss in the heart, then I fear for the recruitment of Hurley and Kate.  And I wonder if it's the "dark" that MIB would have never kept Richard in when he makes that statement to him when discussing his loyalty to Jacob.  Maybe the blood-covered boy is the beginning of loss for MIB--or mythologically for the world--and he represents a Charles Dickens scenario of being haunted by the ghosts of the past.

To every shred of darkness, there is a ray of light that forms the balance between the two.  In The Lighthouse, the puzzling reveal of David Shepard, Jack's son, creates a shadow that covers the rest of the story and makes it hard to see, but if you shine the light of our attentions on the island story, and not on the flash sideways, we'll see that Jack is beginning to take a long look at himself in the mirror--starting with his reflection in the water at the start of the episode.  Hurley is told by Jacob that "someone is coming to the island" and that he needs Hurley to "help them find it" by leading Jack away from the temple and straight to the lighthouse.  Like the mysterious cabin--also seen by Hurley--they've never noticed this lighthouse before because they weren't looking for it, but I think that BOTH Hurley and Jack had separate reasons for needing to find it.  Hurley was on a mission from Jacob (I can just picture him saying that line in a Dan-Akroyd-Blues-Brothers sort-of way) because he needs to set the dial to 108--a number that has the name of "Wallace" next to it.  As we saw when Hurley began to turn the dial, flashes of the lives of those names etched along the numbers were briefly shown, including the house in which Jack lived as a boy.  So, the question then becomes, what would have been shown if Hurley would have gotten to 108?  In looking back from our current episode and the way it ended, someone IS coming to the island--in a submarine--and his name is Widmore.  Is there going to be a connection between Wallace and Widmore and does turning the dial to 108 face the mirrors of the lighthouse in a direction that sends a signal to be read through the periscope of the sub?  When I saw the mirrors turning, all I could remember was the morse code conversation between Ben and one of the Others by using a mirror found in the Saltine Cracker tomb beneath a rock.  In sending Hurley to reposition the mirrors, did Jacob signal to Widmore?

Jack's purpose for being at the lighthouse was so that he could find his faith.  Just as I think MIB represents the "lost", I think Jacob represents the "found".  We watched as John completed his boar hunt in Walkabout and his sense of finding himself ended with him staring in reflection at the ocean.  And in remembering those characters who have seemed to "find" themselves through the island, I'm also reminded of Hurley and his cannonball into the water that set him free from his belief in the curse of numbers and money.  Maybe this is a bit of foreshadowing into what we may end up seeing with some of our characters that I believe to be "lost" with MIB, like Kate and James, but I fear that it's too late for Sayid and he will be one of our beloved characters to remain lost.

As my thoughts on Sayid are fading to black, I have reached Sundown and confirmed what all of my fears for him have been.  Although he has the element of sacrificing himself and his integrity to better the lives of his family and friends, he still a darkness within him that has been apparent since first finding out that he was an Iraqi torturer.  I have always found it difficult to understand why Eko's life and Sayid's were so similar, but MIB only judged and punished Eko for his wrong-doings, and never confronted Sayid about his.  Did Sayid help to balance his inner scale by helping the fellow survivors of Oceanic 815 and opening his heart to Shannon?  And yet, now, after returning to the island, he finds himself being judged by Dogen and the others at the temple.  For me, and even after rewatching this episode, I am still left with a little confusion as to why Sayid was handed a weapon by someone who knows him to be filled with darkness when he wasn't trusted to remain within the walls of the temple alive, but I'm convinced that Dogen knew more than he revealed.  I even had a slight feeling when watching his reaction to the baseball falling to the floor that he may have known he was to die at the hand of Sayid--especially with his death being followed with the release of the same baseball in the water he was drowned in.

The big question for this episode, "What if you could?", asked when Sayid said that he'd never see again that one thing that died in his arms.  It made me wonder if this is the purpose of our flash sideways and the fact that we see Dogen in Jack's side story, both with sons that aren't in existence in our original timeline.  Dogen also says that he doesn't like the way English tastes on his tongue and refuses to speak it in the real timeline.  Is this because he is forced to speak it when looking in on his son in this alternate timeline?  Is this where Sayid would see Nadia again?  This way of thinking was only more convincing when I saw that Dogen was reading "Deep River", by Shusaku Endo.  A summary of the book states:

"A trip to India becomes a journey of discovery for a group of Japanese tourists playing out their "individual dramas of the soul." Isobe searches for his reincarnated wife, while Kiguchi relives the wartime horror that ultimately saved his life. Alienated by middle age, Mitsuko follows Otsu, a failed priest, to the holy city of Varanas, hoping that the murky Ganges holds the secret to the "difference between being alive and truly living." Looking for absolutes, each character confronts instead the moral ambiguity of India's complex culture, in which good and evil are seen as a whole as indifferent to distinction as the Ganges River, which washes the living and transports the dead. This novel is a fascinating study of cultural truths revealed through a rich and varied cast."

Stay tuned for Part Two of Touches, Tests, and Candidates (Oh My!), where I try to explain why it is that Dr. Linus made me see the importance and significance of being a candidate and some of the puzzling events that have transpired so far this season--including why Jack was asked to kill Sayid.

Sundown: Sayid’s True Colors Redux

by Stefany Mac

In season 5, I wrote an article called “Has Sayid Found His True Colors?”. It stemmed from the fact that it had become noticeable to me that Sayid had been wearing a purple silk shirt. As often happens on Lost, his character wore the same clothing for many episodes. In point of fact, no more than a week passed in the show’s timeline from “316” on. So the idea that Sayid wore the same shirt, wasn’t that odd. However, that he was wearing such a flamboyant color was. In fact the color purple is very rarely used on Lost. And on that note it is interesting to point out that Heath and Ms. Wendy of The Lost Revisited podcast, remembering my thing for this subject matter, noted that in there podcast on “The Substitute”, when Locke went to Hurley’s temp agency both Rose and the psychic from “Everybody Hates Hugo” were wearing purple. I don’t know what that means. I wouldn’t think that Rose would be a force for evil. But the fact that they were both wearing it on the same day in the same office is disconcerting. However I was far more concerned when ABC released a cast promo photo at the end of the hiatus where they appeared in the form of the ‘Last Supper’. In it Sayid was in the position of Judas. But far stranger was that Jack was wearing, you guessed it, purple. Now I do have to admit that purple can also have the meaning of ‘royal’ as well. However, given that the best explanation that I have heard for the meaning of the title for “LA X”, is that in the comic book world ‘X’ denotes an alternate reality, I am going to have to go with the comic book meaning for purple. At least as far as Sayid is concerned.

At the time, the fact that Sayid was clad in purple, was a reflection of how he viewed himself. Though he was blaming Benjamin Linus for the depths that he had sunk to. I think it’s safe to say that Sayid has always suffered from a big case of self-loathing. Someone recently pointed out how odd it is that Sayid has done such unspeakable things, and yet we love him. We root for his redemption. We consider him a good hearted man, that’s had to do bad things to survive. Sawyer put it best when he pointed out that dichotomy and said “ Of course he’s fine…He’s an Iraqi torturer that shoots kids. He definitely deserves another go around.” Of course his statement was bitter and sarcastic, but it pointed out to the viewer, how wrong his character’s actions are, even though we like him. I think the reason for that is that we see him struggle. He may be one of the only characters that we see struggle to the levels that he does. He tries to resist when both comrades and enemies try to manipulate or force him to do the things that he has such an unfortunate talent for. Time and again we have seen him promise himself that he would never do those things again. But if you didn’t realize on your first run through on the series, a rewatch will definitely show you that one of the main themes, if not ‘The’ main theme, is choice. Every character goes through it: Michael, Sawyer, Kate, Jin, Sun, Rose, Bernard, Jack, Locke, Juliet, Charlie, Claire, Desmond, Ecko, Miles, Charlotte, Daniel and even Ben. Most of the articles that I’ve done have been character studies. That’s funny because those that know me can tell you that I am all about the theories. But the fact is, theories are harder to write about definitively. By definition they are speculation. But character traits are concrete. It’s the one thing we can hang our hat on in this show. Even now, as we are dealing with the ‘Separate Reality’ of season 6, we see the same character traits that we have grown to love and hate in our Losties. In L.A. Sayid is still struggling to be a good man, to atone for his past. Hearing Heath and Ms. Wendy mention the purple again, brought the subject back to me. And so as I have pondered Sayid’s turn to the dark side this week, I realized that my old article, was new again. I reread it, thinking it was one of my weaker articles. However it seems that it all held true still. What I’ve come to realize is that the wardrobe choice was prophetic. I had thought it was meant as a clue to what he was about to do in the shooting of young Ben Linus. But in fact, I think we can all see that it was really a clue to season 6. As I have discussed with friends what I thought was happening with Sayid, in the beginning of season 6, I was hopeful. Most of us have seen that character redemption was a strong theme in the show since season 1. However, most characters seem to meet their end on the show soon after. My friend Merideth had said how upset she was, that they were turning Sayid evil after “What Kate Does”. But I pointed out that he kept talking about his fear of where he would go after he died, fearing of his afterlife fate. With a lot of people that would seem like a hollow 4th quarter hail Mary. A pathetic attempt to atone for sins you never seemed to care about in life. But with Sayid that’s completely keeping in line with his concerns and struggles all along. At the time I told her that my feeling was that he would have the darkness grow within him, but he would fight it. He would be heroic in the end and overcome it, even if that meant taking his own life to do it. After “Sundown”, I’m not as confident in that theory. That saddens me. I love Sayid. However it fits with the pattern of Lost. I think in the end we will see that all along the way they laid it out for us. They told us what was what, we just weren’t seeing the forest for the trees. Dead is dead, dark and light, and choice. They told us Sayid was a bad man, a killer, they even dressed him as a villain. Will Sayid overcome the evil inside him? Is it even possible? I can’t answer that. But anyone that doesn’t believe he’s evil now, needs to rewatch “Sundown”. The look in his eyes said volumes. We roared with applause in my house as Ben’s face filled with terror as he slowly backed away from this new Darth Maul Sayid. He seems to be a sword for Anti Locke now. And that’s a bad weapon to have against our Losties. Here’s hoping that wherever Sawyer is, he’s running a con on Anti Locke and hasn’t succumbed to the power of his devil tongue as well. It appears the War is at hand, and we already have too many villains on this island. It looks like we need the ‘one who will save us all’.