LOST: Time-Traveling Bunnies

[spicedogs]

Vinyl record.

For the past fours seasons, LOST never really revealed that all in all it is a sci-fi show. During the last episodes of Season 4, time-traveling bunnies were introduced, and the first episode of this season proved to us that we are time traveling with a vengeance.

Last season, Ben moved the island. It disappeared right in front of the Oceanic 6 as they were flying back towards it. This season we learned that the island not only moved through space, but through time, as well. Moreover, the island is stuck like a broken record, skipping back and forth. And if you are from a generation that has not seen an LP record, you would not know that they did occasionally skip. However, LOST had an ingenious way to show you that phenomena.

This season’s first episode, just like Season 2’s first episode, begins with an unknown character putting a record on a player and then going about doing the morning chores. This time, the record skips and skips and skips. It’s a precursor. It is the visual example to the explanation about the erratic skipping through time that the island is experiencing.

Our castaways find themselves going from one time period to another. It’s a savvy way of telling a complicated storyline. We got to see flashbacks of Danielle’s story. But it was not in the form that we were used to seeing in the past. This time, the flashback was unfolding as it was happening. Jin Soo-Kwon was actually witnessing it as the island was traveling to the past.

LOST, never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think that there’s no way to be innovating, they pull another trick out of their bag of wonders. As the island is skipping through time, we get to see the island in the past, present, and future. Daniel Faraday, the “mad” scientist warns us: No matter what you see, there are rules. You cannot change the future or alter the past. But I wonder whether this is true. Maybe there will be a way to alter the future; we are just not told how that would be possible.

In our journey into the past, we get to see young Charles Widmore and young Eloise Hawkings (who we are led to believe is Daniel Faraday’s mom—but LOST, being LOST, we may learn that we were all wrong anyway). At this point, we learn that the United States was involved with either exploiting the island or with researching its treasures, as were other countries as well. We learn that the term “Others” is very complicated. The “Others” were those who loved the island either for its treasures or for its power. Somewhere in time, the true indigenous people must have lived on the island before the “white man” came to exploit it. Is Richard one of them and is he the only survivor? I hope that we will learn the answer to this question.

Sun attempting to murder Ben.

Why is Sun so intend in murdering Ben?
Sun is a bitter woman who blames Ben for Jin’s death. How she came to that conclusion is unknown to us. I hope that we will learn what makes her so bitter. How did she learn that by killing Keamy, Ben triggered the bombs that exploded in the freighter?

Sun offers her services to Widmore. She wants Ben killed. There are rules that won’t allow Ben and Widmore to kill each other. What are those rules? Why do they exist? Is Sun capable of doing the deed that both men can’t do to each other?

What Kind of Mother Is Sun?
At this point, I question Sun’s mothering skills. She gallivants all over the world, risking her life to avenge the supposed murder of her husband. Does she really not realize that her needs more than having the satisfaction of exposing her father’s murder? And, when Sun hears that Jin is alive, she doesn’t hesitate to go back to the island, sans her daughter, even though she was told that she will never be able to go back. Why didn’t she take her daughter with her?

Side effects of time traveling: Charlotte Lewis is dying

Time-Traveling Side Effects
According to Daniel Faraday, if you lived on the island before, as you time travel, you will have horrible side effects that will lead to death: first nose bleeds, followed by memory loss and headaches. How fast death occurs is exponential to the length of your previous stay. So, Charlotte is first. Her death is fast and furious. But then something funny occurs, Miles experiences the side effects. (But of course, the very first episode shows us an Asian couple and their baby. Could that have been Miles? He doesn’t remember being on the island. If he left the island early in his life, it would explain why he didn’t remember and why his symptoms are so light.) Sawyer and Juliette experience symptoms. Where they on the island before? Locke has no symptoms. Either he is special, the way Faraday and Desmond seem to be, or he is a first timer. Only time will tell.

Jeremy Bentham (AKA John Locke) is found after Ajira's (flight 316) crash, standing in the water at the beach.

John Locke—Is he the Christ of the Island?
The island must be saved and the burden is on John Locke to get the Oceanic 6 back on the island and, to add more burdens on him, John is told that he will have to die as a sacrifice to the island. Locke was a leader respected by some and despised by others. Like Christ, he died by the hands of Judah, except his Judah was Ben. Like Christ he was disbelieved (none of the Oceanic 6 believed his words that, in order to save the world, they would need to go back to the island). Locke, like Christ resurrected 3 days after his death. Jeremy died on April 5, 2007 and landed on the island 70 hours later, wherein Jeremy, AKA John Locke was found alive standing on the water by some of the survivors of the Ajira, flight 316 (a reference to the Bible verse John, 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life).

Ben in the process of killing Jeremy Bentham (John Locke).

Is Ben Judas?
It was decreed that John will have to die as a sacrifice to bring the Oceanic 6. He tried to kill himself, but in the end, it was Ben who did the deed. At this point, everything points to Ben. But I think that in the end, we will see that Ben’s motives were warranted for the good of the island.

Emmy Anyone?
Both Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson admit that working with each other is a

The Emmy.

pleasure. I will say that watching these two actors work together is a pleasure. Terry O’Quinn won an Emmy for his performance on LOST during Season 4. I think that Michael Emerson should win the Emmy for his work this year. And if the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ever decides to form an Emmy award for best duo performance, these two actors should win hands down.

What Hawkins Revealed
Eloise was on the island before and besides being a feisty soldier, she studied space and time continuum. Moreover, Eloise is quite knowledgeable about the island needs. And finally, she knows that

The mysterious Eloise Hawkins.

not only is the island always moving, but that it is constantly moving in time and space. Thus, explaining why the castaways could never be rescued.

Does Eloise know that Ben was not supposed to pick up the Oceanic 6? Did she know that Ben left the island through its Tunisia portal, which meant he could never come back (or did Ben lie about that as well)?

Whatever she knows, she is not letting on. Perhaps she knows that those who were on flight 316 are exactly who were supposed to go to the island during this space and time.

Now, there’s going to be a war on the island. Perhaps we will witness the so-called “incident.”  God, I love this show.