Correction: In my last post I said I hadn’t seen much good in Sun to that point in my viewing. I meant Jin. Sun is a wonderfully sympathetic character. And Jin is coming around too, actually helping Furley when he stepped on an urchin. By the way, we know Sun secretly speaks English. I suspect Jin does too, or at least understands it. Funny how neither knows the other does, but we figured it out so easily.
I’ve now watched the pilot and 12 regular episodes. These episodes focus on, and tell the back story (at least in part) of: Jack (twice), Kate (twice), Locke, Sawyer, Charlie, Claire, Sayid, Sun and Jin, Michael and Walt, and Boone and Shannon.
Understanding that I only know a fraction of the story to date, I have a couple of general observations.
It seems to me that all the characters, more or less, have reasons to NOT want to be rescued. The most obvious one is Locke, who, not only has been miraculously cured, but is living the life he always dreamed of. (He also seems to have some mystic connection to the island, but that’s another story.) Jack doesn’t want to have to face his mother, since he was unable to bring his father back alive from Australia. Furthermore, it seems there is a chance his father is actually alive through another miracle. We get the feeling neither Locke nor Jack’s father, if he is alive, would necessarily maintain their good health elsewhere. Both Kate and Sawyer don’t want to have to face justice. Both Sun and Jin are free of her father now.
Another musing: I’m beginning to think some or all the survivors are somehow “supposed” to be on the island. Whether it’s fate or manipulation by some mysterious force, I don’t know. Evidence: Kate’s little airplane with the broken propellers, Claire’s psychic who was so insistent that she be on that particular flight. [By the way, it seems inconsistent that she refused to sell her baby to the first couple in Australia, but then seemed to go along with selling it to a couple in LA. Also that she didn’t question more vehemently why the psychic had such a radical chance in his reading of her.] I also seem to remember another incident with a broken toy airplane, maybe even marked “Oceanic”, but I can’t remember where we saw that. Am I imagining it?
It also seems to me that the island itself is not where it “should” be. Evidence: The plane got 1000 miles off course so readily. The beach that was supposedly there for years is all-of-a-sudden eroding away, like it has encountered a current that it hadn’t encountered before. The magnetic field around the island doesn’t align with Earth’s field. It’s almost as if the island exists in a different space/time from the rest of Earth, and was placed there specifically for these people/events. A government plot? Aliens? Hmmmm.
Two thoughts: one, you're right that most of the characters have a reason NOT to want to be rescued. Watch for Rose's story (the African American woman) - it's fascinating.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I promise that this is WAY more interesting than aliens. :) Way way way more interesting.
You seem to be making very good observations of little things, with a sense that they are in some way symbolic of larger things. That is good. And I think the other small airplane appearance may be on the mobile above Claire's baby's cradle (perhaps in a dream/hallucination), or perhaps that has not occurred yet. I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you may be right about the mobile. And I would have been very disappointed if it turned out to be aliens (or all somebody's dream). I have a few more musings that struck me this morning as I was mowing the lawn. See my next post.
ReplyDeleteOh, and of course, the polar bears!
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