So, did everyone see last night’s episode of Lost? I’m with Jack — the underground station that looks like a leftover set from Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis II is just a big psychology experiment. The reference to B.F. Skinner was a dead giveaway, and even if it wasn’t, wouldn’t it make more sense for the station’s builders to automate the system that has to be reset every hour-and-a-half to avoid Total Global Destruction? Yep, no doubt in my mind: an experiment. And what the hell’s up with Sawyer letting that little girlie girl take his gun? Getting shot in the shoulder must’ve caused his IQ to drop a few points… as Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., said under similar circumstances, “I didn’t trust her; why did you?”
Oct062005
I agree with the experiment angle. Which must mean that at least at some point in time, there was somebody monitoring the stating and the inhabitants inside it. Which means there may be a way of connecting with the outside world.
I also agree that Sawyer has lost some IQ points. Maybe they ran out with the blood from the bullet wound.
The experiment angle opens up a lot of possibilities. Is the entire island part of the experiment, to watch what people do when confronted with a lot of weird challenges? Maybe the island is one big Skinner box with lots of smaller S-boxes inside it…
Clever, these writer-guys. Except when it comes to Sawyer. That was just plain stupid, given how he’s been shown as Mr. Street-wise in the past.
I only just watched the first season on DVD, so I’m hopelessly behind and have no idea what you are talking about. But I have seen some interesting theories about Hurley’s numbers (do a google search on “4 8 15 16 23 42”). One of them suggests that the “others” are genetic twins of the survivors, based on an apparently real statistical theory that uses these numbers. Another uses the numbers to plot GPS coordinates for a location in the ocean northeast of Australia. I’m just throwing it into the mix . . .
Alas, with DVD and no TV I’m also a year behind on Alias and Family Guy.
Those are interesting ideas about the significance of the numbers. There are a lot of wild Lost theories floating around out there on the internets, everything from the castaways being dead and in some kind of purgatory to a scenario borrowed from Star Trek where the island makes their anxieties real.
Of course, it could all just be the writers playing with our heads and there is no actual explanation for any of it. I hope that’s not the case — the one writer for the show whose blog I reference from time to time swears there is a plan and it is all going somewhere — but I got burned with The X-Files, so I tend to be cynical. In the meantime, it is fun having a series engaging enough to want to try and figure it out.
Oh, and incidentally, Robert, we’re only three eps into the new season, so you’re not hopelessly behind. Just mostly so. 😉
I also felt burned by the X-Files. And although I’m a year behind on Alias, I suspect that by the third season, the writers were making it up week by week. That’s fine if it keeps the show interesting. But you have to be mindful of the loose ends that you dangle in front of everybody and not just keep inventing new loose ends. As in literature, alternate fictional universes are interesting insofar as they obey a logic that is knowable to the audience, even if it only becomes apparent gradually. Otherwise it’s just arbitrary. To ride my old hobby horse some more, that’s what makes Tolkien’s world fundamentally different from most or all of the “fastasy” crap that tried to imitate him. And that’s what makes good TV series good. Unfortunately, however, I can’t think of a single good example of the latter. Except for Gilligan’s Island (kidding).