Lost TV Show on ABC Episode 10 Dec. 1, 2004

Time for another blog about the TV Show "Lost" on ABC.

This week's episode was quite the mindblower.  However, before I talk about this episode, let me speculate a little bit more about the background of where the are.

I was in NY this past week and found the Green Lantern/Flash Comic on which at least part of this show is based.  It is two issues called "Faster Friends," and I posted a summary of these here.  I won't redo the whole summary except to say that the comic is all about undoing a bad deed done 50 years before present time.  50 years prior to the events of the comic the Flash and Green Lantern had been duped into capturing and imprisoning an alien whom the government thought was hostile, but who really was friendly.  50 years later the alien is about to die due to the government's experiments on him and so he kills the official with the government who was responsible for the program, and he kidnaps Flash and Green Lantern.  Flash and Green Lantern are kidnapped and taken through a portal into another dimension where they are held by aliens.  The new, younger Flash and Green Lantern must go through the portal to rescue them.  The reason I bring this up is that this leads me to believe there is a sense in which the castaways are in another dimension.

Plenty of people have speculated that they are in kind of purgatory.  I'm not sure that this is exactly a purgatory in the Roman Catholic sense, but maybe they have gone through some kind of portal where they have to undo something they have done in their old lives. 

Another thing that intrigues me is that we have two important characters in the show who are named after famous enlightenment philosophers - Locke and Rousseau.  There is all kinds of wild speculation I could get into on that.  It does seem apparent that Locke and Rousseau have knowledge about the island that others don't, so they are there to "enlighten" the rest of the castaways. Both are famous for their political theories and if you are interested in a comparison/contrast in their political theories you can find it here.  What is also interesting is that, though neither directly caused a revolution, Locke's ideas were very influential in the American Revolution and Rousseau's ideas were influential in the French Revolution.  But I don't think the characters in the TV show represent competing political philosophies, although who knows what could happen as the season(s) go on.  I'm thinking we should be looking at some of their basic ideas to understand their roles on the show.

I don't want to assume too tight a correlation between Locke and Locke and Rousseau and Rousseau, I do remember reading a TV Guide article that said that all of the props have a purpose.  Wouldn't these names possibly have a purpose.  There are two avenues for undersanding Rousseau.  If we think about the "big idea" one of  Rousseau's biggest is his  is idea of the "noble savage."  My friend Terry touched on this here. Rousseau's idea was that man was basically good and pure and that society corrupted him.  If man could detach from society he could be restored to his pristine purity. This much would fit with Danielle Rousseau's appearance in the former episode.  She lives alone, by herself.  She doesn't want to go back to "civilization" with Sayid and in fact warns him to beware of his fellow castaways. She has attained a kind of purity of existence and nobility living alone in the jungle that would be corrupted if she were to go to the castaways.

Another possibility for understanding Rousseau is to see her not as an embodiment of Jean Jacques Rousseau, but maybe as his mistress.  Rousseau had a mistress with whom he had multiple children.  And, he is known to have put them out as soon as they were born to be raised by the state in orphanages.  Remember how Danielle is looking for her lost child "Alex?"  Also, Rousseau left his mistress just as Danielle has been left.  I know this is a stretch but could it be that she is more representative of Rousseau's mistress than she is Rousseau himself.  Another reason I suspect this is that the "Locke" in the show is named John Locke, hence we have a one to one correlation in names, leading me to believe that there is going to be some kind of tight connection between the two.  This Rousseau doesn't have the exact same name as the philosopher Rousseau, which makes me think there could be more of a disconnect.  But again, this is pure speculation and I know I am giving this way too much thought.

By the way, where was that cable going to that Sayid found that led him to Danielle Rousseau?  Was it an electrical cable or something else?  It was obviously going into the water - why?

As to Locke I am having difficulty correlating the Locke on the show with the famous philosopher.  In addition to influencing the American Revolution with his ideas on the innate right to liberty and property, he is also famous for his Essay on Human Understanding which I understand to be foundational to the empiricist school of thought that says that we can only attain knowledge through sensory experience. How this fits with the Locke on the show I don't know, except that maybe Locke has used his superior powers of observation to help conquer the island.  There's a lot more to Locke (on the show) than that though.

As to this week's show we find out that Claire has seen a psychic who foresees great danger for her baby if she doesn't raise it.  She had been planning on giving the baby up for adoption but this psychic pulls some strings and manipulates things so that she ends up on the plane.  He apparently knew the plane was going down. Hmm . . . Also, in that dream she has at the beginning Locke is in the dream playing cards and tells her something to the effect that she has given up the baby and now they all are going to pay for it.  When I first saw it I was sure that this foreshadowed something but now I think it was just a nightmare with Claire imagining what would have happened if she had given up the baby. 

Of course the big thing we find out is that this guy, Ethan Rom, was not on the flight and that he kidnaps Charlie and Claire.  I don't think he is in league with Danielle Rousseau.  Referencing the comic, I'm thinking that he represents the "alien" who is out for some kind of revenge.  He represents those out there of whom Danielle was so afraid.  After that I'm stumped.  Since the show is new it's like the producers are giving us the corner pieces and outlines of the puzzle and there just not falling together yet.  Going back to the comic Flash and Green Lantern get kidnapped by the Alien and I never would have picked Charlie and Claire as their counterparts.  But, since they have been kidnapped, then I'm guessing that a corresponding pair needs to go get them, which should be Jack and Kate.  However, in the comic, the young Flash and Green Lantern can't stand each other but they are teamed together out of necessity.  So, maybe Jack and Sawyer go, or even more intriguing, maybe Sawyer and Kate go rescue them.  This would make the little love triangle more intriguing. 

Oh well, enough for now, I'll just keep watching.  And, the good news is that Alias is coming back in January and will be on Wednesday nights after Lost - gonna be a good TV night.

Comments

[Jon]

ROM was a Marvel Comic book series about a robot space knight.

could be the alien tie-in?

[Jeff the Baptist]

I believe one of Locke's other philosophical points was the "tabula rasa" wasn't it? Basically Locke believed man is born as a blank slate, neither good nor evil. This is similar to Jewish theology and christian Pelegian ethics, but dissimilar from the way modern christians view original sin.

[Steve]

Hi, David -

The last episode was pretty intriguing. I was studying and my wife came up to our room and turned on the show, and I got sucked in. You might be interested in the "Lost" forum at Television Without Pity (TWoP):

http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showforum=707

I just took another glance at your bio and noticed that you pastor in Glen Burnie, MD. I was born in Annapolis and my dad used to live in Glen Burnie. Small world.

Blessings,

Steve

[Rey]

I just wish I had seen the first two episodes. Majorly upset about missing them. I'm also slightly (ever so slightly) upset about Alias being back to back with Lost. It's like a HUGE block of time right in the middle of the week when I'm preparing for Sunday which I'm stuck in front of the tv. True I can record but...

::sigh::

[Jared]

Check out this week's issue of "Entertainment Weekly" if it's still on the newsstands. The cover story is on "Lost," and it is excellent. In a sidebar, they highlight some of the theories regarding the show and rate them on a probability scale of 1-5. The "purgatory" idea rated a 4.

[stacie]

In response to the comment by Jeff the Baptist, wasn't one of the episodes entitled "Tabula Rasa?" Another connection to Locke the Philosopher...

[jason]

Greetings, also remember in the episode the character Paul, who has no legs, is given power by the Green Lantern. He wishes he can walk and legs appear. His name changes to "Purgatory" and ends up being an enemy of the Green Lantern.