Wading in the Velvet Sea

What this episode did, much more than Season 1’s finale, is answer some questions. It of course asked about 20 more to each answered query, but that’s fine. I’m not ready for this show to end, and have no problem with a show that has an overabundance of interesting plot threads. So, let’s start with the big answer: why the plane crashed. According to this episode, it was due to Desmond’s ill-advised trip to follow Kelvin (real name unclear, but Sayid’s torture teacher from earlier in the season) and his Ripped Pants of Doom to an inlet that held the heretofore thought lost boat that Desmond used to try and win an around-the-world race. Desmond flips out, accidentally kills Kelvin, realizes that the button’s probably real, races back, and stops the island from imploding, but not before a whole lot of magnetic oddness happens, along with the phrase “SYSTEM FAILURE!”. (Anyone else think if some Strong Bad techno at this point?)

The day this all goes down? Sept. 22, 2004. The day of the show’s premiere. The day the plane crashed. Simple, right?

Wrong. While the show provided a scientific explanation for the crash, it didn’t provide the REAL reason for the crash.

Let’s back up a bit, only because Desmond suddenly seems at the heart of what’s going on not only with the show, but all the ancillary items associated within established, “official” Lost canon.

We learn that Desmond had a girl, and that girl has a daddy, and that daddy just happened to be Charles Widmore. Of Widmore Laboratories. They who made the pregnancy test that Sun used. They who just happen to have connections to the Hanso Foundation. Daddy tries to bribe Desmond away from his daughter, but instead Desmond enters an around-the-world race, da dum, sponsored by Widmore. But Desmond is down on his luck: he needs $42,000 (42? The numbers appear again…) to buy a boat. I guess if you Google “what’s the cheapest boat that can survive an around the world race”, and click “I Feel Lucky”, you get $42,000. I dunno.

So my theory is that Widmore sent in Libby (who was later sent to watch Hurley) to give Desmond what he needed, and made sure he ended on the island. At this point in the narrative, it’s essentially a Bermuda Triangle, or at least the Hotel California: you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. (Also, I will predict that the storm he was caught in, that caused his head injury, is directly related to all the sudden storms on the island.) Much easier to put him there to guarantee that he never see his daughter. Penelope. As in, Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. So Desmond’s now at the heart of an epic journey, with roots in mythology, revealed at precisely a time we see a statue on the island that resembles the Colossus at Rhodes.

Why is this important? Let’s look at the description on the Colossus:

To you, O Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom.

Dedicatory inscription of the Colossus

Key phrase: “over the sea”. Remember what’s on Rousseau’s map? The lyrics to “La Mer”. The English version of this song? “Beyond the Sea”. Consider my mind blown. And why did the original Colossus fall? An earthquake erupted and it collapsed. Sounds like a pretty big…incident. An incident like the one mentioned in the orientation video for the Swan station. (Others, such as EW’s Jeff Jensen, also feel this is important, and I tend to agree as well upon reading it, especially considering the egos involved in the men at the top of the food chain in this story.)

Well, last night’s episode featured another big incident: the button going to zero and the electromagnetic properties of that section of the island decided it would be a great idea to suck everything into it. Locke, well, locked Eko out, thinking the Swan station to be a Skinner box. Ironically, though predictable, the Pearl was in fact the Skinner box. The Swan was doing real, vital work. By “releasing the dam” as Kelvin put it, the island could finally be seen by the outside world. This answers, once and for all, whether on not they are on this plane of existence. But ultimately does not answer why they were all on the plane (Oceanic 815).

The online game, and the book “Bad Twin”, indicate that Hanso and Widmore have engaged in less than noble endeavors, and indeed suggests a power struggle between the two that may have left Alvar Hanso at the very least on the run, at the very most dead as a doornail. The number of intertwined connections between the passengers, both to each other and to people on the island already, coupled with the numbers, indicated a much larger plan than a simple explanation of “Desmond happened to leave the hatch at the worst time possible”. Whatever the island may have originally been outfitted for no longer exists as a practical matter. What does matter is that certain people have been sent there for a reason, and the passengers of 815 can be lumped into this.

What’s new and interesting about last night: now the island can be “seen” by the outside world. Or at least by some Portuguese dudes who hang out near one of the poles. And that for the last few years, Penelope has been not only waiting for her Odysseus to arrive, but was proactively looking for him. (Which is why I am convinced she’s the woman from the online game. Her daddy’s a bad bad man, and only Hanso may hold the key to finding Desmond. More on this in a bit.) This payoff at the end not only justifies all the time spent on Desmond in the ep, but sets up a HUGE narrative expansion for Season 3: the search for the island. It’s unclear how much of the season this will take up, or if Penelope even currently knows she’s looking for an island, etc, but it’s there, and expands the “Lost” universe beyond the shores of the island in a very fascinating way. (Nevermind that it counteracts once and for all the “they are all dead” or “it’s all in one person’s mind” theories. Time may work different on this island, the rules may be different on this island, and strange things may abound on this island, but it’s on Penelope’s version of Earth. Comforting to know. Unlike, say, the huge pile of pneumatic tubes, which was creepy to know.)

Where the Widmore/Hanso fight matters as anything but a sidebar for online uber-nerds: it sets up another facet to The Others. Their allegiance, their motives, their overall place has been consistently questioned, repositioned, and deepened since first mentioned on the show. Are they, as notHenry said last night, “The good guys?” Even if they are indeed the bad guys, it’s certainly more interesting to have villains who think they are the heroes. It’s a standard trope of excellent narrative to have the villains think they are the heroes. But who do thy work for: Hanso or Widmore? Who’s version of the Dharma Initiative do they subscribe to? My hint is that Widmore took Hanso’s notions to a place not intended by Hanso, and at this point, the incident happened. The reveal that the “hatch” The Others was protecting was in fact no more than a shallow hole in a wall not only furthers their theatrical nature (holy shit, I get it, The Others are in fact The Groundlings…I’ve solved it), but also a skeptical attitude towards the hatches in general. It might even be seen as a form of sacrilege.

The blacklight map is another example of this schism, I believe. The fact that the Swan people figured out how to trip the lockdown in order to secretly map out the island shows 1) they know they are being watched, and 2) don’t want whoever is watching to see this map. This map is ABSOLUTELY KEY in subverting whoever has co-opted the island’s projects away from its initial intent. Given the mystery online surrounding Hanso’s disappearance, coupled with last night’s painting of Widmore as a man capable of sending Desmond to his probable doom, I’m leaning now towards Hanso as a wronged leader and Widmore as the evil co-opter.

Where that leaves the Others’ allegiance…I think the fact that they have an escape (that direction of 325) leans them over to Widmore, for me…that, plus the huge dock that should not naturally be there, indicates they know a way in and out of the island to the outside world. A way that no one else knows. Until now, with the incident, which temporarily revealed the island to the outside world. This might hurt Widmore’s plans with the people on Flight 815, people he put on that plane for a purpose not yet revealed. A purpose that will hopefully be revealed, in part, during Season 3.

I’ll stop now, before I get super extra long-winded. Obviously I haven’t even touched on things like, oh, holy crap did Locke and Eko and Desmond all just bite it? But as a mythology freak, I figured I’d focus in on the bigger picture.

Thoughts? Comments? Feedback? “Holy God McGee, get a life”?