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Monday, March 24th, 2008
Lost.

I am an avid Lost watcher. Every Thursday at 8pm CST, you can find me huddled on my couch with the lights off and the TV on. Sometimes I go the whole hour without breathing. Sometimes I cuss. Sometimes I cry. There was a time when I was ready to give up on Lost because it was becoming too convoluted and losing focus. They were (okay, are) adding characters right and left and leaving story lines hanging, and I was about done. But now I'm back. The last 4 episodes have been ridiculously amazing, and I'm re-hooked. Like the fish that doesn't learn its lesson the first time. So here's my basic thought about the show, for what it's worth (which isn't much)....

I think it's a shame that I'm watching this show in college. I'm too damn analytical for my own good (thank you, English minor), so I read into everything. And I do mean everything. The current season is making clear that there are two camps on the island: The John Locke Camp and the Jack Shepard Camp.

The John Locke Camp thinks the island is some sort of oasis and doesn't want to leave. The Jack Shepard Camp is ready to get the hell off the island and go home. At a very basic level, the names of these two characters are important. John Locke was a real person. I’ve read his work in different contexts – he’s studied in both political science and English classes (amongst others) – but the major thing he brought to the world was the idea of the tabula rosa, or blank slate. He said that people are born without innate ideas and grow only through experience, that a person is self-aware consciousness fixed in a body. It’s interesting to consider this theory in conjunction with Lost’s John Locke. He represents a self-made sort of man; the American Dream with a twist, in that much of his “success” is based on his circumstances on the island. He was given a fresh start on the island, and he has grown into his new consciousness over time, testing its boundaries and defying the odds.

Now to Jack Shepherd. On Lost, Jack Shepard (or Shepherd) has a singular mission: to get off the island. He is guided by a moral compass that wavers only slightly, and he has been the self-sacrificing hero from the very first episode. We’ve seen him play God with the life of Ben, and we’ve seen him betrayed by Kate. Do you see where I’m going? Obviously, Jack is Jesus. Okay okay, that’s a stretch. But he does play the role of The Shepherd rather well. He brought everyone together in the very beginning (“live together or die alone”), and he’s been the group’s savior ever since. He’s also leading them on a mission home. Follow Jack, and ye shall be rescued.

How much can be left to fate, and how much do we, can we, and should we control? Do we have a destiny? Do we make our own destiny, or is it already made for us? I have no freaking clue, but I think the writers of Lost are wrangling this question with the long, messy, extended metaphor that has made up these delicious seasons of Lost. Locke represents a self-made man – favored in circumstance but ultimately committed to “making his way” and controlling his own fate. And then there’s Jack, staying his course and leaving much to the hope that he will get home safely. Leaving it to faith. I love that this show deals in shades of gray, because even while there are two definitive camps, the life that happens therein is insane and messed up and doesn’t ever have an answer. Just like life.

Oh, and Ben is The Devil. That’s a story for another blog.