Found in Lost: Thoughts on "Cabin Fever"

After a brief break, we're catching up on our weekly Lost analysis--sorry about the delay! Scrambled thoughts follow. Click through, and leave yours thoughts in the comments. One more episode! (And of course, as usual, spoilers follow, so only continue if you're up-to-date.)

TOPH TUCKER '08

It was great to see Locke’s childhood, completely with obligatory “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” moments. The concept, which some people have suggested, of Richard as Locke's dad is definitely very interesting. (Great to see Richard back, btw.) I thought the same thing when he was standing there at the window. I don’t know how it would work, of course, but there’s definitely a connection there. Perhaps Richard is the immortal recruiter, finding “chosen ones” through the ages, people to lead the island. Abaddon’s appearance was also awesome. We last saw him giving instructions to Naomi and chatting with Hurley post-island in the mental institute, so we have to assume he’s with Widmore. Nifty that both Widmore’s people and Richard had both sought out Locke before he ever reached the island. Also fascinating the Abaddon believes he’ll see Locke again. That means that either Abaddon will reach the island—unlikely—or Locke will be captured by the Widmore/freighter people—more likely.

As for Locke being born on the island (supposedly the hospital looked like the medical station)—another interesting theory, but Emily was rushed to the hospital cause she got hit by a car, right? And there aren't really many cars on the island (that we know of). I guess it's possible that she was moved to the island in-between, but that seems awfully obtuse. Hmm... it’s also super-interesting that Ben and Locke’s mothers are both named Emily, and even look alike.

Claire's totally dead. Dead dead dead. And almost certainly dead ever since her house exploded. It's like her dad came as if he were the Grim Reaper or something. And now all those ghosts are hanging out with Jacob, who I now think is Horace's "ghost." (How creepy was Horace's ultra cyclical cameo?) The only issue with that is that it would mean Jacob hasn’t been around for very long at all—only since Ben’s gassing of the Dharma Initiative. That doesn’t really make sense. But Horace the fact that Horace was shown to be building a cabin is definitely significant.

The question, I suppose, is whether all these "ghosts" are the same sort of thing. Are the appearances of, say, Yemi and Ben’s mom and Christian Shephard the same phenomenon? Because there've been comments that say Yemi's appearances were manifestations of the monster. If the same is true of Christian and now Claire--is Jacob the monster??? Does Horace = Jacob= Monster????

OK, so it doesn’t make sense that Horace is Jacob in a purely literal sense. But it does sort of make sense (as much as these things can) that he and other dead people have been assimilated into the consciousness of the island. There was another comment on one of the official podcasts about the monster's confrontation with Eko, where Eko's life's memories were flashing in the smoke. They suggested that perhaps the monster was "downloading" all this stuff from Eko's brain, and from there it created the Yemi-ghost.

That doesn't fully explain this, or even come close, because these ghosts clearly know things their, uh, victims don't. But still, it's an interesting concept—that these half alive/half dead guys exist in the consciousness of the monster, and perhaps in the consciousness of the island itself. And if you look at the monster's alternate name of "Cerberus" and the mythology behind that name, Cerberus is the guardian of the underworld. So the smoke monster is the link, the bridge, between the land of the living and the land of the dead. The island is the Garden of Eden and the underworld all wrapped into one bite-size mobile invisible magnetized package!!! :D

Responding to other comments people have made about this episode: Sayid's plan is indeed a little ridiculous, Locke's test was indeed cool (Book of Laws was interesting, and I think that was the comic book Walt read the day of the crash, with the polar bear), Aaron is indeed Luke Skywalker-esque (as an orphan with a destiny who'll probably at some point be guided by "dead" people), and the island-on-wheels thing is indeed sorta weird. Besides, the helicopter was already on the island! Is it gonna just slip out from underneath it or what!?

UPDATE: OK, so the comic book was a different one. But check out the cover! “What was the secret of the mysterious ‘HIDDEN LAND!’” “Does it pay to ignore the ‘VOICE OF WARNING!’” And look at the city above the city! Reminiscent of the Lost logo for this season, with the city reflected in the ocean around the island. It’s like the hidden land—the island—is a parallel universe, right next to our own but impossible to detect. We could be getting into wormhole territory here.

How frustrating was it when Jack determined he was being told to follow the GPS signal??? And in that ultra-creepy long shot of the helicopter approaching, I totally expected it to just blow up, indicating that there had been a scuffle and Keamy had died, triggering his suicide bomb or whatever. Either that, or I expected it to nose-dive straight into the ocean as Frank attempted to bring the mercs down with him. And how cool was Keamy being unable to kill Michael!? And what's up with this total war/shock and awe Plan B they've got up their sleeves? Will this season end in a fiery inferno?

I liked when Locke gave Hurley the option to go back, and Ben complimented Locke on his sneakiness, and Locke said he wasn't like Ben, apparently meaning he was being honest. When it comes to leadership style, that's big.

OK, time for an overview of freighter politics.

There are four factions. The mercenaries, led by Keamy, are a strike team working directly for Widmore. They will do whatever they must to extract Ben. The researchers are an exploratory force, meant to test the waters—and they knew very little of the merc's plans, albeit more than we know they know. And then there's random staff, the captain and the doctor and Minkowski and Michael and maybe even Frank counts. And then there's the Island faction, which Michael also sorta belongs to, plus Des and Sayid.

The mercs are the big guys. The support staff is just ferrying them where they need to go, and certain aspects were outsourced to researchers eager to get their hands on such an island. And the Island faction is clueless, except Michael, who's beyond suicidal. And besides, they're not really freighter people (except Michael), they're just visiting.

So Keamy and Captain Gault had an agreement that Gault would provide ferry services for this slightly shady group. Sort of (very much) like how—OK, Star Wars reference time—in Empire Strikes Back, Vader had an agreement with Lando to use Lando's facilities in Vader's quest to retrieve Luke for his master:

[Palpatine / Widmore] very desperately wants to get his hands on [Luke / Ben]. His hitman is [Darth Vader / Martin Keamy]. [Vader / Keamy] enlists the help of [Lando / Cpt. Gault] so as to gain access to [Lando's / Cpt. Gault's] resources--specifically, his [carbon freezing chamber / freighter]. But after interactions with [Leia and Chewie / Michael and the Losties], [Lando / Gault] realizes he's on the wrong side. He defies [Vader / Keamy]--and pays the price: [loss of his mining facility / death].

The interesting thing now is that almost all the important boat people are either dead, or not on the boat. Who is on the boat? Desmond and Michael are. I feel like now would be a pretty great time to take the helm... hmm...

NOTE: I actually wrote all this shortly after the episode aired, but I’m only posting it here now, so some of it is out-of-date compared to what we’ve now seen in There’s No Place Like Home Pt. 1. Specifically: we've gotten a little more clarification about moving the island, it turns out Jack was right to follow the GPS after all, and Keamy's device triggers a bomb on the *freighter* (not that he's wearing himself). And it looks like I was right about Desmond and Michael taking the helm of the freighter. For more on that, see our article on There's No Place Like Home Pt. 1.

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