When Faraday showed up on the island things became clearer. The intriguing thing about him was his discussion of constants and variables. If the audience of Lost were to apply these clues to the ones provided from the first episode some interesting things seem to be happening.
The first step in solving problems is to identify the constants. In the case of Lost, the constant is correcting mistakes. The audience has witnessed several examples of this from Charlie kicking heroin to Michael returning for his death sentence to Kate giving Aaron to his grandmother. This show is full of people making mistakes and attempting to correct them or attempting to correct other’s mistakes.
The next thing to do is to identify and isolate or account for the variables. Here’s the tricky part. Every time a character makes a decision; that is the variable. If Boone doesn’t decide to crawl in the plane, he doesn’t die. Not only do the immediate decisions come into play, but also the past decisions. Following any of the character’s life maps shows plenty of forks in the road. Kate doesn’t have to blow up her father. These past decisions affect present decisions. Sometimes the characters are silent when they should voice their opinion because they learned from the past that they should have shut up about something else.
This “decision” variable must still be isolated. In this case it would be best to think of who might have to make the most decisions on this show or someone whose decisions have affected the most people. The one person who has made the most decisions is…Jack.
Jack is the variable. The whole story is Jack and his poor decisions on the island. Some early examples of this are not following John’s intuitions and his missteps with Kate. Another example is when he calls in the “rescue” team. Then there’s the “Lie” the O6 have to endure for three years. Last, there is his admission that they should never have left…his decision.
One of his latest is a real conundrum; his refusal to operate on young Ben Linus. If Jack does operate and save his life, then Ben has no connection to the Others/Hostiles. If Ben doesn’t develop that connection then the O/H have no inside man to help with the Purge. If there is no Purge, then Dharma stay on the island in a truce state with O/H. The button remains pushed and 815 doesn’t crash on the island.
As of “Follow The Leader,” Jack is still making poor decisions. Faraday’s theory may be sound, but it is theory. Anything can happen. Perhaps the bomb rips open the power source when it detonates. Maybe the bomb isn’t the answer to stopping the breech of the power source. Another way to look at stopping it is to just kill Radzinsky. Rest assured, Jack will make the wrong decision.
This is what the show is about. Jack is stuck in the loop making bad decision after bad decision. He must break the cycle with a series of good decisions in order to move the timeline out of its current cycle. It’s kind of like Ground Hog Day, except it takes place over decades and loops around on itself.
The first episode provided a clue to this being a sound theory with Jack’s eye opening. Not only is this metaphorical to a new start, but contains some visual clues as well. The circle of Jack’s eye hints of the Ouroboros and a never-ending circular story. Jack does seem to know his way to the beach without any prior knowledge or clues of its location. The problem with Jack is that he is a man of science and doesn’t have faith in too much. He might thank his father issues for that. His lack in faith is his undoing. At every turn he fights the island as it tries to help him self-correct his unfortunate decisions. He doesn’t have faith that things can change.
It would be a pretty safe bet that the last scene of this series will be of Jack waking up in the jungle…again. The next to last scene will be the one to solve everything for the viewers. This is likely to be something akin to Jack turning the Donkey Wheel and skipping back to the start of it all. It’s not hard to imagine millions of box sets being watched again to see where Jack made his mistakes.
The first step in solving problems is to identify the constants. In the case of Lost, the constant is correcting mistakes. The audience has witnessed several examples of this from Charlie kicking heroin to Michael returning for his death sentence to Kate giving Aaron to his grandmother. This show is full of people making mistakes and attempting to correct them or attempting to correct other’s mistakes.
The next thing to do is to identify and isolate or account for the variables. Here’s the tricky part. Every time a character makes a decision; that is the variable. If Boone doesn’t decide to crawl in the plane, he doesn’t die. Not only do the immediate decisions come into play, but also the past decisions. Following any of the character’s life maps shows plenty of forks in the road. Kate doesn’t have to blow up her father. These past decisions affect present decisions. Sometimes the characters are silent when they should voice their opinion because they learned from the past that they should have shut up about something else.
This “decision” variable must still be isolated. In this case it would be best to think of who might have to make the most decisions on this show or someone whose decisions have affected the most people. The one person who has made the most decisions is…Jack.
Jack is the variable. The whole story is Jack and his poor decisions on the island. Some early examples of this are not following John’s intuitions and his missteps with Kate. Another example is when he calls in the “rescue” team. Then there’s the “Lie” the O6 have to endure for three years. Last, there is his admission that they should never have left…his decision.
One of his latest is a real conundrum; his refusal to operate on young Ben Linus. If Jack does operate and save his life, then Ben has no connection to the Others/Hostiles. If Ben doesn’t develop that connection then the O/H have no inside man to help with the Purge. If there is no Purge, then Dharma stay on the island in a truce state with O/H. The button remains pushed and 815 doesn’t crash on the island.
As of “Follow The Leader,” Jack is still making poor decisions. Faraday’s theory may be sound, but it is theory. Anything can happen. Perhaps the bomb rips open the power source when it detonates. Maybe the bomb isn’t the answer to stopping the breech of the power source. Another way to look at stopping it is to just kill Radzinsky. Rest assured, Jack will make the wrong decision.
This is what the show is about. Jack is stuck in the loop making bad decision after bad decision. He must break the cycle with a series of good decisions in order to move the timeline out of its current cycle. It’s kind of like Ground Hog Day, except it takes place over decades and loops around on itself.
The first episode provided a clue to this being a sound theory with Jack’s eye opening. Not only is this metaphorical to a new start, but contains some visual clues as well. The circle of Jack’s eye hints of the Ouroboros and a never-ending circular story. Jack does seem to know his way to the beach without any prior knowledge or clues of its location. The problem with Jack is that he is a man of science and doesn’t have faith in too much. He might thank his father issues for that. His lack in faith is his undoing. At every turn he fights the island as it tries to help him self-correct his unfortunate decisions. He doesn’t have faith that things can change.
It would be a pretty safe bet that the last scene of this series will be of Jack waking up in the jungle…again. The next to last scene will be the one to solve everything for the viewers. This is likely to be something akin to Jack turning the Donkey Wheel and skipping back to the start of it all. It’s not hard to imagine millions of box sets being watched again to see where Jack made his mistakes.
