I think there have been several clues throughout the show that the entire audience (or atleast just the posting theorists on this site) have missed. One of the most conspicuous of these undiscussed clues is the presence of birds on the island.
To date, I think we've only encountered 5 different species of bird on the Lost Island: chickens, pigeons, seagulls, doves and the Hurley-bird. Chickens have been the most common; they've been seen running around wild (and slaughtered by Goodwin), and kept in refrigerator's in the other's camp. These birds seem to be run-of-the-mill and may not have any bearing on the mythology of the island. Neither do seagulls, for that matter, only one of which (I may be wrong, post to fill me in if you please) being seen, this one of course being used by Claire to send a note in "Par Avion."
The Hurley-bird is the most cryptic of the bunch, having only been seen or heard in two or three instances. It's purpose, origin, and species remain a mystery (perhaps to be answered next season?)
Pigeons, and their relative, the Dove, may be the most important out of all of these birds (unless, of course, the Hurley-Bird proves itself). We've seen pigeons on the island, most notably in the webisode "Room 23" where a slew of birds smashed their own brains out potentially due to Walt's presence in the Hydra's brainwashing room. We also saw Walt perform this trick in his flashback "Special" where his stepfather Brian gets really creeped out by this ability. Ms. Klugh and the rest of the others have a similar reaction to this phenomenon and send Walt far away. If pigeons are attracted to Walt, or potentially other special people, than the Dove must be something else.
Our first really strange encounter with a dove was in Charlie's hallucination in S2 #12: "Fire + Water." In it Charlie has a vision of his mother and Claire hovering over Aaron, telling him Aaron is in danger and he needs to save him, (Hurley cameos as St John). As the vision ends, the sound of a plane crashing comes in and a bright pop occurs-from it comes the white dove, and it soars past Charlie's head. In this vision, the sound of the plane before the dove's appearance could have represented the beach craft where the heroin was. Could the dove represent Jacob in his true (or perhaps most comfortable) form? Was it testing Charlie in more than one way by telling him he needs to save the baby as well as tempting him with heroin? Let's take a look at the Dove's second appearance, which chronologically occurs before Charlie's vision.
In S3 #1 "A Tale of Two Cities," at the end of the opening sequence where we see the crash of Oceanic 815 from the others' perspective, the camera pans out on the barracks and a white dove takes flight from the trees. Was the dove there watching the others, making sure things went to plan? Did it leave the barracks to travel to the plane crash to gather intel of its own on the crash survivors? This could very well prove to be Jacob, or the MIB if we're mixed up on who or what is good or bad. The dove may even represent a third entity (perhaps the island itself) that we haven't seen yet. According to Lostpedia, the white dove has also been seen around the barracks a couple other times in S3 #19 "The Brig" and S4 #6 "The Other Woman."
Well, I suppose this concludes my long post on birds and their potentially overlooked significance so far on Lost. This has been more food for thought than a full on theory, so comment away.
To date, I think we've only encountered 5 different species of bird on the Lost Island: chickens, pigeons, seagulls, doves and the Hurley-bird. Chickens have been the most common; they've been seen running around wild (and slaughtered by Goodwin), and kept in refrigerator's in the other's camp. These birds seem to be run-of-the-mill and may not have any bearing on the mythology of the island. Neither do seagulls, for that matter, only one of which (I may be wrong, post to fill me in if you please) being seen, this one of course being used by Claire to send a note in "Par Avion."
The Hurley-bird is the most cryptic of the bunch, having only been seen or heard in two or three instances. It's purpose, origin, and species remain a mystery (perhaps to be answered next season?)
Pigeons, and their relative, the Dove, may be the most important out of all of these birds (unless, of course, the Hurley-Bird proves itself). We've seen pigeons on the island, most notably in the webisode "Room 23" where a slew of birds smashed their own brains out potentially due to Walt's presence in the Hydra's brainwashing room. We also saw Walt perform this trick in his flashback "Special" where his stepfather Brian gets really creeped out by this ability. Ms. Klugh and the rest of the others have a similar reaction to this phenomenon and send Walt far away. If pigeons are attracted to Walt, or potentially other special people, than the Dove must be something else.
Our first really strange encounter with a dove was in Charlie's hallucination in S2 #12: "Fire + Water." In it Charlie has a vision of his mother and Claire hovering over Aaron, telling him Aaron is in danger and he needs to save him, (Hurley cameos as St John). As the vision ends, the sound of a plane crashing comes in and a bright pop occurs-from it comes the white dove, and it soars past Charlie's head. In this vision, the sound of the plane before the dove's appearance could have represented the beach craft where the heroin was. Could the dove represent Jacob in his true (or perhaps most comfortable) form? Was it testing Charlie in more than one way by telling him he needs to save the baby as well as tempting him with heroin? Let's take a look at the Dove's second appearance, which chronologically occurs before Charlie's vision.
In S3 #1 "A Tale of Two Cities," at the end of the opening sequence where we see the crash of Oceanic 815 from the others' perspective, the camera pans out on the barracks and a white dove takes flight from the trees. Was the dove there watching the others, making sure things went to plan? Did it leave the barracks to travel to the plane crash to gather intel of its own on the crash survivors? This could very well prove to be Jacob, or the MIB if we're mixed up on who or what is good or bad. The dove may even represent a third entity (perhaps the island itself) that we haven't seen yet. According to Lostpedia, the white dove has also been seen around the barracks a couple other times in S3 #19 "The Brig" and S4 #6 "The Other Woman."
Well, I suppose this concludes my long post on birds and their potentially overlooked significance so far on Lost. This has been more food for thought than a full on theory, so comment away.
