The Lost storytellers treated us all to a beautiful and mysterious scene at the beginning of “The Incident” and it has led to considerable speculation about who these guys are and what they are doing on the Island.
I will offer my speculation but I will theorize based on an analysis of several striking parallel story lines and images from the season two finale “Live Together, Die Alone” and “The Incident”.
Both episodes were written by the Dartlon Team and directed by Jack Bender, so I doubt any of these observations are coincidences. Much has been written about the Season 2/Season5 parallels, so I will not go into it here. I will just focus on the two episodes.
Both finales begin with a scene that shows a sailing ship arriving at the Island observed from the beach. The Elizabeth and presumably the Black Rock.
Both climax with powerful explosion/implosion/ energy release events set off by a person desperately in love and desperate to leave the Island. Desmond and Juliet.
Both feature scenes of one character meeting important Lost characters in the past and having critical interactions with them at key points in their lives. Desmond and Jacob.
Des meets with Widmore in a car after he is released from prison and is given a choice of love or money.
Jacob meets in a cab with Hurley when he gets out of prison and is given a choice of retuning on Flight 316 or not. (The pacing and physical staging of these two scenes are remarkably similar)
Des meets with Libby who pays for his coffee
Jacob meets with young Kate and pays for her NKOB lunchbox
Des meets with Kelvin in the Swan and learns to give the button a push
Jacob meets with Jack and suggests that sometimes all one needs to do to change things is give a little push (to the candy machine).
Both shows feature a confrontation between strongly opposed individuals determined to take decisive actions and who enlist the help on others in their projects.
In LTDO, Eko wants to push the button and enlists Charlie to help while John wants to cease pushing the button and enlists Desmond’s help.
In The Incident, Jack wants to detonate the nuclear bomb enlists Sayid, Hurley and Miles. Kate wants to stop him and enlists Juliet and Sawyer to help her.
There are lots more examples such as:
A group trekking across the island to a distant shore is a major part of both episodes.
Radzinky and Chang appear in legend in LTDA and in the flesh in The Incident.
The Taweret statue and its remnant are notable visual elements in both episodes.
The Swan site is the critical action location in both episodes. Etc, etc, etc….
OK. So who are these guys in the Incident? They are parallel characters to Desmond and Inman in LTDA. Are they from the future? Another planet? Are they scientists? Are the wizards or demi-gods? I do not really care.
They are two guys stuck on an island that they can’t escape from. And in my theory is that -- like Desmond and Inman who are pressing that button – these guys are doing something equivalent to “pushing a button” every 108 minutes, or 108 years or 1080 years and they have been doing it fro a very long, long, long time.
Maybe they are literally saving the world through this exercise – or the galaxy or the universe.
Just like Des and Inman have standard “toys” and games to keep them occupied and ward off the boredom like ping pong, books and music -- as well as outlaw diversions like fake lockdowns. Jacob and his partner have magical ”toys” and games -- including the whole Island. Maybe old Smokey is an outlaw toy?
And they are able to invite human beings to play. As players or pawns? Who knows?
But it seems they are getting on each other nerves big time after these long centuries.
And if “he who has not been named” is a powerful wizard as I suspect, the Black Rock is in for a rough landing! I suspect he will initiate a Shakespeare’s Prospero-style Tempest that drops the Black Rock mid-Island.
A final note. Much has been written about a scene between Jack and Locke which is eerily similar to the Jacob/“he who has not been named” scene on the beach.
I have found another such “beachfront discussion scene” (text below) between Hurley and Charlie in “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” that may offer am insight into these two Incident game players.
Enjoy!
[Hurley approaching Charlie at the beach just prior to Dharma van jumpstart sequence.]
HURLEY: Dude. Hey, dude, stop moping. Come on.
CHARLIE: Not moping -- thinking.
HURLEY: Oh. When people stare out at the ocean and get all quiet-like? They're moping. So get up and come with me. That car I found? We're getting it running.
CHARLIE: What's the point? [Hurley slaps Charlie across the face] Ow! What did you do that for?
HURLEY: Snap out of it! Stop feeling sorry for yourself because someone said you're going to die. I've got an idea that's going to help us both. Now, it is dangerous. And there's a very good chance that you will die.
CHARLIE: That's supposed to convince me to come with you?
HURLEY: It is. Because if you don't die, then we win.
CHARLIE: Win?
HURLEY: Look, I don't know about you, but things have really sucked for me lately and I could use a victory. So let's get one, dude. Let's get this car started. Let's look death in the face and say, "whatever, man." Let's make our own luck. What do you say?
I will offer my speculation but I will theorize based on an analysis of several striking parallel story lines and images from the season two finale “Live Together, Die Alone” and “The Incident”.
Both episodes were written by the Dartlon Team and directed by Jack Bender, so I doubt any of these observations are coincidences. Much has been written about the Season 2/Season5 parallels, so I will not go into it here. I will just focus on the two episodes.
Both finales begin with a scene that shows a sailing ship arriving at the Island observed from the beach. The Elizabeth and presumably the Black Rock.
Both climax with powerful explosion/implosion/ energy release events set off by a person desperately in love and desperate to leave the Island. Desmond and Juliet.
Both feature scenes of one character meeting important Lost characters in the past and having critical interactions with them at key points in their lives. Desmond and Jacob.
Des meets with Widmore in a car after he is released from prison and is given a choice of love or money.
Jacob meets in a cab with Hurley when he gets out of prison and is given a choice of retuning on Flight 316 or not. (The pacing and physical staging of these two scenes are remarkably similar)
Des meets with Libby who pays for his coffee
Jacob meets with young Kate and pays for her NKOB lunchbox
Des meets with Kelvin in the Swan and learns to give the button a push
Jacob meets with Jack and suggests that sometimes all one needs to do to change things is give a little push (to the candy machine).
Both shows feature a confrontation between strongly opposed individuals determined to take decisive actions and who enlist the help on others in their projects.
In LTDO, Eko wants to push the button and enlists Charlie to help while John wants to cease pushing the button and enlists Desmond’s help.
In The Incident, Jack wants to detonate the nuclear bomb enlists Sayid, Hurley and Miles. Kate wants to stop him and enlists Juliet and Sawyer to help her.
There are lots more examples such as:
A group trekking across the island to a distant shore is a major part of both episodes.
Radzinky and Chang appear in legend in LTDA and in the flesh in The Incident.
The Taweret statue and its remnant are notable visual elements in both episodes.
The Swan site is the critical action location in both episodes. Etc, etc, etc….
OK. So who are these guys in the Incident? They are parallel characters to Desmond and Inman in LTDA. Are they from the future? Another planet? Are they scientists? Are the wizards or demi-gods? I do not really care.
They are two guys stuck on an island that they can’t escape from. And in my theory is that -- like Desmond and Inman who are pressing that button – these guys are doing something equivalent to “pushing a button” every 108 minutes, or 108 years or 1080 years and they have been doing it fro a very long, long, long time.
Maybe they are literally saving the world through this exercise – or the galaxy or the universe.
Just like Des and Inman have standard “toys” and games to keep them occupied and ward off the boredom like ping pong, books and music -- as well as outlaw diversions like fake lockdowns. Jacob and his partner have magical ”toys” and games -- including the whole Island. Maybe old Smokey is an outlaw toy?
And they are able to invite human beings to play. As players or pawns? Who knows?
But it seems they are getting on each other nerves big time after these long centuries.
And if “he who has not been named” is a powerful wizard as I suspect, the Black Rock is in for a rough landing! I suspect he will initiate a Shakespeare’s Prospero-style Tempest that drops the Black Rock mid-Island.
A final note. Much has been written about a scene between Jack and Locke which is eerily similar to the Jacob/“he who has not been named” scene on the beach.
I have found another such “beachfront discussion scene” (text below) between Hurley and Charlie in “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” that may offer am insight into these two Incident game players.
Enjoy!
[Hurley approaching Charlie at the beach just prior to Dharma van jumpstart sequence.]
HURLEY: Dude. Hey, dude, stop moping. Come on.
CHARLIE: Not moping -- thinking.
HURLEY: Oh. When people stare out at the ocean and get all quiet-like? They're moping. So get up and come with me. That car I found? We're getting it running.
CHARLIE: What's the point? [Hurley slaps Charlie across the face] Ow! What did you do that for?
HURLEY: Snap out of it! Stop feeling sorry for yourself because someone said you're going to die. I've got an idea that's going to help us both. Now, it is dangerous. And there's a very good chance that you will die.
CHARLIE: That's supposed to convince me to come with you?
HURLEY: It is. Because if you don't die, then we win.
CHARLIE: Win?
HURLEY: Look, I don't know about you, but things have really sucked for me lately and I could use a victory. So let's get one, dude. Let's get this car started. Let's look death in the face and say, "whatever, man." Let's make our own luck. What do you say?
