Reciprocity 2: Why the Losties need the Island by Locke's disciple

The mutually dependent companion of the part one. You must read part one first for this to make sense. This is a subjective analysis of the symbolism of Lost; a thesis. This is not a theory of the quantum mechanics of the events on Lost, there are plenty of other good theories for that. This is a focus on the Losties, not everyone else as per the title. Hopefully you will rate and comment based on creativity and logic and not on the accuracy of off-screen moments or whether or not you fully agree. On paper things look much duller or simpler than on screen.

Starting where we left off and ending where we began in part one...

What lies in the shadow of the statue? He who will save/protect us all. The answer is rhetorical and pertains to sacrifice. Those willing to make any sacrifice necessary for the greater good will save/protect the world from those unwilling to make that sacrifice. The Island is an attempt by a higher intelligence to create paradise. What is paradise? The state of enlightenment or nirvana. Nirvana is describes as the highest happiness, a goal hoped for but not attained, a place or state of oblivion. How does this relate to the Losties, eternal life and reciprocity...?

(Mikhail: After years of unpleasant activities towards our enemies, I applied to an advertisement. 'Would you like to save the world?' it read. Thats how I met them...)

Jacob and MIB's war is of atonement. Can the living atone and make amends and appreciate the gift of life while alive or do they need the threat of death to do this? Will they destroy any chance at life on Earth via a physical body before they realize that no matter what geographical or metaphysical plane of existence we all will still exist together? The same people you see in life will be the people you see in death. That's scary if there are evil people that exist. Not so scary if everyone learns to wake up and stop all the atrocious hate. Why is it ok to want to see a loved one in the afterlife but not someone you've wronged or has wronged you? If one of us in the community suffers, then we all suffer the same for it. I'll come back to that point.

(MIB to Ben: Welcome back to the land of the living...)

There is a Life side and a Death side on the Island, an illusional barrier created by the ignorance of it's inhabitants. Both sides appear similar physically except are inhabited by either the living or the dead on the Island. The divide is growing by the malevolent acts of the living which reinforces the illusion that the dead are gone and don't exist. They coexist but there is animosity. The DI can't coexist with the Other's. Losties can't coexist with the Other's. There is even dissent within each group. The Island being a kind of emotional contagion entity, reacts and the barriers and illusions are put in place (unknowingly) by the residents themselves. The Whispers are from the transference of energy when passing from one side to the other, but I'm sure they also have another meaning like the Island trying to communicate with its inhabitants, in a more empathic way.

The Smoke Monster takes the essence/souls from the Life side to the Death side of the Island and keeps them there. Life and death are separated by the conflict so there has to be a boundary line and the Monster was created as a sort of guardian. This is what the scanning process it does indicates. It can reach into your essence/soul and pull out memories and manifest them if it chooses because, as the Island preaches, there can be no ignorance and should be nothing you need to hide. You have to free yourself from any burden to achieve nirvana. Nearly everyone on the Island lies or deceives each other. It can also reach inside your body when dead and pull out your essence/soul and transport it to the Death side. The lightning flashes inside of it are a reaction from the electromagnetic energy of the Island needed to maintain the portal from life to death. This divide or barrier isn't what was "supposed" to have happen on the Island and I think the lightning is to sort of indi! cate a frustration at having to exist at all. It's like a law enforcement agent of the Island that dutifully serves but is a little apprehensive and slightly belligerent because of it's job and why it's even necessary to do it. I presume it exists as something else on the Death side, very likely the white light Locke saw. In the s6 finale we will see the view from the Death/merged side and Smokey's true form will be revealed as a white light. The symbolism being, while alive they saw a keeper of the dead as scary or dark. In death they had been enlightened to see it as a white light. I think this is hinted at or at least keeping with the inverse of the end credit logo. I won't take any stabs at trying to explain why it needed to take Yemi's corpse away other than to say it needed Mr Eko to believe it was Yemi in order to repent and felt if the corpse was missing it would coax him into atoning. There could very well be some other reason the corpse was gone though.

It's interesting that the Smokey being the the boundary line between Life and Death had a boundary of it's own being the sonar fence. One invisible boundary holding back another sort of invisible boundary.

(Mr Friendly: We got a misunderstanding your people, my people. Right here there's a line. You cross that line we go from misunderstanding to something else.)

The cabin and the ash line around the cabin is a truce barrier set up by Jacob and MIB. It allows them to meet with an inhabitant on the other side but restricts their movements to only the cabin. The cabin transports back and forth from the Life and Death sides and this is why it disappeared from Locke when he led his group there. In s4ep1 Hurley saw the cabin in a few different places because his ability to see thru the illusion of Life and Death caused disorientation when he briefly saw both sides without realizing it. His sadness over Charlie's death influenced this somehow. He got separated from the group and saw the Death side. In a way its like what happened to Minkowski and Desmond. The boundary line of two planes like life and death or the real world and the Island causes the side effect of the mind to become disoriented and confused because as Ben said "I'm sorry you're too limited to see." The ash circle on the chair in the cabin restricts Jacob or MIB to that spo! t only when on the opposite side, but they can move freely in the cabin when it's on their side.

The entity that reanimated Christian Shepherd is the proxy. The mediator of the Island. It met with the dead MIB in the cabin. It interacted with the living, handing Sun a photo. It assists both sides in an attempt to resolve the dispute and merge all the growing divides of the Island, not just life and death. (Locke: Can you help me up? Christian: No sorry, I can't do that.) As in, you made the choice and now you have to fix it. The count to five hospital scene with Christian and Jack was another symbolic example of this. "Relax, count to five and fix it."

Locke is so important and special because he will become the first human to be granted eternal life. He will surpass the barrier of life and death, merge them and become eternal, not just ageless. (Richard is mortal. He can be killed, he just doesn't age.) Evidence: The image of Locke's face "in between" the black and white stones in the the Pilot pt2. The "Life" AND "Death" of Jeremy Bentham. A black eye and a white eye in Claire's dream. He led a faction of the Losties, and he led a faction of the Other's (or was going too). A cut above one eye and not the other. In the sweat lodge vision Boone told him: You have to bring the family together again John. These don't JUST indicate conflict and balance. It's to show that Locke will have life and death then eternal life to converge the two. This is what I meant in part one about restoring the Island's faith. In reward for his loyalty, he will be resurrected. He is supposed to teach the living and the dead how to attain eternal! life because he has known suffering from both life and death. He lived. He died. Then he lived forever. Don't tell him what he can't do. All things are possible, even eternal life. "Why do you find it so hard to believe? It's never been easy!" Who better to teach that than Locke? The Island needed a saviour. Locke needed a saviour. Reciprocity.

(Horace: Jacob's been waiting for you for a long time. You have to find me, and when you do you'll find him.) Horace is dead, on the Death side. Locke is there now in '07. With Jacob murdered his essence is on the Death side as well, so Locke can finally "find" Jacob. I believe Jacob will sacrifice something so that Locke can take over his position and once defeated MIB's position, thus attaining the merger of eternal life. All things that rise must converge. Perhaps Jacob will give up any existence at all on the Island and we'll see him in the alternate timeline as a man helped by the eternal life version of Locke. Also I think the real dead Christian Shepherd will switch shoes with Locke while they're both on the Death side, and this will somehow be important or necessary for communicating with Jack who is on the Life side. Perhaps this will make it possible to temporarily jump his consciousness into the mediator entity to communicate with Jack. (Christian: Say hello to m! y son, for me.) I can see him saying that again to Locke and having new meaning to it in s6.

(Jack: ... did you ever think the Island was trying to fix things, and we were just getting in the way?)

So why do the Island and the Losties need each other? Because they both need to be freed of any divide or conflict within them in order achieve paradise. The Island is an ATTEMPT by a higher intelligence to create paradise. Humans keep getting in the way of that. Each of the Losties of 815: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Jin, Sun, and Claire all feel directly or indirectly responsible for the death of someone prior to their arrival on the Island. Interestingly Locke is the only exception. They have other issues to resolve as well but are all candidates to be brought to the Island because Jacob is lobbying to the Island that the living can be remorseful, atone, and be willing to sacrifice their lives for the greater good of the Island and save the/their world. This is to prove that there is no reason to continue the illusion on the Island of life and death being separate, no reason to have ignorance, and no reason why nirvana can't be achieved paradise had. All things can! coexist together. I'm sure Jacob is directly or indirectly responsible for MIB's death and is attempting to atone for this by his "work" on the Island. (MIB: Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you? One of these days I'm gonna find a loophole.) As in, 'one of these days I'm gonna find a way to kill you and have my vengeance.' Dead is dead, you don't get to come back from that.

When Ben turned the FDW he forever intertwined the fates of the Island and the Losties. Locke was instructed by the Island's mediator to do this. (I told YOU, to move the Island. When did listening to him, get you anywhere worth a damn?) The Island told Locke to move it, and since he didn't the destiny's of the Losties and the Island were further meshed together. MIB's escape and loophole exploitation was because of the Losties failure to work with the Island; failure of reciprocity. It's illogical because of the time travel element and thus you can't really apply real-world logic to a work of fiction. This also supports why I believe there has to be an alternate timeline. The Losties only came to the Island because they were already there. It doesn't make sense unless there is some kind of reset, but leaves two realities. Furthermore the attainment of nirvana is to reach a state of oblivion. As in what the H-bomb reset attempt was, except the RIGHT way. So there must be an ! alternate timeline in which the Losties never land on the Island and don't remember because to reach nirvana you wouldn't remember the pain of your "old" life anyway. It's the hope (to the audience) that no matter how much suffering you are going thru in life, there is also "another" you reaping the rewards of paradise.

Looking thru some of the titles of the episodes, they have suggested this all along. "Tabula Rasa" (clean slate), "The Whole Truth", "Something Nice Back Home", "This Place Is Death", "He's Our You" just to name a few. So by coming to terms with their lives, atoning, and adopting a constructive limitless peaceful attitude and lifestyle the Losties will become enlightened and achieve nirvana; paradise. Their "work" on the Island will do this. The Island has provided them the opportunity to save the/their world if they are willing to make the sacrifice. It has gone thru the same redemption process, in part because it is a sort of emotional contagion of it's inhabitants, a mirror. The reciprocity is because it only achieves paradise thru feeding off it's inhabitants actions. It is part of them, one of them. It has the power, like they have the power but they must be mutually dependent on one another. If one of us in the community suffers we all suffer the same. However, if all ! of us in the community are in paradise then each one of has attained paradise.

Why does the Island need the Losties? To achieve the paradise intended.
Why do the Losties need the Island? To achieve the paradise intended.

RECIPROCITY