Wanna Understand Lost? Play Myst by Av

Watch out because Av is about to go Doc Jensen on all your asses.

Lost is starting to remind me of the computer game Myst. For those who don’t remember it, it was a groundbreaking adventure game in the 90s that involved the player being a Stranger exploring an unknown island, learning about the backstories of different characters and using clues to solve puzzles.

The important part of the plot is as follows (Spoiler Alert for those who still have it in the packaging from their 1993 birthday party):

Myst, the island world described in the book, contains a library where two additional books can be found, colored red and blue. These books are traps which hold Sirrus and Achenar, the sons of Atrus, who lives on Myst island with his wife Catherine. Atrus uses an ancient practice to write special “linking books”, which transport people to the worlds, or “Ages”, that the books describe. From the panels of their books, Sirrus and Achenar tell the Stranger that Atrus is dead, each claiming that the other brother murdered him, and plead for the Stranger to help them escape. However, the books are missing several pages, so the sons’ messages are at first unclear, and riddled with static.

As the Stranger continues to explore the island, more books are discovered hidden behind complex mechanisms and puzzles. There are four books in total, each linking to a different Age. The Stranger must visit each Age, find the red and blue pages hidden there, and then return to Myst Island. These pages can then be placed in the corresponding books. As the Stranger adds more pages to these books, the brothers can speak more and more clearly. Throughout this process, each brother maintains that the other brother cannot be trusted. After collecting four pages, the brothers can talk clearly enough to tell the Stranger where the fifth page is hidden. If the Stranger gives either brother their fifth page, they will be free. The Stranger is left with a choice to help Sirrus, Achenar, or neither.

At the end, it turns out that neither brother can be trusted. They are both out for themselves. If you choose to help one of them and free them from their book, then you switch places with them and now you are the one trapped in the book for eternity (or until you trick some other poor shlub into helping you.) To “win” the game, you have to realize this and help neither of them, instead opting to put the final page into a 3rd book, which frees the father and destroys the two brothers forever.

I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a similar thing going on in Lost. We know Smokey says he is trapped. Why does he need recruits? Someone to take his place and his fate, perhaps? He claims Jacob is trying to do something similar. He is trying to find a “substitute,” someone to take his place. As Tribune TV writer Mo Ryan pointed out last week, one of the things that is frustrating about the show is that it’s the final season and we STILL don’t know who to root for. So it might be amazing to watch on DVD in the summer once we understand what people’s motivations are, but as of now it’s kind of annoying. My advice to those on the Island is the same mantra from the final seasons of the X-Files: TRUST NO ONE! I predict that like in Myst, the two players in this game — Jacob and MIB — are neither good nor bad per se, they are just self-motivated and will do whatever it takes to achieve their self interest. For MIB, that means going home; for Jacob, maybe it means being released from the burden of “protecting the Island.” Both are looking for a sucker to take their place so that they can finally be free and will do whatever it takes (lie, kill, crash planes, maroon ships, etc etc etc) to set in motion a series of events that makes their goal a reality.