So, who's Wallace? by Carole Anne

I know a couple of people on this site think it’s too late to introduce a new character so late in the game, but Lost frequently adds new characters. Just when we are getting used the current group, making them “ours” (a clique?), the writers bring in someone new to shake things up.

So I’m going to guess that Wallace is someone new who has a specific purpose. And since the writers have a penchant for paying homage to endless people, ideas, books, movies, tv shows etc., I think they will do that here.

So I googled Wallace to see if anyone would pop up to fit some way into Lost.

First came Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. He’s a great character, and a very absent minded, but ingenious inventor. I Love Wallace and would be happy to think they were paying homage to him.

But probably not. I think a better “candidate” is Alfred Russel Wallace. You can check him out at Wikipeida http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace.

Wallace lived from 1823 to 1919 and according to wikipedia was, “British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution due to natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory. He did field work in the Malay Archipelago which is located between Australia and Southeastern Asia. Sound familiar?

He was also a spiritualist who believed in the non material origins for higher mental faculties in humans. According to Wikipedia, “ he began to maintain that natural selection cannot account for mathematical, artistic, or musical genius, as well as metaphysical musings, and wit and humour. He eventually said that something in "the unseen universe of Spirit" had interceded at least three times in history. The first was the creation of life from inorganic matter. The second was the introduction of consciousness in the higher animals. And the third was the generation of the higher mental faculties in mankind.” He also believed that the primary reason the universe existed was to develop the human spirit.

So Wallace was BOTH a scientist and spiritualist, Hmmmm.

Therefore, in light of the above, my bet is that Wallace is a new character who will also be a force of unification on the island.