This is a big week for Lost fans, as the fourth season will return with new episodes this Thursday. And with the recent news that the season is getting an additional hour of content, what more could a Lost fanatic want? Another crazed fan theory, you say? Well, since you asked…
Here it goes: The Island is not (as many early theorists posited) hell or purgatory, but rather a near Heaven on Earth. Long ago, an angel, Jacob, came to Earth, and set up camp on a remote island, and lived in peace. But over time, people ended up discovering the Island. The first two visitors, the Island’s own “Adam and Eve,” were in awe of the magical properties that Jacob possessed, and they worshiped him by building a Temple and a statue in his honor. Because he was Heavenly in nature, Adam and Eve could only see and hear Jacob for moments at a time, never getting a good look at him, but they did happen to notice that he only had four toes, so that was all they built of his statue. But Adam and Eve were good people, and Jacob loved them and took care of them, blessing them with many children and cures for all ailments they had before coming to the Island. They lived lives of pure bliss, where everything they wished for was given to them, and they were given the ability to travel great distances in mere moments. Jacob could not grant them eternal life (as the Island is not Heaven Proper), but they aged very slowly and lived happily for several hundred years.
Over time, more people came to the Island, and some cherished it, while others sought to take advantage of the Island’s unique and mystical properties. When Jacob deemed the newcomers worthy, they were invited to join his special community. When they were not pure enough, they were allowed to live elsewhere on the Island in peace. The worst incident the Island faced was when the DHARMA Initiative discovered the Island, and tried to study and harness the supernatural phenomena exhibited on the Island. Jacob’s followers, not wanting to resort to murder, tried to scare the DHARMA people away. When it became clear that they had no choice, they made the unfortunate decision to murder the DHARMA people and reclaim the Island as their home. As a result of all of the death that Jacob sanctioned, his powers became weaker, and he was forced into hiding. Ben Linus, a former DHARMA member who was helping the Natives and was able to communicate with Jacob, became the group’s new de facto leader. The chief way that Jacob’s weakness manifested itself was that women were no longer able to have children, and so Ben set out to fix this problem.
In a nutshell, Ben and the Others are, in fact, the good guys. They are the protectors of the Island, a holy place that is constantly under attack. What makes this twist that much more interesting (to me anyway) is that both the Losties and the viewers have been told repeatedly that Ben and his crew were good guys, and yet we immediately dismiss the notion.
The obvious retort goes like this: The Others are totally the bad guys! They kill people and kidnap children! They mess with our beloved characters like Jack and Kate and Hurley! How can they be considered good?
As far as the kidnapping goes, we have been given no reason to believe that the children or the other people taken by the Others are being held against their will, or that they are being treated poorly. Perhaps they are being well fed, well treated, and well looked after in some as-yet unseen part of the Island, possibly the Temple. Ah yes, but Kate, Jack, and Sawyer WERE held against their will, in cages no less! Yes, that’s true, but that was part of Ben’s plan to have Jack operate on him. He couldn’t have simply walked over to the beach, introduced himself and asked him to perform the surgery. Being that honest and direct would have led to the revelation that there was a Paradise on the Island that Jack’s gang was not welcome in (because they were not considered pure enough to merit placement on Jacob’s list). Had they discovered that, there could have been another bloody battle. Ben’s plan - to make the Others appear as savages that the Losties would want to avoid - was a far better solution for allowing both groups to mutually coexist.
All right, you ask, but what about the fact that the Others are violent and kill our beloved characters like, all the time? To that I would direct you to the following Lostpedia pages, here and here. They’ve already done the math, but allow me to summarize the bottom line: The number of Oceanic Flight 815 survivors that have been killed by Others: Three. Ethan killed Scott, Goodwin killed Nathan (a Tailie), and Mikhail killed Charlie. For comparison’s sake, the number of Others killed by our Losties is a whopping 16. And, the number of Losties killed by their fellow crash survivors is a disturbingly high seven.
So, in the end, is it really that much of a stretch to say that Ben and the Others really are, in fact, the good guys? They have killed, sure, but only when necessary. (One could argue that Ethan, Goodwin, and Mikhail were not acting under specific orders, but rather killed when their own emotions clouded their judgment.) As for Ben’s flash-forward future, using Sayid to hunt down people, perhaps this is vengeance that Jacob has demanded against Charles Widmore for all of the trouble he has wreaked on Jacob’s home. (The Bible is full of stories of vengeance - check it out sometime.)
My heavenly theory also can be (conveniently) used to explain other phenomena that we’ve seen on the show:
- The smoke monster is Jacob’s reconnaissance - it finds out information from newcomers to the Island and determines if they are worthy. He/it tends to be indifferent towards people who are deemed unworthy, but is willing to kill if the person is judged to be truly unrepentant for their sins.
- The time travel/time discrepancies are manifestations of the Island’s otherworldly properties. In other words, time is different in Heaven than it is on Earth, and so on this in-between place, the clocks can get a little wonky. And passing through the barrier, unless on a specific bearing, can jumble your consciousness and send it scattering through time.
- The Island’s off-Island powers, such as Jack and Michael not being “allowed” to kill themselves, Desmond being told that he “must” go to the Island, and in general the way that so many of our Losties were literally handed their 815 plane tickets, are all elements of fate and destiny that tie the characters to the Island. If Jacob does indeed have powers that stem from the Almighty, he is seeing the big picture and pulling all of the strings accordingly so everyone is where he needs them when he needs them to be there.
- The Whispers are the ghosts of Island residents long deceased. They have no physical powers, but they watch over Jacob, their allies (the Others), and keep tabs on all of the Island’s happenings.
Well, that’s it. All of these musings could end up being totally off-base, but as things stand so far, I think it is a fair and reasonably simple explanation of what’s happened and what is currently happening on (and off) the Island. But what do YOU think? Post and let me know!
7 users commented in " My Crazy Lost Theory - In Defense of The Others "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHow is it soooo far fetched that the others are the good guys? I don’t think that’s a far out theory at all. Especially after what we’ve seen in season 4.
I like the very first paragragh of the theory. It makes sense. I especially like bringing in the whole Adam and Eve concept. However, I think you should have stopped there. A lot of bloggers try to answer EVERY question we have about the island. That’s when things start to get extremely vague.
You should have just posted the first part of your theory instead of telling us that “the clocks can get a little wonky.” We know that!!!
Mark, I’m glad you don’t think it’s a “far out” theory; I don’t either! But when I’ve discussed it with other people, it has been quickly shot down as preposterous. (Of course, that’s while they are advocating theories about time-traveling aliens.)
As for answering too many questions at once, I’m simply trying to tie a lot of “the big questions” together. The details may of course be more complicated, but it’s my feeling that the bigger answers won’t be overly confusing, as some bloggers’ theories are.
And yes, we already knew about the Island’s time discrepancy, but the question is why.
I like the Adam and Eve theory too. But, I think that some of the explanations/justifications that you pose may turn out a little differently. Also, what about Locke? If he can see Jacob, shouldn’t he have been brought over to be with the Others a long time ago?
Wow. Did you smoke any funny mushrooms prior to coming up with the stuff you wrote in the first paragraph? That’s waaaaay out there.
I do agree with some of your thinking. I have always thought that the others were the good guys. Why? Because Ben said so, to that douche-stupid-character Michael - and he said it so matter of factly that it definitely was true, in my opinion at least.
I don’t agree with the 815s being the bad guys or good guys. They are neither - just a bunch of guys stuck on an island. What they are, however, is lost in their lives - they all have some stuff in their past that haunts them - mainly SEVERE DADDY ISSUES. If you think about it, the story is really about them, not the island, Ben, or the others. Lost is their story and everything else is secondary.
As far as the Jacob being an angel, all that other island stuff… Hmm… well, interesting… But way too out there. I think the explanations will be much more realistic. The producers have said that they have an answer for every bizzarre occurence and that answer will be based in reality (good luck explaining away the smoke monster). While some of the answers will surely be supernatural in some way, I don’t think it’ll be as out there as most people think. Perhaps Jacob is a poltergeist of some sort (yes, very supernatural, but then again, people report seeing ghosts all the time); the others are remenants of some ancient cult or race worshipping him or the island because for whatever reason doing it slows their aging process. Or manybe… Oh I don’t know. This show is sick. I’ll know all the answers in about two years.
I like this theory. I don’t LOVE it, but I certainly do like it. I think the show has established FAR too much in terms of time-travel troubles to just write it off as an offshoot problem due to the show’s main ’secret’.
Whatever the secret is, it has to do with time travel in a big way.
But now that I’ve read your theory I’m going to turn it over and over in my head and see if it becomes a shiny stone or if it just disintegrates.
Like for instance–it doesn’t feel secular enough for me, y’know?
@The Wife - Don’t forget that Locke could see Jacob only slightly, he wasn’t able to see him like Ben did. Being able to see him doesn’t also necessarily make you worthy enough to be on his list, either.
@Raf - Of course not, alannoah.com does not endorse drug use of any kind!
I agree that the show is about how the main characters and how they are “lost,” and that the bigger elements behind the Island, DHARMA, Jacob, etc, are all secondary to the stories of the characters. That said, those elements are part of the story, and my hope is that the characters will “find” their destinies through the Island and its larger story.
Also, I was under the impression that the claim that everything can be explained with science was long rescinded. Anyone know more about that? Either way, there are a lot of things in the show (smoke monster, time-travel, Jacob, etc.) that would be very hard to explain without some supernatural element.
@B.E. - I am not convinced that time travel is the “main” secret of the Island. The concept has only been established in two of Desmond’s episodes, which also deal with the “fate/destiny” theme that has been prevalent throughout the series.
As for it not being secular enough, I again look to recurring themes in the show, and the “faith versus science” motif has come up many times throughout the series. Additionally, there are many Biblical references sprinkled throughout Lost. For example, Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and a woman who was thought to be infertile, Aaron is Moses’ brother, Abaddon is the name of the Angel of the Abyss in Revelations, and Jack’s father’s name is Christian Shephard. Christian Shephard! It seems safe that all of these allusions to Biblical themes are quite intentional.
What could a character named Christian Shepard, who is not really there but occasionally can be said to provide guidance for certain characters and whose son was seemingly ’sent down’ to leada group of people to salvation and who eventually grows a beard and who has a moment of weakness and who is beset on all sides by wickedness and cruelty POSSIBLY have to do with the Bible, Alan?
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