Prehashing “Cabin Fever”

So I have a thought or two going into tonight’s episode of LOST that leaves me with a few questions. From what I’ve seen in previews and read on the internets we are getting a Locke flashback episode that deals with him being special and the quest for Jacob’s Cabin.

My first question comes from “Next time on LOST…” after last week’s episode when Dharma-dressed guy says, “I’m not making any sense, am I… that’s probably because I’ve been dead for 12 years.” After a little bit of internet assisted research we know it’s Horace Goodspeed who helped our Ben’s parents when his mother was in labor and subsequently got Ben and Mr. Workman to the island. So from his own statement we presume he did in fact die during the Purge. Now, we can consider the possibility TPTB are pulling a fast one much like Hurley’s, “we’re all going to die”, from a few weeks back and it will turn out ol’ Horace somehow survived the Purge. This could have come about by him either having joined the Hostiles or else having been in the right place at the right time not to fall victim to the Purge - off island, perhaps. But let’s presume for now that he is, as he describes himself, dead for the past 12 years. With this in mind, I also think back to the producers having said on more than one occasion that when people die on this island they are dead and not coming back. So what gives? This brings me to thought number two.

What gives with Christian Shephard? Jack has seen him on island before and after last week we know he has seen him off island. From last year’s season finale there is a hint that Jack may still see him, even if only Jack sees him, even farther into the future. Now we have Claire not only seeing Christian, but interacting with him to the point she follows him into the jungle. (And both his children see him dressed differently - the way they last saw him or the way they remember him?) Add this to the fact that when Hurley glimpsed into Jacob’s cabin we see Christian, dressed the same way Jack sees him, not as Claire does, just sitting in the cabin. Now a great point of debate is whether or not Christian is really dead, I want to believe that he is not but all logic points the fact that he is. We saw him in the morgue - dead. But the coffin was empty on the island. Which, that is easily explained by the fact the plane crashed - but we don’t see big things like that on this show for no reason so it makes you wonder. Plus, knowing all we know about Hanso, Whidmore, Dharma, and even Ben, is it that hard to believe they can fake a dead Christian Shephard?

So I guess my two thoughts lead me to the question: What gives with the alive dead people if dead people on this show are dead for good? That was a brain twister. So we have seen visions on the island that people have interacted with both of people and animals. Kate’s horse, Hurley and Dave, Mr. Eko and Yemi, but we don’t know exactly what they all were. It’s easy to say Dave was a hallucination Hurley had in the past simply come back to visit and not the island communicating with him in some way. I don’t neccesarily think this is true for Kate, although we don’t know if was just a hallucination, the island, or even Smokey. Which brings us to Mr. Eko and his vision and interaction with what he thought was Yemi, but in fact turned out to be Smokey. And, what prompted Smokey to attack Eko when it had judged him and let him be once before? To take it a step farther Hurley is having visions of Charlie off the island, very specific and very cryptic visions. But we have reason to believe that at least the conversations are more than a hallucination as another patient notices Charlie as well. So what are we dealing with here? Is the island alive or just special similar to the location in Australia? Is it like Miles and able to channel the essence of the dead? But that would mean with Hurley’s vision of Charlie at the mental hospital, that the island reaches much farther than it’s physical borders. I’m starting to think that Smokey is the island manifesting itself whether for direct communication or protection, but that it is somehow part of the island and can shape itself to the island’s needs and even potentially reach off the island if need be. All of this is well within reach on this show, but where are we going to land with this one is going to be interesting.

So finally, if we consider that Claire seeing Christian is similar to Eko seeing Yemi, and now she’s followed into the jungle it opens things up. Especially when tonight we’ll see three special people on the island trying to find Jacob in a place we’ve recently seen Christian. This all gets very exciting and interesting. I’m hoping we get some clarity on what these visions are and mean to both the characters and the overall show.