After “Cabin Fever” and looking towards “…Home”

No surprise that we have more questions yet again on LOST, but when you talk about the questions a John Locke episode raises you know you are getting into deep water. Although there are more than a few questions I have going into the finale, here are a few ideas and questions after watching “Cabin Fever”.

Christian & Claire. Alright, so at this point the powers that be at LOST have said Christian is dead. So what gives, is Christian the island, Smokey, or something else entirely? If we had only seen Christian on the island since the crash I would say it was Smokey similar to how Yemi appeared to Eko. But now we’ve seen Christian, and Charlie for that matter, off the island. I’m still saying more than a dream or hallucination based on the other patient seeing Charlie in Santa Rosa, but Smokey has seemed bound to the island. So yeah, I don’t know.

And Claire? Yeah, she, if that was even her, is not in Kansas anymore. I don’t think she’s dead, not to say she won’t be by the end of the season, but something has happened to her and it’s a drastic something. Why else would the mother concerned with, above all else including her own well being, just leave her baby. Maybe she has seen things with Christian similar to how Locke “looked into the island” and Desmond had premonitions after her turned the failsafe. She may well know, or think she knows, that if she follows this path everything will seemingly work out at least for Aaron. I’m really not sure about this one, but it’s definitely going to be something to consider as we go along.

Horace Goodspeed. Definitely more than a dream, but to what extent. Seemingly the island or Jacob is trying to communicate with Locke. But he seems to be an “echo” because even while conversing with Locke he repeats the same task. Sensing the echo is possibly similar to Miles’ ability? And the infamous eye opening, indicating it’s time to wake up and pay attention, seems to say that we need to look closely at this interaction because there may be more to it than what we see on the surface. Additionally, because I’m of the mind these weird meetings of dead people on the island are somehow Smokey related, it only fueled my fire to see a steady stream of smoke in this scene.

Matthew Abaddon. Is he an Other, Dharma, or part of something else? With Whidmore? Perhaps, but I think he is going to turn out to be special like Walt. Maybe there are two sides recruiting these “specials” but that gets far fetched. Does he know that if Locke goes to Australia he’ll find the island? Maybe similar to how Claire’s psychic, after telling her that she had to raise Aaron was okay with her going to LA - because he knew that Claire would presumably never make it to LA? If he does know this, if he does have some precognitive ability working for him, why does he go to Hurley to ask about the island and those left behind in the future?

And since we’re on the subject I have a way, WAY out in left field theory. What if Abaddon is Walt? It would be very cool to see that Walt puts Locke on his path after John helps Walt be okay with being “special”.

Richard Alpert. So many questions. Let’s start with the first and most obvious, can we all now agree this guy doesn’t age? The how and why are potentially easy enough to explain with the time-warping properties of the island. While I’m not ready to say he’s immortal, time doesn’t pass the same for him as it does others. And it also may not pass the same for people who have learned the island’s deeper secrets. This could have been alluded to when Ben said to Alpert, “You do remember birthdays, don’t you?” This could be in relation to their community being outside the modern world and there isn’t a big emphasis on them, but a line like that doesn’t just get dropped into this show without bigger meaning. But let’s look more into what happened with Richard tonight.

Why was Richard okay with John choosing the sand and the compass, but not the knife? If we are looking for items John owns, it’s easy to say that John wouldn’t own any of those things yet. So are we looking at a reincarnation theme of what he has owned? Or is it that Richard is looking to see whether or not John sees his destiny? That would point to his happiness with John claiming the sand and the compass - the sand claiming the island itself, and we all know John will be more than able to use a compass but maybe more that John sees himself as one to find the course and follow it. So this brings us to the dilemma between the knife and the book. I really think it points to what John identifies himself with more than what he owns. This explains why Richard is visibly shaken by the choice of the knife - it points to John’s tenure of leadership would be a time of violence or unrest, but if he had picked the Book of Laws it would point to a time of peace and harmony. Maybe Richard knows that it’s not an issue of if John will lead the island, but when. Because of this he says John is not ready, not that he made the wrong choice - it’s not that John isn’t ready, but maybe Richard isn’t.

Move the island. Wait, MOVE THE ISLAND?!? At first you are thinking they are going to physically move the island to another location on the planet. I don’t think so, first because it’s too obvious for LOST if that’s a good enough reason. But second you have to deal with the underwater station and the cable running to the island. That could be answered with how big of scope the move will be, but still I don’t think so. After everything we’ve seen this season the next thought is straight sci-fi in that maybe they’ll move it in time. But I have to lean away from that because the producers have said on numerous occasions that they’ll be avoiding the time travel paradoxes. And also, I certainly think they outlined how they would handle the time traveling in “The Constant”, as the person’s consciousness moving in their time but not the whole of the person moving in all of time. So what does that leave us? I’m going with the coordinates by which you have to come and go. Which this opens up all sorts of questions, but I think from what we’ve seen and heard this makes the most sense. From some coordinates you are a little ahead or behind, from others you may be more so. But what if from some coordinates you could look all you wanted, but never find the island. This could tie back to the islands magnetic properties and why the island was visible for a brief time when Desmond turned the failsafe. Maybe the hatch was a means of controlling, but if all went south the Orchid could be the last line of defense of the island so to speak where a little bit of all the islands secrets were kept.

This season has brought so many possibilities to the who, how, why and what of LOST that what all this show is going to encompass is just out of reach. Like everything else on LOST, all these questions and ideas are just part of the bigger picture that is LOST. I hope we get at least a glimpse of how some of these threads tie into one another in the upcoming finale. We know we are in the home stretch now and that answers are going to come more quickly and seemingly more quickly, but even as we draw closer to the end of LOST it seems every answer still brings two more questions. Here’s looking to “There’s No Place Like Home”.