Island of Lost Children?
Oct. 13th, 2005 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retro_eidasWith the image of the "Other" dragging the teddy bear on a noose from the 2.05 promo last night. I got to thinking about The Others apparent (disturbing?) fixation on children.
I've been thinking that it wasn't these torturers / murderers of the tailaways that started the kidnappings, but whatever researchers or scientists left from the "Dharma Initiative". Either to save and/or study the children. "The Others" (aka, Claire/Walt's kidnappers and tailaways' murderers) - who have no knowing and/or active connection to "Dharma" - only got into the kidnapping (and murder) later on. The Others have since figured out that "Dharma" has a special interest in children (and only in children). Perhaps because "Dharma" took whatever children they had (or would have) too... and they never saw them again? Having all your children stolen over the years and being powerless to stop it probably would lead to an ever increased desperation and descent into the crazy. Not to mention, if there is some kind of radiation exposure on the island, it might not have been enough to kill them but perhaps enough to leave them sterile? Thus they came to a point they just couldn't have anymore children.
However, perhaps The Others believe they've worked out some sort of plan to corner "Dharma"? Either to help save themselves, get their kids back, find a cure for the "sickness" and/or get them off the island. How do you lure "Dharma" out or to you to initiate such a plan? You'd presumedly need what they want. A kid. Thus the kidnappings of pregnant Claire and Walt. The Others are possibly trying to use Walt as bait to lure "Dharma" out of possibly another hatch (or wherever the Others think they come from) so they can launch some kind of (likely futile) counter offensive? It's possible they may have tried this before, maybe a number of times, with the same unsuccessful results? Leaving them more exceedingly disheartened (more desperate and more crazy) after each failed attempt.
The Whispers Danielle hears and heard before / after Alex was kidnapped? That was "Dharma". Alex has been with "Dharma" all this time or maybe even released into the world to live as a normal citizen (but eventually return to the island)? Of course, if there is still a world to be released into. Maybe the Whispers suggested to Danielle (subliminal messages?) to kidnap Aaron, hand him over and she would indeed get Alex back?
Maybe the Lostaways - or some of them - are in actuality all the lost children of "The Others" over the years? They may have left the island to live normal lives... or their lives, their flashbacks, are all false memories. Created Matrix-style while in some kind of cryostasis on the island. They were all born on the island and they've never left it? The crash was staged.
Depending on how successful The Others are with this plan (which I'm doubting will work with the impression I get from resourceful Hanso & Dharma)... The Others may or may not take Aaron, but I'm thinking that if Hanso / Dharma *really* want him? The Lostaways will be completely unable to stop them. It depends on if Hanso/Dharma still wants kids / pregnant women. If they do... Aaron will be the first or soon to go and the Lostaways just better hope those prophylactics last. Maybe Joanna (the woman Boone tried to save from drowning) didn't die... but was taken by Hanso/Dharma because she was pregnant? Joanna only told them her doctor grounded her because of an ear infection (but she didn't tell them about her other condition). Which Hanso/Dharma somehow knew, even though she never told the rest of the survivors.
btw, factoid, the title of the post - an some inspiration for the above - comes from a Caro / Jeunet movie called City of Lost Children. Here's a summary from Amazon:
ETA. I was discussing this theory with a co-worker and he said it reminded him of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Others (and Lostaways) posing as the poor, Indian villagers (In the case of The Others, also a hint of Kali worshippers, thanks to taking up kidnapping, per the above) who lose all their kids. Hanso/Dharma as the evil, Kali worshippers and the Lostaways as Indy & pals (who were diverted to India because "Shiva" made their plane "fall from the sky"). Sawyer did call Walt "Short Round" once. ;)
I've been thinking that it wasn't these torturers / murderers of the tailaways that started the kidnappings, but whatever researchers or scientists left from the "Dharma Initiative". Either to save and/or study the children. "The Others" (aka, Claire/Walt's kidnappers and tailaways' murderers) - who have no knowing and/or active connection to "Dharma" - only got into the kidnapping (and murder) later on. The Others have since figured out that "Dharma" has a special interest in children (and only in children). Perhaps because "Dharma" took whatever children they had (or would have) too... and they never saw them again? Having all your children stolen over the years and being powerless to stop it probably would lead to an ever increased desperation and descent into the crazy. Not to mention, if there is some kind of radiation exposure on the island, it might not have been enough to kill them but perhaps enough to leave them sterile? Thus they came to a point they just couldn't have anymore children.
However, perhaps The Others believe they've worked out some sort of plan to corner "Dharma"? Either to help save themselves, get their kids back, find a cure for the "sickness" and/or get them off the island. How do you lure "Dharma" out or to you to initiate such a plan? You'd presumedly need what they want. A kid. Thus the kidnappings of pregnant Claire and Walt. The Others are possibly trying to use Walt as bait to lure "Dharma" out of possibly another hatch (or wherever the Others think they come from) so they can launch some kind of (likely futile) counter offensive? It's possible they may have tried this before, maybe a number of times, with the same unsuccessful results? Leaving them more exceedingly disheartened (more desperate and more crazy) after each failed attempt.
The Whispers Danielle hears and heard before / after Alex was kidnapped? That was "Dharma". Alex has been with "Dharma" all this time or maybe even released into the world to live as a normal citizen (but eventually return to the island)? Of course, if there is still a world to be released into. Maybe the Whispers suggested to Danielle (subliminal messages?) to kidnap Aaron, hand him over and she would indeed get Alex back?
Maybe the Lostaways - or some of them - are in actuality all the lost children of "The Others" over the years? They may have left the island to live normal lives... or their lives, their flashbacks, are all false memories. Created Matrix-style while in some kind of cryostasis on the island. They were all born on the island and they've never left it? The crash was staged.
Depending on how successful The Others are with this plan (which I'm doubting will work with the impression I get from resourceful Hanso & Dharma)... The Others may or may not take Aaron, but I'm thinking that if Hanso / Dharma *really* want him? The Lostaways will be completely unable to stop them. It depends on if Hanso/Dharma still wants kids / pregnant women. If they do... Aaron will be the first or soon to go and the Lostaways just better hope those prophylactics last. Maybe Joanna (the woman Boone tried to save from drowning) didn't die... but was taken by Hanso/Dharma because she was pregnant? Joanna only told them her doctor grounded her because of an ear infection (but she didn't tell them about her other condition). Which Hanso/Dharma somehow knew, even though she never told the rest of the survivors.
btw, factoid, the title of the post - an some inspiration for the above - comes from a Caro / Jeunet movie called City of Lost Children. Here's a summary from Amazon:
The fantastic visions of Belgian filmmakers Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet find full fruition in this fairy tale for adults. Evoking utopias and dystopias from Brazil to Peter Pan, Caro and Jeunet create a vivid but menacing fantasy city in a perpetually twilight world. In this rough port town lives circus strongman One (Ron Perlman), who wanders the alleys and waterfront dives looking for his baby brother, snatched from him by a mysterious gang preying upon the children of the town. Rising from the harbor is an enigmatic castle where lives the evil scientist Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who has lost the ability to dream and robs the nocturnal visions of the children he kidnaps, but receives only mad nightmares from the lonely cherubs. Other wild characters include the Fagin-like Octopus--Siamese twin sisters who control a small gang of runaways-turned-thieves--Krank's six cloned henchmen (all played by the memorable Dominique Pinon from Delicatessen), and a giant brain floating in an aquarium (voiced by Jean-Louis Trintignant). Caro and Jeunet are kindred souls to Terry Gilliam (who is a vocal fan), creating imaginative flights of fancy built of equal parts delight and dread, which seem to be painted on the screen in rich, dreamy colors.What the summary leaves out is Krank (the mad scientist) is attempting to steal children's dreams because he's trying to slow his own aging process. Slow down aging? Perhaps like a certain Life Extension Project? Not that I think Hanso is "stealing children's dreams", but children may hold some vital role in whatever (final?) projects Dharma still has going.
ETA. I was discussing this theory with a co-worker and he said it reminded him of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Others (and Lostaways) posing as the poor, Indian villagers (In the case of The Others, also a hint of Kali worshippers, thanks to taking up kidnapping, per the above) who lose all their kids. Hanso/Dharma as the evil, Kali worshippers and the Lostaways as Indy & pals (who were diverted to India because "Shiva" made their plane "fall from the sky"). Sawyer did call Walt "Short Round" once. ;)
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-13 06:32 pm (UTC)I've been on about this since the fisrt epi last season where there voices cropped up and people started having those hallucinations. I mean the whole way things are presented and the whispersing just shouted out to me as being 'bleeds' from their actual reality to their perceived (and by way of the show's forced perspective, ours as well) realities.
I'm douting the actual existance of everything.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-13 11:57 pm (UTC)You know, The Matrix elusions (shout-outs?) - and they're plentiful - are one thing, but it seems so many references to this show are actively pushing us to question the reality of not only the flashbacks, but the island as well. The mentions of A Wrinkle In Time (about alternate dimensions and travelling through space/time), The Third Policeman (also about alternate realities, told from an elusive narrator who is not what, or at least everything, he seems), The Turn of the Screw (a metafiction book about a storyteller telling a story about a governess where you don't know if the things she's experiencing are all in her head or really happening).... probably many others I'm forgetting. Foreshadowing or are the writers just fucking with us?
I'm douting the actual existance of everything.
Right at this exact moment, I'm leaning more towards the island events being real... however, I suppose it's a credit (or frustration) to this show I can't say that with 100% certainty.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-21 07:02 pm (UTC)There seem to be a whole bunch of random similarities. The fantastical, island location. Association with time (never growing old? Tick-Tock. Hanso's Life Extension Project?), the fixation of children and/or children's imaginations (Walt and his comic book... Walt and his mind? Think happy thoughts, Neverland - a place outside of time straight out of a child's imagination), a dog as a babysitter. In Peter Pan, growing up is almost synonymous with dying in itself (you could say most, if not all, of the adult main characters of "Lost" are/were alive, but not really living. Not talking Purgatory, but they all seemed trapped in these stagnant lifestyles of which they couldn't move forward).
After tonight's episode (10/19/05), where we see The Others with one carrying a teddy bear through a tropical island, that feeling is reinforced, but I don't know why.
Having not read the Barrie books since I was a kid unfortunately... in the Disney version, didn't the youngest brother drag around a teddy bear? Atypical behavior for any child I suppose, but, of course, "Lost's" Others spin has a decidedly ominous/creepy factor to it. Are The Others children who can't grow up? Can't die? Bad example I realize, but looking at Claudia in Rice's Interview With The Vampire, a child that can never grow up or die isn't exactly the paradise or whimsy it's depicted in Peter Pan. Are these theoretical island children like Claudia more than Peter? Do we have a whole island of (Freudian) "Angry Babies"?