Outside the Beltway

A New Addiction

Dodd Harris · Thursday, May 31, 2007 · 7 comments

I’m three years behind everyone else on the planet in this, but it finally caught me: I am addicted to Lost.

I’m very spoiler averse when I watch a show (which has made listening to the commentary on the S1 and S2 DVDs a trial since they frequently give away future events), so I’ve done very little by way of exploring other people’s theories about what’s going on on the island. But, having just the other day finished watching S3 via an iTunes season pass, I’ve come up with a few theories of my own. My apologies if these have been posted 649,739 times on other web sites.

• Alex (Rousseau’s daughter, but not Ben’s – he just took on that role after they kidnapped her) was born on the island very soon after Rousseau crashed there. It hasn’t always been the case that pregnant women died on the island. The oft-mentioned “accident” (in 1985? See, eg, the Blast Door Map) caused that to start happening.
• Ben obsession with fixing the pregnancy problem arises from his realization that it’s the only way his little fiefdom on the island to persist.
• The black smoke is called “Cerberus” and has specific points on the island from which it can emerge (see the various CV’s – Cerberus Vents – on the Blast Door Map). [This is based on canonical sources outside the show itself which I have reviewed.] It’s a security system, as Rousseau said, but Juliet was telling the truth when she said the Others didn’t know much about it.
• Cerberus is semi-sentient and has the ability to see into people’s pasts and assume the shape of people with whom they have some connection in order to communicate with them. This seems self-evident, but I’m including it anyway.
• Dharma was seeking to change when humanity would come to an end, which is what the Numbers are all about [also based on info from outside the show so I won’t say any more] but have been unable to do so.
• The “accident” was caused by Dharma pushing the envelope in this quest.
• Jacob obviously has some relationship to Richard, but I’m damned if I know what it is yet. His father perhaps?
• Whidmore Labs owns the boat Naomi came from and is looking for the island for reasons of its own.
• Penny is not involved in her father’s search for the island, but is simply looking for Desmond for her own personal reasons. I expect — and hope — that this will lead to an interesting conflict down the road.

Doubtless for long-term addictsfans of the show, all of this is very old hat. But it’s all new to me. The worst part is that I really hate Appointment TV. I don’t watch much TV anyway, and I refuse to get a Tivo because I’d just end up watching more, but every now and then a show comes along that I simply must make sure I’m in front of a television to watch at the same time every week. And now I have to wait 8 months for Lost to get on the list.