Dreaming about LOST

Last updated on: October 29, 2008 at 9:35 am by James F. McGrath

Dreaming about LOST 2008-10-29T09:35:00-04:00 James F. McGrath

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Last night I dreamt I was on the island. Behind everything that was going on there was an artificially intelligent computer. I don’t think my subconcious mind managed to contribute anything to unravelling the mysteries of LOST.

A student of mine, on the other hand, is making better progress. He started watching only recently on DVD, and so he has yet to experience the pain of having to wait a whole week for the next installment.

Here are some thoughts he sent me:

Hey Dr. McGrath,

So I was reading your blog this morning and I came across a link to the following image,

http://lost.cubit.net/pics/2×17/blastDoorMap.jpg

which is of course the invisible ink map on the blast door that Locke sees in Season 2, but what caught my attention was the reference in the bottom left corner where it says, “Low relevance to Vallencetti related research activity.” Now I had come across Vallencetti (or Vallenzeti) references before in relation to an equation that predicts when humanity will destroy itself. So I did a little digging (and stop me if this is old news to you as it probably is), but apparently there was something called the “Lost Experience” that culminated in a video making reference to the famous #’s “4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42” as being the outcome obtained when this equation is ran. Further investigation led me to something called the “SPIDER PROTOCAL” which apparently is the source of the “virus” that Rousseau mentions her crew getting. In a memo that was unveiled during the “Lost Experience” it was revealed that the testing of the virus had been originally done on an island with “unique properties” but that the man in charge wanted to move away from using the island as the primary test sight and so moved to other locations (as is revealed in the video I mentioned previously which shows testing taking place in Sri Lanka; it can be found here). The whole purpose of the DHARMA initiative then was to try and alter the numbers in this equation and thus prevent humanity’s destruction. The Hanso Corporation, which seems to have some connection to Widmore, started the DHARMA initiative and seems to still be active in trying to bring about the alteration of the Vanzetti equation, perhaps the real reason Widmore is trying to find the island, in order to continue the research. One thing this might explain is why there was so much fuss made about the virus early on in the show and then not mentioned again. If part of what the DHARMA initiative was doing was introducing this virus to natives of the island it might be the primary reason that the island required that they be purged (hence Ben and Richard gassing all the DHARMA people). Rousseau’s team was probably infected by this virus before testing was moved off the island, and this could also explain why the hatches are marked with “QUARANTINE” if the virus was being used on the island natives.

It is interesting to me that the island (or whoever is controlling the island) seems to be acting against the DHARMA initiative. Ben says that they are the “good guys” and that Widmore and his people are the “bad guys,” but exactly what he means is not entirely clear. Obviously he isn’t trying to hide the island from Widmore to prevent it becoming a tourist attraction as he claimed to Locke, but perhaps he is trying to protect the island from undergoing further DHARMA initiative related testing (though if DHARMA is really trying to save humanity one wonders why he would want to stop them). This “war” that seems to be going on between Widmore and Linus is also interesting in that it had apparently been restricted to certain rules as was implied when Linus says to Widmore that he “changed the rules” when he killed his daughter Alex. I still don’t fully understand who Ben is or what his role is. He seems to lead the islanders and can speak with Jacob but Miles seems to imply in his conversation with him that he is incredibly powerful saying “don’t treat me like one of them (meaning the crash survivors), I know who you are and what you can do!” and subsequently demanding 3.2 million dollars, a sum that Linus doesn’t seem too upset in agreeing to pay. So why does Ben have so much money and power? We saw his back story and his origins are humble to say the least, and so his rise must have been meteoric as he wasn’t much older in the present than he was when he killed all the DHARMA people. Obviously you can’t answer those questions but this is what I am pondering at the moment.

Anyway, that is probably just review for you but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents on the subject. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic and perhaps any other details I might be missing.

Let me (and him) know what you think!

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