LOST: The Final Season (Spoilers)

[Remus Lupin]

Well, I certainly didn't mean to imply that I understood good and evil to be immutable states of being. Quite the contrary, I'm arguing that it is the actions of the characters that define their status.

However, I do think it's important to qualify that I"m talking here about the protagonists: Locke (or now, Flocke or whatever you want to call him), Sawyer, Sayid, Claire quite clearly, based on their actions, fall into a different moral category than Jack, Hurley, Miles, and Sun.

As I say, there's still room for movement, and I certainly hope that some, if not all, of those on Flocke's side move back over to Jacob's side before the end.

However, it's certainly true that Jacob and the Others can't be understood to be "good" in any plain vanilla sense of the word. At best, their actions and motivations are complex. Ben and Richard are the two most fully developed characters in this regard, with Ben being clearly (again, based on his actions) evil and Richard being, at best, ambiguous.

So, while we can't conclude that Jacob's "side" is, per se, good, I think it's clear that the "good" characters are lining up with Jacob, and the "evil" characters are lining up with Smokey. Smokey is clearly being set up to be the Satan/tempter figure in all of this, and Jacob is being set up to be, if not the "God" figure, than certainly the puppet master.

One might think that the book of Job would have something to say about all of this.

 

[Shayuri]

Oh, I agree with that analysis, and I was talking in a more general sense, not replying to you specifically.

My personal opinion right now is that Jacob is a "good guy" in a difficult position, balancing the consequences of failure against the moral quandries required to succeed as best he can. As such, the characters who are more likely to be swayed by moral/ethical arguments (the 'good' ones) seem more likely to align to Jacob's cause. The characters who are more inclined to be self serving, or self-interested appear to be hooking up to Smokey...in no small part due to Smokey's skill as a tempter.

What that all MEANS is yet to be determined. Why Smokey needs or wants Losties on his 'team' is hard to say as, unlike Jacob, he appears to have a significant amount of personal power that he uses fairly freely.

It makes for entertaining viewing though, which is really the most important thing.

 

[Felon]

And when you look at the protagonists, the breakdown between "good guy" and "bad guy" is clear in many of the cases we've discussed, with a few marginal cases that remain to be resolved.

It's only clear if you apply the rather jejune notions of "good guy" and "bad guy" that tend to get applied to characters in jejune fiction, and I don't think of Lost as such. Sayid and Sawyer are not evil in my opinion. They both are capable of ruthlessness, so put them in a situation with no good options, and they'll do something we'll call evil. In that same situation, Jack or Hurley would refuse to do something "wrong" even if they and other people they care about would suffer as a result. Jack rolling on his father, for instance.

Hollywood teaches that exemplars of uncompromising righteousness are to be admired, but I'm old enough to know that's pretty much bullcrap. When I watch Gladiator, I don't think Maximus should be admired for adopting an inflexible attitude that cost him, his family, and his friends their lives. All he had to do was hug Claudius, ask for a raise, and then go rally his forces. But nooo.......

I think J.J. Abrahms wrote Jack and Sawyer as two daamged men who try to better themselves. When the people they care about are in danger, they put their lives on the line, even though they don't have any rosy notions about morality. That's a kind of heroism that I can admire.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Well, look. I think I've laid out my case for what's going on in detail. I don't feel the need to justify it to you any further. I agree that all the characters are morally compromised to one degree or another, but I do think that there is a clear moral difference between "guilt-wracked pill-popping doctor with daddy issues" and "Iraqi torturer who shoots children." If you view that as jejune, so be it. In the end, it's a story someone is telling us. We're just trying to guess the ending and its meaning.

 

[catsclaw227]

I am starting to believe that Jacob and Flocke are acutally two guys playing Sims. And the people and the island are the Sims. Maybe they have been playing a long time, over eons, but the sims are self-aware, but not of their ultimate nature, that of being Sims.

They have been working to "do stuff", but Jacob and Flocke can manifest themselves as "commands" that the sims have a % chance of resisting or not. All throughout the series, the main characters have been dragged along a winding course of action through circumstances that are sometimes absurd, but connected.

Lost = Sims. You heard it here.

 

[Megaton]

I am starting to believe that Jacob and Flocke are acutally two guys playing Sims. And the people and the island are the Sims. Maybe they have been playing a long time, over eons, but the sims are self-aware, but not of their ultimate nature, that of being Sims.

They have been working to "do stuff", but Jacob and Flocke can manifest themselves as "commands" that the sims have a % chance of resisting or not. All throughout the series, the main characters have been dragged along a winding course of action through circumstances that are sometimes absurd, but connected.

Lost = Sims. You heard it here.

I've been getting that impression too. Sort of seems like Flocke and Jacob and just gods who have taken over bodies ala The Iliad and are just kind of playing around for fun on earth.

Or this is going to be a fate vs. choice thing with each of them picking a side, or perhaps a science vs. faith.

 

[catsclaw227]

The thing is, now I recall somewhere that the writers have said that the island is "something" it is a four letter word and it doesn't have an "a" or "e".

It is Sims Island.

 

[Mark]

Cheese Curds!

 

[Jack7]

Does anybody rebroadcast Lost, and if so who, and when?

I remember a couple of years back G4 and the Sci-Fi channel both rebroadcast Lost episodes. Anyone do that now.

Been real busy lately and I've just found out my squadron has to undergo training every Tuesday evening for about two months starting in April.

Meaning I'll miss Lost as I got rid of my VCR a coupla years back cause it's outdated technology. And since I watch so little TV I don't have a recording device built into my satellite receiver. I've been thinking about getting a new satellite receiver with TIVO or some such thing but since I watch so little TV I haven't felt really compelled to do it yet. I will to avoid missing Lost, but if someone else rebroadcasts it then I won't bother unless my wife and kids want me to, though they'll be able to see it.

I can wait till it comes out on DVD and buy it, but I'd rather see it sooner than later.

I know I could get the new receiver, but to tell you the truth TV is so low on my list of priorities, and so few shows really interest me, and I have so many other things to concentrate upon, that I'd rather not bother if there's is an effective work-around that doesn't require much effort on my part.

 

[fba827]

Does anybody rebroadcast Lost, and if so who, and when?

I remember a couple of years back G4 and the Sci-Fi channel both rebroadcast Lost episodes. Anyone do that now.

Been real busy lately and I've just found out my squadron has to undergo training every Tuesday evening for about two months starting in April.

Meaning I'll miss Lost as I got rid of my VCR a coupla years back cause it's outdated technology. And since I watch so little TV I don't have a recording device built into my satellite receiver. I've been thinking about getting a new satellite receiver with TIVO or some such thing but since I watch so little TV I haven't felt really compelled to do it yet. I will to avoid missing Lost, but if someone else rebroadcasts it then I won't bother unless my wife and kids want me to, though they'll be able to see it.

I can wait till it comes out on DVD and buy it, but I'd rather see it sooner than later.

I know I could get the new receiver, but to tell you the truth TV is so low on my list of priorities, and so few shows really interest me, and I have so many other things to concentrate upon, that I'd rather not bother if there's is an effective work-around that doesn't require much effort on my part.

I don't know about tv schedules, but if you're willing to watch it online

Lost - Full Episodes and Clips streaming online for free - Hulu

It has all the old season episodes available for another few months.
And from the current season, it keeps the most recent 5 episodes available.

Hulu is legal and free (they show 30 second commercials in the normal commercial breaks). Though there is talk that eventually hulu will charge a subscription, at least for now, as said, it is free.