Downunder Wonder
05-04-06, 11:14 AM
What if… we are all missing one big premise of this show? After all, there always seems to be something held back whenever anything meaningful is revealed. We are told by the powers that be that there is a scientific explanation for everything, and that they know how it all ends - but that if they told you that now, they would be laughed out of town.
So, what if the whole series is simply a giant 'reality tv / survivor' experiment, where the ratings and fan forums and feedback dictate how many series there will be, and just which way the plot and it's intricacies will be revealed. I.e. by reading and responding to this you are extending the original plot. If you provide the scientific explanation to screen 'teasers' then you are providing the writers with ammunition.
In this scenario, the writers will be careful and slow in what they reveal, but will keep imprinting several 'themes' on the viewers. This allows them to regroup at the end of each series and decide which possible explanations can be revealed in the following series and in what order and manner.
The major themes and factors I observe are numbered below. In nearly every case there are multiple interpretations which have not been entirely disproved. I'm interested in which COMBINATION people currently subscribe to, and for each I'll offer firstly a personal guess, and then an alternative 'OR'. You could respond with your own list, if you like my premise.
1) Experiment Control; Being run on the plane-crash crew by people with advanced surveillance equipment, control groups & 'moles' OR Rousseau's ship was meant to begin the experiments and something went wrong.
2) Personality disorders; A number of characters were chosen to go to the island because of their personality disorders, so that they could be studied OR the island has manifested their strange behaviours.
3) The Island; An island utilised and kept secret by the Dharma people because of some unusual property it has - like the after-effects of a Mururoa-like testing programme OR An island found to have something too dangerous for the world to know about - like the gate to purgatory, or Eden's serpent
4) The bible; A theme imposed by the writers and the Dharma people, because it can heavily affect the way people act and react, OR there is something biblical on the island - like the serpent.
5) The numbers; A theme imposed by the writers and the Dharma people to let imaginations run wild, with each number actually representing a base theme e.g. The 23rd Psalm, 4 groups of people on the island, 8 & 15 the flight number, 16 the number of themes/answers that will be revealed in the final episode, 42 -the answer on Hitchhikers Guide OR the numbers represent the number of people in each of 6 groups on the island, numbering 108 in total.
6) The Dharma project, A hoax deliberately 'engineered' to be found on the island to provoke behaviours from the losties and fans alike OR A project which has run for many years, and was correctly introduced by Dr Candle.
7) The Crash, The wreckage set up by a film crew as props that the participating losties would find when they woke up on the island after being drugged en route to their destination OR A genuine event that nearly everyone survived despite the plane breaking up into pieces miles apart, with no hope of anything but a traumatic impact, yet allowing all to swim to safety relatively untouched…
8) The Losties, Those in the group who either volunteered to participate (for a huge monetary prize for the most popular?) by acting out the part of a scripted character with a dramatic past, or who were hand-picked as a control group of unknowing nutcases with a genuinely dramatic past, or the moles/recruitment agents who were given a script of what was going on, to minimise the number of deaths and injuries OR the random survivors of flight 815
9) The Others, The film crew observing the losties behaviour (and filming for the world to see) whom the volunteeer and control group participants are forbidden from making contact with, and Zeke's group of security guards OR other groups that appeared on the island before the crash.
10) Flashbacks, the volunteer actors doing mental roleplay, the nutcases hallucinating, and the moles having genuine flashbacks OR everybody having genuine flashbacks that make them aware of previously unrecognised connections with their fellow losties
11) Redemption, this theme made Shawshank an all-time favourite, so why not throw in a whole lot redemption scenarios to maintain viewer interest OR the Island causes losties to atone for their past sins
12) The black smoke; a two-way camera inside a black helium balloon, powered by model airplane motors - used for the film crew (others) to communicate with the 'moles' OR a spiritual manifestation like Eden's serpent
13) The countdown computer; another way for the moles to communicate with the film crew and the outside world with the other losties not suspecting a thing (via a different numerical password) OR the controller of a self-destruct system
14) The hatch; Entry to the only part of a vast underground network that has been opened to losties for now OR the control centre for the experiments and a self-destruct mechanism.
15) The Black Rock; An old boat airlifted to the middle of the island to mystify everyone OR something that Smokie sucked there a long time ago
16) The Cable Sayid saw on the shore; Cabling to a giant submarine power source that controls the various surveillance and monitoring mechanisms on the island OR a loose end left behind by Rousseau's ship
Acknowledgements to 'The Truman Show'
:drinky:
So, what if the whole series is simply a giant 'reality tv / survivor' experiment, where the ratings and fan forums and feedback dictate how many series there will be, and just which way the plot and it's intricacies will be revealed. I.e. by reading and responding to this you are extending the original plot. If you provide the scientific explanation to screen 'teasers' then you are providing the writers with ammunition.
In this scenario, the writers will be careful and slow in what they reveal, but will keep imprinting several 'themes' on the viewers. This allows them to regroup at the end of each series and decide which possible explanations can be revealed in the following series and in what order and manner.
The major themes and factors I observe are numbered below. In nearly every case there are multiple interpretations which have not been entirely disproved. I'm interested in which COMBINATION people currently subscribe to, and for each I'll offer firstly a personal guess, and then an alternative 'OR'. You could respond with your own list, if you like my premise.
1) Experiment Control; Being run on the plane-crash crew by people with advanced surveillance equipment, control groups & 'moles' OR Rousseau's ship was meant to begin the experiments and something went wrong.
2) Personality disorders; A number of characters were chosen to go to the island because of their personality disorders, so that they could be studied OR the island has manifested their strange behaviours.
3) The Island; An island utilised and kept secret by the Dharma people because of some unusual property it has - like the after-effects of a Mururoa-like testing programme OR An island found to have something too dangerous for the world to know about - like the gate to purgatory, or Eden's serpent
4) The bible; A theme imposed by the writers and the Dharma people, because it can heavily affect the way people act and react, OR there is something biblical on the island - like the serpent.
5) The numbers; A theme imposed by the writers and the Dharma people to let imaginations run wild, with each number actually representing a base theme e.g. The 23rd Psalm, 4 groups of people on the island, 8 & 15 the flight number, 16 the number of themes/answers that will be revealed in the final episode, 42 -the answer on Hitchhikers Guide OR the numbers represent the number of people in each of 6 groups on the island, numbering 108 in total.
6) The Dharma project, A hoax deliberately 'engineered' to be found on the island to provoke behaviours from the losties and fans alike OR A project which has run for many years, and was correctly introduced by Dr Candle.
7) The Crash, The wreckage set up by a film crew as props that the participating losties would find when they woke up on the island after being drugged en route to their destination OR A genuine event that nearly everyone survived despite the plane breaking up into pieces miles apart, with no hope of anything but a traumatic impact, yet allowing all to swim to safety relatively untouched…
8) The Losties, Those in the group who either volunteered to participate (for a huge monetary prize for the most popular?) by acting out the part of a scripted character with a dramatic past, or who were hand-picked as a control group of unknowing nutcases with a genuinely dramatic past, or the moles/recruitment agents who were given a script of what was going on, to minimise the number of deaths and injuries OR the random survivors of flight 815
9) The Others, The film crew observing the losties behaviour (and filming for the world to see) whom the volunteeer and control group participants are forbidden from making contact with, and Zeke's group of security guards OR other groups that appeared on the island before the crash.
10) Flashbacks, the volunteer actors doing mental roleplay, the nutcases hallucinating, and the moles having genuine flashbacks OR everybody having genuine flashbacks that make them aware of previously unrecognised connections with their fellow losties
11) Redemption, this theme made Shawshank an all-time favourite, so why not throw in a whole lot redemption scenarios to maintain viewer interest OR the Island causes losties to atone for their past sins
12) The black smoke; a two-way camera inside a black helium balloon, powered by model airplane motors - used for the film crew (others) to communicate with the 'moles' OR a spiritual manifestation like Eden's serpent
13) The countdown computer; another way for the moles to communicate with the film crew and the outside world with the other losties not suspecting a thing (via a different numerical password) OR the controller of a self-destruct system
14) The hatch; Entry to the only part of a vast underground network that has been opened to losties for now OR the control centre for the experiments and a self-destruct mechanism.
15) The Black Rock; An old boat airlifted to the middle of the island to mystify everyone OR something that Smokie sucked there a long time ago
16) The Cable Sayid saw on the shore; Cabling to a giant submarine power source that controls the various surveillance and monitoring mechanisms on the island OR a loose end left behind by Rousseau's ship
Acknowledgements to 'The Truman Show'
:drinky: