Polar Bear Theory

[Xander Power]

Hey guys. Long time reader, first time poster.

I have been reading the forums as long as I have been watching the show. I have seen all the episodes multiple times. I have a lot of theories but I just want to touch on the polar bear right now.

First all, in an interview with one of the show creators, he told the TV Guide that, "...nothing, not even the slightest grain of sand, is misplaced. Everything is there for a reason. Every item has it's purpose and it fits into the storyline somehow." Using this, one can asume that the polar bear in the comic and the polar bear on the island are no coinensidence.

Again another reference, this time to Jurassic Park. In JP1, as the tourists go by the T-Rex exibit, a goat is raised on a platform to lure the T-Rex to come out. I.E. the goat is the bait; or the food. I'm thinking that the polar bear wasn't the creature, but in fact the creature's food. Kind of like an exotic taste, or delicasy.

Any comments?

[BJLK]

I'm still sticking to my theory of a plane crash 16 years ago of a French Circus Plane. This explains why a Polar Bear was on the island.

[cccourt]

BJLK: Stickin' to a story may be right in a country western song...but this one? I don't think so. The circus plane had to have crashed shortly before the Oceanic one did. Why? Polar bears cannot live on tropical islands.
ccc:hat

[cccourt]

And another thing: did you mean to say zoo plane? When have you ever seen a polar bear in a circus?
ccc:hat

[BJLK]

Okay, maybe a "zoo" plane. I have only been to one circus in my entire life, but I think they had bears there. It's just a theory anyway, and this show makes for a LOT of theorizing, which is what makes it so fun!!!!! :D

[SecretSquirrel911]

Come on people....a zoo plane? a circus plane? Large animals a moved via boat/ship or rail.

[Sleeestack]

Squirrel:

Haven't you watched that classic, oscar winning performance by Danny Glover in "Operation Dumbo"?

[JacksGirlfriend]

Hey Sleeestack: I just noticed you're on. Can you go to the chat room? We're in there right now 12:00.

JacksGirl

[cccourt]

Hey JGF: I am not Denny Sleaze...but I can meet you there!
ccc:hat

[JacksGirlfriend]

Sleeestack: Chat room.

JacksGirl

[kclueless]

I could SWEAR I've seen every episode and yet my only awareness of the Polar Bear is from hearing characters talk about killing it. Could someone please synopsize the Polar Bear action? Pretty please:\

[JacksGirlfriend]

Very brief synopsis: Walt is looking at a Spanish comic book of two superheroes (Sleeestack will tell you who - I forget - I think one is Flash). He flips the page and there's a polar bear.

Next scene: Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Boone, Shannon, Charlie (I think that's it) are traveling cross country trying to pick up a signal on the transceiver. They hear rustling and roaring in the brush. Everyone starts to run but Sawyer. He pulls out a gun and starts shooting. A dead polar bear falls at his feet.

There are tons of threads if you want to know more. Search for polar bear and/or comic book or just flip through the pages. There are several threads dealing with both topics, but expect to read alot of stuff that doesn't have to do with either one. We tend to get sidetracked alot.

If none of this rings a bell, you missed part 2 of the pilot. It's all in there.

JacksGirl

[aznpunk97]

well i know it can't be any zoo animals...

because the french woman says "it" killed her friends so the "it" but must have been there a very long time. if she was the group transporting the animals, then she would have said the "animal name" killed her friends instead of "it".

[Iphigenia W]

*Come on people....a zoo plane? a circus plane? Large animals a moved via boat/ship or rail.*

Sorry SecretSquirrel, but animals are flown all the time, even large ones. The Lipizzaner stallions even have their own plane.

[leftofpunk]

I don't believe polar bears can (natually) survive in that tropical climate so I'd throw that zoo plane theory right out the cargo hold. If it was a zoo plane that had crashed, there'd be more animals and another crash site that was really fresh. polar bears swim in arctic waters to cool off cause the sub-zero temperatures are too warm for them due to heavy coats and thik skin.

[PeolesDru]

They have polar bears at zoos all over the world. Polar bears swim in arctic waters to catch prey, not to cool off.

Here's a link relating specifically to polar bears and summer heat:

homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~w...nter.shtml (http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~wiscengr/april03/winter.shtml)

Another link in my Google search was a petition to prevent a traveling circus from bringing their polar bears to the carribean because it's mean to the bears. This would seem to refute the "circuses don't have polar bears" assertion.

[SecretSquirrel911]

Fine, I could be wrong, but I still don't think too many bears fly first class...LOL

[Mcrobrewer]

I think the island makes the thoughts of the people 'real'

For example the polar bear.... the guitar.... and jacks dad.

We shall see

[PeolesDru]

SecretSquirrel911: I'm with you on the transport issues. Just because the current crop of humans are there as the result of a plane crash doesn't mean *everything* is there from plane crashes.

There's some sort of menagerie on that island, but it most certainly arrived by ship.

[drabauer]

PeolesDru--small world time--

I clicked on the link, and lo and behold--I lived right next to those polar bears (about 100 yards away) in the picture while I did my degree at UW-Madison. Many a summer day did I visit them on study breaks!

[ccmerlot]

...not merely the thougths (as per previous post), but the dreams seem to be enacted : daydreams (polar bear) longstanding ones (Locke walking) (ooops, no pun intended there) and recurring ones (Jack's dad).

[leftofpunk]

Exactly, and that dream the pilot always had of getting eaten by a mysterious beast..sorry, JK:lol

[BJLK]

That was an interesting article about the polar bears in Madison's zoo. There are polar bears in both of the Chicagoland zoos also, where the temps can get into the 100's. Time will tell if my theory is correct. So it's perfectly plausible that's where the bear came from. But it does seem like people's thoughts, dreams, etc., are coming true, but that would indicate that there's something mystical about the island. Abrams et al have said repeatedly that there is a scientific or pseudo-scientific explanation for everything. I'm not sure if people's dreams or thoughts coming true would be considered "pseudo-science", but I'm POSITIVE it's not science.

[leftofpunk]

Grrrrrrr

[BJLK]

LOL:rollin

[annala413]

This is really far fetched. I have so many different theories going through my head and none of them quite fit perfectly. The first time I watched the first episode I thought that the tv series was going to relate to the movie Jurassic Park. I was thinking I know I only saw the first two and I think there was a third one, but maybe they crashed on the lost island with the dinosaurs. I pretty much threw this theory out after seeing how into the show is getting, but they do make references to dinosaurs being extinct. And the food thing makes sense.

[leftofpunk]

My girlfriend had a theory about the Polar Bear. I still contest that a polar bear with it's thick hide couldn't survive in the islands environment, but she asked me "What if it's an albino bear?" Very interesting indeed.

[ragenwulf]

The Kermode Bear or "Spirit Bear" is a white bear that lives in the rainforest of British Columbia.

www.savespiritbear.org/pr...index.html (http://www.savespiritbear.org/project/spiritbear/about_bear/index.html)

I'm not saying that the polar bear in LOST is a spirit bear, just though you would like to see pictures of this beautiful creature! Anyway, it is an example of a bear living in a rainforest.

(Not that the BC rainforest is anything like where our crew are LOST).

More great pictures: www.ronthiele.com/kermode/spectrum.html (http://www.ronthiele.com/kermode/spectrum.html)

[leftofpunk]

well...i noticed they mentioned the discoloration of the fur on the backs. I think the polar bear in LOST was discolored as well...Good find.

[ragenwulf]

Well then, in that case i know where they are - the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia!! :b Just talked to my sister who lives out there, she pointed me to the legend of the Spirit Bear - guess what - more on the Light/Dark motif!

Here it is:

Long ago, when the earth was covered in ice, the raven decided to change the earth to a beautiful green land.

Legend says that the raven, who went among the black bears promised that every tenth bear cub would be born white.

The reason for this is that the raven wanted to have a reminder of the time when the world was pure and clean and covered with snowdrifts and ice blue glaciers.

The raven promised the white Spirit Bear a life of peace in the ancient rain forest of Princess Royal Island and the nearby mainland mountains and valleys

[leftofpunk]

yup....and then Sayer KILLED it. So much for spirit!:b

[ragenwulf]

Well, we humans have all but killed off the Spirit Bear. Here is more info on the Canadian Temperate Rain Forest. For those of you interested in mapping - it tells you where else on the earth similar rain forests can be found (i am assuming if a bear can live in one temperate rain forest it can live in another).

www.raincoast.org/GBR/index.htm (http://www.raincoast.org/GBR/index.htm)

[ccmerlot]

It occurred to me while reading the above posts (saying "the polar bear in LOST...") that the polar bear IS lost, just like the survivors: misplaced.
About the bear-as-bait idea: i saw parts of the pilot episode again on monday last (CTV in canada is repeating the episodes) and the noise that the 'beast' is making sounds very, very mechanical. Could that beast not be a creature at all, but some kind of machine, what will all the talk of science and pseudo-science?

[leftofpunk]

a couple .38's wouldn't stop a machine...plus it was moving too naturally. I think it was organic for sure.

[ccmerlot]

...oh wait....: not that the polar bear was mechanical, but the big beastie that we haven't yet seen, but for its effects.
There is some construction work going on just down the street from my place, and right now a 'beastly' noise reaching my ears from the crane sounds so much like the groans and moans of that island 'monster'.

[Mulekite]

Here is something that has been going through my mind for some time now. Read and let me know your response.

I think that it is possible that a Polar bear could have come to the island from a large drifting ice berg. Like they said on the show Polar bears live on the coasts of artic North America. Polar bears usually live on drifting ice packs or icebergs. They are very powerful swimmers and can cross 20 – 30 miles of water at a time. It isn’t uncommon for an iceberg to be spotted way below the equator.

Another thing, JJ Abrams has always used metaphors in his series.
In Jungian Psychology, the bear represents danger caused by thoughts from the unconscious; these subconscious thoughts are very hard if not impossible to control. The bear also is associated as a characteristic of a man who is cruel, crude and coarse.

The word 'berserk' most likely means 'bear-coat' and refers to a Norse warrior who morphs into a furious bear.

“…two players, two sides, one is light, one is dark…”
* * * *

[r121567]

I think the island makes the thoughts of the people 'real'

For example the polar bear.... the guitar.... and jacks dad.

There is a flaw in this theory -
Yes, Jack may have been thinking of his Dad when he saw him; and with Locke's mentioning Charlie's guitar, he was probably thinking about it when he saw it; I'm pretty certain Locke was wishing he could walk at the time he moved this toes BUT here is the flaw......Walt was the one reading the comic with the polar bear not the others. Did any of the search group see the comic before they left???

[Xander Power]

Thanks for the awesome replies guys.

Supplemental:
After watching the episode a few times, along with other stuff I've learned about the show, I'm starting to believe that, in fact, that WAS NOT a polar bear.

I'm starting to think that this is all a spin off of H. G. Wells' "Doctor Moreau."
Link (http://www.bartleby.com/1001)

Compare them yourself. I'm starting to believe this may be the case.

[Master Xander]

Saving this thread from death.