lost and found...a weird idea

[jjabramizeme]

It occurred to me that everyone on the island has lost something, not just in the crash (that's fairly obvious) but even before boarding the plane, all of them had one HUGE thing in their life missing.

So far we've seen that

Locke...LOST his ability to walk
Kate...LOST her freedom
Walt...LOST his mom (and temporarily his dog)
Jack...LOST his father

Could the island be a place where these people find the things they've lost (either literally or figuratively).

We've already seen that Locke has found the ability to walk and Kate has a second chance at freedom. Will Jack find his dad? Who knows but the fact that the casket was empty helps this theory along.

[cinderellabop]

This might actually be pretty close to the mark. To add to your list (although these are mostly speculation):

Charlie was probably about to lose his place in the band due to his drug problem,

Claire might have been about to lose her baby (to adoption or surrogacy)

Jin and Sun may have been about to lose each other (by Sun leaving him)

Sayid lost the woman in the picture

Sawyer lost whoever wrote the letter

Shannon may have lost her credit card

I have no idea what Hurley could have lost, though. We know almost nothing about him.

But yeah, for the most part, it is entirely likely that they have all lost or were about to lose something... and maybe they will "find" what they lost... or something even better. I like that theory!

[jjabramizeme]

hey thanks :D

i like your additions, especially that shannon lost her credit card tee hee!

[drabauer]

Good work!

Walt may have found a new "mother" in Jin
Jack may have found a new "father" in John
All unattached folks may have found new partners
And maybe, if we're lucky, Charlie will find a new band!

I'll bet they find some instruments soon . . .

[EagleIFilms]

Hurley could play the drums!

Seriously, this sounds like a great idea, the best metaphorical explanation of the island and show concept I've heard yet. Let's see if it continues to be the case.

It is very interesting that no one we've heard about on the plane wanted to be on the plane, not even the girl that drowned. Every time we hear why someone was on the plane, it was forces outside their control.

[Vicki]

Good theories.


And that one where they didn't go willingly onto the plane is a good point too! Never noticed it...even for Rose too in a way, since she hated flying. Except Charlie, was he on by choice?

[drabauer]

I'll bet Charlie was going to rehad against his will, or just being booted off a tour

[Black Dahlia]

Hurley lost his ability to properly metabolize food.

[Bungarian]

What did the marshal lose other than his life?

[cinderellabop]

The marshall kind of reminds me of a character from Les Miserables. The character Inspector Javert spent most of his life chasing Jean Valjean, who had been released from prison but was on parole. He broke that parole and became a wealthy landowner and mayor of a town. Eventually Javert caught up with him, and it lead to a point where Valjean saved Javert's life. Javert was forced to see that the man he'd chased for 15 years was not such a bad person after all... that he was a good person who'd made one mistake, and that he deserved a fresh start. Javert killed himself in the end.

The marshall, likewise, seemed to take Kate's case personally, like it was his mission to capture her at all costs. But he still couldn't avoid seeing the good in her--she saved the life of the farmer who had turned her in, when she probably could have escaped if she hadn't. She saved the marshall's life by putting the air mask on him during the crash. She even wanted to make sure the farmer got his reward money. So maybe what he "lost" was his faith in justice. In the musical Les Miserables, Javert sings a song about his own confusion and loss of faith just before he kills himself.

Just a thought...

[proteus74]

It is very interesting that no one we've heard about on the plane wanted to be on the plane, not even the girl that drowned. Every time we hear why someone was on the plane, it was forces outside their control.

Except Jack, actually. He very much wanted to be on the plane.

Incidentally, so did the Marshall.

[drabauer]

Cinderellabop, I think you're on to something. If Hugo's story has something to do with Kate and the Marshall, maybe so do other literary morality tales (I know there's a literary thread, so I'll stop here).

With regard to whether everyone wanted to be on the plane--I think we need to look further. They may have wanted that flight, but the Marshal and Jack didn't want to have to go downunder in the first place to retrieve their quarry. And wasn't Boon their to rescue Shannon from something? Unfinished business + long journey + shame?

[DriftWood]

"What did the marshal lose other than his life?"

He lost his captive, his badge and his gun...and, while the plane was crashing, he lost his consciousness.

[MEmacmur]

Just adding my 2 cents.

Boone and Shannon could be said to have lost each other - hence the reason Boone was 'rescuing' Shannon. Their brother-sister bond appears a little on the lost side.

[Abraxas]

That's a good concept. I don't think it's the whole solution to the mystery of the island, but it's the underlying concept of the show and yet another way to interpret the title of the show.
That makes two bigger concept models so far:
- Tabula Rasa
- finding what you "lost" and finding yourself in special

[Dmcquickly]

What the Marshall lost may not be the question.

We know little about the survivors, other than what Claire said at the funeral pyre. The facts about them seemed random--I tried tonight to catch any common thread to the trivia we got from their belongings. One thing we do know--the writers don't seem to have put any notable commonality to them the way they've put it to the survivors.

Things LOST and found...I love your theory!

So...the Marshall survived the crash temporarily but died--and here's the important thing--as a result of debris from the crash. In other words, although he lingered (as did the pilot), he died as a direct result of the crash itself. His purpose (like the pilot's) seems simply to have been to offer information the survivors could not (or, in Kate's instance, would not) know. Question is: Would the pilot have survived had he not been eaten by the Thing?

Did the ones who died lose anything? In the fictional universe of this show, maybe, but the fact that the writers chose not to tell us that seems as important to me as the fact that they did choose to tell us that all the survivors A.) did lose something (and seem to be in the process of finding it--even Charlie found some of his stash, and Walt...no, wait, Michael...no wait again, Locke found Vincent; and B.) they all got forced onto the plane by some fate or another.

Jack was probably not supposed to be on that plane--the business about the body not being cleared would/should have kept him off.

We don't know the circumstances of the Marshall getting on that plane, but he definitely brought Kate against her will. He died, Kate lived.

[Spirit Shards]

Cool! I like this theory! So, this obviously means there's more to the name of the show than I previously thought! :) I think the interesting thing will be finding out what everyone lost and what they will find in return.
Interesting!

EDIT: also, I was thinking back to the character introductions on ABC.com and Josh Holloway said that his character (Sawyer) is looking for his humanity. So, maybe that's what he lost?

[bigmouth]

This is an intriguing possibility, but one that strikes me as a bit premature. We've only met 13 of the 48 castaways. Maybe they're a representative cross-section, maybe not. One important reason for dwelling on the pasts of these particular characters is to dramatize how much some people - and how little others - have been changed by the island. The theme of wiping the slate clean for a fresh start is obviously central to the show. But that doesn't necessarily mean the plot will literally reflect that fact. Still, I admit it's intriguing.

[SelfProjectRealized]

"The marshall kind of reminds me of a character from Les Miserables. The character Inspector Javert spent most of his life chasing Jean Valjean, who had been released from prison but was on parole. He broke that parole and became a wealthy landowner and mayor of a town. Eventually Javert caught up with him, and it lead to a point where Valjean saved Javert's life. Javert was forced to see that the man he'd chased for 15 years was not such a bad person after all... that he was a good person who'd made one mistake, and that he deserved a fresh start. Javert killed himself in the end."

Cinderellabop, I was wondering if you would allow me to use this paragraph of yours on a website I'm currently building, inspired by the "All Things Philosophical On Buffy the Vampire Slayer" webiste (www.atpobtvs.com), with my philosophical analyses of Lost episodes. You can read the first two of them here: p073.ezboard.com/flostthe...=570.topic (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm2.showMess age?topicID=570.topic)

Thanks!

Evan.