View Full Version : what they want most
So far we've seen 3 flashbacks and it seems like the island has given each of these people what they want most in life.
1. Kate
She wanted to be free - exonerated for what she'd done. Now that she's on the island, not only is she free, but she's in a position of respect. She can do things for the good of people and people trust her. This is a total reversal of someone who is a fugitive from the law.
2. Locke
He wanted to be a useful part of society and be able to "fulfill his destiny" by doing the walkabout where he had to survive on his own. Now he's been given a chance to do just that and not only is resposible for his own survival, but the survival of the whole group (food & water at least). He's also gotten back use of his legs.
3. Jack
He wanted respect (I think this is a running theme ;) ). He needed to know that he "had it in him" to be a leader. Being on the island has forced him to face his demons and break out of the poor self image that his father forced on him.
I wonder if future flashbacks will continue this way?
DriftWood
10-21-04, 06:40 PM
4. Hurley
He wants a BigMac. Island gives him fish. He settles.
Just kidding, kat. You're idea is a good one.
ARDragon
10-21-04, 06:48 PM
OH - fun post!!
hmmm - Hurley really is sweet, but I can see where he'd have been the brunt of too many jokes over his lifetime cause of his weight - maybe a slimmer trimmer him is all he wants?
Shannon and Sawyer - uh, a soul?? Yeeeeesh those two are rotten human beings!
Lothiriel of Rohan
10-21-04, 07:06 PM
Well it does appear like most people all of them have stories about their lives before they came to the island. There have been articles written wherein the writers have said for the first season each episode will be about one character and their first 40 days on the island.
This appears to me to be an island where the characters have to face their personal demons and have the opportunity to rise above the occasion and be what they could not be in the past. As you said Kat, Kate wanted to be free and on the island she is and has won a position of respect and leadership. Locke has regained his ability to walk and is useful to society and the other survivors in a way he never could have expereinced before. Jack faced the demon of his father who told him he was did not have it in him and now has accepted the responsibility others want to foist on him and become one of their primary leaders.
I wonder what it is the Korean couple will be able to do now on the island and become what they could not before their arrival? Guess we will find out next week. Any thoughts?
I don't really have any ideas about Jin, but I think Sun wants to not be so isolated. She wants to communicate with and work with other people. I think she was also isolated in her normal life and now that they're stuck on an island with these other people, they'll eventually have to be a part of the group.
MonsterEatsPilot
10-21-04, 07:28 PM
This is a great topic and something I have noticed too.
It seems even though they are stranded on this island and in a horrific disaster, the Island has given everyone (so far) everything they have deep down desired.
Almost like an Eden...
I'll be interested to watch this thread as the season develops.
blissfullylost22
10-21-04, 08:44 PM
Well, what I have to say is a little far out, but what about the pilot? Did he want to die? That's what the island gave him. Although, I think your theory is excellent and probably headed in the right direction. I have two to add(may be right or not) Claire: May have wanted to keep her baby( IF SHE WAS A SURROGATE MOTHER) I don't really know. The other one I have is for Micheal: May have wanted time to spend with his son, to get to know him. After years of being gone, Walt's mothers death has brought them together.:o What do ya'll think?:D or |I
The people who didn't survive obviously didn't get what they want. :) I guess I'm really only talking about the main characters.
I like your theory about Claire though! I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
SecretSquirrel911
10-21-04, 09:34 PM
They all want to be freed of their past.
MonsterEatsPilot
10-21-04, 09:36 PM
... and death'll free you from it...
Aaaaah...but if the island is giving them what they want the most, then wouldn't they be rescued? That seems to be what everyone (except for Locke, but now that he's gotten to strut his stuff he can go home with "war stories") is sitting around moping about...getting off the island.
I don't really think that's what they want (or need?) most... I especially noticed this in Walkabout where Kate offers to help Sayid and he says something like "I see you're as determined to get off this island as I am" and she doesn't answer. What is there for her off of the island? Wanting off the island is a temporary thing. The things they've gotten since they've been there are long term issues.
Rooster
10-21-04, 11:26 PM
One thing that they wanted was water,and that is were Jack's father has lead Jack to a source of water.I think Dad was leading Jack from sea water to a source of good drinking water.;)
theghostofwalt
10-22-04, 01:35 AM
interesting. good thoughts.
as far as hurley, if its something as simple as his self image, i would think it would be along the lines of...well, theyre stranded on an island, looks arent really important anymore, you know? that makes more sense to me than him losing a bunch of weight- i mean, even if he did, its not like theres a dating scene hes going to improve in now...
But I think Kate does want off the island. In the outside world she is a fugitive. On this island, she is a prisoner.
railwaymadness
10-22-04, 02:19 AM
Kate's only a prisoner if you think a small community is a prison. She is free to act as she sees fit, to try and do anything within her capability.
Charlie probably wants to be free of the drugs and whatever drove him to take them (otherwise why would he want to flush them?). Rock star? Maybe he craves meaningful human interaction. He's been trying to use fame as a short cut to get it -- something to make him stand out -- but is finding it doesn't work that way.
azteclady
10-22-04, 03:11 AM
I'm with draub, as far as Kate is concerned. She's actively working to leave the island, and she *is* more of a prisoner there than out of it.
Once the fact that her face was in a mug shot becomes widely known, she could be facing any manner of ugly things - from shunning to abuse to slavery. The number of people is small enough that Kate can't loose herself in the crowd - particularly after Jack's speech in White Rabbit.
And I believe that what is known of her past ("there is/was a mugshot of her" "she was the one in the handcuffs"), will leak and spread. Who can predict how the bulk of the survivors will react?
Call me a pessimist, I think it would be unrealistic for this and other things (like Sayid/Saeed/Syed having been in the Republican Guard, or Charlie's addiction), not to become public knowledge.
In her shoes, I wouldn't wait to see if the survivors are more inherently good or inherently 'evil' - she's trusted before and got burned (remember Ray the farmer oh, so kind offer to drive her to town? and how he betrayed her for money?).
Beto
Very interesting thread.
If any of us were put in a situation like that, we would ALL have to do some genuine soul searching. When you are faced with those kinds of conditions, you really can't hide from yourself. There's nothing there to distract one from one's inner demons...........no TV, radio, stereo, movies, sports, restaurants, etc. So they all have a lot of time on their hands to look themselves straight in the face. And in a situation like that, you either adapt or you die. (mentally or physically) So they are each on a journey of becoming more self-aware. Shows that deal with the human psyche really are satisfying to me. And I get tremedous satisfaction from seeing people transform themselves.
drabauer
10-22-04, 06:51 AM
IMHO, they are all getting what they need, not necessarily what they want.
.......and afterall, don't we ALL NEED some self-actualization?
I did continue in this episode. What Sun wanted/needed most was to escape from her father. She couldn't do it herself (she decided not to flee), but being on the island has freed her. To complete what she most wants/needs, she needs Jin to change back to how he was when she first met him. This is likely now that he's not under the influence of her father. I think we'll see this whenever there's a Jin centered episode.
Baron X
10-29-04, 06:58 AM
1. Kate is not free. She did not want to go to the caves because she does not want to put down roots. She has not been exonerated for what she did, and I do believe she did something and is not unjustly accused of doing something. She is still on the run.
2. How is going on a walkabout going to make Locke a useful member of society? Who are you serving when you are one on one with nature? Just yourself. Society has nothing to do with a walkabout, it is pretty much the opposite of society.
3.If Jack wanted respect, it was the respect of his father not of the survivors, they gave him unconditional leadership with out so much as a vote. Jack could have had a delusional talk with his father and gained some closure that way, but somehow, and I still have not figured out how, he gained closure by beating the snot out of an empty coffin.
I don't see where the island has granted any one anything. Locke is delusional and is trying to pass his view of the island on the other this show it was Charlie. The island did not give Charlie his guitar, Locke did. The guitar would have been right where it was whether or not Charlie gave up his drugs. Charlie said he wanted his guitar, next week he wants his drugs, will he have to trade back the guitar for the drugs. When he really, really wants more drugs the week after next will the island give it to him. NO. What about all the people who did not want to die in the plane crash, the island did not give them what they wanted. For that matter the survivors want to all go home, don't see the island sending a cruise ship to pick them up. All though a 'pretty' concept it does not hold up.
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Charlie probably wants to be free of the drugs and whatever drove him to take them (otherwise why would he want to flush them?)
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He was going to flush them to avoid getting caught with them, you weren't seriously asking were you?
Sorry Baron X, I guess I didn't make what I meant clear.
1. Kate is not free. She did not want to go to the caves because she does not want to put down roots. She has not been exonerated for what she did, and I do believe she did something and is not unjustly accused of doing something. She is still on the run.
Lets assume they're not getting rescued... Within the new society on the island, she's free. Also, I think she didn't want to go to the cave because Jack just assumed she was coming. She wanted him to want her there.
2. How is going on a walkabout going to make Locke a useful member of society? Who are you serving when you are one on one with nature? Just yourself. Society has nothing to do with a walkabout, it is pretty much the opposite of society.
It's not the walkabout that's making him useful to society, it's the survival skills. Being on the island is like a real life walkabout, except he's responsible for everyone surviving, not just him.
3.If Jack wanted respect, it was the respect of his father not of the survivors, they gave him unconditional leadership with out so much as a vote. Jack could have had a delusional talk with his father and gained some closure that way, but somehow, and I still have not figured out how, he gained closure by beating the snot out of an empty coffin.
His father told him he "didn't have it in him" to be a leader (or do much else for that matter). That's why he didn't want to make decisions before. Once he'd been forced to face his issues with his father on the island, he was able to be a leader.
Baron X
10-29-04, 04:59 PM
But what forced him to face his father?
Which he didn't.
That is why I have a problem with his 'closure'
He had been defying his father all along, otherwise why would he have become a doctor, let alone a surgeon? Why would you follow your father into the one field he can point out everything you do wrong with ridiculous ease? So I think they goofed by making Jack a surgeon and then saying his father had successfully beat him down. They contradict.
Kate has not freed herself, the best prison is a self made one.
I like you. Good debate.
killbuckner
10-29-04, 05:04 PM
Maybe Kate committed her crime to accomplish some goal on the outside world. But that goal wasn't accomplished, and she was just trying to hide out until she could try again. What she wants most is to accomplish this, not just her freedom.
WallyG3
10-29-04, 05:23 PM
I think this could fit in with the Black/White thing.
It's a give and take.
You give something up that you care about or desire, or the island takes something from you, and in return you get something you really want.
Baron X
10-29-04, 06:06 PM
yes but that has not really happened to anyone.
WallyG3
10-29-04, 06:53 PM
Yes and no.
People have definitely lost things they cared about - loved ones, the watch, Charlie's drugs. Granted some was before the crash, but some since. And people definitely have gotten things. Locke got his legs back, Charlie his guitar, Kate her (arguable) freedom, Walt his dog.
Probably a lot of this just hasn't played out yet, and it may not, but then again it still could.
EDIT__
What I mean is that another Black/White thing could be Fear/Dreams.
Master Xander
12-16-04, 04:36 PM
Saving this thread from death.
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