Bare Bones Lost

So, there was this aeroplane crash.

The plane - Oceanic 815 – already thousands of miles off course - split in two over an island and some of it's passengers crash landed onto this rather idyllic tropical island. The survivors don't know where they are – and no rescue party has ever come to relieve them and they're very much cut off from the rest of the world.

Through a series of flashbacks (oh so many, many flashbacks) we have gotten to see that each of the main characters have had somewhat complicated and colourful lives and that a lot of their paths have previously criss-crossed each others to varying degrees - in one case unknown to themselves at least two of them are directly related as half brother and sister. But as each and every 815 survivor seems so doggedly reluctant to discuss anything of their life history to any other person – these coincidences are only ever known to the viewer. But, to be fair, much of the characters have a lot to hide: “hi, I'm on the run for murdering my alcoholic wife-beating father”, “hi, I'm a con man”, “hi, I used to torture people for a living.” etc.

The Island itself seems to possess various certain mysterious powers – one in particular seems to be that of super-natural healing properties. It transpired very early on that one survivor had been wheelchair-bound prior to landing on the island but now is able to to walk. Another character had a diagnosis of terminal cancer but now feels herself completely healed. Another character was a heroin addict but was able to easily overcome their addiction with no ill-effects (cold turkey) whatsoever. Other characters having sustained quite serious injuries (usually knife or gunshot wounds) yet have been fully healed within a matter of days. However, the implication is that such healing is only in operation so long as the individuals concerned don't leave the island. This would go some way to explain why some – if not most, of the survivors have been rather half-hearted if not downright reluctant in their efforts to escape the island. All this despite the fact at any moment they could be eaten by a stray polar bear – or killed by a strange other-worldly monster made out of black smoke, or shot or stabbed or kidnapped by the Island's rather crazy original inhabitants, etc. Unnatural healing properties aside - once someone is dead – they remain dead – although this doesn't stop them appearing in visions to other individuals, and this happens quite often. People having very intensely vivid hallucinations is another aspect of the island's strange powers.

As already mentioned there are other people on the Island – known as 'the Others' – a highly secretive bunch – when they were first seen they liked to play 'dress up' wearing raggedy clothing and walking around barefoot – giving the impression that they had been on the Island a long time (and indeed they have) as survivors themselves – only it eventually became evident that the bulk of them have been living in fairly well-appointed comfort with all the modern suburbanite conveniences within a heavily protected and well hidden village. These Others are all extremely inscrutable and are totally incapable of giving any kind of a straight direct honest answer to any question asked of them, indeed, they could be said to all be pathological liars, are arch manipulators, emotional blackmailers and love nothing better than to play complicated psychological mind games and know far, far too much about all the survivors' personal histories. It's been established they even have extensive files on each survivor. They are also all exceptionally healthy and possess near super-human strength. One particular 'Other' has remained un-aged, looking exactly the same now as he did 20 or so years ago. (Unless he has been time-traveling. Which could be a factor.) It turns out that some of these people have been nipping on and off the Island to the outside world quite regularly via a submarine. Sometimes on recruitment drives to bring in new people to aid their cause – whatever that may eventually prove to be. Two members of these 'Others' infiltrated themselves among the 815 survivors (two because there were two groups of survivors when the plane split – one half landed inland – the other on the beach) – masquerading as survivors themselves to gain intelligence about them and help facilitate the kidnapping of certain members of the 815 – most particularity the children. The 'Others' are particularly interested in children and pregnant women. Apparently they have serious issues regarding fertility, for some reason women tend to die whilst giving birth on the island.

The Island harbours a number of near derelict science research stations – originally established sometime in the early 1980s or mid 1970s by an organisation known as the 'Dharma Initiative'. Each station was dedicated to the in-depth research of a particular discipline – zoology, social observation, physics, medicine -etc. most are now in various stages of abandonment, while some are still in occasional use by 'the others'. One particular station was maintained by an individual -Desmond who was a survivor of boat crash onto the Island and whose sole purpose was to input a particular series of numbers into a computer every 108 minutes. He did this all alone for about five whole years, up until the station was broken into by a handful of the 815 survivors, who in a face-off with Desmond also managed to accidentally break the all-important computer, at which point he broke out of the station and ran away into the depths of the Island leaving the task of inputting the numbers up to them. Luckily one of the 815ers managed to repair the computer just in time. It was some weeks later - during the course of one episode (a season finale) when these numbers weren't input at the appointed hour – the entire station imploded. At the same time Desmond - who had since returned after some time away - activated some sort of 'fail-safe' mechanism. So far the consequences of this station's destruction, aside from the Island shaking violently and the sky turning purple for a few moments, is that the Island has suddenly become 'visible' to the outside world - it has also resulted in the Desmond character able to time travel back along his own life history and he is now has the ability to see brief flashes of future events. This may link up in some way to the newly established fact that in some peculiar way the Island exists out of normal time.

Harking back to the Dharma initiative for a moment around ten or so years ago nearly all of the original staff of Dharma were murdered via a lethal gas bomb attack by the 'Others' – one person - Ben, who was the son of one of the Dharma workmen is now the leader of 'the Others'.

Other note-worthy items:

Aside from the Island's healing properties, and that it's somehow being hidden from the rest of the world, it also harbours some sort of living entity which is either composed of, or appears in the form of black smoke -(affectionately known by Lost fans as 'Smoky') – we've seen it drag off and kill one of the pilots of Oceanic 815, we've seen it drag one of the major characters along the ground at great speed and nearly drag him underground, we've seen it repelled by some sort of high tech sonic death-dealing security fence, we've also seen it approach another character and 'read' that character's mind in the form of brief flashes of that person's personal history. There are also vague implications that it can take on the form of deceased people who are known personally to other characters and talk to them.

A more recent addition is a invisible character called Jacob, who's supposedly the 'real' leader of the Others. Ben being the intermediary who claims to be able to see and hear him. That Jacob isn't a figment of Ben's warped imagination is that two other survivors have had brief momentary glimpses of him. Jacob 'lives' totally alone in a rundown shack – which is surrounded by a ring of grey ash – and the whole shack can apparently disappear and relocate and reappear at will.

After writing this I've come to feel we, the audience are like the crash survivors – being presented with a barrage of incomprehensible circumstances, a steady diet of red herrings and MacGuffins and that the writer/creators are like 'the Others' – hell bent on withholding vital information, never giving out a straight answer to anything and who like nothing better than playing ridiculously complicated mind games on us.

sigh