‘Lost’ just one big conspiracy of clues
One theory posits a huge psychological experiment. Another tinkers with numerical analysis. Other schools of thought examine collective consciousness, electromagnetism and theology.
An Ivy League seminar? Hardly. It’s speculation about the meaning of "Lost,'' the second-season ABC castaway drama. Devout online followers slide each episode under the microscope, seeking to answer questions that go far beyond if and when the survivors will get off their mysterious island.
"Lost'' follows the survivors of a Sydney-to-Los Angeles flight that broke apart and crashed on a tropical island. After encountering an inchoate "monster,'' a polar bear and other odd doings in the 2004 premiere, junkie rocker Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) asked a question that still consumes fans: "Where are we?''
Some dedicated fans, dubbed Losties, search avidly for a unified theory that explains the mysterious island, why these particular people are there and why no rescuers have arrived more than a month after the crash.
The show’s producers say there is no single explanation and that a simple answer would leave viewers dissatisfied. "We go on record saying here’s what it’s not,'' says Damon Lindelof, who created "Lost'' with J.J. Abrams ("Alias,'' "Mission: Impossible III'').
Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the executive producers who oversee "Lost,'' say the survivors are not dead and trapped in some kind of purgatory. Nor does "Lost'' take place as a dream or hallucination in one character’s mind — a concept they call "the snow globe theory,'' after the hospital drama "St. Elsewhere,'' which was revealed in its 1988 finale to have all taken place in the snow globe of an autistic boy.
That doesn’t deter sleuths enamored of those theories. "What’s cool about the fan community is that it doesn’t seem to care what we say or don’t say,'' Lindelof says.
Lindelof, Cuse and the writing staff have seeded "Lost'' with so many clues they can’t fit them all in a TV show. The series has jumped wholeheartedly into multimedia synergy, creating everything from "Lost''-related Web sites (such as www.thehanso foundation.org) to spinoff books ("Bad Twin,'' a real novel written by fictional Gary Troup, one of the passengers on Oceanic Flight 815) that may or may not provide helpful hints.
This month, ABC also launched the Lost Experience, a parallel Internet hunt designed to give players additional clues but not affect the viewing experience of those who don’t play.
Internet communication has led to a level of scrutiny and viewer-writer interaction above and beyond that of such spellbinding predecessors as "Twin Peaks,'' "The X-Files'' and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'' With thousands of fans collecting string — or expounding on string theory — viewers can find a thesis’ worth of online analysis every week.
"With ‘Lost,’ there are so many ways to interact ... that there’s so much more of a community that gets into more research and more levels of discussion,'' says Lynnette Porter, an associate professor in humanities at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and co-author of "Unlocking the Meaning of ‘Lost:’ An Unauthorized Guide.''
Two weeks ago, viewers got plenty to ponder when Michael (Harold Perrineau), single-minded in his pursuit of kidnapped son Walt, shot fellow survivors Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) and Libby (Cynthia Watros). On Wednesday, fans got more information about the underground hatch that is a remnant of a huge psychosocial experiment, the Dharma Initiative.
THE THEORIES
Lindelof and Cuse, speaking from the Hawai‘i set of "Lost'' two weeks ago as they wrapped up Season 2 and outlined Season 3, say there are too many questions for a simple explanation.
"We know where they’re at and what’s going on, but that wouldn’t qualify as a unifying theory,'' Lindelof says. The numerous questions will yield multiple answers.
"One layer speaks to electromagnetism, another to psychological experimentation, another to why they can see Walt. Coming up with one answer that unifies all those things is next to impossible. Hopefully, every sublayer will be explained'' by the end, they say.
Although the theorizers are the TV show’s most intense and vociferous fan group, the producers say they ultimately have to focus on the much larger audience of casual viewers, and develop characters and relationships to retain that interest. ("Lost'' is averaging 15.3 million viewers this season, ranking 16th among prime-time shows.)
But the producers welcome speculation. "We don’t want to eliminate too many theories,'' Cuse says. "What people enjoy about the show is being able to theorize.''
That they do. From Web sites to Entertainment Weekly, trying to figure it all out has become a participatory sport.
Prominent theories:
• Island as laboratory. This season’s revelation of the Dharma Initiative, a secret organization with a stated goal of human betterment, led many to embrace the theory that "Lost'' is a huge experiment. The Hanso Foundation, which has ties to Dharma and delves into such topics as mental health and life extension, also suggests social-science tinkering. The hatch, which requires a recurring sequence of numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42) be punched into a computer every 108 minutes, suggests a psychological Skinner box.
• Electromagnetism. This was an early favorite, after a compass wouldn’t work properly during the first season. Theorists note that the shadowy Hanso Foundation conducts research in this field. This may also help explain the malfunction of the airplane’s flight instruments.
• Time-space continuum. In physics, string theory suggests other dimensions of space and time, which could help explain why rescuers haven’t found the castaways. Shifts in time could help explain why a medical facility where pregnant Claire (Emilie de Ravin) was held looked as if it had been abandoned for years when survivors discovered it just weeks later, Porter says. A Web site credited to ABC parent Disney (www.oceanicflight815.com) also raises the question of time: a baggage claim ticket for survivor Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) appears to be dated Sept. 21, 2009.
• The numbers. The appearance of the sequence on a lottery ticket that had won survivor Hurley (Jorge Garcia) millions of dollars has spawned a cottage industry of number crunchers. One theory says they match up to the retired uniform numbers of New York Yankees. Producers have reacted to fans’ interest in the numbers, featuring them on everything from field hockey uniforms to police cars, Porter says.
• Collective consciousness. Past connections among survivors — Sawyer drinking with Jack’s father, Jack’s father hiring Ana Lucia, Locke working for Hurley’s company — have led many to surmise that those links are tied to their presence on the island. The psychic aura of the island raises the question of whether characters are insinuating themselves into each other’s consciousness in the individual characters’ flashbacks that are a "Lost'' signature, says Porter’s co-author, David Lavery, a professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
Orson Scott Card, author of the best-selling "Ender’s Game'' science-fiction series, says a collective-consciousness theme would turn whatever solid ground viewers can count on into quicksand. "One thing we’re counting on is that the back stories are true,'' says Card, who is editing an upcoming book of essays, "Getting Lost: Survival, Baggage and Starting Over in J.J. Abrams’ Lost,'' due in August.
"Lost'' may be teasing viewers at times, too. Producers say the island isn’t purgatory, but the name Gary Troup is an anagram for that transitional realm.
Then there are the many literary and philosophical allusions. Characters bear the names of famed philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The novel "Watership Down'' is about rabbits who must flee their warren, and tesseracts, or time ripples, are found in "A Wrinkle in Time,'' two of the many books read on the island.
An Ambrose Bierce story on "Lost’s'' reading list, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,'' toys with the snow-globe theory, telling of a man who thinks he has escaped hanging only to find it occurred in his own mind just before he is hanged. And Lavery points to Bierce’s "The Damned Thing,'' which is about an invisible monster.
Other essayists cite philosopher Francis Bacon and mathematician Rene Descartes in their musings. "I think ‘Lost,’ more than anything else on TV to date, provides a forum for philosophical and critical discussion,'' says Amy Bauer, an assistant professor of music at the University of California-Irvine who moderates a peer-reviewed online journal, the Society for the Study of Lost (www.loststudies.com).
Everything about "Lost'' is designed for analysis, says Joyce Millman, who wrote one of the "Getting Lost'' essays, on game theory. She credits the writers with "a rich variety of references — scientific, biblical, pop cultural, literary, historical, philosophical.'' Millman sees "Lost’s'' structure attracting fans like a video game. "The story line and the action develop on multiple levels. There are hidden clues that function like the easter eggs in gaming,'' says Millman. " ‘Lost’ is a big game, and the act of watching it forces you to play along.''
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