Lost - Play Ball!

You know what one of the best scenes in movies is, the scene in "The Untouchables" where Al Capone gives his speech about Baseball. If you've seen the movie then you know why it's awesome, if you haven't then I invite you to go youtube it, warning it's violent, but hey you're watching Lost already and that's pretty violent itself.

In Lost once again, NOTHING is just as simple as a baseball, next thing you know the vase that Sayid was repairing will show up in Smokey's lair or something. But getting back to the baseball, poor poor Dogan, we got to find out the significance of the baseball and that poor bastard got stuck on the island after losing his son. And with that let me take a very big break in the action to go off on a tangent to explain everything because it just hit me.

Everyone on the island has LOST something! I don't know why I didn't realize it until now, but every single character on the island has LOST something in their life and then end up on the island. Here let me provide a list.

Jack = Dad
Locke = ability to walk
Kate = Her boyfriend
Sayid = Nadia
Sawyer = Parents
Claire = Dad, potentially Aaron
Desmond = Penny
Charlie = himself to drugs
Hurley = People died when a balcony he was on broke, sent him to the nut house
Ana Lucia = Shot when pregnant
Rose = Had cancer and was going to die
Bernard = Going to lose Rose
Shannon = Her mom
Jin = Himself and potentially Sun
Sun = Jin and who she wanted to be
Walt = Mom
Micheal = Had lost his son, WWWAAAAALLLLTTTTTTT!!!!
Ben = Mom
Eko = Brother
Boone = (not sure on him) maybe Shannon
Dogan = Son

I maybe forgetting someone, but you get the point, the show is called Lost because everyone on the show has LOST something valuable to them in their lives and it has sent their lives out of control, like they've LOST control. So why are they on the island, because as Jack put it, "I came back because I was stupid enough to think that this place could fix me." And that is the reason that all of them are on the island. We already know that it's a story of redemption and that is what the island is it's island therapy to fix what is broke inside you. After last night it's hard to not think that Smokey is the bad guy now, thus I'm going with Jacob is actually the good guy. The argument between them, can mankind change, "It only has to happen once, everything else is just progress."

Jacob hand picked people that he thought could be saved, but so far no one has been able to do it. Those are Jacob's candidates, as long as you're on the list, you can't be killed by Smokey because your still part of the game between the two of them, a game to see if man can change. Jacob took a bunch of messed up folks and believes that under the circumstances of living on the island they can change who they are, change being consumed by the darkness inside them. Smokey on the other hand is saying, Let me just solve your problems so you can be happy. He offers the easy way out, much like making a deal with the devil. And in the end, if something isn't earned, you can't truly enjoy it. Which is why Jacob doesn't give any easy answers, he wants everyone to come to their own conclusions on what is right what is wrong and what they all need to change about themselves. Oh and by the way, all of us watching the show are in league with Smokey now, because guess what we want, answers... and who is offering them up? That is going to be Lost's final moment for the audience, who are we in all of this, who did we side up with Jacob and the mystery, or Smokey and the easy answers...

But here is the piece to the puzzle that I just can't seem to figure out how it fits, the sideways world. Yet again another castaway is in a fairly happy place, ok sure he's tormented over the fact that Nadia is married to his brother, but that was by his pushing, Sayid told her that he didn't deserve her for all of the terrible things that he had done in life. Interestingly enough, the Sayid on the island didn't care about all of those terrible things and wanted her back no matter the cost, even his soul...

Ben - "Come on Sayid, there's still time."
Sayid - "Not for me."

What I liked about the off the island Sayid was that he really seemed like he was trying to get away from his past, even when pushed he was trying to avoid resorting to violence even though he knew he could handle it. It was pretty awesome to see the mobsters have no idea who they were messing with, I mean Sayid took on a ninja this episode and almost won. =) In the end he kills the mobster not out of rage or vengeance, but justice. He knew that if he didn't kill the guy he would come back and demand more money or worse and that the only way to settle this mess unfortunately was to kill our former mercenary. Man some people are just evil. Oh and hi Jin! How did you get away from the customs people again???

So again the character in the sideways story seems to be in much better place with their soul, obviously this relates to how messed up they are on the island, but how? The only weak theory that I can give is that that would be their life if Jacob had never interfered, meaning that he screwed up their lives on purpose, but he's supposed to be the good guy. It's a lot like the story of Job, the devil says that Job only loves him because of all the things that he has given him and without that, he would renounce him. I have to think that Smokey is questioning all of mankind that they are good and Jacob is out to prove to him that they are. By messing up their lives he is setting to prove that they can be redeemed, to which Smokey doesn't believe to be possible. maybe the sideways world is the world that they will all get in the end after the game is concluded and Jacob wins. Part of the bargain is that all of the players get their unaltered lives back if Jacob is right. Smokey I think is tired of playing the game thinking that he's been proven right 355 times (only 5 names left on the wheel). But really I don't know, this is the part that I really don't get, but is getting more and more interesting each week. Speeking of interesting, next week is a Ben episode.

Probably have more later today