Tuesday, February 23, 2010

LOST Lighthouse, first thoughts

"Someone is coming to the Island, I need you to help them find it."

In case you haven't noticed,this season is following a very similar pattern with the first season. We have the Jack-centric two part opener, followed by a Kate is a fugitive episode, followed by a Locke in a wheelchair wanting to go on a Walkabout episode, that could describe either the first season or this, the last season.

The fifth episode/hour of season one was called White Rabbit, and it was the episode where Dr. Jack sees his dead father walking around on the Island and he follows him, to find the caves, the Adam and Eve skeletons, and the water that would save their lives. He also found his father's empty casket which he proceeded to smash up.

All of that is touched on in this episode.

White Rabbit of course refers to a character from Lewis Carrol's Alice books, and in this episode, Jack reminisces about reading Lewis Carrol to David, which is interesting, because he also read that to Aaron, which caused Kate to talk about what a great dad Jack is. This is shown throughout the LA X timeline as he interacts with David as well as discussed by Jack and Hurley on their Season 1-esque trek through the jungle to yet another new feature on the Island. More on it later.

That episode in Season One gave us our first look at an Infected by the Darkness person, Christian Shephard. Now we get some up close and personal with another, Claire Littleton, Christian's daughter, Jack's sister, Aaron's mother. She is giving a serious Rousseau vibe. Like Sayid (and Christian for that matter) Claire died and was taken over by this infection. (Making her line, "If there's one thing that will kill you out here, it's infection," nice LOSTian irony). Claire was inside one of the barracks in New Otherton that was blown up by Krazy Keamy and the mercenary tribe. Sawyer dug out what appeared to be an alive Claire, but slowly it became clear that something was different if not wrong with her. If you recall, she actually left Aaron behind to go with Christian, which makes it interesting that she is on such a search for him now. Before she left with Christian, Miles seemed very interested in her, and as someone who speaks with the dead, I'm sure his spidey-sense (or whatever the ghost-whisperer version of that is) was going crazy.

So, it isn't much of a surprise for us to hear a couple of episodes ago that Claire is infected like Sayid (and Christian), and ultimately it isn't much of a surprise that we get to learn a little more about her since this episode is connected to the episode we first saw a dead man walking.

Finally, speaking about Claire, it seems that she doesn't see Smokey as Locke like everyone else does, but perhaps sees him as he is.

Moving on to the other dimension, this episode, along with The Substitute, allows us an in your face look at some of the changes in the LA X dimension. Jack has been married, like in the Island timeline, and is now divorced, like in the Island timeline, but here he has a teenage son, named David. David, of course, is an important part of the Hebrew Bible (also referred to as the Old Testament by us Christians) and also important to the lineage of Jesus Christ. David, before becoming king was a shepherd. Jesus also often used shepherd imagery. In LOST, David and Christian both have the last name of Shephard, and both have important biblical names. You could also make the argument that the name Jack fits into this as well, since Jack can be a nickname for someone named John, and Jesus' cousin, who foretold his coming and his importance was named John (and referred to as John the Baptist). Okay, Bible lesson over for this week.

Back to the timeline differentials, last week, Locke and Helen were still together, and more importantly, Locke and his father were not estranged.

Despite the differences, the timelines still appear to be bleeding together at least in the LA X timeline. Jack examines his scar from having his appendix out, which occurred in the Island timeline in season 4 in the episode Something Nice Back Home, but apparently occurred when he was 7 or 8 in the LA X timeline. While he remembers that this surgery took place as a child, the reality of that scar and the surgery preformed by Juliet is tickling at his brain.

It is interesting that in the LA X timeline, Dogen, who has a child of his own, is at the same recital that David is at. Apparently Dogen and Jack are as connected as any of the other LOSTies.

Finally, the Lighthouse. We finally know how Jacob was able to keep an eye on his candidates, and perhaps even discover by looking in the mirror who those candidates are (and what number they correspond to). The name connected to 108, the number that they were supposed to turn the dial to, by the way is Wallace, and (sadly since that is the last name of my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew although perhaps being a candidate isn't the best thing ever) was crossed out. We haven't yet been introduced to anyone on the show with the name of Wallace.

Also of note are the crossed out names on 109, Friendly, oh how we miss you Tom Friendly, 117, Linus, being everybody's favorite bad guy Benry, and 124, Dawson, either Michael or Walt.

Jacob certainly didn't seem too dismayed that Jack destroyed the lighthouse, but then I guess Jacob doesn't really have any use for it anymore anyway.

Until Next Time, next week's episode is called Sundown, which leads one to believe it will be Sun-centric. This would also make sense since the episode after White Rabbit was a Sun-centric episode entitled House of the Rising Sun. I wonder if this will continue the week after, since that episode was a Charlie-centric one and he is dead on Island. Can't wait to find out!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Scorsese Scores with Shutter Island

Let me start by saying that if this film came out in November of 2009 as originally planned, I would argue that this movie deserved serious consideration as Best Picture of 2009. As it stands, this film is currently the best film to be released in 2010, but seeing as it is February, that isn't saying much.

I've been watching a lot of Olympics lately, so let me put it this way, it reminds me of watching Downhill Skiing, the first skier could have a great run, but since there are still so many skiers to go, you just feel like there is little chance that the great run will hold up for the gold.

Coming out in February and winning the Best Picture of the Year is very rare, but it isn't unprecedented. In fact, a film that is very similar in tone and type to Shutter Island, did it in 1991.

Shutter Island, like Silence of the Lambs before it, is a psychological thriller, a film about the human mind and the horrors that humans are capable of because of it.

The Island on which all of the action takes place is almost a character itself, as Scorsese and Robert Richardson get all that they can out of the beautiful but harsh and deadly environs of the Island.

The actors are all superb, Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow are sufficently creepy and ominous as the doctors in charge of the mental institution placed on the Island. John Carrol Lynch (who is so likable as Marge's husband in Fargo [Blu-ray]) plays the role of the deputy warden with such perfection that it is impossible for you to get a handle on where he stands or what he is up to. Mark Ruffalo gives a great understated performance as DiCaprio's partner and matches him throughout the film.

As for Leonardo DiCaprio, in each film that he has made with Scorsese (Gangs of New York (Two-Disc Collector's Edition),The Aviator [Blu-ray], and The Departed [Blu-ray]) you see more and more how this partnership is developing as they learn to work into each other's strengths more and more, much like watching DeNiro and Scorsese early in their respective careers. Shutter Island marks the culmination of the partnership, just as Raging Bull [Blu-ray] did for DeNiro and Scorsese's partnership. In each of the previous three films, I thought that DiCaprio did a fantastic job, but in each of them I wouldn't have argued if some other actor had been in the role. After seeing this movie, and the performance that Leo gives in it, I can't imagine another actor in the role. DiCaprio owned it that completely. It was an amazing performance.

The story isn't anything too new or surprising in the psychological thriller genre, but it is rarely handled this expertly. Coming from a novel by Dennis Lehane (who also provided the story for films like Mystic River [Blu-ray] and Gone Baby Gone [Blu-ray], as well as wrote for television's masterpiece The Wire: The Complete Series) and given to us by Martin Scorsese, even tried and true genre moments feel fresh and surprising.

Overall, I think that this is a film that will reward multiple viewings, as it is masterly put together from the very first sounds over the Paramount opening to the final frame.

But, really, did you expect anything less from Martin Scorsese?

Until Next Time, I'm interested to see how the year in film plays out, rather or not there is a stronger film still to race down the mountain.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

LOST The Substitute, first thoughts

I’m super busy these days with work and school, and therefore I will apologize in advance for this post not being as in depth as the episode deserves. Ultimately I am only going to touch on a few of the important points brought up by this outstanding Locke-centric episode.

As always, if you aren’t caught up there are SPOILERS throughout the post!

The title of tonight’s episode is The Substitute, which harkens to the titles of episodes in the last couple of seasons, The Variable last year, and the incomparable The Constant in season 4. Both of those episodes were time travel related, this one, not so much, but constants and variables are much more similar in mathematical equations than substitution. After all, in an equation, constants and variables are parts of the equation. Substitution is a method in which you can solve the equation.

Fitting since we are coming to the end, it is about time some things start getting solved!

Of course, as many answers as we may have gotten in this episode, there are still many questions. Let’s touch on a few of both, shall we?

LA X TIMELINE

Nice to see Helen again, and she touches on a few important points in the episode. She talks about destiny and that Locke was perhaps meant to meet Dr. Jack, which we of course know to be true. Also, Rose, Hurley, and Benry are people that Locke is inexorably tied to.

On the Island timeline, Locke has always been the Man of Faith, whereas for the longest time, Dr. Jack was the Man of Science. Lately, Dr. Jack has been moving into the void left by Locke’s death, but in the LA X Timeline, Dr. Jack (along with Helen) believes that nothing is impossible, but Locke, always he of the “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!!!!”, has apparently become the Man of Science and willing to accept that there are things that he can’t do. If Dr. Jack is truly the Man of Faith in the other timeline, then we still have the important combination of a Man of Science and a Man of Faith which has always been at the heart of this show, and there remains the idea that if they can come together and work together, anything could be accomplished, Island or No Island.

ISLAND TIMELINE

The Numbers-

So, if we can trust Esau-Locke, there are “Candidates” for replacing Locke and, surprise, surprise (not really a surprise), they correspond to the Numbers.

4- John Locke
8- Hugo Reyes
15- James Ford
16- Sayid Jarrah
23- Shephard (I’ll argue against this actually being Jack in a moment)
42- Kwan (and my argument for Shephard will also answer who is meant by Kwan)

Each of these correspond to someone that Jacob touched in the Season Finale last season, but the problem is, Jacob touched both Sun and Jin, so which one is Kwan and why did he touch them both? And Jacob also touched Kate and yet she is not here.

The solution… Jacob was touching the parents of 23 and 42, not the people actually named by 23 and 42, therefore, 42 is Ji Yeon Kwan, not Sun or Jin, and 23 is actually the baby of Jack and Kate, not Jack or Kate. There were many theories last season that when Kate got on the plane (Ajira flight 316) she was pregnant with Jack’s baby. On that flight, there was also a lot of talk of substitutions (there’s that word again) being made for people who were on flight 815 to turn flight 316 into another flight 815. Sayid was in handcuffs like Kate was in the original flight. Hurley had a guitar case like Charlie did in 815, Locke was in a coffin like Christian was in 815, Benry was late and barely made the flight like Hurley in flight 815, so it makes sense to think that Kate was pregnant like Claire was in 815.

So, the kid that Esau/Locke and Sawyer saw in the jungle would be the replacement for Jacob, one of the candidates, and therefore the child of Kate and Jack. Of course my original thought upon seeing that kid was that he was Aaron, and that is still possible. Aaron is, after all, technically a Shephard, and he was raised (for a time at least) by Jack and Kate, making him in a way, the child of Jack and Kate.

Until Next Time, I do love that every season we see a part of the Island that we have never seen before, and the home of the lists was an awesome revelation this week.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

LOST What Kate Does, first thoughts

“What Kate Does” is of course reminiscent of the title “What Kate Did” which is the ninth episode of Season 2 where we found out why Kate was a fugitive. It is also the episode in which we saw Kate take care of a feverous Sawyer just like she was caring for the knocked out Sawyer at the end of LA X Part 2.



In this episode, we find out what Kate does immediately upon escaping, and it is to help Claire, something that she of course also did early and often in the original timeline. The two different realities are clearly bleeding together in the LA Timeline. Kate feels the need to help Claire when she sees the picture of her, and I think that it is because of the connection that she built up with Claire and especially Aaron in the original timeline. The moment that Claire thinks Aaron is in danger, she knows his name as if she already knew her son, this is another instance of the other reality bleeding through. There is also a clear moment when Kate and Jack both look at each other and seem to know each other far better than they do in this dimension.



Other thoughts, questions that have been raised talking with some of my friends this last week, are Penny and Faraday alive in the LA Timeline? When Jack and Co. set off Jughead, both Faraday’s mother (Eloise) and Penny’s father (Widmore) were on the Island which we’ve seen is now underwater. The argument of course is that they died and therefore, Faraday and Penny would never have been born. Which would also mean that not only would Desmond not have crash landed on the Island because it is underwater, but that he never would have felt the need to race around the world in the first place. Which also means that he wouldn’t have been training for that race and never would have met Jack running up and down stadium steps, so Desmond being a phantom or not, Desmond and Jack shouldn’t have known each other, yet Jack clearly recognized him, which leads you to think that there is bleed through from the future that they don’t have anymore.



The connections that the show set up throughout the flashbacks also seem to play a role in the reality without the Island. Kate and Claire this week, Kate and Sawyer last week, Kate and Jack on the plane and this week, Locke and Boone last week, Hurley and Sawyer last week, but most importantly, Claire is once again nine months pregnant and again being treated by Dr. Ethan.



Something that we’ve wondered about since the tenth episode of season one became clear, the psychic spent a lot of time telling Claire that she must raise her baby, then finally told her that there was a couple in Los Angeles that would take the baby. The question has been rather that couple existed, as he told Eko it did, and that he did it for money or if he somehow truly knew that the plane would crash and that Claire would be forced to raise the baby herself. We found out this week that the couple did exist, and yet, they were never going to be able to take Aaron anyway, the husband left, and the wife told Claire she couldn’t do raise the baby on her own. Whether the plane landed or crashed, Claire was going to have and want Aaron either way.



Finally, we also seem to have an answer of sorts on what it is that happened to Christian and Claire (and unfortunately, now Sayid). They died, they were dead, and then, somehow, they were infected by “a darkness”. They aren’t Christian, Claire, and Sayid as we remember them, but are reanimated and being taken over by this darkness. Claire right after she died was somewhat Claire, but quickly became less and less Claire and if you recall Miles could tell something was wrong with her (causing Sawyer to think that Miles was some sort of weird stalker). Sayid is somewhat Sayid right now, but is on his way to being different in the same way that Claire and Christian are different.



The question, of course, is why didn’t the same thing happen to John Locke’s body. And if it is Esau (the Man In Black) that is responsible for Christian and Claire, why did he become Locke but leave the body while reanimating Christian, Claire, and now Sayid? That doesn’t make much sense to me yet, leading me to believe that whatever darkness reanimated Christian, Claire, and Sayid, it is different from Esau.



The other big question I have from this revelation that this darkness can reanimate and change the dead is why Richard didn’t see this as a possibility for Locke when he found out that Benry had killed him and yet the Island had brought him back. Instead, Richard says that he’s never heard of the Island bringing anyone back to life. Shouldn’t he have known about this possibility? Or did he, like Dogan and Lennon did to Sayid, somehow test Locke and whereas Sayid failed due to the infection of the darkness, Locke passed since he wasn’t the darkness but was Esau?



One last insight from last week’s episode, the Kierkegaard book that the LOSTies found in the outer temple wall was Fear and Trembling a book in which Kierkegaard meditates on the story from Genesis 22, when Abraham goes out to sacrifice Isaac on the word of God. Kierkegaard talks about faith being a belief in the absurd. He respects Abraham’s faith, but utterly fails to comprehend it. Interestingly, in the Bible, Isaac, Abraham’s son, is the father of Jacob and his twin brother Esau.



Last, but not least, good to see Aldo again, even if not for long, or as he might be more familiar to some of you, Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Made me wonder where Charlie, Dennis, Frank, and Sweet D were though.



Until Next Time, line of the night… “As you can see, uh, Hugo here has assumed the leadership position, so… that’s pretty great.”-Miles

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

LOST LA X, first thoughts


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Wow.  Welcome back, LOST.  It has been too long.  Like, seriously way, way, way too long.
Remember way back after the Season 3 finale when I talked about Alternate Universes/Dimensions?  Guess what?  They’re heeeeere!  Today we’ll be looking at Alternate Dimensions and what that means for our LOSTies (primarily focusing on this season of LOST as compared to the film Donnie Darko written and directed by Richard Kelly), and we’ll be looking at Søren Kierkegaard (and connecting him to the Island, what’s going on, and another of my wild and crazy theories from the past), so if you’re ready, let’s do this, and as always…
THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU AREN”T CAUGHT UP….

Sorry, don’t know where that pirate speak came from.


Season 3 Finale Post-
If you’d like to read it, it can be found here

Sure, there’s a lot in there that turned out to be disastrously wrong, like Sawyer being in the casket (my next guess Michael was just as wrong, never saw Locke coming), but I did correctly predict time travel (a season too early), what appears to be alternate dimensions (two seasons too early), the presence of another sinister force (Charles Widmore, ladies and gentlemen), and right on time for the following season, the format of Flash Forwards (now an awesome TV show also on ABC) from the Island instead of Flash Backs.  Things in the post that seemed wrong before, but are going to get a second look, the idea that the connects are incredibly important as to why these people were on that plane, and the effects that will have on them because the plane didn’t crash.  Here’s how I put it in the Season 3 post if you decided not to go back and read the whole thing…
“What might happen if everyone were returned to before the crash?  Well, Charlie would still be addicted to drugs, and nowhere near the fame he thinks he desires.  Of course we know what he really desires, but we also know without the crash he doesn't really have any hope of achieving it.  And I think he was resigned to his death, he definitely didn't go into it blindly.  Which do you think he'd prefer, having died a hero and having known and loved Claire and Aaron, or continuing in his drug addled unfulfilling life as a former rock star?  Eko would still be a fake priest living with that guilt as well as the guilt of having killed his brother.  He came to terms with his past actions due to the Island, but I'm not sure he could have gotten there without it.  Rose would still have cancer.  Sun and Jin would still be in a horrible and unhealthy marriage.  Boone would still be helplessly in love with his step-sister, and she would still be using it to torment him.  I could go on and on, the point is that the experience of the crash has actually improved these people’s lives.  If they were placed back in those lives with no memories of the crash and their experiences there, they are right back into those awful situations.”
That works 100% right now, nearly three years after I wrote it, and that, ladies, gentlemen, and Smoke Monsters, is something that I am pretty proud of.
So, let’s move onto…

Alternate Dimensions-
So, let’s start with the title, since my buddy Justin made the connection before the episode even started.  Obviously, the title is referring to the airport code for the International Airport in Los Angeles, LAX, however, the title has a space in between the LA and the X, as in, this is LA-X, not LA-normal.  The reference that Justin made was to Dimension X from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and I can honestly say that I never thought I would be referencing TMNT in my LOST blog, but what can you do) both the TMNT Adventures Comics and the more well known 1987 cartoon series (both of which I freely admit to being a huge fan of as nine year old me would proudly attest to back in ’87, ten years after the year of my birth and our LOSTies foray into Dharma-ville, not to mention the greatness that is Star Wars.  Okay we’re getting a little off track, let’s get back to it, shall we…).  Dimension X was an alternate universe where some of the TMNT villains hailed from, most notably Krang.  Do I think that the title was making a reference to TMNT?  Not sure, but I definitely believe there are Alternate Dimensions (also referred to at times as Parallel Universes) at play here, so it probably bears mentioning, and I enjoy giving my friends shout-outs when possible and appropriate.
Now, what does the fact that Alternate Universes/Parallel Dimensions are in play mean?
For that, I turn to Richard Kelly and his fantastic film, Donnie Darko.  If you’ve seen it, this will probably make some sense to you, if you haven’t, well, um, good luck.  Let’s just say, I think that viewing this film will help with this season of LOST.
Donnie Darko puts forth the idea, explained better through its fictional book The Philosophy of Time Travel than it ever explicitly is in the film, that when an event that occurs messes up the correct time line, often through the appearance of an artifact that does not belong in the timeline, a Tangent Universe is created.  The Tangent Universe is inherently unstable and will therefore collapse in upon itself, destroying the Primary Universe in the process unless the artifact is returned and the Primary Universe is reestablished.
I know, confusing, but without you seeing the film, I think that that is as clear as I can make it.
According to the film, people are given responsibilities to see that this occurs, in the film’s case that task is given to Donnie Darko (played by Jake Gyllenhaal).  To aid him in this task, those that die at some point in the Tangent Universe, known as Manipulated Dead, are able to at least somewhat understand what is going on and communicate that fact to the one who is able to fix it.  In tonight’s episodes of LOST, we have Juliet and Jacob communicating from beyond the grave, with Juliet explicitly referencing the other dimension.
My theory, based out of Donnie Darko, is that one of the two dimensions is wrong and cannot survive and the LOSTies will have to somehow change it to whatever is broken in the primary universe is fixed so that the tangent universe will cease to exist.  This could mean a lot of things.  Looking at my paragraph from so very long ago, Season 3 to be exact, the LOSTies are for the most part not better off without the Island.  Some of the ones I didn’t mention three years ago, Locke doesn’t have the use of his legs and still has massive daddy issues, Sawyer is completely evil again and has no closure on his issues (not to mention that he hasn’t met Juliet and had the three years of bliss that he had in the seventies), and Kate is once again a fugitive.
If LA (with the Island underwater) is the universe to survive, all of these things will probably have to be fixed, and the interesting thing is, there is hope on a few of them, where we’ve never seen hope before.  Maybe Dr. Jack can actually heal Locke, sans Island.  Hurley is actually happy and lucky, since the Numbers don’t have the Island powering their evil mojo.  Maybe since the Island wasn’t around to siphon off the healing power of the Australia spot that Rose and Bernard went to, Rose was healed there instead of on the Island.  The point is it is possible for the lives of these characters to be fixed off Island, even if it was easier on Island.
These characters have had connections before they ever made it to the Island, and it might just be that the connections that they had and the subsequent gathering of these characters is more important than where that gathering took place.  They were meant to be together and their lives were affected by their getting together, but perhaps that can happen in LA just as it did on the Island.
A couple more things on this, where is Christian’s body (i.e. is it the Artifact using Donnie Darko terminology) and what was up with Desmond on Oceanic 815?  Part of me wonders if he was actually there, or is he Dr. Jack’s subconscious somehow connecting with the past/future he no longer has on the Island (i.e. is Desmond the Manipulated Dead again using Donnie Darko terminology, is Desmond “Frank the Rabbit”)?  Not sure, but at the moment I’m leaning towards the LA dimension being the correct one, and the Island being the one that has to go.  Could totally be off on that, of course.
Anyway, enough of that, there will be plenty more time for Alternate Dimension/Parallel Universe/Tangent Universe talk as the season progresses…

Søren Kierkegaard-
The book being read by the one-armed French man (and former shipmate to Rousseau) in the entrance to the Temple was by Kierkegaard, a Danish Theologian (born May 5, 1813, died November 11, 1855).  One of his arguments (and the one that most pertains to LOST which is why we’re all here) had to do with the idea of whether or not there was any such thing as objective reality.  Kierkegaard, in fact, argued that truth is actually subjective, because while a thing might or might not be objectively provable, it ultimately relies on our understanding of it and our relation to that truth, making truth ultimately subjective and not objective.  Going back for a moment to which of the two realities is the “true” one, Kierkegaard might argue that whichever one the LOSTies choose to react to as true will be the true reality.  Quantum Physics would probably agree, and that, I think, is as important to understanding what is going on as is Donnie Darko.
The other reason that Kierkegaard is so intriguing is that once again there is a harkening to my Author of Their Own Situation Theory.  Now there is really something to go along with that theory.  First, I’ll allow you to catch up on exactly what I mean when I say “Author of Their Own Situation”, it harkens back to a post that I wrote about a year ago, and then added to after last season’s episode Namaste.  Here is the original post for you to read (go ahead, I’ll wait)
and here is the paragraph (with a brief synopsis of the above post if you’re going to be lazy about it) from the post-Namaste post (see what I did there?)
“I remind long time readers of my “Author of Their Own Situation Theory” which I will go over again since we have some new readers as well.  Last season LOST went out of it’s way to have us notice two books, VALIS by Phillip K Dick and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  In each of those books, there is a character that represents the author (in VALIS it is Horselover Fat which with Latin loosely translates as Phillip Dick and in Slaughterhouse Five it is Kilgore Trout which is Vonnegut’s alternate reality version of himself who appears in many of his books).  LOST also claims to take as inspiration the fantastic series by Stephen King, The Dark Tower.  In The Dark Tower series, King is not only the author, but also an important character.  Interestingly enough, CS Lewis also was working on a book called The Dark Tower (although he never finished it) and in it he put himself as a character.  CS Lewis is, of course, an important author in the series as Charlotte Staples Lewis (may she rest in peace) is clearly named after author Clive Staples Lewis.  So, all of these instances of an author playing a critical role in the books and or series that they write makes me believe that a character (and possibly more than one, I’m looking at you Widmore) is the author of our LOSTies situation as well, primarily Benry Gale.”
If the idea that they can decide which reality is to become the true one, than Author of Their Own Situation is more strongly in play than just the idea that one person is authoring the whole of their situation (although both Jacob and The Man In Black that I like to call Esau seem to be doing something of the sort as well).
What does Kierkegaard have to do with this, you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  In much of Kierkegaard’s writings, he uses pseudonyms to make his philosophical and theological arguments.  In other words, in his books, there are fictional characters that are standing in for him, the author.  So, just like Stephen King and C.S. Lewis in their respective Dark Towers, Philip K. Dick in VALIS, and Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, Kierkegaard places himself in his books.  He makes himself the author of his own situation.
I really like this idea of the LOSTies deciding which reality is the true or primary one.

So, that’s quite a bit for my first thoughts, I look forward to hearing from some of you on your thoughts on where we might be headed as this long and terrific journey begins to come to an end.  You know where to find me.
If you aren’t already, you should join the Facebook Group, LOST? Maybe This Will Help.  You can do so here
Until Next Time, where else are you going to read a blog post that talks about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Donnie Darko, and Søren Kierkegaard?  Only with LOST.  See you next week.
Josh Man