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The television show Lost includes a number of mysterious elements that have been ascribed to science fiction or supernatural phenomena, usually concerning coincidences, synchronicity, déjà vu, temporal and spatial anomalies, paradoxes, and other puzzling phenomena. The creators of the series refer to these as part of the mythology of the series.^[1]

Contents 1 The Island 1.1 Personification 1.2 Geography 1.3 Structures 1.3.1 The Black Rock ship 1.3.2 The Cabin 1.3.3 The Ruins 1.4 Health-related properties 1.4.1 Healing 1.4.2 Resurrection 1.4.3 Pregnancy 1.4.4 The Sickness 1.5 Other physical properties 1.5.1 Navigation 1.5.2 Ability to move 1.5.3 Passage of time 1.5.4 Electromagnetism 2 Plot devices 2.1 The Monster 2.2 The Numbers 2.3 The "Magic Box" 3 Character timelines 3.1 The Dharma Initiative 3.2 Richard Alpert 3.3 Crossovers 4 Sensory phenomena 4.1 The Whispers 4.2 Visions 5 References 6 Further reading

[edit] The Island

As the main setting of the series, the Island boasts a number of unusual properties. First and foremost is its location, which shifts constantly and cannot be reached by ordinary means. The Island cannot be seen from a distance, and is surrounded by some sort of barrier in which the normal flow of time does not apply. The Island also seems to possess a "will" of some sort, apparently speaking to various characters. Electromagnetic phenomena are common on the Island, and it seems to bestow unusual healing properties to its residents.

Throughout its history, numerous people have tried to exploit the Island, due to its special properties. Benjamin Linus and John Locke, not wanting outsiders knowing of the Island's location or its special abilities, claim to have defended it from such "intruders". The U.S. Army attempted to test hydrogen bombs on the Island in the 1950s, and a damaged hydrogen bomb taken after they were killed is buried somewhere on the Island. Charles Widmore has been desperately trying to find the Island for years, even going as far as sending a freighter. However, in a conversation between Ben and Widmore, Widmore claims that the Island was previously his until Ben stole it from him, and that he will take it back one day. This is clarified in the fifth season, where it is shown that Widmore led the Others until he was deposed and banished by Ben.

[edit] Personification

The Island appears to be sentient in some capacity. Locke^[2] and Ben assert that the Island can "talk" to them and others.^[3] The Island has also shown the ability to affect the lives of people both living on it or away from it. It is able to prevent both Michael Dawson^[4] and Jack Shephard^[5] from killing themselves once they each make it off the Island. The Island's ability to prevent Michael from committing suicide was highlighted by Tom, who did not seem surprised and even goaded Michael about how the Island "would not let him" leave. It also prevents Claire from signing adoption papers before the crash.^[6] Locke also accuses the Island of killing Boone,^[7] in what he calls a "[sacrifice] the Island demanded."

The Island also seems to call people to it. Once he leaves the Island, Hurley believes he is being called back. It directly called Locke to it multiple times during his childhood.^[8]

[edit] Geography

The Island is many miles across, and it takes at least two days to go from one end to the other by foot. There are at least two mountain ranges on the Island, located on the east and west sides respectively, with other evidence that the Island once had an active volcano. Small streams are found throughout the Island, a result of the large amount of rainfall seen throughout the series. Boars, frogs, chickens, horses, cows, and polar bears inhabit the Island, some of these the result of settlers bringing the animals to the Island. A smaller island is located a short distance from the main island, though still within the Island's sphere of influence. This island houses the zoology station, The Hydra.

[edit] Structures

[edit] The Black Rock ship

A slave ship, the Black Rock, is curiously located several miles inland on the Island, in a place it could not have feasibly sailed unless the entire island had been flooded at some point. The ship originally set sail from Portsmouth, UK, and contains a generous supply of dynamite. What happened to the occupants of the Black Rock is never revealed. Penelope's father, Charles Widmore, is seen at an auction bidding on a journal once owned by Tovard Hanso, first mate of the ship. In one episode, it is mentioned that the eastern coasts of Africa were part of the African Slave Trade, and it was speculated the ship was moving African slaves for mining work to parts unknown when it disappeared. On the Swan Station's blast door map, there is a revision marking the 'find' of the Black Rock and Hanso's resting place.

[edit] The Cabin

Jacob, ruler of the Others, lives in a mysterious cabin which is able to vanish and reappear at different places on the Island. It was built by the Dharma Initiative mathematician Horace Goodspeed as a sort of retreat for himself. Goodspeed was carrying its blueprints in his pocket when he was killed in the Dharma purge. It is sometimes surrounded by a black, ash-like powder, similar to what Benjamin Linus was covered in after summoning the monster using an ancient tunnel under his home in the Barracks. For reasons unknown, Christian Shephard and his daughter Claire Littleton, who was following her father to the cabin, were staying in the cabin instead of Jacob in the episode "Cabin Fever".

[edit] The Ruins

There are many ruins on the Island, most with hieroglyphs on them, suggesting that there was at one point an ancient civilization on the Island. In "Live Together, Die Alone", while at sea, Sayid, Jin, and Sun sight the remnants of a massive statue standing upon a rock in the surf. All that is left is a large, four-toed marble foot broken off at the ankle. Sayid remarks that he does not know which is more disquieting: the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that the foot has only four toes. It has been compared to the Colossus of Rhodes.^[9] The full statue, viewed from the back, appears from a distance in the season 5 episode "LaFleur". It is not made clear how far back in the Island's past the group has traveled to, and another flash quickly brings them forward before they can get a good look at the statue. The statue seen from behind has pointy ears, a crown on the head, long hair, and an ancient Egyptian outfit.

Further ruins are revealed in "The Brig" when the Others tie Locke's father to the broken base of a large, stone column. Toward the end of Season 3, Ben tells Richard to continue leading the rest of the Others to the Temple, and in "Meet Kevin Johnson" sends Alex, Karl, and Rousseau to the same location. His map marks it with a Dharma Initiative symbol, but the Temple has also been mentioned as something the Monster is in place to protect. In addition, in "The Shape of Things to Come", after Alex is killed, Ben summons the Monster in a secret chamber hidden in his closet whose stone door contains hieroglyphics. In "There's No Place Like Home Pt 3", when Ben enters the Orchid Station, behind the official Dharma built station, is what appears to be some sort of ancient stone tombstones with unknown hieroglyphs on his way to the final room, where an ancient-built wheel rests that is used to move the island. The season 5 episode, "This Place is Death" shows a better view of what appears to be the Temple that Ben will one day order Richard to lead his people to, which is directly guarded by the Monster. In the season 5 episode "Whatever Happened, Happened", Richard Alpert is seen taking a young Benjamin Linus into the temple itself as a means of healing a fatal gunshot wound. Alpert notes beforehand that Ben will emerge a fundamentally different person. It is revealed in "Dead is Dead" that the structure the viewers see is merely a wall concealing the actual temple.

[edit] Health-related properties

The Island has extraordinary healing properties. The Island can heal normally untreatable conditions, such as spinal damage (Locke), cancer (Rose), and infertility (Jin). Injuries, even lethal ones, heal much faster than they normally would, though by no means are people incapable of dying. Disease is also possible, though rare. However, the Island is also apparently able to revive the dead, as shown with Locke and possibly Christian Shepherd. For an unknown reason, women who try to conceive children on the island die of an auto-immune condition during their second trimester, but women can otherwise give birth on the island as long as they don't spend this particular period on the island.

[edit] Healing

Some castaways have expressed the belief that they have been miraculously healed since the crash. Prior to his arrival, Locke was paralyzed, but regained the use of his legs immediately after the crash. Richard Alpert says in "The Brig" that Locke's spine healing itself is not a normal event, even by the Island's standards; it is a sign of Locke being somehow "special". The effects of this specialness can extend to other people. After his spinal surgery, Ben is paralyzed for over a week, but regains the feeling in his legs immediately after coming into contact with Locke. He is able to walk (with the aid of a cane) only days afterward.

The Others appear to operate on the assumption that cancer is impossible on the Island, or at least within their own population ("One of Us"); Ben Linus appears deeply shocked when told he has a tumor on his spine, and Juliet notes the coincidence that Jack, a spinal surgeon, arrived on the island two days after Ben's condition was diagnosed. Similarly, Rose had been dying of cancer before crashing on the island. After the crash, she feels as if the cancer has "left her body" and, in "S.O.S.", credits her cure to the island. Jack contracts appendicitis while on the Island, which Rose observes is suspicious given that they expect their imminent rescue and the fact that she strongly believes that it is impossible to get sick on the Island.

Locke also makes a miraculously fast recovery in the episode "Through the Looking Glass", after being shot and left for dead by Ben in the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain". He comments that he would have been dead had the kidney Ben was aiming for not been removed. In "Because You Left", Locke gets shot in the leg by Ethan when he is flashed to the past. After Locke gets flashed to the present day, Richard briefly treats his wound and tells him "the island will do the rest".

The character Mikhail Bakunin in particular seems to have an unusual ability to recover from fatal injuries. John Locke pushes him through the sonic security fence surrounding the Others' encampment in the episode "Par Avion", which should have killed him, but he later returns and stops the internal bleeding of the helicopter pilot, Naomi. He claims she will be fine in about a day, much to Charlie's surprise. Such an injury would normally require much more recovery time, and Mikhail states that "things work differently" on the Island when this is noted. In the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain," Mikhail tells Ben that the fence had not, in fact, been set to a lethal level, explaining his brush with death. However, in the Season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass", Mikhail is shot through the chest with a spear gun by Desmond, and again seems to have been killed. Mikhail undergoes another miraculous recovery and swims out of the station where he then blows open a porthole, flooding the control room and killing Charlie.

[edit] Resurrection

In the episode "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", Ben murders Locke when Locke is off the island. After Locke's body is taken back to the island when Flight 316 crashes, he is brought back to life. Ben tells Locke that he knew he would be brought back upon returning to the Island, but later confides in Sun that Locke's resurrection was completely unexpected and unprecedented in his knowledge of the Island's powers, which scares him considerably.

Similarly, Jack's dead father, Christian Shephard, was brought to the island on Flight 815, and when Jack eventually locates his coffin in "White Rabbit", it is empty. Christian appears to be alive albeit enigmatic at the same time, apparently assisting the mysterious leader of the Others, Jacob, whom he says he was empowered to speak for. He has had direct interactions with several characters, and has appeared both on and off the island, both in present and past times as well.

[edit] Pregnancy

According to Juliet and Ben, any human female who conceives on the island dies before the baby is born. Specifically, the pregnancy goes well until about midway through the second trimester, where complications arise. The mother's body rejects the fetus as a viral infection, resulting in both the mother and child's death. Juliet states that in her research, no one made it to their third trimester. Other species of placental mammals like the wild boars do not die during pregnancy. Women who went through their second trimester off the island are able to give birth without incident (Danielle, Claire). The Others enlisted the help of Juliet, a fertility researcher, to help find out why this happens.

The Island also affects fertility in males. Jin was sterile before coming to the Island, but impregnates his wife Sun while there. In the episode "D.O.C.", Juliet reveals that men on the island have five times the normal sperm count, explaining why Jin was able to impregnate Sun.

In the season 5 premiere episode, Dr Pierre Chang is at the Dharma Initiative Barracks facility in 1978. His wife is with him and his new born child is also featured. In "This Place is Death", Charlotte Lewis also confirms she was born on the island to Dharma Initiative members. "LaFleur" features Juliet successfully delivering a child of one of the Dharma Initiative members that conceived her child on the island, indicating that they either found a way around the problem or it did not yet exist at the time. The enhanced commentary for the episode mentions that women of the Dharma Initiative were taken off-island to give birth under an obstetrician's care, but not until they were well into their third trimester of pregnancy. It was mentioned that the event that caused this particular phenomenon had not occurred yet as of 1978.

[edit] The Sickness

Contrary to the lack of disease on the Island, Rousseau claims to have killed her team because they had caught a mysterious disease, which necessitated their executions. She claimed in "Solitary" that the Others were the carriers of disease. Rousseau is not clear on whether it is a physical or mental disease. As of the end of Season 4, none of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 have shown any symptoms of any disease or infection, even after being in direct contact with the Others. Neither has Juliet, Faraday, Miles, Charlotte, Lapidus, or Desmond.

"This Place is Death" shows that Rousseau's crew was actually "infected" after entering an ancient temple to rescue a member of her team, Montand, from the Monster, not the Others. The three crew members that Rousseau executed did not show physical symptoms of anything being wrong with them, but had been given knowledge of the purpose of the monster through some unknown means. Danielle is acting very erratic during this scene, and had already executed two of her crew members and is preparing to kill her lover, Robert. Robert manages to talk her down, but trains his own weapon on her after doing so. Having previously removed the firing pin from his weapon, Rousseau kills him.

When Locke is being held captive by Desmond, Desmond asks Locke if any of his people were sick or dying. When Desmond first came to the Island, Kelvin Inman also asked Desmond about his physical health and implied that he was out long enough to have been exposed. A mysterious vaccine is provided by DHARMA food drops. It was taken regularly by Kelvin and Desmond in the Swan Station, and administered to Claire's unborn child by Ethan after her kidnapping. During this encounter, Ethan confides in Claire that the Others "don't have enough vaccine", implying either they or their recent abductions required it as well.

In the season 4 episode "The Constant", it was revealed that Minkowski and a freighter crewmember named Brandon tried to sneak off the boat in the Zodiac to get a closer look at the Island. As they approached, according to Minkowski, "something happened" to Brandon that caused them to turn back. Brandon died as a result of this attempt to approach the Island, and Minkowski suffered from temporal displacement and likewise died soon after.

One crewmember, Regina, speaks with Faraday over a radio regarding a rocket payload experiment. At the time, she sounds normal. By the time Sayid and Desmond have reached the freighter, however, Regina is suffering from some sort of psychosis; she is pretending to be reading a book, even though it is held upside down and she generally appears as "mentally out of it". Later, Regina commits suicide by wrapping herself in heavy chains and jumping into the ocean. No move is made by the crew to dissuade her, with Captain Gault claiming that "she is too far gone." How Regina, having never gotten close to the Island as Minkowski and Brandon had, became ill is never revealed. In "Cabin Fever", Captain Gault informs Martin Keamy that he may be suffering from some sort of dementia connected with the Island.

[edit] Other physical properties

[edit] Navigation

The Island cannot be found by any standard means of navigating. The only known way to intentionally get to the Island is to follow a sonar beacon, which is most likely attached to the Looking Glass station, or to follow a satellite or radio signal to the Island. Apart from the people recruited there (Ben and Juliet for example), most people find the Island without consciously intending to do so, as Desmond and Rousseau have both found out. Once one arrives on the Island, it is nearly impossible to leave without knowledge of the specific bearing required to do so, as Desmond discovered when he tried to leave the Island in his newly repaired sailboat. Desmond left on a bearing that should have had him in Fiji inside of seven days, but he was never able to leave the vicinity of the Island, describing it as being in a "bloody snow globe." Michael and Walt did manage to leave the Island by boat with the aid of Ben, who knows how to leave the Island at will.

The bearing to enter and leave the Island changes with the passage of time. Michael and Walt initially leave the Island at a bearing of 325. Later on, Daniel Faraday claims that the safest way to enter the Island is through a bearing of 305. In the Season 5 premiere, Daniel Faraday elaborates on this, explaining that without knowing the exact time and date, calculating the proper bearing to leave the Island on is impossible. As they were moving through time randomly, the bearing was never constant. The Season 5 episode "316" further clarifies by explaining that the Island is constantly moving and therefore the bearing changes with its movement. A formula developed at the Dharma Initiative Lamp Post Station can calculate where the Island will be for brief periods, thereby providing a window in which to access it.

Aircraft are able to reach the Island, though not without difficulty. Flight 815 crashed on the Island, a result of Desmond's temporary failure to contain the electromagnetic anomaly in the Swan Station. In "Lockdown", several pallets of supplies are dropped on the Swan Station, presumably by a C-130 or some sort of prop-type cargo plane, although the producers have dropped hints that the pallets may not come from above at all. Frank Lapidus, a member of the freighter crew sent by Charles Widmore, was able to pilot a helicopter to the Island and back several times, though not without some difficultly and a near-crash on the first attempt. Furthermore, the original Henry Gale was able to land his balloon on the island, and the plane carrying Eko's brother Yemi was able to reach the Island in some manner as well, though both crashed. In the fifth season, Ajira Airways Flight 316, also piloted by Lapidus, was able to make a controlled but overall safe crash landing on the smaller Hydra Island, utilizing a crude runway built by the Others.

Entering or leaving the Island itself is said to be extremely dangerous, especially if one has been exposed to a high amount of radiation or electromagnetism. Doing so under these circumstances can lead to one's consciousness traveling through time, eventually resulting in death unless a "constant" can be found between the present and the destination time period. Whatever barrier there is between the Island and the rest of the world distorts time and is difficult to get through, producing a great amount of turbulence for planes, boats, or even submarines. Traveling through the barrier on an incorrect bearing can result in physical time travel, as seen when Sayid, Desmond, and Lapidus went about a day in the future when they didn't go on the correct bearing. It appears that electronic signals and other non-living objects are also prone to do this.

In the game Lost: Via Domus, the main character Elliott Maslow tries to leave the Island in a boat he found using a special compass Locke gave him. As the boat nears the Island's border, the Hatch implodes and the sky turns purple. As Elliott wakes up, he finds himself at the Flight 815 crash-site once again, apparently just after the crash. Elliott hasn't landed in the same place as before, however, and his journalist partner Lisa Gelhorn is with him this time.

[edit] Ability to move

The Island can be forcefully displaced by means of an ancient stone wheel beneath the Dharma station known as the Orchid. Doing this is apparently a last resort as it is highly dangerous and very unpredictable; Ben alleges that the one to perform this procedure is banished from the Island and cannot return, though this is clearly not the case as both he and Locke turn the wheel yet are able to return. When the Island is moved as such, it vanishes in a blinding flash of light, as witnessed by Jack, Kate, Hurley, Lapidus, Sayid, Sun, and Desmond in the fourth season finale. After Ben moves the Island, certain people who were within the effect radius (not including the Others, except for Juliet) experience random jumps through time. This is apparently the result of Locke allowing Ben to move the Island, instead of doing it himself as instructed by Christian. The wheel is shown to be bouncing loosely when Locke returns to it in "This Place is Death", suggesting that the 'jittery wheel' may well have been the reason for the jumps experienced after the Island was moved. After Locke pushes the wheel the remaining distance, the time jumps cease.

[edit] Passage of time

Time on the island is moving separately from time in the "real world." In "The Economist", a missile is fired from a boat toward the island. According to Daniel Faraday's calculations, the missile does not reach the island when it should; it is 31 minutes, 18 seconds late. In "The Economist", the helicopter carrying Lapidus, Sayid, and Desmond leaves the Island late in the afternoon. Even though the flight only takes about 30 minutes, it arrives at the freighter the next morning. In "The Constant", it was revealed that time moves at the same rate both on and off the island, but it is only during the traveling between the two that the difference occurs. Doc Ray's body washes ashore in "The Shape of Things to Come". Jack orders Daniel to ask the freighter, via radio, what happened to the doctor. The people on-board respond that the doctor is fine, and is on the freighter "right now". Two episodes later, in "Cabin Fever", the doctor is murdered and thrown overboard.

[edit] Electromagnetism

An unusual form of naturally occurring electromagnetism is present on the island. While physical objects seem to be affected by the time passage, electromagnetism, such as radio waves are not affected. People are able to communicate directly to the outside world without a time lapse. Daniel Faraday also comments that the light appears to scatter differently on the island. The Dharma station named the Swan was built to study the unique form of electromagnetism found there. At the end of "Live Together, Die Alone", when Desmond has used the fail-safe device in the Swan Station to destroy it, a monitoring station in the Antarctic detects the electromagnetic event and reports it to their boss, Penelope Widmore.

[edit] Plot devices

[edit] The Monster

The Island is home to a mysterious entity, comprised of a black mass of smoke accompanied by mechanical-like sounds and electrical activity within, dubbed the "Smoke Monster" or just the "Monster" by the survivors. The monster has been described by Lost producer Damon Lindelof as "one of the biggest secrets" of the mythology.^[10] The producers have often hinted that the black cloud of smoke is not a monster in the traditional sense, nor is it a cloud of nanobots (as some fans have speculated).^[11][12] It has been repeatedly described as a "security system" for the Island, specifically the ruins of the temple on the Island. It emerges from vents in the ground to attack people, though it does not always attack those it encounters. The Monster is capable of lifting a grown man with virtually no difficulty, and in one instance tosses a man nearly fifty feet into the air. In another it wraps a tendril of smoke around a man's arm, severing it.

In January 2007, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse asked fans on Yahoo! Answers what they thought the monster was. They later picked their "favorite answer... not that it's the right answer [sic]." The response they chose suggested that the monster was "originally a highly advanced security system designed to separate participants of the DHARMA experiments" and frighten them with smoke and loud noises to prevent them from wandering outside of their hatches. However, the electromagnetic force of the island...mutated it - in the same sense that Desmond experienced time travel and can now see the future after [his] exposure - and made it malevolent and able to physically [interact with things]." The respondent also theorized that the monster could be "turned off" if the survivors found a control room for it. The producers restated that the answer could be "somewhat right, totally right - or completely off-base", but they thought it was "very cool and intriguing."

The Swan Station's blast door map makes several references to a "Cerberus" activity and also notes that this "Cerberus" prevents passage between certain stations, indicating the security system aspect of it may have gone down as early as 1984. Notations on the Blast Door map seem to confirm the "Cerberus" patrolling regions of the island that the Monster has been seen as well, suggesting that the two are one and the same. This is confirmed in a G4tv presentation of Lost in 2.0 (where Lost creators' have direct pop up windows within the episode, giving away or explaining away major plot devices, mysteries, and such), during the season 2 episode "Lockdown". According to KSL TV, "Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Jin, said in an interview that the origin and nature of the malevolent dark cloud will be disclosed and viewers will even get a glimpse of its lair. Turns out the monster is as 'old as the island' that's been home to the Oceanic jet-crash survivors and their foes."^[13]

The Monster is introduced early on in the show. On the night after the crash, the survivors hear a loud, unidentifiable sound coming from the jungle and witness trees being torn down in the distance. The next morning, while discussing the sound the Monster made, Rose commented that, "I keep thinking, there was something familiar about it." Jack, Kate, and Charlie saw the power of the Monster up close when it ripped the pilot from the cockpit of the plane they crashed in and left the mangled body in a tree, all without being seen on-screen. In "Walkabout", Locke also had a direct encounter with the monster but was spared. When Michael later asked Locke if he had seen it, Locke lied and claimed that he had not. Locke later told Jack, "I looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful."

In "Exodus, Part 1", Danielle referred to the monster as a "security system" whose purpose is to protect the Island. Later in the episode, Locke's second encounter provided the first on-screen glimpse of the Monster. In "The 23rd Psalm" Charlie and Eko had a confrontation similar to Locke's. As Eko stared down the Monster, the black smoke briefly flashed images of Eko's past. John Locke relates his own experience to Eko, to which Eko replies, "That is not what I saw." In "The Cost of Living", the monster killed Eko by slamming him repeatedly against nearby trees and the ground.

In another unseen appearance, the mechanical sounds of the monster can be heard during the episode "Exposé", right before Nikki is bitten by a "medusa spider", the same species as one of Arzt's research spiders, and in the episode "Special" when Michael is talking to his wife the monster can be heard for three seconds. The May 26, 2006 official Lost podcast claimed that viewers have seen the Monster after "The 23rd Psalm" without realizing they were looking at it. In the March 21, 2008 official Lost podcast, Damon Lindelof said that manifestations of the Monster included Yemi, the Medusa Spider that bit Nikki, and some of Walt's appearances while he was not with the survivors, although they were in more of a joking manner so they may have not been serious.^[14]

In the episode "Left Behind", the Monster appeared twice. It is unseen by the audience in the first encounter, when it released a series of bright flashes near Juliet. The Monster appears on-screen during the second encounter, where it is revealed that it cannot penetrate the Others' sonic wave fence. Juliet tells Kate that the Others don't know what the Monster is, but they know it doesn't like their fence.

When Locke holds Ben at gunpoint in "Confirmed Dead" and asks about the Monster, Ben claims ignorance. In the episode "The Shape of Things to Come", however, it becomes apparent that Ben knows more about the Monster than he has let on. After becoming enraged over the death of Alex, Ben disappears into a hidden room, which has an ancient stone door covered with hieroglyphs, only to emerge several minutes later covered in a dark ash like substance, telling the others they need to be as far away from the attacking mercenaries as possible. The Monster then suddenly arrives and proceeds to attack the mercenaries. It slithers on the ground causing the Barracks to rumble and consumes Keamy's team, extending a hand-like tendril to draw back a man running from it. In the next episode, it's revealed that the mercenaries survived, albeit badly shaken. When questioned about an injured man, Keamy responds that he was, "thrown fifty feet into the air by a black pillar of smoke."

The Monster appears as a drawing in "Cabin Fever". In a flashback, Richard Alpert comes to visit a five-year-old Locke in the early 1960s. Alpert becomes fascinated by a picture of the Monster which Locke drew, asking Locke about it. Locke gives no answer. In the picture, the Monster appears to be swirling around an unidentified person.

"This Place is Death" showcased Danielle's crew in 1988, joined by a time-jumping Jin, being attacked by the Monster near an ancient Temple. One of Danielle's crewmembers is dragged into the ruins. Jin demands that Danielle, being pregnant at the time, remain outside, while the rest of their crew go inside to save the missing crewman. What exactly happened inside the Temple is unknown, but when Jin jumps into the future, he observes an encounter between Danielle and her lover, Robert. During the exchange, Danielle accuses Robert of 'being changed' by the Monster inside the Temple. He denies this, but then attempts to kill her when she lowers her guard, leading her to kill him when he discovers that his weapon had its firing pin removed.

Following the crash landing of Flight 316 on the Hydra Island in "Namaste", Sun and Lapidus take an outrigger to the Dharma barracks on the main island, where they hear the monster and see it move some trees. The Whispers are heard after this, followed by Christian Shepherd appearing from one of the buildings to inform Sun of her husband's whereabouts.

In "Dead is Dead", Ben and Locke travel to the smoke monster's lair so Ben may be judged by it. The lair lies in a series of underground tunnels beneath the temple. It emerges from a primitive stone grate on the floor. Above the grate is a series of pictographs depicting a strange, lightning bolt-shaped monster approaching what appears to be Anubis. The monster confronts Ben, showing him images of his life with Alex up to her death, followed by a manifestation of Alex warning Ben not to harm John Locke under threat of death. Alex orders Ben to follow Locke's every word, to which he complies.

[edit] The Numbers

The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 appear throughout the series, both in sequence and individually. The numbers add up to 108, another common number in the series. According to the DHARMA Orientation video in the Lost Experience, the Numbers represent the factors of the Valenzetti Equation, which claims to accurately predict when humanity will be extinguished. The numbers are continually prevalent throughout the series, particularly in the Dharma Swan Station, where they constitute a code that must be entered into the Swan station's terminal. The writers introduced the numbers solely to engineer a meeting between Hurley and Rousseau, not because they had a plan for them.^[15]

They were broadcast from the Island's radio transmitter, and it was this message that drew Rousseau's expedition there. Although Rousseau changed the message after the deaths of the rest of her team, the transmission is heard by others off the Island, eventually making their way to Hurley through a fellow patient in the asylum he was in, Leonard Sims. Sims and a fellow sailor in the U.S. Navy, Sam Toomey, heard them while stationed listening post monitoring longwave transmissions over the Pacific, 16 years before the start of the series. Hurley uses the numbers to win a lottery before the crash, which brings those around him nothing but misfortune. Sam Toomey experienced similar misfortune to others, and eventually killed himself. Because of this, Hurley believes the numbers are cursed.

[edit] The "Magic Box"

The "magic box" is mentioned by Ben to Locke in "The Man from Tallahassee" as an attempt to explain how Anthony Cooper, Locke's father, arrives on the island. Ben asks Locke to imagine a box that can deliver anything the person could wish for. Later, Ben explains that Locke himself brought Cooper to the island by means of the box and his seemingly strong connection to the Island. Cooper explains to Sawyer that his arrival on the Island was by means of what appears to have been an elaborate kidnapping, but which Cooper himself believes to have been his death. Ben mentions later that the magic box was only a metaphor. Sawyer is seen reading a novel called The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien in season one. In the novel, the characters find an otherworldly location where they can produce any item they wish, from weapons to gold. The producers have indicated that there are several allusions to the novel within the writing of Lost.^[16]

[edit] Character timelines

[edit] The Dharma Initiative

A large number of Dharma workers were slaughtered by the Others at some point before the series began, hinted to be in 1992, in an incident known as "The Purge" ("The Man Behind the Curtain"). It has been confirmed in a podcast by the writers that Kelvin Inman was indeed a member of the Dharma Initiative who survived the purge, as was his partner Radzinsky who killed himself by gunshot before the crash of 815,^[17] assuming of course that Inman was telling Desmond the truth about Radzinsky.

[edit] Richard Alpert

The character Richard Alpert appears to be ageless. Over a period of fifty years, every appearance of Alpert depicts him as looking the same age as he does in the present. In "Jughead", Juliet states that Richard "has always been [on the Island]" and that he is "old".

[edit] Crossovers

Prior to their arrival on the Island, both major and minor characters have crossed paths, often unknowingly, sometimes affecting each others' lives. These crossovers are revealed through characters' flashbacks, and are typically obvious only to viewers. Some intersections are quite noticeable, with different characters conversing with each other, but most often the characters are oblivious to these crossovers, which take the form of other characters' appearances on televisions or as glimpses in the background. The crossovers become more frequent in the final episodes of the first season, as all the characters approach each other before arriving at the airport, and finally boarding the airplane.

Examples include Sawyer's conversation with Jack's father in a bar before boarding the plane, as well as Locke's father being the man who conned Sawyer's parents; Hurley's accountant buys him the box company that Locke had worked for; Hurley can be seen on a television in one of Jin's flashbacks; and Jack is asked to choose between performing operations on his future wife (whom he hadn't met yet) or Shannon's father (and Boone's stepfather).

The show's producers have always said that there was a reason characters appeared in each other's flashbacks. Damon Lindelof has stated that these are not "Easter eggs," but rather a larger part of the mythology of the series.^[18]

[edit] Sensory phenomena

[edit] The Whispers

At various times, whispering voices are heard by the characters, with no visible source of origin. Rousseau claims that these voices are of the Others, though it later becomes evident that this is not necessarily the case. Many of the whispers are unintelligible when heard on television. In more recent episodes, the whispering has been heard prior to the sudden appearance or disappearance of a member of the Others, as seen in "The Other Woman" when Harper approaches Juliet in this manner. Whispers are also heard when Hurley finds Jacob's cabin in season 4. They are heard again in the fifth season episode "Namaste", between an appearance by the Monster and an appearance by Christian. While taking Danielle Rousseau's child, Alex, Ben states that if she wishes for the child to live, whenever she hears "whispers" she should run the other way.^[19]

[edit] Visions

On the Island, numerous characters experience auditory and visual hallucinations, including apparent visions and messages from deceased family members. Both Jack and Eko receive visitations from dead relatives whose bodies are present on the Island but have mysteriously disappeared. Similarly, Locke converses with the deceased Boone during a vision quest in "Further Instructions". He received a similar vision from the apparently-deceased Boone, directing him to the site of a crashed airplane, while Boone was still alive. In the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain", Ben sees his deceased mother on the Island twice as a child, and this eventually leads him to join the Others. In a Missing Pieces episode, Jack's father Christian is shown interacting with Vincent and directing the dog to "wake Jack".

An image of Walt appears to Shannon on a number of occasions during the second season, and is later seen by Sayid, just prior to Shannon's death. Walt also appears to Locke, convincing him to get up after being shot because he has work to do.

Hurley experiences visions of Dave, an imaginary friend whom he had seen before while in a mental institution. Dave goads Hurley into briefly believing that the Island itself is his hallucination, and that he can only reawaken to his real life (in the mental institution) by leaping from a cliff. This might have been due to Hurley's mental state rather than because of the Island, however, and he is talked out of it by Libby.

In the episode "What Kate Did", Kate receives two visitations from her past: the seemingly channeled message from her deceased father, whom she had at first thought to be her stepfather, spoken by Sawyer while in delirium; and later, an appearance of a black horse which she believes is the same one that enabled her escape from custody. The horse was seen by Sawyer as well, and both he and Kate touched it and concluded that it was real. Similarly, Sayid sees a cat that looks like one belonging to a woman whom Sayid had tortured prior to the crash.

These visions seem to be capable of taking place off-island. Hurley is plagued by numerous visions of deceased characters, in particular his deceased friend Charlie, who tells Hurley, "They need you." These visions convince Hurley to resubmit himself to his old mental institution. In the season 4 finale, Sayid finds Hurley playing chess by himself, and Hurley eventually reveals he was playing with Mr. Eko. In "The Lie", a visions of Ana Lucia directs Hurley on how to escape from the police, tells him where he needs to go, and conveys a greeting from Libby before vanishing, an indication that deceased characters somehow communicate with each other. Jack also sees and hears his father sitting in a lobby chair at the hospital where he works in "Something Nice Back Home".

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Kaye, Sharon M. Lost and Philosophy: The Island Has Its Reasons. The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series (1 ed.). Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1405163151. http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=9781405163156. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. 
• Alan N. Shapiro, "TV’s ‘Lost’: The Crash Out of Globalization and Into the World," AVINUS-Magazin, Europäisches Online-Magazin für Media, Kultur und Politik, March 2007. http://magazin.avinus.de/2008/03/03/alan-n-shapiro-tvs-lost-the-crash-out-of-globalization-and-into-the-world-020307/

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