(3/8/07) Hostiles, Sayid ("Enter 77" Episode): Chillin' With The Ice Station Zebras Embedded in this episode is one of the great clues to the grand mystery of what has been, is, and will be happening on the island. Yes, I'm referring to that not-so-classic film, a favorite of Howard Hughes-- Ice Station Zebra! Read on, for the intriguing implications which the plot of this film has for Lost.... Hostile La Vista, Baby- The "Enter 77" episode provided at least two Easter eggs for us diehard fans of "The Prisoner" and Patrick McGoohan. The first one has some very interesting ramifications for understanding the past, present, and future activities on the island. 1. Most importantly, there is a subtle yet powerful homage to Howard Hughes' favorite film-- which just-so-happens to include Patrick McGoohan-- Ice Station Zebra (see Endnote 1.) Consider the following synopsis from Wikipedia: "A spy satellite malfunctions and drops its film cassette over Zebra. The photos taken are of both Soviet and Western facilities. The international humanitarian rescue mission is actually a race for strategic military top secrets; a Soviet task force is also sent." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra And consider that this race was run using SUBMARINES, which were explicitly identified in the "Enter 77" episode as a means of reaching the island, supported by the existence of cables running from the jungle to the beach and underwater, connected to submerged beacons guiding these vessels to the island.... If you're beginning to discount this since it was Mikhael who divulged the information, recall that one of the options provided by Dr. Candle/Wickmund to the winner of the chess game (Locke, in this case) was typing in "56", for "sonar access".... Now you're beginning to see the larger picture and related implications flowing from this tasty little Easter egg! Who are the hostiles/Others? While some have conjectured that they are descendants of the survivors from the Magnus Hanso Black Rock shipwreck, the Enter 77 episode raises some other tantalizing possibilities. In particular, the Ice Station Zebra connection suggests that the DHARMA Initiative may have had some deeper, more nefarious, motivations underlying its efforts on the island, and that DHARMA may have been involved in a race with the Soviets (and others?) to exploit the island's secrets, for military applications and strategic advantage.... Was there a race among competing nations/parties, to leverage the strategic military applications arising from the island's unique electromagnetic energy field? If so, this could explain why Russian-speaking 'hostiles' have been on the island for some time-- the Soviets may have sent an expeditionary force to the island, with the expressed purpose of conducting studies into harnessing the island's energy field as a source of a new class of weapons. And this also connects to the episode in which Penelope communicates with Russian-speaking observers stationed in some presumedly antarctic location, who recorded evidence of the after-effects of the purple-flash Swan hatch incident, disclosed to us in the "Flashes" episode. **** Ice Station Zebra involved submarines, a race among competing nations/parties to obtain strategic military secrets, the use of an international humanitarian rescue mission (DHARMA saving the world?) as a cover story, and a Soviet task force. The parallels are too striking and profound to overlook or dismiss....**** Recall that Mikhael claimed to have been in the Soviet military, in Afghanistan, with some experience in field medicine. And recall that Kelvin Joe Inman, ex-Swan hatch button-pusher: ".... was formerly an intelligence operative for the United States government, actively involved with prisoner interrogation during the Gulf War of 1990-1991, during which he made Sayid into an unwilling student of torture techniques. Later, Kelvin joined the DHARMA Initiative, and ended up on a two-man crew operating the Swan Station on the island. His partner was a man named Radzinski, who taught him how to hotwire the blast doors and draw an invisible map on them using detergent. After Radzinski kills himself (or so Kelvin tells the story), Kelvin continues to press the button alone until he finds Desmond, dragging him into the Swan in a Hazmat suit." The presence of these individuals on the island, especially Kelvin's involvement in the DHARMA Initiative, suggests that the existence of a deeper, darker military agenda is not an altogether implausible possibility.... Was DHARMA experimenting with psychics at the Swan hatch, to tap into, augment, and unleash the unique electromagnetic field, in part, to study the possibilities for using this as a technology for waging war? Was it this deeper, darker purpose that ultimately led to the events which culminated in the Swan hatch incident/accident? Is the island-- sitting as it is, atop a magnetite-infused, black rock foundation, producing a super-charged electromagnetic field-- serving as a giant psychic battery, AND as one large and remote testing site for leveraging the energy field's properties as a source of innovative weaponry, toward achieving strategic military advantage? Or, did DHARMA inadvertently stumble upon facilities and equipment previously established by the Soviets, notorious for their investigations into the paranormal? (See Endnote 2.) **** The second link in Endnote 2 directs us to a page containing a list (and abstract) for several "white papers." See the second listed/abstracted paper for a chilling and ominous connection to Lost.... More specifically, this paper-- written by Commander L.R. Bremseth of the U.S. Navy-- addresses the CIA-sponsored research (spanning 1972-1995) by the U.S. to close a gap with the Soviets, in leveraging paranormal phenomena as a source of military intelligence and "evolving forms of warfare". One technique in particular-- remote viewing-- was explored in this manner. Hmmm.... Wasn't there a reference to a remote viewing station on the Swan hatch UV map?!?! And when was it that DHARMA arrived on the island?!?! **** And are the Hostiles really good, after all, if it turns out that they actually rebelled against and opposed a deeper agenda to exploit the island's unique electromagnetic properties for insights into the development of new and improved strategic weapons? Who really was 'purging' whom, and for what reasons? Mikhael certainly appears to be aware of the effects of the new device we'll be seeing in next week's episode. Per the brief glimpse we were afforded after the conclusion of the "Enter 77" episode, this device appears to leverage the island's unique electromagnetic power to establish some sort of force field, the effect of which may be death, the dematerialization of physical forms (reverted Material Applications--> Energy), or? (We'll probably find out next week, when we see what actually happens to Mikhael after he leaps into the 'force field'.) 2. The second Prisoner/McGoohan Easter egg involves the map Sayid extracted from one of the DHARMA Flame hatch orientation manuals. This is an homage to the maps sold in the Village shop, in "The Prisoner" TV series. After his arrival to the Village, McGoohan entered the shop and asked if they had any maps. He was first shown a smaller black and white version, and he then asked for a larger map. The shopkeeper then showed him a larger multi-colored map of the Village. McGoohan explained that he wanted a map showing a larger area, beyond the Village, not a larger map of the Village per se. Of course, the shopkeeper was not able to provide what McGoohan wanted. The larger, multi-colored map is the one that later shows up in a drawer at his flat, in the Village. The typeface and overall design of the Village maps are reflected in the DHARMA map that Sayid reveals near the end of the "Enter 77" episode, a map which Sayid uses to identify the likely whereabouts of the Others-- The Barracks. (See Endnote 3.) The Saga of Sayid's Cat- One of the more intriguing aspects of Lost are the moments when something from someone's past unexpectedly shows up on the island, in tangible form. Kate's horse, Sayid's cat, Hurley and the van (sounds like a bad 1970's sitcom pilot!), are among the more notable examples. What's up with these interesting but puzzling appearances? Does this mean that the observers/Others have access to technology and devices which enable them to 'plant' these memories into the minds of Kate, Hurley, and Sayid, who are subsequently shown the physical object/manifestation of the memory-- the horse, the van, the cat? Although this theory does align with some aspects of "The Prisoner," it begins to fall down when we consider the example of Hurley and the van. It is one thing to say that we can implant a comparatively fleeting, episodic memory involving an object-- Kate's horse, Sayid's cat-- and later show that object to the person holding the memory (showing the horse to Kate and the cat to Sayid. It is harder to explain the implantation of a memory woven throughout a person's experiences, in a more extended and intermittent manner, as in the case of Hurley and his thin friend Johnny's van. (If the van on the island is not the same one as Johnny's, it sure looks close!) How were they (the observers/Others) able to implant/embed this image throughout the entire range of Hurley's experiences involving his thin colleague in fast-frying, cookin' chickenhood, Johnny? Maybe the opposite explanation is more apt, namely that the observers/Others did not plant memories/images, but instead 'harvested' or 'plucked' them from the minds of Kate, Sayid, and Hurley, and magically/HEMAtically translated these images into physical reality? But is a magical/HEMAtic component really necessary here? (Please see the "Home" page on this web site, for an introduction to HEMA Theory.) Per my prior discussion in the second half of the "HEMA Carrie" page, we need to guard against moving too quickly and directly to supernatural/magical/HEMAtical explanations, when more natural/unmagical/mundane explanations may suffice. This is NOT to say that nothing HEMAtical has ever happened on the island; rather it is simply reminding us to first exhaust the range of possible natural explanations, before we move to the realm of the supernatural/magical, where HEMA Theory is one approach to providing a more 'natural' explanation-- grounded in new, emerging research connecting science, psychology, etc.-- for some of the seemingly supernatural/magical occurrences on the island.... Three cases in point-- the horse, the cat, and even the van. We have previously seen how Ethan was involved with Claire, off-island, prior to the crash, in the role of a physician. I would be surprised if the off-island involvement of observers/Others was limited only to the pre-flight scene involving Ethan and Claire.... So a distinct possibility arises that Kate's horse, Sayid's cat, and even the van were, real memories, and that the observers/Others somehow found out about these images, through pointedly unmagical means. For example, perhaps they simply nterviewed key people associated with these memories: The marshall extraditing Kate from Australia back to the States, the woman who Sayid supposedly tortured and, of course, Hurley's thin fast-food chicken-cooking friend/coworker, Johnny.... (The van is even easier to explain, since the decomposition of the driver strongly suggests it is not Johnny's van, after all.) Then, all the observers/Others had to do was track down the horse, cat, and van, or very close approximations thereof-- after all, it was raining really hard when Kate saw that horse, and could Sayid really be sure it was exactly the same cat, and couldn't the observers/Others simply buy Johnny's van, or some other like/similar van-- and subsequently transport these things to the island (via plane?), where they were released or planted at the proper time, and properly island-aged, in the case of the van... (Please see the second half of the "HEMA Carrie" page, for more in this regard.) The Tortured Torturer- The "Enter 77" episode underscores some important themes examined in the "Beyond Free Will" page, including our ability to treat people as objects, and the potentially dire consequences of so doing.... Perhaps Gandhi was correct in observing that we first need to deal with the devil inside us all (see Endnote 4.) Through juxtaposed subject-object relations-- the torturer is now the tortured-- Sayid experiences the receiving end of the horror we all-too-often see played out in the broader world around us. Following Gandhi's admonition and lead, we must guard against falling prey to the facile objectification of others, especially others who are different from ourselves, lest we begin to slide down that slippery slope from slurs to hate crimes, torture, escalating to genocidal violence and war, resulting in the extermination of our species, which DHARMA so opposed. Through witnessing Sayid's personal story, and the unfolding group dynamics on the island-- Flight 815 survivors vs. the Others, even the Flight 815 'tailies' vs. 'fuselagers'-- as viewers of Lost we are observers to the 'devilish' potential in all of us for objectifying and harming others (especially those who are different from us), and for colluding with others as partners in negative ingroup/outgroup dynamics. These are some of the undeniably important themes being explored through Lost which, in subtle yet powerful ways, is holding a 'mirror' up to our face, prompting us to observe, examine, and reexamine our own lives.... After all, is it really a such a coincidence that one of the Flight 815 survivors is an Iraqi? Or that such a broad range of different races and religions (etc.) are represented by the survivors? (Note: For a further discussion of these issues, please see the "Beyond Free Will" page on this site. For an intriguing look at a more literal take on theme of 'the devil inside us all,' with a particular focus on Desmond, please see the "Final Solution" page.) Copyright 3/08/07 by Dr. Todd J. Hostager ENDNOTES: (1) For more information on Ice Station Zebra, please see the following site. Please note the Soviet/cold war connections to the Enter 77 episode: (2) Please see the following sites, for more information on the intriguing history of Soviet research on the paranormal, dating from the early 1960s. Were the Soviets already established on the island, conducting psychic experiments to exploit the unique electromagnetic energy field, when DHARMA arrived? Or, was DHARMA engaged in a cold war race with the Soviets, to exploit the island for military applications and strategic advantage? See the second "white paper" listed/abstracted on this site: (3) For more information on the classic TV series "The Prisoner," claimed by some to be the first bona fide mini-series, please see the following: Whilst teaching during the Fall, 2002 semester at Harlaxton College in Grantham, England, I obtained copies of these excellent guides to the series: Carraze, A., & Oswald, H. (1995). The Prisoner: A Televisionary Masterpiece. (Translated from the French by Christine Donougher, with English edition textual verification by Roger Langley.) 1995 Edition published by Virgin Publishing, Ltd., Thames Wharf Studios, London. White, M., & Jaffer, A. (1988.) The Official Prisoner Companion. Published by Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., London. (4) For more information on Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi, please see: |