Man of Morals, Man of Faith

As I continue to do this, it will become evident that I'm very much into the whole Jack vs. Locke, science vs. faith motif of Lost. Personally, I identify much more with Locke, though I by no means dislike Jack, as many fans seem to.

I just re-watched S2E1, "Man of Science, Man of Faith," last night. As one could obviously tell just from that title, that motif is dealt with even more explicitly than normal in this episode. Of course, the episode revolves around the mysterious hatch that they have just managed to open at the end of season 1. Jack and Locke were working together toward the goal of opening it, but we now see that they have entirely different motivations for doing so.

Jack's motivation: concern for the safety of himself and the rest of the Losties. The hatch could potentially turn out to be a shelter from some of the island's dangers (i. e. the monster, the Others, bad weather, etc.). Thus, when he sees that the ladder going into the hatch is broken, and that it would be impractical to try to get everyone down there, he decides they should all return to the beach. Essentially, Jack's concern is morals; he looks out for everyone because he believes it to be the ethical thing to do. (At least this is the way it seems on the surface, though there is plenty to cast some doubt on this, which I will talk about shortly.)

Locke goes along with Jack, but very hesitantly and only temporarily. Locke's motivations for wanting to enter the hatch are a bit harder to identify. For various (and, arguably, good) reasons, he believes that the Island itself led him to the hatch, and that it is part of his destiny to open it and enter into it. He seems to have never even entertained any thoughts of the potential practical benefits of the hatch. He just knows he's supposed to do it.

Once again, this comes down to an issue of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and of judging good and evil. When Locke decides to go against Jacks's decision and go back to the hatch that night, Jack asks him, "Do you really think that's the smartest thing to do right now, John?"

John answers, "I doubt it. In fact, you're right. The safest thing is to stay here -- wait for morning -- wait for these Others, to see if they show up -- wait for the brave folks on the raft to bring help -- but me, I'm tired of waiting." (Credit Lostpedia for the transcripts.)

Locke himself concedes that Jack's plan is good, smart, safe, and so on. But Locke isn't being motivated by the usual standards of wisdom or morality. It appears that his actions are the results of simple obedience. Obedience to what? one may ask, and that's what we're not sure about. But Hebrews 11:1 has some bearing here: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (NASB). Thus, were Locke to see exactly who (or what) is leading him towards his perceived destiny, that would be in conflict with the very nature of faith.

One of the ironies of this episode however is that there are hints that Jack may not being motivated by purely practical or ethical concerns. It seems that some past experiences may be biasing him against faith, miracles, the supernatural, etc. When they are about the leave the site of the hatch, Locke asks Jack why he doesn't want to go in. We never do get an answer though, as the scene immediately cuts to a Jack flashback, indicating that the answer to the question lies in Jack's past.

Through the flashbacks of this episode, we learn that Jack has seen at least one miracle before. He operated on a young woman named Sarah after her spine was crushed in a car accident. He's very honest with her at first, telling her that the chances she'll walk again are near none. As we see from a conversation with his dad, he's adamant about not giving people false hope. But when he sees that Sarah actually has given up all hope, he gets caught up in a moment of Quixotic heroism and promises her that he'll "fix her," which he seems to immediately regret. He does the surgery, and from what he can tell, he didn't keep his promise; her spine seems irreparable. To blow off some energy, he goes running up some stairs at a stadium when he runs into a man named Desmond. He relates the whole story to him, and Desmond questions Jack's lack of faith for a miracle. When Jack returns to the hospital, the miracle has actually taken place: Sarah has feeling in her legs.

So we see that there are some deeper issues here than mere "science vs. faith." Jack has apparently been confronted with evidence of something supernatural, yet he still doggedly denies it, rather than letting the evidence speak for itself. It seems to me that the faith Locke has intimidates Jack. The answer to the question Locke asks then, "Why don't you want to go down there, Jack?" is that all of Locke's talk about faith and destiny have caused Jack to fear that if he goes down there, he'll be confronted once again with things he doesn't want to believe. Then, the ultimate irony of course, is that it is the very same man who confronted him before about miracles, Desmond, who is in the hatch. Locke perceives that Desmond is part of the source of Jack's skepticism, when he asks Jack, "Is the reason you're so upset because he said he recognized you? Because that would be impossible." Once again, Jack's defences have gone up as he is confronted with something that he can't find a natural explanation for.

As we see with the antagonism between Jack and Locke, faith and the actions it motivates can often be (though not necessarily) in direct conflict with our sense of morality and the actions it motivates. In the world of Lost, it appears as though when this conflict occurs, the actions of faith must take precedence. From what we've seen so far, Locke appears to be on firmer ground than Jack, who avoids supernatural explanations on principle, rather than having an open mind to all the possibilities.

Another famous story in which obedience in faith has to take precedence over a man's natural sense of right and wrong is in the story of Abraham and Isaac, but I'll save that discussion for my next post.

One of Us

"Welcome to the wonderful world of not knowing what the hell is going on."


With these words Kate welcomes Juliet into the community of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, in the episode titled "Left Behind." The line serves more than one purpose though, as do many things in Lost. In a show in which the writers love to play with ideas of "us vs. them" and our concepts of Self and Other, Juliet has begun a very uneasy transition from one of "them" to "One of Us" (which is, conveniently, the title of the very next episode, which deals more extensively with this transition). Becoming "One of Us" does not simply refer to being a member of the 815 community, but also being part of the community of Lost viewers, who share in the Losties' desperate quest to discover an explanation for the bizarre happenings on the island.

I find many parallels between Lost and the Biblical tale of the Fall of Man. When Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God says, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:22, New American Standard, italics mine). Here we see the same kind of "Us and Them" theme played out in the Bible as we do in Lost. In the Genesis account, the distinction between the two is a good one: for God's perfect plan to work, he needed man to not be like him, at least in the aspect of knowing good and evil. Thus, the cause of the Fall is man's decision that he will judge for himself what is good and what is bad, rather than letting God be judge of those things. The problem with this decision is that man does not share in God's omniscience nor in his wisdom. Therefore, all of our problems and our pain are the results of our attempts to make judgments that are based on partial knowledge and faulty perceptions. We reject God's will for us because, in our near-sightedness, we do not perceive the full scope of it. In addition, we lack the faith to simply trust God in the face of our insufficient understanding.

From what we can tell so far, it appears that the Lost crew are suffering the same fate, especially with the way things appear from the Season 3 finale. Apparently, there are many things about the island that the Losties are not supposed to know, i. e., forbidden knowledge. They want to get off the island because they are ignorant of their purpose for being there. As Locke, Ben, and future-Jack all tell us, they are not supposed to get off the island. Future-Jack's life is in shambles, primarily because he, despite several warnings, took matters into his own hands and made a decision based on partial knowledge. He thought what he was doing a good thing, but obviously in this case he needed faith, in order to trust that what was happening to him was all for a reason.

Our ability to reason and use sound logic is a good thing; however, given the limited nature of our knowledge, we need faith to supplement it. The Losties, all of the them but Locke that is, are using sound human reasoning: "My plane crashed on an island; there's weird stuff going on and it's dangerous, therefore I need to be rescued." Though perfectly logical, there is apparently something problematic with this. The Losties need to have some type of faith that is willing to cope with the evidence that there is some greater purpose for what they are enduring. Unfortunately, future-Jack seems to have found this faith a little too late. Or maybe it's not too late. I'm guessing that whatever/whomever it is that is bringing this purpose about (Jacob? The Island? God?) and brought the Losties to the island in the first place, is probably capable of getting those who left back on the island.

I've heard some fans of the show say that there will be understandable scientific explanations for all of Lost's mysteries. Dare we make the same mistake as Jack, whose seemingly-good, logical judgments have led to obviously unwanted consequences? Let's keep our eyes open.

Perception Lost

From the opening shot of season 1, episode 1, the hit ABC TV show Lost has been all about perspective. Those tuned in to ABC on the night of September 22, 2004 were greeted with a close up of an eye, belonging to Jack Shephard. Minutes later, as Jack is shaking off the cobwebs from his blackout, the camera does this weird thing where it appears to be presenting a view of the island from Jack's perspective, then quickly pans out, does a 180, and is now on Jack. All of this is the writers' way of cluing us in, that things are not going to be quite the way they seem. Again, it's all about perspective.

With this blog, I intend to publish my thoughts about Lost being a show that intends, above all else that it seeks to do, to show its viewers that our perceptions are, at best, faulty. Viewed through this lens, Lost is then essentially about the same thing as the Biblical narrative of the Fall of Adam and Eve in Eden and Milton's Paradise Lost. Recall from the 3rd chapter of the book of Genesis that the sin that beget all Sin involved Adam and Eve eating fruit from a tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The blogs I publish here will all focus on making connections between this fact and the themes of the show. My point will be that the evil we encounter in our fallen world, as well as the problems that present themselves in the plot of the show and in the viewers' perceptions of the show and its characters, are the result of our desire as fallen human beings to judge for ourselves what/who is good and what/who is evil.

I'll post my first full blog soon. I love this show, and doing this should be lots of fun.