As part of my interview with Dr. Tronchin on the Archaeology of Lost she mentioned Jeremy Bentham and his panopticon in relation to Jacob’s Lighthouse. This got me thinking about the Locke vs. FLocke, Hurley vs. Miles and why on earth “Jacob” would be so cool with Jack destroying the Lighthouse surveillance system.
Things I began to call into question? Who really built the Lighthouse and used it for surveillance, is Hurley really psychic, and what was the purpose of Jack destroying the lighthouse? I don’t want to get to involved with a huge narrative here but it will be difficult since Lost is such a winding road of convolution. I’ll try to just spell it out and I may resort of bullet points if that is okay with everyone. Okay… so, starting with my Hurley issues, here I go.
No… wait. I can’t start with my Hurley issues. Ya know why? Well, I was just informed that Darlton has confirmed that Hurley is, in fact, seeing ghosts. That these spirits are not the agents of the MIB and that neither are the voices in the jungle. So there goes a major cornerstone of my theory. Guess I’ll just try to build my theory pyramid style then…
Well crap… I’m not even really in the mood anymore. Darlton has let the wind out of my sails again… why couldn’t they have just shut up for the entire last season? Joss Whedon would have never made this mistake on Buffy… or Angel… or Firefly… or Dollhouse. Grrrrrrr…
So… I’ll be brief.
It seems as though FLocke has been mirroring things that John Locke did in previous seasons. He split up the group, he blew up the submarine, He killed a bunch of Boars… He walked around all manly and silent… he squinted his eyes into the sun as he spoke making himself seem wise and believable? What? Yeah… I’m talking out my ass… got a problem with that? It’s been a rough day!
oh crap… this is weak.
What you are witnessing here is failure to write a cohesive blog. I have been bested by the writers… the creators… the show runners of Lost. AGAIN! I can’t even find the energy after painstakingly picking through dialogue from episodes where Hurley talked to ghosts, finding some really great stuff that points to someone luring Hurley to the island both the first time AND the second time. All in hopes of getting him there, especially the second time, to become leader (#23) and lure the candidates to FLocke.
I mean… take Dave for example… you remember, Hurley’s imaginary or ghost friend from the mental hospital? Here are things that Dave said when they were in the hospital: To a bunch of nutters playing basketball, “Dude, dude, give up the rock!” and to Hurley, “Dude, that’s celery. Celery is not a snack. Leonard’s got graham crackers, man. You should snag one. He won’t notice. What’s he going to do — call you a 23?”
Those were some awesome clues… islandy sounding things. See that #23 comment there? Pretty brilliant Losting on my part to go way back to the “Dave” episode and point to Hurley becoming the one in charge, right? Perhaps these things were clues to that effect but then perhaps they got ditched when they decided to make Hurley a real psychic as a plot device… to use him as a means of exposition. UG! What did all of my fiction writing professors tell me? Show don’t tell? Wow… I’m cranky.
I was going to go through all of the things that different members of the Oceanic 6 saw and heard when they were off island and how they were, perhaps visions created by MIB drawing them back to the island to set his grand plan to kill Jacob and get off the island into motion.
How would he do that though? How would he throw himself, like a ventriloquist, off the island that way? Well… perhaps he used the Lighthouse to do it. Maybe it wasn’t just a way to spy on the Candidates? Maybe the MIB found a way to communicate through it. Maybe MIB was even responsible for building it?
Stay with me here…
When Locke was off island after turning the donkey wheel, he used the alias Jeremy Bentham. The real Jeremy Bentham was the mastermind behind the panopticon; a prison or other industrial type building designed to able whoever ran the facility to be able to anonymously observe the inhabitants of the building. He designed his first, a prison in 1875. Later panopticon became more of a metaphor used to describe technologies that made surveillance of society more transparent, undetectable. This Lighthouse, that looks like the Pharos of Alexandria, was indeed the ultimate surveillance tool.
So then… John Locke, who was killed by Ben while living under the Bentham alias, was stuck in a coffin and delivered to the island to become an instrument of MIB. I’m convinced all this was a plot orchestrated by MIB, with help from Ben who thought he was working for Jacob (was he ever?)
Just the use of the alias there feels like a clue… a clue that points to the man who now inhabits the body of John Locke as being the original island Jeremey Bentham. That he perhaps, either built the Lighthouse or maybe just rigged it so he could manipulate those off island in a similar way that Jacob did. But instead of traveling off island, he was throwing his voice, or visions at certain Candidates.
With the Hurley info… him not being psychic… I may have been able to spin a pretty tight theory that the MIB had created the Longest Con of all… that he had been controlling every thing since the Candidates first landed on the beach. And perhaps he was… but I can’t really do much to try to prove that with Hurley being an actual psychic. pfffffft.
I know… all of this sounds so crazy… but you try and come up with something unique and different about this show under the pressure of revealing something before Darlton can beat you to it and dash your hopes of finally having a great theory… one that just might work out.
Oh well… there is always Cabrera’s spaceship theory, right?
Sorry that there aren’t any pictures in this one. I’m too grumpy thanks to flappy lips Darlton to even want to sit at my computer any longer.
I am still excited about tonight’s “Across the Sea” where supposedly we will be given lots of answers about Jacob, MIB and the island. Unless they’re just going to hint at things and then Darlton will put up a podcast and EXPLAIN everything for us like we’re a bunch of 3-year-olds looking a a picture book.
Yes… I’m an angry chick and I love it. Until next time I will leave you with one of my favorite dudes:
My Crazy Lost Theory 