The Lost Theory of Purgatory
The ABC drama Lost has been a hotbed for debate, speculation and theorization by fans since the series first began in 2004. Although the basic premise appears rather simplistic—a trans-Pacific airliner crashes on an island with only a few dozen survivors—the story grew more and more complex as the episodes aired, leaving viewers to ponder the implications. Subsequent questions were temporarily answered when fans began offering there own opinions about the mysteries of Lost, and during the initial season the most prominent theory centered on the Lostaways being trapped in purgatory.
Even though only a handful of passengers survived the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, the more remarkable aspect was that they survived almost entirely unscathed. As the first season progressed—and an unseen, tree-crunching monster as well as out-of-their-habitat polar bears were thrown into the mix—a series of flashbacks further revealed that none of characters were necessarily who they appeared to be. The seemingly innocent Kate Austin, for instance, was actually a dangerous criminal-on-the-run being escorted from Australia to the United States by a federal marshal. The obnoxious and arrogant James “Sawyer” Ford, meanwhile, was a professional conman seeking revenge against the man responsible for the deaths of his parents, and the apparent hero of the series, Dr. Jack Shephard, had severe father issues that prevented him from fully assuming the mantel of leadership amongst the survivors.
Probably the most startling flashback, however, had to do with the bald, older gentleman named John Locke who sold himself as some sort of “Great White Hunter” but, in actuality, was a consummate sad-sack who worked at a box company and had been paralyzed from the waist down for four years before crashing on Lost Island. Something was obviously different about the place, not only in terms of its apparent ability to heal but in the opportunity it provided for the survivors to overcome the flaws of their previous life and achieve a measure of redemption.
Adding to the growing purgatory theory during that initial season were little snippets of dialogue spoken by the various characters. “It doesn’t matter what we did before this, before the plane crashed,” Jack Shephard told Kate Austin in the third episode. “Three days ago, we all died. We all deserve a second chance.” Sayid Jarrah, a former torturer for the Iraqi Republican Guard, later explained that a short note on the back of a loved-one’s photograph translated into “I will see you again in the next life, if not in this one.” Even going into the second season such references of an after-life continued—hatch resident Desmond Hume made the remark “See you in another life” on more than one occasion while Sayid told Ana-Lucia Cortez, “What good would it do to kill you when we’re both already dead?” Although small and seemingly inconsequential on the surface, such comments fueled speculation that the island on Lost was indeed purgatory.
Then there was the matter of death. The first major character to die on Lost was Boone Carlisle, half-brother to the spoiled Shannon Rutherford. Although legally related, there were no true blood ties between them as Boone’s mother married Shannon’s father after the birth of both siblings. Still, the fact that Boone was in love with his “sister” was an icky revelation and it took a drug-induced therapeutic remedy from John Locke to force Boone to overcome the unhealthy nature of his feelings for Shannon, as well as his tendency to bail her out of unfortunate, self-induced situations. But just when he reached such emotional enlightenment, an accident led to his untimely death.
Ironically enough, Shannon was the second Lostaway to die, but again not until she achieved a personal epiphany about her selfish ways by finding a genuine romantic relationship with Sayid Jarrah. Even long after the producers of Lost debunked the theory that the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were in purgatory, subsequent deaths of the sprawling cast seemed to occur only after they had reached some sort of inner peace regarding their pre-crash lives. Rock star Charlie Pace, for instance, overcame his addiction to heroine and was willing to sacrifice his life in order to save fellow survivor Claire Littleton, while Ana-Lucia Cortez recanted her need for homicidal revenge when left alone with the equally murderous Benjamin Linus.
If there was one character, however, who personified the theory that the island on Lost was purgatory, it was Mr. Eko. The former Nigerian warlord had assumed the identity of his dead brother and priest, Yemi, to escape capture years earlier. On the island, however, he began to embrace the religious undertones of his new identity and became a very soft-spoken disciple of Christianity. In the season three episode, “The Cost of Living,” Eko is confronted by his dead brother and asked to confess his sins but the former warlord refuses. “I ask for no forgiveness, Father, for I have not sinned,” he begins. “I have only done what I needed to do to survive. A small boy once asked me if I was a bad man. If I could answer him now, I would tell him that when I was a young boy, I killed a man to save my brother’s life. I am not sorry for this. I am proud of this.” Yemi then reveals himself not be Eko’s sibling but the smoke monster terrorizing the island instead and proceeds to kill Eko for his non-repentant ways.
As previously stated, the producers of Lost denied early on that purgatory was the answer to the show’s mysteries. This did not stop them, however, from revisiting the possibility on more than one occasion as the years progressed. The most striking example is in the episode “Ab Aeterno,” which occurred in the sixth and final season of Lost. Early in the installment, Richard Alpert, the never-aging Other, tells Jack Shephard that he is dead. “I mean literally,” he continues. “We’re all dead. Every single one of us. And this, all this, it’s not what you think it is. We’re not on an island, we never were. We’re in Hell.” The episode goes on to reveal Richard’s past in a long flashback to the year 1867 as well as both the “why” and “how” of the false conclusion he has come to believe.
Even though the island on Lost is not purgatory, it is still a mystical place that has forced many of the characters to come to terms with the flaws and imperfections of their pre-crash lives, achieve redemption and transform into better human beings. From Boone Carlisle to Shannon Rutherford, Charlie Pace to Ana-Lucia Cortez and even the likes of Jack Shephard, Kate Austin and James “Sawyer” Ford, these survivors have evolved over the course of events that followed the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Although not referring to purgatory or an after-life literally, Jack’s line in the third episode of Lost still resonates as a major theme of the show: “It doesn’t matter what we did before this, before the plane crashed. Three days ago, we all died. We all deserve a second chance.”
Anthony Letizia (April 12, 2010)
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