（写于LOST第2季结束后）
If you recommend a TV series someone hasn’t seen, the first questions are usually: ‘What’s it about? What’s so good about it?’ For most shows—24, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, The 4400, and so on—that’s easy to answer. Take Prison Break: ‘The hero’s brother is framed for murdering the vice president’s brother and sentenced to death; the hero deliberately commits a crime to get himself imprisoned and helps his brother escape. Later, they discover the whole imprisonment was a conspiracy by the U.S. government. It’s exciting, tense, and thrilling.’ But if someone asks me to introduce LOST that way, I find it hard to sum up in a sentence or two. I can only say: ‘A plane crashes, but many passengers survive on an island…’ Then, without waiting for me to continue, the other person naturally files LOST alongside Cast Away, Robinson Crusoe, and other island-survival stories. But LOST is absolutely not just that. Fate, suspense, conspiracy, science fiction, shock… Two seasons have passed, and viewers still can’t quite figure out what LOST is ultimately trying to say, yet that hasn’t dampened the fans’ passionate pursuit. I also think LOST is the greatest TV series ever made, although I don’t know exactly what it means. Generally speaking, a dish has a main ingredient and a main seasoning; it tastes good because the seasoning brings out the ingredient. So what are LOST’s main ingredient and seasoning? Where does it taste good? I can only say that LOST is a bowl of mixed rice: the ingredients are wildly varied, every flavor is intense, yet somehow they fit together perfectly. So LOST is a delicious mixed rice bowl that leaves you ‘soul-crushed.’
Fate VS Conspiracy
Among LOST’s many seemingly central ‘quasi-themes,’ the most fascinating are undoubtedly ‘fate’ and ‘conspiracy.’ And they happen to be two completely opposing themes. ‘Fate’ implies ‘divine will,’ not ‘human agency.’ In LOST, fate appears in two forms. One is countless coincidences. Why did the 815 survivors, who seemed to have nothing in common, have thousands of connections before the crash? If all those seemingly irrelevant coincidences—Sawyer’s encounter with Ana Lucia, Kate’s father once escorting Sayid as a prisoner in the Iraq War, and so on—are just the writers fooling around, then core plot points such as Desmond and Jack meeting on the island, or Eko meeting his brother’s corpse, cannot be explained away so casually. We can only say that these people were ‘destined to meet.’ Some force in the dark has drawn this group of people to the island. Everyone came ‘for a reason,’ and everyone receives redemption there. It is an island of healing: physical ailments and the shadows in people’s hearts are all healed, or are still being healed. Likewise, the ‘coincidences’ before the crash are hard to dismiss as mere tricks. Jack cures a patient of a disease thought incurable, and this happens just before his fateful meeting with Desmond; before the crash, Eko investigates the miracle of the ‘dead returning to life,’ and the man who rose from the dead tells him that he and his dead brother will meet somewhere, someday. Can all this really be God’s arrangement?
But the problem is that after the 815ers arrived on the island, they became entangled in a completely ‘human’ plan or conspiracy. The island’s miracles seem to be caused only by explainable science—the huge magnetic field can both heal illness and induce hallucinations. Some clues even suggest that the 815ers themselves are part of the island’s plan or conspiracy. The secrets hidden on the island seem to be one enormous conspiracy: the Dharma Initiative or the Others’ grand scheme. If everything is a closely guarded human plan, then God can only stand by and watch. This is exactly opposite to the ‘divine will’ described above. Moreover, such a huge ‘project’ seems beyond the power of any human being, whether it belongs to the Dharma Initiative or the Others. Human power seems unable to arrange so many coincidences; and even if the various wonders after the crash can be explained scientifically, science still struggles to account for the pre-crash coincidences.
So what most LOST fans want to figure out is this: does the show ultimately mean fate or conspiracy? Whichever it is, how do we explain the parts that neither single theme can explain? But I wonder, why must we abandon one of them? I think ‘divine will’ and ‘human agency’ can coexist—and that may well be the show’s original intention. God sets the rules of the game but rarely takes part in it. God’s wisdom lies in staying out of the way while letting the world run according to divine will. God is using human agency as the hand of conspiracy, acting out divine will and accomplishing fate’s salvation. That is true ‘outsmarting nature’ and ‘winning without drawing a blade.’ So I suspect the creators will preserve LOST’s debate between ‘fate’ and ‘conspiracy’ until the series ends, disappointing most viewers who are waiting for an answer. Still, I think this may be the best answer: the plan and conspiracy really exist, but within the darkness there is an arrangement of its own. I think the creators’ design actually echoes Taoist philosophy. And this reading isn’t pulled from thin air: the symbol of the mysterious Dharma Initiative is, coincidentally, a distorted ‘Bagua Tai Chi diagram.’
Thus, in LOST, the opposing themes of ‘fate’ and ‘conspiracy’ are ingeniously blended together. Viewers can enjoy the reasoning and analysis of a suspense thriller while also feeling the sense of destiny that mysterious-theme films evoke.
It seems the chefs who cooked up LOST’s grand feast have extraordinary skills: even ingredients with completely different flavors can be combined into a uniquely delicious dish.
Literary Sensibility VS Explosive Plot
Besides its themes, LOST’s appeal also lies in how it tells its story.
One of LOST’s greatest distinguishing features is its frequent switching between the ‘present’ and ‘flashbacks.’ The flashback segments are relatively relaxed, with delicate characterization and the literary sensibility of a traditional art film. The present-day segments often involve the Dharma Initiative, the Others, conspiracies, and various suspenseful hooks; their pace is generally faster, displaying the mystery and shock of thrillers, the tension of action films, and the wonder and imagination of science fiction. ‘Flashbacks’ are literary; the ‘present’ is explosive. This seems like another contradiction. Yet few viewers find anything wrong with the technique. The creators have mastered the essence of ‘alternating tension and release.’ Only this combination can hold the audience and leave an aftertaste. To capture viewers’ hearts, the most important thing is to create characters who seize them—and that requires a little ‘literary sensibility.’ As for sheer shock value, LOST is hard to compare with 24. 24 is intensely tense and stimulating on a first viewing, but afterward there is little to savor. LOST is different: the result of its alternating tension and release is that many fans finish it and become lost in LOST, with endless aftertaste and no easy escape. Some complain that LOST moves too slowly, but those complainers are generally viewers watching in sync with the U.S. broadcast. Among viewers who watched the whole series, very few make that complaint. So this is really a difference in viewing habits between Chinese and American audiences, not a problem with the series itself.
As you can see, this mixed rice bowl contains ingredients with enormous differences in flavor, and it is cooked by every possible method—some fried, some stewed. Yet the resulting dish is remarkably delicious, a testament to the chefs’ extraordinary skill.
The Possibility of the Dharma Initiative—Skinner’s Utopia
Only here can we begin discussing the substance of LOST’s plot. The ‘fate’ in LOST’s themes is not difficult to understand; after two seasons, most of the mysteries have concentrated on ‘conspiracy.’ The core question is: what is the true purpose of the Dharma Initiative on the mysterious island, and how is it being carried out?
In fact, the recording tape discovered at the Swan station at the beginning of season 2, which introduces the Dharma Initiative, already gave us many clues.
The tape says that the Dharma Initiative was founded to ‘follow in the footsteps of a great dreamer like Skinner’ and conduct a multidisciplinary joint study. So let’s look at what disciplines the tape says they studied together. These studies actually explain most of the island’s mysterious phenomena:
1. Meteorology
Remember how every 815er is caught in a downpour as soon as they enter the jungle? Locke can even predict when it will rain with uncanny accuracy. Also, judging from the end of season 2, the mysterious island may be near the poles, yet its climate resembles a tropical rainforest. The island’s weather—and even its climate—was therefore artificially created. This is clearly one area of the Dharma Initiative’s research. Exactly how they achieved climate control on such a scale remains unknown.
2. Psychology
The station Locke and Eko discovered, which was eventually confirmed as a Dharma Initiative station, was a psychology research station. And the station conducted a classic blind experiment in psychology. In a blind experiment, the researchers do not know what is being studied—sometimes they do not even know that they themselves are being studied. Clearly, the station’s personnel were actually the research subjects, while they believed they were studying other people.
3. Parapsychology
This is a crucial project! In plain language, parapsychology studies extraordinary human abilities. Although it looks pure nonsense to us today, historically parapsychology was indeed treated as a legitimate field and studied within psychology. Quite a few psychologists once seriously conducted experiments and tests on people with unusual abilities. Because most results could not be replicated, parapsychology gradually faded and has basically left the stage of history. (Crazy Diamond, original piece for @mtime.) But in LOST, the creators clearly assume that parapsychology exists—and that it is an important part of the Initiative’s research. This is why Walt, who possesses extraordinary abilities, matters so much. At the end of season 2, even Henry says they learned a great deal from Walt. Clearly, the Dharma Initiative’s parapsychological research made a breakthrough because of Walt. Seen this way, the Others are precisely the group responsible for parapsychology research within the Dharma Initiative. There are still some doubts, however. From the research logs already discovered, the Dharma Initiative seems to have been officially abandoned (though this may well be an illusion). And the Others themselves appear to possess unusual abilities: ‘walking through grass without leaving a trace,’ whispering privately with a three-dimensional sound effect, ‘creating a fire illusion,’ Ethan dragging two people by himself, and so on. So it is quite possible that the Others were originally the subjects studied in the Dharma Initiative’s parapsychology project. The Initiative’s present desolation may be related to the backlash from these ‘lab rats.’ But for reasons unknown, the Others are still conducting parapsychological research.
4. Zoology
The footage introducing “zoology” happens to show two polar bears fighting. Combined with the polar bear Sawyer shot dead in Season 1, it isn’t hard to infer that polar bears were actually the subjects of the zoology project. The project was probably studying things like how animals survive in environments that aren’t their own. It may even have included telepathy between animals and humans—which is why a black horse appeared when Kate was feeling guilty.
5. Electromagnetism
The electromagnetism project was originally meant to study the island’s unique electromagnetic phenomena—which can also explain the hallucinations people experience on the island and the illnesses they are cured of. After an accident occurred, the project had to discharge excess electrical charge at regular intervals. That’s how the job of pressing the button every 108 minutes came about.
6. An Idealized Society (Utopia)
My guess is that this was actually the common purpose behind all the research! The Dharma Initiative’s ultimate goal was to establish an “ideal society” founded on the multidisciplinary research above. Which would explain why the footage mentions only one real-life scientist—Skinner. Why was the Dharma Initiative following Skinner’s footsteps rather than those of some other scientist?
Who was Skinner? He was the most influential psychologist in American history—his influence on the United States was even greater than that of the famous S. Freud. He was also the leading representative of behaviorism, the school of psychology that once dominated the field. So why does the footage call him a “visionary”? Because he was not only an exceptionally accomplished builder of psychological theories; he was also keen to put those theories into practice, which made him an inventor as well. He designed a teaching machine for programmed instruction and even invented a special crib for his own child. But the main reason he became a “visionary” was that he wrote a novel considered the “book of the century,” Walden Two. In it, he constructed an ideal society: “In this country, people share property and raise children together. They love one another, and do not compete, envy, hate, or feel anger. It is one happy extended family, and there will never be war.” (Shu-Ping Lu, The Twin Oaks Beyond the World) The precondition and guarantee for making this society work was the implementation of measures such as “reinforcement” from Skinner’s psychological theory. This has a distinctly utopian, somewhat fanciful quality. In fact, if visionary is understood pejoratively, it means “dreamer.” And in some histories of psychology, Skinner was indeed judged to be a dreamer.
Seen this way, the Others, the other researchers and subjects of the Dharma Initiative, and even the 815ers all acquire another identity: practitioners of Skinner’s fanciful ideal kingdom. For example, the 815ers’ social relationships would make an excellent subject of study. Skinner’s ideal kingdom has something of the flavor of “communism in poverty,” and the 815ers’ current living conditions—even possibly those of the Others—fit the setup remarkably well. The designers of the Dharma Initiative’s idealized-society project may even have created a corresponding religion for the ideal kingdom’s “citizens.” That could also explain the remains of the statue with four toes. The statue’s ruin may have marked the Others’ seizure of power and the failure of the project.
That is my guess about the truth behind the Dharma Initiative. But how these plans were actually carried out is still difficult to imagine or infer.
The Four Powers on the Mysterious Island
Even if the Dharma Initiative really was as I have guessed, there are still far too many mysteries on the island to explain. At the heart of them is this: how many forces are there on the island, exactly? And what is their relationship? On the surface, there may be four.
The first is the force made up of the designers, researchers, and staff of the Dharma Initiative. They may well have abandoned the Dharma Initiative: no one seems to care about Desmond’s predicament with his partner, and the psychology station also appears to have been abandoned. Yet some routine facilities are still operating, such as the regular food drops—which may not actually be drops, of course. Naturally, “abandoned” may just be an illusion, and that too may be part of the research.
The second is the accidental intruders, such as the 815ers, the real Henry, Desmond, and the French woman. Whether they really entered the island by “accident” is still unknown.
The third is the Others. I analyzed their identity earlier. In my view, they may be researchers in a parapsychology project, but it is even more likely that they are subjects with certain paranormal abilities themselves. The original researchers may have been wiped out or driven away by them. They are currently the island’s de facto rulers, but they may not understand the Dharma Initiative’s full picture. And they may not be bad people. In fact, by the end of Season 2, the Others hadn’t killed a single person!
The fourth is the island’s supernatural force. The black smoke, the bird that calls out Herly’s name, and the island’s unique electromagnetism—are these supernatural forces controlled by a fourth power? Or are they still part of the Dharma Initiative or the Others? This is actually the biggest mystery at the moment.
Hungry and Lost in Melancholy
That about sums up my general thoughts on LOST. I think this bowl of stew was delicious, but I reached the bottom after eating only half of it. Now I’m hungry and lost in melancholy. I wonder how much longer I’ll have to stay lost in melancholy over it.
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