If This Place Is Death’.Where are We and how do we get there?

I now have a new favorite NON-FINALE episode of Lost. Forever, my favorite NON-FINALE episodes have been (in order of rank) ‘The 23rd Psalm’, ‘Deus Ex Machina’, ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ and ‘Lockdown’. If at anytime I have the opportunity to take a 42-45 minute break from life and watch a repeat episode of Lost, it will for sure be one of these 4 episodes. These episodes in my eyes have it all. Starting with a good character driven show down, a plot reveal, good production value and an intriguing mystery twist exemplify why I love Lost so much. Though Season 5 has been great, nothing delivered on the front of FAVORITE EPISODE status like the episode THIS PLACE IS DEATH. Now, I completely understand this can be outdone at least 12 more times before the season is over, but sticking to my criteria and favorite status enjoyment of past episodes’THIS PLACE IS DEATH will probably go down as my favorite episode.

I think though in Lost, through all of what’s going on, we have to remember the question Charlie gave us at the end of the Pilot episode in season 1′.’Guys’.Where are we?.’ I think this question, though not specifically focused on the location anymore, is a question that we have to examine. If Charlie would have asked that question to Charlotte during the 5th episode of Season 5, Charlotte would have screamed out”THIS PLACE IS DEATH.’

Putting Charlie’s question together with Charlotte’s answer, made me think’.Have we examined and now experienced the CIRCLE OF LIFE for the journey of someone who is truly ‘Lost’? Is that the islands purpose and what it stands for? Knowing the shows name is LOST, does the journey begin with landing on an island, asking the question WHERE ARE WE and end on the island with answering the question THIS PLACE IS DEATH?

Let me explain.

The island is set up to exist outside of the busy progressive world that all of us live in. It is not for the whole world to travel to, find oneself, travel back and go back to your normal life. We’ve learned from Michael, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, etc’ that it doesn’t work that way. Then you have the one step higher on the islands food chain racing at a painstakingly rate to get back. Instead of theorizing and trying to figure out all of the islands powers and mysteries, let’s take a simple look at what happens when you are ‘lost’ in life.

When you are ‘lost’ the first question you must ask yourself is WHERE ARE WE? The show proves this to us by ending the very dramatic PILOT episode of Charlie saying ‘GUYS’..WHERE ARE WE?’ Well, we know at this time, they are all LOST.

The next step when you are LOST is to figure out, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? Remember in WHITE RABBIT, Jack and John discuss the issue of Jack chasing his father (or image of his father through the jungle). John saves Jack from falling, they have a conversation that ends like this:

JACK: Wait, wait, wait, where are you going?
LOCKE: To find some more water.
JACK: I’ll come with you.
LOCKE: No. You need to finish what’s you’ve started.
JACK: Why?
LOCKE: Because a leader can’t lead until he knows where he’s going.

So, look at each character (Both currently alive and dead) and think back to how the show has treated them. WHERE ARE THEY GOING? We have some answers but for the most part this is still unanswered.

Then, let’s think of our most recent episode THIS PLACE IS DEATH. Look deep into what Charlotte is saying and maybe we can realize exactly where everyone is going

“Don’t let them bring her back. No matter what, don’t let them bring her back. This place is death.”

Furthermore, we get a peak at the end of the episode where Charlotte confesses to Daniel, she thinks the angry old man in her memory telling her to never come back to the island’is in fact Daniel. In a horrible twist of ‘fate’, Daniel caused Charlotte to always look for the island, and come back’

Anyways, have we now got a glimpse of the island rules.

Once you are on the island your first step is to wonder WHERE ARE WE?
Then, the island offers you (with no limitations on time) to figure out WHERE ARE YOU GOING
Then, through the use of island properties, methodology, etc’you have a chance at redemption in accordance if it is in accordance to the island.
In return, you die on the island.

That could be the rules. You go to the island. The test is figuring out where you are going. Because of how you got to the island, you are given a second ‘life’ so to speak. You then figure out you are going to die on the island. The island gives you the chance to FIND YOURSELF and then in return, you must die on the ISLAND.

So, these are the rules. Ben can’t kill Widmore off the island because the island is where Widmore has to die.

Let’s also assume the island is plucking out people that were going to die anyways. If the island has an unlimited resource of time, then it would in fact know. Giving these flawed people a second chance also makes them expendable once there work is done. (or if there was no work to do at all, they die right away). In return for the 2nd chance, the island demands there death. As the island evolves through death’making the statement THIS PLACE IS DEATH all the more relevant.

So, then the question is, what is going on with John Locke? How did he die off of the island’.or is Locke in fact DEAD?

A theory for another time.