Friday, February 20, 2009

Lost "316": The Proxy Effect

In "316" Eloise Hawking tells Jack that Locke will be the proxy for someone. Jack, usually slow on the uptake, asks who? If Locke is a dead body in a box and is a proxy for someone who was on the plane with me the first time around, who could that possibly be? Um...

It's gotten me thinking about what the other proxies are. Hawking says they have to recreate the circumstances of the first flight. Not necessarily the people on the flight, but the circumstances. In other words, while Jack is still playing himself, escorting a body in a box (that will not be in the box when they land on the island), Kate isn't necessarily playing the part of herself. I suggested on my DocArzt post yesterday that Kate could have gotten herself pregnant to play the part of Claire. Maybe in doing so, she was told she'd be protecting Aaron. "Get on that plane with an embryo inside of you that is subbing in for Aaron, and he'll be OK."

I suggested Hurley was carrying the guitar maybe in the hopes that he'd see Charlie on the island again (I still believe that it was Charlie who told him to get on the plane). What I didn't think of was that the guitar could be the stand-in, so to speak, for Charlie himself. After all, Charlie was pretty much an immovable object that had music coming out of it when he got on the plane, because he was so stoned he didn't know where he was half the time.

So what if Sayid is actually playing the part of Kate? She's got to be Claire for now, so Sayid is Kate, being escorted by a federal marshal. Maybe there's another person on the plane who used to be a torturer or who was in love with a childhood sweetheart who could sub for Sayid. Lapidus is subbing in for Matt Parkman.

Could Ben be Locke? Locke couldn't walk, Ben has a broken arm. Or is Ben something outside of all of this?

Hurley bought 78 seats. Why 78? Could it be significant beyond just being what was left in the plane? There were 48 survivors from the front section, and 23 from the tail. That adds up to 71. And the Oceanic survivors are all acting as proxies, plus you have the actual people in the coach section of the plane. Could the 78 seats represent the people who were still strapped in the plane, hanging upside down when it crashed onto the beach? Are those seats proxies for the ghosts?

One person commented on the DocArzt blog that he thinks Aaron is in a dog carrier in the cargo area of the plane as a proxy for Vincent. EVIL. (I laughed for about a solid minute after reading that... OK, I'm still laughing...)

25 comments:

Dr Awesome said...

I had this same thought.

I think Jack may be Locke's proxy because he is now becoming "a man of faith."

Ben arrived late getting to the plane...a la Hurley.

Who knows?

Nikki Stafford said...

Good thoughts. Though I think Hurley's probably playing himself in this one (hence the Spanish-language comic book again). :)

MJCarp said...

Nik, I know that you really didn't mean to leave Sun out again . . . Sun is Rose as many commented to in previous blog, wringing her ring.

I think the female marshall and new Dude will make it to the island (spoiler from ajiraairways) so we can assume they are correcting for someone.

But if only Kate, Jack and Hurley/guitar arrive in Jin time, then maybe that's all that time periods needs, and the others are somewhere else. Faraday, man of science for Jack, etc.

margosita said...

Oh, I love this. And totally buy it. Plus, I don't think that everyone has to play just one person. So Ben arrives late because Hurley arrived late, but he is also substituting for Locke by being hurt. Kate is Claire, but is also surley like Jack was on the original flight (right?). No one is an exact match, so they can be proxies for a couple different circumstances.

Nikki Stafford said...

Lottery: Ugh, you're right, why do I keep forgetting her? I love Sun. But yes, definitely Rose. She's separated from her husband (Bernard was in the tail section in the bathroom; Jin's on the island) and is worried and playing with her ring.

Margosita: I agree... because there are fewer people, they have to sub in for various ones. I think Awesome has a point about Ben showing up late, for sure.

MJCarp said...

With a little stretch we could extend this to the French expedition? Right? I think the island is looking for combination to fit the LOCKE.

TV Writer said...

Nikki,
Good theories, all.
Given his "errand" isn't there a chance that Ben is also subbing for Sawyer: the wronged (in his own mind at least) and angry man who has killed someone (we think) to avenge the death of a loved one?
Just a thought.
-Amanda

MJCarp said...

i 3> sun too. But if she starts acting like Rose . . .?

Until we see who's in the Dharma Camp, we can only make suppositions. If Rose is there, then maybe that's why Sun will be transported to different time.

Which would be a horror story that I don't want to see played out.

margosita said...

Also from NurseBrian's comment on the last post, about Ben leaving the cabin for the bathroom made me think: Charlie! He had to go to the bathroom because that's where Charlie was when the plane crashed. Another circumstance to recreate! (They really have their work cut out for them!)

Miss Scarlett said...

Lapidus is subbing in for Matt Parkman.

Is he? I think he is finally where he was supposed to be. He was originally supposed to fly the plane...

Anonymous said...

@Margosita: Wow, that whole Charlie connection totally blew right past me! Thanks!

@LotteryTicket: Oh man, how bad would viewers' heads hurt if they had to keep track of more than two timelines our main characters? "So Sawyer is in the past, Jack's in the present, and Sun's in the future?!?!? :cross-eyed:"

I watched the episode a THIRD time (it was THAT good, so it merited another visit) and was reading the various comments...

running with LotteryTicket's comment about a "specific combination" ponders the question whether if maybe all of the other crashes onto the island are some sort of summoning for the right combination, or "LOCKE" as LotteryTicket mentions :);

The proverbial search for the square peg for the square hole deal. Is Locke the key to the island (felt awkward writing that)? Maybe the accidental landings onto the island (for example, the French expedition, Desmond's Dinghy [hehe, SOO mature, NurseBrian], the "black rock" ship, Henry Gale's balloon, and flight 815) may not have been accidental, but were drawn in by the island somehow, searching for the right combination to balance out its equation.

I guess I'm getting at the idea that there may be some sort of underlying condition for coming onto the island and maybe an overall connection between each group's landing on the island.

Also, Nikki, I'm seriously considering getting a "Buffy-Edward" shirt and enraging several thousands of girls at my college!

Nikki Stafford said...

Miss Scarlett: Sorry, that was me making a snarky Heroes reference. ;) Greg Grunberg played the pilot of 815, and he plays Matt Parkman on Heroes. So we're saying the same thing, that he's the pilot who was supposed to have been on that plane.

NurseBrian: I, for one, would love to see Desmond's Dinghy again.

*cough*

And if you get that shirt and wear it, you MUST give a complete synopsis of how your day went. :)

thisguypossessed said...

Maybe it's just me, but when I saw Kate on the plane with dark glasses I automatically assumed she was on heroin and was taking Charlie's place in that respect. Maybe that's why she doesn't have Aaron. Somehow she was drugged and the authorities found out and Aaron was taken away from her?

Maybe that's too much of a stretch?

Anonymous said...

The new Arab looking guy could be Ana Lucia - talked to Jack at the airport? Pretty thin but who knows.

Anonymous said...

Hey Nik,
I like your topics and how enthusiastic you can get! I'm totally geeking out with everybody else on LOST.
For what it's worth: 'the Arab looking guy' Caesar played an Iraqi torturer in the movie 'Three Kings' (1999). I guess it doesn't count as a proxy for Sayid, but hey, it's a fun fact.

All the best from The Hague, Holland!

poggy said...

TV Writer - another reason Ben could be the "Sawyer" of flight 316, is that he is the one reading while everyone else is freaking out - thus grating on Jack's nerves :-) I always found it interesting how Sawyer really is the character with the strongest connection to books (there are others of course), and how Ben used this character trait to get under his skin in s3 ("What, you don't read?").

Come think about it, it would be interesting if Hurley's proxy could only be Hurley himself... He really is the "destiny man" of the story in my opinion.

Blam said...

Nikki: "Maybe there's another person on the plane who used to be a torturer or who was in love with a childhood sweetheart who could sub for Sayid."

Hmm... A torturer... Not just physical but mental anguish, of course... Someone who locks people in cages, makes them work all day, gets inside their heads, is so sick as to pretend to operate on them, even... Perhaps he plays both good cop and bad cop... With a childhood sweetheart...

The Chapati Kid said...

What about Sawyer? Sawyer killed someone before getting on the plane. That could be Ben being his proxy.

Anonymous said...

What do you have against Jack? He's like a male Buffy.

Jazzygirl said...

Margosita beat me to it! I yet again forgot a thought in the other post. When I saw Ben get up and presummably go to the bathroom, I immediately thought of Charlie. I have watched it a second time, taking everyone's ideas into account. Didn't catch much on the second round probably because we've analyzed it to death! LOL! However in the previews for next week, someone is kneeling in front Locke as he prepares to hang himself and I think it's Ben. I don't believe that he didn't know about the suicide or the note or anything else!!

Anonymous said...

My brother said that Eloise Hawking is "Ellie"-the woman who brought Faraday's group to Richard Alpert...that would explain why Faraday told her that she "reminds him of someone he knew."

Anonymous said...

Love your blog!!!

I am working on a LOST book...was hoping to get some advice from you?

My email is nate_gann@yahoo.com

Cheers!

Nikki Stafford said...

Blam: Hmm... A torturer... Not just physical but mental anguish, of course... Someone who locks people in cages, makes them work all day, gets inside their heads, is so sick as to pretend to operate on them, even... Perhaps he plays both good cop and bad cop... With a childhood sweetheart...

Yeah, exactly! Someone like that... I wonder if anyone like that is on the plane?

;)

steve said...

From last weeks previews of this week there seems to be a quick flash of Locke talking to the woman who looks like the woman who has Sayid in custody. Just a random thought, we all know that the island won't let you die if you have something left to do for it right? I'm guessing right now Ben can't die (at least not now anyway) because he has more to do. I don't think he went after Penny like so many people believed, instead I think he fulfilled a promise to Locke to set thing in motion to make sure Sayid gets on that plane. Sayid made a big threat the last time they saw each other. I feel that Ben knew he was going to have to take a severe beating to the point that in Sayid's mind that he killed him hence the surprised look on Sayid's face when Ben entered the plane at the last second. The woman (I'm guessing CIA/FBI) is escorting him to Guam because isn't that island a U.S. Military area? Maybe we'll find out that they have Sayid's background and since he just "killed" a US citizen, they feel he is a terrorist and they are taking him off the the mainland. Locke could have tipped off the agent and said keep an eye on Sayid.

The Leonard's said...

Anyone else notice the play on "Wizard of OZ" Jack's dad's shoes become the ruby slippers? But Jack had the power to return to the Island all along.