Notes regarding ABC's hit series "Lost"...

To go straight to notes on season 4, click here. 

To see notes on episodes after mid-season 3 break, click here. 

Two Main Ideas

The two main ideas that the show is very explicit about in terms of the Dharma Initiative and the nature of the island are:  the behavioral psychology of B. F. Skinner; and, a bit less obviously, the synchronicity concept (as it was put forth by Carl Jung).

B. F. Skinner is mentioned in the "Orientation Film".  Even Jack takes this as a clue that "the Hatch" is actually part of an experiment in behavioral psychology.  This is because Jack is doubtless familiar with what has become known as "the Skinner Box".  The Skinner Box (named for its inventor, of course) can be imagined as a cage wherein a subject, classically a pigeon, is presented with a mechanism, classically a lever or button, that when properly manipulated yields a reward, classically food.  When Jack sees that the psychology of B. F. Skinner is behind the Dharma Initiative, he quite obviously infers that the button pushing at the Hatch is just so much training-the-pigeon, an idea that John rejects at first but finally succumbs to at the end of season two.

One can't stop here, though, in considering the implications of Skinner behaviorism in the show.  It's important also to understand that as Skinner's ideas are extended to behavioral research on humans, deception is a common tool used by researchers to get to the bottom of human behavior.  For example, a man and a woman might be told that they have been randomly selected to participate in a study on problem solving and given tasks that variously demand the use of mathematical or spatial abilities to complete them.   What the two subjects will certainly not be told is that the study is actually trying to see how gender roles manifest themselves in certain tasks.  Skinner behaviorism acknowledges that the absolute best way to study psychology is to observe subjects in their natural surroundings, but it also insists that well-designed lab environments can also yield natural results without the "noise" of a spontaneous habitat.  In other words, the woman and the man in our gender study are not in their natural, distracting environment when we ask them to work together in the lab.  However, if we obscure the true intention of our study, their natural gender attitudes may nevertheless shine through.

So right from the beginning of season two (when the hatch was first entered) we should have expected that anyone associated with the Dharma Initiative would use deception in order to unlock the inner-workings of those who have crashed on the island.

Synchronicity is not specifically mentioned in the first two seasons, but its effects are clearly everywhere.  Synchronicity is, simply put, meaningful coincidences.  A familiar example is when you are visited by someone you'd just been thinking about.  Another example is when a person wins the lottery with numbers that she swears she kept seeing at various places for a week previous to her picking her numbers.  Those who practice divination of any sort - the Tarot, casting of animal bones, what have you - or who read signs or have premonitions might claim they are utilizing the phenomenon of synchronicity to see into the near future.  In the show, when so many people with so many connections end up on the same plane, synchronicity is at work.  A more important synchronicity, though, seems to be the connection that so many on the plane have directly to the island itself.

For John and Rose, the connection is that the island is "tuned" to heal them.  For Jack, the connection is Desmond.  For Mr. Eko, the connection is his dead brother.  Children or people about to bear them seem to have a connection just in that.  And those who have no stated connection directly to the island, like Boon and Shannon, don't seem to last very long.

Aside from all of the meaningful coincidences, synchronicity is alluded to in the dharma concept and, more specifically, in the I-Ching symbolism present in the Dharma Initiative logo. Dharma, having origins in Hinduism, can mean many things but it can certainly be interpreted as a force of nature that can be tapped in order to achieve enlightenment or perhaps even to secure extraordinary powers.  The Taoist "Way", represented by the Ying-Yang symbol, is a fair representation for dharma, utilizing a dynamic balance of black and white that the writers of the series seem fond of (John's backgammon game, John's eyes in Clair's dream, and the trinkets found on "Adam" in the caves).   If one is in tune with dharma, it might be said that she is also in tune with the force that governs synchronicity.  To shore up this idea, the Dharma Initiative logo incorporates I-Ching symbolism.  The I-Ching is an ancient wisdom text from China that teaches the dynamic balance of opposites and is often used as a tool for divination.

Combining these ideas seems to yield the concept that the Dharma Initiative is about going to an island of significant "dharmic power" (which causes healing, visions, amplification of special abilities, attraction to synchronicities, and is somehow tied to the electromagnetic characteristics of the place) to study what might be deemed paranormal psychology, employing the methodology of Skinner's behaviorism in the experiment designs.  Since the goal of this research seems to be to make a better world (also following Skinner's example, see his utopian novel "Walden Two") then the stakes are high indeed for the work to be successful and one can understand why the Others are so committed to it.

Obviously, those who crash on the island are considered subjects of the study, but some are more valuable than others (the ones with synchronistic connections to the island, including special abilities).  Perhaps children are especially sought after because the island tends to attract the gifted variety (Google "indigo children").  Of course, it must be noted that no children were in evidence in the season three premier when we were given a privileged glimpse into the ordinary lives of the Others.

Story Elements of Note

All of this leads one to highlight the following story elements:

Dharma - in the context of the show, this seems to be a measurable electromagnetic force that when gathered in a particular place or person creates psychic, healing, and/or synchronistic events.

Balance of opposing forces - look for the show to make more use of this as it is alluded to frequently in early episodes, most powerfully in the I-Ching symbolism of the Dharma Initiative logo.  When Ben proclaims that his group of Others represent "the good guys" in the finale of season two, this implies the existence of a conflict of some kind that Ben perceives his people to be on the "light side" of.

Unusual, but limited, ability of the Others to predict future events - before the premier of season three I told my friend that it was likely that the Others anticipated plane crashes and ship wrecks on the island because that is what the island will do, attract strong dharmic (synchronistic) events.  And, in fact, the Others did not seem a bit surprised to see a plane crashing on the island and even had a well-worn plan ready to execute.  However, it might even be true that they were anticipating the arrival of that particular flight for some time, although it appears that their models aren't precise enough to predict exact time frames or give them an absolutely reliable list of names (thus they must confirm with an actual list).  Even so, Ben seemed unusually certain that a) survivors would be found and b) that they'd be found in both pieces of the split aircraft.

Manipulation as experiment tool - Everything the Others do in relation to the crash victims is a manipulation in order to heighten the effectiveness of their psychological experiments.  In the season three premier, look at how differently Sawyer, Kate, and Jack were treated after their capture.  Jack, it seems, was put in a position with the aim of breaking his irrationally stubborn will.  Kate was given a taste of normalcy and freedom before she was thrown into a cage, presumably an effort to demoralize the person who would be most adept at escaping.  Sawyer was thrown right into a Skinner Box, because in many ways his self-centered psychology is the most predictable.  The person who aided his escape attempt was almost certainly a shill, planted to reinforce whatever feelings Sawyer had that escape was futile and planting in him seeds of doubt if Kate ever happens to attempt the same.  The Others' mastery of human behavior and synchronicity will only make them more skilled in this area, always a step ahead of the crash victims.

Guardians - along with the behavioralist idea that rewards shape behavior comes the idea that punishments do as well.  Certainly fear will be the most effective and efficient method of keeping test subjects (i.e. whoever crashes on the island) in line.  Thus, various guardians are utilized at key moments.  The most mysterious guardian, the black mist, might not be showing the crash victims or the program viewers its actual form.  This kind of chameleon-like trickery seems well within the character and capabilities of the Others.  Also, "shape-shifting" would be a most desirable feature for a guardian since not all people are frightened by the same visual stimuli.  Another important aspect of the mist guardian:  When it was face-to-face with Eko it seemed to recognize him as a valuable subject, not a dispensable one.

Murder - the Other's seem to feel justified in killing test subjects.  This results either from a) their tendency to see crash victims as "mere subjects" or "rats in a maze"; b) a belief that the natural fate of the crash victims (i.e. their fate without interference from the Dharma Initiative) is ultimately that of "Adam and Eve" in the caves, such that it can be said of all subjects that "they're dead anyway"; c) the high stakes of their research makes the occasional sacrifice in human life a reasonable and inevitable cost; or d) all or any combination of these.

MID-SEASON THREE BREAK UPDATE - By the mid-season three break, Ben has made clear to Jack that he did, in fact, intended to break him and why, and Ben also revealed that he didn't think that Jack's crashing on the island was a coincidence.  The demoralizing of Sawyer against the courage of Kate was also played out.  The black mist faced Mr. Eko again, but this time in the form of his dead brother.  Apparently Mr. Eko had learned much since his last encounter with the mist, because now he was expendable.  (Indeed, it may be as John has always said, that everyone is to learn something from the island, but when they've learned it is death their reward? Mr. Eko's last words indicated as much.)  Since now we know that the Others are on an entirely different island, it might be that the light and dark forces at play in the show are, from the Others' point of view:  Others=light, Mist=dark.  Perhaps the mist is the result of the Dharma Initiative attempting (in classic behavioristic style) to control the "dharma" of the island.  Naturally they would have failed (the incident) and the mist may be what eventually emerged as the island tried to regain "balance".  Perhaps the now-imploded hatch allowed the Others to retain some semblance of control of the mist, but no longer.  (Although while Ben was captured he seemed to goad John into not pressing the button.  Did Ben think that letting the hatch implode might destroy the black mist? It's difficult to say at this point.)  Of course, we knew from the first two seasons that there was some dissent among the Others (Alexandra was the first one we met - recall she had been abducted as a baby) and that has been expanded in the first half of season three, but this group (if there is only one) doesn't seem to be the group that Ben was thinking of when he referred to his group as "the good guys".  (Ben treats Alex gently and seems genuinely oblivious to any other plots against him.)  The person in the eye-patch who John and his party saw on the screen at the "Pearl" hatch might also be a candidate for one of Ben's "bad guys".  One way or another, though, it seems obvious that "balance" will be a key concept in how the show unfolds.  Hopefully, too, more will be revealed regarding the role of children in the plot.  The "indigo children" phenomenon seems to be at work, but it is difficult to tell for certain at this point.  (If the Dharma Initiative studied indigo children, and Ben's claim to have lived on the island his entire life is true, then Ben, and perhaps all of his cohorts, might have once been indigo subjects? Might they have been sterilized as part of the study, and this is why there are no children among the Others? Again, all difficult to say at this point.)