A few thoughts about LA X

The two realities—one where there was no crash, and one where there was—a short hand description of these two realities for me would be the event-dominant (no crash) and the character-dominant.

(Tangent: I had a theory I wrote up last season about the possibility of different realities/dimensions here: Dimensions, Vibrations, and Minds.)  And Agent's theory on Realities Merging is here.

What led me to this way of thinking primarily was the way in which the second narrative started with Kate up a tree, and with the viewer hearing sound from her pov. The latter emphasizes subjectivity versus the way the external “objective” world of events is emphasized in the huge vertical pan shot that begins in the plane and swoops down under the sea to the submerged island.

And Kate up a tree—tree climbing symbolizes her character. As does the van for Hurley (where he was found).

Event dominant and character dominant are roughly analogous to the ongoing opposition of fate versus free will. For this reason I think the two will have to be brought together in some way in the story’s resolution. Another way to think of this is that they have a Schrodinger’s world—but unlike Schrodinger’s cat—I don’t think this will come down to a simple choice between the two.

Among the characters there were interesting differences in how they were portrayed in those two worlds. Hugo was the most affected by which world he was in. In the event/fate world—he is now a man of good luck. In the character world, he has transcended the effect of luck and is making his own kind of music. He is becoming a leader, telling Jack what to do, figuring out that the Japanese Other speaks English, generally taking charge (but oddly wearing a red shirt).

Sawyer seemed somewhat in-between. He has an encounter with Kate in the event world which hints strongly at their connections in the character world. In the character world, he also seems to be making changes in character as Hurley is—first threatening to kill Jack (his old revenge narrative) to later letting that go.

Interesting connection to the phrase “Let it go”—which the voice of Christian (Smokie) says to Jack in “Tale of Two Cities” and Rose says to Jack “You can let go” after the turbulence. Of all the characters Jack is most alike between the two worlds. He seems to have carried over the lesson from the world of the crash that “Nothing is irreversible” (this is a very different man than the one who doesn’t believe in giving people false hope in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”). And there are generally signs that he is the one carrying around some consciousness of what happened and has changed.

In the crash/character world, he is verging on being a very tragic character. When he says that he can’t fix Sayid, it seems like a sign of character development, but then his attempt to resuscitate Sayid is a mirror of what happened with Boone. Except perhaps that here his guilt is even stronger.

Because Jack is most alike between the two worlds, I can see an ending which revolves around transfer of one Jack to the other Jack’s world. My guess at the moment—the Jack in the character driven world is headed for a tragic end. The Jack from the event world will cross over. And perhaps this is what “He walks among us, but is not one of us” means.

Also Jack sees and talks to Desmond and Desmond has always been the guy who prefigures him—who is sort of in the same race but up ahead. And I wonder if the Des that appeared on the plane was someone travelling back and forth between the two.

A few other thoughts—the event/external versus the character/internal—another