Fanworks, notes, meta

In my view, Hugo is the *last* protector. I like to think that the "horseshoe" over his bed was actually a Greek capital letter Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Why?

When we see Jacob in the park right before Locke falls, Jacob is reading Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge. The title is a direct reference to the philosophy of Teilhard de Chardin, a Catholic priest, philosopher, and paleontologist who theorized that humanity was evolving to an omega point, a pinnacle of spiritual perfection.

Thus Hugo --> the omega sign / omega point --> the protector who can break the cycle.

How would he do it?

The same way that happened in the Silmarillion. The sacred realm of Valinor rested on the island continent of Amun. After the Numenoreans misbehaved, Valinor was removed from the world, so that you couldn't sail to it anymore.

Originally part of the World, Valinor could be reached by ship from Middle-earth. After the rebellion of King Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor in II 3319, Valinor and the lands of Aman were removed from the circles of the World, and could only be reached by the Elves, following the straight road that was kept open to them. (http://www.encyclopedia-of-arda.com/v/valinor.html)

I can see Hugo doing something like that: safeguarding the Source by putting it out of reach of the world - and then retiring back to Los Angeles, to live out his days, until a death somewhat similar to Aragorn's:

When the end of his life came at last, he gave it up willingly, as the ancient Kings of Númenor, his distant ancestors, had done long before. (http://www.encyclopedia-of-arda.com/a/aragorn.html)

That's also why the Island is underwater in the FSW: it has been moved "beyond the rim of the world."

The Temple foreshadows the Heart of the Island. In a way the Temple is like a mini-version of the Island itself. It's hidden so that even some of the Others don't know about it (Ben calls it a "sanctuary.") It's surrounded by a moat of water, like the Island in the midst of the Ocean.

It has a guardian (Dogen) who is like the protector. His helper Lennon is very much like Richard Alpert, in that he goes between Dogen and the Others, while Dogen keeps himself remote. Both Dogen's and Lennon's fates somewhat mirror Jacob & Richard's, in that Jacob dies and Richard will eventually, as he's lost his agelessness at the end of the series.

Most important, the Temple at its center has a pool which seems to be tied directly to the Source/Heart. The pool shows us that the Island's and protector's powers to heal derive directly from the Heart itself, which is why we see the pool turn murky after Jacob dies.

The Temple scenes also powerfully foreshadow Hugo as protector. When Jacob gives Hugo the guitar case with the ankh in it, he gives Hugo exactly what's required to keep the Temple Others from killing them. The ankh itself is an Egyptian symbol of immortality, and notice that the statue of Taweret carried one. When Hugo walks in carrying the ankh, he saves the group - showing that he will be the answer to Ilana's ritual question, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" (Answer: "He who will save/protect us all.")

In a sense, the Temple is a "dress rehearsal" for the mysteries which unfold in the last four episodes of the series.

The question sometimes arises as to why the Man in Black was able to kill Eko (assuming that Eko at one time was a candidate.) So what happened to de-candidatize him?

In my view, Eko gets knocked off the candidate list because by the time of his death he is genuinely attempting to serve God to his best ability. He doesn't recognize Smoke-Yemi's "right" to judge him. But that also invalidates him as a candidate, perhaps - because he wouldn't recognize Jacob's "right" to judge or emotionally manipulate him either, or to play Almighty with his life and actions.

For instance, Jacob tells the final candidates, "You were all flawed." They all shuffle and look side-eyed, but I don't see Eko having that response - based on what we saw with "Yemi." As a priest, Eko would probably chuckle at that and answer something like, "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." In other words, So what? We're all flawed. And Eko would know all about that.

Further, I can see Eko giving Jacob a stern priestly lecture on community and responsibility. Jacob's "I stay remote so that people will be good on their own" argument might have bamboozled Richard (whose knowledge of Catholic fundamentals was very poor), but that wouldn't have washed with Eko.

In the final encounter with Smokey, Eko submitted himself to letting God judge his conscience, and in my view that's why he was no longer of use to either Jacob or MiB. And thus no longer a candidate.

Some which actually appear/are mentioned in-show:

- Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

- The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brian

- The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares

- Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie

- The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis

- Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

- VALIS, by Philip K. Dick

- Watership Down, by Richard Adams

Others not shown/mentioned in-show:

- The Stand, by Stephen King (big influence on LOST)

- The Langoliers, by Stephen King

- Island, by Aldous Huxley

- Jacob's Hands, by Aldous Huxley

- Mount Analogue, by René Daumal

"There are two sides, black and white," Locke says early in Season 1. Unfortunately for Locke, most of what he thought he knew was wrong.

As the series proceeds, we see that ultimately it's not so simple as Jacob being the white game piece and Smokey the black. The "white vs. black" dichotomy is how Mother saw the world, and she imposed it on the twins from the moment of their birth, as we see in "Across the Sea."

Mother is the one who reinforces that thinking in the Boy in Black, when he "accidentally" finds the senet game. Also, Mother sees herself as one of "the good people," compared to the Roman settlers, and passes that on to both the boys.

Black-and-white ultimately serve as misdirection in the story. The source of all power, of all magic if you will, is the Island - and the Island is the least black-and-white aspect of the show. It's brown and green and blue: earth and vegetation, water and sky.

Note that when Jack is inaugurated, he's wearing blue (sky.) Hurley wears earth colors (the land.) With Jack and Hurley, the game is over. Everything up to that point has "just been progress."

* * * * * * * *

More thoughts on colors:

Color symbolism in LOST usually isn't part of the "mysteries" (maybe with orange as an exception.) Instead, I'd argue that most of the color "language" is very straightforward, based on common usages in Western art history.

For instance, in Charlie's hallucinations in "Fire+Water," the colors derive directly from the Verrocchio "Baptism of Christ" painting. Thus Hurley is shown in gold-trimmed maroon (actually royal purple) to signify his coming protectorship; Claire is dressed in blue and positioned like one of the angels in the painting. Later, Claire is shown in a lot of light and dark blue; in some scenes she looks just like a Renaissance madonna.

The black and white imagery is very stark, especially in the Pilot. Both Locke and Hurley wear the same shirt (Hurley remarks on it in a deleted scene.) Interestingly, Claire and Libby share a deleted scene where Claire is wearing Libby's light blue shirt. Not sure of the significance, except that by the end of the series, both Locke and Libby are dead, and both Claire and Hurley are wearing earth tones (again, being tied to the Island.)

Kate is often shown in greens and earth tones (changing to a cooler forest green in the final FSW scene of the finale.) She is the hunter, the tracker, the tree climber; more in touch with the Island in an instinctual sense, even though Island "mysteries" don't interest her.

"Bad guys" do seem to wear black: MiB, Ana Lucia, the "dark Sayid" of later seasons. As I mentioned above, I don't think that's a metaphysical expression of the Island's nature, so much as a dichotomy imposed on Jacob and MiB by Mother.

Mother is shown wearing both earth tones and blues together: the protector - like the Avatar in Avatar, the Last Airbender - is the master of all the elements.

Orange is specifically called out: "Love is orange," says Jin's friend in Seoul. I wasn't able to find any Korean culture reference for this. I'd argue that orange does have direct story-specific significance: it seems to be tied to betrayal, loss, and emotional conflict.

Fandom: LOST
Title: Something About the Women
Genre: F/F
Relationships: Kate/Claire, Olivia/Eloise, Mother/Claudia, Ana Lucia/Libby, Juliet/Harper, Isabel/Jill
Rating: T
Length: 10 ficlets, 4159 words total

A series of F/F ficlets originally penned for Femslash February.

On AO3 | On FFN

( Something About the Women )

Title: Surfing the Bardo
Chapter Title: Chapter 8: Letters to Jack
Genre: Angst with a happy ending; Friendship/Romance
Characters: Hugo Reyes, Claire Littleton, Kate Austen, Aaron Littleton, James "Sawyer" Ford
Relationships: Slow burn Hurley/Claire, past Jack/Kate, Sawyer/Kate (later)
Rating: T
Length: 3038 words
Status: WIP
Notes: TW for canon trauma, mental health issues, suicidal thoughts.

Summary: After Kate and Claire return from the Island, Claire starts to rebuild her relationship with Aaron, while she and Hugo explore their growing feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Kate has to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. And while things start out rough, they eventually do get better.

( Surfing the Bardo, Chapter 8: Letters to Jack )

Title: Delicate
Rating: T
Genre: Supernatural, past romance
Characters: Hugo Reyes, Starla
Relationships: Hugo Reyes/Starla
Length: 2471 words
Series: Tales from the Bardo #6

Summary: Everything about Starla was delicate.

Part Five of the Tales from the Bardo series, a collection of one-shots where the Losties make their way through the flash-sideways, struggling with themselves, their pasts, and their karma.

( Delicate )

https://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/search/label/1980s

https://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/search/label/1970s

https://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/search/label/1960s

I found them looking for pictures of generic-labeled food from the 1980s: https://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/generic-products-of-80s.html

Looks like the Dharma Initiative was ahead of its time.

Title: Surfing the Bardo
Chapter Title: Chapter 4: Unmailed Letters (Part 1)
Genre: Angst with a happy ending; Friendship/Romance
Characters: Hugo Reyes, Claire Littleton, Kate Austen, Aaron Littleton, James "Sawyer" Ford
Relationships: Slow burn Hurley/Claire, past Jack/Kate, eventual Sawyer/Kate
Rating: M
Length: 3102 words
Status: WIP
Notes: TW for canon trauma, mental health issues, suicidal thoughts.

Summary: After Kate and Claire return from the Island, Claire starts to rebuild her relationship with Aaron, while she and Hugo explore their growing feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Kate has to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. And while things start out rough, they eventually do get better.

( Chapter 4: Unmailed Letters (Part 1) )