Another "Cabin Fever" Preview: Ghosts and Dead People

Jeff Jensen came out with his weekly Lost preview, and it's a mixed bag - a rumination on everything from the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau to Lost's similarities to Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Still, there are a few things that caught my eye and might be worth musing; Jensen seems to share my idea that ghosts (and not hallucinations or the reincarnated) very much exist on Lost:

Claire died in the attack on her cabin, but Pseudo Claire exists either because her disembodied mind had a strong will to live — or because Baby Aaron needs her for his own survival. Nursing, you know.

This theory isn't bad at all, especially when you consider how many ghosts Claire has suddenly been seeing. When her house blew up, Claire apparently thought she saw Charlie, and last week she saw her dad. In fact, Claire had a vision when her house blew up, but the scene had to be cut for time. It'd be helpful to know what exactly it was, but we might have to wait for the DVD for that.

Locke died in the plane crash, but his mind created a new body [hence the use of his legs], though his soul is trapped in Jacob's cabin, because LOCKE IS JACOB. Maybe.

Again, I like it, but I'm wary of how far we take these "he/she is actually dead!" theories because the writers time and time again have assured us that there will never be a "they're all dead!" twist.

I think [Richard Alpert] is dead — or at least as dead as, say, Christian Shepherd. Judging from the way we saw Grandpa McBoozy cradling Aaron last week, these Island ghosts are more materially substantial than the typical ethereal entity, although clearly Alpert is a higher caste of specter than Christian, at least for the (relative) moment.

I'm completely with him up until the last line. If Alpert was a ghost, well, it would explain why he never ages. And creative readers could easily tie it into old Others' powers like the Whispering. But to say Alpert is a "higher caste of specter" only muddles the mythology. If Lost asks us to believe that ghosts exist, it's not going to then introduce a ranking system for how ghostly one can become.

In The Great Divorce, [C.S.] Lewis offers a parable for life on earth by presenting a vision of Heaven in which the newly departed MUST leave their earthly baggage behind if they wish to enter paradise — or, decoded, to grow spiritually. They are helped in this endeavor by ghosts who've preceded them in death, though initially, these ''shining beings'' come off as tough-love antagonists. ''Others,'' if you will.

Fuel for the never-ending Purgatory idea. While we're assured by the showrunners on an almost monthly basis that the island is not Purgatory, the reason the theory has never died is because (A) it's such an easy explanation for everything and (B) like it or not, there are plenty of similarities between it and the island. Thematically speaking, the island is a purgatory for a bunch of lost souls - fact. But as we're fed more about the island's mythology, it's actually more of a paradise - Heaven itself (or Eden, as another popular theory suggests) - it's just that the castaways haven't realized it yet. That's where the Great Divorce parallel comes in: the Others are indeed initial antagonists who end up helping the castaways discover the true nature of the island. Whether or not it's purposeful, it's a great parallel.

But as for the question of ghosts - well, I guess we'll get more on that tonight, when we re-meet Horace Goodspeed, the very dead hippie from Ben's first flashback.

TAGS: Cabin Fever, Ghosts, Purgatory, Theories
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