Which of these things belong to you already?

I was all set not to over-analyze the "test" Richard Alpert gave Young Locke in last Thursday's "Cabin Fever." To me, it seemed pretty straightforward: if he takes something a normal kid would take (the baseball mitt), he fails, and if he takes all the weird stuff (a container of sand?), he passes. Case closed - no need to look too deeply into it.

Then I remembered I write for a Lost blog.

For a refresher, here are the things Alpert set on the table:

A knife
A small container of what looked like sand
A book called Book of Laws
A compass
A baseball mitt.
A "Mystery Tales" comic

So what do they all mean? Well, the Book of Laws could refer to the holy book of a 19th century prophet named Bahá’u’lláh or the governing book of 17th century Plymouth Colony. The small container of sand, well, unfortunately we're not even sure it is sand. And the knife - was it meant to be a hunting knife or a "if I pick this it means I want to stab someone" knife?

The best theory I can give is one that wasn't deliberate, but is fun anyway - each thing represents a different way of watching Lost:

The "knife" viewers watch the show for the action.
The "sand" viewers watch the show for simple escapism.
The "Book of Laws" viewers watch the show for the dense mythology.
The "compass" viewers watch the show as an elaborate adventure story.
The "baseball mitt" viewers watch the show to root for their favorite characters and discuss the show with their friends.
The "comic book" viewers watch the show as their geeky sci-fi fix.

Kinda cool, right?

TAGS: Cabin Fever, Locke, Richard Alpert
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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

dropyourpocket said:

You are probably right about the items being chosen to cater to different types of fans, of course there will be more to it than that.

Damon and Cuse love it when fans are arguing over whether the answer is x or y, only to find z as the revelation. So I'd guess either (1) the foreshadowing for what the correct item would've been hasn't even been shown yet (and probably won't be until right before we see which item used to 'belong' to John), or (2) it wasn't a real test, it was just meant to embarass young John (as Alpert claimed Ben was doing to John when daddy con-man was tied to the tree).

Also, don't forget the references to the spiritual leader who passes a similar test regarding reincarnation (Bhudda or Dali Lama maybe?)

Posted at 03:52 PM, on June 3 2008

Which of these things belong to you already?

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