I'm a devoted LOST junkie.
Everyone's just their theory on the Island and what's going on. I thought I'd toss my two cents out. More importantly, I'd love to hear yours, and your friends'. If anyone you know watches the show and has a cool theory on what the hell is happening, send them this way.
Post your theory in comments. I'll be running an ongoing update.
Given Sawyer's choice of reading materials (Watership Down, A Wrinkle in Time) and Rousseau's talk of the Black Rock, how it took her fellow survivors and forced her to kill them all, I'm thinking that the Island contains some sort of central, possibly malevolent intelligence. Readers of A Wrinkle In Time may recall the "villian" of the piece - IT, a borg-ish collective consciousness that eradicates thought and individuality, joining its conquests in a reddish haze of hive mindedness. Readers ofAdams' Watership Down may recall the totalitarian warren that Hazel and his band of rabbits encounter, as well as the man-tamed warren and the "shining wire." This book shares many of L'Engle's themes, most notably the fight against individualty-destroying oppression.
The Black Rock, or whatever is at/on/in/around it, seems to have had a similar effect on Rousseau's fellow survivors. They became "infected" (though we'e not told with what), or "taken." changing to the extent that Rousseau needs to kill them. It's assumed, from the choice of words, that this infection is physical. Given the emphasis of the show on mind over physicality, this seems unlikely. The majority of the challenges presented to the current crop of survivors have all been mental in nature.
It makes sense, then, given this, and the thematic points the writers seem to be working with, that the "threat" on the island, if that's what it is, would be more mental, or psychic, in nature as well. The themes of this show appear to include the conquering of past demons in order to live fully in the present, and of second chances. What could be more threatening to these things than an enemy that takes your will, or commands it in a way that destroys your individuality, and the things you've worked so hard to move past?
Whatever the Black Rock is, it appears almost religious or spiritual in nature. Locke's cult-like devotion to the forces of the island and his insistence that they are not only guiding him, but benevolent, makes me wonder if this threat will command a near-religious devotion, in the same way that Christians are devoted to Christ, or that Manson's followers were devoted to him. Blind fanaticism is a dangerous and all-too-relevant topic of discussion these days.
And what of the island setting? Given all the boar hunting and talk of sides, it gets one thinking of that other classic tale of island survival, Lord of the Flies.
Something at the Black Rock is waiting for Locke. It's commanding his allegiance the way God did to Abraham. It is not coincidence that Locke "sacrifices" Boone in this past week's episode. It immediately brings to mind Abraham's Old Testament near-sacrifice, and if this thing is going where I think it is going, Boone will not die next week. He'll be saved. Literally, and maybe, figuratively.
Whatever this presence is, it wants their obediance. Locke and Rousseau, those two enlightenment philosophers, are going to be drawn into conflict, with Locke as the island's man, Rousseau as the representative of individualism, and the island's inhabitants gravitating toward both of them, variously.
Your thoughts? Theories?
