Lost goes to the Carnivale!

Carnivale had "Management". Lost has Jacob. In each case, a "man behind the curtain" with whom no one dares, nay, no one CAN communicate other than the putative next-in-line. In Carnivale, it was the dwarf guy. In Lost, it's Benjamin "Pants on Fire" Linus. In each case, there are those who doubt the existence of this "man behind the curtain". In each case, this "man behind the curtain" reveals himself to one other person, to whom he pleads for help. In Carnivale, it was young Ben. In Lost, it's Locke. The revelations in each case point the plot straightforward towards an inevitable clash between two opposing forces. In Carnivale, it was good versus evil. In Lost, it might be good versus evil, although it is not at all clear, and in fact, in some sense, it might be relative.

I think it's kind of cheap that Lost took such a blatantly derivative turn tonight. And odd, in that Carnivale was cancelled at the end of its second season without a full and satisfying resolution to its "epic battle". At least we know that's not going to happen with Lost, since the network just ordered three more 16-hour seasons. although, again, nothing is ever entirely clear on Lost.

A few things ARE becoming clearER, however:

1. The natives of the island were the Others. They were there first. We don't know for how long. We don't know how they got there.

2. Ben was not originally an Other. He was brought to the island as part of the Dharma Initiative and defected as an adult, although his plan to defect was hatched as a young boy, when he met Richard Alpert in the jungle.

3. Richard Alpert was an adult when Ben met him as a young boy. When Ben meets him again as a young adult, Richard Alpert has not aged. When we meet Richard Alpert in the "present day", if there is such a thing on the island, Richard still has not aged. Ben, however, does appear to have aged. Thus, it is possible that the original inhabitants of the island either have discovered the secret to eternal youth. Or maybe they are dead.

4. Speaking of dead, as a young boy, Ben sees his dead mother on the island, just as Kate sees her dead horse and Jack sees his dead father. Locke may also have seen his dead father. Or maybe he did simply make his father dead. Again, nothing is entirely clear on Lost.

5. Juliet seems to have gone to the Flight 815 side. But her loyalties may be shifty, mercenary. Jack seems to have remained loyal to the Flight 815 side. But I also see him as someone who would sell anyone up the river if it meant that he could get home.

Speaking of getting home, I am going to elaborate on my time-warp theory from last week and go a step further and predict that the Flight 815 "survivors" cannot ever leave the island because it is only on the island that they are alive....because the island exists at some point in the past, before the crash of Flight 815. Before Jack's father died. Before Kate's horse died. Before Rose got cancer. Before any child conceived on the island could have been conceived. OK, I'm still working on that one. But this one I know: before Locke got thrown out of an eight-story window and lost the use of his legs.

Poor Locke. I am pretty sure his eyes went dead after Ben shot him. If he's gone, which I am not entirely convinced of, I'll miss him. And if so, that's two. Three more to go, apparently. I wonder who? Sun? So that they won't have to resolve her pregnancy? Please don't let it be Kate, Sawyer or Juliet. I love them all too much. Maybe they can bring back Walt and Michael ("WAAAAAAAAAAALT") so that they can kill them off? Speaking of which, I really can't figure out what might have happened to them once they left the island, although based on my theory, I would have to assume they are already dead.

Oh, wait. Charlie dies next week. I just checked IMDB, and Charlie has a flashback next week, and then he isn't IN the following episode. Dead. Well, we can't say we didn't see this one coming.

And that's the highlight of my week, right there. Lost.

YC