Pictured: A fantastic screencap, but promo images of the entire episode rather than just the plane scene would be greatly appreciated TPTB!Thanks to 'ILostMyKeys' for stepping in this week with a recap review of 5x06, and hopefully over the next few weeks we should have many other guest bloggers from Lostpedia posting the reviews. To the present post, and last week saw some fantastic discussion in the comments on "the sickness" after we ran a "deconstructing" blog, so this week it seemed clear that another one would be very cool - and while writing this, I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing your opinions/theories. Today's topic is electromagnetism, inspired by Eloise Hawking's comments about The Lamp Post station being built on a pocket of electromagnetic energy. Out of the entire episode, this was one thing that really stuck in this writer's mind. And here's why.
The comments by Hawking were interesting. She said that the Lamp Post was built on unique electromagnetic energy, one of many pockets of such all over the world. The one they were interested in though was the Island. They'd gathered proof that it existed (DHARMA found the US Army Top Secret photo intel, I'd wager) and from there worked out how to find the Island by predicting its movement. What struck me though was if you take a step back from these revelations - simply where the Lamp Post, and so in turn this electromagnetic energy, was. Beneath a church.
Now it's possible that DHARMA built the church above the station as some kind of rouse - let's face it, they've done worse. But it seemed interesting as we know of some other points of "unique energy" from the show. First, there's the Island itself and second in Australia where Isaac the faith healer was shacked up (remember him?). Both locations were associated with healing, and as Isaac commented to Rose:
There are certain places with great energy -- spots on the Earth like the one we're above now. Perhaps this energy is geological -- magnetic. Or perhaps it's something else.So I don't think it's a major speculation to deconstruct these points as the following: it is the electromagnetic energy that is causing the healing. Evidence for this comes from Isaac's words, the Island's ability to heal and fact that it is on an electromagnetic hotspot, and that the Lamp Post was built under a church. The latter point you might think is odd, but it could be that the church was started after reports of "healing" or energy. There are quite a few "faith healing" churches out there... though then again the Lamp Post church seemed a bit fundamental Catholic by the looks.
But what else does the electromagnetic evidence tell us? Well, if there are pockets of it all over the world, then it could also explain how someone like Ben left the Island by turning the wheel. The explanation is probably more sci-fi than this, but I'd imagine that turning the wheel could set off a massive amount of electromagnetic energy - which moved Ben to another "pocket" in the world not only through space but time also. The sheer amount of energy on the Island could account for this. Perhaps we should think of the Island as a huge ball of energy - we know it contains not least an A-bomb and a volcano! Such is the power of said energy, it can go beyond the physical barriers. OK, getting a little bit too speculative now - but the idea of travel off the Island to another hotspot is an appealing theory, and explains why Ben landed in the Tunisian desert of all places.
Final thoughts: if this deconstruction is correct - why does the Island continue to move... is it unstable due to the electromagnetism? Why does the Island have a special amount of energy? Let us know your thoughts. But before we finish, maybe think about this - the Island's tides are odd. Juliet comments when she finds out that the survivors have a sailboat "they can enjoy going round in circles for a while". Ever tried the old magnet and metal sprinkles experiment, how they all gather around it. Is the same true for the water surrounding the Island? An old theory (I remember that one circling around circa Season 2), but it does all seem to lead back to electromagnetism, doesn't it?
