Deconstructing: Electromagnetism
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?
19 comments:
Remember that wall in the hatch (the swan)?
Sorry to not play nice, but thinking too deeply about what the electromagnetism means and how it might be used is time wasted because it's ALL GOOBLEDEEGUK.
That is to say, the producers and writers can do or not do whatever they want with it, and we'll just have to see what they choose to do.
To me, the most useful thing it does is provide what seems to be a true reason for all those people to have been pushing the button all those years. There was some indication they were keeping an electromagnetic force from overwhelming the world -- and there you go, the island turns out to be sitting on one.
They say the island is always moving but how much? A few feet, yards, miles, thousands of miles? Didn't say -- too much movement would be problematic, or it'd overlap things like other islands, continents, etc...
If it was always moving (in space and time?) why haven't the Losties or Others felt it before or gone through all those boxes of tissues?
also years before when desmond failed to press the button the hatch realeased a huge amount of electromagnetism and it possibly , more than likely, brought down their plane... and then the same thing again happend when locke refused to press the button. i think it has alot to do with everything.
True that guys, I didn't even try to mention the Swan, Flight 815, why compasses are bizarre on the Island.
Recall that Mr. Echo wanted to build a church on the island.
hmm. interesting observations, but i'm convinced that the island, or jacob, choose who gets healed and when. This is a way of controlling what happens on the island. locke and rose are immediately healed upon landing on the island and locke begins hunting. also, he's able to find the hatch and all that other business. ben gets a tailbone tumor and that allows jack to come to their side and now he's working against widmore. john lock in season 1 is hit with a sudden leg pain that makes him unable to climb to the plane. so boone dies. healing/injury comes at very specific points to be able to say that the island has healing abilities. it does, but it's a form of control for the island.
i do have a couple of huge questions about the implications from this episode. 1: did ben kill penny as he had promised in season 4? i think so. he was at a pier in the shot when he was on the phone. 2: since it has been established that the electromagnetic energy was on the island before dharma's arrival, what's with the button. the island got on fine without it. 3: what is the relation between the conscious time travel that desmond endured and the time travel on the island. what's with people off the island going through that? i don't think that will be explained though.
This is the first episode that really felt silly to me. And I'm even including the Nikki & Paulo fiasco. There are just so many ways that this episode failed to live up to the 4 and a half seasons that came before it. It felt rushed, it felt sloppy, it just left too many holes. The ONLY consolation I have is knowing that this episode and "The Life & Death..." (next week) were interchangeable, according to Darlton. I'm predicting, and now desperately hoping, that that means they each fill out the story of the other. Next weeks episode will hopefully give us answers to why Hurley and Sayid are on the plane, and hopefully to things like why nobody even so much as acknowledged Sayid's existence! (Maybe we haven't seen something about him yet. I mean, he did turn into a globetrotting assassin. Maybe the other Losties know that and don't much like him anymore. We'll see...I hope.)
On one hand I personally like to believe that the island has healing properties, but there is some evidence to lead us to believe otherwise. As previous posters have mentioned, both Jack (apendicitis) and Ben (spinal tumor) became sick while on the island. We should also remember that Ben claimed that he could (and possibly/probably) did cure Juliet's sister's cancer. So does this mean that Jacob or the "magic box" have the healing ability and not the island? Is healing available for only a selective few? Would love to hear more thoughts and thanks for all the wonderful posts!
that was the first thing that popped to mind when Ms. Hawking went on about those special spots on the planet: Issac of Uluru and his talk of healing spots on Earth. Great to hear he wasn't quite a one-note/throwaway character in that respect.
Bert - the button protocol in the Swan was established because of the Incident, something happened to disrupt what I guess was an automatic/'natural' release(?) of the energy? There was a time when DHARMA didnt need those numbers manually entered, Dr. Chang stressed in the orientation film that it changed due to an Incident occuring. My theory is that the others, young widmore, or our time-travelling losties had set out to destroy it...
I am starting to get the sinking feeling that when LOST is finally over it is going to leave us at the very place we started at.
I have a thought on the 'healing properties' associated with the Island.
Assuming the Island is a giant source of electromagnetic energy, we can safely say that the electromagnetism plays some role in this perceived healing. If that is the case, it is no surprise that those who were not previously exposed to it experienced regression of cancer (Rose), tissue revitalization (Locke), etc. This is something that can be accomplished by EM energy. But not all injuries/ailments are the same with regard to healing. The sicknesses, such as Jack's appendicitis, are not 'healed' by electromagnetism as they are caused quite often by a bacterial or viral infection, not stoppable by "most" amounts of radiation, as opposed to illnesses regarding tissue growth/damage. Now this does not entirely explain Ben, who has been exposed to the Island most of his life. Perhaps his constant exposure caused him to be almost 'immune' to the radiation's effects, even the positive ones.
If this is the case, the healing is incidental - a symptom of a larger meaning to the island, but not it in and of itself. Just a thought, based off of what I know about radiation and microbiology.
check out episode #5 of J.J. Abrams' other show, "Fringe". This episode is about electromagnetism and may give some of you some insight into J.J.'s ideas on the subject in relation to Lost.
Vile Vortices are electromagnetic anomalies all over the globe. The Bermuda Triangle and Pacific Triangle are both part of part of this natural occurrence. The Pacific one is most likely "The Island".
you do understand that the "island" is "make believe" don't you?
^^That's just what Charles Widmore WANTS you to think!^^
Perhaps Dharma used the lamppost to find the island initially, then they realized creating the hatch station and entering the numbers would stop its movement slightly. This would allow them to travel to and from the island easier using their submarine etc. Then once Desmond turned the failsafe it was back moving all over the place again and the only way to find it was to use the lamppost.
I'm convinced that Miles is Dr. Pierre Chang's son.
Ken: The "Dragon's Triangle", the Pacific Bermuda Triangle, is off the coast of Japan...I'm not sure if the geography lines up there...
That was one of my theories too for awhile!
After re watching the scene of Locke turning the wheel to stop the island from time traveling and thinking about the Indian greeting, Namaste, that is the title of next week's episode, I did a little research and came across this piece of information.
"Legends describe a lodestone on the top of the Sun temple at Konark. Due to its magnetic effects, vessels passing through the Konark sea were drawn to it, resulting in heavy damage. Other legends state that magnetic effects of the lodestone disturbed ships' compasses so that they did not function correctly. To save their shipping, the Portuguese voyagers took away the lodestone, which was acting as the central stone and keeping all the stones, and the iron columns used to hold them walls together, of the temple wall in balance. Due to its displacement, the temple walls lost their balance and eventually fell down."
Doesn't this sound like what happened to The Black Rock? Check out a picture of the wheel at the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark#Lodestone
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