Deconstructing: "The Sickness"
After connecting some dots with the opening scene of S5, and that epic investigation the blog did on Ajira Airways a while ago, perhaps there should become a regular segment where we deconstruct a Lost mystery using all the information Lostpedia has on a subject to form a supported theory or answer. Today, I really wanted to address the sickness, having just gone through Lostpedia's article on it and also the transcripts of all episodes referring to a sickness on the Island. For a more complete and encyclopedic lowdown, see The Sickness page on the wiki.
What was interesting this week is that we now know more about the sickness and its symptoms. I think it's a fair bet to suggest that the writers have been playing with us over the years, making links between Claire's condition and the sickness in the episode "Maternity Leave", for example. But in fact, the sickness appears to have no physical "Quarantine" contamination zone symptom - it is apparently all in your head making you either under the control of the Monster or just plain crazy (or both... but the latter provides an interesting theory comparison I think to the 'cabin fever' experienced aboard the Kahana).
But what causes the sickness? This is a very contentious topic, and I've had a very nerdy argument about this in the Lostpedia Chatroom. The reason is that many people passionately believe that Montand and the other guys got the sickness after going down into the Temple (considering Montand was rather placid for a man who has just lost his arm when he was all like "I'm cool, come down and get me"). It makes sense considering Danielle was the only one not to go down, and also the only one not to get sick. However, some of the facts from Season 1 seem to contradict. See the transcript section below:
DANIELLE: We were part of a science team.
SAYID: A science team armed with rifles? Was Robert on the team?
DANIELLE: Yes.
SAYID: And Alex, was he, too?
DANIELLE: Our vessel was 3 days out of Tahiti when our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm, the sounds. The ship slammed into rocks, ran aground, the hull breached beyond repair. So, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter. Temporary. Nearly 2 months we survived here, 2 months before --
SAYID: Your distress signal? The message I heard, you said, "It killed them all."
DANIELLE: We were coming back from the Black Rock. It was them. They were the carriers.
SAYID: Who were the carriers?
DANIELLE: The others.
SAYID: What others? What is the Black Rock? Have you seen other people on this island?
DANIELLE: No, but I hear them. Out there, in the jungle. They whisper. You think I'm insane.
SAYID: I think you've been alone for too long.
Well first it's fun to see Sayid asked the question back then that we're all moaning about now - "how come a science team has rifles". Old news people, old news. But anyway, Danielle says they were there two months before the sickness started to lay in. That would mean either they contracted it later, or it was there unnoticed for a while. Is this just a goof on the part of the writers, or still full truth? You decide what side of the temple you're taking dear Lost fans, and comment so we know!
Furthermore there's quite a fun thing in that quote above - though it probably wasn't intentional. If you look where she says "it was them. They were the carriers", and Sayid says "who were the carriers". "The Others", she replies... but did she mean THE OTHERS or the others as in her friends? Again there's been some debate about how Rousseau had implied that the Others were the carriers, and yet Season 5 suggests it is her friends.... but if you actually look at the transcript, it is a little more ambiguous. Notice how Sayid then cuts her off with multiple other questions, ending on "have you seen other people on this Island"... is it a classic case of misdirection? Then again, the way she says "the others" if you actually watch the old episode again sounds very much like she means Ben's Others as opposed to her team. Seems once more it's a matter of interpretation, let us know what you make of it.
Lastly, discussing the actual symptoms of the sickness, it is still very early days but is the sickness the Monster controlling them? Or, alternatively, did the Monster just make them crazy and homocidal? It is definitely the Monster that changes them, as young Danielle screams at Robert (again kind of implying that they got sick in the Temple). Perhaps the Monster IS controlling their bodies - making them take out the enemy to keep the Island safe from outsiders (at this point, the Island has been battered by both the US army and DHARMA). Was Robert even alive at this point, or is it like with Yemi where his body had gone and suddenly he appeared to Eko?
The blog motto we've used in many past posts, "only time will tell", seems to hold new meaning this Season...
20 comments:
Interesting post, Nick. I have heard other discussions speculating what happened down in the temple, and what could have changed them so much for Danielle to consider them "sick". Robert wasn't visibly ill or hurt, and the only indication that something was wrong was his attempt to kill Danielle right after he tried to rationalise with her. It suggests that he is unaffected physiologically, but in fact has undergone a change of mind in some way or other. Maybe they turned over to the Others' side, as did Cindy and the tailies years later?
Great deconstruction, NickB! I have long been very curious about the nature of 'the sickness' and Rousseau's team, so it's good to see Lostpedia and its top minds looking deep into the matter :D
Lots of things to consider but like you said we shouldn't forget the 'cabin fever' afflicted Kahana crew. From what we've seen they were all suicides and (aside from Keamy & his Blackwater-esque squad) weren't hostile to one another.
Remember that Christian and Libby did appear to Michael on the Kahana so if the apparitions are the work of the Monster we can assume that it could have worked it's sickness 'voodoo' on the crew. Maybe the Sickness is just the Monster using people from the victim's past to guilt trip them into being suicidal/hostile to one another?
nabeel - I completely agree about the possibility that Robert just joined up with the Others team. But the problem with that though is just Robert's willingness to shoot his love and his own baby.
Nice post Nick. Regarding carriers though - a carrier is someone who transmits a disease, while usually not even showing symptoms of the disease themselves. So in "Solitary", I think Danielle was clearly implicating the Others as being the transmitters. It wouldn't make sense to say that her team contracted the disease to themselves, in other words.
Of course in "This Place is Death", she thinks that it was the monster that made them sick, but perhaps she revised her opinion after having heard the whispers for all those years.
Thanks Blake. I checked the transcript, and I see that she never said the word carrier to Robert, only to Jin. So that means Robert and co. weren't carriers, they were all infected. It sounds too like the sickness came to each of them directly, as she says to Robert "that thing changed you" as opposed to something like "you caught it". It adds to the idea that they were all infected while inside the temple... but then that just doesn't fit with the bit about them being there two months before it happened. I'm leaning on the writer goof theory over that one to be honest.
the thing about sickness is that it seems to be several ailments spoken of together.
there is this insanity related to the monster, there is the time travel sickness when travelling time, there is the illness when leaving and approaching the island. The time travel related sicknesses, which may be the same as the illness leaving and coming to the island, seems distinct from the insanity caused by the monster.
Then there is the illness as it relates to maternity.
And which of these requires "quarantine" procedures? And which is supposed to be helped by the Dharma drugs?
-harcourt
You know with all the points brought up I have to wonder if there even is a single unifying theory on the Sickness really. Perhaps it's symptoms/deaths are the result of a person/entity that shouldn't be there? The victims' symptoms/deaths are actually the calamity (and not a biological agent) that ensues which affects all/most/some of those that came in contact with the entity?
I found it stange, too, that Danielle said something to Jin like, "You disappeared." -Then said he was sick (or a 'carrier') as well. -Was she just trigger happy at that point and was just going to shoot him because it's strange to disappear? -Did some of her crew disappear as well? If so, did they go w/ the others? Did they time travel? Maybe she's just thinking about how they 'disappeared' into the hole? Maybe I'm reading too much into this??
The 2 months could be the short time period that flashed Jin ahead. There doesn't seem to be as much time between travels now. The pendulum seems to be slowing down.
Is no one concerned that when Rousseau talks to Sayid, she says the ship hit rocks? There was no hull on that raft. Also, it didn't look like they had dug out a temporary shelter, but were simply using a tent. That seems like a major mess-up on the part of the writers.
At this point in the show, the writers wouldn't waste so much time on Rousseau and her team if the sickness didn't mean something more to the whole of the show. For that reason, I'm sure it has something to do with Ol' Smokey, whom we hadn't seen in a while. This sickness idea might explain some other things that have happened in episodes past.
did the carpet van Ben was driving to the church have a meaning like the funeral home a couple seasons ago? changing the letters to flash forward. the name on the van was canton-rainier ... ???
Brian - I don't think what we saw her team in was their actual ship - it was a dingy after their ship's hull was breached etc - they abandoned into an escape raft
Anonymous - I heard somewhere (on Lostpedia?) that Canton-Rainier is an anagram for reincarnation. I agree with the earlier comment, that the Others are carriers because they're somehow responsible for "infecting" the science team. My question, then, is Juliet. Did she undergo the brainwashing? If so, what's her motive? I've never quite trusted her...
How did Faraday get back in time when the doc had to leave his dharma inititive. I think it was 5-2 or 2. I dont remeber how he even was down there. they dont explain that. And how did they find the arch if it was blocked by the wall. Dont you remember the guy that was taken out from a nose bleed just like the time travler's. I think that jacob is locke in body form. Maybe locke was the old ship cap. I think The island makes those who bleed as a warning to let them know that they are going to die. It takes out the least important ppl first.
Maybe Alpert is the captian of the old ship. Isnt that weird that it is a wheel they turn. It kinda looks like a ship wheel. Maybe it is the fountian of youth and alpert is just throwing everyone for a loop just to keep it safe.. just some Idea's
Don't all you people have ANYTHING better to do??
Great recap of the sickness. I can't help but keep wondering if the monster has the same characteristics as the nanobots in Prey by Michael Crichton. The nanobots basically became the form of any person and could mimic their personality. Remember Yemmi said to Eko, "you look at me like if I was your brother", before he lured Eko into the jungle to die. I see the same characteristic here with Robert trying to lure Danielle (but she outsmarted it).
The producers have already said the Smoke Monster is *not* the nano-bot cloud from Prey.
I think pretty much any goof made in Rousseau's earlier conversation with Sayid can be explained by the fact that she's INSANE. Seriously, doesn't it turn out that she was already making up some of the stuff about the others in season one?
Alternatively she said the Others were carriers, Jin probably looked like an Other to her.
i kind of agrre with what alex just posted. any goof that might or might not be apparent in the exchange between rousseau and sayid is just keeping with the show's theme of none of the characters being completely truthful/honest with each other. besides for the fact the she had no idea who sayid was and if she could even trust who he said he was, what was she going to tell him? "oh yeah, me and my crew were attacked by a smoke monster in the jungle and i had to kill them because it made them insane."? would he have believed/understood her? or would it even had mattered?
as far as "the sickness" i definitely think what danielle was referring to was what the men in her crew had gone through after being on the island for awhile. and to me, it had nothing to do with the time disorientation and everything to do with the monster. if you remember, the "time sickness" came as a result of CLOSE PROXIMITY with the island i.e. en route. the closer certain people got, the more likely they were to suffer the same set of symptoms as minkowski, brandon and regina suffered. but, as evidenced, not eveyone got sick. and those who did get sick lasted longer than others. remember desmond as they were traveling to the kahana? he started freaking out too, same symptoms, different results, same causes (essentially).
danielle's crew could have been driven insane, it could have been a case of severe distrust brought on by the monster's ability to change shape, or it could have simply just driven them mad.
why did she shoot at jin? what would you have done? ask him politely why he vanished in a flash of light and then reappeared two months later, and oh yeah by the way, are you going to kill me just like my lover just tried to? i think you'd probably shoot first and ask questions later if you had just been through what she had been through.
finally, as for the whole pregnancy thing, i still think that's a whole different bag of peanuts. but i'm sure we'll find out everything eventually. this is lost by the way.
Post a Comment