Antonia Dwells

"St. Elsewhere," oh, boy. Yeah, it ends up being all in Hurley's head. Right. I know they've said this and that, those creators and writers, but I tend to find it--some of it, at least--to be misdirection. I don't trust them completely, not that they're lying; I just want to evaluate the content myself, apart from their forecasts. I feel the same, generally, about any creative work (fictive) and its creator.

Wow, that's a darn good question. I have so many scattered ideas on the matter. There's the purgatory idea, but...that to me seems too easy. It's the first idea you think of-- Well, scratch that. At first, you just take the show for what it is (at the start of Season 1, episode one): survivor's of a plane crash are lost on an island. But you soon go to the purgatory idea, which makes almost too much sense, in a way. Yes, they're lost in some "middle space" (not heaven or hell); they're all wrestling with what they've done or didn't do in the past (sins). They're all bad people? Hmm, I wouldn't say that, no. But anyway, I agree with Stephen King (in an EW article): if it turns out to be purgatory, I'll feel cheated somewhat. King also wrote there that he thinks and HOPES the creators have an overall plan for the show. He's hoping that they've mapped it out for a 5- or 6-year run, that they'll put it to bed after that, end it where it needs to be ended. I'm also hoping for that. You can kind of see such a plan just in how the first two season have been designed: Season 1 is the usual introduction into these characters' lives and into this mysterious island and what they're up against on it; Season 2 expands our view, taking us down the Hatch, exploring the Others more, exploring the Dharma Initiative, revealing that this Hatch is just one of several... In the episode where Locke sees the map drawn on the wall, we get a sense of how expansive this whole thing is, and some show elements begin to come together. One of the scribblings on the map (written in Latin) is about polar bears, and that ties in with the polar bear they discover and kill in the jungle (in Season 1). Tied with other elements, that seems to mean that the Dharma people have been conducting a series of tests on this unique island, tests of animals (the polar bear, the horse Kate sees, the bird that talks to Hurley, the shark with a Dharma Initiative brand on its fin) and, of course, on humans. Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross is a "Lost" fanatic and has compiled a slew of theories, many submitted from fans. That's a good site for your wife to check out, if she hasn't already.