A Duty-Dance with Death

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes'. (27)

Lost recently ended its eight episode run, but will be back for five more episodes in one month’s time. The last episode had a lot to do with a character that I was sure we’d finally be rid of, yet for some reason the creators decided that there was a need to bring him back. Thus the episode was probably my least favorite of an amazing plot-forwarding season four. Before this character, Michael, left the series, he would always shout: ‘They’ve got my boy!!’ over and over again. The Others had taken his boy at the end of season 1 and for all of season 2 Michael only had one objective: getting his boy back. This motivation, of course, was an excuse for him to do whatever he needed to get his offspring, which included killing two main characters (Libby and Ana Lucia).

What's interesting is that Ben (the Others' puppet master) pointed out in the last episode that he never asked Michael to kill; Michael did it all on his own. In the lastest episode it's revealed that Michael decides to tell his son Walt about what he did to get off the island, thereby shattering their relationship which has devolved into estrangement. This is too much for Michael to bare. We’re not exactly sure about the details, but apparently Michael has now decided that a self-inflicted death is the only option left. He’s ruined the only thing that he loved and he’s at the end of his rope. But there's a catch: as Mr. Friendly (aka Tom) pointed out, ‘The Island won’t let you’ just kill yourself—it’s not that easy.


Michael's failed attempt to blow up the freighter is met with a little note

After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, Michael finally realizes that he has no escape from his past sins (killing innocent blood) and current hell (guilt and separation from Walt). Maybe the writers decided that in an attempt to make us sympathize with this damned character, his penance will be to somehow rescue his ‘friends’ that are still on the island, while acquiescing to Ben’s demands by killing some of Ben's enemies. Thus Michael has graduated from Ben’s chessboard pawn to Ben’s queen: nothing to lose and the willingness and motivation to kill.

You see, Michael cannot die and he has nothing to live for. His future is somehow laid out before him according to the island’s wishes and demands, and he has sunk into fatalistic realization of his own destiny. The difference between Michael and Desmond is that Desmond feels like he can still determine his future somehow, even though it’s bound by some immutable laws of inevitability (i.e., Charlie’s death). Desmond can control actions, however, and chooses the details of when and how things come to pass. I believe that Michael will become the Billy Pilgrim of Lost: the ill-fated character of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House Five.



Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death

I recently re-read it since the author, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away last year. Have you ever read it? You must. The main character is “unstuck in time,” meaning that he experiences the events of his life in a seemingly random order, with no idea which part of life he will “visit” next (something akin to flipping through the channels of your own life). This has something to do with the fact that he has been adducted by aliens who don’t hold the same concept of time as humans. To them everything always exists at the same time. The author uses these aliens as a literary tool to satirize the idea of fatalism, or the acceptance of all things and events as inevitable. One alien said: "I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe... Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." I think that Vonnegut is satirizing this concept because so many people feel like they can’t change their own life. But the thing is…we do have free will. We can’t just sit around and wait for life to happen to us; we are masters of our own fate.

I think that ultimately Lost and its characters will begin to understand this concept of fatalism on a broader scale, as they come off the island and have ‘unstuck in time’ experiences. This may be why Jack tries to kill himself in the future by jumping off a bridge, or that Hurley tries to get into a car accident and ultimately ends up in psychiatric ward where he feels ‘safe.’ This is just a theory, but it feels like time-travel has become a central theme of Lost this season wrapped around theories brought to us by Vonnegut, who has been mentioned at least three times during the eight episode run. If this were to be true, then we’ll see more characters turning to suicide (freighter folk), going insane (Minkowski), or maybe developing a sickness (Rousseau’s comrades). Ultimately, I believe that the characters will all have to face their past demons and reconcile those with the island (aka smokey) and themselves in order to find peace and become masters of their own fate. Only then will they truly become ‘found.’