Will the Real Coffin Resident Please Stand Up?

OK, I promised you an explanation of who I think is in the coffin and why, so here it is.

First off, let me say that there is a hole. Is it a Mack truck style hole? I don't think so. Let me just say I'm leaving room for said hole to be explained by information we've yet to receive. Cop out? Once again, I say, this is LOST we're talking about, people! Anyway, let's get on with it!

My guess (offer subject to change without notice) is Ben.

I know what you're sayin', you're sayin', "Aaron, where do you find time to juggle?" No wait, that's something else. Oh yeah! You're sayin', "Aaron, tell me more about this theory!"

Well, first, the hole. According to the obit Jack was reading in Through the Looking Glass (henceforth referred to as "TTLG"), the dead person had a teenage son. Ben has no such son.

Michael does, assuming time is funny and Walt's older than he should be (which, of course...). This has led many people to speculate that it's Michael in the coffin. I'm not prepared to say that it's not, but here's why I think it's Ben.

First off, I do not believe it is one of the "Oceanic 6". It's clear that there is some celebrity involved with being a member of this group, and as such, the obit should have mentioned at least something. Furthermore, one would expect some other mourners at the funeral besides Jack. At least a paparazzo or something. And if it's not one of the O6, it seems likely that it may not be one of the 815ers at all.

Then there's the partial name in the obit: "Jo...antham", popularly interpreted as John Lantham, but who knows. The point is, it's not the name of anyone we know, and Carlton Cuse himself said the coffin occupant is someone we've seen. Unless he's being cryptic, I think we can assume "Jo...antham" is an alias.

Who would possibly need an alias? Well, it turns out, a lot of people (Kate, Sawyer, Michael). But that includes Ben, who would need to explain who he was (there's obviously some kind of cover up going on, and it might be more convenient for whoever's behind it if all known survivors were 815 passengers). Plus, Ben might be on some sort of Hanso list or something somewhere, because, after all, he was an official resident of Dharmaville, no? Might he not be in danger from the Hanso/Paik/Widmore cabal if his identity were known?

Then we have the fact that Jack is distraught over this person's death, but no one comes to the funeral. In addition, we have Kate saying, "Why would I go to the funeral? [TTLG]" Why is Jack so upset over someone nobody else cares about?

I say, it's a given that TTLG Jack wants to get back to the island, and Ben (assuming he is on the mainland), would be his best hope for achieving that goal. But Ben would still be hated by any Losties that hadn't come around to Jack's way of thinking, and he (Ben) wouldn't know anyone, so no one but Jack would be at his funeral.

I'll admit, every argument I made could be made about Michael. He might also seem to Jack like a good way to find the island again, he would also be hated by other Losties, and to his advantage, he has a son. So why am I going with Ben? I don't know. It's just a feeling and I wouldn't lay money on it and it's subject to change and this is LOST we're talking about, people!

The Beginning of the End

Wow! What a great season opener! Definitely worth the seemingly interminable wait.

Aptly titled, this episode marks a major turning point, in that we are now going to start seeing some of what happens in the future, due to the flashback device morphing into a flash forward. (Technically, this started in last season's finale, but cut me some slack!) This only adds to the mystery, given large time gaps that obscure the information we need to understand the future events we're seeing.

The one thing we do know, is there is some big secret that the rescued Losties are keeping. It seems logical to assume this has something to do with Losties left back on the island. We know it's not as simple as the two groups, Locke's and Jack's, that we saw at the end of the epi, because Hurley was in Locke's group, headed to the Barracks to buckle down. Yet we know Jack, Kate and Hurley made it off the island. Obviously, this is one of those mystifying time gaps; "What happened between now and then?", we cry to no avail.

Well, I think Locke's statement when the two companies part ways is illustrative. He says, "You know where to find us, when you change your minds." Not if, but when. Now, we all know Locke has been dead certain about things in the past, only to be brutally proven wrong. But in this case, I think we can assume that the evidence points to him being right, at least about the freighter people meaning harm, and that they shouldn't leave the island.

And yet, Hurley tells Jack, "I should have stayed with you." Why? Did Locke make some kind of mistake? Hurley's back home; what would be different if Hurley had stayed with Jack?

Either way, it seems reasonable to guess that Jack's people do indeed change their minds, and flee to the barracks at some point. What happens then is beyond my ability to speculate.

But back to the secret, and the people keeping it. We hear Hurley call himself "one of the Oceanic 6", and we understand this constitutes a minor celebrityhood. We can assume that Jack and Hurley are among them, and even though Kate would be an obvious choice, I feel her fugitive status gives some reason to believe she might not have claimed her status as a survivor. The logistics of this, I can't guess, but I think it would be a mistake to think she no longer has to be underground.

Regardless of Kate, I feel there may be other people who made it off the island who were not among the O6. Mainly, the occupant of the coffin. According to Carlton Cuse, it's someone we've seen before. That doesn't have to be someone from the island, but I'm guessing it is. [See my choice for who it is and why in an upcoming post.] But, whoever it is, a member of the O6 would have warranted special mention in the obit, and would likely have attracted more than one mourner.

The question of the secret leads us to Matthew Abaddon, the "lawyer from Oceanic" who visited Hurley in the mental institution. He apparently knows the existence of a secret, if not the answer ("Are they alive, Mr. Reyes?"), and I think it's safe to assume he does not represent Oceanic. [I have not been following find815, and anyone who has information on Oceanic that would shed new light on the forgoing statement, please fill me in!]

The name Abaddon deserves a closer look. Hebrew for "destroyer" or "abyss", Abaddon is identified in some translations of Job 26:6 as the place of the dead; ie., netherworld ("Sheol" in King James), and in Revelation 9:11 (no conspiracy theories please) as the angel of the abyss. He was King of the locusts from the bottomles pit who were given to torment all humans without the mark of god for 5 months. "In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them." -Revelation 9:6

Whew! I think that's it for now; rather than get too deep into other aspects, I think I'll save those for separate posts. In other words, check back frequently! And please, leave comments! Comment on things I've said, give your own theories, and, in addition, I would welcome constructive criticism of the blog itself; is it too rambling? Too long? Not coherent enough? What would you like to see more of, less of?

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!

Welcome

Hey everybody! Welcome to my LOST blog! Check out my links, and expect essays after each episode, and possibly news in between. Please comment on the episode essays; I want a conversation here! See you on January 31st!