Questions Lost Refuses to Answer
By Dan Birlew | Posted April 6, 2010 in Television | 5 Comments »2. Why Can’t Anyone Get Pregnant?
That is, why can’t anyone carry pregnancy to term… except for Claire, Amy, Rousseau, and a few other women who seem to be given a magical pass? But all other women die before their third trimester. Amy’s birth of Ethan is probably explainable because they were in the past, in 1977 to be exact. Ethan’s birth is also notable as being the last conceived birth on the Island. Claire was already pregnant off the island and well into her third trimester when Flight 815 crashed. And when Rousseau and the French expedition team arrived on the Island, she was seven months pregnant already. So as Juliet diagnosed, anyone conceiving a child on the Island must leave before their third trimester, or they can expect to be dead by the 100th day of pregnancy. There’s obviously a hurdle at six months, which Claire and Rousseau both bypassed in coming to the Island more than seven months pregnant.
So it could prove true that this problem began in 1977, right after Ethan’s birth. And as we now know, “The Incident” occurred soon after Ethan was born. It’s possible that by drilling into the pocket of electromagnetism beneath the Swan Station and destabilizing it, that Dharma accidentally created the pregnancy problem. While the rampant electromagnetism seems to be the source of healing for many characters and, in Jin’s case, a sharp rise in sperm count, it also seems to cause pregnant women’s bodies to treat the fetus like a virus, and try to kill it. So again, we may be left to believe that electromagnetic magic is the cause of every weird situation on the Island. Hopefully we get at least one point of clarification on this before the show’s end, if only for Juliet’s sake.
I have this deep-seated fear, however, that whenever Jacob’s successor is appointed (which I hope with all my heart is the show’s outcome) that the person will merely indicate that the pregnancy problems are suddenly over. Without explanation. Let’s hope not, and let’s pray this gets an answer.
No answer to why pregnancies have been problematic on the Island.
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Nice round-up, Dan…
My answers to some, but not all, and some are clearly tongue-in-cheek:
The island is the mothership that brought MIB and Jacob to earth. The EMF pockets are the remains of their propulsion system. The ship has been reclaimed by secondary succession, which happens incredibly rapidly in tropical climates. The rocky stuff? That’s because when it was jumping around on the surface of the earth, it got mixed up in some volcanic activity.
No pregnancies has something to do with needing anchors in the real world, as Faraday explained to Desmond. Even if someone isn’t actively time traveling, the experiment with the rocket that you cite indicates that the island exists out of time/space somehow (also why people have to be sedated to travel there by sub). I figure that the island isn’t really a place like a normal place. Life can’t begin in a nowhere place. You have to have had existed beyond the island before you got to the island, which explains how pre-conceived children (ha ha ha) can make it, but children conceived of on-island ugly-bumping won’t make it. They can’t start nowhere.
I think the horse was MIB, and its the reason Kate’s no longer a candidate. She lost her place on the wall because she was easily seduced by the horse (not that way), remembering it as a savior of sorts, instead of being instantly suspicious. Of course, this doesn’t explain why MIB now tried to get her to touch him, as she voluntarily touched the horse back when they first met.
I forgot about the food drops, and I like you’re explanation about Eloise and the time/space charting. I think Hanso Corp is really behind it all, and they’re hooked up with Widmore somehow (Hanso’s HQ is in Widmore’s office building, or vice versa).
I do want to see that annoying blond kid again, and fast. He makes me think of The Red Queen from the marginal Resident Evil movies. As the embodiment of the computer system, she knew the rules for escaping the Umbrella facility (at least this is what I recall.. I napped through the movie and watched the rest with one eye). If the island is a spaceship, the kid is a hologram like The Doctor on Star Trek Voyager. If the island is legit, then his being beats the hell out of me.
Thanks Jain! Some quick responses if you don’t mind:
The island is the mothership…: Totally awesomeness. I like your story even better than Lost.
No pregnancies…: D’oh!
Forgot all about the sub travel, that ties in nicely Jain. But I don’t think the Island was always the way it is now. After all, it used to have a 20 ft. tall statue of Taweret, goddess of fertility. I think to some extent the statue explains Jin’s ability to suddenly procreate when his sperm count was previously lower in the outside world. So that’s why the pregnancy thing is at such odds with the rest of the Island’s nature, and why it’s a question that must must MUST be answered!
…Hanso Corp…: I didn’t include Hanso because I don’t feel that it’s really an open question, but I have a theory that Widmore bought Hanso Corp after the purge and after he was banished from the Island. This comes from inconsistencies between the first Lost ARG and the date of the purge. According to the Hanso docs in the online game, Dharma went bankrupt in 1987. But the Purge/banishing didn’t happen until 1992. So I think when Charles got back to the world, he bought the Hanso Foundation so that he could inherit Dharma’s research and documents. That’s how Zoe got the map from 1977 signed by Jin. I don’t know if that’s a detail they’ll mention on the show, however.
…The Red Queen from Resident Evil movie…: Very good point. In fact, the Bleach Blond Boy is a LOT like Red Queen, now to a perceptibly disturbing degree.
I’ve never watched Lost, is it good?
Re: Taweret
Just because Jin was suddenly fertile doesn’t mean that he, or any of his predecessors actually succeeded in bringing live children into the world on the island. Often times, cultures erect statues of gods or hold ceremonies to win their favor when things are going in the direction opposite to that god’s power or influence. Dances and ceremonies dedicated to the rain gods don’t usually occur when the reservoirs are full and crops are healthy. Cultures pray to their gods when they need something the god can provide. If all babies conceived on the island die, one would think a 15 story statue of the fertility goddess is in order.
Another interesting tidbit, courtesy of wikipedia:
“When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil.”
Yikes. A dual nature? A lifegiver and demon-wife? You have to admit, there’s something supremely messed up about Jin’s situation– it sounds like something a fertility goddess gone dark would do.