Baby/Toddler Aaron.
Lost challenged us, early on in the story of the Oceanic Six, to figure out who they were. One by one, their identities and stories came into focus ... Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun ... and baby Aaron.
At the time, I thought making baby Aaron one of the Oceanic Six was pushing it, a bit. Baby Aaron was in utero - Claire was pregnant with him when Flight 815 crashed. Aaron was born on the island. Bringing him back as one of the Oceanic Six barely made it ... but ok.
But, seeing the special retrospective tonight brought home what I see as a far more serious flaw in the return of the Oceanic Six. Over and over again, the characters say that everyone who left the island has to go back. And yet, Aaron was not among those who returned.
Perhaps there will be some plausible explanation for this, in a future episode. (I also see Kate leaving Aaron behind in LA as needing more explanation, but this is less of a problem.)
But, as of now, Aaron not on the returning plane is the one part of this otherwise superb story that just doesn't add up for me.
There is one explanation - which I hope is not the case, because it comes from outside of the story. I can understand why the producers/writers of Lost would not want to have the characters bring an innocent toddler on a plane which was going to crash - a three-year old who of course was not capable of making a decision to go on the plane. If this was the case, I can well understand it, and in fact agree with it. But, then, Lost should have provided some plausible explanation for why Aaron did not have to be on the plane.
5-min podcast about Lost and the Problem of Baby Aaron
More Lost - see : The Richard-Locke Compass Time Travel Loop ...
and Lost Returns in 5 Dimensions and 5.3: The Loops, The Bomb ... 5.4: A Saving Skip Back in Time ... 5.5 Two Time Loops and Mind Benders ... 5.6 A Lot of Questions ... 5.7 Bentham and Ben ... 5.8 True Love Ways ... 5.9 Two Times and a Baby ... 5.10 The Impossible Cannot Happen ... 5.11 Clockwork Perfect Time Travel ... 5.12: Ben v. Charles, and Locke' Slave ... 5.13: Lost Meets Star Wars and the Sixth Sense
The Plot to Save Socrates
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6 comments:
And there is also the issue of Walt. (I didn't watch the retrospective, so I don't know if he was mentioned.) Not only is it weird that he did not have to go back, but his story still hasn't really been told.
Didn't Mrs. Hawking say, when Ben thought he could only get a couple of people, that they'd have to hope it was enough? So maybe, the universe, or whatever force was controlling their return, was satisfied with close to everyone. That may be all of the explanation we ever get.
Or maybe they'll all have to go back eventually—Aaron, Walt, Desmond, Ji Yeon—but they didn't have to all go back together? If it's something like that, maybe we will get a better explanation at some point.
Anyway, frustrating having a recap episode when the season is really rolling like this. A very sly way of living up to their promise of running their shows straight through without repeats.
True on both accounts, Tvindy and Jessica.
But the special problem with Aaron is that he is one of the Oceanic Six. In contrast, although Walt got off the island, he did that in a different way.
Jessica - yeah, Faraday's mother did soften the requirement a little - but that's pretty weak... (though I suppose that could be the reason that the passengers on the new flight landed in two different times - because the returning Oceanic Six were not perfectly complete).
I suspect they've set us up with this. The phrases "you're not supposed to raise him" and "don't you dare bring him back" probably refer to John Locke, but have been misunderstood as referring to Aaron. And so presumably the resolution of the show's time-paradoxes and conundrums will involve Aaron and "tall Walt" returning to the island.
Great post as usual. I'm a big fan of lost but I get frustrated with some of the storytelling process. They seem to set things up and then go nowhere with them, unless, as you say, a payoff might be coming later. You wonder how much of the storyline is predetermined and how much they make up as they go along. It would be brilliant if the producers released a "linear" edit of Lost when the series is done, so all the flashbacks, flashforwards, time travel plotlines could be seen as they occurred historically, revealing how everything fit together and was planned all along. Of course, that might also reveal plotholes or unanswered questions. -- Nick http://nickleshi.blogspot.com
I think it would be very interesting, after we've been racking our brains now for years trying to figure this thing out, if we get to the end and find out the island never existed to begin with. It was all just a test.:)
Oh how sick and evil that would be. Frankly I've thought about that several times since seeing Faraday messing with the rat!
Only question is, who's running the test? God? An entity? Or simply, everyone on the island? Kind of explains why you don't find any children there or they leave or die, it's just not right to do psychological tests on innocent minds that can't choose for themselves.
Can't wait for the final four episodes of this season. The final season approaches!
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