MA THESIS

LOST (2004-2010) A post-9/11 Manifesto

Wessel Delst [email protected]

Student number: 10150382

MA Media Studies - Television and Cross-Media Culture

Supervisor: dr. S. Dasgupta

Second reader: prof. dr. C.P. Lindner

Date: 25-06-2015

Keywords: post-9/11 | narrative complexity | religion | paranoia | terror | morality | philosophy

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction 3

1 Television after 9/11 5 1.1 Initial response after the attacks of 9/11 5 1.2 Post-9/11 television 6 1.3 A post-9/11 zeitgeist on television 7 1.3.1 Militainment 8 1.3.2 Security and intelligence 8 1.3.3 Fear and paranoia 9 1.3.4 Othering 11 1.4 Hollywood and September 11 13 1.5 Conclusion 14

2 LOST: a post-9/11 television series 16 2.1 Lost and post-9/11: the first episode. 16 2.2 Fear, paranoia and a disorientating narrative structure 17 2.3 Terror 21 2.4 “The Others” 26 2.5 Conclusion 28

3 A post-9/11 philosophy, morality and religion in LOST 30 3.1 Integration of early modern philosophers in LOST 31 3.2 Morality: fate versus free will, reason versus faith and good versus evil 33 3.3 Religion 38 3.4 Conclusion 44

Conclusion 45 Bibliography 49

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INTRODUCTION

On the morning of 11 September 2001, four passenger airliners were hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists and flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and into a field near Shanksville, PA. Nearly 3,000 people died, and more were injured. The terrorist attacks had an enormous impact on the American society, as well as the rest of the Western world. The attacks left deep scars on the citizens of the United States of America. After the attacks, people felt insecure and were terrified about the possibility of new terrorist attacks. Security measures were taken on national and international airports, and the Bush administration signed several security and intelligence laws in order to prevent further attacks. In addition, the media was an important partner during and after the attacks. Immediately after the first airplane flew into the World Trade Center, television stations disrupted their broadcast schedules and aired non-stop live coverage of the events. But also in the months and years following, the media was affected by the events of 9/11. Content of television programs considered to be too aggressive and/or disturbing were cancelled or postponed. The declared War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the hunt for al-Qaeda, and the increased intelligence services changed life in the United States after 9/11, but also changed the way television dealt with the traumatic events. Television dramas adopted the post-9/11 atmosphere, and took on the political and social environment thereafter. This thesis will discuss how the so-called “post-9/11 era”1 influenced the television series LOST (ABC 2004-2010). An essay in the academic guide September 11 in Popular Culture: A Guide clearly stated that “[if] corporate commercial broadcast industry executives wanted to invent a popular television show that somehow channelled the U.S. public’s complete sense of helplessness after the horrific events of 9/11, they could not do much better than Lost”

(Williams 162). The first season of LOST, with an average of 16 million viewers in the United States, was extremely popular. In total, the series has been nominated for more than 250 awards, and of them has won 57, including a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, a 2006 Golden Globe for Best Drama, and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2006 (Williams 162).

The plot of LOST is that of the crashed passenger airliner Oceanic Flight 815 (flying between Sydney and Los Angeles), on a seemingly deserted and mysterious island:

[A tropical] island inhabited by polar bears, ‘others’, and a smoke monster; [it] is an island that allows a paralyzed person to regain his mobility [and where] people move back and forth in time. The list of mysteries grows longer with each

1 In this thesis, “post-9/11” is meant as causality with the events of and after 9/11, and has not a specific designation of time 3

subsequent episode, with viewers being quick to point out that each season brings with it more questions than answers. (Burcon 125)

48 people in the middle section of the plane survive the crash, and must live under primary circumstances. Their life on the island is hampered by its mystery, and the castaways are forced to find their own ways in order to protect themselves.

So the following research question arises: How does the ABC television series LOST address a “post-9/11” predicament of paranoia, terror, and “othering”2, manifested through discourses of philosophy, morality and religion in the wake of the events? In order to answer this, this thesis is divided into three chapters, with each chapter answering a separate part of the question. Chapter 1 deals with the question of how 9/11 affected the media via television. Chapter 2 debates which specific aspects of post-9/11 television – as set out in chapter 1– are interrelated with the series LOST. The last chapter will explain how the aforementioned dialogues on morality, religion, and philosophy are integrated into LOST, and how these discourses are interrelated with the post-9/11 era. The theoretical framework and the arguments made herein are focused specifically on the United States. The reason for this focus is based on the fact that LOST is an American series (ABC television network), and most of the academic research for LOST is done through an American perspective. In addition, the methodological approach for my analysis (described in Chapters 2 and 3) will rely on a qualitative textual analysis, whereas Chapter 1 is written in a historical context based on the academic research done so far by others.

2 a form of xenophobia to be explained later on in Chapter 1 4

CHAPTER 1: TELEVISION AFTER 9/11

The close connection between September 11 and television is not surprising. Since its inception, TV has served as a gathering place during difficult historic moments, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the shootings at Columbine or the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. […] Television programming addresses aspects of our lives and culture in its fictional narratives, documentaries, and talk shows. In its unique role in American life, television mirrors – and challenges – aspects of our cultural norms, politics, and societal practice. Through its programming, television provides an outlet for viewers to engage in processing the hopes, issues, fears, and dreams of the nation. As a result, significant events that impact our nation, such as the attacks on September 11, alter the television landscape and shape the way we understand such events. From early televised 9/11 benefit programs, to TV documentaries and specials, the repercussions of the attacks gradually began to appear in all kinds of TV programming. Eventually, new types of television shows would appear on network and cable channels across the country registering a post-9/11 world in both fact and fiction. Quay and Damico (131- 132)

This first chapter will relay the reaction of television to the events and the aftermath of 9/11, beginning with the initial response. Thereafter shall be described the more long-term post-9/11 effects on television, followed by a definition of long-term trends more focused on television dramas and series of post-9/11 television.

1.1 Initial response after the attacks of 9/11

Immediately after the attacks of 9/11, Americans were glued to news programs provided by TV and cable networks who worked together in the days after the attacks (Quay and Damico 8-9). For a full week, American broadcasters aired non-stop news coverage to keep the audience up to date, without any advertisement breaks. The television shows originally scheduled for that week were put off, and news programs took over the broadcast. After one week, television and cable networks reduced the news coverage, and regular broadcast schedules slowly came back on. “In general, the television industry hoped to provide light, escapist entertainment as an alternative to the aftermath of the terrorist attacks being covered on news programming” (qtd. in Quay and Damico 132). However, some films planned

5 for airing on television, such as LETHAL WEAPON (1987), KING KONG (1933), and THE SIEGE (1998) were considered disturbing for the audience, because of the violent and terrorist-related topics, and were cancelled. Furthermore, “a scene with an exploding airplane was edited out of an episode of Fox’s 24 (2001–2010); an episode of CBS’s THE AGENCY (2001–2003), which featured an anthrax attack was cancelled; and NBC’s UC: UNDERCOVER (2001–2002) eliminated a script with a terrorist plot” (132).

Conversely, some fictional series made a special episode because of the attacks. THE WEST

WING (1999-2006) and the rescue worker drama THIRD WATCH (1999-2005) both produced new episodes to reflect on the attacks. THIRD WATCH took place in New York City and “changes were made, at least in part, because many rescue workers who participated in the production of Third Watch– in minor speaking roles, as extras, or as technical advisors– were killed in the attacks” (Quay and Damico 134).

In addition, on September 21, 2001, ten days after 9/11, the celebrity telethon AMERICA:

A TRIBUTE TO HEROES aired on more than 320 television and cable networks, live from New York and Los Angeles. In this program, celebrities recited the stories of those who died or had gotten injured, along with musical performances of hit songs by famous singers. Some other celebrities took hold as phone operators, taking pledges in order to raise money for the surviving families of the victims (Spigel 20-21). With all of the aforementioned examples, it can be seen that in response to 9/11, some television programs “made minor alterations to their content, while others purposefully integrated content related to September 11 into their programming” (Quay and Damico 143).

1.2 Post-9/11 television

In the following months and years after the attacks, television producers started making documentaries, memorials, (mini-)series, and movies about the event. By the first anniversary of 9/11, several memorials and documentaries were aired on or around September 11 on American television. Within two years, the first television dramas, focused particularly on 9/11, were broadcast on American television. For example, the television film THE RUDY GIULIANI STORY (2003) focused on the New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, including his life, career, and actions on September 11. Another one of the most well-known examples of a television movie about

9/11 is UNITED 93 (2006), about the hijacked plane United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in the wooded areas of Shanksville, Pennsylvania (137). Even seven years after the attacks, some documentaries about 9/11 came out, such as 102 MINUTES THAT CHANGED AMERICA (2008), in which “a narrative of New York after the first plane hit the World Trade Center is told through real images New Yorkers captured with their cameras, cell phones, and video recording devices

6 on the day of the attacks” (Quay and Damico 136-137).

1.3 A post-9/11 zeitgeist on television

Right after the attacks on the WTC in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, the Bush administration conducted what is called the “War on Terror,” the military campaign against the perpetrators of 9/11, al-Qaeda, and other militant extremist organisations. Alongside this War on Terror, which resulted in a renewed NATO military intervention in Afghanistan and the invasion of the United States in Iraq, the 9/11 Commissioning Report (2004) provided evidence of the failures of the intelligence services in the United States and security checks at national airports preceding the attacks. By the end of October 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, which led to the systematic expansion of the state of security in the United States. So “[while] congress limited the president’s powers after Vietnam and Watergate, those powers were widened after 9/11 by the Patriot Act and other legislation that gave the president broad authority to take executive action” (Stockwell 193). The events of 9/11 and all of the previously described side-effects fit into a kind of “post-9/11 mood,” and various television programs “seemed to reflect [this]. Although absent any explicit references to the terrorist attacks, these programs register a post- 9/11 zeitgeist of loss, uncertainty, fear, and needs for closure, justice, and revenge” (Quay and Damico 143). Similarly, Steffen Hantke makes a claim about the relationship between the War on Terror and a paranoid style in television after 9/11:

…the manner in which the Bush administration conducted the so-called war on terror brought paranoia to the forefront and even injected it into genres of popular entertainment, especially in the medium of television, where it had played a minor role or none at all. […] Serving not only as a space for the public debate and examination of anxieties revolving around domestic and global terrorism and uncertainty about the mission and standing of the U.S. within the international community, television also served as the space where such anxieties were formulated, reified, encouraged, disseminated, and instrumentalized. (Hantke 144)

Other aspects of the post-9/11 climate became integrated in television through both the fiction and non-fiction landscape, “such as increased security measures and references to the 9/11 Commission Report” (Quay and Damico 142). Existing as well as new television programs “reflected the post-9/11 environment by altering their scripts to incorporate new aspects of life after 9/11. Newly conceived television programs addressed life after September 11 with a focus on the military, counterterrorism units, and characters who find themselves in uncertain times” (143). A particular example of a fictional television series that displayed some remarkable changes due to the post-9/11 mood, is Fox’s THE X-FILES (1993-2002):

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After 9/11, the threats of take-over by dark forces become more insistent and these young women respond in Bush-Cheney style: adapting belief systems to fit the shifting world as new, threatening facts come to light. While there is much recrimination in season 3 (1999) when Faith accidentally kills a human [...] the final season (2003) accepts collateral damage on the path to ultimate victory when Buffy’s hometown Sunnydale is destroyed to avoid the apocalypse about to emerge from the Hellmouth beneath it. (Stockwell 193)

In short, reflections of the post-9/11 zeitgeist were brought to the forefront in television programs. Some examples of television programs are to be set out in the following post-9/11 trends: “militainment” (military-themed entertainment dramas), security and intelligence series, fear and paranoia, and “othering.”

1.3.1 Militainment

Soon after the events of September 11, existing television programs renewed their focus on terrorism and counterterrorism. In addition, the Pentagon even cooperated with some programs, because in their view, militainment was “an effective way to communicate with the public about military policies and procedures” after 9/11 (Quay and Damico 139).

For example, JAG (1995-2005), a Navy-focused fictional series, got help from the Pentagon in doing research for an episode where a terrorist leader is “on trial for plotting the September 11 attacks” (139). The Pentagon also cooperated with other post-9/11 military-and- terrorism themed programs, such as the reality series AFP: AMERICAN FIGHTER PILOT (2002),

PROFILES FROM THE FRONT LINE (2003), and the documentary MILITARY DIARIES (2002). The post- 9/11 military entertainment increased during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (139).

1.3.2 Security and intelligence

In addition to militainment, which focused mainly on the military branches, counterterrorism dramas also influenced the television climate in the years after September 11. In these kinds of dramas, the attention is more on the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, or fictional counterterrorism and intelligence organisations, in order to secure the country against terrorist attacks. Shows such as ALIAS (2001-2006) and 24 (2001-2010), although in production before the attacks happened, “integrated terrorist plots into their narratives that were representative of the current climate” (Quay and Damico 140). In 24, the protagonist Jack Bauer is an agent of the Counter-Terrorist Unit of Los Angeles, a fictional anti-terrorism agency of the United States government. “In response to the trauma of 9/11 and the ensuing ‘War(s) on Terror’, [Jack Bauer finds himself] entangled in the global webs of international terrorism and counterterrorism”

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(Brereton and Culloty 486). Brereton and Culloty make a claim about the relation between the narrative of series 24 and the US policy during the governmental climate of the War on Terror:

First broadcast on 6 November 2001, each episode of the 24-episode season utilises a real-time framework of one hour in Bauer’s highly pressurised day. Each episode then unfolds within the immediate panic of a terrorist attack such that Bauer’s extreme efforts to prevent and avenge acts of terrorism through torture may come to seem justified given this compressed timing. Some of the torture tactics depicted in 24 include drugging, water-boarding, electrocution and, in a notably gruesome scene, power-drilling into a man’s shoulder. The narrative format of the series then manifests […] justification for torture in a ‘ticking bomb’ scenario. By successfully resolving the narrative through the excessive use of torture, the series implicitly endorses violent excesses as a legitimate strategy of the ‘War(s) on Terror’ and thereby resonates with official US policy. (487)

New television series with a focus on counterterrorism were also introduced, such as

SLEEPER CELL (2005-2006), THE GRID (2004), and the British series SPOOKS (in the United States broadcast under the title MI-5, 2002-present). In SLEEPER CELL, an Islamic FBI-agent goes undercover in a terrorist cell in order to thwart the “plans made by a group of Islamic fundamentalists for massive terrorist attacks in several major cities” (Quay and Damico 141). In the narrative, 9/11 is frequently mentioned, and as it unfolds, the program incorporates several aspects of a “post-9/11 military policy including references to Guantanamo Bay, treatment of detainees, torture, and rendition” (142).

1.3.3 Fear and paranoia

The unexpected and unbelievable attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon roused emotions of fear, paranoia, and disorientation among not only the citizens of New York, but the United States as a whole, as well as the rest of the Western world. The aftermath, with the War on Terror, the commissioning of the Patriot Act, and the shocking results of the 9/11 Commissioning Report only intensified these sentiments, and people were in constant fear of another similar attack. The fact that the perpetrators, taking shelter in the mountains somewhere in the Middle East, were unrecognizable, unidentifiable, and ready for new attacks all over the country, also infiltrated into the American population these unsettling emotions. This post-9/11 American zeitgeist, or “culture of fear” (Picarelli and Gomez-Galisteo 77), that spread during the Bush administration, was based on unpredictability: “ever since 9/11, the identity of collective dangers, be they a terrorist attack, an economic crisis, a natural disaster or an epidemic, has been deemed assessable only at the moment of its happening, maintaining a level of structural unpredictability” (77). Television adopted this “culture of fear,” and a change

9 in discourse and sensibility “ensued, with television inciting patriotism and national unity, while embracing fear as abstract and decontextualized” (77-78). In particular, paranoia permeated into the popular culture: After 9/11 and throughout the presidency of George W. Bush, American culture saw a massive resurgence of paranoia as the engine of popular fiction. [...] Among the most commercially and critically successful television programs during the Bush presidency, paranoid narratives within the genres of the thriller and of science fiction became synonymous with the American zeitgeist. […] Crime shows like Fox’s PRISON BREAK (2005–), [...] science fiction like CBS’s JERICHO (2007–08), and the SciFi Channel’s remake of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2004–09) turned into object lessons in the duplicity of all human motivation, the unpredictability of those closest to us, and the barely glimpsed existence of grand master plans demoting all of us to the status of pawns in one impenetrable scheme or another. (Hantke 143-144)

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is a good example of a television series embracing a post-9/11 predicament of fright and unsettlement. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is science fiction story about human people living in a faraway galaxy, on what they call “the twelve colonies.” When the Cylons destroy the twelve colonies, resulting in billions of human killed, the crew members of one spaceship, the Battlestar Galactica, are able to escape the annihilation of the twelve colonies. On the ship, a small civilian fleet is able to get rescued, and together with the crew, they are the last of humanity. Their journey is towards the fabled and mythic lost thirteenth colony: Earth. During their journey, they are under constant attack of the Cylons (IMDB.com).

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is “a series largely informed by the culture of fear emerging at the time of George W. Bush’s presidency” (Picarelli and Gomez-Galisteo 73). The first episodes of season one refers to the “post-9/11 state of exception, communicating the displacement and fear experienced by a civilisation coming to terms with a new sense of vulnerability” (78). The mood of the episodes consists of a contagious culture of fear, caused by the enemy, which is an untraceable presence, “whose politics and plans remain shifting and unfathomable” (78).

In BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the enemy has some references to al-Qaeda and other Islamic fundamentalism terrorist groups. The enemy in the series are the Cylons, which are anthropomorphic robots made by humans a half century prior in order to protect them, but after a war, the robots left the humans and turned their back on the people of the twelve colonies. After a period of quietness, the Cylons had struck back with several nuclear attacks. This “revenge against their creators’ self-serving mentality [...] resonates with the neocolonial tensions of modern geopolitics” (79). This narrative has some similarities with claimed arguments that Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and responsible for the attacks of 9/11, had ties with the CIA and had received American funding and weapons to militarize against the Soviet Union, who occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. But just as the Cylons turned against the

10 human people, al-Qaeda had turned against the CIA and the United States. Furthermore, “Cylons’ strategy of distributed and networked warfare patently refers to the ‘netwar’ politics of al- Qaeda” (79). To conclude, Picarelli and Gomez-Galisteo make a connection between the post-

9/11 sources of danger and BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA:

The end of season three reveals that four supposedly human characters are actually Cylons. This narrative twist once again comments on the intangible nature of an incubated risk that is impossible to pin down to single or multiple actors. In post- 9/11 times, sources of danger, be they terrorists or viruses, are regularly described as sleeper cells ready to activate and strike. This shift in the nature of threat, triggered by what look like forms of deviant embodiment, toward immateriality and opaqueness represents the core argument of those who advocated the imposition of a state of indefinite emergency after 9/11. (80)

1.3.4 Othering

After the Cold War in 1989 ended, the United States’ number one enemy, the Russians, were no longer United States’ number one enemy. This event leads to what they called the “enemy deprivation syndrome”:

One might think that not having enemies would be an unequivocally good thing, but from a certain point of view it also has major downsides. Most obviously, in the international arena the lack of a clear enemy raised all sorts of awkward issues. If the Soviets had quit the battlefield, what exactly were Western militaries and defence establishments for? Who were they trying to deter? What threats were they protecting against? What was the point of strategic organisations such as NATO? (Hammond 13-14)

But after 9/11, the problem of this “enemy deprivation syndrome” seems to have resolved, because “the enemy-shaped hole left by the Russians” (Hammond 14) was filled in by the radical Islamists and Arabs, identifying them as the enemy “other.” Partly because the nationality of terrorists of al-Qaeda and related terrorist cells were different and their hiding places were unknown (somewhere in the mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, or just “somewhere in the Middle East”), it was easy to see them as “the other.” This “othering,” or xenophobia, is defined as the irrational hatred or fear of the unfamiliar, in particular of persons belonging to other religions and races. In the US, discrimination has various labels, such as racism, Islamophobia, and anti-immigrant sentiment. However, the “fear of the other” is not unique to America and not an American invention, but “in the wake of 9/11 attacks, due to the myth-making capabilities of the American corporate media, new 'fears of the other' or the immigrant have been systematically induced in the minds of the American public” (Awan 525). So after the events of 9/11, when the United States’ government

11 announced that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, “attacking Islam and Muslims became the fashionable sport for the radio, television and print media. Unfortunately, the events of 9/11 were used as an excuse to greatly magnify the hostility toward Muslims and cloak it in pseudo- patriotism” (Ghazali 19). Some television programs adapted this “othering” soon after September 11. As previously mentioned, THE WEST WING performs some acts of othering in the episode made especially to react on the events of 9/11. THE WEST WING was set to broadcast their third season in the fall of 2001, and the production of the series was essentially completed on the days of

9/11 and the aftermath. Nonetheless, the producers of THE WEST WING “were able to integrate content related to the terrorist attacks purposefully and quickly into fictional narratives” (Quay and Damico 158). Within less than a month after the events of 9/11, THE WEST WING aired the special episode titled “Isaac and Ishmael.” The narrative of the drama is about the White House and focused on a fictional presidency administration. In this special episode, the White House is locked down because of an emergency threat, due to a security breach. During the lockdown, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and other main characters have an informational conversation with high school students, who are visiting the White House. Scholar Lynn Spigel makes some arguments about the manner in which THE WEST WING proclaims a dissimilitude between the American and the Arab worlds, by using the concept of orientalism:

Orientalism retains the racist histories of othering from the earlier European context but becomes increasingly less philological and more concerned with social-scientific policy. [...] Contemporary Orientalism is to erase any American awareness of the Arab world's culture and humanity (its poets, its novelists, its means of self- representation), replacing these with a dehumanizing social-scientific index of "attitudes, trends, statistics”. The West Wing's fictional schoolroom performs this kind of social-scientific Orientalism in the name of liberal humanism. And it does so through a pedagogical form of enunciation that places viewers in the position of high school students- and particularly naive ones at that. The program speaks to viewers as if they were children or, at best, the innocent objects of historical events beyond their control. The “why does everyone want to kill us?” mantra espoused by The West Wing's fictional students, becomes, to use Lauren Berlant's phrase, a form of “infantile citizenship” that allows adult viewers comfortably to confront the horrors and guilt of war by donning the cloak of childhood innocence (epitomized, of course, by the wide-eyed figure of President Bush himself, who, in his first televised speech to Congress after the attacks, asked, "Why do they hate us?"). (Spigel 244-245)

In addition to THE WEST WING, other television dramas with references to xenophobia and

“othering” flourished on the American television. These dramas include: THREAT MATRIX, NCIS,

LAX, JAG, SLEEPER CELL, THE GRID, THE AGENCY, and 24. These shows “cashed in on the salacious

12 possibilities of Arab or Muslim terrorist threats and assured viewers with depictions of the U.S. government’s heroic efforts to combat this new, pulse-quickening terrorism” (Alsultany 2). However, the representation of Arabs or Muslims in television drama series is more complex, and after 9/11 they are not solely represented as terrorists. Alsultany claims that producers of television used several strategies in order to prevent claims of racism and stereotyping. These strategies include using a multicultural cast, inserting patriotic Arab or Muslim Americans, portraying “Arab/Muslim Americans as the unjust victims of violence and harassment” (22), humanizing the terrorist or “flipping the enemy.” By flipping the enemy, Alsultany means that the narrative is letting the audience believe that Muslims or Arabs are the terrorists, but in fact, these Muslims or Arabs are merely subject to “Euro-American or European terrorists” (23). These alternative representations of Arabs and Muslims in television dramas signify “a new era of racial representation. These representations appear to challenge or complicate former stereotypes and contribute to a multicultural or post-race illusion” (21). Othering has played also a role in post-9/11 Hollywood, both as stereotyping the terrorist as “the other,” but also films about the unknown enemy as alien/the other, such as alien films:

Spielberg’s 2005 remake of WAR OF THE WORLDS was explicitly intended to evoke 9/11 and to revisit the recent experience of Americans being attacked by an unknown enemy. Though it stops short of simply equating aliens and terrorists, [...] the film does echo official constructions of the enemy as radically ‘Other’. (Hammond 12)

1.4 Hollywood and September 11

Finally, we reach a brief exposition of the post-9/11 cinema, focused particularly on Hollywood. In contrast to the post-9/11 television landscape, Hollywood and the US film industry responded with greater caution and more slowly because it “viewed 9/11 as a kind of box office poison” (Prince 80). This concern grew partly because of the low domestic grosses of the two high- budget and heavy-action films WINDTALKERS (2002, with Nicolas Cage) and COLLATERAL DAMAGE (2002, with Arnold Schwarzenegger), both of which grossed only $40 million (Dixon 144). The two films were produced and essentially completed before September 11, 2001, but were delayed multiple times because the distributors of the films considered the plot of the films too shocking so soon after the attacks. When they came out in 2002, they didn’t become very popular at all. “9/11 rang down the curtain on Hollywood’s theatre of mass destruction, at least for a while” (Prince 70).

WINDTALKERS and COLLATERAL DAMAGE were not the only films that made changes because of the attacks. At least 45 films around that time were cancelled, postponed, or altered in content. In several movies, the Twin Towers were edited out of the New York skyline, such as

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SERENDIPITY and ZOOLANDER (both 2001), while other films had to completely reshoot some sequences. For example, in the ending of MEN IN BLACK II (2002), the climactic battle was originally in front of the Twin Towers, but in the final version, the makers of the film had changed it into the Chrysler Building (Bell-Metereau 144; Quay and Damico 174). In the wake of 9/11 and during the proclaimed War of Terror, the sense of insecurity felt by the Americans boosted warlike and patriotic films. With the war in Afghanistan, Hollywood started to produce military films. These war films, such as BEHIND ENEMY LINES (2001), BLACK

HAWK DOWN (2001), and WE WERE SOLDIERS (2002) topped the box offices and were remarkably popular (Riegler 105). “None of these war movies engaged with the topic of terrorism and instead re-enacted clear cut battlefield victories in Vietnam as well as US contributions to flawed UN interventions in the Balkans and Somalia in the early 1990s” (105). However, with the highly controversial invasion of Iraq in 2003, military films soon ebbed away. The first films about 9/11 came out in 2006, so it “took more than five years for the entertainment industry to tackle 9/11 directly” (110). WORLD TRADE CENTER and UNITED 93 (both 2006) were the first films directly dealing with the story of respectively the Twin Towers and flight United 93 (crashed in the wooded areas of Pennsylvania) during 9/11. In the years after 9/11, films that were reflective of the post-9/11 zeitgeist of terrorism with relating moods of fear and insecurity became part of the cinematic landscape (Riegler 115; Quay and Damico 187). Also “apocalyptic themes, paranoia, and graphic violence were as popular during the 1970s. […] After 2001, besides the fear of terrorism there was a growing awareness of further threats like pandemics, natural disasters, or the breakdown of society” (Riegler 115). The post 9/11 Hollywood films expressed how the American culture and society “underwent profound changes since 2001: From freedom towards security and paranoia, from perceived stability towards uncertainty” (104).

1.5 Conclusion

This chapter has described in which ways both the television and Hollywood have responded to 9/11 and how the events affected the media. Immediately after the attacks, the television responded with live coverage, and in the following days with news programs. After one week of nonstop news coverage, slowly regular broadcasting came back on track. But the gruesome and terrible attacks on the WTC and Pentagon left a deep impact on the American television landscape. Along with the War on Terror, a post-9/11 zeitgeist of fear, paranoia, and loss came into being, and the television adapted to it, but also intensified it. “Post-9/11” became a television trend, including militainment, security- and intelligence-themed series, moods of fear and paranoia entwined in television plots, and the use of “othering.” The divisions are both distinct and yet related to each other – for example, paranoia and othering rely on each other

14 since fear of the other is one way of describing paranoia, and in most militaintment and intelligence-themed series, fear/paranoia and the use of othering is used to propel the plot. In the following chapter, these post-9/11 trends will be analysed in the series LOST.

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CHAPTER 2 LOST: A POST-9/11 TELEVISION SERIES

This chapter will look again at post-9/11 television trends, but most specifically to the ABC series LOST. This television series includes six seasons, ranging from 14 to 25 episodes per season, with a total of 121 episodes. LOST first aired 22 September 2004, almost exactly three years after 9/11, and finished the long-standing prime time series after six years on 23 May 2010. In this chapter, the following sub-question will be answered: Which specific aspects of post-9/11 television – as illustrated in the previous chapter– are interrelated with the series LOST? In the previous chapter, four post-9/11 television trends were set out: militainment, security and intelligence series, fear and paranoia, and “othering.” These central thematic divisions within the post 9-11 zeitgeist are present in LOST; some very obvious, and others to a lesser extent. These thematic divisions are treated on the basis of several episodes of the first season. Apart from that, in the following section, some general analysis will be set out about the interrelated aspects of post-9/11 trends and LOST in order to understand the narrative of the first season. In each section following, analyses are conducted on one episode or more, and connects the (audio-visually constructed) narrative with the post-9/11 trends set out in the first chapter.

2.1 Lost and post-9/11: the first episode.

LOST does not tackle the terrorist attacks of 9/11 directly; the narrative of the whole series does not refer to any of the specific moments of terror on 9/11 or its aftermath. However, LOST does reflect on the post-9/11 zeitgeist experienced in the United States, and it is articulated from the beginning of the series. In the first episode (“Pilot, Part one”), a commercial airplane of Oceanic Airlines is no longer controlled by the pilots (like the hijacked planes on 9/11), and crashes on a remote and (seemingly) deserted island in the Pacific. This air travel disaster innately relates to the immediate days after September 11 because “it palpably evokes 9/11-induced fears about plane crashes” (Anderson 71). In the very first minutes after the crash, the viewer follows survivor Jack Shepherd, one of the main characters of the show. As soon as he wakes up in the jungle and stumbles back to the crashed plane on the beach in order to help the other survivors, he is the beholder of a chaotic clearing place. After he surmounts a moment of shock over what he is seeing, he explores the place and helps people in need. A young woman in front of the plane wreck is standing alone, speechless and only able to scream out for her brother. She is in a total state of shock, as are other stranded passengers who stumble around disorientated. Jack is playing the heroic man, helping people “from a man trapped under a piece of the plane to an alarmed pregnant woman, even taking over a seemingly lifeless woman’s resuscitation when a man identifying himself as a

16 trained lifeguard fails to administer proper mouth-to-mouth technique” (Muller 7). This first scene of the series reflects on the primary reaction of spectators of the lingering moments after the two planes perpetrated the Twin Towers in Manhattan; not only people in New York who directly saw the two planes crushing into the towers, but also the viewers on the television, who saw the second plane and the towers collapse live on the screen.

In the rest of the first episode of LOST, the survivors of the plane crash make camp on the beach and wait for rescue. They are stranded and scared on a remote island, as well as complete strangers to each other. The castaways are entangled in emotions of loss, uncertainty, and fear. Their waiting is hopeless, because there won’t be a rescue. The first episode seems to reconstruct the spectators’ and viewers’ complete sense of helplessness right after the unimaginable events of September 11. As the plot of the first season unfolds, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 “progress individually through the stages of loss in varying degrees” (Anderson 72). Some act numb, while many others are angry or in denial. Some even have symptoms of post-traumatic stress, including hysterical and disoriented behaviour, nightmares, flashbacks and hallucinations, all leading to paranoia. These feelings are accompanied by the narrative structure of the series, in which flashbacks play an important role in the series’ interrelation with the post-9/11 zeitgeist. The first priority of the survivors is to get rescued from the island, meanwhile surviving under primitive conditions. Almost immediately into the series, this survival is impeded by strange features of the island. The group of survivors come to the alarming discovery that the island they are crashed on is rather mysterious. On the evening of the first day of the crash, when they all sit around campfires reeling from the shock, they are once again startled by a terrifying and loud mechanical-sounding noise out of the jungle, accompanied by the crashing of a dozen of trees. Later on in season 1, they discover polar bears and an irrational French woman, shipwrecked sixteen years before the crash. Aside from this French woman, the group of survivors discovers that they are not alone on this seemingly deserted island, as some of the characters become kidnapped by an unknown enemy. This terrorizing aspect of the island and this unknown enemy is in correlation with the post-9/11 trend of militainment and torture. In the last section, the unknown enemy, later in season 1 called “The Others,” is related with the trend of othering since 9/11. The ironic use of the designation “The Others” by the writers of LOST “to label and single out non-survivors, not only reflects but accentuates an American paranoia of non-natives since 9/11” (Anderson 84).

2.2 Fear, paranoia and a disorientating narrative structure

As previously mentioned in Chapter 1, after the terrorist attacks of September 2011 and its aftermath (with the War on Terror, the Patriot Act, and the 9/11 Commissioning Report), a

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“culture of fear” in the public emerged, and television adapted and intensified this with series such as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, SLEEPER CELL, PRISON BREAK (2005-2009), FRINGE (2008-2013), THE

BOURNE series, and also with LOST. Emotions accompanied by fear, paranoia, and disorientation are not only entangled in the storyline of season 1, but also the narrative structure is building an experience in order to perplex the viewer. In this section, examples of episode 5 will be analysed in order to make arguments about disorientation, fear, and paranoia; in other words, the adaptation of the post-9/11 culture of fear.

“WHITE RABBIT” – S01E05

[Jack sees the man in the suit standing in the ocean.] KATE: Jack? [Jack walks toward the ocean.] KATE: Jack? [Jack looks again and there is no man in the ocean.] KATE: Are you okay? JACK: Did you see that? KATE: What? JACK: Standing there, in the water, there was a man. You didn't see that? KATE: Jack, when was the last time you slept? JACK: [referring to the bag he's carrying] I need to put this with the rest of the gear. [Shot of Kate looking worried] (“White Rabbit”)

In this excerpt from episode 5, one of the main protagonists of the series, Jack Shepherd, is seeing a man standing in the ocean, during what seems to be a hallucination due to Jack’s physical exhaustion. Later on in this episode, Jack sees again this “man in suit” standing on the edge of the jungle. When he runs off into the jungle to the figure, the man in the suit turns toward Jack, and turns out to be Jack’s father, who was not on the plane. Jack backs away and falls because of the shock, and the figure of Jack’s father disappears in the jungle again. In a later conversation with John Locke, another main character, Jack confesses that he has hallucinations:

LOCKE: Why are you out here, Jack? JACK: I think I'm going crazy. LOCKE: No. You're not going crazy. JACK: No? LOCKE: No, crazy people don't know they're going crazy. They think they're getting sane. So, why are you out here? JACK: I'm chasing something—someone.

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LOCKE: Ah. The white rabbit. Alice in Wonderland. JACK: Yeah, wonderland, because who I'm chasing—he's not there. LOCKE: But you see him? JACK: Yes. But he's not there. LOCKE: And if I came to you and said the same thing, then what would your explanation be, as a doctor. JACK: I'd call it a hallucination. A result of dehydration, post-traumatic stress, not getting more than two hours of sleep a night for the past week. All of the above. LOCKE: All right, then. You're hallucinating. But what if you're not? JACK: Then we're all in a lot of trouble.

Trauma is one of the most pronounced themes of LOST. The traumatic events, such as the plane crash and the fears caused by the mysterious island, are stirring the emotions of the characters. Most of the main characters suffer from a number of post-traumatic stress symptoms, such as isolating behaviour, amnesia, hearing whispers, and having hallucinations (such as Jack). These post-traumatic stress symptoms seem to reflect the “doomsday perspective felt by many people post-9/11” (Anderson 81). This doomsday perspective can be argued by scientific research saying that “seventeen percent of the US population outside of New York City reported symptoms of September 11-related post-traumatic stress 2 months after the attacks” (Silver et al. 1235). In episode 5, Jack Shepherd sees his father, and the storyline reflects these events as having post-traumatic stress because of the airplane crash; but Jack is not the only one with post-traumatic symptoms. All of the survivors have to deal with fear and loss. Some of them hear whispers and have hallucinations leading to paranoia, but these post-traumatic stress references are not the only relations to the post-9/11 zeitgeist. LOST’s narrative “format also tends [...] toward post-traumatic style because of its frequent use of time deformations that create viewer disorientation” (Anderson 71). The narrative structure of each of the episodes “produce the effect of chaos and disorientation” (87) for the viewer. “Formation is consistently presented in traumatic memory form, out of context, lacking the necessary detail for full comprehension, and it is shown from a subjective point of view such that one does not know if one can trust what one sees” (87). Episodes are presented in a fragmented fashion and in a disjointed way “that it is impossible to know the full truth and context about anyone or any event on the island” (87). With each subsequent episode, the list of unanswered questions and mysteries grows, bringing more questions than answers (Burcon 125).

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One way of accomplishing this perplexing viewer experience is the extensive use of flashbacks. In the series, flashbacks are used to fill in the blanks of the fragmented background stories of the character before the crash. Each 42-minute episode focuses on one character in the flashback sequences and deals with the background story of the character before 22 September 2004, the date on which the airplane crashed on the island, and “how their pasts motivate their actions on the island. It also succeeds in creating a sense of estrangement and mystery. The characters and their motivations are never clearly drawn for the viewer” (Tkachuk 25). The flashbacks cut back and forth between present and past, and sometimes it is not clear for the viewer which timeline is presented in the narrative. The flashbacks “unfold concurrently with the main action taking place on the island” (Quay and Damico 163). This lack of “explicit storytelling cues and signposts creates moments of disorientation” (Mittel Narrative Complexity 37). In the episode “White Rabbit,” disorientation is also achieved by the extensive use of flashbacks. As is shown in the first excerpt previously mentioned, Jack is seeing a man in a suit standing in the water, and as he chases the man into the jungle, finds out that it is his father. At that point in the episode, the viewer is not informed of the fact that Jack’s father actually died in an unrelated scenario prior to the crashed flight. The viewer learns this later in the episode, in a flashback:

[Flashback - Shot of Jack and a medical examiner walking down a hall in some kind of medical building (morgue).] MEDICAL EXAMINER: The police found him in an alley in Queens Cross. Now, a tox screen showed a blood alcohol content, which for a man of his size, probably brought on myocardial infarction - a sizable, and fatal heart-attack. [They go into a room with a body bag on a gurney. The Medical Examiner unzips it. His father is there.] JACK: [crying] That's him.

Due to the flashbacks, the already mysterious appearance of Jack’s father on the island becomes even more so, which brings a more puzzling viewer experience when it is revealed that Jack’s father is actually dead. So the question arises: is Jack in fact having hallucinations of his dead father? The appearances of passed deceased people are a common reoccurrence throughout the first season (as well as in later seasons), and until season 6 it is not revealed what the explanation is for these appearances. Not only in this particular episode of LOST, but also in the rest of season one, reflections of post-9/11 trends of fear, paranoia, and disorientation come back into the plot. In addition to fear, paranoia, and mystery, the flashback structure causes bewilderment

20 and disarray of the viewer, but also works as a narrative device for the television series. The sequences in which Jack is seeing his dead father on the island, along with the ensuing flashback reiterating his death, create bafflement for the viewer, and this works as a narrative device in order to enhance the structural and textual enlargement of the plot. In the first place, the appearance of Jack’s dead father on the island seems to be related to unresolved events in his past, and forecasts a clue that the backstories of each character will appear in flashbacks. Each episode focuses on a specific character backstory through flashbacks, and the current scenario on the island is also focused on that character. The flashbacks have narrative and thematic parallels with the events on the island, and the present flashback-character’s actions thereon derive from traumatic issues in his or her past, which are set out in the flashback depiction. LOST combines two kinds of narrative complexity: on one hand, the narrative complicates the story with its expanding quantity of characters, creating a complex web of interconnectivity and an increasing story world (referred to by Mittel as “centrifugal complexity”). On the other hand, with the use of ongoing flashbacks in each episode, the storyline establishes a thickness of character and backstory depth, which build multiple layers of backstory and the psychological complexity of each main character, which Mittel describes as “centripetal complexity” (The Qualities 52).

Secondly, the disorientation created by the narrative structures of the series, through the fragmented fashion of the flashbacks, the disjointed context, and frequent use of time deformations, ensures and guarantees a continuing expectation of pleasure by the viewer:

We watch the series not just as a window into a compelling fictional universe, but also to watch how the window itself works to distort or direct our line of vision. Watching a series like LOST demands dual attention to both the story and the narrative discourse that narrates the story, with particular pleasures offered exclusively at the level of a story’s telling. (Mittel Lost 17)

2.3 Terror

Besides trauma, terror is a second theme in the first season. While waiting for their rescue, the survivors of Oceanic 815 are under a constant threat of multiple terrorizing aspects. Some terrorizing threats are within the group of the survivors themselves, and other threats are external, such as “the Smoke Monster” and “The Others.” Along with that, the castaways have to deal with torture and imprisonment. The aspects of terror in LOST can be defined as committed by individuals or non-state recognized groups of people and therefore illegitimate groups (in contrast to violence committed by a state-government that is identifiable and most often justified). Another aspect of terror is its unpredictability. The aspect of terror in LOST comes close to the militainment division set out in Chapter 1. In this section, examples of three episodes

21 will be analysed in order to claim some relations between the post-9/11 militainment and the aspect of terror in LOST.

On the island, the ultimate force of trepidation is the Smoke Monster, and is one of the fundamental mysteries of the island. In season 1, as soon as in the first episode (Pilot, Part 1), the Smoke Monster confronts the survivors with a “variety of biological and mechanical sounds - two of the most distinctive being a mechanical clicking and a loud high-pitched warning or alarm call” (Lostpedia “The Man in Black”). “While seemingly intangible, the Monster can grasp and manipulate objects with a tremendous application of force - capable of uprooting enormous fully-grown trees, knocking down walls and slamming victims into the ground” (Lostpedia). In the first episode, when protagonist Jack, together with other main characters Kate Austen and Charlie Pace, find the pilot of the plane inside the demolished cockpit, the Smoke Monster assaults them and kills the pilot. Later in the season, the Smoke Monster also confronts main character John Locke, but leaves him without doing any harm. However, in the last episode of the first season, “Exodus, part 2,” John Locke is again confronted by the Smoke Monster, this time with harmful intentions:

“EXODUS, PART 2” – S01E25

[We hear a chittering sound. Jack and Kate see a black "shadow" slide by a short distance to their right. Jack looks at Kate.] KATE: Yeah, I saw it. We've got to get out of here. [Jack, Kate, and Hurley move off quickly. Locke stays to stare. We hear some animal cries, then the "footsteps," and sounds of the Monster. Jack takes his pack off and runs with Kate and Hurley. Locke takes his pack off and tries to get a closer look. Jack sees Locke going toward the Monster.] JACK: Locke! What are you doing? [Jack runs after Locke. Locke continues toward the Monster.] JACK: Locke! [The sounds of the Monster die down, and Locke stands still. There is a sudden "footstep" right next to Locke and he falls. Locke's expression changes from wonder to terror as he "sees" the Monster loom above him.] Act 2 [Locke scrambles to get away from the Monster. Jack runs after him.] JACK: Locke! [We see Kate and Hurley running. Kate turns around.] KATE: Jack! Jack!

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[Kate runs after Jack. We hear a ratcheting sound, and Locke is captured by a tendril of the Monster by the ankle and dragged. Jack runs and grabs hold of Locke barely keeping him from being dragged into a hole in the ground. Kate enters.] KATE: Oh, my god. JACK: I need the dynamite. [Kate takes her pack off.] No, no, it's in my pack. Just go get it! Hurry, go! John, John. [..] KATE: It'll blow us up. JACK: Just hurry, I can't hold him! LOCKE: Don't do this, Kate! JACK: Throw it in -- now, Kate! [She throws the dynamite in. We hear the explosion and see a cloud of black come up behind Locke, gather together, and "exit." Jack and Kate pull Locke up.] (“Exodus, part 2”)

In this last episode of the first season, the Smoke Monster’s physicality is shown to the viewer for the first time. In all the previous scenarios, the Monster’s outward appearance was not revealed; so until this last episode, the shape of the Smoke Monster was a mystery. This unknown and enigmatic enemy has some similarities with the kind of enemy the United States had to deal with on 9/11. Its ability to sneak unseen and chase people into the jungle of the island, killing many characters while sparing others, makes the Monster’s actions very unpredictable. The Smoke Monster is not located on a fixed place and, its attacks are random. Its presence on the island causes a permanent threat for the survivors, in familiarity with the terrorist’s strike on the WTC and the Pentagon, being in the same line of unpredictability. Also during the Bush administration, due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (the War on Terror) and terrorist threats, the identity of collective dangers (a terrorist attack, an economic crisis, a natural disaster, or an epidemic) was felt to be only assessable at the moment of its happening. Besides this level of volatility, the Smoke Monster and the post-9/11 enemy share the same identity as “sleeper cells”: “In post-9/11 times, sources of danger, be they terrorists or viruses, are regularly described as sleeper cells ready to activate and strike” (Picarelli and Gomez-Galisteo 80). The Smoke Monster is not the only terrorizing actor of the island. Throughout the story of the first season, the survivors of the plane crash have to deal with more frightening events, including kidnapping. In the eleventh episode (titled "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"), two main characters of the group are kidnapped by Ethan Rom, who infiltrated the group of survivors after the plane crash. Ethan Rom had initially acted as being one of the survivors of the crash, but the group comes to the revelation that he was never on the plane, as they find a document with the passengers listed on the plane. Unfortunately their discovery comes too late,

23 because meanwhile Rom has abducted Charlie Pace and the pregnant Claire Littleton. A search group tries to find Charlie and Claire, only to find Charlie being hanged from the trees. They cut Charlie down and Jack tries to recover him by doing CPR. His action is successful and Charlie recovers suddenly from death. Claire, however, is still missing. Four episodes later, she is found in the jungle, looking exhausted and suffering from amnesia. In that same episode (“Homecoming”), Ethan attacks Charlie because he has a dreadful request:

“HOMECOMING” – S01E15

[Charlie and Jin hear a whirring sound.] CHARLIE: What? [Jin gets pegged with a rock and collapses. Ethan walks up.] ETHAN: Charlie, I want her back [Referring to Claire]. CHARLIE: What? I... ETHAN: I want you to bring her back. CHARLIE: What did you do to her? [Charlie grabs a stick and tries to hit Ethan.] What did you do?! [Ethan grabs Charlie by the neck and lifts him up against a tree.] ETHAN: You bring her here. If you don't, I'm going to kill one of them. And then, if you don't bring her back before sundown tomorrow, I'll kill another, and another, and another. One every day. [Letting him go] And Charlie, I'll kill you last. [Ethan leaves.] (“Homecoming”)

The survivors set up a plan to protect the group from hurting by Ethan, which does no end successfully:

[They hear a woman scream and go running to the beach where there's a body in the sand.] BOONE: What happened? SAYID: Is he alive? [Referring to the lifeless body of Scott] BOONE: Oh, god. SAYID: How did he get past us? [Shot of Charlie, Kate and Hurley at the beach.] HURLEY: I thought those guys had a full on perimeter set up? KATE: Locke said it didn't matter -- he came in from the water. HURLEY: You sure it wasn't an accident? I mean, maybe the guy just drowned or something. KATE: His neck was broken, both his arms, all the bones in his fingers. (“Homecoming”)

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Later in the episode, they lure Ethan to Claire and are able to hold him on fire. A vengeful Charlie shoots him six times in the chest, which kills Ethan. Although still unknowing of who exactly Ethan was and what his motives were about abducting Claire, the group is aware that they are not alone on the island. Quoting character John Locke in episode seventeen, “In Translation”: “They've attacked us, sabotaged us, abducted us, murdered us! Maybe it's time we stop blaming us and start worrying about them! We're not the only people on this Island and we all know it!” The acts of terror, including the kidnapping of Charlie and Claire and the murder of Scott, caused by the infiltration of the mysterious Ethan who was not on the plane, is again a level of unpredictability. Ethan, the “sleeper cell,” ready to activate and strike, resembles the hijackers of the planes used to penetrate the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Like Ethan, they infiltrated into the American population as sleeper cells, unrecognizable and unidentifiable, and were ready for attacks all over the country. A notable reference within the series is that of the character Sayid Jarrah, in which terrorism and torture “appear within the narrative through the back stories of Sayid. Sayid is a particularly interesting character, since he is a Muslim Iraqi former member of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, which should codify him as an enemy” (Tkachuk 79-80). But in

LOST, Sayid’s representation is in fact a charismatic and ingenious character “with a range of skills which prove useful to the castaways. Moreover, [...] the audience is encouraged to identify with him when they see him protecting, working and fighting with the other survivors” (80). Sayid’s flashback in episode nine (“Solitary”) deal with his background story as torturer for the Republican Guard. Sayid is a “skilled interrogator who uses torture to pursue the truth” (80). He uses his skills as an interrogator in episode eight (“Confidence Man”) in order to get the truth about whether character Sawyer has Shannon’s asthma inhaler:

“CONFIDENCE MAN” – S01E08

[Shot of Sayid making bamboo spikes.] JACK: It doesn't have to be this way. SAWYER: Yeah, it does. SAYID: We do not have bamboo in Iraq, although we do have something similar -- reeds. But their effect is the same when the shoots are inserted underneath the fingernails. SAWYER: You know what I think, Ali. I think you've never actually tortured anybody in your life. SAYID: Unfortunately for us both, you're wrong. [Sayid starts with the bamboo under the fingernails.]

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SAWYER: That's it? That's all you got? Splinters? No wonder we kicked your ass in the Gulf... [he screams] JACK: Sayid. Sayid! (“Confidence Man”)

The excessive use of torture in the narrative (in a similar fashion as in the series “24”) legitimates the use of torture done by Jack Bauer, and seems to refer implicitly to the endorsement of torture as a “legitimate strategy of the ‘War(s) on Terror’ and thereby resonates with official US policy” (Brereton and Culloty 487). Through the character of Sayid, LOST is able to integrate a scope of issues into the story which speak to the post-9/11 political context, including the side effects of US foreign policies in Iraq and Afghanistan – explicitly to the torture and prisoner abuse of the US military during the war in Iraq (such as in the Abu Ghraib prison). As covered in the previous chapter, besides militainment-based television programs, counterterrorism dramas based on security and intelligence were set out as central thematic divisions within the post 9-11 zeitgeist. In later seasons, surveillance cameras “become a focal point of LOST’s story, mimicking the rise of a post-9/11 surveillance state” (Quay and Damico 163). When more castaways are abducted by The Others throughout the seasons, the narrative shows The Others’ use of surveillance cameras to secure their imprisonment.

Aside from that, in season 1 of LOST, themes of security and intelligence are less common in the narrative plot, but a reference to post-9/11 intelligence does come from Sayid. In season 1, in a background story via a flashback, Sayid is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate a cell that has intentions to blow up a shopping mall in Australia with stolen C-4 explosives. Sayid successfully infiltrates the cell and is able to stop the attack before the cell blows up the shopping mall. Sayid had originally agreed to take part of this cell as infiltrator because the CIA had information about the whereabouts of Sayid’s long-lost love, Nadia. According to the CIA, she is in California, and Sayid gets a plane ticket to Los Angeles: on Oceanic Flight 815.

2.4 “The Others”

As described in Chapter 1, the phenomenon of othering became a renewed trend after 9/11. Groups of people belonging to other religions and races, including radical Islamists, Arabs and Muslims, were identified as the enemy “other,” partially because of the myth-making abilities of the US corporate media. Othering in LOST can be seen through direct references to the “others,” an entity which can be described as unidentifiable and illegal, and the fear of them.

In LOST, references to “the other” are made. One example is of the character Ethan Rom, the man who hanged Charlie and kidnapped Claire, whose name is an anagram for “Other Man.” Besides that, references to “the other” are literally made in the narrative of season 1, because the survivors use the term “The Others” for the unseen group of people who are terrorizing the castaways. The term “The Others” is first coined by Danielle Rousseau, the shipwrecked woman

26 living already sixteen years on the island. She kidnaps Sayid while he is exploring the jungle, seeing him as an enemy due to her paranoia-based attitude. In an interrogation, Danielle Rousseau clarifies her history on the island:

“SOLITARY” – S01E09

DANIELLE: Our vessel was 3 days out of Tahiti when our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm, the sounds. The ship slammed into rocks, ran aground, the hull breached beyond repair. So, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter. Temporary. Nearly 2 months we survived here, 2 months before - SAYID: Your distress signal? The message I heard, you said, "It killed them all." DANIELLE: We were coming back from the Black Rock. It was them. They were the carriers. SAYID: Who were the carriers? DANIELLE: The others. SAYID: What others? What is the Black Rock? Have you seen other people on this Island? (“Solitary”)

After Danielle used the term “Others” to describe the unknown and seemingly hostile enemy, the castaways of Oceanic 815 adopt this term. Ethan Rom is the first one suspected as one of The Others. By the end of season 1, some of the castaways have built a raft, in order to get off the island to search for rescue. They think they have found help when a motor boat approaches the raft, but it turns about to be some of The Others, having harmful intentions; but the people on the raft still think they are being rescued:

“EXODUS, PART 2” – S01E25

MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah, we survived and there's a whole group of people on the... BEARDED MAN: Well, ain't that something? MICHAEL: Yeah! BEARDED MAN: Only, the thing is, we're going to have to take the boy. MICHAEL: What? What'd you say? BEARDED MAN: The boy, we're going to have to take him. MICHAEL: Hey, what the hell's going on here? Who are you people? BEARDED MAN: Just give us the boy. [Two other men on the boat stand up.] MICHAEL: I'm not giving you anybody. BEARDED MAN: Well, alright then.

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[The floodlight is turned off. Sawyer draws his gun, but is shot first by one of the two men, and falls into the water. Jin dives in after him. The two men jump onto the raft. One grabs Walt and the other fights with Michael.] WALT: Dad! Dad! MICHAEL: No! [Michael gets pushed into the water. Walt is taken onto the boat screaming. A woman throws a Molotov cocktail from the steering compartment and the boat takes off. Michael dives under the water before the raft goes up in flames.] (“Exodus, part 2”)

The Others are, in addition to the Smoke Monster, a top enemy of the castaways, committing hanging, murder, and kidnapping. Their motives for abducting and murdering stay unclear, both for the survivors and the viewer. The mysterious enemy has “been presented as an invisible enemy which cannot be seen, heard or measured by any means” (Tkachuk 35), and invisibly encircles “the survivors in the jungle and even live amongst them in secret performing acts of sabotage and gathering intelligence, such as with Ethan” (82). This has some remarkable similarities with the terrorists responsible for the events of September 11, who were lurking in the shadows of the Middle East or infiltrating the US society, waiting to attack the United States.

The Others in LOST play a “historically fulfilled function in American myth of reinforcing the self by defining its enemy opposite” (82). However, none of The Others’ members seem to belong to an Islamic or other notable religion, and the series does not make any direct claims based on racism or discrimination. Yet, The Others in LOST do refer to the post-9/11 anxieties revolved around xenophobia, which consist of the fear of the unknown and hidden enemy.

As was suggested in Chapter 1, othering in television drama series is more complex. LOST has a multicultural cast, including Iraqi Sayid Jarrah, the Korean couple Sun-Hwa Kwon and Jin- Soo Kwon, and several dark-complexioned characters, such as father Michael Dawson and son Walt Lloyd. In the first season, the viewer is introduced to these characters through their individual flashbacks, and none of them are depicted as the enemy “other,” but always as one of the “good guys.” Also, as the narrative slowly unravels their identity in later seasons, the terrorist Others are humanized by telling their side of the story, resulting in the “flipping of the enemy,” challenging the viewer with the question: “Who really are the good guys and which group is the enemy?” In the following chapter, this good-versus-evil binary is set out in detail.

2.5 Conclusion

In this chapter, post-9/11 thematic trends are related with the first season of LOST. Trends of fear, paranoia and disorientation, terror and torture, and othering are all present in the narrative of season 1, although security and intelligence themes are less common. Characters suffering from post-traumatic stress bring fear and paranoia through the extensive use of

28 flashbacks, causing a disorientating viewer experience. The performances of the Smoke Monster and the unpredictable actions of The Others deal with militainment, and the character Sayid deals with the issues of torture. At last, the ironic use of the designation “The Others” by the writers of LOST singles out the unknown and hidden enemy of the castaways, which resembles the increased use of othering after 9/11.

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CHAPTER 3 A POST-9/11 PHILOSOPHY, MORALITY, AND RELIGION IN LOST

The previous chapters have shown that in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, the media, particularly television, has integrated and adopted various themes and trends, including terror, paranoia, and othering. However, the terrorist attacks on 9/11 changed the way television tackled religion, ethics, and morality on a much broader scale:

…the terrorist attacks on 9/11 revolutionized the way that religion, ethics, and morality were presented on television. It is clear that there’s a profound hunger for people to connect through art, stories, and technology that feel directly relevant to the challenges of the modern day. Television became a medium to bring these ultimate questions into the home, and opened a dialogue among the viewers. (Vermeer 12)

One idea for the introduction of religion, ethics, and morality into television can be argued because of people turning to their traditional beliefs in times of crisis, “because these beliefs provide comfort and answers when other philosophies may be lacking” (Anderson 73). So after the turn of the millennium, a renewed search for answers, derived from religion and philosophy, came into being:

This seems particularly the case in America since 9/11. Audiences became polarized in a number of ways, most notably politically and religiously [...] People tend to embrace traditional belief systems like religion when faced with tragedy because it is comforting and familiar, providing them with answers when events like the death of others do not seem to make sense. (Anderson 26)

Discourses of religion, ethics, and philosophy presented and discussed on television, especially in the United States, seem to be a new trend since the attacks on 9/11, because of the “confluence of George Bush’s presidency (i.e., the candidate who named Jesus Christ as his favorite political philosopher) and the political ascendancy of the Religious Right; the coalescence and deployment of political Islam” (Vermeer 5). In addition, according to Vermeer, “religion and media are ‘two sides of the same coin’ [...] you cannot have one without the other. Television has become one form of religious expression in contemporary society, as producers are able to use programs as a platform for discussing these deep religious and existential issues” (Vermeer 12).

In LOST, which united many post-9/11 aspects, the integration of philosophical references, morality, and religion plays an important part in the narrative and continuous storylines. This chapter will deal with the question of how these dialogues become integrated into LOST and how these discourses are interrelated with the post-9/11 era.

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3.1 Integration of early modern philosophers in LOST

Three characters of LOST in particular, John Locke, Desmond Hume, and Danielle Rousseau, refer to the great philosophers of the Enlightenment movement in the eighteenth century. LOST’s John Locke literally refers to the philosopher who is also named John Locke (1632-1704):

During his initial days on the island, LOST’s Locke shares his namesake’s optimism and faith in the basic goodness of others. The miraculous recovery of the use of his legs provides empirical evidence for his belief that he and the other survivors have been brought to the island for a reason. Locke is certain that he has a destiny to fulfil and he need only wait for the island to reveal this purpose to him. (Lee 131)

An episode of LOST in the first season, titled as “Tabula Rasa,” is another reference to the philosophical works of John Locke. “Tubula rasa” literally translates into “blank slate,” which is the theory that humans are born without ideas, and “that their ideas are shaped by their experiences” (Lostpedia “Philosophers”)3, and “the mind begins to accumulate ideas and concepts through our interactions with the world around us. We thus come to know and understand the world through our perceptions” (Biderman and Devlin 301). It was first suggested by one of the oldest and most well-known philosophers, the ancient Greek Aristotle, but was later popularized by the philosopher John Locke. The episode “Tabula Rasa” refers to the fact that, since the survivors crashed on the island, they have the chance to begin with a blank slate and “they are given new chances in the new environment and will find new roles in the new community” (Patterson 263). In this episode, character Kate, who was before the crash a criminal fugitive, wants to confess to Jack what she has done to become so. However, as the “island of second chances,” according to Jack, “Kate is free to wipe the slate clean [and] he repeatedly says things like ‘It doesn’t matter who we were’ and ‘It’s none of our business’” (Davies 157):

KATE: I want to tell you what I did - why he was after me. JACK: I don't want to know. It doesn't matter, Kate, who we were - what we did before this, before the crash. It doesn't really... 3 days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over. (“Tabula Rasa”)

A second reference to the great Enlightenment philosophers is character Desmond Hume. His full name is Desmond David Hume and, like Locke, he shares his name with the famous philosopher David Hume (1711–1776). The character of Desmond Hume is introduced in the

3 This source is from a Wiki and although it is not an academically primary source, by referring to this source (and in the remainder of this chapter I refer to Lostpedia a few times) it shows how fans (Lostpedia is a fan-based Wiki) directly track down sources and how they frame their viewing experience through philosophy, morality and religion. 31 second season as an inhabitant of “The Hatch,” an underground hatch found by the castaways on the island. In this hatch, Desmond has to push a button every 108 minutes by typing a sequence on a keyboard so that it is discharged via an electromagnetic build-up, continually averting worldwide catastrophe. Desmond believes that The Hatch is giving him shelter and protection from a radiation “sickness” outside of it, while in fact a few meters above him, the castaways are in good condition. The character Desmond Hume and philosopher David Hume relate to each other in this way:

David Hume [...] was a sceptic. Given this, we might expect Desmond to be somewhat sceptical of the claims of others and certainly less gullible than Locke. Indeed, this expectation is borne out in key moments of his story. Although Desmond initially believes Kelvin’s claims [Desmond’s former co-worker in the hatch] about the sickness on the island, Desmond eventually uncovers Kelvin’s lies, noticing that his hazmat suit is torn and following him out of the hatch. Hume is also sceptical of Locke’s claims to be an innocent survivor of a plane crash when he first encounters him in the hatch at the beginning of season 2. And when Desmond reappears at the end of the season 2, his sceptical nature leads him to challenge Locke’s assertions that the button has no real function. Despite Locke’s violent certainty, Desmond uses the readout from the other hatch to prove empirically that his failure to push the button on September 22, 2004, was responsible for the crash of Oceanic flight 815. (Lee 135; parenthesis added)

As with John Locke’s reference to “tabula rasa,” the 21st episode of season 1, titled “The Greater Good,” refers to the writings of David Hume. The “greater good” in this sense “is a philosophical topic that has been discussed throughout history. It focuses on the central question of moral correctness: is the thing that is best for everyone morally right? [...] The concept of general good was the focus of the writings of David Hume” (Lostpedia “Philosophers”). Although there are many more characters in the series who refer to old philosophers, another of the more notable ones is Danielle Rousseau, the shipwrecked woman who lived sixteen years on the island before the flight Oceanic 815 crashed. Rousseau is a reference to the Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Philosopher Rousseau wrote about what people would be like in a “state of nature,” “beyond the reach of human civilization, in a state of natural freedom, a place without government or much of any kind of social institution” (Fosl 165). According to Rousseau, civilization is the root of evil, because institutions make man corrupt, while man is naturally good. Only the social institution of the family structure is important for human happiness (Parker 328). LOST’s Rousseau lives in a primitive cabin in the jungle, alone, without any governmental limitations; her only social institution, a family, is taken away from her by The Others, with her daughter having been kidnapped by The Others after her birth (she was pregnant when she came onto the island sixteen year prior).

LOST’s Rousseau’s paranoia, panicking, and disturbing behaviour due to her isolation on the

32 island is in relation to the later years of the Enlightenment scholar Rousseau, up until his death. He suffered from mental issues and withdrew from the public because of his paranoid attitude (327-328). Although not all of the actions of the characters precisely represent their namesakes’ philosophical theories, they do give a clue as to how to understand the show and its meaning, as well as giving the series a deepening platform on which to discuss philosophy and morality:

The island demands that the survivors face some basic questions about the nature of human existence. The survivors’ situation raises metaphysical problems, queries into the nature of reality itself: Why are we here? Where are we? Who are we? Where have we been? Where are we going? LOST heightens all of these questions by ripping the characters out of their routines and placing them in circumstances where there are no easily accessible answers to those questions. (Patterson 259)

And so opens the discussion between the frequently mentioned dualistic themes of the show: fate versus free will, faith versus reason, and good versus evil, which will be further analysed in the following section.

3.2 Morality: fate versus free will, reason versus faith, and good versus evil

Because of the insertion of characters with resemblances to early modern philosophers, LOST is able to foreground multiple polarizing philosophies in the narrative of LOST. All philosophers dealt in the previous section were debating the role of fate versus the free will of an individual.

In LOST, this moral binary is explicitly set out in the narrative. Other polarizing philosophies in

LOST are that of reason versus faith and good versus evil. During the unfolding story on the island, some characters ask themselves if their actions are based on free will or fate: do we have free choices in the actions we attempt to do, or are all the steps we take predestined? It begins with a lamentation of survivors who ask themselves if it was their fate to crash on the island, being possibly a way of karma for their unfortunate lives previous to the crash (as the viewer comes to know through the flashbacks). A visual cue for this fate-versus-free will dichotomy played out in LOST is a bandage around the fingers of castaway Charlie, reading “fate” (see illustration 1). In the following excerpt, the contradiction of fate versus free will is further evaluated:

[Eko and Locke splicing the missing piece of the orientation film of the Hatch,which Eko (a survivor of the tail section of the plane) found on the island, together.] LOCKE: Voilà. What are the odds? EKO: The odds? LOCKE: Yeah. -- Here, hold this down on the table there nice and flat. I mean, think about it. Somebody made this film. Someone else cut this piece out. We crash -- 2

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halves of the same plane fall in different parts of the island -- you're over there, I'm over here. And now, here's the missing piece right back where it belongs. What are the odds? EKO: Don't mistake coincidence for fate. (“What Kate Did”)

Illustration 1 Extreme close up of bandage of main character Charlie Pace. Excerpt from episode 1 of season 1 “Pilot, Part one”.

Another example from the narrative comes from Ben, the leader of The Others, who has abducted Jack because of his medical skills:

BEN: I'm telling you this, Jack, because my wonderful plan... got shot to sunshine when you saw my damned x-rays and figured out I was dying. JACK: All of this... you brought me here to operate on you. You... you want me to save your life? BEN: No, I want you to want to save my life. But we're beyond that now, so... all I can ask is that you think about it. [..] BEN: Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky (referring to the plane crash with Jack in it). (“The Cost of Living”)

There are several times throughout the series in which particular circumstances suddenly arise and affect the characters' initial intentions. For instance, in an episode titled "Raised by Another," two pens fail to produce ink when Claire attempts to sign adoption papers in Australia, convincing her to keep the baby for the time being. Flashbacks reveal a series of events that lead Sayid to take Flight 815 instead of an earlier flight that he had initially intended to take. (Lostpedia “Fate versus free will”) These examples of the dichotomy between free will and fate suggest the undermining of the American myth of individualism and freedom. “LOST’s predominant themes of fate and free

34 will suggest the ways that burgeoning overarching structures of government might erode individual agency” (Tkachuk 7). Immediately after the attacks on 9/11, the Bush administration limited the “free will” of the American citizens in order to prevent further terrorist attacks. The passing of the Homeland Security Act in November 2002 by the United States Congress was one measurement that limited the civil liberties. In addition, the introduction and practice of the Patriot Act in October 2001 was also a limitation of freedom for the citizens of the United States. “…the post-9/11 era has forced a confrontation with the tenuous nature of freedom and individuality, and LOST can be read as responding to this context” (Tkachuk 7). A second profound polarizing philosophy is the conflict between empirical reason and faith. Empirical reason is represented by technology or science, and many characters use this creed in order to justify the events on the island. However, “many things on the island of Lost cannot be explained scientifically, at least not yet because of a stark lack of information. The island abides by a different set of rules than the outside world, governed by a bizarre brand of other-worldly science” (Anderson 74). The bizarre happenings during the episodes of LOST, such as the Smoke Monster and the discovery of The Hatch (with Desmond pushing a button every 108 minutes in order to “save the world”), constantly ask the characters if those mysterious happenings can be scientifically reasoned or are miraculous events. Even so, “LOST constantly asks the question of causality. Did this empirically cause that or is this the unfolding of fate? Its strange environment propels some survivors onto an obsessive quest for answers” (73). The friction between reason and faith signifies a troubling cultural concern, or a “post-9/11 desire for answers is evident through the reactionary alternative philosophies on LOST, where psychic phenomena, numerology, and magic are considered just as valid as empirical science” (77-78).

In LOST, the friction between science and faith is incorporated into two main characters of the series: Jack Shepherd (the “man of science”) and John Locke (the “man of faith”). Jack is a spinal surgeon and uses his medical and scientific knowledge to explain the events on the island, although some events he cannot interpret. Locke is exactly the opposite, believing that the many strange events on the island “happen for a reason” and that their crash on the island had a purpose:

LOCKE: [..] I think that's why you and I don't see eye-to-eye sometimes, Jack -- because you're a man of science. JACK: Yeah, and what does that make you? LOCKE: Me, well, I'm a man of faith. Do you really think all this is an accident -- that we, a group of strangers survived, many of us with just superficial injuries? Do you think we crashed on this place by coincidence -- especially, this place? We were

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brought here for a purpose, for a reason, all of us. Each one of us was brought here for a reason. JACK: Brought here? And who brought us here, John? LOCKE: The Island. The Island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you've seen that, I know you have. But the Island chose you, too, Jack. It's destiny. (“Exodus, part 2”)

Their opposite philosophies are well exemplified in the following scene, where Jack and Locke argue about the question of whether or not they have to push the button in The Hatch “to save the world” (since Desmond has fled the hatch). Jack does not believe in the working of the button, while Locke does, and there is one minute left until the 108 minutes are expired:

JACK: Don't. It's not real. Look, you want to push the button, you do it yourself. LOCKE: If it's not real, then what are you doing here, Jack? Why did you come back? Why do you find it so hard to believe?! JACK: Why do you find it so easy?! LOCKE: It's never been easy! [The timer shows 1:04. Another, more insistent alarm starts to sound.] KATE: Maybe you should just do it. JACK: No. It's a button. LOCKE: I can't do this alone, Jack. I don't want to. It's a leap of faith, Jack. (“Orientation”)

This excerpt demonstrates LOST’s fictional conflict between reason and faith, which “symbolize a real-world cultural crisis in epistemology, perhaps metaphorical for American culture’s post- 9/11 desperation for answers” (73). After 9/11, Americans affected by the attacks speculated on this epistemological conflict. As discussed earlier, many Americans “examined their fate and speculated on the primordial issues of predestination and free will” (Burcon 126). The twentieth century, characterized by technological progress (which in turn gave more leisure time and more welfare), was quickly demolished by the beginning of the millennium. On 11 September 2001, two commercial airplanes, a metaphor of technological progress and leisure time, perpetrated two buildings, which functioned as symbols for globalisation, the World Trade Center:

There were many questions and few answers following the tragedy, a tragedy that people fervently wished could be “done-over” or “done away” with. Hence, it seems that it was not a coincidence that LOST considered such uncertainties along with the rest of the American population. Both the form (the use of flashbacks, flashforwards, flashsideways, and the unfathomable endings to episodes) and the content (the

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storylines themselves) of the program, then, paralleled the struggles Americans were facing at the start of the twenty-first century. (Burcon 126)

Like many people who were addressing their faith after 9/11, in the narrative of LOST, Jack (the man of science) slowly turns towards becoming a man of faith. In the continuing seasons, Jack becomes more and more a character who believes the miraculous events on the island, and that he is in fact on the island for a reason. This discourse has a similarity to the change after 9/11 which led many people towards belief in a renewed faith. Jacob, a supernatural character introduced at the end of season 5 as ageless protector of the island, is searching for candidates to replace himself as such. In the episode “The Lighthouse,” we come to know that Jacob had selected, watched, secretly visited, and manipulated all of his possible candidates in order to get them onto the island. Among the candidates are many survivors of Oceanic 815, including Locke, Sawyer, Sayid, and Jack. “The candidates were all people who were flawed or damaged, like Jacob himself, whom the Island could help and who could protect the Island in return”(Lostpedia “Candidates”). In the course of the last season:

Jack becomes increasingly comfortable with his status as a candidate, until he finally decides that he is meant to become Jacob’s replacement, even if it means sacrificing his life. In ‘The End’, Jack has reversed himself and become Locke’s ‘man of faith’ eager to fulfil his destiny and fix a problem worthy of his attention. As the new Jacob, Jack saves his friends, the island, and possibly the world. (Lee 128)

The last differentiating philosophy to be dealt with is between that of good and evil, which is extensively visualized by black (evil) and white (good) elements throughout the series. Even so, in their depiction, black and white are often presented together, as a duality. The title sequence of the series contains a black background with the white title “LOST.” In the second episode of the first season, Locke is holding two dice of a backgammon set, explaining the game to Walt as “Two players. Two sides. One is light... one is dark” (“Pilot, Part 2) (illustration 2). Jack and Kate find two skeletons in a cave in the jungle, one of which has a pouch with two polished stones, one black and one white. At last, the protector of the island, Jacob, wears a white shirt, while his nameless enemy-brother is wears a black shirt (illustration 3). In the narrative, the dualism of good versus evil is most representative of The Others. In the first two seasons, due to their unknown identity, the kidnappings, and the murders, the survivors (and the viewers) fear The Others, seeing them as the evil enemy. But as the seasons unfold, their evil status is more and more challenged. In the finale of season 2, Michael asks Ben who they are, and Ben answers: “We are the good guys” (“Live Together, Die Alone”).

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Illustration 2 John Locke is holding a black and Illustration 3 Protector Jacob (right) and his white dice. Excerpt from episode 2 of season 1 “Pilot, enemy-brother (left) in black (evil) and white (good) Part 2”. clothes. Excerpt from episode 16, season 5 “The Incident”. In season 3, the plot starts with depicting The Others living in a civilized part of the island, in a suburban lifestyle, even including weekly book clubs. Later, the female Other Juliet is introduced, and the viewer is encouraged to see her as “good” because she helps the survivors and makes sacrifices in order to protect the castaways, including the murder of a fellow Other “in order to save Jack and Kate. While the survivors doubt her for quite some time, she eventually proves her loyalty and is shown to be a sympathetic character who does not at all fit with earlier portrayals of the Others as universally ruthless savages” (Tkachuk 84). In the last season “it becomes clear that Ben was right all along about the Others being ‘the good guys.’ Jacob’s sole focus was on protecting the island [...] and he worked with the evolving group of Others to identify candidates, protect them, and, at times, test them” (Gaffney 200-201). As can be seen, “the erosion of the good/evil binary is particularly significant for a

discussion of LOST, since its narrative constantly calls into question which of its characters are villains, and which are heroes” (Tkachuk 5). In a post-9/11 perspective, this is a particular area of interest because “cultural and historical scholars alike have described the post-9/11 period mentality as possessing a lack of absolute conceptualizations of good and evil” (Tkachuk 115). The American supremacy, in which many citizens believed that the United States was the best country in the world because of their freedoms and individuality, was being contested after 9/11. Americans came to the realization that they “were not as well liked as [they] had once believed” (Burcon 130). Even so, the perpetrators of 9/11 were people of Islamic origin, and from that stemmed the notion that everyone Islamic was an enemy.

3.3 Religion

As previously deliberated, humans often turn to their religion to explain or to process events in their lives, both negative and positive events. “After 9/11, religious discourse, for better or worse, became, in a sense, a renewed part of America’s national identity” (Burcon 131). Immediately following the events of September 11, then-President George W. Bush used, in national speeches on television, religious discourse in order to help the inhabitants heal from

38 the dramatic events (131-132).

In LOST, religious references and discourses also play an important role throughout the narrative, both by using religious symbols and references as well as borrowing religious metaphors in order to intensify the narrative. The tenth episode of season 2 is titled “The 23rd Psalm,” and the number of the Psalm refers to the verses which are recited during a funeral on the island. President George W. Bush also used the 23rd Psalm extensively in the evening of the attacks on 9/11, including during his speech on national television, which “[shaped] the meaning of 9/11 as a passage through the valley of the shadow of death yet simultaneously [assured] us that the Lord was with us” (Burcon 133). Further, “23” is a recurring number on the show: “Psalm 23 begins ‘The Lord is my shepherd…’, Jack [Shepherd] and his fellow passengers board Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 (8 + 15 = 23) at gate 23, and [he] was assigned seat 23B” (Clark 150). All thematically recurring numbers in the show are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 (in this order). This chain of numbers has to be filled in on the computer in The Hatch, every 108 minutes (notably, a sum up of the six numbers gives 108). The number 108 is an important number in Eastern religions, including Buddhists and Hindu religions, because there are 108 beads on a mala, used for chanting. Many more Buddhist and Hindu references are made throughout the narrative, beginning with the introduction of The Dharma Initiative. In season 2, the viewer comes to know that The Hatch (titled by the castaways themselves) was originally called The Swan Station, a scientific station of the Dharma Initiative. The Dharma Initiative was a former scientific research project on the island between the 1970s and the early 1990s, until The Others killed all the members of Dharma during the so-called “Purge.” During their time on the island, The Dharma Initiative had built different stations, some for scientific research and others for medical supplies and communication with the mainland. The stations all have logos, “which [appear] in several episodes in seasons two, three and four, [featuring...] an 8-spoked wheel representing the eightfold path to enlightenment in Buddhism and Hinduism” (Clark 154). The name of the initiative itself has religious references to Eastern religions:

The word ‘Dharma’ comes from a Sanskrit word meaning ‘to hold’, and the word refers to holding a person to his or her purpose or moral duty. Hinduism’s use of the word refers to one’s obligation with respect to caste, custom or law, whereas in Buddhism Dharma refers to the duty to undertake a pattern of conduct advocated by the Buddha in order to reach enlightenment. (154)

Although in LOST there are references to these two individual religions, in the final season, an encompassing reference to a kind of world religion is introduced as a manifest for post-9/11 redemption: a story of life after death. In the first three seasons, flashbacks played a huge role in the narrative, and in the fourth and fifth seasons were combined with flash forwards. In the last

39 season, along with the storyline on the island, a new narrative technique is introduced: “a flash sideways” world. The flash sideways start in the first episode of the sixth (and final) season, and begins with a successful landing of Oceanic Flight 815 in Los Angeles. For the viewers of LOST, this caused great confusion, because it immediately questioned that if the plane had landed successfully in Los Angeles and in fact did not crash, what have they been looking for during the previous five seasons? The sideways world presented a story that did not fit with the story existing so far, because Sawyer is shown as a police cop (while he was a con man), and Jack is shown as a father with a son (which he did not have). However, in “‘The End’ [,the finale of LOST,] the sideways world is revealed to be a kind of purgatory, a place between life and death where people may resolve their final inner conflicts until they are ready to let go and proceed together with those closest to them into the afterlife” (Burcon 139; parenthesis added). The flash sideways world presents an afterlife and otherworldly storyline and is, like the flashbacks and flash forwards, cut into episodes’ main storylines. “Experiences during the flash sideways—pain, unconsciousness, brushes with death and deja vu—helped them recall their lives. Connecting with something particularly significant, often a loved one, brought back all memories and let characters "move on" to the next world” (Lostpedia “Flash sideways world”).

Two readings of the meaning of the flash sideways world can be interpreted in a post-9/11 perspective, the first being about self-critique. Brought on by the Iraq war, many people concluded that the United States reacted in an incorrect way to the events on 9/11. As shown in Chapter 1, the United States reacted with a War on Terror. A month after the attacks, the Patriot Act was approved in the United States Congress in order to secure the nation, which resulted in the hindered freedom of American citizens. The War on Terror resulted in a war in Iraq, caused by the accusation of the United States that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. However, after the war, which had led many casualties on both sides, it became clear that no substantial evidence was found that proved that Iraq possessed any of such nuclear weapons. This failure in pre-war intelligence faced heavy criticism within the United States as well as the rest of the world. In this view, the War on Terror only led to more problems instead of solving the problem of terrorism. The American citizens, blamed by the politically incorrect way of responding to the events of 9/11, sought redemption and wished that they could do over the events post-9/11. The flash sideways world of LOST provides the possibility to do over events, reflect on one’s life, revisit past choices, or regret actions during life. In this way, the after-life world of LOST serves as a substitute to do over the events that occurred post-9/11. A second reading of the meaning of the flash sideways world in a post-9/11 perspective seems more radical: it is about the redemptive saving of the United States’ soul. As said earlier in this chapter, the people of the United States discovered that their thought of supremacy in the world was not as true as they thought it to be. Their self-fabricated supremacy in the world,

40 which resulted in the interference in multiple unstable regions in the Middle East pre-9/11, led many countries in the Middle East to rather hate the United States. Arguments for their hatred against the United States are the thousands of casualties due to the interferences, the impoverishment, or the exploitation of natural reserves (most regions in the Middle East are rich of oil and natural gas reserves) for their own good. Thus, 9/11 worked as an eye opener to inform the people of the United States of this hatred, and in this way to make known the motives of al-Qaeda to do such a brutal act. In such a perspective, the redemptive flash sideways world of

LOST works to forgive the hijackers of al-Qaeda for their actions. An example for this comes from the flash sideways storyline between Ben Linus (during his life the leader of The Others) and John Locke. In season 5, Ben strangled Locke to death with a cord. However, in the flash sideways afterlife, Ben is able to redeem himself for killing Locke:

LOCKE: Hello Benjamin. BEN: Hello John. LOCKE: Is everyone already inside? BEN: I believe most of them are, yes. [Locke smiles and starts to leave.] BEN: I'm very sorry for what I did to you John. I was selfish, jealous. I wanted everything you had. LOCKE: What did I have? BEN: You were special, John... and I wasn't. LOCKE: Well if it helps, Ben, I forgive you. BEN: Thank you, John...that does help. It matters more than I can say. (“The End”)

A previously stated, the finale of LOST explains the purpose of a purgatory-like world, notably so when Christian Shepherd, Jack’s father, reveals to Jack that he has died. They are in a building which resembles a church, but not as a Christian building:

This ‘church’ displays the symbols of all religions, both Western (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and so forth) and Eastern (Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and so on). It is thus reminiscent of the claim of the great Indian spiritual leader Mohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948) that all religions are paths to the same place. Gandhi believed that the different rules of the world’s religions are irrelevant as long as one reaches enlightenment. The prominent role of the Dharma Initiative in LOST indicates the writers’ interest in Buddhism. Many Buddhists consider the Dharma (the teachings or rules of the religion) to be a mere vehicle to reach nirvana (the extinction of desire and suffering). Just as you leave your car behind when you reach your destination, you should abandon the need for absolute rules once you are ready to ‘move on’ in loving community to the afterlife. (Lee 141)

In the following excerpt, Christian Shepherd lets his son know that they are in afterlife:

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[Jack turns around to see his father standing behind him.] JACK: Dad? CHRISTIAN: Hello, Jack. JACK: I don't understand...you died. CHRISTIAN: Yeah. Yes I did... JACK: Then how are you here right now? [Christian sighs.] CHRISTIAN: How are you here? JACK: I died too... [Jack begins to cry as he remembers.] CHRISTIAN: It's okay...it's okay. It's okay son. [..] JACK: You...are you real? CHRISTIAN: I should hope so. Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real too. JACK: They're all...they're all dead? CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you. JACK: But why are they all here now? CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here. JACK: Where are we, dad? CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you. JACK: For what? CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go. JACK: Kate...she said we were leaving. CHRISTIAN: Not leaving, no. Moving on. JACK: Where are we going? CHRISTIAN: [smiling] Let's go find out. (“The End”)

Although the church resembles with many religions, the end of LOST shares similarities with the story of Jesus Christ. At the end of the episode, Jack, as protector of the island, saves the island, and some of his fellow castaways are able to flee it with an airplane. In his actions to accomplish this, he is badly injured with a wound on the side of his chest, and he dies due to this injury. Jack Shepherd, the saviour of the group, has much in common with Jesus Christ, the Messiah of

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Christianity, in John 10: 1-21 titled as the “The Good Shepherd” (New International Version, John 10: 1-21). Much like how Jesus Christ protected his followers as “a shepherd” and ultimately sacrificed himself for the greater good, Jack Shepherd, with his role as leader of the group and ultimately as protector of the island, ensures that his friends were able to escape the island, but sacrifices himself in order to do so. He dies because of the fatal wound in the right of his chest, and this resembles with the fifth and final holy wound of Jesus Christ, caused by a soldier who pierced his right side with a spear to make sure he was dead.

“The End” is about redemption, and this is clearly stated in the script, which describes the final moments of the narrative:

The plane clears frame, finally free of the Island. Jack Shephard has done what he came to this place to do. He has found his purpose. He has found love. And been loved. And he has finally found a way to love himself. The bamboo sways across the blue sky. And Jack Shephard's eye closes one final time. He is gone. THE END. (“ The End”)

Redemption plays an important role in not only the narrative as a whole, but also in post-9/11 America:

…redemption is [..] a major theme in LOST. All of the survivors of the plane crash come to understand that on this island they can begin again—they can, indeed, ‘do over’ their lives because nobody there knows their past. Hence, the island itself becomes their savior. In light of the political situation in America at the time [after 9/11], LOST questioned— and prompted the viewers to question—what redemption means. Further, LOST inadvertently questioned, by way of its narrative content (the many instances of good versus evil) and through its use of flashbacks, flashforwards, and flashsideways (which allowed characters to see ‘what might have been’ or ‘what might be’), whether the war on terror might really be a battle ‘for the nation’s soul’. (Burcon 132).

After 9/11, America struggled in processing what they had experienced, and to “make sense of the world around them, LOST, through its six-year run, tried to make sense of that very same world that had changed beyond recognition” (Burcon 136). The complex narrative structure and the many unanswered questions “posed within the series, and its allusions to philosophy, religion, and psychology, all add up to a program that corresponded to the general population’s feeling of apprehension in the face of a new era, one that could not be ‘done over’”

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(136). However, LOST’s story pretends to achieve a “do over,” and the religious themes make it easier to accomplish. It deals with “a time in which Americans were situated in an unstable present at the same time that they grieved for a lost past and looked forward to a brighter future” (Burcon 136).

3.4 Conclusion

Chapter 3 has analysed philosophical, moral, and religious themes in LOST in a post-9/11 perspective. Because of the integration of philosophical namesakes by the characters of LOST, the story made it easier to bring polarizing philosophies to the story. The dichotomy between fate and free will is extensively used in the narrative and sheds a light on the post-9/11 limitations of freedom because of various legal interventions made by the Bush administration, such as the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act. Likewise, a

(scientific) reason-versus-faith contrast is a theme in LOST, and in the perspective of post-9/11, it sheds a light on the renewed search in religious faith. Good versus evil is analysed in perspective of the post-9/11 erosion of the dichotomy, after the American citizens came to know that they were not as liked in the world as they believed they were.

Highlighting the religious themes of LOST, a lot of religious symbols are shown in the episodes and religious discourses play an important role in the unfolding story. Especially in the end, religious discourses structure the narrative. The flash sideways are a metaphor for a kind of purgatory, a life after death, where “you can find each other and move on.” It makes it possible to do things over, and to seek redemption for regrettable actions during life. In a post-9/11 perspective, it deals with the processing of the events, and although they cannot be done over,

LOST’s story in fact can. The story of LOST can be seen as a substitute for the redemption sought after 9/11.

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CONCLUSION

Reconsidering the analysis done for this thesis, some aspects of LOST need to be reframed, including comments on the plot and the experience of watching LOST. The series LOST is frequently addressed as a complex television series by scholar Jason Mittel. Its narrative deals with an increasing plotline and characters, and the strategies of storytelling, such as the flashbacks, thicken the background story of each character. The mystery, fear, and paranoia are structuring tools to extend the narrative. The matter of “narrative complexity” is a frequently analysed aspect in academic research, and the extensive use of flashbacks, the parallel storylines, the excessive number of characters, and said characters’ connections in LOST are indeed characteristic of a complex television drama. Even though — after a six-season run — viewers were left with a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainties. Despite its complexity, every time the storyline alludes to morality, philosophy, or religion, it does so very obviously. The narrative of LOST contains a simplistic mode of representation in communicating those lessons. The philosophers namesakes are obvious, especially those of Jack “The Man of Science” Shepherd and John “The Man of Faith” Locke and the changing good/evil dualism. The quote from the academic book September 11 in Popular Culture: A Guide – as mentioned in the introduction – suggests that “If corporate commercial broadcast industry executives wanted to invent a popular television show that somehow channelled the U.S. public’s complete sense of helplessness after the horrific events of 9/11, they could not do much better than Lost” (Williams 162); and maybe because of this is why it has been such a popular series.

An example of the obviousness of the narrative can be seen at the end of LOST. In the church where dead Christian Shepherd and dead Jack Shepherd have a conversation with each other about death, there are many references to series SIX FEET UNDER (2001-2005). This series brings dead people into the frame, communicating with alive or dead people, especially at the end of the show, so it can be seen that LOST was not the first series with this idea. The interesting issue about SIX FEET UNDER is that it uses such incidents to give life lessons to the audience about death; the characters just interact with each other, and the audience has to figure out what the significance is of said interaction. This is in contrast with LOST, where Christian literally explains to Jack the meaning of the place and time. So despite the categorization of “complex,” some intricacies are obviously constructed, almost as if the audience cannot think for themselves. Perhaps this is because of the expected target audience; ABC is a network television channel, and many other so-called “complex” quality shows of cable television channels, such as Mad Men, The Wire, or The Sopranos, are not so obviously simple in their discourses of morality. A meta-level analysis could suggest that despite being a so-called “complex” quality show, LOST is exceedingly simple and its mode of

45 storytelling are very didactic and obvious. In another way, instead of analysing complexity – as frequently done and addressed by Mittel and other scholars – it could be interesting to analyse narrative “simplicity” in television series/dramas. Even broader still, it would be interesting for future research about how network and cable television have different strategies of storytelling (literal versus imaginative).

In conclusion, a brief summary of the argumentation presented in the previous chapters will be set out. In doing that, I will point out how these chapters have contributed to the answering of the research question, which is: How does the ABC television series LOST address a “post-9/11” predicament of paranoia, terror, and “othering,” manifested through discourses of philosophy, morality, and religion in the wake of 9/11? In the first chapter, the post-9/11 predicament is extensively set out for television. On the short term after the terrorist attacks on September 11, television stopped regular broadcasting and in an immediate response, television aired non-stop news broadcastings in order to inform the public of the latest news. Slowly after one week, regular broadcast schedules were introduced, but some planned films were cancelled because they were considered as disturbing to the audience, because of their violent and terrorist-related topics. Not only on the short term did the tragic events change the content of television, but long-term effects, more focused on television series, produced a kind of post-9/11 zeitgeist on television. This post-9/11 zeitgeist can be separated into four post-9/11 divisions: militainment, security and intelligence series, fear and paranoia, and “othering.” Militainment-based series became a trend, with a renewed focus on terrorism and counterterrorism. Second, security and intelligence series, such as 24, became a popular themed television series subgenre. In these kind of dramas, the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, or fictional counterterrorism and intelligence organisations are the arena, in order to secure the country against terrorist attacks. Third, a “culture of fear,” intensified by the ensuing War on Terror, the commissioning of the Patriot Act, and the shocking results of the 9/11 Commissioning Report, brought fear and paranoia to television series. In these series, such as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, unpredictability, disorientation and the duplicity of humans cause fear and paranoia. At last, a trend called “othering” became a renewed focus on television. Although “othering” – the irrational hatred or fear of the unfamiliar, in particular of persons belonging to other religions and races – was not a new phenomenon in the United States, after 9/11, the fear of Muslims or Islam were components of storylines of television series. All of these four divisions are part of the post-9/11 zeitgeist presented on television, and Chapter 1 answers the question of how 9/11 affected the medium of television. This is crucial for the understanding of how the television series LOST, as dealt with in Chapter 2, is characteristic of this post-9/11 zeitgeist and how specific aspects of post-9/11 television are interrelated with 46 the series LOST.

Chapter 2 analysed multiple episodes of the first season of LOST in order to make an argument between a connection of the narrative of the series and the post-9/11 zeitgeist. In the first place, the narrative of season 1 gave multiple examples of fear and paranoia and reflections of the post-9/11 “culture of fear,” such as references to hallucinations. In addition to that, the narrative techniques of the series cause a disorientating viewer experience, because of the extensive use of flashbacks and the lack of explicit storytelling. Secondly, terrorism is a theme in the story and this has resemblances with the militainment division sketched out in Chapter 1. The castaways are frequently under attack, mostly by the Smoke Monster and The Others. The terrorist attacks in LOST are unpredictable and committed by non-state recognized and illegitimate groups, much like the actions on 9/11. Both The Others and the Smoke Monster act like “sleeper cells,” ready for attack and able to strike at any moment. Thirdly, as shown in the end of Chapter 1, othering became a renewed trend on television after 9/11, and in LOST, references to “the other” are frequently made. This is mainly applicable for the quite literal reference of “The Others.” The Others, sheltering in the jungles of the island and infiltrating the castaways, are like the perpetrators of 9/11, lurking in the shadows of the Middle East or infiltrating the US society and waiting to attack the United States.

Chapter 3 analysed the philosophical, moral, and religious themes in LOST in a post-9/11 view. After 9/11, an opening of religion, ethics, and morality became a trend on television. This opening could be argued because of the turn of people to their traditional beliefs in times of crisis. In LOST, this could be seen very clearly. The narrative integrated philosophers’ namesakes such as John Locke, Desmond Hume, and Danielle Rousseau, and because of the insertion of these characters, the series LOST was able to foreground multiple polarizing philosophies in its narrative. The three polarizing philosophies are fate versus free will, reason versus faith, and good versus evil, all of which became more polarized after 9/11. During the unfolding story on the island, some characters ask themselves if their actions are based on free will or fate. This discussion can be related to the measurements taken by the Bush administration after 9/11, because immediately after the attacks, the Bush administration limited the “free will” of the

American citizens in order to prevent further terrorist attacks. In LOST, the reason-versus-faith conflict is tackled since the characters constantly ask if the mysterious happenings on the island, such as the appearances of dead people or the Smoke Monster, can be scientifically reasoned or are miraculous events. This conflict between reason and faith refers to the change after 9/11 which led many people to a belief in a renewed faith in religious philosophies. The last polarizing philosophy laid out in Chapter 3 is the good-versus-evil conflict. In LOST, the difference between the “good” and the “evil” are constantly undermined, and the narrative constantly asks which of the characters are bad and which are good. In addition, some characters that are depicted as

47 either good or evil shuffle to the opposite as the story unfolds. This good/evil erosion seems relevant to the post-9/11 era, depicting a complete lack of concrete conceptualizations of good and evil, such as the American supremacy, as laid out in Chapter 3.

In the last part of Chapter 3, the use of religions motifs in LOST is analysed. Humans often turn to their religion to explain or to process events in their lives, both negative and positive.

After 9/11, religion became a renewed part of America’s national identity. In LOST, religious references and discourses play an important role throughout the narrative. The most obvious religious reference is the afterlife flash sideways story, which resembles a purgatory story world where the castaways who died can find each other and “do over” events or apologize for regrettable actions during life and finally move on to heaven. LOST plays with the notion of redemption and manifests itself as a religious metaphor for a post-9/11 attitude. After 9/11,

America struggled in processing what they had experienced, and LOST “tried to make sense of that very same world that had changed beyond recognition” (Burcon 136). “Its allusions to philosophy, religion, and psychology, all add up to a program that corresponded to the general population’s feeling of apprehension in the face of a new era, one that could not be ‘done over’”

(136). However, LOST’s story pretends to achieve a “do over” and the religious themes make it easier to accomplish. The story of LOST can be seen as a substitute for the redemption sought after 9/11. Just as Jacob sought candidates to protect the island, the post-9/11 era sought candidates to give meaning to what happened on that tragic day in September. I think that LOST did a perfect job.

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Media List4 “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.” Episode 11. Lost. ABC. 8 December 2004. “Confidence Man.” Episode 8 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 10 November 2004 “Exodus, part 2.” Episode 25 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 25 May 2005.

4 All used episode transcripts in this thesis are available on the Lostpedia fan page (http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) 51

“Homecoming.” Episode 15 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 9 February 2005. “..In Translation.” Episode 17 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 23 February 2005. “Live Together, Die Alone.” Episode 23 Season 2. Lost. ABC. 24 May 2006. “Orientation.” Episode 3 Season 2. Lost. ABC. 5 October 2005. “Solitary.” Episode 9 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 17 November 2004. “Pilot, Part 2.” Episode 2 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 29 September 2004. “Tabula Rasa.” Episode 3 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 6 October 2004. “The Cost of Living.” Episode 5 Season 3. Lost. ABC. 1 November 2006. “The End.” Episode 17 Season 6. Lost. ABC. 23 May 2010. Detailed script can be found at: http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Lost/Lost_6x17-18_-_The_End.pdf “What Kate Did.” Episode 9 Season 2. Lost. ABC. 30 November 2005. “White Rabbit.” Episode 5 Season 1. Lost. ABC. 20 October 2004.

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