Castaneda’s books purported to be non-fiction accounts of his experiences with various mystics and psychotropic substances. However, ever since the books were released, their authenticity has been called into question. So that would make Castaneda an Unreliable Narrator, and we know how Lost loves those.
LOST Revisited: Pre-Game for “Whatever Happened, Happened”
(For the record, this goes back to Season Two, when the Swan orientation film was hidden behind a copy of A Turn of the Screw, a book famous for its unreliable narrator. This has carried over into the actual storytelling of the series, to the extent that we can’t definitively believe anything that we’re told by any character. Until we see it happen, we can’t assume that we’re getting the truth.)
In addition, Castaneda’s love of peyote and various hallucinatory plants brings to mind Locke’s magic head paste from Season One that sent Boone on his own vision quest. And of course, the title by itself invokes the paradox from the end of the episode. See, if you’re like me, you learned at an early age (from old Fantastic Four comics) that if you go back in time and change the past, it creates a parallel universe. So if you were to go back and save Abraham Lincoln, when you returned to the present, you’d still live in a world where Lincoln was assassinated. But there’d be another timeline where he lived another fifty years. I don’t think this is what they’re doing on Lost, but I think they certainly intend to throw people off with that book, especially people who are nerds. This subset of Lost viewers includes me.
Also, we saw last season that adult Benry is a fan of Philip K. Dick. It seems like he’s always gravitated toward hallucinatory inquiries into the nature of reality. That’s kind of a nice touch – Benry has pretty consistent tastes. And finally, and I can’t believe I’ve written this much about a book that was only briefly shown onscreen, well, Dr. Brian suggests that “Benry strikes me as the kind of kid who’d take his favorite book in his coat pocket when he was running away”. Hey, that’s pretty good! Heck, a reasonably thick book could slow down a bullet, at least enough to give the kid a chance.
By the way, Dr. Brian also points out that Sayid screwed up. “Any good assassin knows, three to the chest, one to the head”. Now, it’s a little alarming that I have friends who can instantly call up facts that any professional killer should know. Now, the obvious reason is that if Sayid puts four shots in Little Benry, then they reach a storytelling dead end. His head blows up, he’s dead, you know? But within the show, the relative sloppiness of Sayid’s hit could indicate that for once he wasn’t thinking like the killing machine that Benry believes him to be. He was acting emotionally, rather than as a cold professional. Sayid’s killed a lot of people for revenge or in self-defense. Here, he killed somebody (or tried to) to make the world better. Maybe he really did change in the last year or so – he’s not a killer anymore.
As for Benry and the time paradox, spunkybuddy Julie suggests that Benry himself has the ability to change time, like Desmond. This would explain the way Benry is one step ahead of everybody else. And it explains why Benry freaked out when Alex was killed, and not in the way that you’d expect somebody to freak out after watching their daughter get shot. He was upset that rules were broken, possibly moreso than about the actual death. And I don’t see Benry using his ability like Desmond, trying to save lives and otherwise leaving well enough alone. If Benry can change the past, this does not bode well for the Lostaways. And, you know, the world.
It occurs to me that Sayid might have inadvertently worsened relations between Dharma and the Others. If Dharma believes that one of the Hostiles shot a little kid in the chest, that truce won’t hold up for long. Oh, man. Does this mean that Sayid set the events in motion that eventually led to the Purge? Like the guy doesn’t have enough guilt already…
Finally, here’s a little bit about Gilgamesh. My sister was reminded of Gilgamesh because the recent episodes of Lost have put the Lostaways in a sort of time loop. The Epic of Gilgamesh also plays out over an infinite loop. The actual saga was directly referenced back during Season Two in a crossword puzzle. In the Hatch, Locke figured out that 42 Across “Friend of Enkidu” was “Gilgamesh”. (I’m telling you, they had some of this planned way in advance.) Also, Gilgamesh’s quest is a search for immortality (or possibly eternal youth). Hey, you know who’s seemingly immortal and eternally young? That’s right, Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert!
I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen to Little Benry. Though I’m hoping we pop into the present long enough to check in on Locke and possibly even the modern-day Others. We’ve only seen glimpses of them for a long time now, and I have to wonder what they’re up to. I’ll see you back here tomorrow to try to sort out all the things that are both awesome and confusing!
