Jeff Jensen of EW Talks LOST! Part One
Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk to Entertainment Weekly senior writer, and LOST theorizer extraordinaire, Jeff Jensen! Jeff not only has some of the most interesting and entertaining theories out there on LOST, he also has had the privilege of being able to rub elbows with the creative forces behind LOST so I knew he would have some interesting insights to share, and I wasn’t disappointed. Be sure to check out Jeff’s writing at www.ew.com.
DOC: So Jeff, I’ve read your various theories on LOST…
JEFF: You poor soul…
DOC: … and I know one of your “quests” is to sort of come up with this “unified” theory, one explanation that ties everything together… I gotta tell ya, I personally have never believed such a thing would work. Do you really think, in the end, there is something that will fit your parameters?
JEFF: You know… I don’t think there is a Unifed theory anymore… “they’re all in purgatory”, “they’ve been abducted by aliens and being held on this terrarium in outer space”, I don’t think there is this one even that can explain everything anymore. There is this theory I had earlier this year which is the “history theory” of LOST, which basically says there is this entire history that has unfolded on this island and all of these eras have impacted each other, and the whole thing is evolving over time. I think the key is the island, we need to figure out if the island is something special. Is it the garden of Eden? Is it this well spring of life creating electromagnetic energy? Is it this nexus between worlds? Or is it just an island? Without knowing, the odds are against you because there will always be this springboard for doubt.
DOC: Assuming “It is the island”…
JEFF: Well, then how was it effected by people who came there? Was it changed by Hanso, or by earlier people? And then, how were each of these groups of people affected by how the other people were effected. Do “The Others” have anything to do with Hanso? Did they mix and mingle with Dharma like they did with the Oceanic 815 people?
DOC: Your onto something…
JEFF: What I like about this idea is that the story is really about the history of this island, and we’re really just focusing on minor characters in a larger saga. And the more we learn, the more it expands. For instance, this whole part of the story could be about Desmond. Desmond could be the real hero of this story, even though we’ve just met him…
DOC: Right… he’s been there all along, and he’s really responsible for everything that has happened since the beginning of the series as far as just setting up the circumstances…
JEFF: Right.. it’s like some kind of Dickens or Victor Hugo novel where we’ve gone through all these characters to get to him. We might not even get to his story on the show specifically… maybe I’m going off the deep end here, but there are some interesting things going on here. It’s like LOST is this big picture that has been smashed into all these smaller pieces which are unrecognizable as pieces of a whole.
DOC: Yeah… Desmond really seems to be the Gilgamesh here, he has the most epic plot of all the characters. He races around the world, winds up at the gate of a god, struggles with his responsibilities, but returns to be the self sacrificing hero and redeem himself to people who are not forgotten, but lost to him…
JEFF: Ewwww yeah… and getting away from the mythological aspects, what do you think of this: has it been suggested that maybe Desmond was led to the island? Maybe Widmore knew he would crash there, and this whole race around the world thing wasn’t even real, just something Widmore set up to get rid of Desmond…
DOC: Hmmmmmm obviously Widmore knew he was there… that’s how Penny found out, without a doubt. Some kind of death bed confession…
JEFF: Yeah…
DOC: Well, y’know one thing, getting back to theories for a second, one thing people think they have deviated on is that everything is supposed to be explainable in scientific terms and now with mind reading clouds and all these strange forces…
JEFF: Whoa. That was a big issue, and I had the opportunity to speak with Carlton and Damon about that, so I can put this to rest right now. I asked them and here is what they told me. That is absolutely not true, they don’t recall saying it, and if they did, they retract it. You know, when you think about it, to say "everything will be explained by science" is pretty vague, and the Lost fans who have embraced this quote seem to be interpretting and applying its sentiment in a very narrow way. Science allows for some pretty far-out stuff. For example: quantum physics allows for the existence of alternate realities. And Carl Jung speculated on something called "the synchronicity theory," which is basically the equivalent to George Lucas’ notion of The Force. If the producers decide to "explain" the island with an alternate reality theory, or the interconnections between characters with "synchronicity," then surely they would be able to say that they upheld their "everything will be explained by science" pledge. Right? (Again, assuming they really did pledge something akin to that at one point.)
DOC: Well, I always wondered if that was just an interpretation, because on the level of language you could make that comment and it wouldn’t mean that everything would make sense by what our science text books say. In the sense of the word, and the context, it could simply mean that everything would test true against the fabric of the LOST universe and that there wouldn’t be some cheap reveal out of left field like “it’s all a dream
JEFF: Could be…but I tell you. When I’m doing these theories, I always get these emails that say "that’s stupid because the producers said…" and all this stuff about science. But I asked, and they said they NEVER had a hard position on it.
