Here are the notes to the series of podcasts about Lost's lore that we wanted to do but sadly just ran out of time. Episode one was about the Island itself and how the mystical and science worked hand in hand. The second being about family and connections. Enjoy!

Lost Lore Episode 1: Fantasy Island

What is the Island?

It is an island that possess the source (“Across the Sea” Season 6 episode 15).  It is also a place of redemption (the whispers, all the people on the plane having shady pasts longing to redeem themselves) and healing (Locke, Ben and Rose).

What is the Source?

Faith explanation: Life and Death, a mystical energy that if extinguished would make the world dark. (“Across the Sea” Season 6 episode 15)

MOTHER: Don't go in there.

BOY IN BLACK: What's down there?

MOTHER: Light. The warmest, brightest light you've ever seen or felt. And we must make sure that no one ever finds it.

BOY IN BLACK: It's beautiful...

MOTHER: Yes it is. And that's why they want it. Because a little bit of this very same light is inside of every man. But they always want more.

JACOB: Can they take it?

MOTHER: No. But they would try. And if they tried they could put it out. And if the light goes out here... it goes out everywhere. And so I've protected this place. But I can't protect it forever.

LATER IN THE EPISODE

JACOB: What's down there?

MOTHER: Life, death, rebirth. It's the source, the heart of the island. Just promise me. no matter what you do, you won't ever go down there.

JACOB: Would I die?

MOTHER: It'd be worse than dying, Jacob...much worse.

Here is an alternate explanation from Jacob (season 6 “Ab Aeterno” ep9)

JACOB: Think of this wine as what you [Richard] keep calling hell. There's many other names for it too: malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork [he corks the bottle] is this island and it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.

This Island has a twofold purpose: keep the evil and darkness from escaping (wine and cork) and to preserve the light or source of life.

Science explanation: exotic matter capable of bending time & space (Season 4 finale “There’s No Place Like Home” Ep 13&14)

SCIENTIST: [On video] Hello. I'm Dr. Edgar Halliwax and this is the orientation film for station six of the DHARMA Initiative. As you've no doubt surmised, station six, or "The Orchid," is not a botanical research unit. The unique properties of this island have created a kind of Casimir effect, allowing the DHARMA initiative to conduct unique experiments in both space and time. This... is "the vault", constructed adjacent to a pocket of what we believe to be negatively charged "exotic matter". Great care must be taken to avoid leaving inorganic materials inside the chamber. The electromagnetic energy within the island can be highly volatile and unpredictable. Now for your own safety and the safety of those around you, metallic objects must never be placed within the vault.

In our first demonstration, we will attempt to shift the test subject 100 milliseconds ahead in four-dimensional space. For the briefest of moments, the animal will seem to disappear, but in reality...

Casimir effect and negatively charged exotic matter

Exotic matter with negative energy density may be required to stabilize a wormhole.[24] Morris, Thorne and Yurtsever pointed out that the quantum mechanics of the Casimir effect can be used to produce a locally mass-negative region of space-time,[25] and suggested that negative effect could be used to stabilize a wormhole to allow faster than light travel.

Redemption

Whispers

The Island seems to also contain the souls of those who can not “move on” as revealed in Season 6 “Everyone Loves Hugo” Ep 12.  

[The whispers are heard. Jack and Frank ready their guns.]

HURLEY: Wait. It's cool, I think I know what these things are.

LAPIDUS: Oh yeah? What the hell are they?

HURLEY: Wait here.

[Hurley goes a short distance into the jungle alone.]

HURLEY: Hey, you around? Michael?

[Michael steps out of the jungle.]

HURLEY: You're stuck on the Island aren't you?

MICHAEL: [nodding] 'Cause of what I did.

HURLEY: And...there're others out here like you, aren't there? That's what the whispers are?

MICHAEL: Yeah. We're the ones who can't move on.

It is possible that for those who do wrong, they need to atone for their sins in order to move on, which goes in line with Jacob’s talk about the island keeping evil at bay.  Only the good can move beyond the island.   Hurley knows that because he talked to Michael on the island that Walt may be able to help him move on beyond the island.  Ben goes to visit Walt.

(Season 6 extra episode “The New Man in Charge”)

BEN: We need you. You have work to do. Starting with helping your father.

WALT: My father's dead.

BEN: Doesn't mean you can't help him. Will you go with us, Walt?

Redemption

The Island also served as a place to redeem your past actions or a fresh start (as in the title Tabula Rasa)

(Season 1 “Tabula Rasa” Ep. 3)

KATE: I want to tell you what I did - why he was after me. (in reference to the crime Kate committed)

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.

(season 6 “Ab Aeterno” ep9)

JACOB: That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.

(Season 6 Ep. 16 “What They Died For”)

JACOB: No, you weren't. (to Sawyer in reference to saying he screwed their lives) None of you were. I didn't pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn't find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.

What is the purpose of water?

The water seems to travel through the source (As seen in the Series Finale “the End”).  It may carry the special properties of the source throughout the island, hence the pool in the temple having healing powers and the Orchid and Swan harnessing powers.

(Season 6 “Across the Sea” ep. 15)

MAN IN BLACK: Well, Mother, you should be. I spent 30 years searching for that place you brought me as a child--that...waterfall with that beautiful light. I've walked this island from end to end, not once coming close to finding it. But, then I began to think--what if the light underneath the island--what if I could get to it from someplace else? Figuring out how to reach it took a very long time.  

MAN IN BLACK: It's a wheel... We're going to make an opening...one much bigger than this one; and, then I'm going to attach that wheel to a system we're building. A system that channels the water and the light. And then I'm gonna turn it. And when I do...I'll finally be able to leave this place.

What is the healing pool in the temple?

It seems to be a concentrated delivery system of the exotic matter capable of strong electromagnetism (as displayed by healing Rose from cancer and Locke from paralysis),

ISAAC: There are certain places with great energy -- spots on the Earth like the one we're above now. Perhaps this energy is geological -- magnetic. Or perhaps it's something else. And when possible I harness this energy and give it to others. May I?

[He puts his hands near Rose's face and closes his eyes. He suddenly opens his eyes, looking disturbed.]

ROSE: What? What, what is it?

ISAAC: I'm sorry. I can't do anything for you, Rose.

ROSE: I didn't expect you to. [Rose goes to a window and looks out at Bernard talking to a young girl on crutches.]

ISAAC: It's not that you can't be healed. Like I said, there's different energies. This is not the right place for you.

ROSE: Where is the right place?

ISAAC: I wish I knew

it was believed to have healed Sayid which it did but there was repercussions (turned him dark/potential for evil) (Season 6 ep3 “What Kate Does”).  Also seems to be tied to Jacob as the pool went dirty after jacob died and did not work the same way (Season 6 ep.2 LAX).  Alpert also talks about how it can change someone, this is explained in season 5 when they go to heal Ben after he was shot.

(Season 5 ep.11 “Whatever Happened, Happened”)

RICHARD: If I take him, he's not ever gonna be the same again.

KATE: What do you mean by that?

RICHARD: What I mean is that, he'll forget this ever happened, and that...his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us. You still want me to take him?

This could be another connection to the source and evil.

Time Travel

The island has the ability to move through time, or at least move people through time.  This is explained in Season 5.  Time travel is explained at the end of Season 4 through the Dharma video about the orchid (see the Source).  

           Time travel also hurts people.  As you traveled through time too long you would lose yourself and eventually died.  This happened first on the boat in season 4, people began to lose their minds because their minds traveled through time (Minkowsky from the freighter), which was a side effect of going away from the island on the wrong course.  Without an anchor or constant in their life to tether them to the correct timeline they would die.  Desmond successfully achieved this (season 4 “the constant” Ep.5).  There is also a time dilation that occurs between being on or off the island.  This was confirmed by Faraday when he conducted a test with a rocket and 2 clocks.  The rocket was shot from the boat to the island and showed that there was indeed a 31 minute time dilation.  (season 4 “The Economist” ep. 3)

Moving

The island is also capable of moving physically.  When the donkey wheel was turned by Ben the island jumped to a new location (Season 4 “There’s No Place Like Home” ep 13).  This could be attributed to places on the earth that it could jump through (i.e. like the Sahara desert in Tunisia which is why people kept appearing in the same place/also see explanation of the source. Charlotte finds the Polar Bear - Season 4 “Confirmed Dead” ep. 2;Ben - Season 4 “The Shape of Things to Come” ep.9; Locke - Season 5 “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” ep.7).  It is also stated that it is always moving a bit all the time (the pieces of the statue are no longer around, there is a station off of the island that is used to monitor the movement of the island called the lighthouse station.)

(Season 5 “316” ep 6)

ELOISE: Yes. The island. They'd gathered proof that it existed. (in reference to the government and dharma) They knew it was out there somewhere, but they just couldn't find it. Then a very clever fellow built this pendulum on the theoretical notion that they should stop looking for where the island was supposed to be and start looking for where it was going to be.

[Pendulum whooshes.]

JACK: What do you mean, "Where it was going to be"?

ELOISE: Well, this fellow presumed, and correctly, as it turned out, that the Island was always moving. Why do you think you were never rescued? Now while the movements of the Island seem random, this man and his team created a series of equations which tell us, with a high degree of probability, where it is going to be at a certain point... in time. Windows, as it were, that while open, provide a route back. Unfortunately, these windows don't stay open for very long. Yours closes... in 36 hours.

Why were people unsatisfied with the island answers?

Believe it was because it wasn’t out and out named, like calling it Atlantis or Eden.  Also most of the information was given over many episodes and never recapped at the end.

In the next episode we will go over Jacob, The Man in Black and Mother

Thanks for listening you can get ahold of us at the2bitpodcasters@gmail.com ,or check us out at the2bitgamers.com and leave a comment or question, and leave us a voicemail at 408-475-2248 (475-2BIT).  You can also keep up with us on twitter @the2bitpodcasters or on facebook the 2bit gamers.

Lost Lore Episode 2: Dysfunctional Family

Welcome to another episode of Lost Lore.  Today we’ll go over the original Dysfunctional family: Jacob, MiB and Mother.  Nothing says Dysfunction like 2 people in the family not even having a name.

Mother

Not much is known.  She only appears in one episode in the entire series (Season 6 Ep. 15 “Across the Sea”).  Her first official appearance was in Season 1 when they discover the bones in the cave which the call “Adam and Eve”.  She does everything she can to protect the island from killing Jacob and MiB real mother after giving birth to killing the rest of the people from the shipwreck later.

She is the caretaker of the island before Jacob and passes on the powers that come with it.  She passes those powers to Jacob as she ultimately feels like her time is up.

The powers of the caretaker is up for debate.  It seems as though the person who has the powers deems a certain amount of rules which everyone and thing must abide to.  

(Season 6 ep. 15 “Across the Sea”)

[Jacob and his brother are playing the Senet board game that washed up on shore - Jacob controls the white stones; and his brother, the black ones - Jacob makes a move that is reversed by his brother.]

BOY IN BLACK: You can’t do that, Jacob.

JACOB: Why not?

BOY IN BLACK: Because it's against the rules

JACOB: You made the rules.

BOY IN BLACK: I found it. One day, you can make up your own game and everyone else will have to follow your rules.

Mother makes it so Jacob and MiB can not kill each other

(Season 6 ep 15 “Across the Sea”)

MOTHER: Because they're people, Jacob, and that's what people do.

BOY IN BLACK: But we're people. Does that mean that we can hurt each other?

[Mother removes their blindfolds.]

MOTHER: I've made it so you can never hurt each other.

Jacob makes it so MiB can not kill the candidates

Jacob made the Ash something that Smoke Monster could not pass/Dogan

Jack makes it so that once the power is turned off on the island the smoke monster loses it’s immortality allowing it to be killed.

There was debate whether or not Mother had the power of both the caretaker and Smoke monster.  Part of this comes from the swiftness that she was able to kill all the people in the village and fill the hole that was dug in one night.  Cuse and Lindeloff also tease this notion on the commentary of Across the Sea saying that it would be interesting if the theory was true that she possessed both powers.  She was also killed by MiB by a knife in the back and she was not able to say a word or see him, mirrors the attempt that Sayid made to kill Locke/MiB by stabbing him with the same dagger, however Locke spoke before he attacked and it did not kill him.  The Lost encyclopedia does states however that Mother knocked out MiB and then under cover of dark killed the people and then filled the hole, no mention of Smoke Monster powers, which may kill the theory.

Jacob

The crux of the entire story of Lost.  Jacob is the caretaker of the island.  One of twins born on the island (at this time babies did not die) Jacob was the first born and the MiB after.  After finding that MiB killed their Mother, Jacob throws MiB into the cave with the source creating the Smoke monster.

Jacob is a bit of a mommas boy, and has real resentment to the Mother for forcing him into the position of caretaker of the island.  

(Across the Sea)

JACOB: No, it doesn't. You wanted it to be him. But now I'm all you have.

MOTHER: It was always supposed to be you, Jacob. I see that now. And one day, you'll see it, too; but, until then...you don't really have a choice... Please, take the cup and drink.

MiB

One of twins born on the island and was born after jacob.  He was much more inquisitive than Jacob and questioned his Mother about things.  He also had a similar power to Hurley as he could see his dead mother who revealed that he was in fact apart of the wild people on the island.  He also understood the workings of the Island as he created a device to harness the power of the source to take him off the island.  After Mother killed his people he killed her and was then transformed into the Smoke monster after jacob threw him into the source because he could not kill him.

MiB desire to get off the island is what caused him to focus his life in killing Jacob trying through a loophole of their mothers rule, by using Ben to kill Jacob.  MiB moves some of the candidates into the right position to resent Jacob and then gets them to help him off the island.  MiB knows that he is tied to the source and then uses Desmond to turn the light off and stopping the water.

In the next episode we will go over The Smoke Monster

Thanks for listening you can get ahold of us at the2bitpodcasters@gmail.com , leave us a voicemail at 408-475-2248 (475-2BIT), or check us out at the2bitgamers.com and leave a comment or question.  You can also keep up with us on twitter @the2bitpodcasters or on facebook the 2bit gamers.