The Layman's Answers to Everything

The meaning of life according to some guy who likes TV and stuff.

The concept behind Lost’s “He’s Our You” is that different people or things in our lives often take on very similar roles. In other words, multiple actors often play the same character in the movie that is your life experience. This intriguing concept actually reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld I first saw years ago. In “The Bizarro Jerry,” Elaine breaks up with a boyfriend but they decide to remain friends—similar to her relationship with Jerry whom she’d also dated prior to becoming friends. Comically, it turns out that this “Bizarro Jerry” has…

As you’ve probably noticed, the title of a Lost episode often hints at more than just the episode’s story on a surface level. Many times, it provides a clue to its mythological messages as well. This was true of “316,” of “LaFleur,”* and now of “Namaste.” While Buddhist/Hindu principles pop up in Lost every so often, I was hoping that they might be a major theme of this episode due to its title, and I was not disappointed.

What is definitely no joke is what happens to the world in the Layman book during this timeframe. While I began writing the trilogy in 2002 and finished the first draft (of all three) in mid-2005, there is a lot in the story that is eerily prophetic of today’s situation: a collapse of the world economy, the emergence of the green revolution with a focus on reusable energy sources to replace oil, world floods, food epidemics and shortages and more. There are also a bunch of things in the books that are too fantastical to even speculate on. To be honest, when I originally wrote them, they were meant as more mythological metaphors, not really to be taken literally. Now, I’m not so sure. (Actually, around the time of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean Tsunami is when I became unsure.) Whatever happens though, whether it be tomorrow, in 2012, or if ever, I feel like the messages I received today are letting me know that it’s going to be all right. And I just thought I’d share that with all of you.

Something’s coming. Something big. I think whatever it is, if we…

For a show that’s been such a cornucopia of mythological goodness, it’s pretty surprising that Lost hasn’t spent much time exploring the one theme that is the foundation of most classic myths—love. Oh sure, we’ve seen plenty of love triangles and quadrangles, and forbidden love has come up from time to time along with lost love, but the mysterious ways in which love works has not really been explored to any major extent. That is, until Lost’s 91st episode, “LaFleur.”