Lost: More On The Button

Since the season is starting to wrap up, I'll probably have a lot more Lost posts for the next few weeks.

Besides, work is slow.

Anyway, I thought it interesting to read the transcript from the Swan Orientation (lostpedia) and point out:

Now station 3 was originally constructed as a laboratory, where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the island. Not long after the experiments began, however, there was... an 'incident'... and since that time, the following protocol has been observed:

(That?) every 108 minutes, the button must be pushed. From the moment the alarm sounds, you will have 4 minutes to enter the code into the microcomputer processor(?)... * ...duction into the program. When the alarm sounds, either you or your partner must input the code.

Course there are two ways of looking at this: one ... he's lying and this has been the protocol all along and this is all part of the setup in which to convince two people in an expirement to press a button. In which case the whole "button function" thing is still pretty much up for grabs.

or

The button protocol really is a response the an incident which took place on the island. The blacklight map (blast door map) makes references to an "accident" and "fatalities" ... and even specifically "incident". It's possible that the map itself was written during a prolonged shutdown (when else would the door have been down for an extended period of time?) which may have been caused by the incident itself (although I lean more to then notion that supply drops are connected to lockdowns and it was drawn over time during those).

If that's the case, then it would stand to reason that the purpose of the protocol is primarily to avoid another incident. How? Well, maybe it does nothing more but insist obedience. Or perhaps it insures that at least one of the two man team is close to the hatch every 108 minutes. Or maybe it's simply a shutdown sequence for the electomagnetic devices which help monitor the island's bizarre activity.

The blast door might be best clue. Next to the Swan's location is written in Latin, "The wrath of the gods may be great, but it certainly is slow."



tagged: lost, television