Summer of Lost Update 08/25/2009
Tonight we continue our search for what we perceive as truth, reality, found, and Lost as The Twilight Zone and ABC's Lost intermingle as we explore my alternate theory and perhaps reality itself.
Some Background Before we Proceed:
The Twilight Zone was a classic science fiction television series created by Rod Serling that aired from 1959 to 1964. Each episode intertwined the supernatural with topical moral events in today’s society ending with a twist convoluting the outcome. The same can be said about ABC Lost. The castaways are more than just stranded on an island. There are mysterious forces at work of powers unknown. And just like the Twilight Zone, a twist is inserted in the story convoluting the outcome.
The Twilight Zone had a standard format. Each episode began with a prologue, usually with the host, Rod Serling doing the voice over introducing the characters and setting. At the end of the show, Serling would offer up a final narration of what the viewer just witnessed.
Tonight's Twilight Zone Lost offering is titled,
The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, season 1, episode 22, 1960
The Prologue:
Maple Street, USA. Late Summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and a flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 PM on Maple Street.
This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street, in the last calm and reflective moments...before the monsters came.
Synopsis:
The episode begins as a typical Summer day. Kids playing, grown ups gathering. Then a dark shadow crawls across the sky and a flash of light and a loud noise is heard before everything goes dark. A complete power outage has occurred including the residents cars. The adults get together to discuss what happened and what they plan on doing about it. Pete Van Horn volunteers to investigate to see if the power outage is city wide or just the neighborhood.
Just after Pete leaves a young boy claims he knows what is happening. He shows the adults one of his comic books with a story about aliens coming down, assuming human appearance, and living in the neighborhood for a while – while they plan their attack.
At first the adults don’t believe the story until one of the neighbor’s lights go on in his house. Then someone else’s car starts for no reason. As things are going on and off randomly the people start to accuse each other of being the aliens. The fear and hostility of the neighborhood grows. When Pete Van Horn comes back one of the neighbors shoots him because he thought he was an alien.
As a full-scale riot breaks out, the camera pans outward and upward revealing two aliens sitting atop a hill overlooking Maple Street. They comment on how all they need to do is switch on and off a few lights and the people of Earth will destroy themselves.
Epilogue:
The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the frightened, thoughtless search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own: for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things can not be confined to the Twilight Zone.
Lost Tie In:
Jacob and the Unknown man seen at the beginning of the season five finale, are the two aliens. They are the ones manipulating mankind, one group of people at a time. They leave the Lost castaways to their own devices with minimum prodding on their part. Then they simply sit back and observe and learn what humanity really is.
Unknown Man: You’re still trying to prove me wrong.
Jacob: You are wrong!
Unknown Man: They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.
Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, it’s just progress.
The question before us is simple. Who are the real monsters? The aliens that are manipulating the power on Maple Street? Or perhaps the citizens of Maple street and how fear and prejudice blind us so quickly and completely that we behave like monsters?
I'll leave that up to you, in the Twilight Zone.
LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL
