Bad Twins in LOSTMany people watching last night's episode of LOST, "One of Them," were struck by the appearance of the U.S. spook (named "Joe Inman" by IMDB) in Sayid's flashback (not Kate's step-dad, but the other guy). Many -- including myself -- wondered if he was the leader of the Others, the man known variously as "Mr. Friendly," "The Bearded Man," "Zeke" and "Captain Gorton."
He wasn't. (He was, in fact, the beautifully creepy Clancy Brown, of the dearly departed Carnivale.) But it sure looked like we were meant to think about him that way. The first shot featuring him lingered on the back of his neck -- a cinematic convention often intended to convey that the identity of the neck's owner is bound to be significant.
All this reminded me of a point I had already been considering. It seems to me there is a theme of imperfect twinning -- resemblances that are close enough to remind, and perhaps deliberately intended as such, but not perfect. In "The Long Con," we got our first glimpse of the LOST product-placement-extravaganza Bad Twin. Maybe this isn't your typical "evil twin" reference, but rather a reference to imperfect twinning -- duplicates who fall short of the mark. (Interestingly, cloning experiments on cats produced two cats who were genetically identical but did not look alike.) The twins aren't necessarily morally bad -- they're "bad" copies -- in the sense that they are not perfect recreations of their originals.
Here are just a couple of the visual examples, as I see them:
Although I am using "bad" without value judgment above, there are also elements of moral and intellectual bad-twinning on LOST. Many of the family/formative relations we've seen on LOST have also been imperfect, reversed or even opposed reflections. Charlie and Liam, Eko and his brother (did he have a name?), Kate and Wayne, Jack and Christian, Jin and Mr. Paik (maybe), Sayid and his "hero" father (expect more on this to come), Sawyer and "the real Sawyer," and Wayne and Sawyer.
(As an aside, I now believe Wayne is the real Sawyer. And maybe James Ford's biological father as well.)
Imperfect duplicates -- "Bad Twins" -- and broken symmetry are, I think, related themes on LOST. I will have more to say about this in the future, but I think there is an interesting starting point for conversation here.
You can discuss this idea here, if you're into the board scene...
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3 Comments:
A friend suggested that Charlie and Sawyer are the anti-Locke/Jack.
There's much to suggest Jack and
Desmond are such a pair.
*Desmond called Jack "brother"
*When we first saw Desmond, he and Jack were doing exactly the same thing, running stadium steps.
*Desmond and Jack's age, hair color, facial shape, and build are very similar.
*The picture on the desk in the hatch shows a younger Desmond with a blond woman who resembles Jack's wife Sarah.
At the end of the finale, I, as many others did, thought the guy speaking Portuguese on the phone was Jack. Bitter disputes ensued. Your theory makes everyone right.
Here's TV Squad's page about it:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/05/25/no-i-am-not-jack/
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