Lost

I am a huge fan of this show (so far it's the best drama I've ever seen on TV- including HBO) and since my theories regarding what the hell is actually going on changes every few days and certainly every episode I thought I would try to get a snapshot of where I stand right now. Don't bother reading if you don't watch the show- it won't make much sense.

I used to be a big believer in the everyone's dead theory- but according to the message boards I've been perusing over the past few days this theory has been explicitly rejected by JJ Abrams the show's creator- so I won't explore it here even though I think it makes the most sense so far.

Forces at work-
The show seems most interested in opposites- most primarily the individual vs the group and science vs faith. Even though Jack (group/science) is the main character of the show, Locke (Individual/faith) is actually the show's center. Locke is active where Jack is passive- Locke acts while Jack waits. Locke thinks about his personal salvation as the path to the group's salvation- Jack thinks that he himself cannot be saved without acting to save the group.
So far everything that has happened on the show has been the playing out of these two opposing forces.
But things aren't so simple. Not at all.
There are also other pairings that are very interesting-
Sayid vs. Sawyer
We're not supposed to like Sawyer because he's comfortable with the fact that he's a bastard. Instead, we like Sayid- who's a bastard too- but one we feel sorry for because he's bothered by the fact that he's a bastard. Yet, if you think about these two the writers are really screwing with us... Sayid has tortured and killed a whole bunch of people (at least this is implied) while Sawyer has only killed one person that we know of and it was in an attempt at revenge that most people would understand- if not condone. But- we don't like Sawyer- why? I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Sawyer is very much in Locke's Individual camp and everyone that falls on this side of the coin is portrayed in cautious terms on the show.
There are others too- but being that I'm quickly realizing I could write a whole damn book on this subject I'm just going to switch directions and try to focus on...

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON
The fact that nearly everyone's lives are interconnected together in one way or another in addition to Locke's insistence that the things that are happening are happening for a reason lead me to believe there is some force- whether supernatural or human- that has brought everyone together on the island. The sheer amount of coincidence we would have to swallow for there to be nothing supernatural going on makes me reject the idea that it is a human force organizing what is happening on the island. Particularly the vision Locke has of the plane and the completely accidental way they came across the hatch in the first place, and the presence on charlie's fingers of the tape with the word FATE- If we are told at any point that it's all a coincidence I will be very, very dissapointed- mostly in the writers for sheer laziness.
This is not to say that I think the whole island is magical, indeed at this point, I think the entire island was man made- probably during the 70's judging by the apparant age of the computer equipment found in the hatch. On the boards I've read an explanation that the entire island can be raised and lowered in the water- the more I think about it the more I think that's what's happening, at this point I would guess that the entire island was built as a place to experiment with different kinds of biological agents- the Others could be the the one's who were being experimented on back when the island was in use. They're immune but unable to reproduce- thus their keen interest in children. Only now I think the island is forgotten- Lost- if you will and there are other forces at work.
Still, this isn't exactly a satisfactory explanation becuase of the presence of the black rock- a ship that is clearly really old and somehow sitting in the middle of the place. Unless it used to be on the shore and the island was modified somehow to get it to go up and down- but that's pretty clumbsy. Or maybe the Black rock is the source of the disease that is being studied- the word "Quarantine," the French chics explanations about how her crew died, and the fact that Desmond gives himself an injection of some kind makes it fairly incontravertable that a disease is at play somewhere.
So what about the monsters? First, I think there are different kinds- some biological and some mechanical. The thing that grabs Locke in the Season 1 finale certainly sounded mechanical. But when Locke talks to Kate about it he says it looks like black smoke. The same balck smoke that marks the coming of the Others? I don't know. Then there's the pteradactyl (I can't spell dinosaur names) that probably killed the pilot in the pilot. Then there's whatever monster can make whole rows of trees bend- what the French chic called "the security system."
Oh, and to confuse matters worse- on the official website there is a hidden page that has a "lost" page from the Season 2 pilot where Jack gets tackled- by Jack.
Speaking of the Others- there are a few things to ponder about them. First- they have access to guns and gasoline- and boats- so I have a hard time believing that they're forced to stay on the island- if they are there they are there for a reason...

Okay enough already, I could write for hours about this- I suppose I should just break down and just start posting on the message boards.