The mystery of Walt revealed...

[Ryan8bit]

Oh, wait...

Seriously, what are your thoughts on shows like Lost that paint characters with an ominous brush to be pushed aside because it was poorly thought out or too hard at adapting to the frantic framework of network television?

I think the big difference between this and shows like Enterprise, Sarah Connor Chronicles, or ALF (), is that Lost wasn't canceled and had the luxury of a few seasons to actually figure out these mysteries. Despite that, Walt is essentially our very own future guy with shadowy reasoning. And along with that territory comes a slew of other mysteries that will never be answered.

Some series present a myriad of mysteries without the intent of solving them. Why do they do this? Since when did this become an acceptable format for telling stories? I probably should have learned my lesson with other serials, but somehow I felt Lost was different and that it would deliver. Instead we got the ol' dangling carrot routine.

 

[Python Trek]

Walt was a psychic. So were Hugo and Miles. That's all I really need to know.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, in the case of Walt, I think it had a lot more to do with the actor hitting puberty than it did the writers not wanting to tell his story. Ultimately, I liked Jeremy Bentham's reasoning, that Walt had been through enough and he just wanted to leave him alone.

 

[Ryan8bit]

Walt was a psychic. So were Hugo and Miles. That's all I really need to know.

I don't buy that. Psychics don't cause birds to die or astrally project themselves. Psychics don't actually see dead people.

In the case of Hurley and Miles, I can accept that it was some sort of effect of the island. Hell, they could have just thrown in a line to that effect. But with Walt, he was born off the island and exhibited strange behavior before ever getting there.

Well, in the case of Walt, I think it had a lot more to do with the actor hitting puberty than it did the writers not wanting to tell his story.

I think it also might have partly been because of Perrineau being upset over the handling of his character as well.

Also, Kelley's puberty didn't stop him from appearing a couple more times, which may have been ample time to actually explain why he is special.

 

[RoJoHen]

Unfortunately, as much as a TV creator may want to tell a certain story, sometimes real life gets in the way.

 

[Agent Richard07]

With the time jump, his growth would have been plausible.

 

[Kelso]

Several characters on the show had magical abilities. What needs to be explained?

 

[Ryan8bit]

Several characters on the show had magical abilities. What needs to be explained?

Maybe you're seeing it differently than I am, but the show was originally framed as somewhat realistic by fiction standards, and only as the show progressed did it spiral down into pure fantasy. Given its premise, it wasn't unreasonable to wonder why certain characters had such abilities and not others, why some were "special", and how the rules of their magic even worked. Because even magic needs to have rules lest it be sloppy writing. In these cases, we're just supposed to accept "a wizard did it," and regardless of how I feel about how the rest of the show was handled (pretty good), I feel like this aspect was somewhat sloppy.

I mean, on a show like Charmed, I'm pretty sure we just have to check our disbelief at the door and accept that there's magic and all sorts of crazy shit going on. And even though I don't watch that show, I'd be surprised if their magic didn't follow some loose set of rules. Aside from that, if you take a show that appears to be somewhat based in reality and turn it on its ear, you'd better have an explanation for why these things happen. It doesn't have to be lengthy, elaborate, or even really all that profound. It just needs to match the mystery in the same manner that it was presented. I don't think that's really asking for too much.

 

[Python Trek]

What's so weird about Walt attracting birds (animal empathy/telepathy) or astrally projecting himself? There's more to being a psychic than Halley Joel Osment's "I see dead people". Novels, comics, movies, etc. are full of telekinetics, pyrokinetics, and tons of other effed up mumbo-jumbo.

 

[DeafPoet]

Maybe you're seeing it differently than I am, but the show was originally framed as somewhat realistic by fiction standards, and only as the show progressed did it spiral down into pure fantasy. Given its premise, it wasn't unreasonable to wonder why certain characters had such abilities and not others, why some were "special", and how the rules of their magic even worked.

It's not unreasonable to wonder, you're right. But it's also not unreasonable for the creators to leave it a mystery.

A weird monster showed up in the Pilot. At the end of the first season we learned that it was a pillar of black smoke. Why can't Walt just be mysteriously special?

You don't have to like that the answer to all of this was mystical in nature. But I don't see how you can argue that it's not consistent.

 

[Ryan8bit]

Maybe you're seeing it differently than I am, but the show was originally framed as somewhat realistic by fiction standards, and only as the show progressed did it spiral down into pure fantasy. Given its premise, it wasn't unreasonable to wonder why certain characters had such abilities and not others, why some were "special", and how the rules of their magic even worked.

It's not unreasonable to wonder, you're right. But it's also not unreasonable for the creators to leave it a mystery.

A weird monster showed up in the Pilot. At the end of the first season we learned that it was a pillar of black smoke. Why can't Walt just be mysteriously special?

You don't have to like that the answer to all of this was mystical in nature. But I don't see how you can argue that it's not consistent.

You have great points here.

The smoke monster started off as seemingly real and only delved into fantasy territory later on as the show progressed. Even when people found out it was black smoke, there were questions of, "What is it? Is it technology? Is it magic?" We still have absolutely no idea what it really is or why it exists, yet it's the reason for all the events that happened.

Yes, they're consistent in that they didn't answer questions and things were left as just simply magic, but I think I felt like there could or should have been more to those things given the way they were presented.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

They never answered what the smoke monster was, but they've technically been saying since the first season that the true question we should ask is "Who is the smoke monster." That question they did answer. They also never answered why Walt is special, but they did establish that there are people who are special (and that list includes Hurley, Miles, and the Man in Black). Walt doesn't bug me so much any more (although it would have been nice to see either he or his father in the flash sideways).

 

[Ryan8bit]

they've technically been saying since the first season that the true question we should ask is "Who is the smoke monster."

I think when someone can turn into smoke, and the smoke was created for unknown reasons, yet a dead body of the person still existed, that one will inevitably ask the question of what the smoke monster is, or why he exists. As much as the producers may have said "who", the show says "what/where/when/why/how" as well.

 

[O'Dib]

Well, considering what we know of the island (which isn't much, other than it's magical), Walt might as well have stayed on, with his magical growth spurt being just another one of those things that happen here (to special people, at least). I think that would've actually been a pretty convincing anchor indicating all this was planned.

 

[scorpius1701]

I think we can accept Walt's magic powers but what exactly the Others were doing with him and the other kids is something i think is important and should have been explained.

 

[FormerLurker]

I think it would be safe to say that the kids were to replenish their numbers as they could no longer have children on the island.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, although I'd argue that the temptation to go after special people fits in with Ben's obsession that he wasn't special.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

As a child, Walt was also innocent and not yet corrupted like the rest of mankind. That's why he was special.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Maybe since Jacob wasn't really talking with them they got a little impatient after a few years for candidates showing up and decided they raise one themselves.