Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Tale of Two Christians

While we now know more of Christian, there are some odd discrepancies as to his various appearances, to Jack and to other characters. The most intriguing one being his appearance to Jack at the hospital in LA.

Here are Christian's appearances to other characters - in chronological order!


WHO : EPISODE : WEAR : SOUND
SITUATION


Vincent : So It Begins : Suit and white tennis shoes : no sound
Called Vincent and told him "Listen. I need you to go find my son [...] I need you to go wake him up. He has work to do"

Jack : Walkabout/White Rabbit : Suit and w.t.s. : no sound
Jack saw different occurrences of Christian on the beach and followed him in the jungle. Saw a silhouette and heard ice tumbling and followed him to the caves.

Jack : A Tale of Two Cities : (voice only) : (voice only)
Heard Christian say "Let it go Jack." over the the shark tank intercom.

Hurley : The Beginning of the End : Suit and w.t.s. : no sound
Saw him in the cabin, sitting in Jacob's chair. Ran from the cabin then it appeared in front of him. He closed his eyes saying "There's nothing here" and after opening his eyes, the cabin was gone.

Claire : Something Nice Back Home : Dark blue shirt : no sound
Claire woke up to find Christian cradling Aaron and called him Dad. Miles admits to Sawyer of hearing them.

Locke : Cabin Fever : Dark blue shirt with boots : no sound
After Hurley finds the cabin, Locke goes in and asks if he's Jacob. Christian answers "No, but I can speak on his behalf." Eventually Locke says "I'm here, because I was chosen to be." To which Christian replies "That's absolutely right.".
He then notices Claire who tells him "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm with him." and after asking about Aaron, Christian tells him "The baby's where he's supposed to be, and that's not here. It's probably best that you don't tell anyone that you saw her."

Michael : There's no Place Like Home (2) : Dark blue shirt : whispers
When the freighter is about to explode, Christian appears to Micheal, tells him
"You can go now Michael."
"Who are you?"
BOOM!

Locke : This Place Is Death : Dark blue shirt with boots : no sound
Appear at the bottom of the well and helps Locke find the Dharmakackra and turn it.

Jack : Something Nice Back Home : Suit and w.t.s. : no sound
In the hospital (flash forward) when Jack was working late. He was on the couch and called "Jack." He leaned forward as Jack was walking towards him but the Jack got distracted.
-Given the information we were given in The Last Recruit, this is the most intriguing appearance of Christian. But are we to believe the White Rabbit occurrence of Christian was truly the smoke monster?

Sun & Frank : Namaste : Dark blue shirt with boots : tika tika AND whispers
When Sun and Frank land on the beach, they hear the 'tika tika' and see the trees moving. When they get to the processing centre, they can hear the whispers before Christian appears and shows them the Dharma recruits picture.


It seems like we have stumbled upon two different versions of Christian:
[1] Wearing a suit and white tennis shoes; and,
[2] Wearing simply a dark shirt and boots.

What to make of this?

6 comments:

JS said...

So should this mean the casually dressed Christian is a manifestation of the island? And somehow Suit-christrian is smokey, even in the hospital. I think he is lying. I think Suit christian is the island.

Benny said...

You know, I had that feeling when Locke tells John it was him that it wasn't true. When Jack tells him the tale and asks if it was him, Locke seemed surprised.

He certainly could be lying, but with so few eps left before the end, that seems like an odd plot twist, THOUGH it would probably help recruit Jack.

Austin Gorton said...

Excellent rundown!

(Although, shouldn't the "Something Nice Back Home" appearance occur before "There's No Place Like Home", episode-wise, or before "This Place Is Death", chronologically? Or do I have it all messed up in my head?)

Yeah, on the one hand, I've been doing my best to apply Occam's Razor to most everything this late in the game; if the show says something, it's probably true unless/until we're told otherwise, simply for the sake of simplicity.

So from that perspective, Locke said he was Christian and why (to lead Jack to water) so that's that.

But on the other hand, I saw the same thing you did: a moment in which Locke seemed surprised/upset that Jack had seen Christian, either because it's an indication that Jack possesses a power Locke fears (similar to his surprise at Sawyer seeing the boy) or because it was something Locke didn't know.

Either way, I think Locke lied, telling Jack he was Christian both to endear himself to Jack (answering a long simmering question for Jack) and also downplaying the significance of Jack seeing a ghost/island manifestation (Jack can't use whatever power this suggest if he doesn't know about it).

Also, I feel like the mobisode appearance of Christian has to be a "ghost" of Christian, simply because Smokey wouldn't refer to him as "my son". Then again, I suppose the mobisodes are slightly less canonical than the episodes, and that could account for the discrepancy.

If Christian wasn't wearing the blue shirt on the freighter, I'd think we could chalk that up to Island/Ghost Christian, not Smokey, cuz it seems like Suit=Ghost, Dark shirt=Smokey.

But the freighter appearance mucks that up.

Benny said...

Teebore, actually, Something Nice Back Home, the Jack one, should appear during the O6/1977 three years. So definitely not last.

One more curious, or wrench-like, 'appearance' is the voice Jack hears on the shark tank intercom. That certainly cannot be smokey... he doesn't like technology!

Austin Gorton said...

That certainly cannot be smokey... he doesn't like technology!

Ah, good point!

It just gets clearer and clearer that there HAS to be two Christians at this point, doesn't it?

I wonder if the show is going to touch on this at all in the last few hours, or if they're just going to leave it to us, like we're doing now, to figure it all out.

JS said...

@Teebore - I really hope the show does address the Christian's. Darlton say they will only answer questions the characters are interested in. I hope Jack doesn't feel satisfied with the answer he got from FLocke.