The Mysteries: The Whispers, Part I

My motivation for writing this blog is to encourage a text based discussion of the mysteries of Lost. I am actually a Lost pessimist. My hunch is that most of the show’s central mysteries do have a solution, meaning there is no one explanation that makes sense of all the occurrences of an element, such as the Whispers, in the show. Today I am focusing on the Whispers because rewatching the series actually made me hopeful there is a solution.

The Whispers are the intelligible, hushed voices that are heard by both the audience and whatever characters are onscreen during seemingly random moments of danger, tension or weirdness. Though originally more associated with the Others (as I’ve discuss more in part II), the Whispers are more satisfactorily associated with the smoke monster and/or Jacob’s adversary.

For example, at the beginning of the second season, Shannon hears them in the jungle just as Walt appears before her.[1] At the time, the real Walt is on the rescue raft out at sea and by that time has been kidnapped off the raft by the Others. We know now that Walt’s post departure appearances on the island are not the result of his special powers but a manifestation of the shape-shifting powers of the monster.

A lot of the other later season Whisper occurrences occur around places and people strongly associated with the monster and Jacob’s adversary. Hurley hears them when he discovers the cabin for the first time.[2] Again, many of us now doubt that Jacob ever used the cabin; it was only Ben’s word that Jacob did. Michael hears them twice off-island on the freighter. The first time before and after the decreased Libby appears telling him not to detonate the bomb he’s brought on board[3] and then again when the possibly undead Christian appears telling him it is time to detonate it.[4] Whatever is the deal with Christian, it is undeniable Christian has been used, at times part of the time, as way for Jacob’s adversary to manipulate Locke and bring the pieces of his plan together.

The most convincing piece of evidence for me was Harper’s visit to Juliet.[5] Jack and Juliet both heard whispers as Harper, the Other’s therapist with whose husband Juliet had an affair, appears to Juliet and tells her to kill Faraday and Charlotte before those two reach the Tempest Station. Harper’s orders supposedly come from Ben, who is at the time Locke’s prisoner. And while none of us are stupid enough to underestimate Ben’s ability to get what he wants no matter his current predicament, there is never any indication that Ben has any idea that Faraday and Charlotte are on their way to the Tempest or that he’s worried about it. Also, the Others’ ability to move through the jungle undetected has been shown to be limited and very human while Harper’s appearance and vanishing seems supernatural. Lastly, if Jacob’s adversary really believes that all of the island’s visitors end up fighting, corrupting, etc., he’d probably want to help them to that. Therefore, he’d have the motive to manipulate Juliet into killing two of the survivor’s new friends to stop a crime they never intended to commit. And what better form for the monster to take than Harper, a woman sure to stir up Juliet’s guilt and grief over her affair with Goodwin and his resulting death.

[1] “Man of Science, Man of Faith”
[2] “The Beginning of the End”
[3] “Meet Kevin Johnson”
[4] “There’s No Place Like Home, Part 2”
[5] “The Other Woman”