The Mysteries: The Whispers, Part II

In an earlier posting I argued for a monster-central theory of the Whispers. I acknowledged in that posting that I was in fact ignoring a host of evidence pointing towards the Others as the source of the Whispers. I was referring to multiple incidents of the Whispers during the show’s earlier season that indicated, nearly indisputably, that the Whispers functioned as an early warning system of the Others’ approach. I am now ready to attack those early instances and show that the Whispers-Others connection was never that strong.

Sayid hears the Whispers before any other character. He hears them after being released from Rousseau’s bunker-slash-secret underground lair.[1] Earlier, when Rousseau had Sayid tied up under suspicion of being an Other, Rousseau associates the Whispers the Others.[2] She also admits she never sees the Others. In general, hanging out in Rousseau’s neighborhood leads to more interactions with the smoke monster than with the Others.[3] The Lost producers are at their most skillful when presenting information from sources we should know are unreliable, but we still trust to our detriment. We eventually get to see Rousseau’s only prior interaction with the Others, when a younger Ben kidnaps an infant Alex away from her. He warns her to run in the other direction if she hears whispers.[4] That is a hard piece of advice to explain. It makes sense as a piece of advice since the monster presents a grave threat while the Others could probably avoid Rousseau easily without scaring her away. The question is, why would Ben care if Rousseau lived or died? It’s more consistent with Ben’s character to give a grave warning to avoid his own minor inconvenience than to save a strange French woman. Though, Ben is capable of random acts of kindess and mercy. And he definitely fears and respects the monster, I suspect to an even greater degree than we have seen. Maybe it is in his benefit for two unstable forces like the monster and a crazy, grieving mother not to cross paths.

Sawyer is the next character to hear the Whispers. He hears them in the jungle while chasing after a boar that destroyed his tent and otherwise seems unnaturally obsessed with tormenting Sawyer.[5] Unlike other instances, the Whispers give a clear message: “it’ll come around.” Those are the last words of the man Sawyer murders in Sydney, mistakenly believing the man is responsible for the death of Sawyer’s parents. Sawyer committed his crime just prior to boarding Oceanic 815 and he realized immediately after pulling the trigger that he had the wrong man, so Sawyer’s only had a month to resolve his guilt. Who is a master of exploiting unresolved guilt? Well, probably multiple characters on the show. But definitely the smoke monster. Once Sawyer tracks down the boar that may or may not be a reincarnation of the man he killed, he lets it go unharmed, deciding it is just a boar.[6] Now, if it is just a boar, I don’t see why he doesn’t kill it for food like the many other boars the survivors cook up. And I don’t think sparing a big is penance for killing a person. But, I suppose it is character growth that Sawyer stopped from lashing out in anger and fear as is his nature. Maybe it was a test by something to see how easily he could be manipulated into killing something defenseless.

The two instances where the Whispers are most closely associated with the Others are both during the second season. First, when Cindy is kidnapped.[7] The Whispers cause Ana Lucia, Eko, Michael, Jin and Sawyer all to run into the jungle. At the same time, the Whispers help draw Shannon and Sayid into the jungle from their side. It ends with a violent collision: Ana Lucia shooting Shannon to death.[8] It certainly looks like a con used by Jacob’s adversary wanted to give the castaways a little push to fighting amongst themselves. He used the Whispers to bring the pieces together and put Ana Lucia under the threat of imminent attack. It certainly worked; it was one the few times a survivor directly took the life of another castaway and the only time it happened by accident.

The second occurrence is nearly impossible to explain away from the Others. Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley hear the Whispers before and during the Others’ successful ambush at the end of the 2nd season.[9] The smoke monster has no motive or means to be nearby except as an invisible cheering section. Lostpedia has a series of transcripts of the Whispers decoded using audio software, whatever that means. The transcripts make just the bare minimum of sense and are presented as conversations between a male and a female voice. Examples include: “She likes the guy, she likes the guy/Shannon/Your life and time is up/Help Me/Shannon, meet me on the other side”. Another example: “There’s Charlie/Go to Hell/Steadily/He’s trying here/Nothing yet/Now try him from here, okay/Those are the roles (rules) you accept/Go to hell/Nine/Where/Seven…”. And finally: “Where am I?/I need to protect the children.” Oh wait, that last one is Ghostwriter.

So, I find the idea of a disembodied uber-narrator, even if it is collective souls of all those departed from the island, to be stupid. It can explain all the whispers as a kind of inter-dimensional heckling occurring at moments of interest. That is consistent with some of the series’ themes of death, revival and time-travel, but again, that’s just stupid. This blog isn’t just positive theorizing, it’s normative too. Some explanations are more thematically satisfying than others, regardless of the ultimate revelation.

[1] “Solitary”
[2] Id.
[3] See “Exodus”, “This Place is Death”
[4] “Dead is Dead”
[5] “Outlaws”
[6] Id.
[7] “Abandoned”
[8] “Abandoned”, “The Other 48 Days”
[9] “Live Together, Die Alone”