| Casey: | A background character on the television show Lost. |
| Alex: | Another background character on the television show Lost. |
I-1-1
| SETTING: | A beach on the Lost island. |
| AT RISE: | CASEY and ALEX are walking along the beach, talking. |
You hear that? The jungle’s alive tonight. Like... it’s whispering or something. This island, man, it’s incredible.
Incredible. Sure. If you like being dead.
(chuckles) Here we go again. You and your “We’re all dead” theory. Look at me, Alex. Do I look dead, chilling in some sort of purgatory?
Yes. Absolutely. You just don’t know it yet. None of them back at camp do. Jack and Kate think they know what's going on when they are really just running around trying to (air quote) "fix" things that aren't even real.
They aren't just running around. They are leading. They are helping. It seems like every time they find a solution to one kind of mind puzzle, another one pops up like a sadistic Rubik's Cube.
I-1-2
Yes. Every week it is something new. A smoke monster this week. A creepy cabin the next week. That Dharma facility. Every time they act like "Oh, we got it now!" It just gets more complicated and I am certain that we won't get answers to half this half-baked garbage.
It isn't about solving mysteries. It is about exploring the island and all it has to offer.
Come on, even Hurly doesn't understand any of it and he has all the dead people to give him extra clues.
(smiling) And let me guess - you figured it out because... what? Some glowing numbers told you? Maybe you saw a ghost in a wedding dress?
It is obvious. Nothing here makes sense, Casey. Polar bears in the jungle? A smoke monster that eats people? Sometimes it just tosses them around. Why? Get this. A hatch with a timer counting down to... nothing? And those whispers that only some people can hear.
I hear them.
I-1-3
Sure you do. Maybe it is just the island laughing at you. This place was built to keep our minds busy while... whatever comes next is getting ready, or maybe until we are ready for whatever comes next.
So, you are saying this entire island is just an elaborate waiting room?
It is just one big celestial DMV. Take a number. Sit down. Have your hallucinations while you wait your turn. How am I supposed to know?
So, you don't know. It could be magic. The island has power. Energy. It heals people! You saw what happened to Rose. The island cured her cancer. And Locke! He can walk. The dude couldn't walk before. Not a step. Now, he is running around like an action hero.
Or it’s just a kind of inter-reality program. A virtual playground for the dead to work out their issues before moving on. You think magic can explain all this? Why has no one ever comes to rescue us? Why does the sky turns purple sometimes? Why does the radio tower just loop the same numbers forever? Dead relatives coming to visit like Claire's dad. Hurley's imaginary friend. And all the while, it just looks like one bad special effect after another.
I-1-4
It is because the island wants us here. We’re meant to be here. It chose us. You feel it too, don’t you? When you close your eyes at night? Like it’s calling you? There's a hum and a warmth. I can almost hear the island calling my name.
(snarling) That’s not the island calling. That’s the next level loading. You are separating from your living reality and entering your deceased reality. The hum and warmth could be the remnants of the plane breaking apart and burning. It could be the churning celestial server farm producing all this virtual nightmare for us. It isn't magic. This island is fake.
(laughs, uneasy) You’re full of it. This is real. This is more real than anything (makes a sweeping motion towards the audience) out there in the rest of the world. Out there it is just... paychecks and taxes and traffic and accident lawyers and... and sadness and loneliness and... (gives up and changes thought) This. This island is pure. It is life. It gives us a reason to live and a reason to return to our lives out there as a better person.
Out there is over, Casey. Out there ended the second the fuselage broke in half and hit the water. You’re clinging to a fairy tale so you don’t have to face it. It is like you are waiting for a Dharma brand happy ending that is never going to come.
I-1-5
And you’re clinging to your little sci-fi fantasy story because you’re afraid of believing in something bigger than yourself. Why can't you just feel the island?
It may be. Or maybe I just don’t like being lied to and manipulated, even in the afterlife.
Maybe we're both wrong. Maybe this is something we couldn't ever comprehend.
Like we are just characters in someone's play.
Surely we would be something better than that. We're at least background characters on a popular television show.
I don't know. We could both be wrong.
Or maybe we're both right... Let's just head back to camp and I will listen to the whispering in the trees along the way.
I-1-6
And I will keep watch for the smoke monster...
The totally fake smoke monster.