I don't need it to follow Dante's rules, but I do need dead dead people to have dead dead people problems, and not problems that mimic those of living people.

I think my hypothetical afterlife situation might cover this though. Certainly if the characters are dead, none of them are aware that they are. If they were inhabiting a shared mindscape (kind of like the What Dreams May Come version of the afterlife), it would seem natural that most of their problems would be of the living people variety. With the weirder invisible monster/polar bear stuff cropping up as a result of all the irrational unconscious fears/thoughts that don't make sense.

The apparent deaths of the pilot, the marshall, Joanna, and Engine Chow Guy might have happened because they themselves expected that result in response to the circumstances around them. (And it might not actually be "death", but some change of state like that the "killed" ghosts underwent in The Frighteners.)

Mind you, I actually think it's likelier that they're all alive and really experiencing the strange events in the physical world, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that Abrams could pull a "And they realized they were all DEAD!" switcheroo in an interesting and enjoyable way.

I think I want to go more with the sci-fi theme. I'm thinking Bermuda Triangle, Wrinkle in Time, kinda dealie. Everything looks enough like our universe to make us think it is, but the physical rules are just a little wacky. Overlaps occur. "White Rabbit" kinda leads into "Through a Glass Darkly" kinda theme. Hmm, that might be something to add to my reading list.

name analysis, name analysis, name analysis

Ok, the term doesn't necessarily lend itself to rythmic chanting of gradually increasing intensity, but we do what we can.

C'mon le nubian. Don't be a big tease.

Le Nubian, I think you're afraid that we think you too sane

Aww shit.

Man, I'm telling you, this analysis makes me feel like an asshole. *sigh* I can take the critique so have at me.

I was watching the pilot ep again, I decided to look around on the internet for the meaning of the 14 survivors' names. I figured, what the hell. I went to Arabic websites for meanings, Korean, as well as Irish. All in all, it seems to me that the survivors were not named randomly. Check this out...Here's the name - meaning (now, I don't know the marshall's name or the pilot so I couldn't add that into the mix).

BTW, for what it's worth, we were introduced to sixteen survivors (before 2 died), so this 16 bit really is showing up over and over again.

Sayid - master
Jack - God's gracious gift/God is merciful
Boone - good/timely blessing or benefit
Sawyer - woodsman
Kate - pure
Locke - stronghold/forest
Charlie - manly, strong
Hurley - sea tide
Claire - bright, shining, clear
Rose - flower
Walt - power, warrior
Michael - who is like God
Sun - goodness
Jin - gold, truth, treasure
Shannon - wise one/river
Joanna - God is gracious

There are multiple ways I looked at this.

First, there are set of people whose names begin with "J" - Jack, Jin, Joanna

"S" - Sayid, Sawyer, Sun, Shannon

Not to mention Charlie and Claire.

So I'm wondering, if these names and name pairs indicate the split of different groups (kind of like the black/white that Locke discussed). What's also interesting to me is "Jack Sheperd" - who has a "J" and "S"...who knows if this means anything.

In addition, the people can be grouped by the meaning of their names roughly.

There are names of people that seem to refer to God (Jack, Joanna, Michael), nature (Rose, Sawyer, Locke, Shannon), goodness & purity (Boone, Kate, Claire, Sun, Jin), and finally, power (Sayid, Walt, Charlie) and perhaps Locke.

le nubian, that's way cool. I have a feeling Joanna may be an artifact, but the rest is definitely food for thought.

Wow, that is cool, le nubian. I'm getting a little bit of a "Hey, the shirts all have numbers!" Buffy S6 vibe from it, though.

That is interesting LN, and I don't think you're crazy. Gus, OTOH, is obviously a raving loon.

Gus, OTOH, is obviously a raving loon.

Well, we already knew that. Want to see my Season 6 analysis of primes on shirt emblems, reflecting the sequence of upcoming deaths? 'Cause I think I can find it, if'n you really want to see it.