THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS

One relatively smaller mystery that has always intrigued me on LOST is that of the Whispers. They seem to pop up at random times in a variety of locations, and the series has hinted at several different contradictory origins without ever really directly addressing the question. As revealed by the great David Fury, a writer on the show during its debut season, the Whispers were originally intended to be exactly as they seemed: the Others whispering in the jungle. But as the series has gone on, the Whispers have acquired a level of Lovecraftian creepiness that has enhanced many a scene. Let’s take a look at the various occurrences of the Whispers and see if we can’t make sense of them (we won’t):

“Solitary” – The hour that really changed season one. Rousseau tells Sayid she can hear Others whispering in the jungle, and of course he thinks she’s happily never dafter. But on his way back to camp, Sayid himself hears the Whispers, which seem to be voices debating as to whether or not they should approach him. At first Sayid is convinced the Others really do exist (and as mentioned above, originally these really were supposed to be the voices of the Others), but later he comes up with some lame rational explanation for hearing things, like bad gas or Venus.

“Outlaws” – In this later first season episode, Sawyer hears the Whispers coming from the jungle after a boar ransacks his tent. Amidst the various disembodied voices, he hears one in particular: Frank Duckett, the man Sawyer mistakenly murdered in Sydney, can be heard saying “It’ll come back around,” repeating his dying words. This was the first instance where the Whispers seemed to take on a supernatural significance, and it became clear the island was testing Sawyer by confronting him with his past sins.

“Exodus” – In the first season finale, Rousseau claims she heard the Whispers saying that “they” were coming for the boy. She assumed this was Aaron, but it later transpired that the Others were actually coming after Walt. Everyone realizes that Rousseau is not a reliable narrator just a little too late . . . with the exception of overly devout nitpickers, who never realize this and will be driven to suicide by Rousseau’s backstory in season five.

“Man of Science, Man of Faith” – The second season premiere brought with it the return of the Whispers. Shannon follows Vincent out into the jungle, where she finds herself surrounded by the Whispers before seeing a ghostly, backwards-speaking apparition of Walt. (Reverse the audio and he says, “Push the button; no button’s bad,” not “worship Satan” or “it’s okay to be gay” or “universal health care” as previously reported by reactionaries and hysterics).

“Abandoned” – Ghost Walt apparently couldn’t get enough and returned twice in this episode. Accompanying his second appearance to Shannon (and his first to the often formerly skeptical Sayid), the Whispers can be heard before Shannon is accidentally shot to death by Ana Lucia. Amongst the Whispers is the deceased Boone’s voice, saying “See you on the other side, sis”. Uh, scary.

“The Other 48 Days” – We get the other side of the shooting this time, and watch as Ana Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko, Bernard, Jin, Michael and the unconscious Sawyer are terrorized by the Whispers in the jungle. Still scary.

“Fire + Water” – During Charlie’s truly awesome religious vision/dream sequence/hallucination, he hears the Whispers and sees the trees moving in the jungle before encountering his dear mum as an angel, Claire as the Virgin Mary and Hurley as John the Baptist. He later realized he shouldn’t read “The Stand” and eat meatball sandwiches right before going to bed.

“Live Together, Die Alone” – During the second season finale, the Whispers are heard right before the Others kidnap Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. One word is most prominent amidst the Whispers: “Elizabeth”. (This is not long after Libby died and Desmond returned on the Elizabeth, the boat she gave to him).

“The Man Behind The Curtain” – The Whispers were scarce during the third season, but this episode provided plenty of them. Young Ben first hears the Whispers when he follows the vision of his mother Emily to the sonic fence. He later encounters them a second time while searching for his mother’s spirit in the jungle; the Whispers precede the sudden and somewhat unsettling appearance of the never-aging Richard Alpert, who literally seems to materialize out of nowhere.

“Through The Looking Glass” – Locke hears the Whispers right before Taller Ghost Walt makes his cameo in the finale of season three. America snickers because Malcolm David Kelley is obviously much older than his character and their suspension of disbelief is itself briefly suspended (as if the show had just bungled an accurate depiction of astral projecting/teleporting psychic kids), but is still pretty creeped out. The only person not creeped out is Locke, who is seemingly only afraid of wheelchairs, his dad and meaninglessness. Walt tells him, “You have work to do.” But the scariest line of dialogue is within the Whispers: “There’ll be hell to pay.” Chills.

“The Beginning of the End” – The fourth season premiere had one of the freakiest occurrences of the Whispers, as they can be heard whenever Jacob’s Horrific Teleporting Nightmare Cabin first appears, in which Hurley sees the very deceased Christian Shephard as well as the eye of what is supposedly Jacob (but who is increasingly looking like non-Jacob in retrospect). Hurley, as any of us would do, falls over backwards.

“The Other Woman” – Harper Stanhope, by far the scariest psychiatrist on the island, appears and disappears suddenly, accompanied by the Whispers. She gives a very threatening message to love rival Juliet, and looks pretty annoyed when Jack sees her as well. She vanishes and has since never been seen again in the present tense on the series. But one thing is certain: she must have taken "how to disappear completely Radiohead-style and freak everybody out" lessons from Walt and Richard.

“Meet Kevin Johnson” – Not simply the Whispers proper, but Michael hears his suicide tune-of-choice (“It’s Getting Better” by Mama Cass) mingled with some slight Whispers when Ghost Libby appears to him on the freighter. The music was replaced entirely with Whispers in the episode’s sneak peek.

“There’s No Place Like Home” – The Whispers make two appearances in the fourth season finale. They are first heard shortly before the Others put the smackdown on Keamy and his men. Michael later hears them briefly, in what is somewhat a reprise of the previously described scene with Libby, when Ghost Christian/Possible Man in Black appears to him before his death and says, “You can go now, Michael.” Freighter goes KA-BOOM, and all traces of Adrian Veidt’s plan are eliminated.

“Namaste” – In what turned out to be the only fifth season appearance of the Whispers, Frank and Sun hear eerie voices in the spooky, abandoned, smoke monster-haunted Barracks just before the appearance of aforementioned Ghost/Zombie/Black Smoke Clone Christian. Of course, they hang around with Christian and even follow his advice, suggesting that the Whispers are in fact the collective sounds of the audience muttering, “What the eff are you doing?!”

“Dead is Dead” – We don’t hear the Whispers, but Ben tells Rousseau that if she wants her to daughter to live, “When you hear whispers, you run the other way.” You’d think that’s what any sensible person would do on this island (isn’t that right, Sun and Frank?), but thanks for the advice, Ben.

“LA X” – The Whispers are heard in the tunnel beneath the Temple right when the Others attack the main characters, implying that they are the voices of the Others being echoed and amplified by the ancient Egyptian caverns, which explains about two of the instances of the Whispers mentioned above and makes zero sense in the other circumstances.

I am aware that there are other purported Whispers, but these are the ones which I can personally hear (and even then, just barely . . . it’s all that Nine Inch Nails in my teenage years). So, based on the evidence above, it can be deduced that the Whispers are the Others quietly speaking in the jungle AND amplified thoughts when someone is teleporting AND the voices of the Monster when it’s up to its old tricks AND the sounds of the dead. I really doubt that there is such a convoluted explanation the series will offer, so I’ll go with something simpler: the Whispers are most likely the ghosts of the dead--or memories the island has collected, if that’s more scientific (I wouldn't be surprised if it was like Kubrick's version of "The Shining" and the true nature of the phantoms was up for debate)--and they are observing and commenting upon the events on the island. The electromagnetic anomaly bends the fabric of reality, allowing us to briefly overhear the other side. When the properties of the island are being utilized or activated, this briefly amplifies the Whispers. That’s the best guess I’ve got at this point.