SUNDOWN in the Land of the Losties

I don't know about you, but I could hardly wait for the recent LOST episode. My Mom called just before it started and I put it on DVR. didn't rush her and we had a nice, long chat. So, when I got back to watching LOST, I didn't have to watch many commercial breaks. I like that!

I took notes all through the episode in hopes that I could pull my thoughts together in a coherent fashion, but I've had a headache for two days and I fear this post won't be as clear as I'd like for that very reason. So . . . be kind. My pinhead is hurting.

Maybe I'm just a product of an Appalachian raising, but I can't help but see a lot of Bible references in this latest LOST episode. I keep thinking that these writers would not be likely candidates to be writing about traditional Christian subjects, so this probably isn't what they are aiming for, but maybe they are trying to point out their idea of flaws in Christianity through their story of free will, fate and consequences. That seems a more sly way for them to approach the subject.

The name of this episode, "Sundown," references the Bible, too. Diseased, sick and those who had evil spirits were brought to Jesus at sundown to be healed (Book of Mark). Jesus wasn't taken off the cross until after sundown . . . there are lots of references to sundown in the Bible. In this episode, it refers to the expiration date on MIB's offer of clemency to the Temple folk.

I think the name symbolically refers to the loss of light and the edge of darkness, the end of the day's labors, when good folk should take their rest. We know on the Island that Jacob is dead, there isn't anyone (yet) to take his place. (I'm thinking that is what Jack is supposed to do, maybe put a white rock on that scale and become the new Jacob.) So for now, evil reigns on the Island in the form of Locke, the MIB and Smokey.

With the many lies told to the characters on the Island, we often have trouble deciding who is good and who is bad. This episode also brings this back around for our discernment. In my eyes, the MIB is probably just as Dogen described him: evil incarnate. Yet, he might also have been a victim of his own desires and arrogance (as the devil was) and it may be that he has been trapped guarding the island for years--as Dogen was--through one of Jacob's "hard bargains." That sort of makes us have sympathy for Locke--sympathy for the devil, as the song goes. All have been brought to the Island through their own free will, through their own decisions, even if the lighthouse was beckoning them to come. Jack asked Dogen if leaving (the Temple) was an option and Dogen replied "Everything is an option, but I would have to stop you." How would Dogen have done that, I wonder--through force and arms?

This idea of free will and the Island made me wonder if that is exactly why it has been difficult for children to be born on the Island. Children born on the Island aren't given the opportunity of exercising free will, but are victims of circumstance. Perhaps the children who have been born on the Island were put there through divine will, which overrode their own personal destiny.

But back to MIB . . . he is certainly a bad dude and makes promises (lies) and messes with the heads of anyone with whom he has an interaction. We've seen several lies in this episode (he tells Claire he can't talk to Dogen, she has to; he tells Sayid he could talk to Dogen but it would be better coming from Sayid). He presents himself as though his concern is for the person he is trying to manipulate, when clearly, he is only out to achieve his own ends.

In the form of the Smokey Monster, we hear a rush of wind and the sound of locusts (at least that is what it sounds like to me) and sometimes we hear straining chains. We know Christians were encouraged to be sober and vigilant in their faith, because their adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. In Revelation 9:7 "The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle . . . Out of this smoke there came a swarm of locusts, emblems of the devil's agents, who promote superstition, idolatry, error, and cruelty . . . ." If MIB is imprisoned on the Island to protect it, what caused him to end up there? What bargain did he make with Jacob?

I was reading something regarding Milton that he likened Satan to a locust, destroyer of gardens. (which further reminds us that he is a devil on the loose from the smoky depths of Hell) * That goes along well with my idea of the Island being the Garden of Eden.

I also noticed in the last few episodes and this one, that LOSTIES are again staring into their mirrored reflection (often in the water around or in the temple) or looking out to sea and making decisions. What does the mirror represent here? Dual realities? The distortion in our minds' eye that doesn't allow us to see clearly?

We learn in the enhanced episode of the Lighthouse episode that Dogen has to protect Hurley because he is a candidate (I can easily read that as the "Christian elect"). Why? Is it through Jacob's mandate or because a new Jacob has to be elected to ensure Dogen's continued existence on the Island?

But the main thing I noticed again in this episode is the way that people are somehow manipulated into thinking they are justified to kill or do bad things if they love so and so. They are led to believe that their very desire to protect must lead to these actions. Omar tells his brother Sayid that if he cares for Nadia, he will take care of these men who are harassing him for money. Ben used the same sort of incentive to get Sayid to kill men for him. The old "If You Care . . ." strategy has been used lots of times on the Island by all the major players. Protection of those we care about is a powerful incentive for most people. It is used often in this series to get people to do bad things. I've been trying to think if anything anyone has done for the love or protection of someone has actually worked out well for them in the end. I'll have to do some more thinking on that. Is this supposed to represent that we all have a destiny, we are all fated toward some end and nothing can change it?


*Oxford Journals
Essays in Criticism 1996 XLVI(4):302-318; doi:10.1093/eic/XLVI.4.302
© 1996 by Oxford University Press
Milton's Satan: Wisdom Reversed by Margaret Foley

Episode of LOST, "Lighthouse."

Last Night's Episode of LOST, "Lighthouse."

I just spent an hour typing up my impressions of last night's [Feb 23rd 2010] episode, only to have them "lost" forever through a computer glitch. Sigh. I probably won't be very good at repeating all of that this time around, but here what I'm thinking about last night's episode.

Mirrors!

Mirrors in a dream are supposed to represent the following:

"In dreams, mirrors can reflect directly, reflect with additions or deletions, or serve as a doorway into another reality as in ALICE IN WONDERLAND. The mirror is troubling because it reveals plainly what is before us, forcing us to interpret and evaluate whether or not we like what we see.

If the mirror is inconsistent by adding or deleting certain elements it is a projection of perceptive versus actual reality. In this case the dream may be a herald that you are misinterpreting the motives of others by not accepting them at face value. (Who or what is being added or deleted from the mirror?)

Finally, the mirror as a doorway to another world is usually a fantasy created by the subconscious. As Alice discovered when she went through the looking glass, the mirror is a metaphor of possible worlds. Does your dream mirror function as a gate or access out of one boundary and into another possible world? What is more desirable or more threatening about that world? "

Much more on mirrors and dreams found here:

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/astrology/dreams/household/articles/0,,602737_615306,00.html

And doesn't that all fit the way we've seen mirrors used in LOST? Mirrors are used over and over again to convey ideas or questions in LOST land. Last week's episode, The Substitute, showed Locke looking into a mirror and deciding to call Jack Shepherd, spinal surgeon. Of course, that doesn't come to pass, but still, that mirror-gazing induced a deciding moment for the character of Locke. That happens a lot on this show, so much so that I think mirrors are significant. It seems this episode really brings that home for us.

Wasn't the lighthouse fascinating? I loved it, but we didn't get enough time looking at it. But when you saw it, weren't you filled with a sense of hope? I was. But I was so annoyed that when Jack and Hurley got to the Lighthouse and Jack got so bent out of shape because he believed he had been watched and manipulated all his life that he smashed the glass before we could see all the little names around the stone wheel. I also wanted to see what else was "viewable" through that lighthouse lens and read all the names. We know there were 360 names in total (360 degrees), but who were they? Kate's name is still there, I noticed as I'm sure everyone else did, too.

But Jacob wasn't upset when Jack in effect killed his lighthouse. Could it be that he got him all emotionally revved up to do just that? Remember when Hurley was worried Jack wouldn't come along with him on his lighthouse mission, Jacob told Hurley to tell Jack "he had what it takes"? You recall that a reverse of this phrase is what made Jack so unhappy with his father Christian who told him "You don't have what it takes." It totally triggers Jack's Daddy Issues.

I have lots of ideas about what the lighthouse is and does, but basically, I don't think it allowed Jacob to spy on people, but to beckon 360 individuals to the island at different times. Just the way a real lighthouse would function: light and guide the way to port, help navigate dangerous obstacles and to get a ship safely to where they are going. Wonder why it didn't work for the ship, "The Black Rock"? Richard was supposed to have been on that ship and he became Jacob's right-hand man.

This makes me wonder about how former prisoners become allies at a later point in this show. It seems that is how sometimes the most loyal servants are formed--as maybe in the case of Richard, who has been supposed to have been a chained slave on the ship. Who freed him? Maybe that is what Locke meant when he said it was good to see Richard out of those chains. I think that prisoners becoming allies is a theme in one of the books shown being read on this show, but I can't bring it to mind at the moment.

I also had a wild random thought when watching the show, which was the song by Iron Maiden, " Dream Mirror" from their Dance of Death 2003 album:

Have you ever felt the future is the past, but you don't know how...?
A reflected dream of a captured time, is it really now, is it really happening?

Don't know why I feel this way, have I dreamt this time, this place?
Something vivid comes again into my mind
And I think I've seen your face, seen this room, been in this place
Something vivid comes again into my mind

All my hopes and expectations, looking for an explanation
Have I found my destination? I just can't take no more

The dream is true, the dream is true
The dream is true, the dream is true

Think I've heard your voice before, think I've said these words before
Something makes me feel I just might lose my mind
Am I still inside my dream? is this a new reality
Something makes me feel that I have lost my mind


All my hopes and expectations, looking for an explanation
Coming to the realization that I can't see for sure

I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself
I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, please save me from myself

The dream is true, the dream is true
The dream is true, the dream is true


I get up put on the light, dreading the oncoming night
Scared to fall asleep and dream the dream again
Nothing that I contemplate, nothing that I can compare
To letting loose the demons deep inside my head

Dread to think what might be stirring, that my dream is reoccurring
Got to keep away from drifting, saving me from myself

I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself
I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself

Lost in a dream of mirrors, lost in a paradox
Lost and time is spinning, lost a nightmare I retrace
Lost a hell that I revisit, lost another time and place
Lost a parallel existence, lost a nightmare I retrace

I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself
I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself


I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself
I only dream in black and white, I only dream cause I'm alive
I only dream in black and white, to save me from myself

The dream is true, the dream is true
The dream is true, the dream is true

Gee . . . I am wondering if this is all a dream. Remember the posters in the background when Locke was talking to the temp agency worker? They said things like "Live Your Dream Job" and another one had "DREAM" in big letters on it, but I couldn't make out the rest of the text. That would be a real rip-off. But like in the book "The Four Agreements," Toltec wisdom supposes we are living in a dream and only by tuning out the distractions can we see reality. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.

Okay, back to more of what I noticed in this episode -- Egyptian symbols:

These symbols appear throughout the series of LOST and I remember them distinctly in the counter which kept time in the HATCH. Remember when it blew up and all those Egyptian symbols against a red background turned up? Now Hurley is supposed to use Egyptian symbols that Jacob gave him to find the secret passageway out of the Temple . . . I didn't get to see a close-up of this shot to know whether Hurley's list of symbols might have matched those on the Hatch counter, but wouldn't that be cool?

We also see the Egyptian Big foot temple (yes, I know it has a name, but I'm too lazy to look it up) where Jacob was apparently weaving a large tapestry full of Egyptian symbols. What does it all mean? Is Jacob a dream weaver using his tapestry to manipulate the realities of those he chooses? I wonder what the connection could be between Egyptians and dreams, but like the name of the Temple of the Big Foot, I'll look that up sometime later. 

[It's Tawaret]

I also noticed that beautiful Clair is looking more and more like crazy Rousseau all the time. Never more clear than when she tosses that rifle back over her shoulder. When Rousseau met Sayid, he had become caught in one of her traps guarding her camp. She took him back there where she held him prisoner and shocked and tortured him. Sayid learned that her baby was stolen by Ben Linus and The Others. In "Lighthouse," Jin is also caught in a trap made by Clair and is taken back to her camp and learns that Clair also believes her baby was taken by the Others. Can torture be next for poor Jin? Clair, like Rousseau, seems to enjoy the Ka-Boom that goes with lighting a stick of dynamite, so maybe she will just light his fire. But that's not what happened to Sayid so it probably won't happen to Jin.

I do get a little tired of hearing Clair talk now, which is something I didn't experience when she was a gentle soul on the beach with the original LOSTIES. Maybe it is just a mad Australian talking that I don't like. Every time I now hear Clair wail and moan in her thick Australian accent about her missing child, I have to turn to Pat and say, "But the dingos ate my bay-bee." He laughs. But he's kind like that.

But Clair turned crazy by the loss of her child made me wonder if Clair wasn't fulfilling some quota. Clair was described in the recap of LOST that opened this season as "single mother-to-be" which is what Rousseau was when she came to the island with her scientific team (who subsequently became infected, as Clair is supposed to be). I wonder what we're supposed to make from that introduction of survivors of the island. The Doctor, The Con Man, The Fugitive, The Man Who Lost His Faith, etc. (mentioned in my previous note) are all set forth as just characters. Are these archetypes we should notice? Are they constants that have to be in place for some event to occur?

Remember Farraday said he was so busy looking at the variables, he forgot to look at the constants. Are these archetypes or characters some of the constants?

Clair mentioned being told about the theft of her bay-bee by her father (Christian) and her friend (which turned out to be the MIB, Fake Locke). I think this helps us figure out that Christian definitely was claimed by the MIB when his body arrived on the Island. Which then leads me to think about every time I've seen Christian on the Island. Was he always pointing someone in the wrong direction? I'm not sure. I don't have every LOST episode memorized and I've only seen most of them once, but I do know that Christian led Jack to the caves where the two skeletons were found, and this was mentioned again in this latest episode in a conversation between Hurley and Jack. I'm glad to see the two skeletons mentioned as I know we've all been speculating about who they might be since the first time we laid eyes on them.

Christian is also the one who got Locke to turn the wheel that supposedly kept the island from flashing through time and got Locke back into the real world. We know now he needed Locke to die off the island and then come back to it so he could possess his body and use it to influence the LOSTIES who knew him and would trust Locke the man.

I will have to do more research about where Christian was and who and what he influenced.

Oh, and did anybody think that Jack's kid looked like Kate? But where would she be if she is his mother? Jack says she is out of town, but for how long and why? We know in the Sideways Flash she is on the run, so why wouldn't they be talking about her if she was in trouble and she was Jack's wife and the kid's mother? Maybe she left them--like she did her family in the pre-815 flight. Remember the cop she married and then abandoned because she was on the run? Maybe in this sideways time flash, Kate is truly innocent. Remember she asked Clair in the hospital if she would believe her if she told her she was innocent?
I was thinking at the time, "Yeah, right!" But maybe she is.

And the Jack's kid was also reading "The Annotated Alice in Wonderland," (see mirrors in dreams above) another literary reference we shouldn't ignore. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I watch this show, I feel like I've been sucked down the white rabbit whole and landed in an alternate universe.

And one last thought: Was Desmond in a photo behind Rose's desk? What's up with that? I think Desmond must be represented by the 108 degree that Jack and Hurley were supposed to turn the lighthouse mirrors toward, to call him there. So, I think the Island really isn't finished with Desmond yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Postscript:
http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/med/eg-schu2.htm

When I did little quick research on Egyptian Book of the Dead+mirrors, this came up. Candidates and everything!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maybe Tawaret was put there to enable mother's to have babies on the Island . . . maybe that has always been an issue and the statue was put there to protect the unborn babies. I've said before that I am not an expert on all the episodes, many of them I've only seen once, but I think the only babies born on the island that we've seen are Alex (Rousseau's daughter), Aaron and the Kwon's baby and Ben Linus, of course, but his birth killed his mother.. Alex was murdered by Widmore's men and Aaron and the Kwon child are back "in the world." So there is no child born on the Island that is still living there.

I don't know if I am ready to commit myself to LOST being about Egyptian mythology any more than I can hang my hat on the Greek mythology, but so many different cultural elements are on display, you can't help but think LOST is a combination of all their similar elements. Or maybe the effort of all of these different cultures to deal with the Island and its mystical properties?

I had another thought today about "The Rules" that keep being mentioned. My cousin Mike McCormick begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting kind of put me onto this when we were talking about Greek mythology and I asked why Locke had to stop changing and he indicated it was sort of a balance system. That made a lot of sense to me. When the MIB killed Jacob, he threw things out of balance (represented when Fake Locke/MIB tossed the white stone from the cave into the sea).

But I remembered that when Ben Linus crept into Widmore's bedroom as he slept in a past episode, they also talked about The Rules. Widmore asks if he came to kill him and he tells him that he knows he cannot (because of The Rules, we assume). He goes on to blame Widmore for the death of his daughter (at the hands of Widmore's soldiers), but Widmore will have none of the blame and says it is Ben's fault. Then Ben tells him he will kill his daughter Penelope and Widmore will be sorry that he changed the rules.

It seems like The Rules are fluid and can change depend on the last move by any "player". So, Widmore's agents killed Ben's daughter, that makes it fair for Ben to kill Widmore's daughter.

Think about Widmore being forced off the island by Ben because he "broke the rules," i.e., leaving the island and having a daughter with an outsider. Then Ben broke the rules by coming back to the Island. It almost seems that each side (black/white) has a move coming to them based on the last move made by the other character.

Abandoned the Idea that LOST is based on Greek mythology

Okay, I have officially abandoned my briefly held idea that LOST is based on Greek mythology. I think the writers are shooting for something bigger, something more unique, but completely unoriginal in its overall theme.

The more I've thought about it, the characters don't fit well enough for them to be mirroring Greek mythology. It's like a shoe you'd love to buy, but is unavailable in your size. That's kind of how I'm feeling about my previous theory. I'd kind of like to have put it all to rest and see it all play out according to my earlier theories, but I fear that I would be missing a bigger picture.

The recap of LOST that started this season described what are now the remaining Flight 815 survivors this way:

The Doctor
The Fugitive
The Soldier
The Rock Star
The Con Man
The Lottery Winner
The Estranged Couple
A Single Mother-To Be
The Man Whose Faith Was Lost

I think these characters themselves have deeper meanings, other than what we see on the surface. At first, I thought they might represent Apostles and early followers of Jesus, but I can't quite make that work out. Still, I think these basic character-types represent something that I am clearly missing.

As for biblical parallels, I keep thinking about how Fake Locke appealed to Sawyer (as Ben often did to Locke) that he would give him knowledge if he followed him. Remember how he tried to get Richard to come with him first and promised he'd tell him about the candidates and expressed pity that Richard didn't already know about them at all? That seems mighty reminiscent of how Satan tempted Eve in the Garden--with knowledge. He made Eve feel that God should have shared the knowledge with them all along. Fake Locke was acting very Satan-like in his effort to fool Richard and then Sawyer.

I'm just wondering if Sawyer really bought it, even though at the end of the last episode, "The Substitute," he seemed as if he had. Sawyer is a smart guy, a con man and able to see through a lot. I don't think Fake Locke is really fooling him at all. But we'll see where all of this goes.

I've often seen similarities between the show and the story of the beginning of man in the Bible. I originally thought that the Island was the Garden of Eden, as the Smoke Monster seemed a lot like what God had in mind when in " the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life."

Another interpretation reads this way:

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

The passage should be rendered thus: "And he dwelt between the cherubim at the East of the Garden of Eden and a fierce fire, or Shekinah, unfolding itself to preserve the way of the tree of life."

I also wonder about the two boys Fake Locke and Sawyer saw. The first time Fake Locke saw him alone and the boy had blood on his hands and the next time he saw him (or a very similar-looking boy, his hands were clean, but he warned Locke: "You know the rules. You can't kill him."

I wondered the first time I saw Jacob and the Man In Black if they weren't sort of like Cain and Abel. In some translations, Cain's name is supposed to be "of the evil one," or "from the evil one."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel

Cain originally tried to do good, but was jealous of God's acceptance of his brother's sacrifice. Thus the motive for murdering his brother.

From Wiki:

"In classical times, as well as more recently, Abel was regarded as the first innocent victim of the power of evil, and hence the first martyr. In the Book of Enoch (at 22:7), the soul of Abel is described as having been appointed as the chief of martyrs, crying for vengeance, for the destruction of the seed of Cain. This view is later repeated in the Testament of Abraham (at A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls:

An awful man sitting upon the throne to judge all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners. He being the first to die as martyr, God brought him hither [to the place of judgment in the nether world] to give judgment, while Enoch, the heavenly scribe, stands at his side writing down the sin and the righteousness of each. For God said: I shall not judge you, but each man shall be judged by man. Being descendants of the first man, they shall be judged by his son until the great and glorious appearance of the Lord, when they will be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, and then the last judgment by the Lord Himself shall be perfect and unchangeable.

* * *

In medieval Christian art, particularly in 16th century Germany, Cain is depicted as a stereotypical ringleted, bearded Jew, who killed Abel the blonde, European gentile symbolizing Christ."

The Cain/Abel theory doesn't fit exactly even though there are parallels. But I believe their story is an echo of the larger theories we are asked to contemplate as we watch this series. We are asked to examine our ideas of fate and free will, whether doing good/ being good makes a difference in what happens to us on earth. Does fate intervene and catch us unaware, despite our best actions? We know that bad things happen to good people (Abel) and I personally feel that we shouldn't expect good people to be exempt from bad stuff. We all catch our share of hard times. Some hard times are even of our own making. But it is how we deal with those hard times or personal injustice that counts. We see that time and time again in the way that the Losties deal with disappointment and injustice in their own lives. It seems that everyone is a better person (except Randy Nations, Locke's boss) in the Alternate Lost Timeline. What makes that true?

And will Jacob only grow stronger through death? Probably!

Exciting stuff, this last season of LOST.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After I posted this on FB, a friend wrote to ask me what I thought the writers were going after that was bigger than Greek Mythology, and here was my response:

Greek mythology was fashioned in an effort to make sense of the laws of nature and the heart of man and his place in the universe, and to reassure him that there is some structure amongst the chaos, as most humans find that a tremendous comfort. The characters were immortal archetypes and in that way become important in study of the human psyche. No argument that the Greeks' stories touched on all the big themes in their varied forms: power, love, loss, sorrow, infidelity, envy, courage, corruption, parental responsibility, parental neglect, not to mention golden applies and endless bloodshed. But in the end, that was only one lens on the world, one cultural reference from a specific age.

However, my feeling is that LOST looks through many different scopes, touches on many ancient and modern themes to answer the big questions. The reason we're here, why we were born . . . The Meaning of It All.
Fate or Freewill?

And that is why I find it so infinitely fascinating! The literary and cultural layering is deep and provokes thought and discussion. Isn't that what we need to be doing instead of watching reality T.V. until it runs out our ears?

But hey, I dropped Philosophy Class, so this is probably all I got.