Lost with LOST: The LOST Genie, The Bible, and the 9th Commandment

Quick programming note: due to the Jewish holiday of Passover and me moving, 24 and LOST recaps for the week will be delayed. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a ton to say about both. I wrote about 24 on Friday and now it's time to rub the magic lamp, check in on our bible studies and get ready for LOST as I enjoy my new Firefox theme:

The 9th Commandment

We've been agreeing with EW's Doc Jensen that LOST's 6th season has followed the 10 Commandments to a T. I wrote on 3/17 (post the Sawyer-centric episode and greatly named "Recon"): "[We knew that tonight's episode] had to be Sawyer because of our 10 Commandments telling us the 8th is 'thou shalt not steal'. The 9th? Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Not sure what that means to LOST, but I'm excited to find out." But then I was left questioning--after Richard's "Ab Aeterno" episode (that Jay so excellently recapped here)--if we were still following those commandments.

"Do not bear false witness against your neighbor" isn't exactly what last night's episode was about. No one lied in court or accused their neighbor of something that they didn't do. But it doesn't mean the episode wasn't devoid of "lying". When Ricardo was in Spanish jail and awaiting execution, the priest came to him an asked for his confession. He lied. Sort of. And this may have been a reason that the priest would not accept his confession. As Doc Jensen wrote: "It made me wonder if the priest declined the confession because he saw that it wasn't genuine. Ricardo didn't really consider himself guilty of a crime. He called it accidental. He called it killing instead of murder. He didn't view himself as a sinner who needed God. Rather, God was a means to an end — a last gasp hope to be reconciled with Isabella in the heaven of her faith."

Or the priest, Father Suárez (whose namesake has tons of juicy LOST themes associated with his name including a lot about metaphysics and predestination), was lying himself. Suárez refused to grant Ricardo forgiveness, claiming that there is no absolution of sin for murder (which, I'm told, is contrary to Catholic doctrine). Suárez then told Ricardo that he would only gain absolution through penance...but he wouldn't be able to achieve it because he had been sentenced to be hanged. That leaves Ricardo in a pretty desperate state of life. So desperate that he had to say yes when Suárez walked through the door the next day and offered to extend his life by selling him into slavery. Maybe Suárez lied to break Ricardo down and make the offer that much sweeter.

If this is true, than Suárez would be no different from another "Man In Black" (Suárez was ominously dressed in that on the show)--the same man who uses lies and deception and tries to manipulate you when you are weakest. I'm not sure this is much different, though, from Jacob who visits all these characters at their weakest moments and touches them: Jack after a fight with his father, Kate after the threat of going to jail, Sawyer after his parents died, Sayid after Nadia was killed, Locke after he'd been thrown from a building, Ilana after she'd been badly hurt, and Richard after his whole ordeal. The only two people he visited when they were happy were Jin and Sun--who I hear have an episode of coming up tonight with the 10th Commandment of "do not covet your neighbor's wife" looming...

But maybe it's about the opposite of a lie: the truth. Remember, the whole episode had Richard running around The Island telling everyone that the whole Jacob thing was a lie and they were all dead. And doing a quick search on Google for the 9th Commandment brings back an essay by Arthur Goldwag titled "Is It Ever OK to Lie? A Talmudic Disquisition on the Ninth Commandment". Goldwag talks about Abraham Joshua Heschel's book "A Passion for Truth": "A Passion for Truth presents a surprising parallel study of two figures, the Hasidic tzaddik(righteous man, spiritual leader), Reb Menachem Mendl of Kotzk [the Kotzker] (1787-1859), and the Christian mystic, father of existentialism, Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)". From Goldwag: "To the Kotzker, Heschel tells us, Truth was higher than Love. 'Many ask, What quality, without reservation may be identified with the Divine? Some reply, Love, or compassion, justice. The Kotzker maintained that it was Truth.Truth leads to love, whereas love may be blind and yield to untruth.'" Sounds like it could be quite LOST-y.

And Kierkegaard? He wrote Fear and Trembling, the same book that was found with the dead, one-armed frenchman during "LA X" when Hurley, Jack and co are trekking under the temple. Doc Jensen says that Fear and Trembling "mulls the character of faith by offering four different interpretations of famous father/child Bible story: “The Binding of Isaac.” Hmmm...

Back to the Bible

The bible themes got me wondering some more (and, as The New York Times pointed out, this was "one of the show's deepest journeys into the hazy realm of the religio-philosophical"). Abraham was the first to declare faith and many of the tasks that the Castaways have had to do resemble "The Binding of Isaac". In "Lighthouse", Hurley declares to Jack, "This is cool, dude. Very old school," and adds, "You know, you and me trekking through the jungle, on our way to do something that we don't quite understand. Good times." Yeah, sort of like the ultimate sign of faith from Abraham to God*.

*Side Note: and if I can move off of the Jewish idea of God for a second to Jesus, let us remember that the promo pic from this season was a recreation of Jesus' last supper. Will that picture come even more to fruition tonight? And that meal Jesus was eating was the Passover Seder. More on that in a bit.

Well that Isaac was allowed to live and had twin sons: Esau and Jacob. Jacob? Hmmm. Well Jacob was the great grandfather of two people who dominate the Passover Seder: Moses and Aaron. Aaron? Hmmm. Well Aaron's great grandfather on the show is Ray who may a yet-undiscovered person*. What if Ray and Jacob have something to do with each other. What if it wasn't a coincidence that Ray was trying to escape his nursing home on the day that Jack was trying to escape the real world and go back to The Island? Remember how he happened to have Christian's shoes in his bag--the exact shoes that Jack needed to get back to the Island? And Ray is the one who gave Christian a watch that Jack now supposedly has (and remember who else has a watch? Jin!)? Does the name Ray (Egyptian god Ra or "rey" the Spanish word for king) have something to with his backstory? Or was he just an unimportant character.

*Side Note: The name "Ray" was used a lot of times on this show. Ray Mullen was the Australian farmer who took in Kate (and then turned her in), there was a Ray on the freighter and a Ray in the Dharma Initiative. You wonder if by giving them the same name, these people have something to do with each other. Ray Shephard was also the one who disapproved of Christian's marriage to Margo (Jack's mother)...was that because he knew that he'd have to eventually have a child with Claire's mother?

But Aaron is not an unimportant character and this description of him from the Jewish Virtual Library makes me think that he may play a big part in figuring out Jacob: "Aaron's most notable personal quality is that he was a peacemaker. His love of peace is proverbial; Rabbi Hillel said, 'Be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near the Torah.' According to tradition, when Aaron heard that two people were arguing, he would go to each of them and tell them how much the other regretted his actions, until the two people agreed to face each other as friends." Aaron, the kid who has been a central character on the show as a disruptive force (Charlie's baptism plot, Claire's capture, Rousseau's kidnapping, Kate taking him, etc.), returning as a peacemaker? That would truly be Trading Places (talked more about in this Slate article)

Rubbing the Magic LOST Genie's Lantern

I posed this question to my LOST-loving friends: If you had the LOST genie and could have any three questions answered about the show, what would they be? And I don’t mean “how will it end?” Or “who will die before the show ends?” Or something like that. I mean sort of overarching questions about the rest of the show. Put yours in the comments below and check out the questions that everyone else came up with and some of the answers we suggested

Here’s mine (Andrew):
1) Who/what are Jacob and the Man In Black and why have they been battling like this?
2) What exactly is this “Sideways World” we’re looking at? If the bomb worked? If Jacob didn’t exist? A world previewed by Desmond’s flashes? Need a lot more information there.
3) What’s the deal with Libby? She was in the mental hospital with Hurley, gave Desmond the boat, and then ended up on the flight. I need more information here.

Sarah:
1. In the current timeline (the "Sideways World") - does having a baby on the island (Danielle/Claire) make you sick? Why?
2. Where is Juliet in Sideways world?
3. I agree with Andrew- what is with Libby?

Jay:
1.) What's up with time?? Why doesn't time proceed the same on the island as in the "real world"? Why did the island skip through time? How does it skip through time? Etc. etc.
2.) What is, or will be, the role for all the children on the show? I.E., Claire's baby, Sun and Jin's baby, Walt
3.) The Smoke Monster -- what is it, exactly? How does it work? What's with the lightning flashes? What a bizarre iteration of evil. Tell me more.

Alaine:
1) What happened with that polar bear thing? Remember, it was around in the earlier seasons, but we havent had a reoccurance recently, was this resolved already?
2) Ok, not a question... but i would like to see a timeline of the island... who came and when and how long they were there for. Also a tree of all the crazy relationships (there was that website that had a tree but I thought it was confusing, i need one with pictures)
3) I want to know more about the peoople who came with Ilana.... they like just showed up on the second plane, and then knew everything about the island, but who are they? How many people actually know about the island in the "real world"?

Jay (answering Alaine):
1.) The Dharma Initiative brought them to the island. They were tested on Hydra Island. The Others held Sawyer and Kate in the polar bear cages. Sawyer even found out how to trick that machine into disbursing fish biscuits! I think all the polar bears are dead now, killed by the Losties. One remaining question, though! Why was that polar bear skeleton found in Tunisia? How the hell did it get there??
2.) Timelines and relationships...ask and ye shall receive.
3.) Ilana and the other people from Ajira 316. Thanks once again, Lostpedia. I still don't know how many people in the real world know about the island, though.

Andrew (in response to Jay and Alaine):
I think there’s still a lot of questions surrounding the polar bears still. Why was one running through the jungle and shot by Sawyer on the regular island (not Hydra)? Did it swim? Did it get out of its Hydra cage? I understand that the bears were turning that wheel, but how did only one of them end up in Tunisia if that’s what happens when you turn the wheel? Why polar bears instead of another animal? Still lots of questions there.

I think we still need a LOT more background on Ilana, Bram and the other “good guys” as they called themselves. Why was Ilana hurt when Jacob came to her? How/why did she recruit everyone she did? What’s their connection? How did they know to try to recruit Miles away from Widmore’s ship? What was Caesar’s deal? Lostpedia is good with giving the names…but we don’t know much more about them than that, do we?

Jordan:
I think the sideways world exists because of the A-bomb explosion in the 1950s. The Sideways world is what life would have been if the explosion did occur on the island. Widmore, his baby mama (Faraday's Mom), and Faraday probably don't exist in the sideways world because they died on the island. Ben and his father are in the sideways world because the Dharma Iniative never existed.

Ilana reminds me of Ricardo's wife. I wonder if there is any relation.

Andrew (in response to Jordan):

I thought that too, Jordan. Except that Ben’s father said they were part of the Dharma Initiative and were on The Island. And if the bomb did go off, wouldn’t they have gone with it? Or was it not strong enough because it was only the core of the nuke? I can understand Ethan living (they supposedly evacuated all women and children), but Ben was being revived by the Others and Ben’s dad was in Dharmaville when the bomb supposedly went off. And I’m not sure it would have been enough to sink The Island--though maybe combined with the electromagnetism it would. Who knows…Hopefully we find out more about that soon

I’m still wondering if that Sideways World was what we saw when Desmond was flashing through time. Remember, he had a chance to change his past and had some knowledge of what was going to happen. I wonder what would have happened if he had never listened to Eloise…hmm…and wasn’t it odd in the first episode of the season that Desmond was on the plane and then disappeared? What was that all about? Maybe this? We need more Desmond!

In my order of characters I want back

1) Desmond
2) Libby (just to figure out that story)
3) Walt (we need to figure out more about him and his powers as well)

Jay (responding to me):
I just read somewhere that Desmond is on the longest streak of episodes (8) in which he doesn't appear yet remains in the credits as a regular character. The previous record holder was Michael with 7. My guess is that Desmond is going to be back, and soon...probably before Libby.

Speaking of which, I don't really understand everyone's fascination with Libby. She's good I guess, but really, the only question we want answered is why she was in the mental institution with Hurley. Is that relevant to anything? Couldn't we just find out the answer from another character, without Libby herself appearing? And even if we know the answer, what does that matter??

Becca (in response to all this talk):
I agree with Andrew, I need Libby back, and the writers said they would explain her story. I think she is interesting because she seemed to have the same type of syndrome as that first guy who used the numbers but some how snapped out of it and became a psychologist!!!! (maybe I love her cause im a psychologist--quite possible).

Also, the polar bear skeleton in Tunisia is not that weird considering it is the portal between the island and the real world. When the Polar bears escaped maybe one got caught in the portal.

The questions I want answers about are the sideways world. I thought about something interesting. Remeber those cute bunnies with the numbers on them. There was two bunnies with the same number (presumably the same bunny), one in the "real" world and one in the side ways world. Now, how did one cross over???? (it kinda reminds me of fringe, anyone watch it). It seems like Dr. Chang had figured out a way for living things to travel back and forth. Some have suggested that Desmond crossed over to his sideways reality during his black out. Any thoughts????

Conclusion

And we'll leave it at that as we prepare for tonight--any thoughts? Leave some comments below and let me know what you think! And in the meantime, check out the price an ad for the LOST finale on EW.com, a love song written to Richard Alpert on Movieline and a theory that the Man In Black is actually a woman on Doc Arzt. Then grab a Kosher for Passover Apollo Bar and a glass of KforP Dharma wine, recline in your chair, and discuss with us when the post goes live why tonight is different from all other nights. Until then, enjoy "The Package".

Picture from the New York Times