In the beginning…A comment on LOST

Phyllis Tickle has said the end of a good story is informed by how it begins.  So as we consider how the mythology of LOST comes to an end, I want you to consider how all mythologies begin.

Pick a mythology.  Any mythology.  Maybe this one.  Or this one (read especially the second paragraph).  Even this one.  And many others.  In the beginning, there was Chaos.  Water.  The Seas.  The Deep.  The Unknown.  The first job of creation is to conquer primordial chaos and darkness.  To bring order and light.  Land is firm and can be worked and provides nutrition for our plants and animals (read safety and security).  Think Mother Earth.  Terra Firma.  On the other hand, the sea is the opposite of all these things.  Men at sea were subject to its tempestuous nature, the unpredictability of storms and calm.  The sea was chaos.

These are motifs that the writers of LOST are certainly aware of and have used.   Our first season experience wasn’t easy on the characters, but there was society and hope.  We saw in “The Other 48 Days” our tailies had a much different experience.  They lived in fear, uncertain of when The Others may attack again.  Now think back to how our first season characters landed on the island versus how the tail section characters landed in the sea.  I promise you it is no coincidence.

It’s clear that the story LOST is telling in some respects does not begin with the first season events.  (FYI: This is a storytelling device called in medias res, used most notably in The Odyssey, a work referenced many times on LOST.)  Our story starts in the middle of things and as we progress we get a better look at the beginning as well as the end.  So our characters that seem to begin this story are Jacob and He-Who-Has-Not-Been-Given-A-Name.  We call him many things.  The Smoke Monster.  The Man in Black.  Fake Locke.  FLocke.  UnLocke.  Smokey.  Even Cerberus by some diehards out there.  But this show has intentionally gone out of its way to not name him and alludes to this in Season 4.  Ben says, “We don’t have a name for it, but I believe you call it the Monster.”

There are some who believed Jacob is going to be the bad guy and Smokey will be vindicated.  Personally, I can’t believe anyone could still think that after the revelations in “Ab Aeterno.”  A few points that point me to take things at face value:

1.  Jacob is dressed in light.  Man in Black is named appropriately.

2.  Man in Black’s lair is a dark cave.  Jacob directs Hurley and Jack to a light house.

3.  Speaking of, Candidates (as in candid, honest, open) are listed in both the cave and the lighthouse.  In the lighthouse, they ordered sequentially.  In the cave, they are scrawled haphazardly, chaotically along the roof.

If there is a question as to who is honest and who deceives, think to end of “Ab Aeterno” when the two are having a conversation.  Why can we not take things literally then?  Between the two of them, who is there to deceive?

In the same scene, we revisit Jacob’s metaphor for the island.  It corks evil.  The shapeless wine is bound inside the flask, but when the flask is broken (without removing the cork) it is free to spread and saturate the earth.  What bothers me now is why is the island under Water in the premiere?  Does Chaos win?  Why is this show titled LOST?

P.S.  For those wondering who Smokey is, I am postulating we will never be given a name for him.  His backstory is a lie.  He is Chaos.  He is the Deceiver.  He is Death.

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