[Note: This was completed and posted to the internet at 9:14pm CST, on 2/9/10. A version with pictures will be posted a bit later tonight.]
10:20pm CST, 2/9/10 Addendum: Yes, the pill-swallowing 'nod' to NEO 'going down the rabbit hole' in The Matrix winks at Alice In Wonderland, and ALICE most definitely is related to the CERN LHC connection I've proposed below.... For more information on ALICE, see: http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/Collaboration/index.html]
8:24pm CST, 2/10/10 Addendum: Yes, my prior observation below, regarding the change from a clear to brown/brackish liquid in the Healing Pool-- signaling a shift in the pool's power from Taweret (light side, Holy Trinity) to Ammit (dark side, unHoly Trinity)-- is consistent with the brown/brackish liquid we saw when Ben summoned The Smoke Monster... Sayid should care who/what healed him, as this 'infection' is now in the process of moving to his heart, and this darkness will ultimately spread and DEVOUR HIS OLD HEART, ala.... the modus operandi of.... AMMIT....!
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WHAT KATE DOES:
KARMA CHAMELEONS, THE CALLED AND THE CHOSEN
EARTH PRIME(D) AND READY TO GO?
TO CERN, WITH LOVE....
Congratulations all around the horn, to the Lost creative combine, for yet another crackerjack episode! I won't go into a detailed recap here, but instead will hit some selected highlights confirming my suspicions regarding where Darlton would be taking us in tonight's episode, and beyond....
* Yes, the poison pill Jack swallowed references multiple things, including the pill NEO took in the Matrix, again 'riffing' on the importance of multiple realities and the possibility of moving between said realities....
* As per my 2/3/10 posting, we again saw the importance of 'knowing' something, as in deja vu occurrences, and in Claire's 'knowing' Aaron was the right name for her unborn child.
* SAYID 'being claimed' by a darkness growing in him, reaching his heart... Not only does this mirror what Gandhi said regarding the 'war' we must all fight, within our own hearts, but read on, below, and you'll see that I anticipated this kind of plot turn....
* And yes, Claire choosing sides with.... whom? Heh-heh-heh....
The latter 'reveals' in tonight's episode dovetailed so nicely with what follows below, that I wanted to get this posting up on the internet ASAP....
Karma Chameleons? The Called, The Chosen, And The DeClaired-
One of the more admittedly intriguing plotlines weaving through Jacob's Loom and List, bridging from Season 5 to 6, concerns the lineups that will ultimately lock into place as the final season winds its way down (up!) to the series finale in May... Nationally and globally enquiring minds quite naturally want to know.... Whose side are they on....? Who will be fighting as Jacob's Heroes on the side of light/unity, and who will be serving as MIB's Marauders on the side of darkness/chaos, in the looming war for personal and cosmic redemption....
So whose side are they on? Doc Jensen's astute observation that Claire shifted from one side to the other in the Lost Last Supper photo tryptich clues us into one of the central subtexts Darlton will be playing out during Season 6, namely, the sorting or 'winnowing' process that will occur as persons/variables lock themselves into the plot equation in no small measure through free-willed choice, an undeniably important theme in the final season underscored through the thrilling adventure unpacked for us in the season premiere....
Considering the prospects of a prominent Season 6 focus on free will, then, we must not overlook its role in determining who ultimately ends up on whose side in the looming war. If Jacob is indeed a Christ analogue, then Jacob's touching mainland mystery tour may reasonably be construed as a CALL to discipleship of The Nine, the ENNEAD.... 1 Calls may be heeded, ignored, or rejected.... So there is no guarantee that those whom Jacob touched will ultimately reside on the roster of Jacob's Heroes....
Christ/Jacob calls persons to repent and take up the cross, following his path to righteousness and redemption.... We the people (the variables!) are free to choose how we respond to this call.... Thus, while the 'touching' CALLING is an important precursor to becoming one of the CHOSEN, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin (etc.) must freely choose the path, Declaring their decision to walk with Jacob/Christ, to fight on the side of Jacob's Heroes against the nefarious forces of the Antichrist/MIB.
Karma chameleons, indeed.... And how interesting to consider (a) the role of a free-willed choice response to Jacob's calling in the context of (b) the demonstrated forced and fateful 'winnowing' we've witnessed at the hand/cloud of MIB-incarnate-Smokey, a.k.a. AMMIT.... Yes, during Season 6 we may see the other side of a MA'AT's featherweight-scale forced/fateful judgment of who is on whose side, enforced by Smokey/Ammit, namely the exercise of a free-willed choice response to a calling issued by Jacob, to repent of one's sinful ways and follow in his footsteps, siding with eternal light/unity in the looming war versus the MIBian/SETian forces of darkness/chaos....
Hmmm.... Recall the New Others' pronounced concern that Sayid not die, lest he not live to play his important role on Jacob's A(nkh)-List roster of heroes.... The nontrivial distinction between calling and choosing suggests that, in addition to not being able to fight in the war due to being dead, a second important factor in whether or not Jacob's A-List of called heroes is properly assembled and ready to go is whether or not these heroes actually accept their calling by Christ/Jacob, exercising their own wills to freely choose which side they will be on....
So who do you think will end up on whose side, lined up with the Holy or unHoly Trinity? Which side will each of The Chosen (Called) Nine persons on Jacob's A-List end up choosing? And how interesting to consider the results of those who have had 'bad' encounters with Smokey in previous seasons, through being 'devoured' or losing a limb? Have Darlton been cluing us in on some of the dark-side MIB's Marauder's roster, all along, through revealing instances of Smokey soul devouring judgment? Will we later serve witness to Eko and a slightly delimbed Frenchman on MIB's team? Or was the limb loss merely an example of Smokey protecting his catacombical lair? Where did the souls of Ana Lucia, Libby, Eko, and others go? Who will we see resurrected in a later episode, on the side of the Antichrist/MIB/Set, and who will we see returning from the dead, on the side of the Christ/Jacob/Father?
**** Heh-heh-heh.... Yes, we DID see this theme begin playing out, just 20+ minutes ago! ****
Choosing Sides On The Devil's Playground: Antichrist, Superstar?
Yes, MIB-cum-unLocke's exchange with Ben in the lair beneath the statue shed some interesting light on MIB's motives... And yes, how interesting to consider that the four-toed statue actually may more closely resemble a crocodile-visaged AMMIT (Smokey/MIB/Antichrist/Soul Devourer) than it does the hippo-faced TAWERET (Jacob/Christ/Rebirther/Restorer).... Heh, heh, heh....
Unlike Locke, MIB does want to go home. And considering his likely lineage on the dark side of fallen angels cast out from Heaven (the Nephilim), MIB may desperately want to go back home to Heaven... But not just to any Heaven... No, as per the plot that got them kicked out from on high in the first place, MIB and his father Satan/Set want to go back to a heavenly realm recreated in their own dark images and, if they can't get their way along those lines, they'll certainly try to do this on Earth...!
Antichrist, superstar, indeed.... MIB would like nothing better than to recruit his own band of MIB's Marauders to win the looming war for the fundamental integrity of the spacetime universe, leveraging the Casimirical time- and space-looping powers of the island. Pursuant to their agenda for spreading chaos, pain, and disunity throughout the universe, thereby remaking reality in their own vile visages, the recruiting may already been underway for some time now, right under our very noses, during prior seasons of Lost. And the bounty for those aligning with the dark side, if they realize a victory? Your own piece of a fallen, sinful Earthly sideways-inverted 'verse-realm, ruling it as a dark-side lieutenant....
Who does that sound like....? Yep, you guessed it.... Charles WIDMORE....! While I certainly would not put it past Darlton to pull a series-ending plot twist inverting our perceptions of who is on whose side, to date a case can be made that Widmore appears to have already heeded the Call of the Wild Dark Side, freely choosing to align with the side of MIB/Set, basking in the lap of mainland luxuries, already ruling over his own piece of the coming(?) remade dark unHeaven on Earth.... Widmore's choice, and the subsequent consequences thereof, may provide us with a window on the kinds of temptations MIB/Set will set forth as a veritable sin smorgasbord, all in the service of judging our cherished castaways to abide in that decadent garden of Earthly delights that will emerge if chaos/disunity does indeed prevail....
Earth Prime(d), All Pumped Up And Ready To Go: Or, Next Stop, Crab Nebula?
One of the more intriguing possibilities raised by considering the Crisis On Infinite Earth (COIE) connections to Season 6 is that Darlton may later in subsequent episodes reveal the secret of a NEXUS involved in generating the chaotic Casimiric splitting into different Earthverses in the first place, opening the door to a potential way for restoring lost spacetime integrity, moving from a multiverse of disparate Earthverseloops back to a unified universe. Of course, we already know what lies behind the door of the secret Nexus... It is the island itself that is the functional equivalent of a COIEesque Earth Prime.....
Hmmm.... Following the line of a karmic recursive spacetime looping theory, it is not outside the realm of possibility that Darlton may ultimately reveal that the island is not only serving as: (1) a gamesite for Jacob and MIB to observe and wager on the prospects of our species for attaining higher evolutionary status, and (2) a life-after-death reincarnative opportunity for us to exercise free-will choices and actions, climbing ever higher (or lower!) on a Jacob's Ladder of redemption, but also as (3) a universe-expansive diaspora device, helping to expand the presence of sentient life throughout the universe, through splitting off new Earth realities across the broad expanse of space.....
Will the final scene in the final episode reveal that Lindelof's prior remark to the effect 'That it will all end up somewhere near the Crab Nebula' was not simply a disposable off-the-cuff remark, but rather, that it was cluing us to a final reveal that the island has, since the very beginning of time, been serving all three functions above, and the void of space is in the process of being filled with the richly myriad existential combinations and permutations of our sentient choices and actions (Variability), channeled through the filters of matter/energy Constants, writing the story of the universe across the broad, expansive tapestry of spacetime.... Will we literally see the universe as populated by a number of different 'Islandverses', in the Milky Way, the Crab Nebula, and beyond....?
To CERN, With Love: Riding An Ancient Collider To Particles Of The Gods?
Lost fans know that Damon Lindelof's been revealed as a fan of CERN and its founders.... One of the more intriguing Lost connections that may be lurking in the shadows of plotlines to come is that the ISLAND and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may just well share a common feature, namely, a profound reliance on SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETISM....! If, as others have speculated, the island sinks due to its MAG-LEV ability being compromised or eliminated, the strong implication is that in addition to the Casimir Effect and other weird dynamics, the island's unique energy properties include the operation of superconductive magnetism....
While Darlton have stated that Season 6 will focus less on what the island is, and more on how people use the island, exploring the nature of what the island may be able to do is undeniably relevant to informing our surmises about how people might use the island, especially if it speaks to issues regarding how it may indeed be possible to reverse the seemingly irreversible, to undo the effects of the J2 Incident and beyond. After all, as Jack said in the premiere-- and according to the clue leaked at this past summer's comicon-- "Nothing is irreversible...."
Let me put the main thesis of this section as plainly as possible.... What if.... What if.... One of the as-yet-undisclosed features of the island is that it is a functioning (and functional) equivalent of a LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC), built into the island along with the FDW as ancient tech, powered by the island's unique energy source, serving since the dawn of time as the guardian of spacetime integrity for the entire known universe....!
Yes, there are ancient stone-lined catacombs on the island. And there is at least one pocket of strong energy with weird properties, including electromagnetism, which plays no small role in enabling the function of LHC's:
So yes, if some LHC equivalent is operating in the deeper recesses of the island, the ancients may have figured out some way of leveraging the island's unique electromagnetic properties and the energy pocket to devise and implement a functional correlate to our modern 'superconducting bending magnets', playing a key role in operating an LHC. Additional information on the CERN LHC sheds light on some deeper unresolved questions, as well as some of the seemingly 'magical' phenomena witnessed to date:
"Physicists hope that the LHC will help answer the most fundamental questions in physics, questions concerning the basic laws governing the interactions and forces among the elementary objects, the deep structure of space and time, especially regarding the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity, where current theories and knowledge are unclear or break down altogether. These issues include, at least: Is the Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses via electroweak symmetry breaking indeed realised in nature? It is anticipated that the collider will either demonstrate (or rule out) the existence of the elusive Higgs boson(s), completing (or refuting) the Standard Model. Is supersymmetry, an extension of the Standard Model and Poincaré symmetry, realised in nature, implying that all known particles have supersymmetric partners? These may clear up the mystery of dark matter. Are there extra dimensions, as predicted by various models inspired by string theory, and can we detect them?" [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lhc]
How interesting that the scientific pursuit to falsify the Standard Model (and supersymmetry) may in fact provide physical, empirical evidence supporting some of the key dynamics now being unpacked by Darlton, flashing right before our eyes? Mirror twin, Casimiric, light- and dark-side supersymmetric partners in the form of Jacob and MIB? A figuratively and literally explosive combination? You betcha!
Yes, that seemingly 'throw away' side comment by Bernard has been sticking in my own head, as well as yours.... We all, at times, feel like we're being tossed about in a veritable spinning dryer of everyday trials and tribulations, hoping the 'powers that be' do not turn the heat knob to 'high', lest our mettle is tested in a fiery crucible of gas-fired, static-charged doom, lost without our 'Bounce', looking for that one last lost sock.... Interestingly enough, an LHC operating on the island, with its effects now fractally looping outward through the Earth-R and Earth-S 'verses, can help to explain not only literal/physical collisions of supersymmetric particle partners on the island, but also key aspects of the figurative/personal collisions on the island and the show, to date. Hmmmm... A Large Hadron Collider symbolizing the smashing revelations borne out of a richly diverse set of personal collisions and interactions... an Large Personal Collider (LPC) might feel not a bit unlike what Bernard described on the plane....
And if some equivalent of a hyper-strong LHC is operating on the island, it may help to explain (in conjunction with the Casimir Effect) just how the island may be used to split off mirror Earthverses, seemingly creating something out of nothing, giving mass to otherwise massless particles, making new pools of spacetime reality where previously there were none:
"The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model in particle physics. At present there are no known fundamental scalar particles in nature. The existence of the particle is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in current theoretical physics, and attempts are being made to confirm the existence of the particle by experimentation, using the Large Hadron Collider.... The Higgs boson is the only Standard Model particle that has not been observed. Experimental detection of the Higgs boson would help explain the origin of mass in the universe. The Higgs boson would explain the difference between the massless photon, which mediates electromagnetism, and the massive W and Z bosons, which mediate the weak force. If the Higgs boson exists, it is an integral and pervasive component of the material world.... The Higgs boson particle is one quantum component of the theoretical Higgs field. In empty space, the Higgs field has an amplitude different from zero; i.e., a non-zero vacuum expectation value. The existence of this non-zero vacuum expectation plays a fundamental role: it gives mass to every elementary particle which has mass, including the Higgs boson itself. In particular, the acquisition of a non-zero vacuum expectation value spontaneously breaks electroweak gauge symmetry, which scientists often refer to as the Higgs mechanism. This is the simplest mechanism capable of giving mass to the gauge bosons while remaining compatible with gauge theories. In essence, this field is analogous to a pool of molasses that "sticks" to the otherwise massless fundamental particles which travel through the field, converting them into particles with mass which form, for example, the components of atoms."
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson]
Now we can see that the HIGGS BOSON, the legendary 'GOD PARTICLE', may just well be figuring into future Lost episodes quite literally and figuratively, as aligned with the HOLY TRINITY, God/Jacob-Christ/The Holy Ghost/Taweret, serving as the tangible basis for Rebirth and Renewal.... Yes, I would not at all be surprised to learn that the Healing Pool in the New Other temple was infused with Higgs-Bosonic powers to heal and restore new life through giving/restoring mass, converting the massless into massed particles, components of atoms, molecules, cells, organs, and life.....
If the dark side unHoly Ghost is Smokey, that which taketh life away ala AMMIT, then the light side Holy Ghost/Taweret may indeed be seen to reside in the holy waters of rebirth and restoration, found within the temple. And yes, the strong implication of these waters no longer being clear-- but instead appearing brown and brackis-- is that moving the island sideways through space, splitting off a mirror twin island through the Casimir Effect, may take its toll on the energy level of the island, so reducing said level, thereby reducing the strength and extent of the HIGGS BOSON field permeating the island and the Healing Pool. It's still operating, but at a lower level of strength, so it took longer for Sayid to heal from exposure to the Holy Ghost's/Taweret's Healing Pool...
**** Heh-heh-heh.... And now we know from tonight's episode, that the pool changing color from clear to brown/brackish signaled a shift from Taweret's to Ammit's power, claiming SAYID and moving to his heart, a dark supersymmetric antithesis of the prior healing pool, perhaps even comprised/infused with.... ANTI-HIGGS BOSONS, per below.... ****
And now for the drumroll, please.... One of the strongest arguments for why the looming war is so consequential not only as an opportunity for personal redemption but also for cosmic redemption, is that the operation of some LHC equivalent within the bowels of the island-- an LHC equivalent many, many orders of magnitude above and beyond that of CERN-- may not only serve to sustain the integrity of a light-side Holy Trinity reality through maintaining a strong HIGGS BOSON/GOD PARTICLE FIELD operating on the island, providing rebirth and restoration through imbuing mass to previously massless particles, but if the LHC functionality were to become irreparably damaged or to fall into the wrong hands, it might be converted for use by MIB and his dark forces to remake the universe in their own vile visages through replacing the Higgs Boson Field with its dark supersymmetric counterpart: An expanding pocket of ANTI-HIGGS BOSONS, an ANTI-GOD FIELD, sucking the mass and life out of the previously massed and the living....!
LIGHT SIDE HOLY TRINITY- DARK SIDE unHOLY TRINITY-
God/The Father/Osiris/Ra Satan/The Devil/Set
Christ/Jacob/Horus Antichrist/MIB/Anubis
Holy Ghost/Taweret/Clear Healing Pool Smoke Monster/Ammit/Brown Pool
LIGHT SIDE 'REALITY GENERATOR'- DARK SIDE 'REALITY GENERATOR'-
Higgs Boson/God Particle Anti-Higgs Boson/Anti-God Particle
Hmmm.... If MIB can find some way to leverage and propagate an Anti-Higgs Field, further disrupting the fundamental process through which the very particles that make up ourselves and our universe become 'real' through receiving Higgs Boson-attached mass, then MIB may yet have the upper hand in leveraging Anti-God Particles, helping the dark side destroy a light-side universe, remaking it in the vile visage of a dark mirror/matter universe. Will the dark side succeed in their plans to use the island to remake the universe in their own image? Or, will Jack succeed in achieving personal redemption and cosmic redemption in one fell swoop, thwarting MIB’s/unLocke’s plan to shift the Higgs Bosonic God Particle Healing Pool into an Anti-Higgs Anti-God Pool of Pain, stopping this dark transformation by sacrificing his Body and Blood for the good of us all….?
And, by so doing, will Jack succeed in saving the island from being sunk, reinstating the integrity of the Flight 815 crash plotline, thereby unwriting the LAXplotline on Earth-R, penantly undoing the 'daisy chain' of effects resulting from his selfish attempt to rewrite destiny in his own image. Yes, per the 'What Lies Behind Door #2' section of my 5/14/09 posting, Jack learned the hard way, to be careful what you wish for... as you may just get it, and it may be far worse than what you had.... As I observed in that posting, the preferred 'solution' may well be that Flight 815 should crash onto the island, else the cascading 'daisy chain' of sunken island LAXplotline instead emerge.... weaving a far more dire fate for all of humanity.
So Jack makes the ultimate sacrifice of body and blood, looping him back.... to.... the floor of the island jungle, post-crash, eye opening.... Scenes from the prior seasons of Lost flashing right before his eyes in An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge manner, then... gone... Jack blinks... then slowly picks himself off the jungle floor... Off in the distance.... a dim, cycling engine noise.... And the game of life starts all over again..... (see the P.P.S. section of my 2/3/10 posting.)
Hmmm.... In the meantime, I wonder in whose hands AARON will end up, on the Earth-R(ewritten) LAXplotline, now being rewritten without the Flight 815 crash? Anyone care to place a bet on.... CHARLES WIDMORE....! And, if this plot possibility does come to pass, would that mean that Widmore and other dark forces may attempt to groom Aaron to be the Damien/Omen-cum-ANTICHRIST, here on Earth-R....? Did the psychic foresee the messianic potential in Aaron, and a future tipping point, at which Aaron's guardianship and upbringing would either result in him assuming the role of CHRIST... or ANTICHRIST....?
Time will tell....
Dr. Todd J. Hostager
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ENDNOTE:
1. Yes, there were twelve disciples of Jesus, so it remains to be seen whether The Nine/Ennead theme will predominate over that of the twelve, in determining exactly how many persons will be on each of the core 'teams' lining up for the looming light/dark side war....