Congratulations to the entire Lost creative team for another rousing adventure in the land of mirror twin, yin/yang enlightenment. We'll start with some real-time highlights and commentary on tonight's episode, then proceed to pondering what lies beneath the shadow of future plotlines....
1. They're in HELL...! If this is true, then my postings years ago, regarding connections among Lost and the movie Event Horizon, and even wild surmises regarding the island as a haven for devilish powers, with Desmond as the Antichrist, may not have been so far off the mark, after all! (See my 2/18/07 "The Final Solution?" posting in the latter regard.) See also my Season 5 postings regarding the island connection to the ages-old darkside BROTHERHOOD OF THE SNAKE, and the 'cast-out-of-heaven' darkside fallen angels, the NEPHILIM....
2. If they ARE in Hell, or even some gateway pocket 'verse portal to Hell, then this certainly is in sync with recent science regarding Dark Matter.... Indeed, the majority of the universe is supposed to be made up of that matter, as well as Dark Energy. Does this mean that most of the universe is HELLish, with only a comparatively small portion... existing in the LIGHT of day....?
3. Canary Islands, 1867.... This puts them northwest off the coast of Africa, 100km west of the border of Morocco and the Western Sahara.... Now Alpert's the property of Magnus Hanso, as we all thought.... on the Black Rock, heading toward the island, of course.... in a STORM!! Will we learn if Magnus had the Vile Vortex Island wormhole system chart in his book, the one bought at auction by one Charles Widmore....!
4. Shipwrecked in the middle of the jungle! How did they get there? Was the storm sufficient to toss them so far inland? Or was there some other more magical effect in operation? Will we ever learn this secret? Or will it remain one of the Lost secrets that people will debate forever, much like the unresolved mysteries in that televisionary classic, The Prisoner....
5. Now that tell-tale clanking mechanical sound.... Here comes SMOKEY.... sounding like a combination of rattler, tiger growl, automaton.... and with a mini-storm raging within the black smoke, including flashes of lightning-like flashes.... Hmmm.... Is SMOKEY really a mini-black-hole like phenomenon, as some of us have been positing in postings past, both figuratively and literally manifesting... HELL on Earth, a.k.a. a swirling unHoly Ghost not a bit unlike DARKSEID and his mechanistic, industrially-wasted dark-side unholy realm of APOKOLIPS.... (More on this, below....)
6. And now, here's MIB! Is he the sly, slippery, silver-tongued 'ol DEVIL? That certainly would fit the profile, pretending NOT to be the evil one, but instead a helper and protector. "Good to see you out of those chains..." Yeah, that's the 'tell' we've been waiting for.... how Alpert was able to discern Flocke's true identity.
7. Kill the devil, get out of jail free card.... MIB hands him the knife, mirroring what DOGEN said to Sayid, prior to going to Flocke....
8. Devil killed MIB, taking his body? Do you ever want to see your wife again? Devilish promises of darkside reanimation, or lightside glimpses of heavenly resurrection....? Talk about mirror-twist inversions! Have Jacob and MIB been playing these games for eons? Or is this yet another instance of MIB's slippery devilish tongue at work? (For more on the evil one's powers of planting dark, insidious, divisive, thoughts aimed at 'seeding' futility and gaining control over sentient beings, see below.... Heh-heh-heh....!)
9. Jacob 'baptizing' Alpert into life.... Does he want to live....? When contrasted with Alpert's more recent loss of faith, this definitely reminds me of the LIFE EQUATION vs. ANTI-LIFE EQUATION battle playing out in the classic Jack Kirby- created NEW GODS series....
10. The island is a cork.... Yeah, that type of interpretation has been around for quite some time now.... Yes, it's a portal/nexus, that is capped.... And of course, the great dire threat is that MIB/Flocke/Smokey will finally break free from the island prison, rushing into our 'reality' and out to the mainlands of our lives, spreading Flocke's DARK Mirror Matter domain to Earth... Shades of the Darkseid, indeed! And, my surmise in last week's 'Recon' posting-- that we've been witnessing a DARKSIDE-imbalanced view of the world in Seasons 1-5 to date-- is gaining weight and momentum.... At the very least, what we've seen on the ISLAND is darkside-unbalanced, comprised as it is as a harsh test of the readiness of our species to transcend darkside tendencies... Everything up to that point, after all, is progress.... And of course, in order to have a fair test, HUMANITY must be subjected to MIB's cleverist temptations, traps, and 'rat mazes'..... And will we later learn that the Season 1-5 mainland episodes also reflect a darkside unbalanced 'testing' of the species....?
11. Jacob can't bring Alpert's wife back, but he can give him eternal life, the third in the holy TRIFECTA: Baptism, Wine/Communion, and now.... the Gift of Eternal Life....
12. Yes, the black and white stones signal the 'wins' in the ongoing game of good and evil...
13. Alpert changed his mind! He wants his wife back... psychic Hurley's now channeling Isabella.... Why did you bury the cross?
14. Yeah, Lost MYSTICS are rejoicing everywhere... And the door to higher-order, higher-dimensional transcendent existence is left far and wide, open....
15. Yeah, the final image of MIB smashing the blood-red dark/evil matterverse symbol again signifies not only his desire to leave the island, but more importantly, to UNCORK and unleash the evil to the mainlands of our everyday lives, and throughout the UNIVERSE.
16. Yes, the Crisis on Infinite Earths (COIE) interpretation is apt, as the same kind of struggle lie at the core, namely, how to contain a looming threat by the ANTI-MONITOR-cum-MIB-Flocke-Smokey-unHoly Ghost, to pop the ISLANDCORK and, more importanting, to INFECT the entire lightside universe with darkside evil, tipping the balance in his dark, nefarious favor....
17. And yes, there is a most definite link to Jack Kirby's New Gods series, with an ongoing struggle between good and evil, light and dark, instantiated in and through Darkseid and Highfather, and their devotees.... What light might that classic series shed on what lies beneath the future plotlines of Lost? Yes, what might happen if we as a species do indeed ultimately pass the islandverse darkside test? What may happen when we make enough progress as a species?Heh-heh-heh.....
Midnight In The Garden Of The New Gods: Ancient ALEments, Locking Values Into The Variabled Equation-
What lies beneath the more distant shadows looming largely, back from the future plotlines of the final installments in the series? We know that one of these episodes will divulge the deeper, epochs-old, intertwined relationship among Jacob and MIB. And we've been promised that the episode-- 6.15-- will take place in a venue heretofore unseen in primetime drama. Will Darlton and company take us back to the time of Carthage, riffing on Charlotte's specialty? Will we learn that during that era, or perhaps earlier, there was indeed a time in which the gods walked the Earth among us humans.... Was Jacob's tapestry right, riffing on Stargate, only set in Carthage or on ancient Atlantis? Or will we be transported back to the very moment the MIB-led NEPHILIM fell out of favor with God, cast out of Heaven to a pocketverse void of contained evil, with the Islandcork as a site for God's ongoing attempt to reconcile with and restore his LOST fallen angels, the Nephilim, back into Heaven? (Please see my Season 5 postings regarding the Nephilim and the Brotherhood of the Snake.)
I would not at all be surprised to learn that before it became so overgrown with jungle vegetation, in an earlier incarnation the islandcork was host to a vast city of Atlantean proportions, with ancient 'Archimedian' technologies such as the FDW and more, built upon and tapping into the more primeval, magical, cosmic, eternal powers residing in and on the island, from Casimir to healing to matter manipulation to teleportation to maglev to agelessness to wormhole traversing, and more.... Here I would not be surprised to see the gods of the ages, known to us variously through mythologies spanning Greek, Roman, Hindu traditions and beyond, living with the ancients in a symbiotic, mutually-beneficial relationship. Worship and reverence exchanged by humans for sustenance and health, imparted by the gods. That is.... until the day the music died.... the reverential lute music stopped... and the species rebelled... was this MIB's first grab for glory through seducing us to follow his siren call, catalyzing and crystallizing his fall from the good graces of GOD, bottling him up in a pocketverse, now using the Island as a cork....?
However Darlton and company decide to play it, some key themes are looming in an undeniably large manner as we head into the series finale, including:
* Dualistic themata-- good vs. evil, fate vs. free will, etc.-- encoded throughout the entire series and prominently figured in what we well may learn are the Romulus and Remus-like founding mirror twins of life and civilization on planet Earth.... JACOB AND ESAU/MIB....
* Mundane vs. magical relationships among matter, mind, and energy.... We have indeed witnessed some 'cutting edge' physics as well as some mystical in play on the island and the mainland, driving our collective NERDy and MYSTICal Viral Learning processes....
* Evolutionary progress, with our species tested in the harsh corky islandverse environment, marking time and making progress toward the end.... Are we glimpsing flashes of insight into the seeds of this progress, our next-best-hope as a species for passing MIB's harsh dark test, expressed materially to date in the forms of Desmond and Walt, and foreshadowed in the New Kids On The Block (NKOTB), namely AARON, JI YEON, and CHARLIE HUME....? Yes, we may very well learn that if it's not Desmond who is the LAST RECRUIT, it may just well be AARON WALLACE who is the Last Recruit, with Aaron's true father's surname later revealed as 'Wallace', landing him squarely in the Number 108 spot on the Lighthouse circumferential degrees of freedom dial, under Jacob's watchful eyes over the years....
While the latter point-- the 'Wallace' psychic child clue-- is a rather overt nod to Madeleine L' Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, Darlton and company have indeed pointed us to that work twice to date, including the recent Recon episode. What other templates help shed further light on the above themes, as well as the looming reveal regarding the deeper mirror twin relationship among Jacob and MIB, the upcoming 'merger' of the timelines, and more?
Yes, there may just well be an oblique reference to Eternals lurking beneath the shadows of the Ab Aeterno episode title.... And while there are several paths one could take in digging beneath the surface of this clue to mine nuggets of exegetical insight into future plotlines, one fruitful path hitting on the above themes and more is Jack Kirby's masterful series, THE NEW GODS... Lots of ripe and relevant connections, to be sure.... Where to start.... Hmmmm....
"New Genesis is a fictional planet in the DC Comics Universe (or rather, in a parallel dimension adjacent to it). It is the home-planet of the New Gods from Jack Kirby's Fourth World metaseries. New Genesis and its dark counterpart, Apokolips, were spawned by the destruction of Urgrund the world of the "Old Gods" (initially implied to be the gods of classical mythology, though versions of these characters have since been revealed to still exist in the DC Universe). New Genesis and Apokolips are locked in an eternal war, symbolizing the struggle of good and evil on a grand mythic scale. New Genesis is ruled by a being known as the Highfather, a spiritual leader who maintains his people's connection to the primal energy field known as The Source. The original Highfather, Izaya the Inheritor, has since perished and been replaced by Earthling superhero Takion, a living conduit of The Source. In contrast to the industrial wasteland of Apokolips, New Genesis is a veritable paradise covered in lush forests and grasslands. The only urban location is Supertown, a floating city designed not to affect the planet's surface."
Yes, given tonight's 'reveal' of an island function as a 'cork' bottling up dark evil that Darlton have patterned the Lost island in no small way after the NEW GENESIS concept found in Kirby's New Gods. How very interesting, indeed, to note the nontrivial connections to the ongoing struggle among Jacob and MIB on Lost, with JACOB equivalent to the HIGHFATHER ruling over NEW GENESIS, and MIB equivalent to DARKSEID, ruling over the dark counterpart (mirror matter fans, take note!) to New Genesis, APOKOLIPS.... And in the final episode, will we serve witness to the Last Recruit, the final Candidate, the Chosen One, ascending to the throne of the role as Island Protector, mirroring the ascenscion of TAKION, serving similarly as a living conduit of the SOURCE-cum-GAIA/VALIS/ Islandmind....? Will this be Jack, Desmond, or.... Aaron?
Hmmm.... Yes tonight's reveal suggests that the islandcork may just well have two sides to the cork, with our 'observable' view of the island as the TOP/LIGHT side of the cork preventing MIB and the rest of his DARKSEID army from entering our universe with full, unbalanced force, and that the BOTTOM/DARK side of the cork may just well be... the portal to HELL, namely the gateway to the dark matter mirrorverse....! In short, the lush, light island we see may be the equivalent to NEW GENESIS in Kirby's series, and DARKSEID's/MIB's 'homeland' of APOKOLIPS lies just on the other side of the p-verse cork! Boy-oh-boy-oh-boy the dire and dark implications, if somehow MIB succeeds in returning 'home' to the 'bottom' dark side of the Versecork, in COIEesque manner, opening a gateway/portal for his dark army to enter our 'verse, 'popping the islandcork' as it were....!
In the final episodes of Lost, will we serve witness to the very birth of the Universe, watching with shock and awe as the UNI-verse-- like Kirby's world of the OLD GODS, URGRUND-- is split asunder into two mirrorverses populated by gods and lesser beings, not at all unlike the light and dark worlds of New Genesis (the lush Lost island topside of the cork) and Apokolips (a dark wasteland bottom of the cork that MIB wants to return to with his Army of Darkness and lord over?) Yes, this may well mirror the split that occurred in 1977, with the J2 (Jughead/Juliet) Incident spawning two parallel timelines, one darker and one lighter, as per the YIN/YANG Theory posited in my 3/16/10 "Recon" posting.
And yes, this narrative structure may point to a primeval split in ancient times, as the symbiotic relationship among gods and humans (in an Atlantis-like setting?) was rent/torn asunder, and Atlantis/Ugrund was destroyed in a blinding flash of devastation, pitting the mirror twin gods of Jacob/Highfather and MIB/Darkseid against each other, in immortal combat, attempting to leverage the island as a staging station for launching a 'remake/rewrite' of Earth in their own light and darkside images, bringing New Genesis or Apokolips to Earth, depending of course on the victor....
"Both Apokolips and New Genesis were seemingly destroyed in a final conflict, similar to that which destroyed Urgrund, home of the Old Gods prior to Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini-series. However, the final issue of that series implied that the story's earlier events were merely visions seen by the hero as part of an elaborate test by the New God Metron. It seems that none of these events actually occurred, as the miniseries Death of the New Gods takes place on New Genesis and Apokolips in the first issue, and many of the new gods and other Fourth World characters are seen in their standard style throughout much of Countdown, Countdown to Mystery, and Superman/Batman. In addition to New Genesis and Apokolips still being in existence and the characters being portrayed as they have always been, there is no mention of any of the Seven Soldiers events." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Genesis]
Hmmm.... will we later learn in the finale episodes of Lost that, as in the New Gods series, the tests and progress to which Jacob and MIB referred in the Season 5 finale will mirror the New Gods plot, with the looming war and destruction merely as METRONical 'visions seen by the hero as part of an elaborate test'? Or, will the war, the merger, and resolution involve far more 'real' and material effects?
"As it exists in a parallel dimension, travel between New Genesis and other worlds is only possible via technology known as the boom tube, dimensional gateways whose creation is signified by a sonic boom. It has been said that in their world, the gods of New Genesis are of gigantic stature and that travel through the boom tubes rescales them to mortal proportions. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Genesis]
As we've suspected for years, we may ultimately learn that the island can indeed function as a portal among different dimensions of reality, with WORMHOLES (ala Kirby's 'boom tubes') enabling transit between Earth and the 'pocket 'versed' or extradimensional worlds of the 'gods'. On this view, MIB may well have been trapped by Jacob/Highfather in some New Genesis-related 'prison', from which MIB is attempting to escape in order to return to his 'Apokolips-equivalent' home. The nature of Apokolips as an industrial wasteland may shed some light on why we've been hearing that mechanistic, clunking sound associated with Smokey; this may be reflecting a machine-related aspect of MIB's existence, potentially integrated into his very dark being in Borg-like fashion. Will we learn that this is how Smokey really does put the machine in the deux et machina....? 1
The boundary surrounding the island also connects in an intimate and revealing manner to the New Gods series, as it is a direct and relevant analogue to the concept of the SOURCE WALL:
"The Source Wall is a fictional structure in the DC Comics universe. The wall lies on the edge of the known universe, in the Promethean Galaxy. Beyond the wall lies what is known as The Source, a cosmic essence or being that is the "source" of all that exists. The wall is theoretically passable. However, all those who try have been inevitably trapped in it. Over time it has been made up of the bodies of would-be conquerors and curiosity seekers from all across the universe...One of the few known persons to have entered the Source was an amalgam of Zeus, Odin, Ares, Jove, and Highfather. Five others are known also to have passed the Source Wall, Barry Allen (in Super Team Family #15), Spectre (Hal Jordan), Metron working with Swamp Thing (in Swamp Thing #62), and Lucifer Morningstar. Highfather and Darkseid together have managed to destroy the source wall before. The Flash went into the source for a cure for Orion of the New Gods, but didn't remember anything from his time within. When Jordan was the Spectre for a time, he passed it and had a conversation with the Old-Timer, formerly one of the Guardians of the Universe, and saw a giant Green Lantern battery. While talking with the Old-Timer, he asked him "Is this The Source?" The Old-Timer replied "It is Your Understanding of it." The Old-Timer then brought Jordan into the battery and explained to him that without any positive or negative charge, there would be no energy or life. After leaving The Source, Jordan felt as though a part of himself was still in the Source. When Lucifer went past the Source Wall he saw what looked like a huge yellowish man made of rock. Lucifer then stood on its shoulder while looking for Michael in the DC Universe. Whether or not this is what The Source really looks like or is how Lucifer views The Source is left unknown. It seems that humans and other beings such as angels when they pass the Source Wall view The Source differently." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_wall]
Hmmm... As we know from the very first quote provided above, the SOURCE is a "primal energy field," which sounds not a bit unlike our uniquely-propertied, electromagnetically-charged, intermixed light matter/dark matter, energy-infused Lost island. Thus we should not be surprised at all to learn that a SOURCE-infused island is surrounded by a Source Wall. This may indeed be Darlton's take on a island-within-a-pocket-bubble-verse, with the island housing the Source, surrounded by a spacetime distortional, Event-Horizonlike Source Wall equivalent. Note the familiar theme of being trapped within the wall after traversing it, which may help to explain MIB's current challenge. Will we later learn-- in the 6.15 episode?-- that the Old Gods (Zeus, Odin, etc.) passed through the island source wall into a new dimension?
----> Yes, indeed, given the islandcork reveal in tonight's episode, it makes eminent sense that the SOURCE is resident on/in the islandcork, bottling up the evil Darkside 'verse, as well as DARKSEID-cum-Smokey, himself....
And how might the looming war be waged, when viewed from a New Gods perspective? Heh-heh-heh.... Yes, interestingly enough, it may well come down to the VALENZETTI EQUATION after all, in a manner consistent with the Lostisagame site.... How might this be so? Consider the critically important role of the ANTI-LIFE EQUATION in the New Gods scenario, in particular, its importance to Darkseid and his desire to win the war and control the universe:
"The Anti-Life Equation is the fictional equation for which the DC Comics villain Darkseid is searching in the Jack Kirby's Fourth World setting. It is for this reason that he sends his forces to Earth, as he believes part of the equation exists in the human subconscious. Various comics have defined the equation in different ways, but a common interpretation seems to be that the equation is a mathematical proof of the futility of living.... Darkseid first became aware of the equation approximately 300 years ago when he made contact with the people of Mars. Upon learning of the Martian philosophy that free will could be defined by a 'Life Equation', Darkseid postulated that there must exist a negative equivalent. Jack Kirby's original comics established the Anti-Life Equation as giving the being who learns it power to dominate the will of all sentient and sapient races. It is called the Anti-Life Equation because 'if someone possesses absolute control over you - you're not really alive'". [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-life_equation]
Here it now comes into full and stark relief.... in no small way, the looming Lost war involves not merely good vs. evil, but also free will vs. fate in a very literal way, as MIB/Flocke's efforts to free himself from the island prison and build an Army of Darkness are merely hints at the deeper DARKSEID agenda for spreading his control over 'sentient and sapient races' through infecting our conciousness with the Anti-Life Equation, while Jacob has been busy sowing the seeds of free will through spreading the good gospel of the Life Equation:
"Over the years, the Anti-Life Equation has changed as various writers have offered their own definitions of the concept. The most current incarnation was established in the 2005 Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini-series, written by Grant Morrison. In it Darkseid (or Dark Side, as he now calls himself) has gained full control of the Anti-Life Equation, which is revealed to be: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side. By speaking said equation, Darkseid can insert the full formula into people's minds, giving them the mathematical certainty that life, hope and freedom are all pointless. According to Oracle, who barely escaped the "full" effects of the Equation by shutting down the entire Internet just in time, the Anti-Life Equation further states that the only point in anything is to conform to Darkseid's will." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-life_equation]
Want proof? Consider Ben's plight and his plaintiff plea to Ilana in the recent Dr. Linus episode. For years, MIB manipulated Ben through the guise of Jacob, setting Ben up for an Anti-Life Equation (ALEment) CRISIS, infecting Ben to the point that he failed the test, as Jacob retorted.... "So, what about you....?", prompting the ALEing Ben to plunge the knife blade deep into the heart of the Life Equation, free-will champion, Jacob....
Look at the copmonents in the ALE, and you'll see how closely they map not only to Ben's travails, but also to Richard Alpert's recent fall from faith, an ALE-infected movement pushing him to the brink of dynamite-enabled suicide, accompanied by Jack in the hold of the Black Rock. Despair, failure, etc..... all fueled by the dark one's actions... leading Ben to kill Jacob... The Evil One-- Flocke-cum-Darkseid-- wants to gain control over the will of the sentient and sapient, through sowing the seeds of futulity, crushing all hope and freedom, conforming one to his will through clever silver-tongued promises of Whatever your heart desires.... selling your soul to the Devil, whispering the Anti-Life Equation into your ears....!
What does it look like as the Darkseid ALE makes its way literally and figuratively into your heart? Just ask... SAYID.... Yes, the brown water is a symbolic and tangible medium for spreading the insidious infection of the Anti-Life-Equation into the very hearts and minds of the sentient/sapient. Flocke's walking dead Army of Darkness... zombies, vampires, numbed, dulled by the effects of the ALE.... And how darkly delicious it was to watch Flocke work his silver-tongued ALE ways on Kate, during their beachy exchange, sowing not only the seeds of dissension by appealing to Kate's maternal instinct, but also on deeper levels as he began injecting the ALE, figuratively piercing the veil of her consciousness with veritable ALEful needle of doubt and conformance to Flocke's wishes....
In contrast, we can now see Jacob's 'touching' mainland castaway visitations for what they were... Attempts to preemptively INOCULATE key VARIABLES-cum-CANDIDATES with the LIFE EQUATION (LE) components of free will, the ability to make the right choices, etc. prior to their arrival on the island. Jacob likely knew the looming war would involved MIB/Flocke's attempt to move the Variables to the dark side, through injecting and infecting them with the myriad destructive components in the ALE, so he took the preemptive move of visiting them on the mainland, to help 'nudge' them away from the ALE, toward the LE....
LIGHT SIDE HOLY TRINITY- DARK SIDE unHOLY TRINITY-
God/The Father/Osiris/Ra/The Source Satan/The Devil/Set/Anti-Life
Christ/Jacob/Horus/Highfather Antichrist/MIB/Anubis/Darkseid
Holy Ghost/Taweret/Clear Healing Pool Smoke Monster/Ammit/Brown Pool
LIGHT SIDE 'SOLUTION'- DARK SIDE 'SOLUTION'-
The Life Equation (LE) The Anti-Life Equation (ALE)
At this deeper level we can now see how all along, the Lostisagame site has been correct in viewing a core component of the looming war NOT in terms of Who the Variables will be, in the Equation, but rather, and far more importantly, What the VALUES of the Variables will be, in said Equation.... Moving the Variables/People toward the darkside solves the Valenzetti Equation in favor of ANTI-LIFE, despair, futility, and conformance with Flocke's Darkseid wishes, while moving the Variables/People toward the lightside solves it in favor of LIFE, vibrancy, reversibility, free will, and more. And how the VALUES of the Variables are solved is of utmost importance to the nature and consequences of our futures....
Yes, ALE is one of the most powerful and insidious weapons in the evil one's arsenal, used throughout the ages by MIB/Flocke and all other darkside incarnations to continually thwart Jacob's best attempts to prove him wrong... Who will rise up among our species, to sufficiently demonstrate progress above and beyond our darkside tendencies? Will it be Aaron, Ji Yeon, and the rest of the New Kids On The Block (NKOTB?)
"In Jim Starlin's mini-series Cosmic Odyssey, the Anti-Life Equation is revealed as a living shadow-based deity that corrupts and destroys everything it touches. This revelation shocks even Darkseid, who teams up with the New Gods and a group of superheroes from Earth to stop the Anti-Life Equation entity, ultimately destroying it."
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-life_equation]
Hmmm.... Will we see MIB/Flocke pulling such a Darkseid reversal in the closing episodes of Lost? Or is the Smokey incarnation telling us that MIB/Flocke already is the shadow-based deity, working his way out of the island dimensional prison, threatening to spread the ALEment to Earth, and beyond....? And yes, this does mirror key aspects of A Wrinkle In Time.... Is a darkside denouement inevitable? What hope lies ahead for a brighter future resolution to Lost?
Heh-heh-heh.... Interestingly enough, the New Gods series offers an intriguingly delicious twist on the notion of how Darlton and crew may wrap things up vis-a-vis the looming MERGER, only this is the kind of merger that MIB/Flocke is definitely looking to avoid.... and it all goes back to the notion of THE SOURCE:
"The Source can be considered a shared Consciousness in the DC Comics Universe, where it is the non-religious equivalent to Buddha-nature. It is the "source" of all that exists. Alternatively, it can be considered a description of the Creator God of the Universe, a science-fiction analogue based on Judaeo-Christian doctrine. Mostly associated with the New Gods, the Source was the supposed origin of the "god-wave" that is believed to have been responsible for creating and empowering the "Gods" of the DC Universe with their divine abilities. It also seems to be partially responsible for the ability of DC residents to develop super-powers, especially those which defy physics."
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(comics) ]
Yes, it does sound like the island is host to a Source-equivalent, enabling Jacob and MIB/Flocke to display 'godlike' powers which "defy physics." More importantly, however:
"While investigating the death of the New Gods, Metron encountered the Source. The Source revealed it was behind the deaths to build a new "Fifth World." It revealed that the most powerful gods of three pantheons of the Second World (that were doppelgangers/aspects of deities of the Third World: Zeus, Odin and Jove-Júpiter)--the "Old Gods"--attacked it and caused it to split into separate beings. The other being evolved into the Anti-Life entity. In retribution, the Source destroyed the Old Gods and created the New Gods. However, its diminished state caused the New Gods to be flawed. The Source sought to reunite with its other half and start anew. It took advantage of the actions of Alexander Luthor and Rip Hunter to create the 52 worlds of the multiverse to ease the reunion. Using its agent, the Infinity Man, to kill the New Gods and store their souls in a second Source Wall and Mister Miracle as the user of the Anti-Life Equation, the Source was able to breach the primary Source Wall and reunited with its Anti-Life other half. With all the New Gods dead but one, the Source traveled to Apokolips to confront the final god, Darkseid, and complete his task. However, Darkseid had devised a method to tap in to the power of the souls of the New Gods which were being stored in the second Source Wall, giving him equal footing with the Source, until Superman intervened, allowing the Source to deploy his trump card, Orion, who shared Darkseid's access to this power. While Darkseid and Orion fought, with Orion eventually defeating him, the Source slammed New Genesis and Apokolips together creating a single planet, with one half similar to Apokolips and the other to New Genesis. When this was over, the Source told Superman that his work was done, and that he would be leaving this plane of existence." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(comics) ]
Boy-oh-boy-oh-boy....! WOW.... Here we see a veritable wealth of links not only to Lost plots past, but also some bright beacons of light cast on the shadows of future plotlines.... Looming most definitely largely on the horizon of tonight's Islandcork 'reveal' is the very distinct and dire possibility that the ISLAND SOURCE WALL/EVENT HORIZON is functioning as the stabilizing surface of the ISLANDCORK, helping not only to keep the evil bottled up, but also to keep the darkside from pouring into our universe, unchecked and unbalanced, presaged as it was so dramatically by MIB's bottle-cum-pocket/bubbleverse smashingly symbolical 'throwing down of the galactic gauntlet'.... He not only intends to return to his Darkseid Apokoliptic home, he intends on breaking his dark forces free from the pocket verse, destroying the very integrity of the islandcork proper....!
Some additional intriguing implications and applications include:
1. Deaths on the island-- including that of Jacob-- may be necessary in order to move from the equivalent of a Fourth World to a Fifth World reality. This dovetails well with my view of AARON, JI YEON, CHARLIE HUME, and perhaps even DESMOND as evolutionary NKOTB, ushering in the reign of a 'Fifth World'.... Jacob was likely aware of this kind of dynamic in play.
2. The J2 Incident-- splitting off another sideways reality-- may very well be a clue from Darlton and company that a form of NEW GODS-related narrative structure will later be revealed to be undergirding not only the series resolution, but rather the entire series as a whole. On this view, Jacob may be providing us with a human figure symbolizing the SOURCE, with MIB/Flocke symbolizing the ANTI-LIFE EQUATION split in mirror twin fashion from the source, at some earlier, ancient time, perhaps even at the very dawn of creation. We may yet see this revealed in the 6.15 episode.
3. Killing the New Gods and storing their souls in a secondary Source Wall was important in enabling the Source/Jacob to breach the primary Source Wall to reunite "with its Anti-Life other half", namely.... MIB/Flocke....! This may be one of the more shocking secrets/reveals contained in the final episodes... Namely, that the truly important MERGER looming on the horizon, the COMING MERGER of the MIRROR TWINS... JACOB/THE SOURCE literally merging with SMOKEY/ANTI-LIFE....! This may embody the more permanent, unifying, transcendent solution to the 'war', better than the islandcork.... Indeed, Jacob's attempts to win the recurring islandtests of our species may in no small part involve a deeper motive, namely that of INFECTING his mirror twin ESAU/MIB/ FLOCKE/SMOKEY with the lightside force of the LIFE EQUATION, attempting over time to change MIB's evil mind, heart, and soul, winning it back for the lightside, and for his father, God.... If this does indeed turn out to be the case, then Jacob may have pulled the LONGEST CON OF ALL, on the evil one, raging in and through the ongoing ages-old, islandcork-hosted battle of mutual infection, Life vs. Anti-Life, with a final resolution in the form of a merger of Jacob and Esau....
4. Yes, Darkseid may be MIB/Flocke, and when changed to SMOKEY it becomes ANTI-LIFE incarnate.... In this scenario, I would not at all be surprised to see that it is DESMOND after all, who plays the ORION role by defeating Darkseid/Flocke, setting the stage for JACOB/THE SOURCE to reunite/merge with his mirror twin ESAU/MIB/ANTI-LIFE.... Another leading Candidate for the ORION role would have to be AARON, with Eye M. Sick's prediction of an Aaron/Ji Yeon marriage a third possibility involving a team-based approach to enacting the Orion role. Yes, this New Gods-related plotline could very well involve a Lost timeline merger equivalent of slamming the planets together, collapsing the Original and the Flash Sideways timelines back together, restoring a pre-1977 lightside and darkside balanced, Yin/Yang UNI-verse of fully operational dualistic influences....
5. How will Jack/the Chosen One figure into all of this? Look for Jack (or whoever the Chosen One ends up being) to remain as 'Fifth World' Island Protector 'Highfather', after the merger takes place.....
6. On the heels of a looming merger of the mirror twins Jacob/Esau, I would not be surprised to witness the birth of a 'Fifth World' cycle on the island, symbolically represented through a rebirthing of the island itself, rising from the sunken depths of the ocean in dramatic fashion, with Aaron, Ji Yeon, Charlie Hume, Walt and other Fifth World 'gods' having the times of their lives in the new 'beach-blanket-backgammon' world of the rebooted islandgame. And what lies beneath the shadow of their own future plotlines?
Time will tell....
Dr. Todd J. Hostager
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ENDNOTE:
1. Tip 'o the hat to Eye M. Sick, here, a vibrant and vital part of the Lost Ciral Learning community, indeed. Please see the following Albertus Magnus de Groot connection, first noted on his site. Hmmm... isn't that a metallic, machine-like 'clunking' sound we hear whenever SMOKEY"s on the prowl? And yes, this also links to the very nature of DARKSEID's 'Shadowlands' machine-based homeworld, APOKOLIPS:
"Albertus Magnus, born under the name Albert de Groot, was born in Larvington an der Donau, Swabia (now Germany) between the years of 1193 and 1206.... After becoming an instructor at The University of Paris, Albertus became mentor to St. Thomas Aquinas, to whom he left the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, a magical substance which could turn lead to gold and could unlock the secret to immortality. His writings indicate that after he completed construction of his first box, Albertus began a thirty year long task of building an automaton which he named "Android." Using the "...angels from the netherworld..." and the powers of the philosopher's stone he created the "metals and materials unknown to this world..." and chose them "according to the stars and planets...." The android was instilled with the powers of speech, thought, and according to some reports a SOUL. Upon completion of this project, his student St. Thomas destroyed the "diabolic being" and denounced it as "a tool of satan and a blasphemy to God."
[Source: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mace/AlbertusMagnus.html]