Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lost: Ab Aeterno

“From the beginning of time.”  Along with 8 years in Catholic school, I took 4 years of Latin and 1 year of Greek.  Hot damn, money well spent.  In addition to scoring well on my SAT verbal and being able to say the Our Father in Latin, I can now translate the titles of two Lost episodes.  Tabula Rasa was the other.  At dinner tonight, I mistranslated “ab aeterno” to be “to the end of time.”  Ab is from, ad is to.  Oh well.

Richard’s story was enlightening in many ways.  There were a lot of answers in tonight’s episode.  I still think there are many lies out there as well.  Neither Jacob nor the MIB seem to like telling the whole truth whenever they are questioned.  Jacob said right out that he doesn’t like forcing people to do what is right, so maybe that is why he withholds the complete story.  And if either one of them is really the Prince of Lies, then I guess that makes sense. 

According to tonight’s tale, the Island is a cork holding in the evils of Hell.  Jacob and the MIB must remain sitting on the cork to keep it in place.  If one dies, one must replace them.  Jacob has his list of candidates in case that ever happened and he has some plan in the works for choosing the right one.  The MIB doesn’t seem to care if he has a replacement or not.  But what does that make Jacob and the MIB?  I was hoping to at least put a name on the MIB tonight, but I guess we will have to wait for that. 

Is the Island Purgatorio? (BAM! some mo Latin for yo ass.  I think it is actually Italian.  Close enough, same country)  Do Jacob and the MIB judge the dead and pass them on to the next life?  Do they hold the world in balance, like the Jedi and the Sith?  Is it all really about midichlorians?  Jacob wants to remain on the Island and keep the cork in place, but as we have heard many times in the past few weeks, the MIB just wants out/off.  The discussions between Jacob and the MIB that we have seen are reminiscent of the old testament wagers between God and the Devil.  One side believing that man is inherently good and the other believing that man is inherently evil, always wanting to prove the other wrong. 

Jacob said that he doesn’t want to take an active role in persuading his test subjects into doing good.  This is very similar to how God is portrayed in the old testament.  Speaking to his followers, sending his prophets (Richard, Ben, Locke), giving them trials and tests of their faith, but never forcing good, never removing free will.  The MIB takes on the classic role of the devil, spreading evil through his lies and empty promises.  He fueled Claire’s hatred, but in the end, didn’t turn over her baby.  But in every lie, there is a little truth.  Isn’t that what makes the best lies hard to spot?

Last week, Not Locke spoke of crazy moms.  Could the crazy mom he referred to be Eve, having eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, causing man to be kicked out of Eden?  That sounds pretty crazy to me.  There have been lots of theories that the Island is in fact Eden and that the bodies of the man and woman in the cave, were Adam and Eve themselves.  In Ab Aeterno, the MIB (pre-Not Locke) talks of having once been a man and that he had been stripped of his humanity.

Note:  In my vast theological studies, I have many interpretations on the events in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  I believe that Eve wanted to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, not to become gods, not to know good and evil, but to invent shopping.  If you recall, the first thing Adam and Eve did was clothe themselves.  I’m sure the first shopping mall soon followed, because she had to find shoes to match that fig leaf.  She was probably looking for the tree of the knowledge of knick-knacks and rustic country, but came across this one first and so it was ab aeterno.

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