{"id":1484,"date":"2010-03-16T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/03\/lost-answers\/"},"modified":"2010-03-16T22:34:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T22:34:00","slug":"lost-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/03\/lost-answers.html","title":{"rendered":"LOST Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Now that\u2019s more like it. <a href=\"http:\/\/nikkistafford.blogspot.com\/2010\/03\/lost-608-recon.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tonight\u2019s episode provided answers<\/a>, real answers, satisfying answers. Well, sort of.\u00a0 OK, not really, but it is still heading in a satisfying direction. [SPOILER ALERT]<\/p>\n<p>As we learned at the end of the last episode, Charles Widmore has returned to the island by submarine. In today\u2019s episode, we learned that the submarine has a door with padlocks \u2013 what could be inside, we\u2019re supposed to wonder. Widmore\u2019s team was setting up a sonic fence, and that suggests that they are concerned about the smoke monster. I\u2019m suspicious, however, since Widmore seemed to think it was crucial that Locke return to the island with his friends. But perhaps his thinking was that Locke and the others were candidate, and he genuinely didn\u2019t want or expect John to die.<\/p>\n<p>James\u00a0is trying to play both Flocke and Widmore against each other. But James Ford in the parallel universe is\u2026a cop! Miles is his partner! And we got to see Charlotte again! And his path has crossed with Kate now too! Way back when, Mr. Eko said \u201cDo not mistake coincidence for fate.\u201d While Jacob\u2019s manipulation clearly changed the way things developed, resulting in the differences between the two timelines, are these intersections of these individuals merely what would have happened anyway? Or is someone manipulating the other timeline much as Jacob manipulated this one? <\/p>\n<p>The black smoke reminds me somewhat of cinematic depictions of a genie, emerging from its lamp to be compelled to do its summoner\u2019s bidding. Perhaps the man in black\/smoke monster is like a genie, and somehow Jacob had found a way to make him do his bidding. And so he was looking for a way to have his master killed to that he could be free. Is the island the bottle?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most interesting revelation came from Flocke, who seems to be completely honest with people \u2013 most of the time. He did tell Claire the Others took her baby, but explained to Kate that he did it because Claire had lost her son and needed something to keep her going. Presumably we shouldn\u2019t buy that, since Claire\u2019s father (presumably also the smoke monster?) had acted precisely to separate Claire and Aaron. Be that as it may, Flocke said that once he was a person like any other, and he had a mother who was disturbed, leaving him with issues. Presumably this is setting the stage for further revelations about the island, the man in black, his mother, and the backstory to these key characters. And perhaps just as Jacob has been manipulating people looking for a replacement, the man in black has been manipulating things to prepare Aaron to replace him. And perhaps the reference to having an enemy and needing someone to hate is suggestive, like the <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Dharma<\/a> logos, of a Taoist background to the light\/dark imagery, where they may conflict but they need each other.<\/p>\n<p>Is it just me, or does Flocke behave rather like a strict parent? He promises to take care of people, he slaps them when they misbehave, he closely supervises them, and takes responsibility for their shortcomings. The behavior strikes me as very parental, as though Jacob was one inclined to think that humans could be given a certain freedom and be good, while the man in black was certain that only strict supervision and upbringing could accomplish that \u2013 perhaps based somewhat on his own experience with his mother?<\/p>\n<p>If you weren\u2019t paying close attention, you may have missed a detail that answered a question that went back to season 2. We\u00a0now know why the Others were carrying a teddy bear in that famous scene. They went back to the beach where the plane had crashed in order to recover it for one of the children who had lost it.<\/p>\n<p>Readers of this blog, of course, have <a href=\"http:\/\/exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\/2008\/08\/lost-teddy-bear.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">known that since 2008<\/a>\u2026\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>One last tidbit. Is it just me, or does <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Flocke\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">this article on Wikipedia<\/a> suggest that there is more to the moniker \u201cFlocke\u201d than just \u201cfake Locke\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the stage is set for answers, and surely no one thought we\u2019d have all the loose ends wrapped up 8 episodes before the finale. The next episode promises to reveal even more, focusing on the backstory of Richard Alpert.<\/p>\n<p>Apologies that these thoughts on the episode are somewhat disjointed. But please do add your own additional scattered thoughts about LOST!<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-8951976564776036434?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that\u2019s more like it. Tonight\u2019s episode provided answers, real answers, satisfying answers. Well, sort of.\u00a0 OK, not really, but it is still heading in a satisfying direction. [SPOILER ALERT] As we learned at the end of the last episode, Charles Widmore has returned to the island by submarine. In today\u2019s episode, we learned that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LOST Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Now that&#039;s more like it. Tonight&#039;s episode provided answers, real answers, satisfying answers. Well, sort of.&nbsp; OK, not really, but it is still\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/03\/lost-answers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LOST Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now that&#039;s more like it. Tonight&#039;s episode provided answers, real answers, satisfying answers. Well, sort of.&nbsp; OK, not really, but it is still\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/03\/lost-answers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-16T22:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-8951976564776036434?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. 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