{"id":2354,"date":"2009-05-15T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/05\/lost-checkmate\/"},"modified":"2009-05-15T09:40:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T09:40:00","slug":"lost-checkmate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/05\/lost-checkmate.html","title":{"rendered":"LOST: Checkmate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Some excellent reflections on the season 5 finale of LOST<\/a> have been posted at Entertainment Weekly<\/a> by Doc Jensen (HT Carmen Andres<\/a>, who also has posted her own thoughts<\/a> about the episode). Here\u2019s a sample, which represents his own theory about the significance of certain events:<\/p>\n

Much of the castaways\u2019 history \u2014 including the crash of Oceanic 815 \u2014 has been molded and manipulated by the entity that is the Nameless Man In Black, an intricate, divine conspiracy whose ultimate goal was to kill Jacob. That was the significance of Alterna-Locke\u2019s gloating line: \u201cAnd you have no idea what I\u2019ve gone through to be here.\u201d But what the Adversary didn\u2019t know was that Jacob had been doing some plotting of his own to counter all of his enemy\u2019s moves. And in the last moment of the Jacob\/Alterna-Locke\/Ben showdown, I think what we saw was Alterna-Locke realizing that he\u2019d been checkmated. \u201dThey\u2019re coming,\u201d Jacob sputtered \u2014 referring, I believe, to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the entire quantum leaping cavalry. I think the Adversary completely understood the significance of what Jacob was saying \u2014 and it pissed him off big time. Hence, why Alterna-Locke angrily kicked Jacob into the fire. Hence, that scowl on his face. It was the pout of defeat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You should definitely read the whole thing if you are a fan. How often do you get Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Perry Como pitted against one another to make sense of the religious themes of a science fiction TV show?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also found myself wondering if the riddle isn\u2019t an explanation of what happened in the season finale. \u201cWhat lies (i.e. deceives) in the shadow of the statue? That which protects us all\u201d: in some way, through its very existence, Jacob\u2019s Enemy is crucial to our ongoing existence. Somehow for there to be life and existence, the shadow side (to which the riddle question itself alludes) cannot be eliminated altogether, it must simply be held in check. (For those thinking that \u201cThat which protects us all\u201d might be the island, there\u2019s a problem: insula is a feminine noun in Latin, while \u201che\/that which\u201d in Richard\u2019s answer is ille<\/em>, the masculine form).<\/p>\n

I also remembered John Locke\u2019s question to Christian Shepherd (or someone impersonating him) in the cabin. While the claim to be able to speak for Jacob makes me suspect that pseudo-Christian might not be trustworthy, I nonetheless suspect that he was being truthful in saying that John was right about why he was there: Because he had been chosen to be. Jacob\u2019s enemy required someone who would believe in his own importance sufficiently to believe he was to lead the island, and believe he must die and be willing to go through with it. <\/p>\n

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Some excellent reflections on the season 5 finale of LOST have been posted at Entertainment Weekly by Doc Jensen (HT Carmen Andres, who also has posted her own thoughts about the episode). Here\u2019s a sample, which represents his own theory about the significance of certain events: Much of the castaways\u2019 history \u2014 including the crash […]<\/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-2354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLOST: Checkmate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some excellent reflections on the season 5 finale of LOST have been posted at Entertainment Weekly by Doc Jensen (HT Carmen Andres, who also has posted\" \/>\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\/2009\/05\/lost-checkmate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LOST: Checkmate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some excellent reflections on the season 5 finale of LOST have been posted at Entertainment Weekly by Doc Jensen (HT Carmen Andres, who also has posted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/05\/lost-checkmate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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