{"id":3869,"date":"2008-03-06T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-06T22:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera\/"},"modified":"2008-03-06T22:45:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-06T22:45:00","slug":"the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html","title":{"rendered":"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera"},"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>I didn\u2019t watch much of the \u2018enhanced\u2019 version of \u201cThe Constant\u201d (last week\u2019s episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the military base where Desmond was stationed is a real place north of the Arctic Circle, and it appears in Philip Pullman\u2019s <i>His Dark Materials<\/i> trilogy as a gateway to <a href=\"http:\/\/exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\/2008\/01\/lost-in-parallel-universe.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">parallel universes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Did anyone else notice that, at the end, Desmond is in both times simultaneously? That is what becomes possible when one has a \u201cconstant\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This episode introduced the character of Harper Stanhope, who we learn was Goodwin\u2019s wife. I must say that the pun in the title of tonight\u2019s episode of LOST is a good one. Juliet is a woman who is one of the Others, and tonight we learn that she also played the role of \u2018the other woman\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Harper features most intriguingly, however, as a manifestation of the island, accompanied by the ghostly voices, delivering a message supposedly from Ben. The message is that Daniel and Charlotte must be prevented from releasing the gas from the Tempest power station, which would kill everyone on the island. When Juliet asks how Ben could send a message when he\u2019s a prisoner, Harper replies that Ben is \u201cexactly where he wants to be\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that Daniel and Charlotte are trying to neutralize the gas, not unleash it. But do they want to make it safe to prevent Ben from using it? Or to make it available for use by someone else?<\/p>\n<p>We learn, at long last, who sent the freighter: Charles Widmore. And Ben tells John Locke that he\u2019ll tell him who his man on the freighter is, but he had better sit down first. [The combination of the safe that contained the video tape was 36-15-28]. Widmore, Ben claims, wants to exploit the island, and Ben\u2019s biggest fear is the people who would flock to the island if they knew about it.<\/p>\n<p>Harper says at one point in the episode that <a href=\"http:\/\/paullevinson.blogspot.com\/2008\/03\/lost-46-true-nature-of-ben.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ben\u2019s crush on Juliet<\/a> is unsurprising, since she looks \u201cjust like her\u201d. Who is Harper referring to? I\u2019d guess Ben\u2019s mother. Ben brought Juliet to the island specifically for this reason, and so Ben is himself exploiting the island. He thinks Juliet is his. My guess is that he is even causing the women to die in childbirth, as his mother did. How much of this is done by him consciously, and how much is simply the island translating his desires and deepest dreads into reality, I don\u2019t feel I can say yet.<\/p>\n<p>The trick as the story develops from here on will be to keep it from degenerating into a soap opera. But Ben always has a plan, and I can only hope that the makers of LOST do to.<\/p>\n<p>The funniest line in the show was when Ben asked whether <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lostblog.net\/lost\/tv\/show\/dharma-orchid-video\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the rabbit that Locke cooked for dinner had a number on it<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-5868511063069502069?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn\u2019t watch much of the \u2018enhanced\u2019 version of \u201cThe Constant\u201d (last week\u2019s episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the military base where Desmond was stationed is a real place north of the Arctic Circle, and it appears in Philip Pullman\u2019s His Dark Materials trilogy as a [&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-3869","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>The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I didn&#039;t watch much of the &#039;enhanced&#039; version of &quot;The Constant&quot; (last week&#039;s episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the\" \/>\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\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I didn&#039;t watch much of the &#039;enhanced&#039; version of &quot;The Constant&quot; (last week&#039;s episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.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=\"2008-03-06T22:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-5868511063069502069?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. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html\",\"name\":\"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-06T22:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-06T22:45:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"I didn't watch much of the 'enhanced' version of \\\"The Constant\\\" (last week's episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera","description":"I didn't watch much of the 'enhanced' version of \"The Constant\" (last week's episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera","og_description":"I didn't watch much of the 'enhanced' version of \"The Constant\" (last week's episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2008-03-06T22:45:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-5868511063069502069?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html","name":"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-06T22:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-06T22:45:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"I didn't watch much of the 'enhanced' version of \"The Constant\" (last week's episode), but I did catch a glimpse of one important point: the name of the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/03\/the-other-woman-lost-as-metaphysical-soap-opera.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The OTHER Woman: LOST as Metaphysical Soap Opera"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}