Subject: LOST 5 - Episode 12 "Dead is Dead"
1. Anubis - Anubis (the jackal-headed Egyptian god) is seen etched with Smokey in Smokey's chamber (see attached "Smokey's chamber"). Anubis was the guide of the dead on their path through the underworld. The Ancient Egyptians believed that when you died, you traveled to the Hall of the Dead. There Anubis weighed your heart against the feather of Ma'at. Ma'at, the goddess of justice sits on top of the scales to make sure that the weighing is carried out properly. You can see Anubis steadying the scales to make the weighing fair (see attached "anubis"). If your heart was lighter than the feather, you lived forever. If your heart was heavier than the feather then it was eaten by the demon Ammit, the Destroyer.
2. Ilana's riddle: What lies in the shadow of the statue? Looks like somebody came to the Island prepared for a hostile takeover, if not a war - perhaps the very same war Widmore spoke to Locke about. Ilana gave Lapidus a sphinx-like riddle test that made her sound as if she was intimately acquainted with the Island's ancient mythology. A related story is about the Great Sphinx at Giza... The story is that the Sphinx was nearly buried in sand and a man slept in the shadow of his head and had a dream that the sphinx told him that he was dying from the sand suffocating him, and that if the man unburied him from the sand, he would become pharaoh over Egypt. So the man saved the sphinx by digging it out of the sand and eventually killed his own brother, the pharaoh, and became pharaoh himself.
(Kinda reminds me of the riddle from seasons 1 and 2... "what did one snowman say to the other".)
I think that Ilana works for Widmore... either that or she and her friends are infected like Rousseau's crew, however I don't think we've ever seen Smokey on that little Hydra Island so I'm going to assume she works for Widmore. Maybe Widmore himself is inside that metal crate??? Lol.
3. Widmore - Widmore previously told Locke that he was tricked off the island by Ben but last night's episode seemed to tell us otherwise. Widmore fathered a child (Penelope) with an ''outsider," spent too much time off the Island, and exploited the Island for selfish gain. Doesn't really seem like he was tricked...
4. More Widmore - Widmore was pissed that Richard brought Young Ben to the Temple (Jacob wanted Ben brought to the Temple). Widmore probably felt threatened. It's been suggested that Jacob likes to play favorites, so Widmore probably realized right away that Ben represented a rival/ threat.
5. Doubting Thomas - St. Thomas professed his faith in Jesus (post crucifixion) only after being offered the opportunity to touch Jesus' wounds - according to the author of the Gospel of John. We saw the Doubting Thomas painting, which portrays this, in the Lamppost Station (Ms. Hawking's church - see attached "Thomas painting" and "Saint_Thomas" photos).
Ben told Locke that he knew his Island magic would bring Locke back, however the surprise on Ben's face certainly suggested otherwise. Much like Jack, Ben had to see it to believe it. So many religion themes in this show.
6. Smokey's "telephone" - what is the significance of having water as the barrier that prevents Smokey from getting out? I'm going to look into this...
7. Ben's house - Weird, but Ben's Dharmaville house was originally a Dharma Initiative house, right?... so why did it come with a moving bookshelf and access tunnel to Smokey??? Interesting...
8. Smokey's judgement - As we saw with the death of Mr. Eko, passing judgment is all about repentance, and not so much about the sins committed. Ben to Locke: "You know, you were right... I did kill Alex". This type of repentance is exactly what the smoke monster is looking for. Had he not gained this important insight, Ben would've been destroyed just like Eko. This is pretty similar to Mr. Eko's judgment in The Cost of Living. The monster, appearing as Yemi, reminds Eko of all the terrible things he's done. But Eko feels differently - he feels that these things were all forced upon him and he refuses to repent. He denounces the monster's judgment, and it destroys him for it. Ben's penance, as he tells Locke: "It let me live..." - Ben must forever live with the guilt of having his daughter's death on his hands.
9. Alex's death - She was supposed to die as an infant, but didn't. Many years later, Alex's death happens anyway... and this brings about a really important question that Widmore would mention at his exile: was she supposed to die all along? Once Ben's chain of command had broken down, did the island use Keamy as a tool to course correct? Or was Alex's death on Widmore's orders, thinking that by correcting this mistake it would somehow help him back into the island's favor? This is why Ben so adamantly asked Keamy if Widmore had instructed him to kill Alex.
10. Desmond survives! - Apparently, Mythbusters had an episode that showed a bullet can be stopped by only a few inches of water (or milk). Ben should've watched that episode.
11. See the attached photos "Qabalah & Anubis," "Kabbalah Tree of Life diagram," and "Tree of Life 2." These are very reminiscent of the Blast Door Map and hatch diagrams. The Tree of Life is mentioned in many different religions. Per Wikipedia: A tree of life is variously, a) a mystical concept alluding to the interconnectedness of all life on our planet, b) a metaphor for common descent in the evolutionary sense, and c) a motif in various world theologies, mythologies and philosophies.
