Four toed hippo and other such abominations

Well, I must say I think that the nail was hit right on the head with the Pandora bit. As the curious and direct Sagittarius I will now offer up a steaming plate of fresh speculation for you to chew on.

The statue: Thought by many to be the Egyptian god Anubis, who is associated with the underworld, it turns out this four-toed creature is actually the demon-goddess Taweret. I know, I know, who the hell is that? Well, for those of you who are too lazy to do a wikipedia search: Taweret is associated with fertility and child bearing (go figure). The Egyptians believed she protects the pregnant mother from evil spirits. She does this with... dun dun dun, "magic knives." Hmm where have we seen those before. Remember all the pregnancy problems on the island? Yeah, seems like Taweret stopped doing her work. Lazy, lazy Taweret.

Now let's see how far we can run with this one... Taweret was both a goddess and a demon, so maybe that's the whole "my mother was crazy bit" comes in (from MIB). She was also believed to be the mother of Osiris. You know Osiris, as in "The Legend of Osiris"

Basically Osiris ruled over the world and made sure everything was cool. Then his brother got jealous...

"Yet there was trouble. Proud Set, noble Set, the brother of Osiris, he who defended the Sun Boat from Apep the Destroyer, was unsettled in his heart. He coveted the throne of Osiris. He coveted Isis. He coveted the power over the living world and he desired to take it from his brother. In his dark mind he conceived of a plot to kill Osiris and take all from him. He built a box and inscribed it with wicked magic that would chain anyone who entered it from escaping."

Hmmm, sounds familiar. Another interesting bit of the legend is that Osiris' spirit enters his wife Isis and she bears a son Horus, who is HIDDEN AWAY ON AN ISLAND "far away from the gaze of his uncle Set." Horus eventually defeats Set and casts him into the darkness.

So who is who??? Is Jacob more like Osiris or Set or Horus, and which one is Locke/smokey/MIB?

Another interesting comparison of these two, which DWAL touched on last week, is the whole Jacob/Esau link. Again a pair of brothers, In the bible Jacob the younger steals inheritance from Esau with the help of his mother(!) and the two spend the rest of their lives fighting. For what it's worth remember Jacob's ladder (the biblical Jacob saw this in a vision) . It stretched to heaven and represented the exiles of the Jewish people (exiles aka castaways maybe).

The story of Jacob in the bible also has ties to Egypt as Jacob's son Joseph brings the whole family (who become the twelve tribes) to Egypt.

Fun stuff, I know, but what does this mean for LOST?? In my humble opinion, these parallels are just influences on the story. How many stories in the history of human mythology do we have about jealous brothers, crazy mothers, and the dichotomy of good vs. evil? Well, a lot.

I think the strongest link here is to Egypt, especially with Richard sporting the "Eye of Horus" look.

Possibilities:

A) The island is some sort of mythical portal to the afterlife and Jacob and "Smokey McGee" are the gatekeepers.

B) The island is a prison for misbehaving immortals. Jacob and Smokey pass the time by competing over lost souls (get it) whom they devour to gain sustenance.

C) A combination of A and B

D) J.J Abrams: Oh wait you internet addicted idiots, all of this is a giant rotten red-herring and you suckers fell for the bait. Way to go. It's not mythological at all, it's all science related. I tricked you with giant Egyptian statues and magic daggers. Booya.

That's all for now... Can't wait for this week's episode! Potato salad at the Tree House hatch!

-Sagittarius

OK...THEORIES...or "Pandora shut that jar!"

OK!!!! I have some theories...actually just one...but while doing some research on female hubris in the ancient world (I know, I know) I came up with the following: The last few episodes have really intrigued me for two reasons, the first being the monologue that Locke/Flocke/Smocke/MIB gave about his crazy mother, I was completely fascinated by that as you will note from my last post. The second being the unclear morality emerging between Jacob and MIB in the last episode. In that episode I was super confused because I couldn't tell who was good and who was evil...Yes, MIB is the smoke monster and he kills people but so does Jacob. Jacob is the one who made the Black Rock crash remember and sent all those poor people to their doom...not cool. The lame black and white symbolism of the two characters is what confuses the issue a bit...but neither of them is good or evil it seems. Clearly, the two of them have been playing some kind of game for eternity. Now here's my theory...what if MIB's mother is Pandora? Pandora, who you will remember unleashed evils upon the world when she opened the "box" which incidentally is translated better as "jar" or "bottle". When the jar was recapped the only thing that remained in it was Hope. From Hesiod: "Zeus decides to give men a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the race of men."

AND...

"Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house,
she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not
fly away. Before [she could], Pandora replaced the
lid of the jar. "

Now, I'm not going to blather on about the misogyny rampant in the Pandora story...although i'd like to. It is important to note that Pandora's children cast stones over their shoulders to create men and women (stone symbolism anyone?)

Anyways, you will remember the end of the last episode when Jacob and MIB spent some time blabbing about the bottle and what it contained and what Jacob wanted to keep inside, etc., etc., and then of course MIB shatters it...right. Abandon all hope people, LOST has only seven more episodes!!!!!!!!

Recon...or...Why yes, you should take that shirt off!

I'm looking at you Sawyer! I'm holding my beer in one hand and I'm fanning myself with the other. It's a good omen for an episode when the opening scene has a semi-naked Sawyer. I've also decided that it's OK for him to cry if he's shirtless....his hawtness brings tears to my own eyes so I wouldn't blame him at all for being overcome by himself...if I was a dude and I looked like that I'd spend all day crying and taking pictures of myself with my cellphone.
Anyway, enough of that. It was a great episode wasn't it? Even though the buddy cop idea of Sawyer and Miles was a little cheesy I didn't care, I happily went right along with it. I hate Charlotte, I was so pleased when her nosebleeds finally took her out last year and now she's back? Obnoxious English accent and everything? I did feel for her when he tossed her ass out for reading his secret hate scrapbook after he slept with her, I mean he should have written TOP SECRET on it, then she wouldn't have read it, right?
Back on the island his dealings with Widmore and Locke were great, clearly this episode is a set-up episode.
Clairousseau attacking Kate was awesome, the Oceanic seven were screaming for Locke to slap her, so we were glad when he did. This brings me to what I found to be the most interesting part of this episode, namely, who the hell is MIB/smokey's mother? The whole monologue about him having a crazy mother was so intriguing, I would really really like to hear theories on this. I have my own but they're all lame-ass jacob/esau biblically ones and I know there must be better ones out there. I quote:

"I know what you're feeling Kate. I know what you're going through because my mother was crazy...A long time ago, before I looked like this, I had a mother. Just like everyone. She was a very disturbed person and as a result of that I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through..."

WTF???? Who is his mother? Theories! Please!

Next week we get a look into Richard Alpert...thank god! Finally! Maybe some water/time proof makeup tips from him too!

The Oceanic Seven met at Tips hatch, where after some prodding MP drank a whole mega bottle of wine by herself...seriously...I didn't even have a sip.
This week the tiny greek is back and we will crowd her LES hatch. Yay!!!

Dr. Linus...Or...Dr. Lie Less

I LOVE Ben episodes...and I love redemption stories even more. So this was a juicy one for me.

Also, my lover Jack was back this week and is it just my imagination or is he getting even hotter? Maybe it was because he was with Hurley and Richard the whole time. I'm glad we finally heard a bit of Richard's story on The Black Rock, but I wish he'd explained how he's kept his make-up so perfect for hundreds of years...I need answers! I'm not sure how I feel about Richard's supernatural existential crisis and Jack's growing faith coming from the sketchy cosmogony with Jacob...but I'm reserving judgement till more 'splaining happens.

Back to Ben... apart from the fact that he was digging that impossibly perfect grave with a fucking bamboo shoot, I was enjoying myself. No one likes a snitch and I was surprised at Miles, a character I have come to love a lot, when Ilana handed him the bag of Jacob ash and he outed Ben. The Ben and Alexandra flash sideways was awesome...may I point out the inclusion of two cast members of the seminal eighties comedy Real Genius...not only did we have John Gries (Lazlo) but also William Atherton (Prof. Hathaway) as the Principal...awesome...Bobby S will have something to say about this. Will Val Kilmer be making a cameo? I'm getting excited by these alliances that are being drawn, Ilana's "I'll have you" moment was great. This is going to be an epic battle!!!!

The Oceanic Seven met at M's hatch in Bed Stuy "The Crack House". P-Rod became convinced that M's apt., which was indeed a former crack house, was infested with the ghosts of dead Crack Whores. His sixth sense could feel their presence and he was completely freaked out by it. All I could sense was M's nice Banana bread...

On the way home Tips and P-Rod were pigs...I'm writing this out loud to shame them...even the cab driver agreed with me...you bitches know what you did!

Next week uptown at Tips hatch "The Hurt Locker"...Z will be in LA...we will miss our tiny greek person.

Some seriously good-looking people!

Feast your eyes on these beauties!

Tippy's tuesday...

All the Single Ladies:...Tippy works with diamonds...he's single, a scorpio and likes ferrets (no euphemism)...and did I say he works with diamonds?...So if he liked it then he'd probably "Put a ring on it"...

-dwall

Sundown...or...Sayid backstory makes me want to Hurley

I don't have too much to say people...I admit it...Sayid has nice arms...but I'm not into dudes who have Italian soccer player hair so I give him a pass most days.

That said, this was definitely not my favorite episode as his backstory bores me.

I WAS glad to see the return of Kearny (if only briefly) because that actor scares the hell out of me. I am super interested in the Jin in the fridge storyline...can't wait to see how that turns out.

I was also pleased to see clear lines of alliance being drawn between Man In Black and Jacob people.

Claire and Kate: Well, Claire has been doing some "acting" and her evil face was quite impressive when she discovered that Kate actually had taken Aaron. I gave a little moo of relief towards the end when it picked up and the smoke monster/MIB/Locke showed up. The direction of the season seemed to get a bit clearer and I can imagine some brilliant story-lines coming as a result. Really, it's not an episode for me without Jack and Sawyer...I miss my Boos. Next week is a Ben centered episode, directed by Mario Van Peebles...Ummm...Ok.

The Oceanic Seven met at the Uptown hatch "The Fort", and drank too much as usual. Bobby S made a cameo appearance and kept saying the phrase "A Faustian bargain" while rubbing his chin, when Sayid met the MIB.

I still love you people!

-dwall

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Nate Robinson #4 new Celtics player via Twitter:

"Man the others in the show lost, they are make n me upset #wordaapp"

Me too Nate...me too...glad you're finally playing for a team that wins sometimes.

-QOTD submitted by Bobby S...who admits to caring about basketball too much.

Awesome!
The Oceanic Seven is at the Uptown hatch this week!