S6E5 VERSIONS OF LOCKE

There is some doubt on Ilana's statement that somehow MIB/Smokey is now "trapped" in a duplicate body of John Locke. When Claire's "friend" shows up at Camp Crazy, Jin says thinks it is Locke while Claire says he (it) is not Locke but her "friend."

There appears to be several different "versions" of Locke:

1. Regular boy Locke who grew up in a frustrated way.
2. Handicapped Locke who was betrayed by his con man father.
3. Miracle Locke who crash landed on the Island then who could walk again.
4. Time traveling Locke.
5. Strangled dead Locke (who turns into ripe Locke on the island who then is buried).
6. Flocke (MIB/Smokey) who takes the lead of the Ajira and Others.
7. Claire's unnamed friend.

We have seen that Flocke can change forms when he turned into the smoke monster and killed four of Jacob's guards. So afterward, when Ilana says he is trapped in that form, that cannot be the case because there is no intervening event (Jacob was already dead when the change happened in the statue.)

>>>>> Interruption tangent: looking at the various Locke characterizations, they can be imprinted on other characters in a similar fashion:

Ben:

1. Regular boy Ben who grew up in a frustrated way, without his mother.
2. Vengeful Ben who was betrayed by his alcoholic father during the purge.
3. Miracle Ben whose spinal surgeon crash landed on the Island so he could be cured.
4. Time traveling Ben.
5. Dead Ben (young Ben taken to the Temple after Sayid's gunshot wound to the chest).
6. Ben who takes the lead of the Others.

Jack:
1. Regular boy Jack who grew up in a fearful way with his father.
2. Surgeon Jack who was betrayed by his alcoholic father.
3. Miracle Jack who survived a plane crash.
4. Time traveling Jack.
5. Dying Jack who gave up everything to return to the Island.
6. Leader Jack who takes the lead of the 815ers.

>>>>>> I guess this can be filed under "Misery Loves Company."

The concept of "versions" of Locke reminds me of the uncanny ability of Patchy to die in episode after episode until the Looking Glass explosion. I always thought it was strange, like there were multiple Patchy guys running around like the robotic gun slinger in the old movie, Westworld.

It appears that MIB can shape shift into various forms, including the smoke monster and Flocke. If that is the case, then there is no restriction we know of that he cannot split into multiple beings like two Flockes. From a location standpoint, it is unrealistic to have Flocke and Sawyer in the Jacob cave on the other side of the Island, then Flocke and Sawyer show up at Claire's camp. The indication is that Flocke is alone.

Now, another explanation could be that Claire is under a spell. She sees a different person than Flocke, while the rest of the world sees Locke's appearance. When Flocke leaves the statue after killing Jacob, Alpert recognizes or sees a different "person" than Locke - - - he never says him name before getting beaten unconscious. It has been a hard push back from the TPTB that whomever Alpert or Claire has seen remains unnamed. Perhaps his name is Lucifer or Satan.

As of now, the majority view is that Claire died in the Keamy soldier attack in Dharmaville. Her house was exploded to pieces, and Sawyer came in to retrieve her groggy self. It was afterward that she saw Christian in the jungle, and she abandoned her baby and vanished with her ghost father. Dogen says Claire has the same infection as Sayid, a darkness that continues to grow inside. Claire says she was captured and "tested" like Sayid, except she indicated that they used needles on her (maybe the electric shock). The only reason that Sayid "failed" the test was that he did not react in pain when the ash was put on his body. The ash would have caused a severe reaction in the smoke monster (evil spirit) inside him. Of course, there may be no logic in the test protocol. Example, during Salem witch trials, the elders set forth a test whether a woman was a witch. She was thrown into the water weighted down: if she sank and drowned she was not a witch; if she floated and lived, then she was a witch who would be burned at the stake. In either situation, the end result is the same. An accused witch, proof or not, or an innocent woman, would receive the same fate, death.

The only apparent governor on MIB's actions has been "free will" choices of individuals. If MIB was an all-powerful being, then he would not need to take the form of John Locke in an attempt to influence, trick or push characters into choosing a course of action. Ghost Jacob is doing the same thing by pushing Hurley to push Jack into some final free will choice.

But if we are talking about versions of Flocke, meaning versions of MIB, we have no real proof that what we have been seeing is consistently a single Jacob, or a single MIB. If MIB can take the form of Locke, then why can't MIB take the form of Jacob? Likewise, if Jacob can turn from man to ghost, why can't he take the form of MIB, Jacob or anyone else? Ghost Christian once claimed he worked with Jacob (as a new form of Jacob or MIB?). It can be a huge game of misdirection on the viewer.

S6E5 TEMPLE HALL TRANSLATIONS

When Hurley was walking down the temple hall to find the secret passage,
he passed several hieroglyphs. My translations:

The first one on his left:

SON WHO MAKES OFFERS (TO) GOD HORUS

The first one on his right:

YOU SAID TO THE MAN: ETERNITY.

The second one on the left:

OSIRIS' YOUTH (SON) HORUS CONTROLS BIRTHS.

The third one on the left, where Hurley stopped and was ready to touch:

The symbol of a coiled rope means ETERNITY and PROTECTION. It is often associated with Horus, the falcon or Hut, the Vulture (called the Lady of Heaven).

S6E5 LIGHTHOUSE TRANSLATION

The lighthouse contained a row of hieroglyphs. It was a long line of symbols, and the screen cap was fuzzy at best. It appears to be a prayer to one of the Egyptian gods. This my best translation:

I approach the Devine Spirit, Lady Nephthys.
Support the King.
Fetch your Father's (Geb) Support.
Give and justify that which binds the Two Lands after binding the dangerous under ruler scourge.
Destroy Hell's entrails (on the) Island, our Garden.

Nephthys is the patron of the dead, funerals and protector of the house. She is the sister of Osiris and wife of Seth. She helped put together Osiris after Seth murdered him. She is often depicted on a boat riding with the dead toward the Blessed Land.

Her father, Geb, is the God of the Earth, and a member of the Ennead, the council of the founding gods.

S6E5 HALLWAY TRANSLATION

In the temple hallway where Hurley is trying to find the secret passage by the eternity symbol, Jacob appears beside Dogen. Next to ghost Jacob is a hieroglyph containing four symbols. From the angle, it is not totally clear in imagery or construction, but my best guess on its translation is:

OSIRIS' YOUTH (SON) HORUS CONTROLS BIRTHS.

Osiris is the Lord of the Underworld, and his son Horus is a devine god who defeated his uncle, Seth, to claim a prominent position in Egyptian kingdom worship. Horus is a powerful deity. The concept of births has been an Island mystery, especially with the destruction of the statue of Tawaret, the goddess of fertility. But if this place is the underworld, "to give birth" may be re-birth, a second life - - - reincarnation or redemption at final judgment (heaven-paradise). The whole character sagas have been the purging of personal faults and demons on the path of some sort of redemption. The Lighthouse may be a metaphor for one's own soul searching, an internal re-ordering of one's principles, fears, desires and faults in order to come forward without burdens on one's heart (as in the final judgment Maat ceremony).

S6E5 LIGHTHOUSE

The Lighthouse looks very similar to the Seventh Wonder of the Ancient World, the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Egyptian lighthouse was built by the last Pharaohs to guide ships into the Alexandria harbor. Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great, who instead of building a capitol along the Nile, he placed his city where there was a large harbor to facilitate commerce and trade.

As noted before, Alexandria was the intellectual beacon of ancient knowledge and technology. The library at Alexandria contained all the known works from scholars, scientists, inventors and writers. The lighthouse was a tourist mecca for much of southern Europe.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria contained polished glass placed directly around a large fire pit, which would then send light for tens of miles out to sea, to guide ships to the harbor.

S6E5 LIGHTS, CAMERA, INACTION!

L: Lo - - - the wow moment for me was when Hurley was walking down the temple hall and stopping at a single hieroglyph. I knew what it was! The coiled rope is a symbol for eternity and protection. It is often associated with Horus, the falcon or Hut, the Vulture (called the Lady of Heaven). It is interesting to note Hurley was looking for a "secret" passageway, a door - - - to eternity?

O: Obnoxious - - - the flash "sideways" story is irrelevant, immaterial and meaningless. In the enhanced version of "The Substitute," it was stated that the sideways story is a "what if" (not an alternative time line) if Flight 815 did not crash on the island. The flight did crash, and the survivors are still running around the island on unknown missions. The sideways story is mere episode filler; more like saw dust than bread crumbs in a meat loaf.

S: Story line - - - more and more statements and symbols of death and the afterlife keep popping up into the forefront of the story. It is slowly affirming that the magical island is an afterlife world of the dead. When Jack becomes irate about Jacob's lighthouse spying on him as a child, one forgets the concept of guardian angels overseeing humans in the time of need. Ghost Jacob appears to be a crude and cruel version of Clarence in A Wonderful Life.

T: Time line - - - if one just stops watching the sideways story as being irrelevant, the "real" time line is what is happening directly on the island. I found it curious that Ghost Claire does not have a sense that she has been out in the jungle for three years. Maybe ghosts have no need to know the time because it will not change their circumstances.

VINCENT

In reference to the importance of Vincent in the final story line:

Cats are mostly associated with the royals in Egypt, but dogs do have an important place in that society, as hunting dogs, shepards, guard dogs and pets.

Dogs were reflected in their gods, including Anubis, who is shown with the head of a jackal. A jackal is a desert wild canine, a bottom feeder who would dig up graves. They used those observations to symbolize a dog's role in the after life.

Anubis was not a god of the dead, in the sense that he was the ruler of the underworld, he was the god who supervised the embalming and burial of the deceased and who guided the dead to the underworld. The symbol of the "dog" seems to have been associated with the notion of "guiding."

Wepwawet, another canine god, is often represented on the bough of a boat, leading the way. The name Wepwawet means "the one who opens the ways," I think this may describe Vincent when Ghost Christian told Vincent to wake up Jack after the original plane crash.

Once in the underworld, Anubis, assisted by the god Thoth, supervises the weighing of the heart of the deceased. Only when the deceased's heart was found to be in balance with all that was as it should be, Maat, was he introduced to Osiris.

Anubis was also the guardian of the necropolis or cemetery. He was also described as the "lord of the cave", where "cave" refers to the tomb.

ADAM AND EVE CAVE

If we ever get back to the Adam and Eve cave, I expect something like the above on the cave walls. What is really strange is that I am starting to think in hieroglyphs, like an ancient scribe.

BIRDS, BEES & ADAM AND EVE

One of the mysterious current under blog posting re-examination is the mystery of Adam and Eve, found in the caves during Season 1. Kate found the first skeleton on a ledge inside the cave. Jack said they had to be there for at least 50 years. One was a man and one was a woman. Inside a pocket, he found two stones, one black one white.

If you look at Adam and Eve it looks like they have been mummified. And we know the Egyptians were the world's mummy burial rites advocates. This scene predates our view of the island underworld and the Temple, with the Egyptian references.

Recall, that Kate and Jack found the cave dwellers as a result of a bee attack. Which lead to the following research:

According to one Egyptian myth, honey bees were the tears of the sun god Ra. Their religious significance extended to an association with the goddess Neith, whose temple was known as "the house of the bee." Honey was regarded as a symbol of resurrection and also thought to give protection against evil spirits.

Ancient Egyptians also thought the bee a symbol of wisdom, regeneration, and obedience.

The Egyptians kept bees for their honey and wax. They were kept in woven wicker hives that had been covered in clay. Not only was the honey used for food and as offerings to the gods, but it was also used by the Egyptians to create makeup, medicine (it has an antibacterial effect), boat building, mummification and as a binding agent in some paints.

The ancient priests used to chisel out shelves in caves to bury the dead. Ledges were used to bury them. Based on the circumstantial evidence, one could easily state that the cave was the burial chamber for an ancient Egyptian couple.

DISCOVERY ON EGYPT

The Discovery Channel had an Egyptian theme marathon as a preview for its new King Tut special.

A few interesting points:

I did not realize that there were numerous child kings of Egypt. Many successions were the direct result of murderous politics to control the blood line to the Pharaoh's throne.

The duties of a pharaoh were two fold:
1. protect the nation from outsiders as a warrior king; and
2. protect the Egyptian religion as the liaison with the gods.

Temples were the place of worship of religious rights. Egyptians believed strongly in magic and spells. Tombs were the instruction manuals of how a pharaoh would be able to fulfil his duties in the afterlife. The most important duty was to guard the sun god Ra in his nightly journey through the underworld. If the mission failed, the sun would not rise again and Egypt would be destroyed in darkness. Many tombs have been found in desert caves.

When MIB stated that he was once human, had emotions, and had been betrayed in the past, by Jacob or someone acting in his behalf, it resulted in MIB being trapped on the island. It could be that Adam and Eve found in the caves were the last Pharaohs or royals who fled Egypt to this magical island to protect their nation and religion from total destruction. However, they were killed and buried in a cave without the "instructions" on how to pass on their knowledge to their children, Jacob and MIB. As children, they had no idea what to do except to make up "rules" to live by, like in a game. But since they never gained the knowledge of the afterlife, their souls became trapped on the island with no way to go home (to their dead parents/paradise). Jacob keeps on bringing people to the island to see if they have the knowledge, but they do not because ancient Egyptian rites have been lost for centuries.

MIB LIES

The "recruitment" of Sawyer by MIB may play out as standard operating plot procedure for LOST. Everything said by a character to motivate another to "freely" do something is most likely a bold faced lie.

If we apply this lie detector to the statements made by Flocke to Sawyer, a different picture of MIB appears:

1. MIB was never a man.
2. MIB was never betrayed.
3. MIB is not trapped on this island.
4. MIB does not want to go home.
5. The ocean side cave was not Jacob's, but MIB's. (This makes more sense considering Jacob used ink and paper to create lists, not cave walls. Also, Jacob spent most of his time in the statue creating tapestries than on the edge of the island.)

THEY'RE COMING AGAIN!

As Jacob was being killed in the Tawaret foot, he told Ben and Flocke that "They're Coming!" The reaction by Flocke was one of uncomfortable worry.

Much speculation about who are THEY.

One answer could be Ilana's soldiers carrying the body of John Locke to the statue to show the Others "who they are dealing with." The Others need physical proof that their new "leader" is not a man (Locke) but a demon in MIB. We have been shown that Jacob went to off-island Ilana, who was severely injured in a hospital bed, asking her for her help. Ilana's group could have been reinforcements, but Flocke easily took them out with ease.

Another answer could be that Jacob's "touched" 815ers are "back" from 1977 and coming to save his bacon. The theory that Jacob's demise is like the story of Osiris, where he had put the parts of his soul into six different character bodies during off-island contacts, only to bring them back to the island to be reincarnated when they all met back at the Temple. This is still a plausible theory, but Flocke had been dealing with the knowledge of the other 815 passengers when he assumed Locke's body and memories.

Another answer could be one of those gnawing questions from early in the show: the Other Others. The children who Ana Lucia and the Tailies were terrified of so as to hide in the jungle each time they passed by their camp. When the ghost young boy appears, first with bloody arms (new ghost Jacob?) or without bloody arms (later after being chased by Flocke), I get the sense that the Island has a group of frightening children from Flocke's initial reaction. He was scared at first, then realizing that there was only one, chases after him. But the confrontation is short, and the child's command was clear: "you cannot kill him." We assume "him" is candidate Ford, whom Flocke is leading to an alleged ocean side condo formerly occupied by Jacob. The concept of a band of Island Children with power spells or magic would be a counter balance to the adult spirits or smoke monsters like MIB and/or Jacob.

However, I do not believe that the ocean cave is Jacob's liar. Jacob made lists on paper. The list in the cave was scratched on cave walls. It is stated that MIB is "trapped" on the Island and wants to go "home." A castaway on an island is trapped by the vast ocean around him. Maybe MIB is afraid of the water - - - it is poison to him. (However, there is contrary evidence of Flocke eating a ripe mango on the beach so maybe it is something else that binds him to the island.) Or, MIB cannot leave the island in the Flocke form without the "free will" of another person (he first asked Richard, who declined, then he asked Sawyer, who accepted.).

Now, MIB told Jacob that it was Jacob that brought the humans to the island. The cave walls lists of more than 313 people is a census of people on the island, and MIB crossing off the names of those he has eliminated from the game. Jacob did not assign the names numbers, MIB did. He was the one who had to figure out who Jacob was bringing to the island in order to find a loophole to kill him.

Finally, They could mean some other group that we have not yet seen. Or comprehend, like the spirits that live inside the banyan trees which served to protect Juliet and Kate from Smokey.

INFERNO

Dante Alighieri's enduring "The Divine Comedy," a long poem chronicling Dante's journey through hell in pursuit of his beloved Beatrice, has been compared to the pieces of the story line in LOST. In Dante's journey, he goes through nine twisted circles of hell, including limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Each of the main characters has one of the deadly traits that he or she may need to overcome in order to get some redemption.

Limbo could be John Locke adventurous spirit confined in a wheelchair.
Lust could be Kate, who has seen more action than a pinball off the bumpers.
Gluttony could be Hurley, who was once in charge of the pantry and food drop.
Greed could be Widmore, who amassed a fortune to take back the Island for himself.
Anger could be really anyone who likes to shoot first ask questions later.
Heresy could be for the non-believers, like Jack.
Violence could be the Others in their battle with Dharma.
Fraud could be the con artistry of Sawyer.
Treachery could be master plans of MIB and/or Jacob.

In complex individuals, these concepts of human flaws can overlap and consume a person's soul into pure evil. Punishment in final judgment would be eternal pain and suffering.

GAME IDEA

I was thinking that Season 6 is another season of the characters running around the island on missions with their heads cut off from logic . . . what could I compare it to?

Well, I think that concept would make an excellent PINBALL machine game. The old fashion, springing a ball bearing down a tilted surface towards paddles, bells, whistles, smoke monster graphics, down hatch holes, spitting out of jungle trees, whispers off the bumpers . . . I think the LOST PINBALL machine would be in Hugo's world, "Awesome!"

S6E4 THE OTHER OTHERS

The bloody arm blond boy in jungle who told Flocke he could not kill "him" (a reference to Sawyer) brought to mind a very old observation about the "Other" Others. When the Tailies were setting up their camp after the initial crash, they were infiltrated by Goodwin on the direction of Ben. His order was to get in with the survivors and make lists. There were several kidnapping attempts, with one ending with Eko killing some unknown people. However, the first one where Cindy and the children, Emma and Zach, were gone can be easily explained since we now know Cindy was an Other.

In the jungle, Ana Lucia hid from a group that was terrorizing her people. As the camera panned, there were only shots of legs . . . of children, marching through the jungle. It gave me a Lord of the Flies vibe. Shipwrecked children spar over how to create their new island society splits them a part into rival factions. This was during the time that it was believed that the Others were a bunch of native hostile humans at war with outsiders. We have to add the possibility now that anyone on the island could be human, dead, undead, a spirit or a smoke monster.

Ghost boy appears to be quite familiar with Flocke and "the rules." Flocke runs after him as if to silence the ghost boy from telling his parents something bad, like he is breaking the rules. Or not playing fairly. Or abusing lesser life forms like humans.

Ghost boy adds another layer of groups into the power structure of the Island. If the Other Others are spirits taking the form of children, and Richard's Others are spirits taking the form of adults, there could be a clear distinction on how each group perceives itself and its role.

S6E4 RIDING THE BUS

We saw Smokey moving through the jungle into the Barracks and back around to find the machete on the ground. Smokey turns into physical Flocke, in order to cut down Richard.

It is like Smokey is the transportation choice for the spirits who inhabit the substitute bodies on the Island. Like any type of vehicle, it can be used for useful purposes like travel or bad purposes (like running over Juliet's husband).

Ilana stated that Flocke could no longer change bodies. Why not? We clearly saw Flocke turn into Smokey and back into Flocke. It is impossible to confirm what the rules are when there are so much conflicting visual information presented in the story lines.

S6E4 RECAP

L: Lo --- there was no really outstanding moment/reveal in this weak Locke-centric episode. The idea of another "new" location, dubbed Jacob's Cave, where the Numbers are carved in the ceiling representing the names of "candidates" to replace Jacob as Island protector, really did not solve anything, since there was apparently more than 313 names scratched in the stone, with most of those X'd off like Flocke did to Locke's name (signifying a person's death/demise on the island).

O: Obnoxious --- well, it could not be Kate this week because she was no where to be seen. The LA X Alternative scenes really make no headway to the original island story. The "new" lives of the old characters has become tedious and contrived; winning the lottery would not change Hurley into an uber-Silicon Valley investment banker or cancer ridden Rose from New York being Hurley's head headhunter in LA.

S: Story line - - - nothing has changed the overall theory-premise of the Island as the junction of the axis point between heaven-hell, good-evil, life-death. The Island story that continues to bark out unstated rules, like little ghost Jacob(?) telling Flocke he could not kill Sawyer. There are so many inconsistent rules that there may be no rules at all. The story line continues to evoke the characters assuming other people's roles, like musical chairs, which is more filler than answers to the big questions.

T: Time line - - - the debate rages on the LA X time line being a month off the 2004 Island time line that no one knows for certain whether there is actually now a Real Time Line. If 815 never crashed, an easter egg production prop error shows the month of October instead of September. The idea of two separate time lines re-converging at the end of the show is too far fetched to comprehend.

IDEA WE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF

Website Digital Spy reports:

A Lost-inspired number entering game has been released on the iPhone.

Developed by Smallrock Software, Doomsday Terminal requires players to enter in a series of numbers every 108 minutes, according to Kotaku.

The application was inspired by US TV series Lost, which featured a computer terminal inside an underground hatch into which the survivors must enter numbers to avert disaster.

While the application uses a different set of numbers from the show, messages can be sent through the terminal that will be distributed to other players at random.

The current survival record stands at just over a week.

>>>> Just over a week?!

FINAL TEMPLE CEREMONY

I was wondering how Jacob's "touched" characters would be reincarnated into a new Jacob from the ghost Jacob. In a speculative, personal opinion thought process, this is how I would write it:

All the main characters would be escorted into the Temple spring. Several would be weary of what is about to happen, but Hurley tells them to do what they ask so the curse that holds them all together could be lifted.

Dogen would be at the steps facing the pillars. He would say loudly, "In the name of Horus, alas spirit enter." He would direct the touched ones into the clear spring water. "Horus, sacred god, father's duties," Dogen would pray as they would line up in the middle of the spring. When they were finally in a line (Sawyer-Kate-Jack (holding up Dead Locke with)-Sayid-Hurley-Sun-Jin).

Dogen would continue. "Horus, enter father's gardens." All the doors behind the Temple pillars would open letting in sunlight into the chamber. "Stand for father's long past ideas of rebirth," Dogen would say as white cloaked men would fill the voids between the pillars, standing behind the main characters who are facing Dogen.

Dogen would take large palm leaf and a silk bag full of gray ash, and begin to fan the dust toward the people in the spring. "Lord father, patron of the Dead, heal for eternities," he would pray.

He would take a knife and cut his hand, letting his blood drip into the spring water.
"Lord father," he would say after 8 drops of blood have hit the water's edge.

Dogen would move to the top step and raise his gaze to the ceiling. "Island Heaven!," he would call out, then making a sacred/magical sign symbol with his bloody hands. "Enter Ra!" he would proclaim.

He would take the palm leaf and the ash bag to a hot charcoal pot sitting on the pedestal that housed the hour glass timer. He would burn the leaf and the bag and proclaim, "Heaven, conspire against evil fires!"

Dogen would then return to the top step of the pool and look deeply into each person's eye. He would raise both hands above his head. And pause. We see a picture of all the touched characters in the pool, watching Dogen's arms drop to his side - - - then, suddenly, gasping expressions from bloody bullet exit wounds from each person's chests - - - and they fall into the water and disappear in a foaming red water. After they have fallen, we can see the cloaked men all had rifles, used to shoot the people in the pool.

Dogen would move to the bottom step and stare intently in the churning red water. He would yell, "Stand Ra!" and make another sacred/magical sign symbol with his hands.

Then a form will begin to rise from the middle of the pool, facing the cloaked men, who will immediately fall to their knees in reverence. The man in the pool stands, then slowly turns toward Dogen. We see Dogen's expression of joy for the return of Jacob to the Temple. Then a gasping stare as the man's face is revealed: Flocke.

In a sneer, Flocke tells Dogen, "He may have been on Jacob's list, but he was on my list, too!"

With that, the Temple begins to quake, slabs of rock begin to fall, the pillars shatter. Then there is a close up of Flocke's evil grin, as he slowly sinks into the bloody spring.

End shot: the Island slowing sinking into the ocean.

S6E3 RECAP

L: Lo - - the most interesting or amazing event in the Episode was Dogen telling Jack that Sayid had been "claimed." As speculated last week, the Temple's reaction to the news of Jacob's death was like the palace defending against a coup. And in North American Native Indian culture, a coup meant to touch an enemy as a sign of bravery or to claim an enemies possessions in battle. It also dovetails into the notion of Osiris reincarnation through Jacob touching several of the 815ers.

O: Obnoxious - - the most obnoxious part of the Episode was, for the second week in a row, Kate bouncing off Jack and Sawyer. I am tired of the Kate mini-soap opera story line of who is going to take her to the jungle prom.

S: Story line - - I am now still confident that my theory that the story line involves the afterlife through a variation of Egyptian mythology will still play out. Dogen cryptically alluded to the fact that everyone was "brought" to the Island . . . i.e. through death on Earth.

T: Time line - - I really do not care for the new-alt-parallel 815 LAX time line. If it is "a what if" flash forwardish character realization that the 815ers' lives were not so great off-island, well we already knew that. If it is "a contemporaneous" new multi-universe to show that Juliet was right, "it worked," it has little to do with the resolution of five seasons of Island whomping events.

S6E3 INFECTION

When Dogen used the term "claimed" to describe Sayid's condition, several things came to mind. First, possession by an outside force, such as an (evil) spirit. Second, a more scientific explanation, like an infection. Rousseau claimed to Sayid that all the Others were infected by the "sickness." And we learned she was referring to the transformation of humans after being captured (consumed) by Smokey. It is also of note that when Desmond was caged up in the Hatch, he was routinely giving himself a "vaccine" against an unknown illness. That is why the Island was under some kind of quarantine.

In a pseudo-scientific explanation of the Dogen analysis could follow the pattern of a supernatural staph infection:

Staph bacteria are normally found on the skin or in the nose of about one-third of the population. If you have staph on your skin or in your nose but aren't sick, you are said to be "colonized" but not infected. Healthy people can be colonized and have no ill effects. However, they can pass the germ to others.

>>>> This is what could have happened to the 815ers. Once they were "brought" to the Island, they have been in contact with the Island bacteria and "colonized."

Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or other wound, and even then they often cause only minor skin problems in healthy people.

>>>> More proof that you are safe unless you have an open portal for the Island bacteria to invade a body. Prime example: Sayid's gunshot wound in the belly.

A weakened individual can have the bacteria grow into a serious infection. The bacteria could be immune from antibiotics as over time the germs find a resistance to the drugs. Also, germ mutations can form making current antibiotics ineffective.

Using this foundational knowledge, we can transfer it to a sci-fi plane of existence:

Smokey can have the pattern of a mutant Island bacteria colony. It can infect human bodies when they are in a weakened state, such as just before death. Example, during the freighter fire-fight, Claire's cabin was blown up, and she came back to life in a groggy state (just like Sayid at the Temple). Dogen claims that Claire is like Sayid, infected by the darkness that will spread to their heart, obliterating that person as you would know them (like Flocke). Whether this Smokey bacteria can be a parasite and use dead bodies like Christian as a reanimated host is unclear. There may be two different minute cellular organisms at work.

The bacteria can only take hold with a weakened individual. In an Island sense, that may mean an individual whose mental or moral state has been weakened to a state of collapse and abandonment of hope. Sayid's conversation to Hurley at the van was a good example: Sayid was resigned to his fate because knew his time was up, and he knew he was going to hell ("an unpleasant place"). But little did he know, he would have a second chance on the Island to become a different kind of monster.

S6E3 CLAIM CHECK

I posted this comment last week:

Now, after the Others at the Temple heard Jacob was dead, the immediate reaction was PANIC. Ash around the grounds to ward off Smokey's attacks. Firing off rockets and grabbing arms: The reaction was like defending the palace from a coup.

And as tangent in looking up the word, there is a historical North American Indian word "coup" which means the act of touching an armed enemy in battle as a deed of bravery or an act of first touching an item of the enemy's in order to claim it. Add another item on the Jacob touching theory pile.

>>> An ancient Chinese rocket went off in my head when Dogen said Sayid had been CLAIMED. He also indicated that the "infection" would increase until it made its way to his heart. Sayid is possessed with an (evil) spirit. If so, in the Egyptian final judgment, a person's heart is weighed against a feather. If a person's heart is burdened with sins, it would weigh more resulting in the person's ba and ka to be destroyed (i.e. no eternal life).

>>> This also got me to thinking about once an Egyptian person dies, their soul, personality and life force separately goes to the underworld, joined by a substitute body, for a journey through the afterlife towards final judgment. With this concept of Sayid being possessed, I think Jacob and MIB are the same person (the last Pharoah?) but upon his death, his soul and spirit did not recombine in the underworld leading to the conflict between the two entities. One is trying to recombine, the other does not want to recombine because that would mean final judgment.

>>> Also, I had postulated that in order for Jacob to reincarnate, he needed to have all his "touched" persons together in the same place and time. At the Temple, only Sun was missing. Now, in this episode, what happens? Three of the elements, Sawyer, Kate and Jin go rushing off into the jungle!

When Dogen (Kung Fu alchemist) takes Sayid to his torture table, we have conflicting reports whether Sayid passed or failed Dogen's tests of possession by (evil) spirit.

1. The gray ash. We have learned that the gray ash protects one against Smokey. It keeps it out of the ring. Dogen blew a hand full of ash over Sayid's bullet wound and there was no reaction. Well, should there have been one? If Sayid is covered in ash outside, it would trap Smokey inside his body for the next test? Possibly.

2. The electric volt meter. Dogen placed electric wires all around the chest and stomach area of Sayid, then hand cranked a generator, then pumped up the current. Sayid's reaction: severe pain. Which would have been a normal human reaction. But do the dead (or undead) feel pain? Possibly not.

3. The third test was the red hot branding iron. Dogen seared Sayid's chest with the poker. Sayid's reaction: severe pain. The same reaction from the electric shocks.

Dogen said to Sayid he passed the test; but Sayid knew he lied. Dogen admitted to Jack that the pill was poison because Sayid was possessed (claimed) by an "infection" which I conclude is Smokey. The infection will continue to grow until it fully takes over a person (through the heart).

Which leads to a real problem for the ghost Jacob. If Sayid is one of the "claim checks" he deposited at the cosmic pawn shop in order to be reincarnated in the Temple, can he still be used as reincarnation ceremony if Sayid is infected? Possibly, but only if there is not a complete infection. That means there has to be a time deadline. (A 108 minutes, perhaps?!) Is that why Dogen easily let Kate and Jin go with his men to find Sawyer because without Sawyer, there can be no ceremony? (Interestingly, after Sawyer's final tribute at the dock, he sighs under his breath that he is going back to the Temple. Which is exactly the opposite plan of runaway Kate, who does not want to be confined at the Temple.) Complicating matters is that Jin is going to be held hostage by possessed Claire, which will lead to another search and rescue party.

On a side note, Hurley asked Sayid is he was a "zombie." Sayid said no, he was not. In our collective B-movie memories, a zombie is the walking undead who shuffle around seeking to eat human brains. But originally, zombie was a snake-deity of or deriving from West Africa and Haiti. It also means a soul less corpse said to be revived by witchcraft. Combine the snake-deity (Smokey), the body of dead Sayid and the supernatural element of the Temple spring, one could say Sayid lied to Hurley.

S6E1 RECAP

L: Lo - - the most interesting or amazing event in the Episode has to be our first look inside The Temple. This place has to be the center piece for the Island's mysteries.

O: Obnoxious - - the most obnoxious part of the Episode was Kate bouncing off Jack and Sawyer. She is like a hair clog in a bathroom drain; when she tried to hook back up with Sawyer before Juliet was buried was sick.

S: Story line - - I am now really confident that my theory that the story line involves the afterlife through a variation of Egyptian mythology was almost confirmed by the Episode. The Temple and its inscriptions clearly show elements of death, rebirth, and reincarnation.

T: Time line - - at the end of Season 5, there was an equally divided camp of Lost viewers. One camp thought if Juliet detonated the bomb, the time line would re-set to 2007. Another camp thought that the time line would not reboot, leaving the 1977ers stuck. TPTB side swiped the viewers by showing an alternative, parallel universe time line with the original castaways stuck on the Island, but their 2004 counterparts in a new reality landing at LAX. I did not like this slight of hand.

THE LAST CHARACTER

After translating the Temple hieroglyphs, it has occurred to me that there is one more major turn to play out in the show. I thought at the end of Season 5, there was one last big location we had not seen yet: the Temple. Well, we have an insider's tour of the Temple right off the bat.

I am now very confident that my theory that the show's big premise is about the afterlife and its struggles between supernatural beings, composed of variations and shades of many cultures based upon the myths of ancient Egypt. It may have been the hidden-in-plain sight show-within-a-show Easter egg hunt from the very early stages of the series; we have known of Smokey (MIB) and Jacob but never saw them until the end of S5. There is still some debate on whether one is good, one is evil, one is life, one is death. In the end, it may not matter. Because both Jacob and MIB answer to one higher being, who I will call "The Father" for no other reason than the temple pillar translations.

It would make sense that Jacob and MIB are kin, like brothers. In the cosmic hierarchy, these two rivals were placed in a "time out" to resolve their differences. A time out which lasts thousands of years in human time. Instead of resolving their differences, the two merely begin to play with any toys (lesser beings, like humans) that they could find in order to pass the time until "they can go home" (to Olympus, heaven, etc.). Looking down from their island corner, they found the most advanced people on Earth, the ancient Egyptians. They found their culture interesting, so they created a method (a gate) to bring them to their dimension. The ancient Egyptians thought they had found the real path to the underworld gods, and began to divinely worship them. Which was great, until the humans began dying off because they could not re-produce outside the realm of the Earth's existence. No matter, there were always more humans on Earth. So, over time, the brothers brought more civilized humans to the Island. But the newer arrivals were less into worshipping the brothers than fighting among themselves. This led to the brothers to renew their own personal disputes and rivalry on what to do next: stay, and resolve their differences so they could go home, or as MIB devised, a method of resolving their disputes once and for all, by killing Jacob so he could go home. The latter's logic may be quite twisted, but it appears that at least Jacob adopted many of the mythologies and socially significant pieces of human history in order to protect himself against MIB's plot. Likewise, MIB could have adopted many of humankind's primal fears, monsters and nightmares to cull loyalists in his plan to kill Jacob. And this gamemanship has led many viewers to believe the two are playing a game of chess or backgammon, with the characters as pawns or pieces.

And yes, it is quite possible that some one will get hurt in the end. Many human lives were lost because of the rivals bitter feud. They used human souls like humans abuse lower life forms; like little children squashing bugs on the sidewalk. But the final question is Who put these two into their "room" for the original time-out? The Father. A superior being that has dominion and control over both Jacob and MIB. It would make perfect sense that a Father figure would conclude this story. We have been previewed with all sorts of "Daddy issues" from the very beginning of saga. In fact, most of the main characters had serious parental issues, most of them left unresolved or ending badly. The Father could tie all these torn personal tapestries back together again. He could provide a final moral insight to the feuding brothers: a final test whether they learned anything, especially from the lesser human beings who could have taught them great insight if they had only stopped to listen and observe.

S6E1 TEMPLE SYMBOLS

I believe I have roughly translated the glyphs on the pillars that face the spring in the Temple. It appears to form prayers like passages of a ceremony from a Book of the Dead:

1. In the name of Horus, alas spirit enter. Horus, sacred god father's duties.
2. Horus, enter father's gardens.
3. Stand for father's long past ideas of health (rebirth).
4. Lord father, patron of the Dead, heal for eternities.
5. Lord father.
6. Island Heaven (sacred/magical sign symbol).
7. Enter Horus (Ra).
8. Heaven conspire against evil fires.
9. Stand Ra. (sacred/magical sign symbol).

THE MOVES MIB HAD TO MAKE TO WIN

What did MIB/Flocke have to “go through” in order to kill Jacob? What were the moves required to get the result he wanted? I have yet to see anyone try to piece together the Rube Goldberg/Mad, Mad, Mad World time line of interrelated events, but here is my an outline of what MIB may have meant:

1. MIB needed BEN to kill JACOB, which required
2. FLOCKE planting the seed/justification for killing in BEN, which needed
3. DEAD LOCKE in order to trick BEN on his island return, which meant
4. BEN killing LOCKE when he heard LOCKE was working with HAWKING to get back to the island (and thereby assuming the leadership role), which would not have happened without
5. WIDMORE and ABBADON helping LOCKE try to round up the O6 group for the return flight to the island, because

5 A. the O6 had a deal with RICHARD to leave the island for saving BEN from WIDMORE’S team, which BEN knew about by
5.B. placing his man MICHAEL on the freighter, as a result of
5 C. a deal to free MICHAEL and WALT in exchange for capturing JACK, KATE, SAWYER and HURLEY by the Others, which lead to
5 D. JACK, KATE, SAWYER escaping Otherville with ALEX, who
5 E. was caught by WIDMORE’s man and killed, causing
5 F. BEN turn the FDW to hide the island from WIDMORE, causing

6. HAWKING in her pendulum Dharma station to try to find the island, because
7. BEN’s FDW causing the island to time skip, requiring
8. LOCKE to turn the FDW to reset the island with the instructions of CHRISTIAN,

8 A. Whose past fathered CLAIRE in Australia, which led to
8.B. Daddy issues with his son JACK, which led to
8.C. JACK turning on CHRISTIAN, leading him back to drinking and
8.D. CHRISTIAN dying in Australia, which made
8.E. JACK fly to Sydney to claim CHRISTIAN’s body and get it on Flight 815, so,
8.F. when Flight 815 crashed on the Island, CHRISTIAN’s body could be used by MIB to influence JACK and LOCKE, since
8.G. DESMOND’s failure to input the Numbers in the Hatch caused 815 to crash,
8 H. since DESMOND’s need to prove his honor to WIDMORE caused him to enter a sail boat race after
8. I. a stranger named LIBBY gave him her deceased husband’s boat, since
8. J. DESMOND had no job since he was fired from the monastery vineyard by BROTHER CAMPBELL, (who was friends with HAWKING) but
8. K. as a result, DESMOND meets PENNY, who he falls for, but WIDMORE objects to the relationship, which leads
8. L. PENNY to search the globe for the lost DESMOND, which leads to
8.M. a listening station finding a signal in the Pacific, which leads both
8.N. WIDMORE’s freighter soldiers to the island and
8.O. PENNY’s boat finding the O6 survivors after LOCKE turns the FDW, taking,
8.P. The O6 back to their problems stateside, including:

KATE on trial for murder;
JACK finding out CLAIRE is his half sister;
SAYID’S wife NADIA being killed,
SUN taking over father’s company and seeking revenge on BEN;
HURLEY going back into mental institution; which leads

8.Q. BEN to scheme with HAWKING to get the O6 to re-create Flight 815, which includes killing LOCKE, who was suicidal because he had failed to convince anyone to return with him, which could be caused by
8.R. LOCKE’s pathetic life of personal failures, which may have influenced

9. The island splitting into two time frames when he turned the FDW,with

9.A. 1974 flash where SAWYER takes the lead with JULIET, MILES, and JIN, who
9.B. in order to survive and await LOCKE’s return, join Dharma by helping AMY who was attacked by the Others, and in turn
9.C. SAWYER telling RICHARD about time traveling LOCKE which creates a truce between Dharma and the Others, which
9.D. changes SAWYER and JULIET into a happy Dharma couple, until
9.E. Flight 316 crashes on the Island causing a time flashes to 1977 and 2007, which leads to,
9.F. KATE, JACK, SAYID meeting up with SAWYER’s Dharma group,
which causes,
9.G. JULIET to doubt her relationship with SAWYER because of KATE, but adds complication when
9.H. SAYID shoots young BEN in order to save SAYID from his future killings, which requires,
9.I. JACK and KATE to bring dying young BEN to RICHARD to be saved,
9.J. which creates BEN as an Other, which leads to
9.K. BEN banishing WIDMORE from the Island after Purging Dharma, including killing his own father ROGER,
9.L. who blamed BEN for killing his wife by being premature, but that lead to,
9.M. HORACE coming across ROGER and BEN at birth for later recruitment of ROGER to the Island, which led to
9.N. ROGER blaming BEN for his crappy life, which led BEN to seek a way out with the Others, who are

10. The island’s native population that needed outside leadership “candidates,” which led them to BEN, who recruited many off-islanders including,
11. JULIET, who was recruited to deal with the island’s fertility problems, for which,
12. RICHARD thought was unimportant to the Other’s prime mission, but which led to
13. JULIET being the lead scientist with the Hydra confinement and manipulation of JACK, SAWYER and KATE, which led to

13.A. JULIET joining the 815 survivors as a spy and as a way to get off the island, away from the captivity of BEN, which
13.B. put her in the position of the 815ers who time flashed back to 1974, which
13.C. led her to have a long term relationship with SAWYER, which caused her
13.D. sacrifice herself to detonate Jughead to bring the time lines together, which
13.E. brought ghost JACOB to HURLEY when SAYID was dying at the van,
13.F. making HURLEY leader to direct the group to take SAYID to the Temple, where,
13.G. Kung Fu and the Hippie drowned SAYID as his friends watched in horror,
13.H. then learning JACOB was dead from HURLEY causing the Temple to be on guard from “him” and laying out ash to repel Smokey, who
13.I. was at the Tawaret foot in the form of FLOCKE, recognizing RICHARD as a man once in chains, and beating RICHARD unconscious while being extremely “disappointed” with the Others, which now makes

14. MIB/FLOCKE in position of power on the Island by killing JACOB.

S6E1 THE REAPER

When looking through the screen caps at Lost-Media site, I found one striking image during the Sayid drowning scene. Behind Jin is the image of a large skull behind his left shoulder, and in the shadows.

It looks purposefully placed for a split second as Sayid stops struggling in the healing spring. It has to represent the Grim Reaper and Death.

S6E1 NIGHT AND DAY

Since we know that MIB could not directly kill Jacob, Flocke was used to trick an old friend, Ben, in stabbing Jacob to death inside the Tawaret foot. However, when Bram's men went inside the chamber, they tried to kill MIB but failed. The bullets bounced off Flocke, who then went around the corner, turned into Smokey, and killed four men. The question is why could Jacob be killed by a metal knife while MIB/Flocke could not be killed by a spray of metal bullets?

Here are possible variables:

1. Jacob was killed at night, and MIB attempted assassination took place at night. This could mean that Jacob was the ruler during the day and MIB at night. Each is only open to attack/death during the opposite part of the day: Jacob at night, MIB during the day.

2. Jacob was in a "human" form, with a body and blood. MIB was in the form of Flocke, which was a mere shape-shifting reproduction of Locke, whose body laid outside in the sand. However, when Smokey took Rousseau's crew through the temple wall, we saw the remains of the men. When Rousseau confronted the crew and her husband on the beach, she killed them with rifle bullets (in the day light hours). If one was consistent with the events shown, even though MIB forms replicated bodies of humans, those forms can be destroyed during the daylight by conventional arms.

3. Is the place of confrontation important? Jacob died at night inside a sacred structure. But MIB's form Flocke was also inside the same structure. MIB's other human forms were killed outside on a beach. With the Temple Others spreading gray ash around the grounds could be evidence that MIB's destructive powers can be used within sacred places.

4. When Jacob was stabbed to death, and he admitted that "he died one hour ago" to Hurley, Jacob turned into a ghost. Was this because he was killed and/or because his body was cremated? We have seen evidence in the past that the inhabitants were paranoid about having dead bodies lying around the island. Are dead human bodies the needed vessels for Island spirits such as Jacob and MIB? Well, MIB creates his human forms without inhabiting their bodies (example Locke). We are not sure about Jacob - - - that is why some have speculated that Jacob now possesses the long-dead Sayid.

Then there was the 180 shift of power at the end of the season premiere. When Flocke returned from the statue into the daylight of the beach, Richard Alpert saw Flocke in a totally different light, like a "mask" or veil of identity had been lifted: Alpert was going to say "is that you?" when Flocke greeted him with the "glad to see you without your chains" reference before beating him up. But the really odd piece of that exchange was the fact that Richard clearly shouted out to the Others not to fire their weapons at Flocke. Why not? He just killed Jacob. Was he worried about collateral damage? Probably not, as Bram's crew in the chamber were not hit by their own bullets. No, Richard's outburst was to stop anyone from killing Flocke!

Flocke used Richard as a punching bag to return to island alpha dog status. "I am extremely disappointed in all of you!" Flocke said as he started to march back into the jungle with Richard as his prisoner. Why was MIB-Flocke angry at the Others? Was it because they did not recognize him? Or that they did not recognize him earlier? Or that they did not have the guts to challenge him at that moment?

Other theorists speculate that in the black-white, night-day context of the characters, MIB appears to be the dark lord of this saga. The evil one who plotted to kill Jacob, the apparent Island ruler of the Others. Yet, there is a concept of a vengeful good god, too. One who is upset with his followers for taking the "wrong" path or taking direction of evil sins or not worshipping their true god properly. So it is still a 50-50 proposition on who is good and who is evil.

S6E1 SEEDS OF REBELLION

Another critical observation has to deal with the interconnection with Jacob, MIB, Smokey and the Temple.

In Season 5, Jacob and MIB were on the beach. They appeared to be equals, but with differently viewpoints on why human souls were being brought to the Island. MIB was so angry with Jacob's unending cycle he wanted to kill him, but he could not directly do so.

We know that Smokey had been called a "security system" by the Others. Ben said he could summon it but not control it. We found that for at least 16 years, Smokey lived inside the outer Temple wall, and had ingress/egress from a hole in the wall's foundation. Through that opening was a hallway into an underground chamber which had Egyptian hieroglyphs, including one depicted opposite the god of Anubis, the god of mummification and protector of tombs. It was unclear whether this image showed the two as foes or both representations of protectors of the Temple.

It would make more sense that if Smokey did live inside the Temple walls, and the Others occupied the Temple, that they existed in some form of harmony. To do so, Smokey had to distinguish between friend (the Others) and foe (the damned). We were led to believe that Smokey was its own entity, but we were told that Smokey is in fact MIB when he takes an attack mode. If MIB was so upset with Jacob, why did he not (as Smokey) wipe out Jacob's followers (the Others)? The Others were afraid of him when they heard the news from Hurley that Jacob was dead. They immediately spread ash around the Temple to ward off Smokey. They fired an ancient rocket into the sky to warn Alpert and the others about the danger of Jacob's demise. It was then that Alpert recognized that Flocke was MIB. And everything was about to change because Jacob was not around to protect them.

There has to be power structure on the Island. Jacob appeared to be the power, and MIB his near equal. They may have initially had the same purpose or mission on the Island. The Others had been called the original inhabitants of the Island. They appear to serve Jacob. They tell the Dharma folks and the 815ers that "this is our island." That means they have a deep connection to it. It also appears that Jacob allowed human souls to come to the Island to live, research and co-exist with the Others.

The power structure pecking Order:
Jacob , then MIB, as a ruling class.
The Temple priests, in charge of the island magic.
The Island "leader" of the Others, who in some way is considered "special."
The Others, who are the "blessed souls" of the underworld.
Outsiders, human souls who have been brought to island. They are considered beneath the Others.

Outsiders can become Others if they die and they are blessed by the Island.

Which leads to a perplexing problem. What level of dead is dead. Now, Alpert was keen on receiving a Dharma leader's dead body in return for the breach of the truce. And after the purge, the Dharma were not buried, but thrown in a ditch. Was that like an inventory of some sort? Afterward, if an Other was killed (like Colleen), they had a Viking burial. When outsiders died, they were buried. There appears to be a rule that an unburied body can be "used" by the island spirits such as MIB as Flocke and Rousseau's crew mates. Buried people do not reappear as manipulated forms. However, Alex reappeared to Ben inside the temple wall (too shallow a grave?)

So who are the Others? Inhabitants of a spirited realm, the dead souls who have yet to judged? Indentured souls to serve the gods? Prisoners in a hell or purgatory existence? It could be a combination of all of the above. But at some point in time, some one down the power chain decided that they wanted to move up the ladder. Alpert, in order to be released from his chains, pledged allegiance to Jacob, and was rewarded an advisor position over his prisoner peers. Maybe MIB was tired of being the head security guard for low life souls, and wanted to change the rules and get rid of the warden so he could "close" the prison and "go home." In order to do so, he would have to recruit traitors among Jacob's followers. To overthrow the existing order, one has to start a rebellion. The seeds of that rebellion could have been with the arrival of the Black Rock, a pirate/slave ship, which carried the lowest form of human behavior that MIB abhorred.

We know that Smokey's (MIB in another form) lair was inside the Temple wall. That's where Rousseau's crew was taken and transformed; and where Sayid was taken to be healed. Also occupying the Temple are the Others. The Others had no problem running around the underground passages, capturing Sayid's MASH unit and bringing them to the Temple. This shows that the Others and Smokey were living together in harmony at the Temple.

Now, after the Others at the Temple heard Jacob was dead, the immediate reaction was PANIC. Ash around the grounds to ward off Smokey's attacks.Firing off rockets and grabbing arms: The reaction was like defending the palace from a coup.

And as tangent in looking up the word, there is a historical North American Indian word "coup" which means the act of touching an armed enemy in battle as a deed of bravery or an act of first touching an item of the enemy's in order to claim it. Add another item on the Jacob "touching" theory pile.

S6E1 SAYID

The best way to describe Sayid's rebirth in the Temple:

ONE HAS TO DIE IN ORDER TO LIVE ON THE ISLAND.

The Island is a spiritual realm.

The Kung Fu master of the Temple is named Dogan. In an odd twist, dogan in Turkish means "falcon." The Egyptian falcon god was Horus, the god of the sky in life, and Osiris, the lord of the dead. Dogen also means "who/what is about to be born," and "who/want is about to rise." Osiris is the god of reincarnation, from which the dead are reincarnated to eternal life through magic. Osiris was called the ruler of "the blessed dead."

Dogan must be the high priest of the Temple who answers to Jacob, the Horus character in the ancient religion. Depending on each kingdom's belief system over the centuries, Horus was the single entity for both life and death, and in other passages merely the god of light (Ra) while his father, Osiris, was the lord of the dead. In the muddled context of the Lost mythology of combining religious and civilization subtexts, it is clear that Jacob was the ruler of the Island realm, and Dogan was his Temple priest. Alpert, a man once confined with chains, was an "advisor" to Jacob, which I now infer to be like a prison "trustee," who serves as a liaison between the warden and the prisoners. MIB/Flocke may be grossly disappointed by the Others (prisoners) not rebelling against Jacob (warden), which led to MIB's continued nullification of power. Flocke does appear to have taken on the featured scorn of Satan when discussing his sole purpose to Ben: he wants to go home. That has to mean heaven, and in a biblical conflict, revenge against those who had banished him from paradise. (The parallel is Widmore being banished from the island and his life long pursuit at any cost to return.)

What does Sayid's reincarnation mean? When young Ben was taken to the Temple because of Sayid's mortal gun shot wound, Alpert told them that Ben "would lose his innocence" and that resulted in Ben become one of them (an Other). He would not have a memory of what happened to him (like Sayid awakening), which means that he may be re-programmed to be one with the Island. An indentured servant who has to work for the Island or its rulers.

S6E1 NEW 815

A critical observation or two about the premiere's parallel universe split time line events. The story line clearly states that Juliet did in fact detonate the H-bomb. Instead of vaporizing herself, killing everyone in the vicinity, and having radioactive fallout destroying everything else on the island, we are lead to believe: the island moved forward to 2007, to sync up with the 316 crew; Juliet did not die in the explosion; everyone was in their pre-explosion condition (except for ringing ears).

The apparent explosion was similar to the Desmond fail safe key explosion, which is the debris crater where the 1977ers found themselves. If one is going to be consistent with the mythology within the show, this type of EM explosion, moving the Island time would mean that there would not be one "flashsideways," but at least four parallel universes: 1) the original 2004 time line; 2) the Desmond fail safe key explosion; 3) the Locke turning the FDW and moving the island; and 4) Juliet exploding Jughead. We are only seeing the New 2004 815 universe compared to the Old 2007 815 universe. It also comes to mind that all the parallel universes (the flash backs, flash forwards, past off-island events) are immaterial filler to the main core story line. It does not take five seasons of jumbled editing to show us that the lives of the 815ers would not have been much different if Flight 815 did not crash.

And this episode puts into doubt the statement that Desmond's failure to input the Numbers caused the original crash of Flight 815. I think the new Flight 815 was also going to crash on the Island - - - if it had a dead body on board. Jack Shepard's body was not in the cargo bay of the plane. The turbulence was caused by Charlie choking down heroin in the lav. If Charlie had died on the plane, then the island's tenacles would have sensed a dead person and grabbed the plane toward it. This could be the protocol of the island (Jacob) bringing people to the island (as a station towards the afterlife). This could also fill a need for Jacob and/or MIB to replenish their inventory of the dead so they could use, manipulate or control the dead bodies as part of their personal battle.

The New 815 flight is mostly a throw-a-way look at the lives the characters would have absent the crash in the alternative universe where individual free will decisions are like a roll of the dice on the board of life: it was a 50-50 chance that Boone would have convinced Shannon to leave her boyfriend - - - in the first roll, it worked; the second roll it did not. Same goes for Jack getting his father's coffin on the plane: the first attendant said it could not get on the plane but Jack convinced him it had to be done; the second time the coffin was lost in the terminal and it never got into the cargo bay. The writers had cornered themselves in the time travel problem of paradox. The solution was to create parallel universes which negate any paradox issues in the original time line. So the New 815 time line should have no bearing on the original 815ers who have returned to 2007 (main story line).

S6E1 THE RULES

In the premiere of Season 6, we get some confirmation of the Rules of the Island:
1. Jacob and MIB cannot directly harm or kill each other; they need an outside agency (using that person's own free will) to kill each other.
2. Flocke is MIB who is also Smokey, the black smoke monster who can kill or destroy.
3. A ring of ash is a protective barrier against Smokey. It keeps the monster outside the ring. (Seen before around Jacob's cabin - - - but the ring was broken and Jacob fled to the statue foot.)

But there are some troubling inconsistencies, too.

1. Jacob could be killed by a metal object(knife), while Flocke could not be killed by a metal object (bullet) by Bram's machine guns. The exception could be that Jacob (as RA) was powerless at night (when he was killed) but MIB's power has been shown both during the day and night.
2. Christian's body was missing after the 815 crash, but his ghost roamed the island speaking to various people. Locke's body was not missing after the 316 crash, but MIB used it (shape shifter). MIB as Smokey killed Rousseau crew, then reconstituted them on the beach where Rousseau killed them because of their sickness. It infers MIB can mold multiple, mortal bodies but someone can mold one bullet proof Flocke body.

THE FINAL THEORY PART THREE

In parts One and Two, I have set forth the background information as the foundation of my final theory to the keys to the LOST story line. This is my personal opinion, if I was structuring the story to a mind-exploding conclusion.

The Lost Experience can be best summarized as human beings taking a long journey of good, evil, faith, science, redemption and final judgment. The Lost Souls (the 815ers, the Others, Dharma) are all caught in a layered spirit world. It is the merger of ancient religion and science which created the pyramids and Temples. The need to prepare in one's lifetime for the journey through the afterlife is a key component in the ancient texts. Speculate that the ancient civilizations actually found the technology portal(s) to the afterlife as a means of helping their rulers and gods journey through the afterlife. This puts the characters in a supernatural world, where our known concepts of science, physics and technology become immaterial.

There are various levels in the afterlife, according to a person's beliefs and final judgment. Many could toil in the pagan-secular world after death, which may be tilling ancient fields, or living in a parallel earth civilization. It could be real or an illusion to test one's free will or faith. Many could be found worthy of eternal paradise in heaven, or in reincarnation into a higher life form. Many of the unworthy, evil or damned could be found on the road to hell, chaos or non-existence. There is no right or wrong answer to how the road map of Death could play out.
But most literary civilizations have common touchstones for which morality creates the mortar to create a solid society.

I believe that the characters are dead. Dead before we even saw them in S1E1. But dying once on earth does not mean that you cannot die multiple times more during one's journey through the afterlife. Dead is Dead but the Dead could be Alive in another plane of existence. One could compare it to running through levels of an action video game. Each one of those levels is managed by angels or guardians, whose sole mission is to sort out the souls for judgment, rehabilitation or demise. It can be levels of existence: earth life, to a faux earth existence in another plane like earth, to a pagan paradise (toiling in the fields, working for the gods), to an underworld where souls are tested, to various levels or hell to various levels of spiritual enlightenment, to the final way station before final judgment. It would function as a pre-heaven Eden and a pre-hell Pit of Destruction. The Island is like an airport terminal, with various gates or portals to different dimensions, different times, different realms of existence. The Guardians bring souls to the Island in a collective manner, in order to retain their human beliefs, instincts, experiences, fears, weaknesses and strengths, in order to see if one's human instincts (destruction, deceit, corruption, deadly sins) have been reformed in order to pass on to the next level of the afterlife.

The island is controlled by supernatural beings (angels, lesser gods) whose sole job is to open and close the gates, guide souls through their journey, test them and wait for rulings from the higher authorities (archangels, higher gods). The concept of a heaven-hell dynamic comes to mind when Widmore was "banished" from the island for having relations with an outsider. Just as angels who went to earth to guide humans fell from grace when they had relations with mortals, they were banished from heaven and stripped of their positions in the eternal guild. If there is enough of those banished angels and rebellious counterparts who have snuck onto the island as soul hijackers (demons, Satan's minions). As one could imagine, banished angels and demons who have been left to toil in the materialistic groveling world of mortal human beings would be like be sentenced to live in a pig sty as a pig. How one comes to reconcile redemption with revenge is the key element of the stated War.

The island contains workers who have been sent to the way station to maintain the portals, and to be players in the passion plays of the deceased souls through their journey to final judgment. They may or may not know that they are merely small gears in a large cosmic machine. They may know the Rules and are content to play their roles. Their leaders may know the Truth of the existence. For in all states, knowledge is power. Workers seeking to change their lot in life (and in death) could conspire with fallen angels and demons to take paradise by force. This is a biblical aspect of the final battle between Satan and God for the throne of Heaven. The Island, as the nexus point between the worlds, will the the final battleground for the forces of good and evil. That is why the statement "this only ends once," is a preview of the struggle.

Jacob and MIB are equal gatekeepers. One continues to do his job and brings souls to the Island for final judgment. MIB has grown weary of the human beings, and that they are unworthy of everlasting grace or immortality. Initially, this is viewed as a political or philosophic debate between to the two gatekeepers. But over time, one or both become weary of this vocation and turns to the dark side (the sealed gates to forehell and hell) to gather forces. Since the "good" guys are in charge, the "bad" guys have been looking for ways to gain the high ground. Example, Ben's obsession (and possible instructions) to find a cure for the island infertility problem was an attempt to create new corruptable souls in a place that cannot give birth to souls (the underworld). It is like creating superbeings that should not exist as a means of overthrowing the existing order, as Germany tried to do with its genetic experiments in World War II.

At the same time, those higher beings may have grown weary of the lack of respect to the ancient gods and traditions. Think the Eye of Ra story, where mankind had fallen into their own materialistic, sinful self-absorbed lives. The gods sent a beast to destroy all mankind as the ultimate punishment. There may be a simple problem of strength in numbers: more and more human beings do not pass through the gates to heaven, thereby growing the ranks of the demonic realm. Jacob bringing more and more souls to the Island is a desperate mission to find more "good" people to off-set the growing forces of evil. So both Jacob and MIB could be playing the same "recruitment" game to find characters who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause they believe in (good or evil). Only great sacrifice can lead to great reward (higher powers).

Some one will open the gates to create the final battle. Free will of individuals caught in the cross fire will control their fate. Choices will have consequences. It will be shown that everyone we have seen (The Others, Dharma, 815ers, ect.) started at the same position, had the same choices to make, but cast their souls to good or dark side. If the dark side wins, there is no hope for humanity - - - the gates would be closed and mankind on earth would be treated like mortal animals. Chaos would reign on earth and throughout the universe. If the good side wins, with the help of the imperfect human souls, there is hope for mankind and there will be a place for those souls in the eternal paradise promised to them.

The climax prediction is that the forces of good and evil, whether represented by angels, demons, supernatural beings like Smokey, Egyptian gods with part human-part animal bodies, in a clash of the ages. Winner takes all.

In the end, there will be bodies littering the beaches and jungle clearings. A bird is startled from the brush as an exhausted Hurley stumbles forward to the clearing as night begins to fall. Standing in front of him is the leader of the evil forces. "You are the last," he will say. "Last what?" Hurley pants. Then with his final labored breath, Hurley asks the man to show "his true form." The man smiles with pointed teeth, and his body transforms into a devil. The devil shouts "I am the victor! I am the true - - -" when he is hit by a massive bolt of lightning, which sends Hurley hurling back into the brush. Then a heavy rain falls upon the Island. Bodies hit by the rain turn into black smoke that rise upward.

Next scene, there is a modern ship on the horizon off the island. A man in a suit and tie is walking down the beach and sees the craft. He yells to a person (off camera) "Did you bring more people here?" He gets no answer. He comes closer to the camera. He is frustrated. "Answer me this: why do you keep bringing people here?" The camera pans toward Hurley, sitting on the beach. He looks up at the man and says "Dude, to save them." Then the camera zooms into Hurley's right eye, and faintly superimposed thereon is quick flashes of all the 815ers . . . then dissolve into the LOST logo.