Can These Bones Live? Reconstitute = Resurrect

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' " (Ezekiel 37:1-6)

Ever since the end of season 3, it has been my dream that the theme of resurrection that has been woven into the tapestry of Lost would one day play itself out in the form of literal resurrections in the plot. And so, even though John Locke is my favorite character on the show, I was ecstatic to see that it was he in the coffin at the end of season 4 because it meant that, in all likelihood, he would be raised to life again, i. e., resurrected. And somehow, though it seems like it should have been so obvious, I didn't see it coming.

However, one thing I did dream up at that time, over a year ago, was that perhaps the pit of the skeletons of former DI members was intended to be a reference to the valley of the dry bones in the book of Ezekiel. In this story, God gives the prophet Ezekiel a vision in which he is shown valley of dry bones belonging to dead Israelites. God instructs Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them to live, and the bones begin to reconstitute themselves and grow tendons and flesh. They become an army of living Israelites ready to take the promised land back after a long exile. The vision is given to Ezekiel as a message of hope for he and his people, that God will indeed restore them to their land. (I have quoted part of the passage above. If you'd like the read the rest, you can do so here.)

And now you might see why I'm getting excited all over again by the new Dharma video that was debuted at this year's Comic-Con. Our beloved Dharma tour guide, Dr. Marvin Candle (who reveals his real name to be Pierre Cheng), pleads with whomever might see his video that they must reconstitute the Dharma Initiative. It's an interesting word choice. There are numerous other words that could have been used here: reform, recreate, rebuild. Better yet, he could have worded it as "form a new Dharma Initiative," which would seem to be much more in sync with the whole Octagon Global Recruiting gimmick. Reconstitute though seems to have the connotation of taking old parts and putting them back together again. (Dictionary.com gives the words reconstruct and recompose as close synonyms.)

My theory is that the scene from season 3 with Locke lying in the pit of Dharma skeletons was a bit of foreshadowing in more ways than one. Locke will be raised from the dead, and with him will be an army of formerly dead DIs, ready to take back the promised land. Now THAT will be something to see!

Forgiveness, Resurrection, and Course Correction (Pt. 2)

I should've known. Yeah, hindsight's 20/20 and all that, but I really should've guessed it. After the Season 3 finale, I made a post here about the themes of forgiveness, resurrection, and course correction that run rampant throughout Lost and how they're all connected. I even predicted the likelihood that the show would even go beyond the theme of resurrection and would actually have a character or even multiple characters come back from the dead.

The other odd thing was that I've also been keen on the idea that John Locke is the prime candidate for being the "central hero" of the show, if there would be such a thing. I had read Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces years ago and found it compelling when some Lost bloggers pointed out that Locke's story closely mirrored that of the Hero archetype prevalent in so many ancient myths and even modern stories, which often includes death and resurrection.

Yet I still didn't see it coming. Locke in the coffin. Of course. He would need to die and come back to life, wouldn't he? And right along with that, he would need to be forgiven of acts that the other 815ers considered treacherous, wouldn't he? (Killing Naomi, blowing up the sub, blowing up the Flame, etc.) More importantly, he would need to forgive them (especially Jack) for not listening to him and apparently even being the cause of his death.

It sounds all too familiar now. The story that's unfolding before our eyes is one that was told centuries ago. A wise man of old put it this way:

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Season 5 won't come a day too soon.

My Lost Rap

I wrote a rap about our favorite TV show. Check it out, and let me know what you think. Thanks to my boy Darrin Post for helping me out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ22L2l9NH4

Forgiveness, Resurrection, and Course-Correction

If the Universe really does have a way of course correcting itself, as the creepy Ms. Hawking claims, then it seems inevitable that forgiveness would be a crucial part of its day-to-day operations. Sin, anger, pain, hurt, sorrow, guilt; they all seem to be signs of a world gone terribly wrong. Yet forgiveness has the power within itself to trump them all. It's like a reset button that helps us humans have a fresh start when we screw up and do harm to one another. Since we are all quite imperfect, it's really the only way we can continue to co-exist.

Forgiveness is an important element of what Lost is all about. As the characters deal with their past decisions (on and off the island), they often find themselves in need of forgiveness: Sayid, for his decisions to implement torture; Kate, for murdering her step-father; Jack, for the mistakes that led to his marriage failing; Charlie, for the many bad decisions he made because of his drug addiction; Desmond, for running from commitments and abandoning the women in his life; Sawyer, for the murder he committed just before boarding flight 815; the list goes on. Many of the characters not only need to receive forgiveness but to give it as well. The only way Sun and Jin can receive forgiveness is if they are both willing to grant forgiveness to each other. Jack needs to forgive his father. Claire needs to forgive herself. Locke's situation is obviously tragic, and one must hesitate to judge how he should deal with it, but maybe, just maybe, forgiving his father would have been a better solution to his anger problems than having him murdered. Perhaps the same can be said for Sawyer; once he finally got the revenge he sought his whole life, he didn't exactly seem all the better for it

Forgiveness, of course, isn't the only element of the course-correction that seems to be taking place on the island. The Losties must actually change and take actions to "clean up their own messes." But forgiveness must be both given and received if they are to truly grab hold of the opportunities afforded them on this island of second chances.

Yet another form of course-correction that I don't think has yet taken place literally on the show but has been hinted at, and is at least present thematically, is resurrection. The very idea of everyone getting a "new life" on the island is one way in which the theme of resurrection pervades the whole premise of the show, especially when we find out from Naomi that all the 815-ers are presumed dead to the rest of the world.

Aside from this overarching symbol of death and rebirth, there are also multiple instances of dead people appearing on the island in some form, such as Ben's mom and Jack's dad. The man Sawyer murdered even seems to manifest himself in a boar on the island, while Kate's stepfather speaks through a semi-conscious Sawyer. Also relevant here is Mikhail, who on several occasions appears to die, only to reappear, alive and well, shortly after.

Perhaps the most powerful image of resurrection comes in "Through the Looking Glass," when Walt summons Locke out of a pit full of Dharma skeletons, recalling the Biblical story of Ezekiel, a prophet who received a vision in which he prophesies over a valley of dry bones and raises them all to life.

I think course-correction, forgiveness, and resurrection all point back to the grand narrative found in the Bible of the Fall and redemption. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was not God's plan, and it set things off course. It brought sin and death into the world. Jesus Christ, to the contrary, brought forgiveness and new life/resurrection. It might be said that the work of Christ is God's way of course correcting. Perhaps the island is doing something similar for our Losties.

To end with a wild prediction about the future of the show, I don't think that, given the evidence, a literal resurrection somewhere down the road is entirely out of the question. Perhaps the Universe isn't done with Charlie yet. Or maybe, when the situation becomes extremely dire, Walt and Locke will truly follow in Ezekiel's footsteps and muster all of their island-communing power to raise a whole Dharma army out of the pit. I can only dream.