Thursday, May 29, 2008

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.