Ya’ll, Season 6 ROCKS! – puh-LAIN and simple! If you want to know What (TF) is going on on LOST, just scratch the surface of any number of scenes in Season 6!In this post, we’ll decipher Jacob's kooky metaphor of "wine corked in a bottle" as told to Ricardo in "Ab Aeterno."
Remember Amy's baseline perspective: NOTHING on LOST takes place in a PHYSICAL world, but it is ALL REAL. There is NO timeline other than the sequence of events AS THEY ARE PRESENTED to us in the show. There's no "past" except what happened in the prior scene/episode(s). HERE WE GO!
JACOB'S TALE
Let's think back to what Jacob tells Ricardo in “Ab Aeterno,” [and keep your WORDPLAY in mind].
- Jacob: [picks up the bottle of wine] Think of this wine as what you keep calling hell. There's many other names for it too: malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island, and it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.
Jacob is obviously using a metaphor to explain things to Richard, so I wondered if any other metaphors might work. "This Island" could be a stone over a tomb (Christianity reference), a door to a room, or the HATCH of an enclosed environment like a submarine or underground bunker. Uh-oh. [Remember the word "Quarantine" on the INSIDE of the hatch? We'll have to come back to that one!.]
Also note, the cork/this island is the only THING that keeps the "darkness where it belongs." This island doesn't decide what the darkness is. "This island" isn't even a place. It's a THING with a PURPOSE - like a cork. If we take the cork metaphor and run, we know "this island" is 1) man made, 2) removable 3) replaceable and 4) neutral in the "war." The cork itself isn't a major player, but it can cause a stalemate. If you remove the cork and someone REPLACES it -- nothing changes. That's why MIB doesn't take the cork out -- he smashes the bottle instead. Jin tells Hurley (in a dream) that "everything's going to change" (a phrase that appears in Ben's brainwashing video). This time is different. Whatever happens here will be IRREVERSIBLE.
NOTE TO SELF: Take a look at how carefully Jacob does NOT say, I bring people to this/the island. He says "I bring them here"/"when they get here." Remember Mock Locke's very odd comment to Jack? ["You were trapped on this island before you ever got here."] Jin makes an odd comment to Mock Locke about Sun. He says, "But she's not here." Mock Locke say's he's working on it. Jin already knows Sun is on the island. HERE and This Island may not be one and the same. HERE might be a subsection or part of this island. This would mean Jacob is hand picking peeps from "this island" and bringing them "here" for examination. (We'll definitely be discussing this later!)
WHAT THE HELL?
That "going to hell/nature to sin" business threw a HUGE red herring at our feet. The references to Christianity throughout the show [Isabella's cross, MIB calling Jacob "the devil," Richard's fear of "going to hell"] imply that Jacob is talking about a PLACE where the bad guys GO or are SENT after death [after being judged and convicted by a higher being for the bad things they've done while they were alive ] where they will be tortured for all time by a supernatural being who's into that sort of thing.
However, take note that the BOTTLE is NOT what he’s describing. It’s the WINE. The wine in the bottle is "what you keep calling hell," not the bottle itself. Either Jacob is completely unfamiliar with what the word hell means and used it incorrectly (or the writers are just lazy and don't care anymore), OR it's a clue. Amy's opinion? If Jacob says "hell" is a thing (and not a place), we need to know why.
So I looked up the word "hell" at thefreedictionary.com:
"...in Old English hel is a black and fiery place of eternal torment for the damned. But because the Vikings were converted to Christianity centuries after the Anglo-Saxons, the Old Norse hel, from the same source as Old English hel, retained its earlier pagan senses as both a place and a person. As a place, hel is the abode of oathbreakers, other evil persons, and those unlucky enough not to have died in battle. It contrasts sharply with Valhalla, the hall of slain heroes. Unlike the Mediterranean hell, the Old Norse hel is very cold...The Indo-European root behind these Germanic words is *kel-, "to cover, conceal" (so hell is the "concealed place"); it also gives us hall, hole, hollow, and helmet."
Wow. The Viking version of hell is COLD? That's interesting. In Viking-land, where you end up when you die depends on how you behave when you're alive AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR DEATH. Hm. However, hell is still a place in this myth. We need hell to be a thing -- a thing that can be "contained" like wine is in a bottle.
More interesting definitions of hell:
- A state of separation from God; exclusion from God's presence.
- HELLBOX. It's a term used in the printing business way back when they printed one page at a time by arranging type (teeny templates of letters, but reversed) on a big plate. They coated the plate with ink and "pressed" it against blank sheets of paper ("The Jacobinator! Makin' copies!!"). A hellbox is a receptacle [or a special trash can] for broken or discarded type. [Type are MIRRORED letters -- like the lines of "The Jabberwocky" poem in Alice in Wonderland. She couldn't read it until she looked at its reflection]. Hell, box, broken, discarded, letters, mirrored, receptacle -- whoa. Now MY brain hurts!
The state of separation from God has been referred to by several characters (more often, lately): Locke "Godforsaken island." Sawyer: "God's got nothing to do with it." Ben: "God can't see this island." Characters have also referred to NOT being separated from God: Illana: "God help us if he gets off, because...*KA-BOOM!*" Eloise: "Then God help us all."
However, you can't contain "separated from God" or "God's help" into a "bottle" and "cork" it closed. And the trash can concept wouldn't work as the wine in Jacob's metaphor no matter how special it is.
We need definitions that describe hell as something that can be contained and would get out if it could.
- A cause of such difficulty or suffering [War is hell.];
- One that causes trouble, agony, or annoyance [The boss is hell when a job is poorly done.];
[Hm. Ouch! My head! Uh-oh. Flashback! I'm remembering -- ah -- the brainwashing video that Ben used on Karl! Wasn't there something about "You are the cause of your own suffering"?]
If you stick to darkness/evil/hell to describe the WINE in this metaphor, what Jacob says is: "The darkness/evil/hell (as it is called or defined) in this container (the bottle) is being kept WHERE IT BELONGS, so it can’t get out and spread. It's what you keep calling "hell," as in, the CAUSE ALL OF SUFFERING or THE ONE (S) that CAUSE(S) ALL SUFFERING.
I'm assuming we're talking about ALL suffering here because this seems like a pretty big set up to only avoid SOME suffering. Do you remember what causes all suffering on Earth in Greek mythology? PANDORA'S BOX! [or Pandora's JAR, if you're altogether picky about that sort of thing.] The "causes of all suffering" were contained in the box until Pandora opened it. Then they got out! I wonder how that relates to LOST? Hm.
MYTH OF PANDORA'S BOX [JAR]
As the story goes, mankind was on Earth, and life sucked because they didn't have fire (they didn't have women either, but that didn't seem to bother them too much). Zeus, kingpin of the gods on Olympus, didn't want man to have fire because then mankind would quickly become too smart and independent for their own good. Prometheus, a titan (the gods conquered the titans to come into power), stole fire from Zeus, brought it to Earth and gave it to mankind (because mankind was naked, cold, hungry and in the dark, and Prometheus thought that was not cool). Mankind quickly created a perfect society where everyone was happy and nothing bad ever happened to anyone.
Zeus got really ticked off at Prometheus. He punished him by chaining him to a big rock and sending an eagle to eat his liver. Every night his liver would grow back, and the eagle would eat it again (cuz it was free food, and eagles are no dummies). [Don't worry. Eventually, Heracles/Hercules shot the stupid eagle and cut him loose. FYI: Prometheus' parents: Gaia (Earth) and LAPETUS. Yep.]
Zeus decided he needed to punish mankind as well (kingpins are just like that), so he huddled up with the other gods and goddesses, and together they created Earth's very first woman and named her Pandora (it means "the one who bears all gifts"). They made her totally hot -- irresistible, actually. They gave her all kinds of sneaky talents too (so women could torture men for eternity, see). Zeus kept two jars near his throne. He gave Pandora the jar of "Things That Are Not Cool." It was filled with every illness, strife, disaster -- anything that makes mankind 1) suffer and 2) ditch happiness. The gods sent her to Earth with her swag, and she quickly hooked up with Prometheus' brother.
The story gets a little hazy from here. Some versions say as soon as a man took her in, she opened the jar and scattered its contents. Some versions have the gods setting her up. They told her the jar was full of "gifts for mankind from the gods" (sneaky gods and their wordplay!) then specifically told her NOT to open the jar NO MATTER WHAT all the while knowing she had a jones for curiosity (they gave it to her!), and she'd opened it anyway. All the sucky things that make mankind suffer were released on Earth.
Pandora slammed the box closed but only quick enough to contain Hope. Hope banged on the lid and said, "WTF lady?! Without Hope, mankind will suffer only once and give up. Zeus went all out, here! With Hope in the world, mankind will refuse to give up and, therefore, suffer over and over again. Now open this thing up, chica! Pronto!"
Thus, suffering is forever matched with hope, and women are responsible for everything that's wrong in the world. Figures.
Wait, did you say HOPE?
- Before they blow the hatch, John Locke tells Hurley he thinks hope is inside.
- Christian chides John-Stamos-coiffed Jack about not giving Sarah any hope before surgery. Jack says, "That's not hope. That's false hope." Christian answers: "It's still hope."
- When the Transceiver Posse debates sharing news of the French woman's transmission, Sayid says: "If we tell them, we'll take away their hope. And hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."
If whatever's in the bottle is the cause of all suffering, and it can escape like the "gifts from the gods" did from Pandora's Box, and there are reference to the Pandora's Box myth throughout LOST -- well, I don't know about you, but I'm thinkin there might be peeps in that bottle. And those peeps might be BLAMED as the cause of all suffering by whoever Jacob's working for. Just a thought.
SUFFER ME THIS, SUFFER ME THAT
If the "wine" is the cause of all suffering, and it is contained by the "bottle" (where it belongs) and the bottle is corked to keep it from getting out and spreading, then we need to know:
- Who's trying to avoid suffering in this scenario? In order for suffering to take place, someone needs to suffer.
- How are they trying to avoid it? Suffering didn't start out in the bottle. Who pinpointed the cause of suffering specifically enough to go after it? What's the procedure for collecting it? Who figured out how to contain it? How is it contained?
- Why are they trying to avoid it? Suffering sucks, sure, but timing is everything. What motivated them to PURGE the cause of suffering in the first place?
- What is "the cause of suffering?" What's in the bottle?
Add to these questions the following: What can be blamed/named as the cause of all suffering, collected and placed in artificial confinement ("where it belongs") and would get out if it could?
To answer these questions, we'll need to examine what Jacob has to say about his job and why Mock Locke hates him so much.
NEXT UP: Amy Smashes Through The Looking Glass: The Wine and The War
