I can't seem to help myself...the more I watch LOST's final season, the more excited I'm getting about the ways it's using alchemical imagery.
If you've not watched last week's episode "The Substitute," don't read any further. Otherwise, let's forge ahead.
When my friend Erin saw my last post, and knew that I hadn't yet seen the latest episode, she left an enthusiastic comment to let me know that lots of albedo imagery was on the way. And boy, was she right.
"The Substitute" focuses on John Locke, one of my favorite Losties. We get three versions of John in this particular episode: island John (dead); island fake John (whose body has been taken over by Smokey); and sideways world John (broken and flawed but loved and somehow renewed).
Whatever the writers intend us to think about regarding the sideways story ~ is it a reality that might be? that is? that will be? that could be? that should be? ~I am loving it.
And part of the reason I'm loving it is because, oh happy day, the writers seemed to get the memo from so many of us who have enjoyed this show for five seasons. The mysteries are grand. The science-fiction and fantasy elements are intriguing. But the characters...the characters!...are what it's all about. They're why we care that any of the rest of it is happening.
Because I care deeply about these characters, I love seeing what their lives might look like if able to let go of their baggage, or at least begin to. What would a second chance at life look like for these people, especially if their island lives have taught them important life lessons? What if people could re-enter their own pasts with newly gained forgiveness and wisdom and hope?
Because alchemical literature majors in stories that deal with purification and transformation, such stories are rich in symbols that help reveal the purifying and transforming process. And LOST seems to be literally dripping with such symbols right now.
With John's story, we definitely seem to be in the albedo stage. Think, if you will, of just a few of the major images in "The Substitute." We see John:
~lying humbled, facedown, on his lawn, unable to move, drenched in the spray of his sprinkler system. Pre-island John would have bellowed in rage; sideways John just laughs, in an echo of how he laughed in wonder and lifted his face to the heavens when it poured rain on him on the island in season 1. I was so awash in the excitement of seeing the water imagery this time around that I almost missed that echo; both Erin and Dana (my hubby) more astute LOST-observers than I, picked it up right away.
~in a bath (a bath! how alchemical can we get!) discussing his wedding (a wedding! how alchemical can we get!)
~looking contemplatively in a mirror. Oh this you have to love. Doppelganger John, contemplating his mirrored reflection. Just as doppelganger Kate contemplated her's last week, and doppelganger Jack did the week before. Hats off to Doc Jensen, amazing pop culture critic, for noticing that we've had three sideways bathroom-mirror moments so far. LOST has always abounded in "seeing eye" imagery, and I love that mirrors are showing up everywhere in season 6. Mirrors are one of the most potent symbols of spiritual contemplation, hinting at the union of subject/object. More contraries resolved? We shall see.
But my favorite alchemical symbol last week turned out not to be one involving water, at least not directly (though we had to get there on a perilous trip down a cliff next to a crashing ocean). I almost shouted in glee when I saw the white rock and black rock on the scales. Yes, I know...we've seen white and black rocks before in this show, but never before had they seemed this pregnant with meaning, a meaning that goes far behind the simplistic dark=bad and light=good, though that's there too. The white rock reminded me forcefully of the philosopher's stone (and here we're at the albedo stage again, with the material washed and purified, ready for the red flushing of the rubedo).
The white rock also made me think of the white stone from Revelation 2:17. This is the stone given to those who conquer, a stone on which is written a "new name." Given the fact that the phrase "black rock" conjures for us images of the slave ship of the same name, which we've seen earlier on the show, it seems to me that the difference we're being shown here, between Jacob and Smokey, and the alternatives being presented to those who (like Sawyer) find themselves needing to choose allegiances, is between servitude and freedom. Or you might say between slavery to old, outmoded lies about themselves and the joy of knowing their true selves: loved, forgiven, redeemed.
And how much do I love that it's Sawyer most explicitly confronted with this choice right now? If there is one character on LOST we long to see embrace a new name, his true name (James Ford ~ is he fording a deep river?) it's Sawyer, whose very moniker reminds us constantly of his bondage to his past.
11 comments:
Ooh. Nice connection with the Ford. Never thought of that before. Sawyer has always been one of LOST's most fascinating characters, one who has changed so much and regressed so much but definitely has seemed headed in the right direction. Like Doc Jensen, I think he's getting set to pull his longest con yet, on Smokey. And I have an uneasy hunch that it'll probably get him killed in the end. But however his Island storyline ends, I'm nearly certain it will be heroic.
Yes, I *loved* John in the sprinklers. Soooo awesome. And John in the bathtub was great too! I think Sideways is very likely to build up to John's wedding, and somehow most of the other folks will converge there. I'm calling it now - Ben's John's best man.
I don't want to say anything else just now because I might accidentally say something about tonight's episode, which I hope you find as amazing as I did. Except that boy, I think you're on target with the alchemy.
Mirror symbolism ... bet you liked tonight's episode :-)
Erin, yep, I'm tracking with Sawyer pulling a long con too. We've just had way too much set-up with him as a con man to not see that bear fruit this season in a big way. And oh, how delicious to think that his conning skills might be turned to the good, though the idea of his sacrificial death brings tears to my eyes.
And I keep wondering...what will sideways Sawyer's life be like? I find myself wondering if perhaps in that alternative reality, he's not a con man at all. If Locke's dad isn't bad (which seemed hinted at, at least as a possibility, in "The Substitute") then perhaps Sawyer avoided his childhood tragedy involving John's dad as well. So I find myself wondering what those conning skills might look like if put to positive use. What line of work might he be in? Salesman jumps to mind immediately, but I almost wonder if he might not end up a counselor or something, in sideways-world...
And I am loving your thought about John's wedding being a place where all the folks come together in the other reality. And am giggling appreciatively over the terrific story-telling idea of having Ben be John's best man in that reality. I hope you're right! Hats off to you for brilliance!
Travis, we've been having major t.v. reception issues in our river valley, so (ack!) we're not getting ABC at the moment. Erin is keeping us supplied with recordings of each episode, for which we're super-thankful. So that means I'm always about three days behind in my LOST watching. I'll leave another comment this weekend after I've caught up -- but delighted in advance to know more mirror symbolism must be on the way!
Hee, thanks! :D
Yeah, I originally thought that maybe Helen was referring to an adoptive father, but I saw somebody said there was a picture of him with Cooper on Locke's desk, out hunting together or something. Which makes me wonder what in the world could have happened that Cooper would have turned out okay; I think he's the most evil character we've seen on the show, with the possible exception of Keamy and Smokey.
You know, when I watched the first episode, when Sawyer said to Hurley that he shouldn't go blurting that out about his money, I thought, "Now, isn't that nice? He's lookin' out for his fellow man." Almost every recap I read said, "Sawyer is going to con Hurley." So I don't know which it is. I think that if he tries to con Hurley, he will fail spectacularly, and it will be a very funny thing to watch. But I'm still not convinced he's going to try.
Ah, I think the writers wanted us to think that Sawyer might be contemplating a con of Hurley. And certainly if Sawyer as we've come to know him (or at least pre-island Sawyer) had met someone as rich ans seemingly as gullible as Hurley, the idea of a con would have at least crossed his mind, even if he hadn't carried it out. But now that we've spent more time in sideways world, I don't think that's really where they're going with the story (although as you said, it might be fun to see it play out). I think it might have been a sort of red herring...
It occurred to me, looking over my last comment, that it might have sounded weird to say that sideways-Sawyer might end up something like a counselor. I don't tend to think of counselors as con artists (at least not most of them!). I was just trying to think of other professions that could use some of Sawyer's skills in "sizing people up." I was tremendously impressed the other night when he so quickly figured out that Flocke wasn't Locke. That seemed to show a lot of spiritual discernment.
I didn't notice the Cooper picture either, but heard that other people had. So it seems like Locke's dad is still his dad, but it sure didn't seem like he had a lot of animosity toward him...he didn't seem to have much of a reaction when Helen suggested that dad be part of the wedding. All of which makes me wonder, how did sideways John end up in a wheelchair?
Yes, I actually could really see Sawyer as a counselor too, and was really impressed with how he saw through FLocke. I really wanted to see more development of the relationship between him and Karl; I thought he was poised to be a really good mentor, and that it would have been really good for him. And he definitely has protective instincts; I think the first massive burst of heroism we got from him was when he rushed in to save Claire from the mercenaries, all the more impressive because he's never had any romantic interest in Claire.
Yes...y'know, that's interesting, isn't it, how protective he felt toward Claire. Almost like an older brother. And that's even more interesting when you stop to consider who her big brother actually is...though of course nobody knew that at the time!
Ooh, good point!! "You're actually comparing yourself to Jack," Kate once scathingly said to him; seems more and more appropos all the time!
Yep! It's also interesting how Jack and Sawyer both feel drawn to the same women. The Kate triangle has gotten the most attention, but there has definitely been attraction between Juliet and Jack in the past too. Although I don't think Jack would have dared to openly show his grief about Juliet (never mind that Jack has a hard time wearing his emotions on his sleeve anyway) in view of Sawyer's much greater grief, I've got no doubt that Jack loved Juliet too, and considered her a very good friend. He was the one who really brought Juliet into the lives of the castaways and believed in her when no one else did.
I think it's one of the more interesting points that Seay makes in the St. Jack chapter in GAtL: our tendency to view Jack all the time in terms of his opposites or foils: Sawyer, John, even sometimes Ben. And we think of him in relationship to Kate or to Juliet, and in a different way with his Dad. He's a hard guy to consider "alone" (unlike Locke, who sometimes seems to thrive on solitude). Jack's a very complex, relational person, and it's one reason I love him, despite all the ways he messes those relationships up. I don't think Matthew Fox has gotten the respect he deserves as an actor for this role yet.
Random thought:
Hermione and Ron's children are named Rose and Hugo. I think Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" can best be summed up in the line "To love another person is to see the face of God." I think the two characters on LOST who best exemplify that thought are Hugo and Rose.
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