I can't put my finger on it but there is something about LOST that just compells me to watch it. Perhaps its the underlying mythology and the alure of mystery that surrounds it. Maybe its just the way the characters interact. What ever it is, like The Matrix, it has me. And as I write this the series is beginning its final run with the Season Six Series Finale Extravaganza. 10 more fantastic episodes and a finale 2 hour wrap up special on CTV and SPACECAST.
This page will be my attempt to explain my own theories and spectulation about what I think is going on in LOST. When LOST first came to tv I'd passed it off as just another reality show without really watching it. It would be nearly a year and a half later when it captured my imagination with a rerun of an episode called "Everybody Hates Hugo" followed by "Numbers" that I caught one evening when there was nothing else on. As soon as they started making these strange corelations between the numbers and things goin on and off the Island I sat up and started paying attention this was pretty intriguing stuff. I was fortunate that SPACE aired the entire 5 seasons back to back almost daily until I was all caught up right from the very beginning.
And here I am a third of the way through season six having watched Final Chapter, LA X, Parts 1 & 2, What Kate Does, The Substitute, Lighthouse, Sundown so far. I have a pretty good idea whats going on now, though I still don't fully understand the numbers themselves in the greater scheme of things.
The BIGGER Picture Egyptian Mythology.
Its occurred to me after I had an eureka moment and come to the realization that we're looking at a BLEND of stories here.... the Statue of Taweret is first clue, that standing statue on the Island (four toed). Looking into Taweret we find that When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep. Apep is a water serpent demon this is our Man In Black. Apep is the enemy of Ra! Thus we begin to understand LOST.
In the Hall of Two Truths where MiB takes Ben to be judged ("Dead Is Dead") we see the engraving of Anubis and Ammut, and we see the serpent and a kneeling Anubis. Anubis weights the heart of a person against Ma'at, the goddess of truth, on a scale. If the heart was judged to be not pure by so much as the weight of a feather towards evil , Ammit would devour it, and the person undergoing judgement was not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and immortality. These concepts are blended together and both play a part in our LOST story.
Sundown: "For every man there is a scale," Dogen replies. "On one side of the scale there is good. On the other side, Evil. He tells Sayid that his scale tipped the wrong way during his test. Sayid says he's a good man, and Dogen askes him to prove it. Leading to Sayid's revealing confrontation with MiB.
The Gold Knife is special, and I'm sure there will be another Knife of Silver used together they can destroy Apep and put him back in his bottle. According to the Book/texts that deal with the Overthrowing of Apep. A challenge itself. In LOST if there are indeed two knives one silver one gold then MiB would have to be struck in the heart front and back. Or the writers may use the office of SET/Osiris as the only special person who can banish MiB with one knife. This will be The Candidate.
The Island itself it appears, is a blend of Duat and The Land of Punt. Our losties have crashed and died and now are undergoing a proccess by which their hearts are measured according to Ma'at in Amduat the "Afterworld" a purgatory place. They are tested by a series of challenges and defeating Apep is one of our challenges. Redemption for their sins is another challenge.
The Land of Punt (Duat) this Island of Souls cannot be seen by the living and turns to water or sinks out of sight, or a blend of both as we well know by now the writers have taken great pains to blend several concepts together in their "version" of things. In this case MiB is also the Prince of Punt aspect while Jacob is the Osiris aspects of the mythic Island of Souls. This is why conventional navigational instruments cannot find it. Only those who are called by Jacob acting in his Osiris aspect end up in Duat/Punt. The two sides are offices of the aspects of Duat.
In his Prince of Punt aspect, MiB temps his victims who know him with an offer of anything they could possibly want in hopes of causing their balance to tip towards evil as has happened to Sayid and Claire. If the person had refused redemption then his Ammut aspect would devour the soul as we saw happened with Eko early on in the series. MiB isn't quite 'Evil Incarnate' as Dogen assumed. But rather a mechanism by which people are being Judged according to the principles of Ma'at.
The way I see it now, the Losties have three choices. Redeem themselves on the side of good, and possibly go to 'Heaven' or be given a second chance at life in the real world. Maintain their balance between goodness and badness and serve Jacob's Osiris aspect and live agelessly for so long as they serve him, within the rules of Ma'at like Richard Alpert does.
If they fail and turn evil then they fall under the dominion of MiB and can either serve him/her or be eaten if they do not redeem themselves in time. And I say in time because MiB it appears wants to rule over the outer world off the Island itself, where he is imprisioned. This would be very very bad if he succeedes.
