LT162: Underworld

MY HYPOTHESIS

The Underworld is the explanation for 99% of the weird stuff on the island.

Sometimes when reviewing the show, I feel stupid. Of all the words used to describe the oddities of the island, we were GIVEN the term “mythology”. Perhaps we should have focused on that word more. The problem we made might have been assuming that “mythology” meant “a set of rules or doctrines that define a belief or practice”. We should have thought of it as one piece of a giant puzzle. I suggest this reasoning because we should have been searching the world of mythology for the source of the island’s mythology.

Oh, plenty of time has been spent checking out ancient mythology, but I’m looking for a specific model. My fear is that the writers have borrowed from several mythologies and that is what usually stops a detailed analysis for it would be time consuming.

Then for some reason, I typed in “mythology” and “underworld” into the same search engine. That led to my hypothesis. Now it was time to test the validity.


DEFINITION

Before getting into this topic, we need to clarify something: Hostiles. The exact definition of who a Hostile is can be tricky. But to discuss this blog, I’m going to suggest that Richard is a Hostile. I’m also going to suggest a few in Richard’s group are Hostiles, although we don’t know that to be true or not.

The others in Richard’s group include Tom, Pickett and several Others. It is unclear if these people are more like recruits such as Ben or Cindy, rather than true Hostiles. It could be that Richard is the only true Hostile.

Jacob also appears to be a Hostile, but in a very different way. For now, let’s assume that the Hostiles include Richard and anyone else who are descendents from the Ancients. I’m fine if Richard is the only one.


TERMINOLOGY

We first heard the term, “underworld”, from the producers who clarified that this was the true meaning of the Countdown Clock:

It seems that the term was kicked around for a bit and then sort of died off (no pun intended!). This post wishes to resurrect this term and analyze it a bit further.


DISCLAIMER

Before the post attempts to test the hypothesis, it should be noted that I detest this explanation. It suffers from the “Demon Rules”. The Demon Rules are those rules used in movies of the supernatural like the Exorcist. For example, when Linda Blair’s head begins to spin around, we all cry out, “The human body doesn’t permit that without causing death!” The writer turns to us via the film and says, “I’m using Demon Rules and that means anything goes!” Drats!

I’m reminded of the “Vampire Rules”. Ask 23 strangers for a Vampire Rule and we will find a commonality: no reflection in mirrors, they can turn into a bat, garlic and holy water repels them, etc. Yet we can usually cite one movie where the rules were changed. But consider if those movies at least explained the set of rules within the movie? For example, True Blood breaks many of the rules listed above, but it spent five minutes of question-answer dialog to run through the rules before embarking on its tale.

LOST has neither given us the rules or suggested a source. When we find no source to correlate, then we have to fall back to those darn “Demon Rules”, where anything goes. Double Drats!


USAGE

We find several references to the Underworld:

--The Hydra Logo: in Greek mythology the Hydra was blamed by the crow for not retrieving water for Hades, ruler of the Underworld

--Locke’s Crossword Puzzle: one answer is Gilgamesh who is the character in the oldest story ever written. Gilgamesh goes on a quest for immortality but when he finds the god who can give him the ability, he is instead made governor of the Sumerian Underworld.

--Nikki’s TV show, Expose: we see the episode where she learns her boss is the Underworld figure, The Cobra.

--Blast Door Map: a Latin phrase found on the door reads, “Save yourself from those below, the Underworld”

--Cerberus: the three-headed dog who guards the gates of Hades, the Greek Underworld

--Persephone: the alias used by Rachel Blake during the Lost Experience game; the Greek character was abducted by the ruler of the Underworld to be his bride; as the wife of the ruler, Persephone would send specters, ruled the ghosts, and enforced curses.

--Tityos: name of one group of test takers for The Project game; Tityos is one of the Titans of Hades in Greek mythology.

The hints were there, so I followed where this took me: to hell.


HADES

Underworld is a pretty generic term that applies to every culture’s doctrine of “afterlife”. In Christianity the term used is “Hell” because some suppose that Hell is beneath the earth.

I couldn’t help thinking about Ben descending a long way down to the Orchid hatch. Or Ben’s secret room which seemed to be a set of steps leading downward. Or the security system that tried to drag Locke down into a hole.

So, here is some background on Hades. First, Hades means the “unseen”…like Jacob and the Whisperers?

Hades was given an object in order to have the powers of invisibility…Ben’s baton or the black and white rock pouch?

Hades is a place as well as the name of the ruler. To avoid confusion, I will use the Roman name for the god: Pluto and Hades for the place. Prior to Pluto taking control of Hades, another battle was fought between the Titans and the Olympians – this time for the cosmos. For the younger gods, the Titans, to rule they had to battle the elder gods. The wife of the god of the cosmos convinced her sons to kill his father. Only one was willing to do so…John having Cooper killed or Ben killing his father?

Through trickery, Pluto takes Persephone as his bride. In an ancient tale we learn that Helios was unhappy with these events and claimed Pluto was not worthy of Persephone. Helios was the god of sun…remember the drawing of the mural in the Swan Hatch prominently features the sun with “108” painted in the center?

Over time, Helios is associated with and becomes known as Apollo…candy bar anyone?

Pluto ruled the dead with assistants. The best term for the assistants is probably demons who were under Pluto’s complete authority…a variation of the word “demons” leads to the common name “Desmond”.

Pluto forbade anyone from leaving his domain and was severe in his judgment when anyone tried…”We have to go back, Kate” or Ben’s, “Everyone has to go back.”

Only six living people ventured into the Underworld and all were heroes…Oceanic 6?

Pluto is considered to have control of all the precious minerals that come from beneath the earth’s surface…all known special properties are beneath the surface or the black rock seems to have magnetic properties or the mining expedition of Magnum Hanso and his ship, the Black Rock!

Pluto had a dark and morbid personality and was shunned by mortals and gods. But a closer look shows that while stern, he was just. He was adamant and unyielding…I’m thinking how Jacob treated Ben in the cabin.

Animals were sacrificed to the god of Hades: black animals…Kate’s horse? During sacrifice the Greeks would knock on the ground to ensure Pluto was paying attention to their offering…”Do you just walk into another person’s house without knocking?” says Tom or Ben asking if people knock anymore or Ben knocking on Jacob’s cabin before entering?

Due to an arrangement caused by the questionable marriage to Pluto, Persephone was permitted to live half the year on earth with her mortal parents and half the time in Hades…is Richard serving his six-months on earth during the time we are viewing?

In Hades is the land known as Lethe. Here was a river that souls were to drink of before being reincarnated…Hinduism teaches that reincarnation is part of spiritual maturity…or how often we see a yellowish drink being served.

Lethe is referred to in Robert Heinlein’s book, “Time Enough for Love”, where it is described as a powerful sedative…Juliet drinks the yellow beverage before her submarine trip to the island…other Heinlein books are directly and indirectly mentioned in the show…Stephen King book refers to these waters which is used to erase a characters memories of past horrors.

The purpose for drinking from the river in Lethe was so the souls would not remember their past lives…and maybe that works only partly like with Desmond or that memories could later be woken up by another means like electromagnetism.

GHOSTLY EXPANSION

My Underworld Hypothesis is to blame everyone unknown on what is below the surface of the island. I believe it is clear now that the Hostiles are responsible for all ghosts which fit the evidence that the wife of Hades/Apollo/Pluto was in charge of ghosts.

Walt said the button was bad, don’t push the button. The source of this ghost was the Hostiles or Richard or the Underworld, pick your manifestation. Dharma wanted the button pushed, the Underworld of the Island did not.

Charlotte and Daniel were to stop the gas from being released at the Tempest Hatch…the ghost of therapist and wife of Goodwin shows up and tells Juliet to kill Dan and Char! The island wanted the gas released and kill of those unprepared for it.

Christian showing up on the beach to Jack, on the jungle to Claire and to Locke in the cabin…all Underworld-driven by Persephone (or whatever name we were given on the show).

Ben’s mommy at the sonic fence was Underworld produced.

John sees Horace cutting the same tree down in a dream…again, brought to you by the fine folks at Underworld, Incorporate.

The producers told us that Smokey was there before Dharma Initiative arrived. And while on that topic, it seems the D.I. plays less and less of a role in our LOST story and we should focus much more on the doings of the Hostiles/Underworld/Ancients/Jacob-crowd.

From the spooky whispers to Kate’s black horse…all this is a produce of the Hostiles and not the Dharma Initiative. D.I. was very much the “bad guys” in the eyes of Richard, Jacob and his band of demons from the Underworld.


SUMMARY

While the Underworld tends to lean towards those frustrating “Demon Rules”, it seems that 99% of the oddities on LOST Island are due to what is going on underground. I believe Season 5 may very well take us underground.

I would not be surprised to learn that some mortal descended the steps of Hell and merged a deal in body, mind and spirit with the underground powers of the island. He now sits in a cabin and which phases in and out as if he were a god…or demon.

HELL, I don’t know, I’m just writing a blog!




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Enjoy,
KC