LT273: Loophole, Dude, Loophole

LOOKING BACK

A friend is talking with me about the latest movie he saw and says he might go see it a second time. It is not my habit to watch the same movie twice. In fact, it makes no sense at all since the ending is known and my memory is pretty good with details. So why bother? Same applies to books and TV shows.

So I tell him as much. He cocks his head to one side and looks at me with a grin on his face and then asks, “How many times have you re-read transcripts to LOST?”

Busted. Ok, MOST the time there is little value for me in watching things twice. But LOST is that exception.

It is time to come up with a title for this post and Hurley’s phrase comes to mind, “Loop, dude, loop.” Then it hits me that it shouldn’t mislead as many will think this post is about time loops. If I do say so myself, the modification to “Loophole, dude, loophole”, works out nicely.

Then I’m hit with one of those, “Oh my!” Was Hurley’s catchphrase a clue? With most things on LOST that catchphrase probably had a dozen meanings to it.

So, here I find myself researching already watch episodes for more clues along the loophole topic while eating, yes, a bowl of Fruit Loops. This abnormal obsession of seeing LOST in everything is beginning to worry me. It has worried my wife long, long ago. But I tell not to worry, we will likely do this all over again and she can hope the next time things course correct.

So, here are some research notes on the loophole.


LOOPHOLE RULES

Rule #1: You can’t kill your mirror image.

Jacob can’t kill Black Shirt Guy and visa versa. This leads to the part where Ben was trying to get Locke to kill his father. Again, a clue was hidden in past episodes that demanded a second (or third, or fouth…) viewing to find it.

Smart people have often said that children are like little photocopies of their parents. We hear the phrase, “Well, she’s a spittin’ image of her mother.”

I think the rule is saying you can’t kill your Bad Twin. But someone else can!

Rule #2: Someone can kill your mirror image for you.

And this is what Black Shirt Guy did with Ben. Now if we skip back to the Locke-Cooper killings, it seems now that Ben couldn’t kill Cooper. Ben needed someone with a beef against Cooper to do it.

Now I could be reading this wrong because the rift between Ben and Cooper escapes me. But…if we extend this out to John getting Sawyer to do his dirty work…ah, now it begins to fit in place like a jigsaw puzzle.


WHO’S CONNING WHO?

It seems that Jacob is the analogy of free will while Black Shirt Guy is fate. I reach this conclusion because Jacob tells Ben before he stabs him that he still has a choice in the matter.

Yet, Black Shirt Guy is sitting back smiling because he just manipulated Ben into killing Jacob by suggesting Ben had free will in the matter.

So who is conning who?

Jacob seems to welcome human strangers to the shores. Black Shirt Guy would rather do without them. But humans bring the element of surprise along with free will.

This leaves us with the answer that it could go either way; which happens a lot with supernatural beings. After all, the Bible says man has the free will to choose to follow Him and then a couple of verses later it says God already knows the future outcome. How can free will and fate co-exist? If we answer that philosophical question, then we might solve the riddle of LOST.


READER MAILBOX

Anon writes about the missing piece of tapestry. Trust me, this will get analyzed in detail in a post soon. Thanks for the observations!

Ms. Wendy drops a line with even more thoughts about the tapestry – especially the two boats at the bottom. Based on her comments, something tells me the tapestry is the story of history. Of course that leaves us wondering if more is to be woven or if this is just one story of many?

Well, it seems clear based on feedback that the blanket needs some further digging. Be sure to share your thoughts on the subject.

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Enjoy,
KC