The Infection – Anubis vs. Smokey in a battle to the death.
After watching events play out in the last few episodes of season 6 and also remembering an image towards the end of season 5, it got me thinking about this mysterious infection.
I’ll first take you back to season 5 when Flocke takes Ben into the tunnels surrounding the Temple. When Ben falls through the floor into the Smoke Monster chamber, we see an image above the smoke grate of the Smoke Monster in apparent battle with the Egyptian god Anubis. It is this image, more than many other things in Lost which has fascinated me; why would this specific Egyptian god be fighting with the Smoke Monster? To answer this question we need to know what Anubis’ role was.
Anubis was the god of judgement and the dead. He was associated with mummification and also with the protection of the deceased during they journey to the afterlife. Basically he made sure that anybody who’d died safely reached the afterlife to continue on this new path. Another highly important thing regarding Anubis is that he performed a critical weighing of the deceased’s heart; this was to determine whether or not a person was worthy enough to enter the afterlife.
Now back to events in Lost. Dogen told Sayid that inside every person is a scale whereby light and dark on either side. After the Others had done their tests, they had found that the scales inside Sayid were weighed more towards the dark than the light and eventually the darkness would reach his heart, which inevitably it did. This reference to scales and measuring someone’s goodness sounds uncannily like the weighing of the heart that Anubis carried out as I’ve described above.
This increase in darkness seemingly is caused by the infection, an infection which didn’t seem to make sense until I started thinking about the Anubis vs. Smokey image. The infection seems to take hold of a person when they are very close to death but why? What if one the island, you are judged (ie. your heart is weighed, your light and dark is measured etc) just before you are about to die. If you are good and wholesome, you die and your soul is transported safely to the afterlife or if you are somehow saved from death, you make a full recovery and return to your normal self. However, if you are judged and your scales are leaning the wrong way, the infection is able to set in; you loose your identity and the scales only lean towards to the dark side so there eventually is no light left.
Now to bring Smokey and maybe Nemesis into the equation. I believe at the point when someone is very close to death the Smoke Monster/Nemesis or whatever it/he is and Anubis are there judging the person. On one hand, Anubis is trying to help and guide the person to the afterlife, Smokey on the other hand is ready and waiting to infect anyone not worthy enough to enjoy a peaceful death.
This is what I think the image is telling us; two beings are trying to send people down 2 very different paths. Anubis sending people down the path of light with the Smoke Monster sending people down the path of darkness.
I like your tie in back to Egyptian mythology. If you look at some real images from Egyptian mythology around Anibus you will also notice a scale which we have seen several times this season.
Id have to disagree with this. No way that Claire would tip to the evil side at the time of death. She was always said to be good and that her goodness had to be a influence on Aaron or he’d end up messed up. People get infected at the time of death because Smokey chooses who he thinks he can manipulate.
this is really clever thinking, well done!
Great post! Do you think Jacob is then trying to tip the scales to good and make it so that the souls get safely to the afterlife?
I like this theory. Been thinking a bit about the egyptian references recently:
* Anubis is regarded as the brother of Horus. The eye of horus appears on Jacobs tapestry. Horus is represented as a Falcon (could this be same falcon that was talking to Hurley?). Could the all seeing eye of horus be a reference to the ‘lighthouse’?
*Set is sometimes referred to as the father of Anubis. Set is depicted as a monster or an unknown creature called a ‘Typhonic Monster'(Smokey moves in a very typhonic manner). He was God of darkness and chaos and also God of the Desert (could this be linked to the island transporting people to the Desert??) Set was also married to the goddess Taweret who the islands giant statue is in the image of.
This is really good. What I want to know though is what made Claires scales tip to the evil side. She always seemed to be a good person. The argument could be made that it is because she was going to give Aaron up for adoption but, there are many adoptive parents and adopted children that would argue in her favor. Seems like there has to be room for manipulation from outside sources.Like either Jacob or MIB.
helentink and ClaireBlueEyes, glad you liked it, it took me a while to get it written in an understandable way!
ClaireBlueEyes, in answer to your question, i believe that someone is trying to tip the scales in their favour.
foreverpuzzled, Claire does seem to be a bit of a mystery. I can only assume that because she didnt want her son swayed her to being on the dark side.
with claire, maybe it was that by the time she was judged she thought someone had stolen Aaron and so her thoughts were bent on murderous revenge aka dark side.