Friday, January 1, 2010

A LOST SUPPER



Our first glimpse of the first cast photo for Season Six of LOST was just a shiny, wavy photograph that was a bit distorted, but thanks to Susan at Outlaws we've finally got a high quality scan of the US Weekly picture to glom over. I love it! I admit I was disappointed by the odd, rather ugly shot that was used for the big Comic Con poster with its bad proportions and what looked like amateur rush job photoshopping.



Pretty much the only interesting thing about it is that Locke, the central figure, has his back turned. It was a cool way of reminding us that Locke is "turned", that he's not "Locke" anymore, but seriously...couldn't they have thought of something interesting to do with the rest of the cast? Some of those photos are so old, like Boone in his leather coat, that they feel moldy.



But hey, The Last Supper! That's the kind of classic pose that feels fresh no matter how many times it's been overused and overdone. Of course it's not original. In fact, it's become almost a predictable finale bow for big ensemble casts. We all remember how it was used, beautifully, in the last season promotional campaigns of both Battlestar Galactica ...



... and The Sopranos.



But Last Supper ensembles have a much longer history than that. There's the famous scene from the 1970 movie M*A*S*H.



And my personal favorite version is this creative rendition of the inimitable Big Lebowski.



"Look, let me explain something. I'm not Jesus. You're Jesus. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. That or His Dudeness... Duder... or El Duderino, if, you know, you're not into the whole brevity thing."
There have been mockups and parodies done of almost any grouping you can think of, from South Park



to Mario,



from George W. Bush's cabinet



to the Hollywood chapter of the Scientology convention



The Last Supper, aside from being the greatest example of single point perspective ever painted, has also served as a template throughout our modern Popped Culture for posing large groups of people in a cool way that instinctively challenges us to analyze their identities and positions for clues and inspiration. Finding Clues in The Last Supper has been going on since before forever. And this is Lost, man. That's what we Lost fans do! So what all are we going to make of Lost's L'ultima Cena, our Season Six LOST Supper?



Do we analyze the shirt colors? Richard is a Redshirt and Jack's a Purpleshirt. Are they goners? Does it mean anything that Sawyer wears a shirt of many colors, like Joseph the dreamer? Do we make anything of the placement of objects on the supper table that's been made from an airplane wing? Whose drinking Dharma wine, Dharma beer, Dharma cola? What do the different flowers signify?



What of the Swan Station symbol over Sayid's head? Or the skull at his feet? Is Sayid the next dead man?



And the skull and and the lilies placed in front of Hurley?



Not Hurley!



Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece depicted the moment when Christ had just informed his apostles that he knew one of them would betray him.



Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.
And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?
And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

-Matthew 26:20-23




"What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home?"
The apostles are grouped in threes. The first group is Bartholomew, James Minor and Andrew, brother of Peter, who is apparently trying to Stop! what's going on.



For us, that would be Ilana, Richard and Claire, who is, like Andrew, an important sibling in our tale.



Of this group only Claire seems to be doing anything interesting. Is it just me, or is she giving Kate the evil eye here? I mean, why is Kate the one with the peanut butter? That's Claire's special symbol! Does Peanut Butter = Baby Aaron?



At the other end of the table is Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon,



or as we call them, Sun, Miles and Frank Lapidus. Does this mean Frank, like Simon, will be the one everyone turns to for the answers?



Doesn't really look like it. This depiction seems less animated than most. Everyone is fixated on Locke and there isn't much inter-character interacting going on. However, as in most pop culture Last Supper parodies, these end groupings of the lesser apostles are used as places to dump the lesser characters from the show. Perhaps there are those who care to analyze the thematic connection betweeen the mostly anonymous St. Bartholomew and the johnny-come-lately character of Ilana, for example, but I'm thinking that's probably well past the point of diminishing analytical returns.

The important groups are always the ones in the middle. (Which, yes, does make it seem a little odd that Jin is part of this group, but since I can't think of any explanation for that, I'm going to just ignore him. Because, seriously, WTF is Jin doing there?)



The grouping at the right hand of Christ is perhaps the most important in daVinci's painting, certainly the most compelling. We have Judas, who is clutching a bag of silver and reaching for the same bread as Jesus, which clearly identifies him as the traitor. Then there are Peter and John, who are intimately conferring about this sudden accusation from Christ.



In our photo, this group is made up of Sayid, Sawyer and Kate. But who's who? Sayid is clearly in the traitor's spot, and he does look the most confrontational and demanding. But perhaps we shouldn't jump to that kind of conclusion.



Kate's arm is on the table in the same way as Jesus Locke's is. Only instead of bread, they're both reaching for the Dharma peanut butter.



So is she Judas? Will Kate finally get something really cool and pivotal, maybe even something evil, to do in Season Six? The other interpretation is that Kate is Mary Magdalen. When Leonardo painted his Last Supper, he chose to make St. John, the youngest and dearest apostle, look so soft and girly that some have surmised that the person to Jesus's right hand was really meant to be his alleged girlfriend and lady confidante Mary Magdalen.



This theory has entered pop culture through Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. It's a pretty weak theory, in my opinion, given that Leo himself ID'd the Apostle John in his notebooks and given that it makes no sense whatsoever that Mary would have been invited to this dinner and little John left out. However, in almost every parody, this position is reserved for a girl. Wonder Woman, Princess Peach, Maude Lebowski - all have been sit ins for St. John/Mary Magdalen. So I'm thinking Kate is sitting there because she's The Girl and that's The Girl's Chair.



Now what to make of Sawyer as Simon Peter? I mean, aside from Hell, Yeah! Like Peter, Sawyer is impetuous and prone to bursts of violence, but deep down he is The Rock, the most dependable hero in the bunch. Peter is the apostle that Christ appoints as his successor, even though Christ knows and accurately predicts his imperfection. In both cast photos done so far, we've seen Sawyer placed directly to Locke's right. Even if when Locke's back is turned, he's technically at Locke's left, but ... whatever. You get what I'm saying.



Does this mean that Sawyer's role as Locke's right hand man will come back into play in Season Six? Will Sawyer be the one that lives on when the resurrection allegory is complete? And more importantly, what does it mean that he is leaning on Kate?



Does he have Kate's back now? As anyone who has ever waged battle in the bloody LOST Ship Wars knows, there's no way this beautiful couple was placed together in this way randomly. So to my Jater friends and my lovely Suliet pals, all I have to say about this little bit of photographic evidence is ... BWAH!



It looks like we have our Han and our Leia. But where's our Luke and Anakin?



The grouping at the left hand of Christ in Leonardo's painting was made up of Thomas, James Major and Philip.



But we've got a big problem here with LOST's choice of characters for this final group. First of all there are FOUR of them, and that's all wrong. Maybe it's just because there will be 14 characters in the Season Six cast and none were to be left out of this promotional photo. That's the likeliest explanation and it's not as if any of the correlations are literal. They never are in these kind of parodies.



Ben makes an acceptable fit with Philip, who wonders aloud if it is him that Christ is accusing. I'm sure many would feel that Ben makes the best fit for the Judas role, since he already killed Jacob. But I think that kind of leaves out the fact that Jacob is not in this picture. Perhaps we should be rearranging some of our presumptions of who exactly is the highest Higher Power in this story. The person Ben was serving was the being that currently inhabits John Locke's corporeal shell, so unless there's another major twist upcoming with Ben (an obvious possibility) then the serene being in the middle of the picture is not the one that Ben has betrayed.



Jack appears to be in the position of Thomas, and there is probably no better fit in the whole photograph than that. Jack has been associated with doubt and lack of faith since the earliest moments of LOST. If any of us had ever managed to miss it, we had it beaten into us last season when Ben gave Jack a tutorial on the subject, via Caravaggio's magnificent painting of Doubting Thomas.

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."- John 20:29
But the name Thomas also means Twin, which is one of the subtler repeated motifs of LOST. The way Jack is holding on to Locke's chair, it's almost like he wants to pull it out and dump Jesus Locke on the floor. It reminds me of how dubious the distinction between good and evil have been on LOST, how mysteriously they've been camoflauged throughout the series. It reminds me also that we really don't know who the central protagonist of LOST really is. Most of the time it seems to me to be John Locke, and the deliberate choice to place him in the uncontested center of both major cast photographs seems to back up that assumption. But for all its Biblical imagery, LOST has always been more Star Wars than New Testament. We have our Han Solo and our Princess Leia. We have our Luke Skywalker and our Darth Vader.



Those are the four central characters. And it seems to me that one of the biggest Star Wars debates - whether Luke or Anakin is the central hero of the piece - applies very similarly to LOST. Is it Jack the Shephard or Jesus Locke who this story is really about? Or is it both? These two characters have always seemed to represent the essential duality at the core of the plot, and in this photo perhaps the explanation for the fourth man is that Jack is not part of his triad at all. He's the other half of the Christ. Jack is trying to unseat John at his own symbolic feast. But will that be possible?



Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad
- Matthew 26:31
Most likely, as with most such cast parodies, this is all a big steaming pile of Overthink. I've seen some fans already bitching that this isn't as artful a representation as other casts have done. Maybe so. I'm just delighted to see this first sign that the coming promotional campaign is going to have some FUN mixed into it. I'm done with the drab promos we've gotten, the endlessly recycled Season Five scenes and the badly photoshopped poster. It's time for LOST to start showing some flair as they step out into their finale season. I really hope this is the start of weeks and weeks of our appetites being whetted and our anticipation ramping up. Come on, guys, we're ready for your closeup. Bring it on!



ONE MONTH AND COUNTING!

25 comments:

sn00p said...

Honestly, I know next to nothing about christianity and the story of Jesus and so on. Last supper?!? What?!?

To me, it's just Sawyer being his trademark "I don't give a flying f**k" self. I mean, look at everybody else, they are all looking at Locke. Sawyer is the only one who isn't. He's either moping or checking out the hottie in the surroundings (more likely!) or something.. What could this possibly mean?

Fishbiscuitland said...

Well, it could mean the magazine is NOT FLAT! But thanks, genius.

Henry said...

I don't know if this pic is full of meanings, since as I far I know the only thing Damon said they planned was the oficial poster (the one from CC and that they are using to promote the last season). So, I don't know how much we should read into this.

I don't understand much about the bible, but the comparisons we can make are Jesus with Locke, Jack with Thomas, Sawyer with Peter, Kate with Maria Madalena (and that even fits a little for her lol), Sayid with Judas. But I don't think that means much.

Darlton probably didn't have any say on it. It's just a cool cast pic imo. Not very original, since a lot of other shows did in the past. I even think the BSG is much better.

But I like your analysis. Thanks you. *cheers*

sn00p said...

*smacks head on wall*

didn't realize this was from a magazine scan... my bad...

Anonymous said...

Cool, FUN analysis of the Lost Last supper pic. Thanks for your always very entertaining take on things Fishbiscuit.

Henry, I don't know how official this Lost supper pic is either, but at least some of the cast, if not all, are wearing the same clothes as those in their official character promo shots. So my guess is that ABC were at least aware this image was being created, if they didn't set it up. Lost had to have its own Last Supper pic since so many major of the big serial dramas/movies have one too. Whether it's official or not, or original or not, I like it.

- Midnight

Henry said...

Midnight

Yes, I think it's oficial. I just don't think Darlton had any say on it like the ofical poster to promotion (the one from CC). Because I don't think they would give us spoilers like Sayid is the traitor because he's on Judas place, got me? Or that Sawyer is in Peter's place because he's going to side with Flocke.

I think this is just one more cast pic, and I don't believe TPTB has any say in cast pics. Hopefully, we will get anothers casts pic. ;)

I like this one, I wanna know if there's an article.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the Sawyer shot from an old promo photoshoot? I could be wrong but it looks familiar.
Can't they get these people together and make a photoshoot that doesn't look like it was done with MSpaint?

And if this is official, why reveal it through US magazine, a tabloid?

lyly ford said...

@anonymous 'cause ABC always gave fews pics to media to promote the show but since NO promo pics before the season premiere allowed, they gave them the promo pic of the cast, they always do that to us weekly AND EW and Tv guide.And no it's new sawyer's pics, i know them by heart and it's a new one, he wears it for photoshoot of s6 not before.

good analysis fish, i didn't noticed some things. let's hope we'll get it soon by ABC or a scan maybe there is more we can't see yet

Anonymous said...

Great as always. i loved looking at the various Last Supper pics, good fun. Think the analysis is probably pretty close. One things for sure, Sawyer is definitely front and center in the momentum leading up to S6 - the TV Guide cover and story. There's no more compelling personal storyline for this year - other than maybe Locke/non-Locke. Can't wait to see how the final redemption story plays out.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone here have any info on two great Skaters from the old days?
Leah Kate - the author of the terrific fanfics, In Hiding and On the Road; and

Luanne79 - who used to post on the ABC.com Lost general board.

Where do they currently blog/post?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: Leah Kate and Luanne post at the Fishbiscuitland forum: http://www.fishbiscuitland.com/fishelage/index.php
Luanne also posts here:
http://skate-outlaws.com/forum/index.php

Kyle from Kentucky said...

no shit about the promos up until now.

But oh my dear good god people. We only have about 5 and a half months left of this. What will I do with myself in June????

Write a book fish

Hey Zeus said...

second that. You've done the research.

write a book

Anonymous said...

What do you all think of that?

http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-triangle-finally-over.html

To keep up with the religious undertones of this post, this is gonna be like the end of days for you guys, after you're done reading the above.

Funny how shippers all around fought to no end and if the above is true, it was all ridiculously pointless. Doesn't really matter who you were rooting for.

And no, I'm not a sulieter/jater/skater in any way.

I just find that the people who comment/write here are a bit more grounded and rational than on other sites, that's why I visit here from time to time.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Dark's usual bullshit to me. The man is pathetic. Can't wait to see what excuses he comes up with when he has to eat that one.

Anonymous said...

When has Dark been wrong about a spoiler that he later had to "eat"? He is extremely accurate. Just because he isn't as horrifically biased as all of you makes him fodder for your nastiness! I, for one, can't wait to read your insane spin on this spoiler. It will be imaginative, as always, but prove false in the end. Go back and look at some of your "takes" on spoilers in the past. One would choke on all the bullshit you'd have to "eat"! I'll get you started on one: last season, around March: supposedly the Jack/Kate kiss was cut? LMAO!! I cannot believe any of you would call Andy out for inaccuracy. Invest in anti-depressants, Skaters.

BTW excellent analysis of the US WEEKLY pic? Good idea to completely dismiss the official Lost poster because it wasn't pretty enough and instead use the non-official trash mag pic on which to base your theory. Any insight into the "Brangelina is Divorcing" pic on pg 18? Could you find an analogy to a Psalms perhaps?

I'd agree that you should write a book too because you are obviously very intelligent and make some excellent observations, but your theories are SO Sawyer-centric and Anti-Jack that no one who actually watches the show can take your analyses totally seriously. This is likely why your recaps aren't featured on Dark UFO, you assume bias on Andy's part, refuse self-critique, and only listen to your small group of devotees who accept your Skate propaganda without questioning the veracity. Enjoy your delusions.

Anonymous said...

One would choke on all the bullshit you'd have to "eat"! I'll get you started on one: last season, around March: supposedly the Jack/Kate kiss was cut? LMAO!!

Hey dumbass: When did Fish post that as a spoiler? She's never been a spoiler source. Your venom is a better fit over on dark ufo's cesspool. That's the place for haters. And for dumbasses.

Kyle from Kentucky said...

I pretty much have hated all the ships for a long long while. Yet I always loved Fish. Excellent and funny analysis tops all the ships and shippers

Anonymous said...

When has Dark been wrong about a spoiler that he later had to "eat"? He is extremely accurate. Just because he isn't as horrifically biased as all of you makes him fodder for your nastiness! I, for one, can't wait to read your insane spin on this spoiler. It will be imaginative, as always, but prove false in the end. Go back and look at some of your "takes" on spoilers in the past. One would choke on all the bullshit you'd have to "eat"! I'll get you started on one: last season, around March: supposedly the Jack/Kate kiss was cut? LMAO!! I cannot believe any of you would call Andy out for inaccuracy. Invest in anti-depressants, Skaters.

This is hilarious coming from a Jater. From the top of my head I remember silly Jater theories like 'The Others have impregnated Kate with Jack's blood and now we're going to get a Jaby", 'Kate is being kept away from Jack by an evil abuser in TTLG' and 'Ben made a deal with Kate and forced her to have sex with Sawyer in I Do' theories. Now how about that trackrecord?

Anonymous said...

Good read, as always. This is the first time i comment though.

Anonymous said...

Few things...

Believe it or not, I found out about this site from Dark himself. I was looking for Fish's recaps back when she was postnig there and noticed they were gone. I emailed him and asked where they were and he directed me here. So regardless of if he is a "jate' or not, he still is directing traffic here.

Also, as much as he is a Jater cheerleader, I find it off putting when I read the recaps here and come upon the obligatory Jack bashing part. Why can't someone be a Skater yet not use that to form a word opinion of Jack. I mean, how can you really fault Jack for trying to save Boone's life? That just seems so out of the way that i can't get passed it.

Anyways, I still enjoy the rest of the recaps.

For the record, I don't care either way who kate ends up with :-)

Anonymous said...

Believe it or not, I found out about this site from Dark himself. I was looking for Fish's recaps back when she was postnig there and noticed they were gone. I emailed him and asked where they were and he directed me here. So regardless of if he is a "jate' or not, he still is directing traffic here.

Did you wonder why he didn't direct you to Doc Artz's site? Is it maybe because Doc Artz, like Fish, LEFT Darkufo's board because it's a nasty cesspool? Is it because Doc runs a clean site, friendly to all, and he doesn't traffic in show destroying spoilers?

Dark is petty, mean and small. No one who is anyone important can stand his guts.

Island Boy said...

And whats with the mysterious and hauting white hand in the upper right foreground of the picture of the Last Supper? Must be what's left of Juliet leading them to the promised land.

giallo said...

Wow, the comments section has turned vicious! I love how people are willing to say some of the nastiest things online that they wouldn't dare say to someone's face...

dharmabeatdown said...

This is an excellent article and a fun analysis of this picture. The photo has the feel of being liberally draped with Dharma Pickled Red Herring.

I looked this photo up because last night, while catching up on Season 5, I thought about Frank Lapidus, and wondered why he is back in the plot. Then I thought about his name- Lapidus- Stone- Rock- Peter. Seeing the Biblical turn the season was getting I thought about the other analogs. You have Jack Shepherd- we all know who the Shepherd refers to, though of course the comparison to Thomas is particularly apt (and now has both in show and promo appearances). I haven't tried to delve into this theory yet, but the other name that immediately jumped out at me was Ben Linus. Lion. Judah. Judas.