For the most part, "Expose" seemed to be a stand-alone episode meant to revisit some of the series' greatest hits from a different perspective and to finally dispose of the inorganic Nikki and Paulo characters. However, I feel the creators did drop one very significant hint to the long-term, mythological arc of "Lost" in the personage of the evil mastermind, the Cobra. For the moment, it's not so important to discover the precise identity of this nemesis (I have seen some speculation that a Cobra parallel will soon be revealed as Jacob and/or a familiar character), but rather what this figure in the little play-within-the-play symbolizes. This is the first definitive suggestion of a central, nefarious presence playing one side in the game of chess occurring on the island.
God knows, we have hated the others at times, but they have professed to be "the good guys." We could never be certain if they were genuinely evil, if they started out to save the world and got lost along the way, or if they possessed a greater understanding of the big picture so that their actions could not be fathomed by our lovable, but more limited castaways. What did Mikhail say? "Because you are weak or because you are flawed..."
And I am not saying that the others definitely serve this evil presence. It could very well be something beyond or even antagonistic to them. The "hostiles," the Mittlewerk contingent, and the paternal conspiracy I referenced in an earlier post all remain possibilities.
What should not be in dispute is that evil permeated this episode (the murder of Zukerman, Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" which I believe was set on a resort island) and its presence, I believe, is what was exposed in this episode.
If Nikki hadn't stopped to bury the diamonds, she would have had time to save her own life. That was the crucial moment of choice between her precious possession, ridiculously worthless in the context of the island, or her own life. Free will within the wheel of Fate has been a consistent theme and this was a perfect demonstration of that.
Quibble: If the Medusa spider was a newly discovered species, how would Arzt know the properties of its venom? Wouldn't you need to see a demonstration?
Theory by Boz
God knows, we have hated the others at times, but they have professed to be "the good guys." We could never be certain if they were genuinely evil, if they started out to save the world and got lost along the way, or if they possessed a greater understanding of the big picture so that their actions could not be fathomed by our lovable, but more limited castaways. What did Mikhail say? "Because you are weak or because you are flawed..."
And I am not saying that the others definitely serve this evil presence. It could very well be something beyond or even antagonistic to them. The "hostiles," the Mittlewerk contingent, and the paternal conspiracy I referenced in an earlier post all remain possibilities.
What should not be in dispute is that evil permeated this episode (the murder of Zukerman, Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" which I believe was set on a resort island) and its presence, I believe, is what was exposed in this episode.
If Nikki hadn't stopped to bury the diamonds, she would have had time to save her own life. That was the crucial moment of choice between her precious possession, ridiculously worthless in the context of the island, or her own life. Free will within the wheel of Fate has been a consistent theme and this was a perfect demonstration of that.
Quibble: If the Medusa spider was a newly discovered species, how would Arzt know the properties of its venom? Wouldn't you need to see a demonstration?
Theory by Boz
