Backgammon, The Island and the afterlife by Swanhatch77

When the phenomenon known as LOST began we had no idea the depth and scope the show would cover, as the show delved into a vast array of subjects viewers began studying every detail, discussing with fellow confused fans, and theorising about WTF was going on. Even now almost 2 years since "The End" people are laying down ideas about what it all meant.

From the very first episode there were rumours of a "Clue" that would tie it all together, people analysed every clip, every line of dialogue, but try as we did, the clue seemingly evaded us, many of us believed the black object at the side of Jack's head alluded to a timeloop, we were wrong, then some believed Locke's secret was that he was always the mib, VERY WRONG, The clue infact was the scene involving Locke, Walt and a game in which the show was partially based upon....BACKGAMMON.

Backgammon originated around 5000 years ago as Locke mentioned, but what he didnt mention was that the game was played by Egyptian royalty in order to prepare themselves for "The Afterlife", They believed that by overcoming the obstacles within the game they were cleansing their souls and would be allowed into the great unknown. Indeed in one version of the game(Passin) the acctual reward for winning was a metaphorical afterlife.

There are many references to the game throughout the series, but it didnt really become obvious until the reveal that the flashsideways was passage into the afterlife.

In Egyptian mythology the dead played alongside the living, the game itself acted as a means for the dead and the living to make contact with one another, However, for the specific purpose of enacting the netherworld passage to effect union with Ra, the opponent in the senet ritual was understood as an inimical unnamed spiritual enemy who was assimilated to the enemies of Ra, and who was eventually destroyed at the end of the game--denied union and eternal life with or as the sun god.

If LOST was a metaphor for Backgammon, the island must be the board, The characters the(light and dark) pieces, and we know what they were rewarded with for defeating the Man in black and preserving the link between life and death.....The afterlife.