Since Aristotle (and probably before that), humans have asked themselves: Do we really have free will? ABC is currently attempting an interesting answer to that question with its new show, FlashForward. In doing so, they inadvertently make Joseph Fiennes a god.

Welcome back to Overthinking Lost, fifth season edition.

"Oh, hey, Destiny! How's it going? Exactly how you expected? Oh. That's... that's cool."

Last week, we had an excellent conversation in the comments section about the never-ending battle between science and faith in Lost.  While we didn’t come to any consensus about whether Jack was truly a man of science, a man of faith, or a mix of the two, last week’s conversation proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the words “faith” and “science” are far more semantically complex than we once thought.  Cool, guys.  Keep up the good work.

This week, I want to tackle two more complex—or shall we say vague?—concepts: the concepts of fate and free will.  Weeks and weeks and weeks ago, back when I was still watching season two, I made the possibly erroneous claim that “fate” and “destiny” are, by definition, religious terms.  In the fifth season of Lost, however, “fate” has taken on numerous definitions, both religious and [psuedo?] scientific.  I mentioned in last week’s post that the first half of season five disappointed me, and I think that’s in part because of the vague nature of these terms.  What is fate, Lost?  What is free will?  And can a television show whose characters lack free will be entertaining?

The answers to these questions and more after the jump.

This week marked the 10th anniversary of the sci-fi sleeper blockbuster, The Matrix. It’s hard to imagine, but there was a period in American culture when no one had heard of the Wachowski Brothers, Hugo Weaving or Propellerheads. Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburne re-ignited their careers, playing freedom fighters armed with gravity-defying kung fu and submachine guns, locked in eternal war in a digital prison.

Audiences flocked to theaters for the blistering action, the revolutionary visual effects, the throbbing techno soundtrack and the wirework. But critics picked up The Matrix for another reason entirely – its throwaway references to classical philosophy.

Philosophy professors and hyper-literate college students (OTI’s target demographics) claimed that The Matrix showed clear influences from: