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Lost in Backgammon (and the other way around)

Sometimes the comments are far better than the post. Here is one example:

"Do you think Adam and Eve are Rose and Bernard because they are black and white like the backgammon pieces? That is really racist."

Zach asked Wes in response to the latter Random Updates post in the blog Lost Mind Grapes, dedicated to the TV series Lost in which backgammon is played occasionally, what drags lots of hypothesis, prophecies and conspiracy theories aiming to expose the underlying meaning behind the mysterious series (disclosure: I've never watched a single episode of Lost).

Wes responds to this harsh accusation in:

"Um, no, more because they are in the age demographic that plays backgammon. It's actually ageism."

Backgammon in "Lost"

Lost follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island with each episode is depicted from a different character point of view. The reason for the plane crush, the specific passengers survivors, the nature of the island as well as other unnatural phenomena remain unexplained throughout the series four seasons (for now), and help to create an air of mystique around the award winning drama.

And that's where backgammon comes in. Backgammon has made its first guest performance already in the pilot, when a character named Locke, introduced backgammon game's history and rules to a character named Walt. What raises lots of questions and suspicious. Do they play the oldest board game in the world because they are not just plane crush survivors but the first humans created by god? Does the war between the light and dark pieces on the game board symbolize a good vs. evil battle? And the fact that backgammon is played with 15 checkers (to each player), while 15 is the second recurring number in the series, while 8, 16 and 23 appear on the doubling cube (in right or reversed order), must have a meaning too.

So Lost followers are forced to be interested in backgammon to relieve some of the fog, still they are not happy with the landing of backgammon sites promoters in their comments area, or in Wes words:

"Wow, an internet backgammon expert! Weird."

Next week: an objective ageism free research on the age demographic of backgammon players.