Being one of the most ancient, popular games worldwide, backgammon commonly appears on Movies and TV series. Sometimes backgammon is only backgammon; it appears in the background as something people do casually, like eating, fishing or playing backgammon with swimsuit models. In other times, the game’s absorption capacity of crucial metaphors pushes it to the front. That is what happened in The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner and in Emotional Backgammon, where backgammon symbolizes the struggle between choice and destiny. And that is what happened in Lost.

The significance of the role of backgammon in Lost was clarified during the final, double episode of the 5th season, which amplified the echoes of the short backgammon discussion that occurred during the second part of the pilot.

Every sentence bears a deeper, wider meaning. If backgammon is the oldest game in the world, then it must be saying something about the antiquity of the island; the mentioning of the two sides, one light and the other one is dark, refers not only to the good vs. evil battle but to the two opposing sides reside in every human being. And what does the remark on the 5,000 old dice made of bone can tell us on the big game played on the island?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 4:31 am and is filed under Playing Backgammon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.