Yes, I saw the show Lost. There was a consciousness on the island.
I don't think the text supports that interpretation (it's an interpretation believed and expressed by a few of the characters who aren't presented as reliable narrators), but you're at least familiar with the show. Good.
In the field of narratology -- the study of narratives -- there is a distinction between "story" and "discourse." "Story" refers to plot and characters. "Discourse" refers to
how the story is told. In many narratives the discourse informs the reader in the interpretation of the story.
For a very simple example, consider how soundtracks are used in movies. The score typically isn't something that is heard by the characters -- it isn't a part of the plot, unless it's directly presented (diagetically): a song is playing on radio, or the characters are at a concert. Instead, a non-diagetic score informs the viewers (often subconsciously) about how to feel about the events being portrayed. An "uplifting" score informs us to feel good (or bittersweet); a foreboding score informs us that the event is one to fear or dread. The score can be concordant with the story (it might inform us that the characters feel the same way) or it might be ironic (the character appears to think they've done something marvelous, when really their actions are paving the way to their doom).
There are many ways for a discourse to add layers of meaning to a story. Literary references, for example, beg to be examined, as they can function as a metatextual commentary on the events portrayed -- for example, when Jesus quotes the OT, we are behooved to examine those passages and compare them to the current passage. Literary techniques like repetition reinforce examining the events or dialogue with respect to the other iterations of that reference. Narratives which present the reader with information of which that the characters are not aware can create for the reader the experience of tension, foreshadowing, irony, and so forth. And of course, symbolism and metaphor can be employed to create multiple dimensions of meaning and interpretation.
In Lost, the actual "reality" of the island isn't directly expressed; it is a "Mystery Box" that's left unopened. But the discourse provides clues. For example, there's the use of analepsis (flash-backs) and prolepsis (flash-forwards) which point to the island's apparent property of conferring a measure of time-travel to its occupants. There is the recurring phrase, "We have to go back," which has scads of variants. There are scores of literary references. And there's a technique called "mirror-twinning" where characters are juxtaposed with each other to make them seem more similar than they initially appear (they might repeat each other's lines, for example), albeit with some kind of reversal that functions like a twist. Indeed, there are many shots involving mirrors and reversed images, and many shots that reference each other. There are even places where "continuity errors" seem too coincidental, but more like they were made on purpose -- coming in mirrored pairs.
My interpretation: the people on the island consider it "special" because it confers the ability of one's consciousness to "go back" in time, under certain circumstances, particularly upon (but not limited to) death. If the loop remains closed, it becomes a sort of Eternal Return as described by Nietzsche. As such, the show functions as a mythology with its own potential of an "afterlife" which is most definitely not Christian. And because the shows deals in time-travel, it explores what it means to know what's going to happen before it happens (in other words, when information has traveled backwards in time, it becomes prophetic, or Fate).
Let us now turn to the discourse of The Chosen. First, episodes frequently open with a flash-back. For example, one episode opens with a scene from Numbers 21:8-9, where Moses prepares a bronze snake and puts it on a pole. Later in that episode, Jesus references that passage in his conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21); in both the Bible and The Chosen, Jesus explicitly refers to himself in those terms: "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him." The Chosen has laid it on particularly thick, though, because the pole in the flash-back at the beginning of the episode is shaped like a cross.
Another example: In the episode where Mary anoints the feet of Jesus, the episode began with a shot of a lamb with its feet being anointed in preparation for temple sacrifice. Mary isn't aware of this connotation, either in the episode or in the Bible -- for her, it's an act of worship. But the action nonetheless functions as symbolic foreshadowing of what is to come for The Lamb of God.
I say all this to demonstrate that The Chosen is literate in its discursive techniques. The showrunners are aware of how to use "discourse" to inform the "story" in a variety of ways.
The Chosen has also opened episodes with the flash-forward technique instead of with a flash-back. It starts in the Season 2 opener, where we see apostles in the future discussing the books they're writing; that episode also closes in the future, with John figuring out the opening to his Gospel. In Season 4, there's another episode starting in the future, with Matthew bringing the first final revision of his codex to Mary; that episode also returns to the future, where Mary shares her own writing.
But then in Season 5, the technique becomes pervasive. Every episode begins in flash-forward to a scene from The Last Supper. However, the scenes are presented in reverse order (or backwards) -- the end of The Last Supper is shown at the beginning, the beginning at the end -- eventually forming a loop when the events of the season and the beginning of the Last Supper converge.
Ss that happens, the characters on their way to The Last Supper start to experience flash-backs, triggered by minor events or items in Jerusalem that remind them of some time in the past. These flash-backs are joined to the present by a non-diagetic sound effect that strongly resembles the "whoosh" used in Lost. It makes Jerusalem function like the Island. It also in one of these Flash-Backs that gnostic The Gospel of Thomas (whose name means Twin) is referenced.
The prevalence of the phrase "go back" (and its variants) has also started to ramp up in The Chosen, as have the words "lost" and "time," as well as the twinning of dialogue. This became apparent to me in 4x06, "Dedication," which begins in Flash-Forward (after the Pharisees attempt to stone Jesus and his followers) with this dialogue:
Go, go! Go! Hurry up!
Come on, move!
-On the table. There.
-Move, move!
Let's go, go!
[all shouting]
[coughing]
Hey, hey. Let's go, let's go.
Yeah, yeah. Easy, easy.
Careful. Careful with his head.
Careful with his head.
Notice the twinning -- "Go, go!" "Move, Move!" "Easy, easy." "Careful with his head, careful with his head." It also features this dialogue between Mary and Tamar:
-How can we ever go back there again?
-Surely we'll have to.
This scene is duplicated near the end of the episode. It is twinned, and comes full circle.
Most people who watch The Chosen are familiar with the Bible, probably not every verse, but with the overall shape of the story. We know how it ends; we've been spoiled. Jesus will be crucified, and then resurrected, and he's done it to take our place as the bearer of the punishment deserved for our sins; he himself is blameless.
The Chosen amplifies our foreknowledge. Witnessing the struggles of the disciples to understand what Jesus says is going to happen, whether through allusion or directly, we are put in the shoes of Jesus himself. Our frustration with the apostles mirrors the frustration that Jesus has.
We know what's going to happen. Just like Jesus knows what's going to happen.
The story is ostensibly about the experience of the apostles, but the discourse is putting us in the place of Jesus himself.
I worry that The Chosen is trying to take this to its natural conclusion.
