SparkLife » What Lies in the Shadow of the Statute? Isn't it Obvious?

What Lies in the Shadow of the Statute? Isn't it Obvious?

Posted April 16, 2009

Since last week's episode of LOST, we've been puzzling over this question: "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" And this week, the mysterious gang of anti-Charles Widmore thugs asked the question to a confused Miles, while warning him that if he can't answer it, he's not ready to go to the Island.

After some debate, research, and pulled-from-our-butts hypothesizing, we've come up with a few answers. What may lie in the shadow of the statue:

Ben. Think about it. Ben lies all the time. Put him next to the statue, ask him whose side he's on, and you've got yourself something that lies in the shadow of the statue. Case closed.
Vincent. The dog has been on the show since episode one, but has seemingly gone the way of Rose and Bernard. Either he's no longer important, or he's the answer to everything.
Rose and Bernard. You know we're itching for some Rose and Bernard coverage. (We also think it would funny and awesome if the statue's face turns out to be an uncanny likeness of Rose wearing her trademark skeptical expression.)
Kneeling cast members. OK. We copied this answer from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when Indy must puzzle over the clue "Only the penitent man shall pass." Kneeling worked for him, so the LOST characters should give it a shot and kneel the next time someone asks the question.
Vampires. Vamps hate sunlight, so they would need to hide in the shadows. It makes perfect sense.
Mushrooms. They're nature's vampires.
Ben's innocence. It had to go somewhere, right?
Your own finger. In the film Willow, the wizard asks the titular character to choose which of the wizard's fingers is the most powerful. But it's a trick question. The answer is Willow's own finger! (And to those who said we could never include a relevant Willow reference in a LOST article, pay up.)
Claire. She might be dead. Or she might be an independent young woman who no longer wanted to be weighed down with the responsibilities of motherhood. Either way, she walked off with Jack's dad last season and hasn't returned. Perhaps she's chilling in the shade, while annoyingly pronouncing the name Charlie as, "Chaw Lee."
A human being. When an eager first grader begins reciting the classic riddle, "What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening," we always shout the answer before he can finish. (We're kind of mean.) Do the same thing with the statute question and yell, "A human being," before the thugs finish saying the riddle. If these guys are like first graders, they will shout, "Hey!" and then run away, holding back tears of frustration.
The well. Perhaps this is the most logical explanation. We know the well is near the statue, and beneath the well there is…hold on…we just yawned. Please don't let the answer be this mundane and obvious.
Bored tourists and park rangers. The riddle fails to specify which statue we're talking about here. It could be the Statue of Liberty.
The Bald Guy from Fringe and Felicity from Felicity. Suddenly, the worlds created by J.J. Abrams collide.