Bram

Season: 5-6, Episodes: 7, Faction: Ajira/Jacob

Overview

Bram was a member of a team that worked for or with Jacob. He abducted Miles shortly before the departure of the Kahana, and offered him an alternative to joining Widmore’s team. He directly opposed Widmore and had interests in the Island, claiming that he was on “the winning side” of the war. He was also a passenger aboard Ajira Airways Flight 316 and a survivor of the crash on the Hydra Island.

Bram, along with Ilana Verdansky, indicated that he was on the island to protect Jacob. However, upon discovering Jacob had been killed, he attacked the man claiming to be John Locke, who then revealed himself to be the Monster and killed Bram.

Sun (Fire)

Fertility (Water)

Ferryboat

War

Protection

Underworld

2004

5×13 – Some Like It Hoth

   

Bram’s earliest chronological appearance is prior to the departure of the Kahana, when he and several others abducted Miles off the street outside of a taco stand. While in the van, Bram attempted to convince Miles not to go with the science team to the Island. When Miles failed to answer the question “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Bram said that he was not yet ready to go to the Island. Bram instead offered Miles a chance to come with them and discover answers about many things, including what happened to his father. Miles, however, demanded $3.2 million, twice the amount offered by Widmore. Bram refused to pay him, dumping Miles from the van and telling him he was on the wrong side. When asked which side he was on, Bram replied that he was on the side that was “gonna win.” (“Some Like It Hoth”)

Flight 316

Bram was one of the passengers of Ajira Airways Flight 316, which crashed onto Hydra Island. Bram was most likely aware of 316 either through Jacob or Ilana, presumably he was aware the plane would land on The Island and was onboard to protect Jacob. Given Bram’s knowledge of the Island, it is likely he knew who Ben, Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid were, as well as being aware that Locke’s body was aboard.

On the Island (2007)

5×09 – Namaste

   

After surviving the initial crash of Flight 316 onto the Hydra Island, Bram listened on the beach near the crash site while Frank and Caesar debated on what the survivors should do. (“Namaste”)

5×12 – Dead Is Dead

   

Soon after this, Bram and Ilana worked on transporting the Ajira Crate, which they had found in the cargo hold containing the body of John Locke. When questioned by Ben on what the contents of the crate were, Ilana responded that the crate’s contents were “just some stuff we need to get moved,” and Bram politely declined Ben’s offer to help. The next morning,Frank returned to the Hydra Island on the outrigger canoe. Ilana and Bram, still working on the Ajira crate, suddenly held Frank at gunpoint and asked him what lay in the shadow of the statue, a question that Frank did not know the answer to. Ilana promptly knocked Frank unconscious with the butt of her gun, informing Bram that “it was time,” and instructing him to get the rest of their people and to tie Frank up, as he would be accompanying them. (“Dead Is Dead”)

5×16 – The Incident, Part 1

   

Using Frank’s outrigger, Bram, Ilana, and three other survivors of Flight 316 paddled to the main Island. Upon arrival on the Island, Bram and Ilana discussed the still-unconscious Frank, who Bram did not think they should have brought with them. Ilana, however, told Bram that Frank was possibly a “candidate.” Bram then realized that the nearby Frank was actually conscious and eavesdropping upon them. Frank asked Bram and Ilana who they were, and Bram replied that they were Frank’s “friends.” When asked by Frank what was in the Ajira crate that they were carrying, Bram and Ilana opened the crate and revealed that Locke’s body was inside, visibly shocking Frank.

   

Bram, Frank, and the three other survivors followed Ilana into the jungle. Bram attempted to convince Frank that they were “the good guys,”but Frank was skeptical if Bram was telling the truth. The group soon arrived at Jacob’s cabin, Bram discovered the ash circle had been broken and Ilana ventured inside to discover it was abandoned. She informed the rest of the group that Jacob had not been inside the cabin for a long time, and showed Bram the woven illustration of the statue of Taweret, a location that Bram seemed familiar with. After setting the cabin afire, Bram and the group and began their journey to the statue, still carrying the crate. (“The Incident, Part 1”)

5×17 – The Incident, Part 2

   

They arrived at the statue that night. Their arrival startled the others, who began to react with hostility until Ilana asked for “Richardus,” at which point Richard Alpert stepped forward, correctly answering the question “what lies in the shadow of the statue (the correct answer being the Latin phrase “Ille qui nos omnes servabit”, which can be translated to “he who will save us all”). Bram then overturned the Ajira crate, revealing to Richard that the contents were Locke’s body, whom they claimed to have found in the cargo hold of Flight 316, leaving Sun to question who was inside the statue with Ben. (“The Incident, Part 2”)

2007

6×01 – LA X, Part 1

   

Afterwards, Bram, Ilana, and Richard argued over what to do about Locke’s body. Bram eventually lost his cool and demanded Ben bring him into the statue with some of his men. Upon encountering the Locke impostor, Bram asked where Jacob was, and was taunted by the impostor. The impostor revealed he had killed Jacob, and Bram ordered his men to open fire. Bram’s bullets were useless, and the man went behind a pillar. Soon the characteristic sounds of the smoke monster were heard and it emerged into the chamber. Bram’s men were violently killed by the Monster while Bram created a circle of ash around himself.

   

The ash protected him from a direct attack by the Monster. However, the Monster instead brought a chunk of the ceiling down on Bram, knocking him out of the ash circle. The Monster then hurled Bram through Jacob’s loom, impaling him on a piece of wood. (“LA X, Part 1”)

Images Source | Source 

Casting Call

The casting call described him as “Brian, any ethnicity, late 20s to mid-30s. Smart, charismatic and clever with the ability to be physically imposing. He is wise beyond his years. Capable of genuine charm, he is also the first person you’d want to help you out of any serious jams.”

Snake Charming

Snake charming is the practice of pretending to hypnotise a snake by playing an instrument. Ancient Egypt was home to one form of snake charming, though the practice as it exists today likely arose in India.

Source 

Abraham “Bram Stoker”

Abraham “Bram” Stoker is the author of Dracula, one of the most famous “undead” characters in literature. Stoker also wrote The Lair of the White Worm and The Jewel of Seven Stars. The first is about an ancient serpent living under an English manor, leading its inhabitants to the occult. The latter is about an attempt to reanimate an Egyptian mummy.

Associated LOST Themes

   

Decoded Season 1 & 2 Characters

John Locke

Sun-Hwa Kwon

Benjamin Linus

Decoded Season 3 & 4 Characters

Richard Alpert

Miles Straume

Frank Lapidus

Decoded Season 5 Characters

Ilana Verdansky	Burnette	Wolfe	Salinger	Caesar	Jacob	The Man In Black
Jed

Key Episode(s) to Decoding the Character

5x12 "Dead Is Dead" 5x17 "The Incident, Part 2" 6x01 "LA X, Part 1"

Mehen, whose name means ‘coiled one’, is depicted as a serpent protectively encircling Re or, by extension, Osiris. In the Amduat book, Mehen appears in the seventh hour, that is, at approximately midnight in the nocturnal voyage of the solar bark, surrounding Re in the middle register and Osiris in the upper register while they oversee the punishment of their enemies. Mehen continues to encircle Re through the subsequent ‘hours’ of the voyage. In CT spells 493 & 495, the deceased, claiming knowledge of the “secret matters” of Mehen (a variant reads, “after the great battle of Mehen”) is thereby empowered to “guard the prisoners,” that is, those who have rebelled against the cosmic sovereignty. In the Book of Gates, Mehen is seen encircling Re in each hour. In the so-called ‘Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld’ from the tomb of Tutankhamun, a large-scale mummiform figure in section A is depicted with a Mehen serpent circling him at the head and at the feet. Both Mehen serpents are shown with their tails in their mouths, an image which in later Western occultism would come to be known as an ouroboros. In section B, six mummiform figures are encircled by Mehen serpents as they receive illumination from disks immediately in front of them.

Spells 758-760 of the Coffin Texts speak of Mehen in a manner which makes him seem virtually synonymous with Re. In the first place, reference is made to “the bark of Mehen” where one might expect the bark of Re. Second, the ‘Shining Sun’, with “paths of fire” around it, is said to “guard the paths for the great bark of Mehen,” whose bow is said to be turned around. It is said that the bark of Mehen makes a circle in myriads of myriads of years. If there is any sense to be made of a text which we perhaps simply lack the skills to read properly, it could seem that the bark of Mehen embodies a contra-solar motion on a period much longer than the daily or annual motions of the sun, longer perhaps even than any of the known astral cycles. In a similar vein are the descriptions in 759 of Mehen’s vast size. Re’s association with Mehen is underscored in spell 759, which states “As for this Mehen, he is the Mehen of Re, and Re is this myriad of years,” or ‘eternity’, heh. To link Re to Mehen in this fashion is perhaps to stress the non-identity of Re and the sun, which facilitates one of the goals which seems to be at the heart of much of the afterlife literature: mediating the opposition between Re and Osiris, where Re represents the solar/celestial and Osiris the cthonic realm, but more trenchantly where Re represents the cosmic and universal, Osiris the individual and mortal, aspect of existence. Spell 760 supports this line of interpretation, insofar as it speaks of Isis having brought Mehen to her son Horus, upon which he becomes “the repetition of the Lord of All.” This epithet is frequently applied to Re but is especially characteristic of Atum, and in CT spell 1130 it seems to be Atum, under the name of “Lord of All”, who relates four “good deeds which my own heart did for me within Mehen in order that falsehood might be silenced.” These four are making the four winds “that everyone might breathe in his time,” making “a great flood”, i.e. the Nile’s annual inundation “so that the poor as well as the great might be strong,” making “every man equal to his fellow,” and forbidding them to do wrong, “but their hearts disobeyed what I had said,” and finally making “their hearts not to forget the West,” that is, to be aware of their mortality, the direction of the setting sun being the symbol for mortality in Egyptian thought, “in order to make offerings to the Gods of the districts,” that is, so that humans would maintain the traditional cults. Mehen appears here as the vessel of a special aspect of Atum’s providence, one which stresses the equal access of all humans to the means of existence (the air to breathe), prosperity (the abundant productivity of the earth), mutual respect, and divinity.

The name of Mehen was also applied to a board game in Egypt, the point of which seems to have been to enact passing through the coils of Mehen to emerge reborn; hence the deceased king affirms in PT utterance 332 “I am this one who emerged from Mehen” (trans. modified in accord with Robert K. Ritner in JNES, Vol. 50, No. 3 (1991), p. 212). A reference to the game itself has been discerned in PT utterance 659, where Ritner reads (op. cit.), “Take to yourself these white ivory pieces of yours belonging to the Mehen game. Go around them with/as an arrow in this their name of ‘arrow’,” in which the phrase translated “white ivory pieces” is literally “white teeth”; thus in BD spell 172, in a passage divinizing various members of the body, “Your teeth are the two ‘heads’ of the Mehen game with which the Two Lords played,” would obviously refer to the game pieces as well. The use of ‘heads’ here could also suggest a connection to the Mehen game for passages in the afterlife literature where the taking of ‘heads’ is mentioned.

Image Source | Source

Further Info

Patron of: defender of the Sun Boat

Appearance: A serpent-headed man holding a spear, standing in the prow of the Sun Boat, or as a giant snake coiled around it.

Description: In the Old Kingdom and in predynastic literature, Mehen, along with Set in his original form, fights Apep daily as the sun travels across the sky. Mehen wraps his coils around Apep, while Set strikes at Apep with a spear.

Source

Wiki Info

In Ancient Egypt the name Mehen meaning ‘coiled one’ refers to a mythological snake-god.

The Snake God

The earliest references to Mehen occur in the Coffin Texts. Mehen is a protective deity who is depicted as a snake which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night, for instance in the Amduat.

In the German-Egyptian dictionary by R. Hannig it is said that the Mehen (mḥn) or the Mehenet (mḥnt) snake is equivalent to the Ouroboros.

Source 

Mythological Family Members & Associated Deities

RA

APEP

SET

HORUS

OSIRIS

ATUM