SOUL MUSING

In Toobworld, where reincarnation is an established fact, a soul that was born to rerun usually repeats traits down through the generations. My favorite example of (unproven) reincarnation would be that of the soul of the Roman Emperor Claudius, reborn as Chicago psychiatrist Robert Hartley. (The stutter for one example, and the fact that those around him didn't take him seriously enough.) Another example would be the aristocratic Ross Poldark and his gypsy bride Demelza, reunited centuries later as San Francisco blue-blood Greg Montgomery and free spirit Dharma Liberty Finkelstein.

But for a soul to be reincarnated, the previous body housing it would have to die. Seems to be a given. But could a soul be splintered, so that pieces of it are reincarnated at the same time?

Having just seen the latest movie in the franchise, I know there is One Whom I Must Not Name who split his own soul to house the pieces in secret hiding places. But that's the universes of Literature and Cinema, not Television (unless he showed up in Skitlandia).

I'm talking about a soul split at least in half, being reborn at the same time.

I think we now have an example of this.
In this past Sunday's 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' episode "Revolution", Birgit Kaspers was a young woman whose father had stolen her away as an infant from her birth parents. By the end of the episode, Birgit was killed in front of her "father" during a tense stand-off.

Back in 2004, (according to the Toobworld timeline, that is - we saw it happen years later in the real world), a similar situation occurred....
Alex Linus was a young woman who was also raised by a man who stole her away as an infant from her mother. Ben Linus raised Alex on a mysterious island in the South Pacific, only to see her gunned down in a tense stand-off after she was taken hostage.

Reincarnated souls don't necessarily have to look alike, although it has happened before (especially in the case of the Simon brothers Rick and AJ). In this case, Alex and Birgit, without any reason to believe that they were cousins, identical cousins, also looked eerily similar to each other. (Of course, in the real world, this is helped greatly by the fact that both Birgit and Alex were played by the same actress - Tania Raymonde.)

ALEX LINUS

BIRGIT KASPERS

As to who that splintered soul was in a previous life? We'd have to search through hundreds of TV shows to find someone who might have lived and died under similar circumstances - and in such a violent way that the soul was sundered in two.

You're welcome to look.....

SHOWS CITED:
'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'
'Lost'
'Simon & Simon'
'I, Claudius'
'The Bob Newhart Show'
'Poldark'
'Dharma & Greg'

BCnU!