I am adding to this
node only to point out an interesting, and I think deliberate parallel in Revolutions I haven't seen elsewhere.
I don't argue it is necessarily significant. In fact I think that many of the
things ably discovered by those listing trivia in the relevant nodes on E2
(and their sources) are probably not terribly significant for understanding
the plot, though most of what they point out is clearly true and cleverly
spotted. Sometimes these things comment on a plot or situation without being
integral to them. Sometimes I think they're sort of like easter eggs.
For what it's worth, I see a parallel
in action and motivation between the Oracle's making of cookies and Zee making
explosives. Both use bowls in their homes--a modest parallel in action which serves to
attract our attention. The Oracle comments to Sati, "cookies need love
like everything does," while when Zee works on her explosive
mix, and she is confronted about her possibly suicidal joining of the ground forces in the defense of
Zion, her response is that she must: "because I love him." The response made to her
is the obvious one on the face of things: "you'll get yourself killed."
But Zee has a deeper reason, which, since it is on a human level, we can understand.
She needs to help hold the dock because it is the only way she will ever see
Link again. So a risky action, inexpedient in the short run (by subjecting Zee
to possible, even probable, death), will hopefully pay off in the long run. This
scene offers commentary on the Oracle's "suicide."
The Oracle is surprised by Neo's
entrance for their last interview. She claims not to be able to see beyond a
choice she doesn't understand. I've never fully understood all of the implications
of that phrase, but taking it at face value (and I'm helped here by the fact
that the machines apparently never lie, though the Oracle has often told Neo
less than the full truth), this point of the movie, when Smith
is about to assimilate her, is evidently a juncture where her sight is failing
her. The Oracle must go on blindly (as Neo, of course, will do, later on). The
last thing she seems to see (because Smith sees it too after he gets her) is
the apparent, imminent triumph of death. She says as
much to Neo in their last interview, too.
Having to go on blindly puts the
Oracle in the same position as ordinary people, including Zee, off in Zion.
The Oracle is nervous about the outcome of her gamble--her hand trembles slightly
as she takes a drag on her last cigarette. Her game places her in the position
of having to let herself be assimilated by Smith so that she can act as a sort
of virus (or trojan horse, maybe) and, even if unconsciously, cause Smith to
say things that will give Neo the push he needs to do what is necessary to defeat
him. She needs to do it, though, for a greater good. By infecting Neo through
a cookie in the first movie with some code which melded him with Smith (and
put an enhanced Smith in a position to menace the machines so thoroughly that
the latter needed to make a deal with Neo and hence humanity), the Oracle aimed
at the purpose she openly expresses more than once--an end to the war. The Oracle's
choice, which operates in a hidden or obscure plane, is made clearer (at least
on repeat viewings!) by Zee's (and later, Neo's).
It is an E2 cliché that
"Your Radical Ideas About
X Have Already Occurred to Others."
Nowhere is this truer than with The Matrix! I found the (to me) convincing idea that the Oracle
had been affecting characters by feeding them cookies (and candy), and a version
of the idea that she orchestrated the whole game on an intelligent website devoted
to the movies (www.matrix101.com). I'm sure someone has already expressed what
I propose here, though I haven't (yet) found it in the relevant nodes in E2.