A large collection of Lost theories...

I've gone around the net and I've collected a large collection of theories that are floating about for your reading...

And here we go...

--

Ok so basically I'm just sharing my interpretation of why Vincent was present in the final moment of LOST.



We all remember Jack's early season 1 line, "If we can't live together, we're going to die alone." and the recurring "live together, die alone" message thereafter.


Skip all the way forward to the very end, and here we have Jack, ready to die, and die alone. But come on, Jack is the hero of LOST so it would be a cruel and somewhat ironic fate for him to actually die alone, so in comes Vincent, who lays beside him to accompany him in his final moments so that he didn't have to die alone after all.


Why Vincent? That's simple; had it been a human character we would have been left with this scene where whatever character it was is there crying and telling Jack not to die, which would have completely taken away from the power and beauty of the scene, which is supposed to be about Jack, not Jack and whichever crying friend. So instead they give him Vincent. Vincent doesn't cry, he doesn't plead for Jack to hold on. He just lies down beside him and sees him off quietly, because it's his time to go. This for me was as poetic and moving as it could have possibly been.






--






First off, I am happy with the ending. I feel as though it was a great way to end and explain the final season, but maybe not the series as a whole. A LOT of mysteries went unanswered. But then again, the debate and discussion of Lost has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of the show. So for them to answer everything would take that away from us and thus deprive us of the ability to do that further after its finale.


And I am sure many are seeing the similarities in Narnia and Oz. As soon as I realized what was happening to the end of Lost, I thought of Narnia. But seriously, watch "Star Trek Generations" to better understand this Purgatory-type existence we've watched over the last season. In it, the Nexus is a place where there is no time and you can create a life for yourself that is your happiest, but those living in it just know that something is not quite right.


In Star Trek, they are not dead in this place and can leave, but in Lost the writers have made it a place you go when you die. A place to go until your soul is ready to move on to... heaven, the next life, whatever your belief is - the story fits.


Our characters have died and have created for themselves as happy an "existence" as they can. The island was never destroyed by the bomb, they just created that event so they could erase any island memories from their current "life." Jack's son David was never born. Jack needed to invent that so he could be the great dad he always wanted to be. Sawyer was never a cop. Sayid wanted to be with Nadia, but never felt himself worthy and wanted better for her, so he doesn't get to be with her even in his own "perfect world." Etc.


The characters you see at the end in the church are their souls. These are the faces we, the audience, recognize and love. So to visually show us their reunion, we need to see their souls in a form we know. That is why Kate and Sawyer look the same, even though they likely lived on to old age.


And to clarify to the many who are mistaken, the island and all the flashbacks we saw before it - happened. It was all real. They did not die in the Oceanic crash. The island was a place, on earth, where the light has a home. A piece of that light also is in every man and where we go to when we pass on - a collective of other souls all carrying that light.


In THIS piece of the island's story, Jacob called people to the island. Maybe to learn more about the outside world that he never got a chance to live in. We know he could go off island, but he couldn't remain there developing relationships and learning about people first hand. He could only watch from a distance. So bringing them to him was the only way he could learn best how to protect the island and to eventually find his replacement. He wasn't a god or even a supernaturally endowed genius - just a man.


According to the mother, the light was needing protection from man. Originally, it was not the "smoke monster" that was its only threat. Jacob's creation of this arch-nemesis was his own undoing and created a new threat to the light. It seems the mother may also have become altered by descending into the light as she was able to wipe out the villagers in smokey-style, but what she may have looked like and her intentions were completely different. I think she could take on another form, but was still resolute in being the guardian of the island. Mayhaps, many of the previous island protectors ended up as another form due to their contact with the light, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it made them evil as in the case with Jacob's brother.


Maybe this is too far-fetched? But to think that if the Man in Black had been made very powerful and was able to put out the light and destroy the island, then there would be no way, or no where, for man to "move on" - having all souls cursed to live an illusion and never be able to get out and discover the pure happiness beyond.


Thus, I think it is safe to assume that during Hurley's reign of the island, there was no "monster." Only the need to protect the island and keep the light safe from passing travelers.


Some points I'd like to make:


~ Kate's statement to Jack at the end when she touches his face explained a lot to me. She says, "I've missed you for so long." This tells me that when our characters had their flash of reality, they saw their WHOLE lives - not just the island piece. We just didn't get to see that, because it wouldn't have made sense to us. If Kate had just had a flash only moments ago, she would only JUST NOW remember the island and Jack. But she had a flash of the remaining long years that she had had to live without him.


~ Eloise Hawking is in the same state as Ben in the end. She knows she is dead, she knows they all are, but she is not ready, or does not want to, move on. Maybe she is waiting for Daniel to understand in his own time - and he is almost there.


~ Certain people were not in the church because this is not the group they would want to move on with. Everybody in the church cared very much for each other. A real deep love and closeness that they wanted to carry over to the other side. Walt was not there because he barely knew these people. Walt would want to move on with his wife and children and his grandmother, etc. Ben will be moving on soon with Alex and Danielle. Miles will be going with his father.


~ Christian has been a shepherd all along. He was trying to help them do what needed to be done and get where they needed to go throughout the entire series.


~ Jack's "appendix" scar in the beginning of LAX was the knife wound he received from MIB. His body had a scar that his mind could not explain. So in his illusion of life, he had his mother tell him it was an old appendix scar. There. He can go on "living" with this answer. But somewhere deep down he knows it is not correct.


Further more, I hope most of the comments posted in comments areas reflect the awesome creativeness and uniqueness of show we have enjoyed for the past 6 years. Yes, all the questions didn't get answered. But so what, really. Make up your own conclusions and debate them with people. But please don't say the whole series sucked because you didn't get an explanation for every little thing.


My serious suggestion for anyone that reads a negative comment and gets upset - is to just ignore it. PLEASE! I hate reading through comments and having to bypass hundreds of posts saying, "i hate, hate, hate".."well, if you don't like it, don't watch it, idiot." Ignore the haters. You can't change their mind, so don't even try. Don't feed them and maybe they'll go away.




--






To take a break from all of the constant fussing about the final episode and why it sucked, or why it was amazing (which by the way, if you follow my posts at all you should know I thought it was absolutely amazing), I want to touch on a different reason of why I love lost. This, instead of focusing on the ALT reality and the characters, i want to touch on the mystery side of it.


If you have not seen this video, i suggest you watch it, because it really talks alot about how J.J. created the show and what led him to do it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpjVgF5JDq8


In the video, J.J. talks about something called the mystery box. In this case, the mystery box is the magic set from his childhood which has not been opened. Because of this, we do not know what is inside. This is the mystery.


Now, the key to any good mystery box is that you do not know what is inside. The mystery box represents endless possibilities. When this box is opened, you find out what is inside, and the mystery is solved.


In almost every way, LOST is like the mystery box. We are presented with many questions, and even if those questions are answered, more come up. Many people believed that at the end of the show, we would get all of the answers. But that is not what the show is about.


Like the mystery box, LOST is about the unknown. It's about the unanswered questions. LOST represents endless possibilities. Did you honestly expect Damon and Carlton to explain time travel. No. They don't give us these answers for the same reason magicians never tell you how they did their trick. Once you find out, the mystery is solved.


Think of it this way, would the amazing power and capabilities of a bolt of lighting be as amazing if we were told exactly how it happens? No. It is the unknown that captivates people.










--






This does not contain spoilers on anything upcoming, but would contain spoilers if you haven't seen the finale or the last season.


I’m most certainly not the only viewer of the LOST finale to wonder if the alternate timeline was real. Since the show is very much open to interpretation, here’s my take on the alternate timeline and its significance.


I think that if we look at it as “not real,” we as viewers feel cheated and would be cheapening the story. Just like being told that all of LOST was simply a crazy dream, devoting so much time to an unreal plot would weaken the story and waste our time. But what I love about LOST is its ability to create paradox. LOST is rarely an “either/or” type of show, but rather a “both/and.” Is the island powered by magic and faith or electromagnetism and science? To trust the show, we know the answer is both.


I feel like the root of this answer lies heavily in the season 5 finale “The Incident.” The big question in that episode was, “Did they cause the incident, prevent it, or do something entirely different?” Well, I think it’s paradoxically all of the above. They did cause the incident when it was supposed to occur, yet they also did something completely new and propelled everyone back to their proper time period. The alternate timeline is now the fulfillment of the last part of that question.


Christian Shepperd’s words to Jack in the series finale revealed a ton of juicy stuff. He told Jack that everything he had experienced was real, and that everyone in the other room was real. So the alternate timeline is reality, just as the island timeline is reality. What Christian then goes on to say, I’ll admit, sounded really cheesy when I first heard it. “This is a place you all made together to find one another.” It sounded very much like what middle school girls say to each other before going on summer vacation. Again, that is until I thought about the season 5 finale.


To preface this theory, I’d first like to delve a little into some LOST background. One of the unspoken themes of LOST has often been, “Be careful what you wish for.” It’s been planted in the series from the beginning. John Locke wanted a father, and he got one; a lousy one who conned him out of his kidneys and into a wheelchair. Michael wanted a relationship with his son, and after years of waiting, he realized that tangibly having a son didn’t mean having a relationship with him. Kate can finally escape the law with the marshal dead, but she’s now trapped on an island. Sun wanted a new life, but didn’t know that it included hard work and repairing a broken marriage. And…I’m pretty sure you get the idea. Keeping this in mind, the characters supporting the detonation of the hydrogen bomb had certain beliefs in a beneficial outcome. Jack believed it was a chance to start over with Kate. Juliet thought it was an opportunity to prevent losing the one she loved (technically by not having a love at all). The overall hope was to create an existence better than the one they all currently had; one without a plane crash. But remember: be careful what you wish for.


When Christian said that Jack and his friends created the new timeline, I believe it became just a real as the original timeline, and it was because of their faith and the “incident.” It’s not an illusion or a dream world. Nor is it as universal as purgatory. It is a new reality that exists solely based on their actions and decisions on the island. It was also a “mission: accomplished” moment for Juliet. After the bomb goes off and Sawyer discovers that Juliet somehow didn’t instantly die in the explosion, we hear her last words that include phrases like, “It worked,” and going Dutch on some coffee. So as Juliet is fluttering between these two worlds, she can say that the plan worked because she’s beginning to exist almost entirely in a reality where the plane didn’t crash. To Juliet, she very clearly sees that they accomplished their goal as she passes on and begins existing solely in that one, new reality.


However, as we’ve learned from Faraday and our time traveling fun, changing events in the past won’t obliterate what they originally were. And because of this, the alternate timeline can’t obliterate the island timeline. Rather, they are now connected to one another and must exist in contention with one another. Just as Sawyer, Faraday, Juliet and Miles were in the Dharma initiative and not in the Dharma initiative (don’t you love LOST’s both/and nature?). Season 6 gave us some great material to mull over when it comes to this paradox. We have Charlie telling Desmond the parallel time isn’t real, and then we have Desmond telling Jack how the island time doesn’t matter. Charlie and Desmond are both right and wrong because neither reality matters without the other. The fulfillment of the new timeline is hollow without the knowledge and struggle in the island timeline. Similarly, the island timeline is unbearable without the hope of the new timeline. Both timelines are incomplete on their own and part of a longer journey. The destination for this journey is to fulfill everyone’s wishes to the fullest, without the sting of “be careful what you wish for.”


I suppose the best way to look at it is to relate it to Hurley trying to catch flight 815. He encountered a great deal of obstacles and trials to simply reach the airport. And even though he was relieved to arrive at the airport, it was only a checkpoint; not a destination. He had to continue through the challenges of the airport until he was safely seated, but that was still another checkpoint. After reaching these checkpoints, he was finally positioned to leave for his ultimate destination among the people fated to be his friends.


To tie it all in with the timelines, basically everyone is traveling toward their own happily ever after. I believe that dying completely to the island time would be a checkpoint necessary for each character’s journey. Another checkpoint is to live fully in the parallel timeline. The way a character lives fully in parallel time is to gain full knowledge of their existence in both planes and achieve reconciliation with those from the island. And because the parallel timeline has proven to not conform to the laws of natural time, these checkpoints often happen out of sequence. Juliet’s death immediately parallel’s her conversation with Sawyer about the Apollo bar, yet Sawyer’s been in parallel time long enough to land in LAX, sleep with two women, and arrest a third before encountering Juliet, all while still being alive in island time. But once these obstacles are overcome, the last check point is gathering everyone together to travel to a fateful destination (the gathering of specific people for a special trip is a common LOST motif, you know). And you can’t tell me seeing everyone sitting anxiously and excitedly in church pews with one central aisle didn’t look like them sitting on a plane ready for take-off.


The second timeline is imperative to LOST having a positive ending as well as resolution. With so many dear friends dead and even more covered in guilt, the process of “moving on” to mysteriously better place would be impossible from the island timeline. To call the parallel timeline “purgatory” feels insufficient. They aren’t cooling their heels waiting for redemption to come. The show is about new opportunities and chances. Just as the island was a chance for people to change and grow, so is the parallel time. We see tons of characters not waiting around to be redeemed by some outside force, but acting on their own behalf. Ben Linus has abandoned his lust for power, Sawyer is seeking justice with the law instead of against it, Sun puts her faith in Jin while separating from her father, and Jack has reconciled a lot of his daddy issues through David. Purgatory implies there are no more actions to be taken, and that is clearly not the case.


I think the hero’s arc is more fitting. Many religions and myths talk about undergoing death to experience rebirth (a seriously common LOST theme). Rebirth comes to mind much more readily than purgatory. So simply because our heroes are dead in the island time, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re dead in the new time. Instead, they’re reborn and equipped to face a newer, brighter future. With the new opportunities presented in the parallel time, combined with the knowledge of their lives on the island, many of our heroes’ dreams can finally be fulfilled.


While others are more than welcome to disagree, I’m comforted in thinking that so many of our favorite characters had a hero’s arc and that it hammers home the motif of life and rebirth. The story continues to support the catchphrase “what happened, happened” by not altering the island timeline, just as the catchphrase “nothing is irreversible” is supported by creating the parallel timeline and undoing death itself. Without both timelines, our heroes would not achieve their truest happy ending, which the creators chose not to show us. Just as they trust us to use our imagination to solve LOST’s mysteries, they trust us to imagine their happily ever after.






--






This is my first theory.It's actually more of a question that I have an answer to that I'm not totally sure about.
Were they red herrings?


By "they", one instance takes us to the season 6 opener when we first see the island underwater in the flash sideways.
Accepting the notion that the flashsideways was a world created by the losties as a waiting world to the afterlife, look at when the island was underwater.


It was shown from no person's perspective, but just the way it was.
It didn't present itself as something the characters created since it was shown that way to the viewers only.
The best explanation I have for that is that it was a red herring to throw us off and keep the finale's twist of what the flash sideways was.
But while I type this, I'll propose an objective possibility.Maybe the losties who collectively created this world; collectively desired to put the island behind them..thus created the reality of it being underwater..but being that the island was their most important place of significance..that might not make much sense.
The second considered red herring that I think Darlton might have thrown us..was when Daniel was conversing with Desmond..and said that he thought that he might have created the world that they exist in after detonating a hydrogen bomb.He basically said that it was an alternate reality..as opposed to the limbo or waiting room of the afterlife that they existed in..so again..that would throw us off of thinking of the world as being such.
So, I'm not totally convinced that we were being fed red herrings by these two examples.But I think that they are points that I can't make total sense of after finding out what that world really is.
I'd love to know what you guys think and if anyone has an explanation for these two instances, and any others that may not mesh well with the limbo world.




--






This is by no means fleshed out but it is something that just kind of came to me while thinking about Lost after seeing the finale.


What if Desmond "died" when he turned the fail safe key? But it wasn't death in the normal sense. It was more like what happened to MIB when he was turned into Smokie. Desmond was also exposed to a massive amount of energy contained beneath the island. He later woke up in the jungle naked and was having visions from that point forward.


What if he was "killed" by the hatch explosion but the island wasn't done with him yet so he was "stuck" and couldn't move on yet. That could explain why Desmond was having flashes. Like Christian said about the ALT, time is irrelevant when you are stuck in purgatory waiting to move on. So while everyone else on the island was experiencing time linearly, Desmond was not.


This could also explain why Desmond was “special” and could withstand a blast of energy that would cook the flesh of normal men. Desmond, similar to MIB, was “reborn” with a new "form" after being exposed to the island’s power.


And no, I am not saying the island is purgatory. Not for the Losties anyway. The island time line was real. But what if it was like purgatory for Desmond after the hatch explosion?


What if Desmond was “stuck” in the main time line and was unable to “move on” to the next life? That is, until Widmore put him in his giant microwave and blasted him with electromagnetism. What if this is the point at which he was able to “move on” again.






--






What happened on the ISLAND was REAL. all of it.


Whether they died there or not it did not matter, nor did it matter what time they died. When they gathered in 'Pergatory'(the place in alt-timeline)were they witnessed Christian Shepard Moving on, that was just a way of ending the story beautifully.


We rarely saw this place throughout the seasons, (desmond appear to visit it twice) and hence when he realised what it was(whilst still alive), he was able to show the others the truth once they were dead. And is also why he is so happy after he figures it out (when widmore blast him with Electromagnetisum). after that he never stops smileing.:)


I love the fact that the island, is still a mystery, that they were all brought to the island because jacob made a mistake, and he couldnt fix it himself.(wouldn't kill his brother, nor sacrifice himself like jack did)so he showed people a beautiful place and asked one of them to protect it.


When the cork was pulled and the light went out, it was good to see that all the mystical powers/mythology stuff disappeared, (Frank, Richard myles/sawyer/claire/kate being able to leave, richard ageing, black smoke(MIB, FLocke) able to die) and then of course, jack puts the cork back in, leaving hurley to take over, with ben as his 'side kick' or No.2.


When Hurley and Ben talk to each other in (Alt pergutory timeline world) they say


BEN: "Hurley!"(Extremely Happy to see him)
Hurley says everyone is inside, ben says he has certain things to do first (before he is ready to pass on)
HURLEY: "You were a great Number Two..."
BEN: "And you were a great Number One."


Which is to say they decided to stay on the island for an unknown period of time after jack dies. (Which would be cool to watch and know what happedned to them, but Jack was not around to know about it/nor did it affect his life)




IT apears LOST is based soley on the Story of Jack Shepard and the people who meant most to him in his life/altered it in some way.


Which is great, but it annoys me to see fans HATING, not even dis-liking just straight up Hating the story of lost beca`use of the end. There was so much within it, the problem appeard that people just wanted more and more,until the point that they were looking for things that just weren't there.




As a fan who has watched LOST from the beggining im very happy to say, personally, I loved the story of Jack Shepard. Everything about it was amazing. it was a great ride, and I couldnt ask for any more.


--






At the conclusion of "The End", Jack tells Flocke that he is nothing like his friend John Locke and that if John Locke were there he would tell him that he was right all along. I think what Jack was referring to is that John Locke, the man of faith, was right to believe as the island represents a place where faith dominates science.


The "light" at the center of the Island was whatever you wanted it to be provided that you truly believed. For instance, Jacob thought that if you entered the light you would experience a fate worse than death. Consequently, when he tossed his brother into the cavern what came out was malevolence reincarnate. Jack believed that the light would provide him with an opportunity to kill Flocke, which it did. Flocke believed that the light would cause the island to be submerged in water, which it was in the process of doing until Jack killed Flocke. Desmond believed that entering the light would allow Desmond and his Island buddies to enter a world where everyone lived happily ever after [the alternate universe]. When he entered the light, this is exactly what happened, but it didn't happen immediately. [note: I think Desmond could have just dreamed up this heavenly world when whitmore zapped him with the magnetic force - otherwise you get stuck in one of those chicken or the egg conundrums].


Jacob was "special" b/c he was a believer. He believed that he could make Richard immortal and therefore he could. He believed he couldn't kill the smoke monster [b/c that's what his mother told him] and so he couldn't - but he also believed the smoke monster couldn't kill him. I guess he believed if he put Dogan in the temple and touched him that he could put of a sort of force field around the temple, and that is exactly what happened.


The "faith" over "science" thing isn't limited to the Island's
protector [notice Desmond and Flocke mentioned earlier] as John Locke was also "secial" b/c he was a believer. This explains the cabin incident. Jacob hadn't lived in the cabin for a long time, but Ben knew the cabin was his old resting place [maybe Richard told him]. He took Locke to the cabin and told him Jacob was there. Locke believed there was some ghost in the room and what he got is what you or I would imagine if we believed we were in the room with a ghost. Ben told Lock there was a "magical box" where you could get anything you desire and Locke's faith in this allowed him to bring his father [Anthony Cooper] to the island.


There are countless other examples,but the other one that sticks out to me is when Locke told Walt to picture the dagger hitting the tree in his "mind's eye". [note: I think walt was special in a similar way, but his anger at his father may have sent him down a different path].


I am sure there are holes in this theory, but I believe this is what the Island is all about. In the real world Locke was seen as a loser for being so gullable [similar to Jacob], but on a place like the Island he would be rewarded for his faith.


Anyway this doesn't explain everything on the island, but its a start and the good news is that with just a little faith, you will be able to see that there is an answer to your questions about the show. Well....at least some of your questions.




--






This is my first time posting so please go easy on me. I am a huge fan of Lost. I have been asking around and have recieved a few different opinions on what people think happened.


Theory: When the plane too off from Sydney, with Christian on board in the coffin, it crashed, they survived. Which is what we all think anyway. The whole white/black thing is something that we all deal with on a day to day basis. Good and evil, right and wrong and how we are all capable of something whether good or bad. The thing all the characters had in common, was that they really were deep people, even though some had done terrible things they still meant well or meant to settle the score, to make it even. Hence, Kate and Sawyer. Jack, he is one the most profound characters. Extremely smart, but still never really believed in himself because he never felt he could live up to his father. The show I believe was a story of them on the island as if they survived the crash, a story of them off the island as if they landed, and a story as if they crashed, when home then went back. Either way, as soon as they stepped on the plane they were all connected. No matter what happened on the plane, destiny meant they were all supposed to meat each other in some way. Whether in LA, or on the island, or in Sydney. All of the lives crossed many ways. Jacob and the MIB I believe were more metaphoric for people, for the characters. Jack did in fact, die alone, which is what he said from the beginning, however that was Jack in a physical form. The church scene was confusing, yes, but enough was left to interpret in a positive way. Christian and Jack are dead in the church, and it is as if people were attending their funeral. I believe the church, at the end of the finale, is the meeting place for them to be together whether they are dead or alive. For example, if I died, and I had a friend who was alive, we would have set up a place for us to be together no matter what. MIB promised people they could be with who they loved if they followed him, which I believe he could grant but Jacob could not. ALmost like selling your soul to the devil. At the same time, I feel that Aaron would have been the likely candidate to take over for Jacob. I don't want to call the church a purgatory, but more like the dead's heaven. If I wanted to spend an eternity with a person, and they were alive and I was not, we could meet at the church and be together, that is why it was not impossible for Sayid to be promised that he would be with Nadia again even though she was dead, same for Alpert. The only thing is that they were able to find a way without resorting to the devil. The thing that Desmond took out was like a cork. It was holding evil down, hence why MIB could never leave the island. When it was pulled out, all bets were off, and the island began to crumble, and it's magical powers seem to disappear. Richard Alpert got a gray hair, MIB finally bled real blood knowing he was not invincible anymore, loopholes have been found. Good incidentally in the end beat evil. Time did not exist. Jack was on the island dying, and was at the Church dead on the same timeline. Time was irrelevent it meant nothing. They could have been at the church 5 minutes after the plane crashed, or 1000 years later. Either way they wanted to be there with eachother. They each had redemption, and ended up with who they loved. There were some curveballs, definitley. Juliett being Jack's ex wife and the mother of their son. THe memories that came into people's mind was incredible. A different life that may or may not have happened. We have the struggle of good vs. evil, and three different scenarios that would have ended up the same with them all being together. I believe it was a great show and a great ending. Yes, many questions were not answered, but it kept us interested. I believe the show was more metaphoric, more emotional, more character directed. I believe it gave us a chance to look at our own lives, and see who we are. IF the plane crashed, they lived, they would have been important. If the plane did not crash and they landed, they would have been important to each other, if the plane crashed, then went home, then went back to island, they would have been important to each other. It was different scenarios being played out simultaneously in time with the end result being they are where they belong, redeemed of their goodness, finally able to let go and go home, and be with each other.






--






What is the significance of the Numbers? Yes, it was the candidate code for our main characters. But that doesn't explain why they were bad luck to Hurley, the hatch codes, and everywhere.


Why did they screw up Hurley's life? Hurley is not supposed to know anything about the island and his future yet, and he accidently used his candidate number. Since people who have never been to the island shouldn't be involved, his number tried to drive him insane. I think Leonard from the SRMHI had the same issue, and he was a candidate too, before something drove him to insanity. Obviously, it didn't work against Hurley. Now he can do what he wants. No idea why the numbers were involved with the hatch. Maybe has something to do with Valenzetti?


The cabin answer was not spoon-fed to us, but if you attempted to figure it out, you would. Obviously it was the MiB in the cabin. He wanted out, and needed Locke's help. He got it eventually. Ben took Locke there because he had been led to believe that the MiB was Jacob, and ruled the island, since Ben had never met the real Jacob and had no clue. MiB told Ben all of this. As for how MiB came to live there, well, he just thought Horace had built a nice summer home.


Things like Eko's death, the tailies, the others, the children/Walt, and etc. seem now to be things designed to be fillers to keep people watching the show. Reading the comments on theories it seems like much of you were angry with how the finale played out. Darlton recognized that we were all attached to the mysteries. They answered the oldest two (The Monster and Mother-MiB Adam-Eve) so we could be satisfied.


Lost was never a show about mysteries. Darlton even told us that, multiple times. It's about the characters. So don't say that everything was filler. If they never happened, then where would we be today? (I admit Expose' was a filler though.) Think about it. Walt being special led to the others kidnapping him, which sent Michael on his quest to get him back, which introduced us to the others, which linked Ben and Locke and Sawyer and Juliet and Jack and Kate, which led to MIchael dying, which led to an answer about the whispers, which led to the ALT-Awakenings, which led to the moving on.


It's not about the mysteries. It's about the characters. Every event led up to something that occured last night. You cannot deny that. It was even entertaining on the ride there.


It's all about the people.




--






What I’m about to say here, revolves around a few subjects. First of all, I believe Mother is both smoke monster and protector. Yes, she was easily killed by MiB compared to all the trouble the Losties had to go through to kill MiB, but I’ve got a possible explanation for that, involving the rules. But first I’m about to say something about the why of Jacob.


In her life, Mother developed a big hatred towards human beings. Why that is, we can’t know. Maybe it was because of bad experiences with people herself, or perhaps just because her predecessor told her so (or brainwashed her with propaganda), just like Mother told MiB and Jacob bad things about people. This is why she killed Claudia and raised Jacob and MiB as her own. The only person she deemed suitable to become her replacement, is someone who never came into contact with human beings. Someone who never became corrupted by them.


MiB and Jacob were two very different people however. MiB already had a tendency towards “evil” when he was young, having no problems with lying to Mother. Jacob, on the other hand, already had a tendency towards “good”. He wasn’t able to lie. Mother herself also clearly had a tendency towards evil, since she had no problem killing people without remorse. Her beliefs rubbed off on MiB, who also became convinced that people were bad. Jacob though, because of his good nature, never really saw what was so wrong with people.


We all know what happened then. MiB ended up as the smoke monster, Jacob became the new protector. But, Jacob didn’t want to run things like his mother did. He didn’t think his eventual replacement needed to grow up in his special care, so that he would not get corrupted by humans. The people he brought to the island, all received a clean slate upon arrival by Jacob, a tabula rasa if you will. He was convinced that he’d find a worthy successor amongst them. Someone who grew up with humans, but who was genuinely good. And in the end, he found the perfect guy with Hurley, finally proving Mother and MiB wrong.


I thought it was strongly implied that Mother was a smoke monster as well. Question is, how did that happen? How could she be the protector and the monster at the same time? Perhaps she ended up as the protector of the island like Jacob did, being told to never go into the light. But after being stuck on the island, alone, she eventually got frustrated and decided to go down there and see for herself. Now here’s the difference between MiB and Mother. I believe MiB was already dead when he entered the light, while Mother was still very much alive. Case in point here is Jack. He went straight into the light, and it “spit” him out, but it wasn’t lethal. He died afterwards because of the stab. So why would contact with the light be lethal to MiB but not Jack? Because contact with the light doesn’t mean instant death.


So, Mother’s evil heart came into contact with the light and turned her into a smoke monster as well, BUT she still had her own body after being spit out by the light, since she was alive all the time. I say MiB died when Jacob threw him into a rock just before he entered the light. Now, you’ll say, that can’t be, cause Jacob and MiB couldn’t kill each other directly. But who made that rule? Mother did. We’ve already seen that the protector simply is able to make up his own rules, perhaps they get that ability by the drinking of source water. So when there’s another protector, there are other rules. I believe Mother’s rule that MiB and Jacob couldn’t kill each other, simply died with her. So, MiB came into contact with the light, but his body was already dead. His soul was still there though, cause his soul was about to become stuck on the island like Michael’s after killing his mom, and so his soul/spirit became the monster. Immediately afterwards, Jacob made his own rule that the MiB couldn’t kill him or any of his possible successors, and that as long as Jacob himself or one of his possible successors was alive, he couldn’t leave the island. Note that MiB says to Richard, that Jacob stole his humanity, not the island. Perhaps implying that Jacob killed him, and not the light.


So that could explain why MiB killed Mother so easily. Mother was a smoke monster, but still human. The MiB lost his smoke powers, when the cork was removed. He would’ve gotten back his powers had the cork been put back in before he was killed. Removing the cork and the light, also removed the smoke powers and the “magic” from the island. Instead of just being a spirit in a human body, MiB just became… a human body. Mother and MiB were both smoke monsters, but they were killed in totally different ways for totally diffferent reasons.


I’d also like to point out that I believe Claudia’s ghost was Mother herself, using her smoke powers. We know the monster can choose which people it appears to. The episode Dr. Linus proves that. MiB as Locke was talking to chained Ben, but Ilana couldn’t see him. Also worthy to note is that if Claudia’s ghost really was Claudia’s ghost, there was no point at all to her appearence. She didn’t say I love you. All she did was lead him to people he hated. And why should she not appear to her other son, her good son, Jacob? All she really said was “you’re special”, which is not coincidentally the exact same thing Mother always told MiB. I believe Mother orchestrated the whole thing, which is also why she thanked MiB when he killed her.






--






Hi everyone, here is a short theory on what, from my point of view, was the flash-sideways and how does it tied with all of the rest.


«If we don’t live together, we’re gonna die alone.» - Jack Shepard


This a classic quote from the show, it has been said a lot of times, and after re-watching the Finale, this quote came back to me and gave me this idea. So here it goes.


Each and every one of our characters died alone. Sadly for our losties, even if they tried to do what Jack told them since season one, to live together, they eventually died alone, some point in time :


«Everybody dies some time, kiddo… Some of them before you, some long after you.» - Christian Shepard.


They died alone since when their death happened, they would be going someplace else alone, while the others would go on with their lives. So what is the point of trying to live together, trying to form a community and gain the trust of other if you’re gonna die alone. Because by living together, they were able to create this «place» where once everybody would be dead, they could try to come back together and move on together for real this time.


«This is a place that you all made together so that you can find one another» - Christian Shepard.


By living together, essentially on the island, by having faith in each other, by being able to sacrifice yourself for these others. This is what was important. They all came to this island alone, and they ultimately found something there, something really important.


This «place», they would arrive in it with no memory of each other. They would also be able to have access to this «place» once every one of them would be dead. And since their community started on a plane, since they were able to live together starting from that day, it would be fitting that this new «place» would bring them back together in that plane, but this time with no island interference. From there, it would be up to them to be able to remember what happened, and ultimately, to move on.


They lived together. They died alone. But they moved on together.






--






Im not going to argue with anyone about anything…I liked the episode, and the way Lost ended…
Its your choice whether you did or not…
Im left without questions, without desire…I am left satisfied. That is not to say that they answered everything, its just to say that I really dont care.








For anyone who thinks that everything that happened on the island was pointless…


Without the island, and Jacob bringing them there, they would have never been “good” people, and most likely would have never gotten the chance to make the decision that Ben made outside of the church…they wouldnt have even realized that much…they would have not been ready, as Ana Lucia was not ready when they died.


These people needed the island to move on to the next step in their existence, which is plain and simple…the afterlife…which led to a bright light, that many would refer to as heaven.


Juliet was going in and out of death/life when she told Sawyer “It worked.”
She saw what was going on, just as Charlie saw what was going on when he almost choked on the heroin.
The FSW represents this afterlife, or more-so the purgatory that so many thought the island was.
The FSW was not real…Jacks son was not real.


David was a creation by Jack in his “perfect world” to help him get through to understanding what happened, and why he is where he is. We didnt know who Davids mother was until then…because Jack probably didnt even know…
These people created existences for themselves until they realized that they were ready to move on, and not a second sooner.










The closest I came to picturing this happening was my theory, “An Occurrence At Our Parallel Bridge”. I titled it this way due to the actual story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”.
“Owl Creek” follows a man who is sentenced to death.
Upon his hanging, the rope breaks, and he falls into the water. He then lives a life as if he had gotten away for a short time, making it all the way home to his wife and child. Upon arriving home, he starts noticing pains in his neck, marks, and burns…much like Jack noticed in the premiere and other scenes in the FSW. It ends, much like Lost, where the person realizes that they did indeed die, and the pain was real in another life, so to speak. And they both end up dying/being dead in the end.


I knew this was right…but they threw me off course by pressing the issues with “FLASH sideways”, and I got caught up in the FSW being “real” and went the direction of “parallel” timelines…damn…oh well, alls well that ends well…and I feel Lost did end well.










The island, and everything that happened on it was real…everything.
What happened on the island was the main story about a group of people that landed on an island saving the world from darkness, and being given the gift of eternal light.
The island was a scientific/spiritual marriage of light and dark, essential to the existence of the world, and the energy can be used for either good or evil…all depending on the eye of the beholder.


The story on the island is separate from the FSW because it could have occurred completely without it, and yet with it, we were able to see that these bad people…these “flawed” individuals have made up for things that occurred in their past and gotten the redemption that they needed to get.


The whispers explained earlier were more than likely what they were explained as…spirits of people trapped on the island. Which is why Michael isnt there…Walt was too tall to fit into the room apparently.
;]
This made me look at Anthony Coopers character more, he got what he deserved…this was most likely not the real Cooper though, more like a reflection of what our characters saw him as…or should be…I would imagine the real Cooper is on the island with Michaels spirit.










I think they took a lot of chances with this episode, and I think they knew what they were doing all along. The show has always been based on faith, no matter what anyone has ever said…and the finale proved it to everyone.
They knew they were going to do this, and they found a way to make it happen in a way that I felt played very well into what I have always viewed Lost as. Purgatory was a reference/theme from the first season (Gary Troupe)…lets not forget that.


The island was not purgatory, as some believed. If anything gets that label it was the FSW.
There is no time there, no limits. People who die appear as they would to the person they are interacting with.
Hurley obviously died well after Jack did, but they are there…together…all of them. That is all that matters in “The End”.




Its an interesting take on “Live Together, Die Alone” if you think about it…sacrifice and die alone…to live together forever.










I loved all the reunions from Jack and Kate (”I missed you so much”), to Sawyer and Juliet (”Come here Blondie”)…even Sayid and Shannon was bittersweet…and I love that I hoped they would all end up together…at least I sort of called one thing, lol…
One reunion stood out to me though…the reunion between Claire and Charlie was amazing.
It was really the most emotional realization for me throughout the entire show, and easily the happiest of all for me to see last night…no idea what it was…it just really got me.


I must say…its quite annoying to hear people say how pointless Chritian was…or even worse Aaron.
These people were beyond important. They were the constants that some of our characters needed to connect. Aaron began Kates initiation into enlightenment in the FSW by her simply seeing his toy. Then her and Claire connected through the “delivery”…and Charlie connected through Aarons touch!
Christian was ultimately what brought Jack to the other side…after a brief encounter with Kate who I just mentioned. Christians casket alone was enough to give Jack “a little push”, then he got pulled in by the love of his fathers hug…


These people may not have been the KEYS to Lost…but they were the keys to certain characters finding themselves. Without Aaron…who knows who may have NOT gotten connected on the other side. Claire was not supposed to raise Aaron…but she is supposed to be his mother.
Aaron was beyond important…beyond the island…
Why did he need her love and goodnes…I dont care. I was happy with what I got.










The whole time Jack was letting Des turn off the light, I couldnt figure out what he was doing…and then I saw Locke bleed…he took away his power. When he said “Im going to kill you” and “Its a surprise” earlier…wow…great scenes with Jack.
It was great to see the showdown on the cliff in the rain, epic actually. And to see Locke get killed by jack in that manner was really quite amazing…loved Jack getting stabbed.


Him being stabbed by Locke also goes back to my “Owl Creek/Occurrence” though…
Remember the scar in the mirror…it wasnt from his appendix…it was HOW HE DIED…being stabbed by Locke…the knife wounds gave that away for me easily. Wonderfully done throughout the season.










On Jimmy Kimmel after the show, he asked Harrold Parineau why he thought Michael wasnt in the room with them at the end. He said he thought Michael did bad things, and died (add in:within the radius of the island)…and figured he was trapped there as he told Hurley…making the like the island a hell itself TO SOME, as was interpreted in “Ab Aterno”.


I think this same thing is what was happening to MIB. He was a human, who was willing to go to any length to get off the island. He went with people that he admitted were bad, manipulative, power-hungry people and tried to build the wheel to leave the island.


Jacob technically killed him, but as mother said, what happened to MIB was worth than death, which is where the losties ended up in “The End”.
He ended up trapped on the island, like I think Michael is…except that due to being thrown in the light at the end of the tunnel upon death…he was able to materialize through the black smoke, and actually find a way to get off the island…a loophole.


Unfortunately for him, this was also the loophole that Jack used to kill him.










I obviously wasnt a fan of the plane leaving…but as soon as I saw Lapidus…I knew what was going to happen.






Just so people understand too…the reason Kate, Sawyer, and the rest could leave on the plane and still be with them in the FSW and church at the end is because the FSW is the purgatory…the place with no measurement of time…they wait until they all are together…which was very important throughout the entire show…them doing things together, leaving nobody behind…


Time is only relevent to the living…in the FSW…NOBODY was alive…most just dont realize they, themselves, are dead.


And even in death, when the ones who did realize waited for the others to “let go”, and they wouldnt leave each other in “The
End” until they did…










Lost proved to be a playground for intellectuals hunting for fun, and a letdown for people seeking handout answers. Some of these answers are right in front of our faces, and others are meant to mythology of what was Lost. We dont learn how the “Force/Darkside” works in “Star Wars”…or how the “Sirens” in the “Odyssey” are able to pull in ships with a simple song…its mythological interpretation left entirely up to the viewers/readers, because when compared to what the story was REALLY about…what it REALLY stood for…its pointless.










Lost is a show that I for years…tried to breakdown and unlock, mostly to no avail…
Lost is a show that I will never forget due to what it has given me on a site like this…with people like you…
Lost is a show that proved one thing that I have said all along that no one can take away…


Lost is a show about science and technology paving the way for hope, faith, and spirituality…








As the last thing I ever post here, I would like to reiterate something that I wrote before…something I truly believe with all my heart.
This is a short (slightly edited) excerpt from a theory I wrote right before the season began…and I still believe it now that Lost is over…
Its from, “The Greatest Theory That I Have Ever Seen…”


“The creators of Lost wanted to give us their perspective of what would occur if time travel was
possible…they researched, they went to the depths of the minds of some of the greatest writers
in the world. They scoured the pages of the bible, they reincarnated Buddhism. They poked
around in Steven Hawking’s library. They played mind games with the greatest philosophers in the
known history of the world. They wrote a story about the lives of survivors of a plane crash on an
island, and came up with nothing short of genius for an answer…only giving us small pieces and
clues to decipher and decode at a time…


Leaving us …scrambling to solve the equation before they wrote the final answer on the
chalkboard…to what is in my opinion, the single greatest science fiction/spiritual plot device ever invented…
They convinced me…all of us, to research…to explore, to study, to search….to learn… all the very
same subjects they researched, explored, studied, searched… and of course learned….
We had to go through the same thing to truly understand…
It is the very same questions that they are answering themselves…


How would time travel play a role in history if it was to exist?
How would it…how could it affect the soul?.…and to me, their answer… is “the
greatest theory I have ever seen.”


How anyone can feel “cheated” or even let down is beyond me…but Lost is, was, and always will be a show based on perception…what you see…what you choose to see, or choose NOT to see is up to you, and what you get in “The End”.
It has given me peace and happiness, and at the same time caused nosebleeds and craziness right here on this site.
I urge you all to let go of questions and answers, and enjoy what they have given us…their story.


Just like in LOST…the light at the end of the tunnel is what you allow it to be…




--






Part 1: The Source


Jacob was the protector of The Island. He did that job in an overly complicated way until Benjamin Linus was manipulated into killing him. Jacob then gave the job to Jack. Jack’s first day on the job was a rough one. The Island contains the Source. It is the eye of the island. The Source, as I’ve come to understand it, is what gives every living thing… well, life. If that is the case, it stands to reason that it is the spark that caused the first cells to spontaneously combine in the primordial amino acid ooze of the planet.


Those cells multiplied and grew, and then split off, mutated, adapted, climbed out of the muck, grew feathers, gills, rooted itself in forests, giving birth to all LIFE. The Source, in itself (in the world of Lost) is the miracle of Life. When Desmond removed the ancient ‘cork’ in the Source, it began to overheat, and the miracle of life began to overheat too.


The Source might be something akin to a nuclear power plant, where heavy water is used to keep nuclear rods at a manageable temperature while also partially protecting the surrounding area from radiation. The sheer amount of power contained in the Source requires a coolant, to keep it from overheating, expanding, and swallowing up the entire planet. That was where the mystical waters of the island came in, flowing into the cave, and down into the mouth of the Source


OR…


The Source might be the energy left over from the past universe which precede Lost Prime. The statement by Christian to Jack in the church at the end of “THE END” regarding everything that happened in the Sideways universe ‘being real’ as well as the island being real had me thinking in a karmic sort of way. It is clear that they died in the Original Lost Prime universe. Everyone in the Church had died in Lost Prime. In the Sideways universe, as a gift, they got to live out their lives with their loved ones with no island, smoke monster, and significantly less tragedy. It is hinted that it is a purgatory-like place. I would like to suggest that it is merely the next stage upward in the many different planes of existence. As they all passed away in Lost Prime, their spirits graduated to the next plane of existence, and as a reward for all of their sacrifices in defense of all of existence, they were granted a lifetime reprieve to love one another. If this were the case, I suggest that the cosmic cork in the source was keeping the universe that preceded the Lost Prime universe from overcoming Lost Prime. It is most likely a dead universe, and all of its life had graduated up to Lost Prime. A little crazy, but so is this show.


OR…


(This is where I get a little abstract) The hole in the ground on the island might be a small gateway to another universe all together. The source could very well be the exact point at which the energy required to act as the catalyst to begin life, spilled through into the Lost world. What if, on the other side of that hole, there was an alternate reality in which the entire Lost universe was a child’s third grade science experiment? What if there is a grand designer that planned the whole thing from start to finish, sitting right on the other side of that hole. That would make the hole a wormhole of some sort. From my many hours watching Sci Fi Science on The Science Channel, along with my new obsession, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking, I understand that in order to open such a fissure in the first place, it would take so much energy that the planet would be shattered. But what if it was opened from the other end? The Lost universe would just be dealing with the energy caused by the spill over. Maybe they would just need to cork it? Also, what if the actual Laws of Nature were radically different over there? What if there were energies at work that could cause miracles to occur? Hugely extended lifespans? Sentient Energy Monsters? Time Travel? The harnessing of the energy of a person after they die, and keeping them nearby, sort of like the ghosts of the island? What if those were the energies seeping onto the island?


THE COMIC BOOK ANGLE:
FROM WIKI: In DC Comics The Source (and it is really called that in the comics) is:
“The Source can be considered a shared Consciousness in the DC Comics Universe, where it is the non-religious equivalent to Buddha-nature. It is the “source” of all that exists. Alternatively, it can be considered a description of the Creator God of the Universe, a science-fiction analogue based on Judaeo-Christian doctrine. Mostly associated with the New Gods, the Source was the supposed origin of the “god-wave” that is believed to have been responsible for creating and empowering the “Gods” of the DC Universe with their divine abilities. It also seems to be partially responsible for the ability of DC residents to develop super-powers, especially those that defy physics. Lying at the edge of the known universe in the Promethean Galaxy is the Source Wall, which protects the Source, and traps all those who attempt to pass beyond it.”


Sounds really really familiar doesn’t it? I’m sure a few Issues of the New Gods were passed around the Lost Writing rooms.
The Source is something that can be theorized about for years to come.




--






My guess about the finale:


Ok, everybody got the alternative timeline as a "limbo" thing. great, it was beautiful, but I think it is but more metaphisical than that:


Let's consider back the "loophole" concept. We've seen the island is a place that goes on and on through time....everything happened again and again (more people ALWAYS come there by accident, the protector of the light ALWAYS pass the job on, and so on), just like a Vynil record, as the writers always wanted to show us, right? (and that's why i think the egyptian references doesnt need an explanation. It's just a way of showing us that the island exist - and works - since ancient times).


We also have seen how the MIB got his loophole, as the name say, a hole in the loop. He got a way, manipulating Eloise, Ben and everyone else to blindly join his plan and using Locke's body, to kill Jacob and the island light source and get rid of the loop, alowing him to get off the island (I believe that's why he was stuck and couldnt leave. After he entered the light he became somehow part of the nature of the island, that flows always on a loop).


And that's where my theory enters:
I think the alternative line represents the survivors own loophole. The way they found to really get off the island and go on with their lives.


I was watching again season 5 finale, the moment when they drop the bomb on the well...notice that they all strongly close their eyes...already dreaming about a new life. It reminds me when we drop a coin on a fountain and make a wish. That's exactly what they did. At that moment, they made a wish. A wish to erase their flaws, a dream to start again, a chance to be someone better.


The bomb did created the alternative timeline, but not in a way we believe it was, like some parallel reality. Actually it created a life after-life...the limbo...or whatever you wanna call it, or whatever your religion call it (That's why it was so brilliant to see many religion symbols behind Christian coffin on the last scene...it is, in fact, what ALL religions are about) - another chance to redeem their mistakes and to become a new and better person. It was, actually THEIR loophole. The only and unique way to get off the island (they left before and couldnt make it out there. The "island isnt done with you yet" thing is nothing more than..."you're still stuck on its loop. you still need to figure a way out".


And the bomb was a chance to this way out. They left, Jack sacrifies himself to put the core back, restoring the light and restoring the cycle and the loop. BUT they got a chance to live on a reality where the island loop doesnt exist (it is under the sea) and they had a chance to learn to let go from their frustrastions and what makes them "stuck". The island, at the end, was a beautiful allegory to the things we can't let go, the traumas we insist to affect us. They learn to let go when they remember each other, the ones that really changed them, and finally could have some peace after life, with the ones they really loved.


Man...if this show isnt the greatest idea ever, I dont know what it is.




--






1. The sideways was the "purgatory" per say...its was a unreal set of curcumstances that each characters soul had to work through and find redemption before coming together with the others and moving on...none of it was real, except for the final moments when the souls come together


2. They all died at various times before the final scene, that is various times in real time...after death, they all went immediatley to the sideways to work out their redemption...whether they died 3 years ago (Boone), 30 years later (Kate, Sawyer) or maybe 1000 years later (Ben and Hurley) they all "waited" in the sideways for eachother


3. Everything you ever saw on the show was real, as in it really happened in the story...the exception is the sideways we saw this season...that is the "purgatory" where they have to deal with demons, deal with the results of their poor decisions, and let go before moving on...Locke has to let go of hating dad, Jack had to let go of hating dad (by seeing how it is to be a dad himself), Charlie had to give up fame for love, Kate had to see Aaron and Claire together, Claire had to keep Aaron, etc.


4. Not everybody let go, so they were not in the church...Ben was not done (with Alex I guess), Ana Lucia was still a crooked cop, etc.


5. The kids of the show (Ji Yeon, Walt, Sawyer's daughter, etc.) were never meant to be a part of the game...that is why babies weren't supposed to be born on the island...it was never meant to involved kids...that is why, in the end they were not in the church...it is not as though they didn't get to heaven, but that they were spared the memories, suffering, issues of the island life and memory (last season Locke saw teenage Walt and said he didn't have to go back to the island to complete his work, b/c he was a kid he had "been through enough already" )...


7. Aaron, however, was in the church as a baby...does this mean when he died, however many years later, he wanted to go to heaven as a baby? I think, and this is just my thought, the life-altering events of the crash is what brought this group together, and no matter where you were when you died, or how old you were, when you died, if you were part of that group, you went to heaven together...this group, in the ages and scenarios that they were in at the crash, saved the world together, this was a big deal...those that chose to do so, then spent eternity in that moment, the moment when they saved the world...maybe Aaron wanted to be part of that too, even if it meant entering heaven as a baby...it alo meant entering it with two parents who loved each other...for a kid who likely grew up in a single parent home (Claire) that could very well be heaven






--






I know MIB was just taunting Jack when he brought up the Swan and the button, but I think it is some interesting food for thought.


The pool with the plug is obviously man made. The screencaps of Jack standing in it show that it is made of paved bricks.
What if The ancient Egyptians who built the Temple and statue and other ruins all over the island are responsible. Maybe some Egyptian Radzincksy (who we can call Egypzcki) dug too deep in this particular spot and unleashed the engeries underneath. Now they obivously didn't have concrete and computers to cork in it like DHARMA so instead the filled it with bricks and water to hold it at bay. They placed the plug in the centre which is equivalent to the failsafe key of the Swan.


Other evidence, when Desmond pulled the plug, the energy released sound exactly like the Swan discharge from the failsafe.
What happened to Jack after turning it back on is identical to what happened to Locke and Eko after the hatch implosion, they woke up in the jungle not far from the energy source.


If the energy pocket under the Swan was 50,000 times bigger than the energy under the Orchid. The pocket under the light cave must be bigger again as if released it will destroy the island.






--






So after getting over the initial shock of “The End” last night I began my long and still ongoing journey of thinking about what the hell just happened, and what it all means. The first thing that I began to ponder was how does what just happened relate to the central themes and philosophy's of the show. What does it say about freewill vs. fate or faith vs. science? Another thing I began to think on was whether the end revealed to us anything about the island. Did we reach any new level of enlightenment, or are we and our heroes still just in the dark about the why and how of whether any of what they died for really mattered? I may not have all the answers, but Im trying my best and will continue to do so until I can’t any more.


A lot of people are labeling the sideways world as “purgatory.” As someone who has loathed such ideas in Lost, I was angry to come to this realization. Im not religious, and I’ve always have been a man of science. If this show though has thought me anything, its that faith and science don’t have to be antagonistic to each other. The button was a scientific mechanism, but the act of pushing it without knowing the result was an act of faith. I’ll get back to what I think is the ultimate message of the show on this topic later in this theory, but for now I’ll focus on the church sequence. Though I agree that the sideways world is purgatory in the figurative sense, I don’t think it is a literal religious or spiritual place devoid of the sci-fi reasoning the show has had the entire series. Like many of the ultimate mysteries of Lost, both spiritual and science perspectives can work in sync to explain things. I believe the sideways world is the “imaginary time” written about in Faraday’s journals and equations. It was caused by a massive release of energy, possibly the incident, possibly something else. Its a world that doesn’t run parallel to the normal flow of time, but entirely separate. Lost’s approach to time travel has always been rooted in the block theory approach to time, which is the idea that everything, past, present, and future, happens simultaneously and that it is only our own perspective that gives it the linearity of an already determined past, a constantly changing present, and an unknown future. It may by 2004 in the sideways world, but where it syncs up with the original timeline is the point of infinity. Hurley could have lived for thousands of years after Jack died, but such a thing is irrelevant in a world that is truer to time itself, in that it has no perceptive. As Christian says, “there is no now.”


If you want to just think of it as purgatory in the strictly spiritual sense, and find my ideas a little difficult to understand or an unnecessary complication to something you find to be simple, than so be it. I do, however, have evidence to back up my idea. Aside from seeing the island underwater, we more importantly have what happened to Desmond when Widmore zapped him with the electromagnet; he saw the sideways world. To me, it seems more of a stretch to assume he saw the spiritual afterlife than if he simply flashed through time in the same way he did in “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” Speaking of that episode, all season long I’ve been looking at the episode as the major clue to what the sideways world was. In that episode Eloise explains to Desmond that even if you had foreknowledge of future events and could change the past somehow, “the universe has a way of course correcting itself.” This is similar to, but at the same time extremely different from the “whatever happened, happened” concept that is implicit to block time theory. The time travel we see in season 5 implies that there can be no paradoxes, and reinforces the notion of linear time as perspective and that depending on perspective your uncertain future is always someone else's predefined and determined past, and therefore all time is certain and unchangeable. What Faraday postulates though is that enough energy can disrupt the flow of time to the point that things can be changed, but not forever as it turns out. The energy behind whatever created the sideways world disrupted time in the same way Desmond attempted to change his future in “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” but ultimately what ever is meant to happen will happen. Desmond absorbed a lot of electro magnetism when he turned the failsafe key. Even after reliving that day in his life, “the flashes didn’t stop.” Desmond began seeing the death of Charlie, and was able to prevent it several times before accepting that the universe was going to keep trying to correct itself and his attempts were pointless. I would say the reason Desmond was able to change events was because of his body becoming a vessel of sorts for some of the energy once contained by the swan station. On this basis its possible that an even greater electromagnetic power could disrupt time to the point of creating another universe, but even in that new universe where things are different, ultimately the universe will find a way to correct itself. Our losties boarded 815 as strangers, just as they did in the original timeline. All of they’re live had been different up to this point either because of the lack of Jacob to influence them, random variables changing, or flat out orchestration by people in the know, like Eloise. With the island underwater and no button to push, the plane landed in LA, but the universe wasn’t just about to let all these people, who had in another life influenced and affected each other in a way that so profoundly changed them, go on never connecting in a way comparable to had they crashed on the island. As we saw in the first nine flash sideways stories, these people were meeting and connecting even without the influence of the island.


So what is the ultimate conclusion to the universe trying to correct itself, “moving on.” In the original timeline, everyone died at some point, just as all people do. The sideways universe is sustained by people accepting it as a reality, but its existence is what Faraday labeled in his equation as “imaginary time.” It’s less of a physical universe and more of a place were the consciousness travels after death, but through the recognition of a constant, that consciousness can reawaken and thus choose to leave. Think back to the episode “The Constant,” Desmond’s consciousness returned to the present by connecting with Penny. He began the telephone call with his 1996 mind in his 2004 body, but then it faded and it was clear it was his 2004 self talking. The sideways Losties, with help from Desmond who was already awakened by his constant, Penny, all began to reconnect and awaken. When awakened however, it became clear that they were dead, and that they no longer needed another life. They had already lived another one, and now that they have connected they could leave. This had to be a choice.


What I think of the ending in terms of the themes of the show is based around our Losties ultimate ability to make this choice, and Ben’s decision not to make it yet. First let’s think back to Desmond and Charlie in season 3. I earlier said that Desmond’s attempts to change Charlie’s fate where pointless because no matter what the universe was going to keep trying to restore balance by killing him. Indeed Charlie did die in a way that Desmond had foresaw, but that’s not what is important. Charlie choose to die in the end. He could have continued to live on with Desmond’s aide, but he choose to die to save his friends. At the same time, if Desmond never “choose” to save Charlie the few times he did prior to his death, Charlie would have never even been given that choice. In fact, the entire time loop of the show would have likely not happened at all had Desmond and Charlie had not made those decisions. In the same way, the sideways universe was always going to try to correct itself by having our Losties meet, but it wasn’t until Desmond chose to step in that they all found each others constants. Even then though, they still had a choice to stay if they wanted to. The ultimate answer to the question of fate vs. free will then I think is that the only thing that is truly determined of predestined is that we all die at some point, but even in our own death, it is our choices that lead us there, and even in our death we get to choose to either live alone or “move on” together.


This brings me back to the island, where indeed we witnessed just how our characters fates were ultimately what they chose. The ultimate test of science versus faith came for not just our characters but for us as an audience. Here our characters were making choices to save the island even though they, even less so than us, still knew nothing of the consequences of what may or may not happen should they choose not to. What happens if MIB leaves the island? Why is it so bad if the island sinks or the light goes out? What are the stakes? Its bizarre watching such an intense climax when you have no idea why the climax even needs to happen, but that’s the point, we have to put our faith in what is being done needs to be done. Its the button all over again, but this time its even more about faith. With the button we eventually saw what would happen if the button failed to be pressed and we had the fail safe to not only save the day, but to also end the cycle of the button even needing to be pushed. I expected something similar to happen here but it was quite different. So the island began to sink, but all Jack really had to do was but the plug right back in. Ironically it was only because the plug was pulled out that MIB lost his powers and could be killed. Jack put back in the plug, but only after passing his job onto Hurley, who then seemingly continued to push the button aka protect the island. Desmond was the catalyst that allowed all this to happen, but he was seemingly not a “fail-safe.” What is important though is that Jack became a man of faith not by believing that his destiny was to be the protector of the island, but by making a choice on faith that he had a purpose, that the island was important, that essentially his whole life had meaning and importance beyond coincidence by returning to the heart of the island and plugging the hole. We’ll never know what the stake really were, but we do know without a doubt that Jack made a choice that he believes on his life was worth making.


When you put both the on island events and the sideway ones together as is done by the editing of the show, I think the conclusion reached is something truly profound. I think back to the climax of Orientation. Locke tells Jack he has to be the one to push the button, to which Jack refuses. Locke asks why Jack finds it so hard to believe, to which Jack reverses the question asking him why its so easy for him. Locke then shouts “its never been easy!” He then cries and says, “I can’t do it this alone, I don’t want to.” This moment stems back even further to Helen asking Locke to take a “leap of faith” by letting go of his father, but that he doesn’t have to do it alone, that she is there to help him “let go.” Jack’s catch phrase has always been “live together or die alone,” but I was never sure how that tied into what I felt where the bigger philosophies of the show like fate vs. freewill. Now its clear that they are really one in the same. True faith is accepting that you are not alone, even in death, and that the ultimate choice we make in life is whether or not we will believe that when it matters most, when we are at our loneliest.


So then does it really matter what the island was or what danger the smoke monster really presented? The short answer is no it doesn’t, but I don’t think the writers just left us with nothing. The revelation about the sideways, especially if you like me believe that it was a lot more scientifically and thematically complex than just a purgatory story or a Six Sense ripoff. Think about the relationship already established between the island and the dead. The whispers, Hurley and Miles’s abilities, the Smoke Monster’s ability to take on the forms and memories of the dead. Speaking of Smokey, the creature was born from the Heart of the Island, which is also a electromagnetic pocket, and we know that Smokey itself has electric properties and makes mechanical noises. The Heart od the Island and Smokey also have a relation to water and light. In “Across the Sea,” the still human Man In Black speaks of building a machine to channel the water and the light. How does he plan to do this? By using the Donkey Wheel. What happens when you turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel that channels the water with the light? You move the island, and yourself, through space and time. Also remember what mother says about the Heart of the Island, its “life, death, and rebirth.” She also says that “if it goes out here,it goes out everywhere.” So if we put all this together we have what appears to be a clear link between electromagnetism, the flow of water through a circulatory system through out the island, volcanic activity, time space manipulation, consciousness travel, and the souls of the dead. What if the island is the nexus point of a network that not only goes through out the planet, but through out the time and space continuum. The water flows throughout the world under the ground and keeps the electromagnetic pockets of the world all connected to the main one at the heart of the island to keep not only the volcanic activity of the planet in check, but also the flow of time itself. Disrupting these pockets bends time. The network also carries with it the consciousness, or souls, or all those who have died back to the Heart of the Island, where they become part of this larger collective consciousness, a constant presence through out all of time. If the the cork is unplugged, the volcanos awaken, and the water stops flowing. Without the water flowing trough the pockets, the flow of consciousness through out time stops. Also, the smoke monster can’t leave the island because it is part of the light, and it carries with it a part of the consciousness that flows through the island.


In the end though I think its more important that our heroes choose to believe and stopped it from happening without knowledge of what may happen, but I do think its important to understand what sideways is in relation to the island and the concept of “letting go” or “moving on.” What if when either the cork was briefly unplugged, or when jughead exploded in the swan pocket, the temporary disrupt in the flow of souls and time lead to the existence of the imaginary plain at the infinity point of time aka the sideways world. “Moving on” then, if what I also theorized were true, could be returning to the Heart of the Island, were all souls are supposed to go. This could be as simple as the Losties all just being with their constants and mentally checking themselves out, or that light at the door could be more literal. Remember that the church they are at is also the one with the lamp post station which is another pocket.






--






Too often, TV shows try to give us a finale that panders to the ‘safe zone’ of simply showing the lead character going on to live a happy life having fulfilled their objectives. And the question has been on the horizon for some time now…how on earth could the creators of Lost end this story?


Well, they did so, by giving us one of the most intelligent, moving, and brave endings in TV history. After the woeful ‘Across The Sea’ is was debatable that they could actually pull it off, and I for one was not expecting much from the finale. But boy was I wrong, and here’s why:


1) The show refused to bend to the fanatics who wanted answers about the Island.
Yes, I know there are those of you out there that were disappointed because you didn’t get ‘Island’ answers. But you are missing the point. As they have continued to hammer home to us since season 1, this has never been a story about the Island, it is a story about the people. That is why throughout all six seasons we spent more time off island than on it. If this was a story about the Island the writers would never have left it. And yet they could’ve easily thrown some answers in there to keep you happy but it would have been irrelevant to the ‘Lost story’. It could have been set on a mountain range or in caves, it was ALWAYS a story about PEOPLE that were LOST and needing to FIND THEMSELVES. That one thing that makes them feel whole, their destiny, and in most cases it was each other. Why Jacob had a thing for numbers is irrelevant. That’s his business.


2) The Biggest Answers Were All Answered.
a) Why exactly was Jack brought to the Island? – To sacrifice his life to save it.
b) Why was Kate brought to the Island? – To kill Locke.
c) Why was Hurley brought to the Island? – To become Jacob.
d) What Is The Off Island World That We Keep Seeing? – A place of denial in which they had to be forced into seeing what had really happened to them all.


3) Some Of The Greatest Scenes In TV History.
a) Sawyer and Juliet At The Vending Machine - was quite simply one of the best written scenes that have ever been filmed in any medium.
b) Charlie and Clare Finding Each Other – Incredibly powerful and full of meaning.
c) Jin and Sun Remembering – They remembered dying, which was a big clue as to what was about to come in the closing ten minutes.
d) Jack In The Light – The look of disbelief on Jack’s face when he thought it hadn’t worked, to the one of utter and complete joy of having fulfilled his destiny when he saw the water trickling down was a stunning scene. Not one word of dialogue and yet it conveyed a thousand words. Truly magnificent.


4) The Two Huge Twists


a) That The Alternate Reality Wasn’t A Reality At All – Never saw this one coming and yet it makes perfect sense and resonates.
b) That It Was Actually Hurley That Was Meant To Be Jacob – Jack seemed to always know this. He never spoke of doing the job for a long time. He knew, like Jacob did, that he was here for a reason. In the Lighthouse, Jacob said Jack was here “to do something” = ONE SINGULAR EVENT. And that “he has to figure that out on his own.” When the Island was falling apart, Jack knew what his destiny was, to sacrifice his life to protect the Island so the real Jacob (Hurley) can stay on and protect it. For Jacob to make Hurley the guardian any earlier would have been to expose him to Locke, and it was always Jacob’s trump card.


5) The Island Survives
When Hurley and Ben eventually die, we can assume that Hurley found his own candidates and passed on the Jacob role to someone else. It is still important and people will continue to go there to find themselves when they are ‘lost’.


6) Island Answers Left Open
This was a masterstroke because it allows everybody to do what they have always done = interpret the answers their own way. By leaving them open, the writers have created a legacy that will continue to be discussed and debated for many many years. If they had spent season 6 answering Island questions then there would be nothing left to discuss when the show ends. It would have been all too easy and common place to answer these now. Leaving them open has left the mysteries of the Island in the hands of us viewers.


7) The Perfect Last Image
To book-end the story with what we saw in the opening image of season 1 was the right way to end Lost. And yes, this is where Jack died. Not in the original plane crash, and not when the bomb went off. For Jack’s character to come full circle, he had to sacrifice his life to save the Island, and when he’d achieved this, the Island was done with him. Brilliant last image and could not have been better. When he closed his eye, he died. Jack was no longer ‘lost’, he’d found his destiny. The End.






--






Hi Everyone,


I loved the ending, it worked.


The ending when you drill it down, it's simple:


Everything that happened on the Island was real. The FS was a place the losties created to find each other in the afterlife. It doesn't matter how long it took some of them to get there, time doesn't matter in this place. In order to move on, they had to let go of their pain and anger from their life on earth. The last one to do so was Jack. It's funny, I had dream last night, I went into the church and no one was there! Not surprising since I can isolate and put up walls. Where's Desmond when you need him? Lost inspired me to let go, hopefully it won't take six years.


In regards to the Jack, Des, Smokie Hurley battle. Des had to pull the plug out of the cavern for Smokie to loose his powers and be killed, Jack needed to sacrifice his life to put it back in. Hurley was the protector for the long run. Ben, his Richard.


Now on to Vincent, could Vincent be a representation of God? He was with Bernard and Rose for the last few seasons, the most enlightened of the island. Also, when Jack was dying and he laid down (I'm still crying over this visual) it was like Jack was with God (dog spelled backwards). I'm sure this has been mentioned about a gazillion times.


Thanks all, it's been a great ride.






--






"The End", a truly epic series finale if ever there was one, pulled back the curtain on what LOST really was, I firmly believe, all about from the very beginning: Jack's reaction and series of responses to his physical death fueled by a pervasive guilt over his perceived role in father Christian's demise, a resolution foreshadowed by the appearance of An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, a book which details the hallucinogenic reverie of a Civil War soldier about to die, in the Season 2 episode "The Long Con".


Managing the biological imperative for survival, whether it be the body or ego - one's individual essence or most defining aspects - is what caused complex religious traditions to emerge as humans became ostensibly more civilized, acquired a more sophisticated sense of their place in Earth, and then Heaven's, hierarchy. Religion was a fearful reaction to the fear-based excesses of animalistic impulses and, ironically enough, demonstrated a distinct lack of faith, at least the non-conditional variety. That instinct to survive above all else is the ultimate expression of a desire to maintain control over one's environment. And as all LOST fans know, there really was no bigger control freak amongst the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 than Jack Shepard. When that instinct is effectively manipulated in the scared, the faithless, the spiritually vulnerable, they can be made to do almost anything, as Michael quickly learned about himself. Likewise the implied threat of death, and by acting in uninformed anger, Jacob made MiB/Death larger than life and a WHOLE lot more terrifying, just as did certain religious denominations in the past.


Desperate and reaching further for another chance at life - more liberated from the constraints of his limited physical reality - than ever before, Jack, as though the eagle referenced by his tattoos (the original poem by Mao Zedong is virtually a full narrative of LOST) spread his mind's wings and reflexively created what would be a suitable destination for the victims of a horrific plane crash at sea: a verdant, surprisingly expansive island where he and his fellow travelers, only too willing to defer to him as the de facto 'leader', could rest and figuratively catch their breath before deciding what to do next with themselves.


This island, with its very protracted passage of time, would never be found on any map because it never DID exist in the physical world. That's not to say that the survivors' EXPERIENCES while part of this collective hallucination weren't real, but it's open to conjecture as to which members of the supporting cast were once alive, or from where their souls really originated, what lives they came. Was there ever a DHARMA Initiative, or a Ben Linus, a Charles Widmore, a Dave or Richard Alpert? None of them was, for whatever reason, in the church group. Could they have been but mere contrivances for Jack and his group's life/soul lessons? Or were they somehow overlooked on the same flight? Possibly casualties from a previous time or traumatic event? I do lean strongly toward the first explanation as the Island was ultimately revealed to be as much. Interestingly, Desmond makes a point of reiterating in the finale that he WAS, indeed, on Flight 815 and arrived at the Island along with everyone else, rather than by a
lone, grounded sailboat.


So as to more fully understand the actual roles of various characters (despite whether or not they were on Oceanic 815) we must begin with the one which, earliest on, seemed to have the most ability to control how he experienced his existence: Desmond. He and Jack had an important, if not necessarily profound, relationship from their encounter at Olympic Stadium after Jack had remedied Sarah's paralysis and I would now submit that those underground settings, such as the Pearl, the Swan, alluded to Jack's unenlightened subconscious, places which had yet to be dug out for nuggets of understanding (or pearls of wisdom) - hence the first person he sees in The Swan is, again, Desmond, reminding him why all this is happening, why Jack has gone to such great lengths - "To save the world, brotha!" Or, more accurately, to save JACK's world as he's known it - and that of those apparent survivors for whom he's now taken on responsibility. As for the Pearl, it may serve as an observation post for HIM to monitor - and mitigate - this circle of soul's more Pavlovian responses, possibly recognize them in himself.....


And when the Island appears underwater in "LA X", it isn't PHYSICALLY submerged, but rather, lurking in the great depths of everybody's subconscious who is a part of the 'Flash Sideways' experience, coloring to a lesser extent what occurs there as evidenced by Jack's pesky neck wound, the Island memories determined to bleed through. In retrospect, from the start of Season 6 and perhaps even back to the midway point of Season 5, Jack shows unmistakable signs of getting weary from his efforts to forestall death, which never WAS the enemy - only his perception of it, which is why things are never serene on the Island for long. The war between Jack's science and faith (John Locke simultaneously representing someone and something he struggles to trust implicitly, Locke's doubts about faith mirroring Jack's) is instantly dispatched there and the forces to wage it pressed into service, such as DHARMA and the Others/Hostiles. Even Jacob and MiB are there as expressions of his conflicted views; 'Jack' is, of course, a casual form of both 'John' and 'Jacob' so, in a sense, Locke's appearance being assumed by the Man in Black is very fitting, since it always was John counseling Jack to 'let go' and believe as had Christian. Jacob revealed himself to be a flawed character in that, while it's laudable he does believe in the goodness of humanity, he's extensively manipulated it and gone to unbelievable lengths (on Jack's behalf) to thwart Death - taking the form of Smokey/MiB, who naturally wants to be free of Jack's defensive construct and get on with its destiny, its nature - whisking souls away to the afterlife - and what better form to take for that than a whirling cloud of black smoke?


One very big question lingers: why exactly was it that the Monster was rendered powerless when Desmond removed the stone stalagtite cork from the volcanic heart of the Island? Simple: if EVERYTHING Island-related was merely figments of Jack's hyperstimulated imagination, then it must only follow that would also be true of Flocke (John having physically died long before, in which case his spectral motives would've been previously called into question - and so they were, on numerous occasions throughout the 5 preceding seasons by almost everyone.....again, Jack is unable to implicitly trust Locke for reasons already stated).


Just as the viewer learned that Jacob's rules were quite arbitrary, so too was the Island and Jack's rules governing it; he could do anything he wanted with the 'magic box' if it served his purpose of rationalizing physical death. So if the Cork was inserted - again, by Jack's higher consciousness, his superego - to regulate the amount of light - understanding - emitted by means of containing nature expressed in its most primeval form (volcanic threat) Desmond can ONLY remove it when Jack has reconciled his inevitable fate, surrenders to his destiny - after all, Jacob was created as a more noble proxy by the gifted surgeon who lacked faith in, and forgiveness for, himself.


But in a nod to those of us who feel it's being true to ourselves by 'not going into that good night quietly', Jack finds his flagging last ounces of will to stem Nature long enough for Kate, Sawyer, Miles, Richard, Claire and Frank to soar above the clutches of Death and, while they never were physically alive, their escape is symbolic of that never-completely-quelled instinct to resist such a seeming end all the same. As he sees Ajira 316 overhead, Jack Shepard can finally let go and move on to a truly better place with a clear, informed conscience






--






OK, I know the party line is to say that ATL was "simply" a purgatory/heaven that was created after they each died (or some variation of this), but I think that the writers gave us some clues that the bomb going off really did create the ATL, which is a paradoxical world in which the losties are both alive and dead. And because they are dead, there is a purgatory/heaven there.


When Juliet hit the bomb, something big happened. As others have noted, this is where a time paradox would have been created. That is, if the bomb went off, it would reset time, but it can’t reset time because then they wouldn’t crash, so they wouldn’t be able to set off the bomb. An additional problem is that the bomb would kill them all while it reset time, which is even more paradoxical, because then they’d be dead and alive at the same time—and isn’t dead dead?


This is the paradox that is contained in the ATL. In the ATL they are dead, because the bomb went off. Christian tells us they are dead. But note that they don’t just float up to heaven. They are also in some sense, paradoxically, alive. Note that Charlie was having a “near death experience” even when he was dead. Remember when Jacob nearly drowned Richard to prove that Richard was alive? Near death experiences are generally for the living. In ATL the losties are allowed to live their lives as if time had been reset, which is another possible outcome in the paradox. Both of these contradictory states coexist. (There's lots of evidence that they never crashed on the island in this world, and that the island wasn't a part of their lives.) Additionally, in this paradoxical world they are also able to fulfill many of their desires and redeem themselves. Then, yes, all the stuff happens about gathering together with loved ones in the church, because they are, also, ultimately dead (as everyone will eventually be anyway).


There is yet another logical possibility to resolve the time paradox, and that possibility is reprsented in a different world. In this world, the bomb doesn’t go off at all – thus no paradox. What happened, happened. That is the island time. In the island time, they don’t die. Hurley doesn’t die, Jack doesn’t die (until later), Kate doesn’t die, etc. The ATL paradoxical world and the island world are connected because they are parallel, so the losties can connect to it. This is why the claim that they died in the crash does NOT mean that Hurley can’t become the new Jacob, Jack can’t plug the hole, etc. They can do these things because in this world the bomb didn’t go off and they didn't die.


I feel like I have to defend this, so here are some clues that I think we were given to indicate that an alternative, paradoxical world (in which they are alive and dead) was created when the bomb went off:


1. Big flash of light, big inversion of “LOST” when the bomb went off. Something big happened. If the bomb just plain was a dud, or just zipped them forward in time, this seems sort of silly, as was all the discussion and planning about setting it off. But if two separate worlds were created, one of which had them paradoxically alive and dead, it is a fittingly “epic” moment.


2. Juliet says “it worked” before she talks about going for coffee with Sawyer as she is dying. If no alt reality was created, why did she say that? “it worked” just means that they’ll meet up in heaven? Seems misleading.


3. Why did Eloise send them back to the island in the 70s if she didn’t want them to set the bomb off (and therefore change time and prevent her from shooting her son)? If there was no way for them to change time, a good deal of the story becomes meaningless. Eloise was driven to train Faraday in physics so that he could change time. This is a good long part of the storyline and it isn’t for nothing.


4. There was a good deal of discussion from Faraday, Jack, etc. that the bomb would reset time. If they were just plain wrong, then all of that was a waste of time, and I don’t think the writers would do that to us.


5. Sawyer, Jack, etc. kept saying “See you at LAX” when they tried to set off the bomb. This is another hint -- because when the bomb goes off, they create a paradoxical world in which they didn’t crash, and they DO see each other there. It worked.


6. Why does the alt timeline narration begin only after the bomb goes off? Just coincidence? A red herring? I’d like to give the writers more credit than that.


In other words, if the ATL is just pure and simple a purgatory, then the writers wasted a lot of our time. I think all of the talk about time changing, burying the bomb, finding the bomb, Faraday’s plans, Eloise’s plans, etc., were not red herrings but were an integral part of the storyline.


The fact that the ATL was created as a possible outcome of the time paradox doesn’t make it less interesting and it doesn’t mean that no one can be alive in the island world. Actually I think it makes the whole ending much more interesting and satisfying because it makes sense based on what they’ve told us all this time. It’s very fitting.


And yes, they also tell us that when the losties die, they are joined together and they all wait for each other in heaven’s waiting room. That is all true and worthy of discussion. But this idea can happily coexist with the notion that the ATL can be heaven’s waiting room but also a paradoxical universe created by the bomb *at the same time*.






--










-LOST-
An understanding of the Series and Finale.


There have been only three occasions in my adolescent life where I have cried.


When I was 10 years old, my parents divorced. It was an ugly several months of arguments and sadness. When I heard my dad fall to his knees and beg my mom to take him back and to allow him to make up for his mistakes of betraying her, I emotionally collapsed. I was torn in every emotional way for several days, but I was soon fine. And the reason I was fine was one of the main messages of Lost.


The second time I remember crying hysterically was when I was 11 years old. At this point, my parents had divorced and I recently gained news that I was moving to a new town and had to leave my amazing friends and my first girlfriend behind. I became extremely upset at the loss of these friends, but I regained my happiness and was able to enjoy the last moments with my friends. As soon as I got into the moving truck and saw the “Now Leaving North Brunswick” sign, I cried once more for almost an hour.


As I finished my first year of school in my new town and school, I gained some new friends but not enough to fill the whole I felt after I left. I felt very alone and homesick. One night during my 13th revolution around the sun, my mom turned on the TV and told me a work friend told her about an interesting new show called “Lost.” We watched the Season 1 Finale which was followed by the Season 2 premiere. I watched the scene between Jack and Locke—two names I didn’t know then, but now will never forget—when they discussed their views of faith and purpose. I had never really thought about outside forces or things bigger than me at that age and I was immediately intrigued.


I finished watching the episode Lockdown after skipping episodes here and there. After this episode I decided to watch all of season 1 and re-watch season 2. After the first 6 episodes of Lost, I became a religious viewer. When the episodes came back on the air in the February of 2007, I watched the show and never missed an episode. After the Jacob episode, the Man Behind the Curtain, some emotional and philosophical gears started turning in my head and I truly began to reason about outside forces and how they might be affecting my life. Once the season 3 finale concluded and I heard and saw the infamous “We have to go back, Kate,” I became intrigued an confounded and ballistic as the screen turned to Lost. I almost shed my first tear in a long time, but never did.


After I learned that Lost actually had an end date, I knew the show was going somewhere special, and me along with it. At the dawn of the fourth season, I became a religious viewer. I would check sites like darkufo and sl-lost for a daily Lost fix. At this point, I began thinking about my life and what Lost was going to bring me in my philosophical awakening. Then the season 4 finale came. I was on vacation riding quads with my step-dad in West Virginia. We stayed in a log cabin on a campground with some other people we knew. After the first of three nights we were there, I became extremely ill and was puking acid from my stomach. However, part 1 of the 3-part finale aired on the second night. My step-dad refused to rent a tv for our cabin and I was furious. However, there was a bathroom hall in the middle of the campground as well as a washing machine, accompanied by a tv in the middle of the hallway. The entire episode I would watch the TV in the corner of that hallway while standing up and every commercial would turn to the toilet next to me and puke. The episode was amazing. It was worth it. But what was more important was the season 4 finale the week after. By this point, I had recovered from my sickness and watched the beautiful conclusion without interruption. As I saw Jack come to Ben as a broken man wanting to be saved, I matured profoundly. And as the finale came to a close, I realized the one thing I wanted out of my life: purpose. I never thought so deeply about my wants and needs and what I desire out of my life as I did that night, and Lost helped me do it. It made me a better person and I began to talk and treat people differently.


Season 5 came around and I was half-way through my sophomore year in high school. It was an unforgettable season. As the season came to a close, I went nuts watching that bomb explode. It made me question everything I was beginning to believe. When I saw that teaser for the final season, I smiled bigger than I had in a long time. Season 5 further established my need for purpose and that whole 8-month hiatus I contemplated how the series would end.


As the final season approached, I believed I would get answers to the many mysteries the show brought up. What I got was unexpected. I was on the edge of my seat each episode. When Jack told Sawyer he knew that they were there for a reason, and that they were supposed to stay on the island, it felt like a great weight was lifted on my shoulders. It further planted my beliefs of something greater in the real world, and the show truly began to affect what I believed in the world around me. As I watched our beloved castaways come so close to death in the Candidate, I stood up and could not sit back down. I realized I how much I’ve invested in these characters.


Then, “What They Died For” aired. I became sad and happy about the end of the show finally coming around the corner. I dreaded Sunday, and at the same time I couldn’t wait for it to come.


The finale special aired and I became very emotional after watching those montages. I watched videos all week and literally hanged on each Lost update that came my way. When I saw the Times Talks Lost Live special, I became very upset that this critical and influential part of my life was coming to a close. I knew it would shape me as an adult and as a person.


Once the finale began, I turned to my friends and we knew this was it. And what I saw was beautiful.


Several awakenings in the finale almost made me cry. It had been so long since I cried. Almost 7 years, just under half of my life. I was able to hold my emotions in from my friends so they wouldn’t see me so vulnerable. When Jack saw his dads coffin and made a circle around it, then saw his father “alive” and well, I lost it. I started to tear uncontrollably. Everything just clicked for me and I felt like I myself had been enlightened. I understood every aspect of the finale and the series as a whole and the message was. When Jack closed his eye and simultaneously moved on in the limbo world, I let out more tears. I relived the intense 5 years I spent watching this show in an instant. I remembered all the times I watched with my mom and all those realizations I had about myself and the universe around me. I almost couldn’t breathe when LOST showed on my screen for the last time. All my friends were only recent fans of the show, so they couldn’t understand why I was so sad and yet so happy. The finale was so beautiful and poetic I rushed my friends to their cars and sat on my couch. I looked at the screen, no longer with new Lost content, I bawled and cried harder than I ever had I my whole life. I was so happy with what I saw and what I took from the finale that I could barely speak. That night, I could not fall asleep and I watched the finale once more after Kimmel. I cried all night after that and dreaded school this morning. I felt so depressed and sad I didn’t want to talk to anyone unless it was about Lost. I was not ready to accept that it was over. I was not ready for a life after Lost. I was not ready to let go.


What I saw during the finale:




As I saw Jack’s realization moment, the whole message of Lost and what the show was meant to represent became clear. For those of you who still don’t understand the poetic conversation between Jack and Christian Shephard, I recommend re-watching it before reading this.


Heading into this finale, we really see the evolution of our characters. After years of arguments, deaths, drama, corruption, our protagonists were finally on the same page, finally on the same side. It took them so much to realize that they needed each other more than anything else.


The Smoke Monster and his Goal:


The finale was the ultimate reason the survivors were put on the island: to stop hell from escaping. The survivors were meant to stop the smoke monster, but he is not pure evil. He was a man who was brought up by a crazy woman and was never shown love. His goal was to leave the island. After he was sent down the waterfall, he connected with the source, his soul was taken from his and was released as the smoke monster: a soulless, immortal being. This incident kept him bound to the island, perhaps allowed him to even be one with the island. His goal to leave the island, but in order to do that, his bond with the island was needed to be broken. The only way to do that was to destroy the island.


The island, as Jacob said, is a cork, holding evil and darkness kept in. The source of the island was equally opposite in goodness as what was underneath it (hell) was evil. The cork at the bottom of the island would unleash hell. This, in fact, was the real reason that the smoke monster was dangerous, because he wished with all his being to unleash this evil so he could leave the island.


When the island began to crumble, he lost his connection to it and its powers. The smoke monster was not privy to this information. The light was the source of the MIBs immortality and abilities, so it needed to be put out momentarily in order to destroy the monster, similar to how Voldemort’s horcruxes needed to be destroyed before he could be mortal again. Immediately after his death, it was necessary for the protector of the island to return the light to the island.


How Jacob Won




Jack had to protect the island for as long as he could. He gave up everything, even his own love for Kate, for the greater good. He knew his purpose. He could’ve chose not to accept it. They all could’ve. They could’ve been on their merry way and feed their selfish wants and needs. But they didn’t. They broke the chain. The were the key to Jacob’s plan.


Jacob wanted his whole to prove one thing: that people are inherently good and that he didn’t have to intervene to prove this. The end to the island timeline was beautiful because of how Jacob proved his belief.


He picked the worst group of people; a terrorist, a con man, a heroin addict, a murderer, etc. He got them all together on the island. He just pushed them their. Once they were there, each character redeemed his or herself and did so by contributing to the greater good, no matter how much that forced them to sacrifice. In the end, they were all on the side to keep hell at bay and end the reign of terror of the smoke monster. They proved they could put aside their wants and needs for the better of all man, and they did it. They did it without Jacob’s help. They were broken, and the common goal of saving humanity brought them salvation, as well as peace to the planet.


The Sideways




The island survivors has hard lives. They were given a choice during their life, but at the same time, they were denied a choice. They always had to pick the right side to fight on because of their consciences and because these people were all good at heart. And so as their lives continued, they continually had to hurt themselves for the benefit of others. And they were rewarded for their actions.


When Jack finally closes his eye on the island, I imagine he wakes up on the sideways Oceanic 815 flight. As the season opens, you can see Jack seem somewhat new and confused as to where he is, but he also already knows where he is. The plane hits turbulence and when its all over, Jack is scared. Rose tells him “You can let go now, Jack.” Jacks purpose was fulfilled, and he is able to let go whenever he is able to accept the decisions he made in his past life and when he can redeem himself in the reality without an island. The same is true with everyone. For those with longer more meaningful lives that had harder decisions to make, they took longer to wake up. When Jack was able to finally redeem himself by becoming a successful father in spite of the wrongs of his father. At this point, Jack was able, but still not willing. He didn’t want to accept his former life. Until his father came and he was able to face that it was time to move on. Everyone needed to do something similar to this; basically face the choices of their past life and get a second chance to be with the ones you love.


One more important thing to note about the sideways is that people, when they wake up, remember everything. Hurley remembers his time as a leader, Ben remembers helping him. Kate remembers missing Jack, Jack remembers sacrificing himself. Because these people realized they were dead, they knew that they were supposed to move on and let go, making them so concerned with “leaving.”


Why weren’t other characters in the sideways?


Not everyone was ready to let go. Some people had loose ends they needed to tie before they were comfortable with moving on. Ben had may sins in his time, and he realizes he needs time for him to feel whole. Michael, Walt, Ana Lucia, they were not ready to go.
Another thing to remember about people like Michael is the fact they did horrible thing like killing their friends, and not all people are meant to move on to the good. Some must pay for their sins in the darkness.


Why did everyone have to wait for Jack?


The whole series is about redemption for these characters. All their lives they were alone and hurt, only until they crashed on the island. Once their, a group of loners came together, and through their community, they were able to redeem each other. The only way to achieve this redemption was togetherness because “no one can do it alone.” So when our loved characters spent time with each other, the spent “the most important parts of their lives” together and always needed one another. They moved on from their pasts and their previous mistakes together. So in the limbo universe, it was necessary for each person to be with one another again before they could move on to heaven.


Important symbols


Water.


Throughout the series its meant rebirth, life, and death. When it rains, bad things happen, usually resulting in death. When water is calm, it brings life, or even new life to characters. Just in the last season, when Jack jumped off the boat, he jumped into the water and came out a new man, a complete believer. When he received the role of protector, his feet were in the water. When the cork was unplugged, water was gone, representing death. Once Jack sacrificed himself for the island, water returned and washed over him, giving him just enough life to bring things full circle.


Mirrors.


Throughout the entire show, things were mirrored. In the limbo universe, island events were recreated. Not only this, but characters even looked in mirrors in the sideways to help them realize where they were was not real. Jack looked into his mirror and saw his cut, and just as he is on the brink of realization, his fake son pulls him back in because he was not ready. Mirrors were a gateway to the end, but were never directly responsible. It was always the people.


Circles.


The circles work somewhat like the mirrors. The show significant things in the shows plot at the beginning and end. Jack opens his eye, he closes it. Kate stitches Jack, Jack stitches Kate. Jack and John look down into the abyss were Desmond is, then Jack the Protector and the Smoke Monster look down the well where an enlightened Desmond lies.


Togetherness.


No one does it alone. People have always been in groups on the island, and were always happier in groups. People were alone and miserable before they were together on the island. All these years people stayed in groups, and eventually were able to become one big happy group at the end of their time on the island and the limbo universe.
People need others to let go, and they needed others to survive. While this is obvious when looking at most of the revelation movements and seeing that they always involved more than one person, it is best scene when Jack asks Locke to let go with him, because Jack doesn’t want to do it himself. Togetherness is crucial in the shows plot, and goes hand in hand with love.




What to take from the show and the finale and what it all means


“The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people.”


Their lives on the island were extremely important, but were only possible because of the togetherness of people. Although Lost ended with many loose ends, it ended just as it should. Lost is about life, human nature, and, ultimately, what people want.
In life, you don’t get all the answers. They don’t matter. The mysteries we leave behind do not impact our purpose. Who cares what was in Ben’s little box in “Because You Left?” Who cares who came before Mother or that we never get a name for her or the MIB. All that matters is that our purposes were filled and that if we make the right choices in life, we are rewarded by being aware of our actions and sacrifices and by being reunited with the ones we love before we move on.
Lost is about proving that humans are good at heart, that they could be redeemed, and the importance of being in the company of the ones we love.


We are good at heart. We can be redeemed. We need to be with the ones we love. We are given the choice to make decisions and are rewarded for good choices. It doesn’t matter what religion you believe. In the limbo universe, the church had a mural of all religions under one key message: being good.


When I was sad about my parents divorce, I went to school the next day with the company of my friends. My friends helped me become happier.
When Lost ended, I felt like I had lost a good friend I’ve known for 5 years, who changed my life and let me think deeply about the universe and what I wanted from life. When I came into school this morning, I was sad and depressed and puffy eyed. When I was in the company of my friends and then my family when I came home, I was happy. This is when I realized Lost is not just about having purpose, but about cherishing those we love and what they can do for us.


The ending to Lost was beautiful and poetic. These peoples lives were extremely important and had to make sacrifices to fix the mistakes of others, even when they really had no obligation to do so. They were rewarded for their sacrifices and were given a second chance to be with those they loved and go in peace with them.


This morning I was not ready to let go of Lost. After a day of school with friends and family, I’m ready to watch the finale a third time with all of this in mind, and when that black screen comes up and says LOST, I will be ready to let go of one of the most important things that ever happened to me.


I hope this helped you understand Lost’s conclusion and it as a whole. The lives they lived were important, but everyone dies sometime. Just try and be with them before that happens.




Thank you Mr. Damon Lindelof and Mr. Carlton Cuse for opening my eyes to the importance of the things right in front of me.


And thank you for reading this.