LOST Theories

Backgammon, The Island and the afterlife by Swanhatch77

2012-01-23T18:37:00.001Z

When the phenomenon known as LOST began we had no idea the depth and scope the show would cover, as the show delved into a vast array of subjects viewers began studying every detail, discussing with fellow confused fans, and theorising about WTF was going on. Even now almost 2 years since "The End" people are laying down ideas about what it all meant.

From the very first episode there were rumours of a "Clue" that would tie it all together, people analysed every clip, every line of dialogue, but try as we did, the clue seemingly evaded us, many of us believed the black object at the side of Jack's head alluded to a timeloop, we were wrong, then some believed Locke's secret was that he was always the mib, VERY WRONG, The clue infact was the scene involving Locke, Walt and a game in which the show was partially based upon....BACKGAMMON.

Backgammon originated around 5000 years ago as Locke mentioned, but what he didnt mention was that the game was played by Egyptian royalty in order to prepare themselves for "The Afterlife", They believed that by overcoming the obstacles within the game they were cleansing their souls and would be allowed into the great unknown. Indeed in one version of the game(Passin) the acctual reward for winning was a metaphorical afterlife.

There are many references to the game throughout the series, but it didnt really become obvious until the reveal that the flashsideways was passage into the afterlife.

In Egyptian mythology the dead played alongside the living, the game itself acted as a means for the dead and the living to make contact with one another, However, for the specific purpose of enacting the netherworld passage to effect union with Ra, the opponent in the senet ritual was understood as an inimical unnamed spiritual enemy who was assimilated to the enemies of Ra, and who was eventually destroyed at the end of the game--denied union and eternal life with or as the sun god.

If LOST was a metaphor for Backgammon, the island must be the board, The characters the(light and dark) pieces, and we know what they were rewarded with for defeating the Man in black and preserving the link between life and death.....The afterlife.

Specialness & Claiming by Scott Gingold

2012-01-07T14:20:00.001Z

Okay so this is a two part theory. The first part came to me while I was driving and thinking about Lost and holy crap the lightbulb went off in my head. One of the major questions I my mind was why exactly did the Man in Black need to have a body in order to look like them? It seemed that he was able to scan people's minds and appear as other people to them as he did with Eko (appearing as Emeka & Daniel the boy) and as he did with Kate (assuming he was the horse). We've also seen him actually appear corporeal as Christian, Yemi, Alex & Locke. With that situation he needed a body to be able to walk around and touch things and be convincing. The question was always why? Then it hit me. His ability is almost identical to that of Miles. Miles needed a body present in order to be able to listen to the last thoughts of a person before they died. In fact, inside the foot, the Man in Black tells Ben in detail the last thoughts that John Locke had before he died. So the Man in Black needs the dead body to fully scan it and collect the memories before he can become them. If he scans a live person, it seems he can only become one of their memories, but a dead person is all memories so as long as he scans the body, he can assume their memories. This also leads me to believe that the Man in Black was the one behind the strange dreams on the island as dreams and memories are extremely similar in nature.

So this brings me to my next point about Specialness. Miles is special in a way similar to how the Man in Black was special.

In fact let's make the list of special qualities and compare:

Communicates with the dead:
Miles, Hurley, Man in Black (he saw Claudia as a kid)

Heals people:
Jack (he healed Sarah), Jacob

Summons things:
Walt (birds, polar bear), Jacob

Wills things to happen:
Hurley (willed the van to start), MIB (willed the wheel to work)

Able to tell the true nature of people:
Sawyer (knew MIB wasn't Locke), Achara (saw Jack's true nature), Jacob (somehow knew everything about everyone even off island)

In tune with the Island:
Locke, Jacob, MIB

Impervious to the light, time travel:
Desmond (seems his alone in his specialness)

See where I'm going with this? It seems that each of the special people either take after Jacob or the MIB. It's almost as if they were selected as candidates because of their specialness, because Jacob felt they would help due to the similarities between them, himself & MIB.

I at first thought that maybe the specialness was due to Jacob's touch, but thinking about it, Hurley talked to dead people before Jacob touched him. And Locke drew a picture of the MIB when he was just a boy.

That brings me to my next theory, which is very related.
Claiming.

The so-called sickness that Rousseau referred to was described by Dogen & Lennon as claiming. Personally I think that Jacob & MIB both did their own claiming and that was how they played the game. Jacob touched people and brought them to his side. MIB also touched people and brought them to his side. When Jacob touched people he gave them a gift (he made Jack guardian, he made Richard immortal). When MIB touched people he gave them the so-called sickness which also gave them a gift in a sense (he made Sayid emotionless, he made Claire essentially lose her mind). And it was made pretty clear that the MIB did in fact touch people. In fact, they addressed the issue when people refused to take his hand, as when Kate & Sun didn't. Sawyer took his hand, as did Desmond. Personally I think Desmond was impervious to both Jacob & MIB's touch since he's impervious to the island's energy. The touch did nothing. But the touch to Sawyer did bring him to the dark side. In fact he was with the MIB for a good portion of the beginning of season 6. It was during his episode Recon that Sawyer made the choice not to turn to the dark side (or as Dogen put it tip the scales the wrong way). He instead chose to play both sides of the fence. Because he chose not to embrace the MIB and the dark side, he let his scales tip to the light and was not claimed. It was all about choice. Jack had the choice to be guardian. He didn't have to. He chose to let the light in. Sayid had the choice to be claimed by the MIB. He let his scales tip to the dark side and the darkness went into him, took over his heart and he was claimed. When he was at the well with Desmond, he made another choice and I think in choosing not to shoot Desmond, he let his scales tip back to the light, so when he was on the sub and chose to sacrifice himself for the group, he was again back towards the light. I think this is why his sideways self was so conflicted with being good/bad. He had not fully resolved this at the moment of his death and needed the extra push in the sideways world before he could move on.

I think the character in which this good/bad struggle was so evident was Ben. Ben appears to have been claimed by both Jacob and Ben. He was brought to the temple by Richard and healed and like Richard said, was never the same. I think both laid claim to him and that is why he kept going back and forth between being good and evil. This was most evident in the sixth season. When he was with Ilana and he opened up to her and she accepted him, he was redeemed in the eyes of Jacob, he let his scales tip towards the light. But later in the season, he let his pride and hate get the better of him and he let the scales tip to the darkness and he shot Widmore and became a slave to the MIB up until the end. When he stepped in front of the falling tree to save the other Losties, I think Ben tipped back to the side of the light (we never did find out how he got out from under the tree) and when he accepted Hurley's job offer, his scale was fully at the side of light. Since his island life was so conflicted between good and evil, even more than Sayid's, I think this is why he decided that he couldn't move on with the others, and chose to stay in the sideways and work things out with Alex.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments.

LOST - Explaining the mythology by LouCypher

2011-10-10T10:40:00.002+01:00

From the top...

Let’s start with answering the big bad boy questions first.

What is the light at the heart of this mysterious island?

According to what we got from Mother in Across the Sea the light is a place of “life, death and rebirth.”

But what in the hell does that friggin’ mean?!

Good question. Here’s an attempt at an answer...

The light beneath the island is the most powerful electromagnetic energy on the face of the Earth. It is so powerful that some could say it is the source of ALL life and living matter. From the leaves on the trees to the sand that paves the ocean floor beds right through to our human genetic make-up; all of it came from the light. And this light has pockets that exist in different parts of the world as if an underground network of tunnels connected them all together.

This actually has a “scientific” name that many Lost fans have researched in pursuit of answering this show’s mysteries and it is known as Vile Vortices - twelve geographic areas that are alleged to have been the sites of mysterious disappearances. One such geographic area we all know as the Bermuda Triangle. It could be argued that the island (when it moves) will always “flash” to these specific locations and latitudes. It never diverts course off these geographic areas due to the same flux and draw of common electromagnetic properties.

This electromagnetic source (at the heart of the island) is where everything about our existence and the existence of the universe converges. Birth and death; time and space; light and dark; good and evil. It is where everything in us and around us has come from and we as human beings carry a part of this light within us from the day we are born to the day we die.

Spiritual people would refer to this light as a soul. Religion and science explaining the same concepts - religion would call the light God or heaven - scientists would call it electromagnetic energy and exotic matter.

When our time comes to an end and we die, this light within us returns to the source. It becomes a part of it once again.

At the end of Season Six of Lost when we see our favourite Losties in the church waiting to “move on” we see them consumed by a BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT. This is the SAME light as the light beneath the island. They have lived, they have died and now they are about to be reborn.

The light is clearly, to me at least, the answer to the biggest mystery of all – what happens after we die? In the case of Lost’s universe – we return to where we came from – the light.

Now there is no point in explaining where this light came from originally or what it is exactly, as that would be practically impossible. It just exists. It’s just there. And always has been.

How did the island come to be?

I have always liked the theory that the island was originally a part of the land mass in Tunisia. Or at least was once a part of the original global continent known as Pangaea.

For those unfamiliar with Pangaea, it is theorised to have existed over 250 million years ago as one giant land mass before the continents separated and drifted from one another to form the configuration that we know them as today.

This is where this theory really starts in terms of history; 250 million years ago when the Earth was that much younger and before human beings were even a glint in the eye of the universe.

Pangaea broke apart due to the overwhelming seismic activity beneath the surface. The cause of the seismic activity originated from the light – growing, spreading, desperate to create new life and evolve.

Yes, I believe the light is a conscious entity to some extent. At least, it is aware of all living matter at all times in the past, present and future. In fact, the very essence of time means nothing in this light because there is no such concept once you are inside it (a la the flashsideways).

Anyway, Pangaea was broken apart because of the growing light.

From this global break-up of land mass, the island was formed so
that the main source of the light could exist isolated from all other life.

Fast forward through millions of years to the birth of man through evolutionary leaps - truly the light’s most glorious, complex creation. I’m not even talking about people per say, but the creation of free will; beings that could consciously make their own decisions without being prompted or directed, and in turn affect change in all manners of ways.

The land mass that became the island sat in wait for several thousand years. Alone, untouched and unprotected. It had no reason to be anything else. It just was.

But wouldn’t you know it? Those pesky free will human beings were darn curious creatures and they wanted to explore this world of theirs. And at this point the island had no reason to stop them or see humans as a danger or believe anything otherwise.

So the arrival of the first people to the shores of the island came to pass...

What’s with all the ancient structures and hieroglyphics on the island?

By this point, we all know that pretty much everything from the Statue to the Temple to Lighthouse to the Cork in the pool of light were built by inhabitants that could have ranged from the Mayans to the Egyptians to the Romans and so on and so on. It doesn’t really matter which particular civilisation ruled there first or who built what and when.

What matters is why.

The Statue

Many have concluded that the Egyptian statue was supposed to be the statue of Taweret – goddess of childbirth. I can run with that.

Why did the Egyptians feel the need to build it? Well, if you were on an island that had strange healing properties, back then in a time of great imagination but primitive understanding, you would see it as a paradise. Perhaps even a paradise that God himself had made just for you and your people. The Goddess of childbirth is merely a symbol for life and creation. That is essentially a perfect mascot to represent the island, no?

I believe it really is that simple.

The Temple and the Cork

Slightly more complicated.

The Temple was built, I believe, by the same people who shoved that big ass cork in the heart of the island’s power supply.

Whoever these people were they understood one fundamental thing about the island’s power – it was dangerous if not supervised and controlled. The light is neither good nor evil; it simply has no concept of life, death and time. It just is, and always will be.

It’s where we come from and because we contain a piece of it inside of us we are ALWAYS drawn back to it. Even if it kills us.

That’s a cruel irony for you.

Maybe they went digging too far beneath the surface (when they were building all those underground tunnels and caverns) and accidentally discovered the light. Maybe they even experienced their very own ancient incident. Who knows?

They understood this light was the source of the healing they experienced. A little bit of it would do good; too much of it would destroy them. So they channelled its properties through water – water that was funnelled from deep beneath in the cave to the Temple’s healing pool.

However, as with any discovery – some people always want to know more. And through the curiosity of some, they wanted to get to the light directly. The series of events that led to this 1st Island civilisation wanting “more” of the light, as Mother so eloquently stated, doesn’t really matter.

All that matters is that when they did get greedy for more of the light (perhaps expecting to grasp the very secrets of immortality in their hands) they blew it. Big time.

We’re talking leakage. And lots of dead people.

They eventually figured out the only way to contain this leak was to “put a cork in it” so to speak. In a way, the whole DHARMA Initiative history and story is an identical mirror to what happened centuries before in the case of the Egyptians. Curiosity led to discovery and discovery led to greed, until greed led to self-destruction.

So someone needed to plug the leak. And some poor chump had to be the one to give their life to block this light from spreading too far and ultimately killing them all.

Enter Mother (or CJ Cregg as she is known to West Wing fans).

Which leads me to...

What is the Smoke Monster?

If one “answer” failed to impress Lost fans it was the reveal of how old smokey was born. In fact, it was so underwhelming many people were more angry about that moment that anything else ever shown before or after it on this show.

It was pretty lame when you think about it. Angry Jacob throws simpering MIB down a hole. Seconds later black smoke explodes out of the ground without so much of a “What the F--?” from Jacob. It was disappointing to say the least.

Unless...

What we saw there, was NOT the birth of the smoke monster, but merely the smoke monster coming out to play after some time in hiding.

So let’s rewind back to the start...

In the beginning there was light. The source of everything.

But as with all things in the universe there must always be a balance. Enter the Smoke Monster.

Some people may agree here, some people may not, but I am of the belief that the Smoke Monster has ALWAYS existed. It is the dark to the light – the balance to the equation. It is a part of the light just like everything else. If you see the light as God in a sense, then the smoke monster could be seen as the devil. It’s not as powerful or as omniscient as the light, but it exists because everything has an opposite.

It’s comprised of the same electromagnetic energy as the light.

It wasn’t necessarily evil in the beginning in the same way the light wasn’t necessarily good. They both just were. Two unexplainable forces – one that eventually became about creating and the other that eventually became about destroying.

But back in the beginning the Smoke Monster doesn’t know any better. Like a dog in its infancy stages it is as naive as a puppy and understands very little about existence off the island.

It’s only goal is to protect the light. That is its sole purpose at this point in time.

But with the arrival of people the smoke monster found something out about itself... it could “scan” and “absorb” people’s memories, histories, feelings, sensations and dreams. Through doing this it gained a self-awareness about itself.

Did this 1st Island Civilisation meet the smoke monster?

I think so. I think they met it, saw it as a God-like deity or spirit and worshipped it as such (hence the hieroglyphics beneath the temple in the cavern that Ben goes into).

And I think at this point, all the smoke monster understood was that the light was important and needed to be protected so when these people began wanting more of it, the smoke monster (with its new found understanding of the world and people and itself) took matters into its own smokey hands.

While the 1st islanders worked on getting that cork stuck in to plug this leak, the monster went about planning their extinction. Rousseau wasn’t too far off when she called the monster a security system – in a sense that is originally what it was.

Smokey eventually returned back into the cave to stay near the light and keep away any undesirables. Kind of like a bouncer on the doors of a club but with less cocaine in its system.

Anyway, there was a survivor up above. Mother aka
CJ Cregg. It’s possible Smokey let her live for a number of reasons or that she was the one to put the cork in (was she special too?). Regardless, she taught herself to respect the light and stay away from it at the risk of death by old smokey or even the light itself. She learned from the mistakes of her people. And she decided that she needed to protect the island.

She drank the water from the temple pool or perhaps from the cave stream and made her bones right there and then. This assumption comes only from the fact that if the water could heal then perhaps of it was drank and absorbed it would do more than just heal... it would "activate" the light within a person making them a torchbearer in a sense.

Just like Locke knew certain things about the island and that certain things would happen if he did them, so too did Mother.

The water she drank from the pool/stream had been refracted and imbued by the light. She became the first protector of the island. Even giving herself the power to communicate with smokey.

Then after many years, decades, even possibly centuries, along
comes a shipwreck and a pregnant woman. And a very tired, very lonely Mother’s way out. She was thinking “replacement.”

The birth of Jacob gave her the hope that she could groom and raise a true replacement. Someone of purely good heart. But then came the second baby. This she was not prepared for.

But she had to raise them both as she was not a complete monster (contrary to popular belief I think she was just a woman who had become a protector as Jacob would go on to become and not a smoke monster).

Anyway, the reason Mother was so different in the way she treated the two boys was simple. She never intended Jacob to become her replacement once MIB was born. Jacob WAS the favourite contrary to what Jacob believed. He was the first born.

Mother was grooming MIB to be her replacement as she knew it was really a curse to give to anyone and she certainly didn't want to bestow it on her favourite son.

However, MIB had a desire from a VERY early age to escape and to get off the island. In fact, it burned through his very soul. It’s all he wanted to do by the time he was old enough to think for himself about what was beyond and across the sea.

After he left Mother and Jacob, MIB joined with the other survivors of the shipwreck and became one of them. He started to hunt for the light that he believed would be the answer to all his problems.

They dug the well and prepped the wheel; gearing up to channel water into the light to cause a reaction that may just open a gateway home.

But how did MIB know this?

The “ghost” of his Mother told him.

What are the ghosts on the island?

They are the echoes of those who have died there. At least an echo of the light that existed within them. The island can call upon any of them to appear, and for some of them they have not come to terms with moving on just yet and are (a la Michael) stuck between life and their return to the light. They can however still influence events in both realities... by their whispering and their manifestation to those with the special power to look beyond the confines of conventional time and space. Crazy people or people with unusual perspectives are often able to see and communicate with them as Hurley could.

Walt could use his electromagnetic properties to project himself in a similar way, also drawing things to him.

But get back to MIB and the whole smoke monster thing!

Oh yeah!

Okay, so where was I?

So the ghost of MIB’s mother told him how to get home, because she knew he didn’t really belong there and wanted to help him escape. Why wouldn’t she? She wouldn’t want him stuck under the care of the crazy woman who murdered her right?

Anyway, MIB set to work on building his funky wheel.

Meanwhile, Mother’s hand was forced, and so she CALLED UPON the services of the smoke monster (a la Ben Linus) in order to take care of this new problem of pesky people. She also knew that she could not bring herself to kill MIB and that he would find her and inevitably take his revenge. It was a way out but one that led her to make a decision... Jacob MUST become her replacement even though his naivety and innocence could easily be a danger, she had no choice.

Through a transfer by TOUCH (not the wine) she imbued him with her powers, rendering her mortal and very much normal again. The ceremony was nothing more the traditions, superstitions and gestures. It is ALL in the TOUCH where the protector who HARNESSES the light within them passes it on to the next person.

It’s why Jacob TOUCHED all of his candidates so that when the time came for one of them to step-up, it wouldn’t matter if he was dead, because they would already be viable to take the position. All they needed to do was accept.

But, a few things went wrong back in the day...

MIB killed Mother, yes. But who knew Jacob was going to kill MIB?
By throwing him down into the cave it stirred the smoke monster awake once again only this time there was a body that PASSED through the light. At this point the MIB was dead. In fact the MIB character we knew from Across the Sea was no more as of that moment.

It was what happened next that changed the game...

The Smoke Monster “absorbed” the MIB’s memories, dreams, fears and ambitions. It didn’t have many dead to choose from over the centuries that would have quite as big an impact on the only remaining survivor – Jacob. Over time it assimilated the MIB so completely, it had become conditioned by MIB’s strongest traits and desires – most of all the desire to leave.

Jacob always knew the man he was speaking to was NOT his brother anymore but merely a monster with his brother’s face and memories. But it was the closest he had to a friend.

The monster tried for a long time to manipulate Jacob unsuccessfully. Taking human form and assimilating human memories and emotions in essence corrupted the smoke monster. It made it into something else – a cross between man and monster. Neither alive nor dead.

As Jacob grew in intelligence, power and wisdom, the smoke monster grew in bitterness, confusion, anger and resentment. It came to believe it really was MIB instead of what it always was.

A servant of the light.

And now the Smoke Monster needed to hatch a plan to escape while Jacob needed to find someone to eventually take over from him that could destroy the smoke monster once it had killed him (something he was prepared for over many years)...

The monster cannot kill people that Jacob has TOUCHED because the light within them has been “activated” so to speak. Just as he cannot kill Jacob for the same reason because ultimately, whether the monster remembers or accepts it or not, it is STILL a guardian of the light and cannot destroy it without destroying itself.

This set in motion a very complex, detailed game of chess between Jacob and the monster and is what led to the basis of a majority of what we saw on Lost.

I might have to write a Part 2 to go through the time travel, DHARMA, Locke & Ben, Eko's death, Candidates, the numbers, The Incident etc. But right now, I'll just see how this is digested and if it carries any weight with people.

Hope it is a satisfying explanation of some major parts of the mythology.

How I would have tied up all the lose ends by Mike Dale

2011-09-20T08:49:00.001+01:00

I wrote this a year ago right after the last show aired. I sent this to some friends explaining to them how the writers could have tied up a lot of the loose ends with out really changing any of the episodes and only adding a few minimal pieces of dialog. I finally decided to post this now since there haven't been any discussions about the show lately. Here are the changes that I would make to answer most of the missing questions on Lost.

First when Jack, Kate and Hurley get back to the island back in 1970. When Swayer first meets Jack and tells them that they are in the Dharma initiative I would have had Jack ask, “What is the Dharma initiative”. Sawyer would explain, “It's a science expedition.” “How did it get here?” “Some Dharma guys were doing some ocean research when the island just suddenly appeared. From that point on they started to study it” “How come they never came back when we were there?” “Faraday and I talked about that. He figured out that right after Ben had his little purge that. He must have moved the island again so they couldn't find it. The crazy thing is doc, do you remember that little food drop we were getting. Faraday thinks that when the island was moved again that the food drop got caught in some temporal loop and it's been the same one that has been falling over and over again on the island.

Second when Jack tells every one his plan to blow up a bomb to reset the island Juliet says, “Jack are you sure about this? If your wrong, the fall out from an explosion like that could be the very reason that no one can get pregnant on this island.”

Third when Jack, Hurley and Kate are all taken to the temple. I would have had Jack ask, “Who are you guys?” The samurai guy would have said, “We work for Jacob, we are the good guys” How are you the good guys, you've tortured us, stole all our children and made our lives a living hell” The samurai guy would reply “Jacob and his nemesis have been at war for many years and have brought many people to this island. Our role is test and see who's side they are on. Some times are methods can be a little drastic.” “Drastic, you slaughtered every one on this island and threw them into a mass grave” “the Darmha Initiative got corrupted. Their leaders fell under the power of the nemesis. They were trying to find the heart of this island and extinguish it's light . So they had to die. a small sacrifice to save the world. “Why did you steal the children?” The children should not to be part of this war. That is why we brought them here . It is the only place on the island that can give them safety, now no more questions.” No !!! I have one more question , if this is the only safe place then why send Walt away?” “After we took Walt he started to demonstrate signs that he was special. This specialness was a great concern of Jacob's He was afraid of what he might become and he wanted to get him as far away from the island as possible”

Next when, Jacob and the Man in Black had their flash back. I would have shown the large statue and had one of the kids ask there mom where did that statue come from. I would have had mom say, “My people built these structures when we first made it to this island . I'm the only one left and I have been here a very long time.”

Later in that episode I would have had the young Man in black show some Walt type specialness. When his mother asked him where he got the game. He would have said I drew it in the sand and it then appeared in the water.

Latter when the MIB was leaving after he saw his dead Mom I I would have had fake mom say. “Don't go with them. I know I lied but I was trying to protect you. You must realize that your special and if you go with them they will corrupt you and turn you against me and this island.”

“I'm going with them and you can't stop me and I'm going to leave this island.” “you'll never be able to leave this island.

When Jacob and Mom were talking outside the cave of light I would have had Jacob say. “you always wanted him not me”

“No, you don't understand. Your brother was special but not favored. His power was not from this island. I had to watch over him and protect him more then you. I was afraid that if he would fall into corruption and then entered into this place there would be no telling what type of monster he could turn into”

“But it was always you Jacob. I have watched and waited for hundreds of years before you were even born waiting for you to come. I picked you and brought you here to succeed me and to protect this island, and this light.” Look, down there is the light of this island.” All men have come out of this light. And every man carries some of it.

“what is this place” Jacob says

“This was the beginning. It is where man fell from and it is the place where man is no longer aloud to go. We are sworn to protect it.

“why?”

“Life flows from that river. And that life is in the heart of all men. If men find this place and turn it off death will fall upon all men and all that have life will die. This island has allowed me to live many year protecting it's light but all things must die and my time has now come. Here drink of this water and take my hands. You are now like me”

When Jack meets Jacob and the baton is passed I would have him say. “Lock has been looking for this spot for a long time and now that I'm dead he has finally found it. He has been corrupted and deceived. He is filled with rage and believes all that he has been taught is a lie. He believe that if he pulls this cork he will sink this island and finally get off. But if he puts out that light and the island sinks all life will go down with it .”

Latter When Jack and Lock are talking going to the center of the island I would have Lock say about sinking this island. And say, “I'm going to sink this damn Island and your not going to stop me.” “ “No I'm going to help you and When that light is turned off I'm going to kill you.

After the cork is pulled and the island starts to shake and sink I would have Lock say, “You see Jack nothing happened were not all dead, Were all still alive.”

Jack then jumps Lock and hits him. Lock see his face cut . Jack says, “really if thats true why are you now vulnerable and bleed.

Finally at the end of the episode right after Jack's dad told him he was also dead. I would have had Jack ask then what was this life that we just lived off the island. I would have had Jacks dad say “That life was a gift from the island. It wanted to give you a chance to live your life free from the hell it had to put you through to get you to save every one. It also wanted to honor what you once said Jack” “And what was that dad?” “Live together die, die alone. The island was patiently waiting for you all to find each other and come to the realization that you needed each other so that you may come and enter it's light together as one..

These little tweaks would have answered the questions of were did all the Egyptian stuff comes, what was the deal with Walt, what was Dharma initiative, Why did they kill every one, how did the food get there, what was the island, why did Dharma never come back, why and how would everyone die if Desmond was never on that island, what was the purpose of the flash sideways, where did the kids go, why did the others do all that stuff and why couldn't the women give birth on the island.

This would have made the story infinitely better and answered all most all of the question in a cohesive way.

Eloise's Deal by Scott Gingold

2011-09-14T19:20:00.000+01:00

It seems to me that the Man in Black knew about the flashsideways world. I think this is why he was make promises to people, such as telling Sayid he can see his love again, and Claire would have Aaron again, and so on. Because in the flashsideways world these wishes came true, even though it was after death.

That being said, I always thought that Eloise's behavior in the flashsideways world was very odd. It was apparent that she wanted to stay in the sideways with Daniel, the son she essentially sacrificed to the island by sending him there purposely knowing that she would in fact kill him. But it was what she said to Desmond that was weird. She insists that Desmond waking everyone up was a violation. A violation of what? I think, I violation of a deal she made.

Eloise made a deal with the man in black. Just like Claire & Sayid did. And the flashsideways was a fulfillment of that deal. I think she agreed to help the man in black complete his loophole. When Locke saw Christian (who was really the man in black) near the frozen donkey wheel, he was told to find Eloise to come back to the island. And Eloise is the one who told Ben & company to bring Locke's dead body back to the island, which is what the man in black used to trick Ben into killing Jacob.

I think Eloise blamed Jacob for what she had to do to Daniel, even though it was all for the good of the island, so she agreed to help the man in black kill Jacob and in return he allowed her to be with Daniel in the afterlife.

One Year On by you dont know me

2011-05-23T06:53:00.000+01:00

Dear LOYAL readers, in honor of the one year anniversary of the Lost series Finale I have finally finished my Fishbiscuit. I have missed you! The final Fishbiscuit has been divided into 6 chapters. Enjoy! (PS I love you)

First off, the writers didn’t answer questions like, why is Walt special, the palette drop, why pregnant women can't come to full term... Etc. Over the span of the entire series Lost answered questions like, what is human nature, what are human nature’s limits, what is a parent willing to do for his child, what is sacrifice, is anyone capable of ultimate sacrifice, what is it be humble, what makes a good leader, what makes a bad leader, what are morals, how are morals defined, to what extent can a person go beyond their nature, what is good, what is evil, what is happiness, what is pain, how can you overcome misfortune...etc. Next time someone says Lost doesn’t give answers, take a page out of the smoke monster’s handbook and beat them up! Finish this sentence, I survived 6 years addicted to a TV show and all I got was ________.

End is in the beginning, they click together like a bracelet closing. The clasp is Jack’s eye opening in season 1 and closing in season 6.

PART 2: Chassidus in Lost
“Bringing heaven down to earth” is a common phrase within Chabad Chassidus. It means, don’t wait to find holiness when you get to heaven, we all have the ability to bring the holiness originating in heaven into the earthly physical world. The world is here so we can bring heaven, and holiness into it. One step further, this holiness isn’t somewhere far away, it is in this world, all we have to do is uncover it. Once we fulfill this purpose, we will be redeemed on a personal as well as global level. In Lost, the holiness that originates from heaven is the castaways souls. In the side-ways world they brought their souls together in the physical world to prepare for redemption. When the castaways finally reunited in the side-ways world/limbo, they were redeemed together. The sideways-world was bringing heaven down to earth.
Exile and Redemption seem to be polar opposites, however they are one. Redemption is found within Exile. Redemption, The End, can be found within Exile, The Pilot. In hebrew, the word Exile is Golah. The word Redemption is Geulah. The difference is Geulah has one extra letter, ‘Alef’. Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and Alef is equated to the number one. Alef indicates Holiness, when things are not separated, when they are united as one, they are how they are meant to be. They are in a state of fulfillment. When something has achieved fulfillment it is considered Holy. “In two ways, we are one: in our essence, and in our character. In our essence, we are all one soul, with one source. In our character, we are all complementary to each other, none of us complete, each one contributing what the other lacks, each one adding his touch of perfection to his fellow. Like a massive jigsaw puzzle, we fit together to make a single perfect whole. None of us is pe! rfect without all the rest of us. And all the rest of us are incomplete when a single individual is missing.” -Tzvi Freeman. And so, when you add ‘Alef’, fulfillment, unity, holiness, to Exile, you have redemption. All the castaways helped one another reach their purpose and heal each other. The characters reached redemption together, we share in that taste of redemption.
Just as the world cannot achieve redemption and the ultimate unity with holiness, without first being in exile, without the separation from holiness first, so too, Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Hurley and the rest of the gang could not be found without first being "Lost". What Chassidus also teaches is that exile and redemption are also one on a certain level because you can't have one without the other and part of our job is to access the sweetness of redemption in our lives now even as we sit in exile. "Lost" showed us how to do that, surely there was sweetness in Season One and all the rest that followed until the "Lost" were found.

Part 3: Defending Lost
The Pilot was two hours of the best cinematic television. The End surpassed that. To expect the finale and the final season all together, as a a technical answer, answer, answer episode/season wouldn’t be faithful to what Lost truly is about, the characters.
The characters letting go is a metaphor for the audience to let go. The Island’s mysteries were there to heal each character of their flaws. As much as we think the mysteries were there to be solved, the mysteries were there to be questioned. The mysteries made us look deeper into each character and move the character’s story along, and to help redeem the flawed characters.
These people over six years became real. They needed to be redeemed. To get the technical answers and not the redemption would have been an unhappy ending. And to get both technical answers and redemption would downplay the importance and beauty of what redemption looks like.

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.- Joseph Campbell

A finale needs to resonate and this finale will. We needed the undoing of the tragedy that these characters have been through the past six years, and by the characters letting go and moving on, together, they accomplished redemption. Live together, die together, move on together.

For us the mysteries and the intellectual engagement in the show was there to activate our hearts and emotions. To get to the heart, we go through the brain. The brain activates the heart. That’s why “The Source” was at the heart of the Island. To get to “The Source” Jack had to realize in his mind what his purpose was.

This was a review I found online before the season one finale aired, back in 2005. LOST is an ensemble character study of the highest quality. The stories put its characters into the most extreme circumstances the writers can imagine, while keeping the realism just barely within limits. The story consistently twists and throws the viewer off course, but maintains a steady course as it tells its tale. The complications of the story are interwoven throughout the episodes in a way that very few forms of media can match. As such, it is perfectly suited for its chosen format of television series, as it is not afraid to continue its story for what could be the entire series in length. At least so far, it seems to be written as a novel, with a beginning, middle, and end, in a continuous solid arc. With writers that are not afraid to kill off a main character if needed, and introduce elements that change the course of the entire show on a regular basis, LOST should sail di! rectly into history as one of the greatest tales ever broadcast.

I am not only OK with the lack of “answers” but applaud the choice to leave LOST up to interpretation. The show belongs to the fans. If Damon and Carlton answered every detail, the discussions would be over, the blogs would shut down, Lost may be over but we, the fans can keep discussing the small details the show left open.

Part 4: Details I noticed in the Final Episode
The official time of sundown, (AKA Shkiah) the night of the finale was at 8:15 PM.
If everything worked out in the sideways world and not in the Island world, it wouldn’t have been pleasing for us even if they were happier. The characters hadn’t grown together.
The opening sequence was visually beautiful, the way the cargo latch opened onto the tarmac.
Bocklin was the Oceanic delivery man who brought the coffin to the church. Arnold Böcklin is a painter best known for his five versions of the painting, Isle of the Dead.
Jack and Sawyer are both wearing blue shirts. Symbolizing they are on the same team, they finally made an alliance.
Flight Line motel. I love that they brought back dead castaways as well as “dead” settings. We revisited alot of props, (ie. Flocke was twisting up a rope, and Locke was killed by a rope.) Scenes and characters from seasons past. A great homage to the fans.
Kate told Jack on the Island, “Nothing is irreversible.” Jack told the same thing to Locke in the sideways world when he wanted to perform surgery on Locke.
When asked where Flocke was taking Desmond, Des responded, “somewhere with a bright light.” Which light was Desmond talking about, if he was aware of the sideways world, maybe he was talking about the light to heaven/afterlife in the church at the end.
Good Jack lines- “If I can fix you, Mr. Locke, that’s all the peace I’ll need.” Jack said to Des, “All of this matters.” He was right. Jack said to Flocke, “You’re not John Locke, you disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you’re nothing like him.” Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Hell Yeah KATE killed MIB! PS- MIB had a name in the script, it just never made to TV...it was Samuel.
When Juliet said, “It worked” when she was dying on the Island in the season 6 premiere we thought she meant they created the alternate timeline. Really what she was talking about was the vending machine. When she gave Sawyer his candy bar after they unplugged it. She said “It worked.”
Part 5: The End
I was 14 when this show began, now I’m 21, it was my constant through my transformative years, I think it shaped the way I look at life, and the human condition. One thing I learned from Lost is you don’t have to become victim to the tragedy in your life, you can use it and transform it for good. And the connections we make and the situations we are put into are there for reason, and if we take every instance of our life and use it to progress, become a bit better than we were, then anyone can become a hero. Each character fulfilled their potential. We have the ability to triumph more than we know. Lost has given me this peace of mind and because it changed me it will live in me forever.

The story is complete. Now onto Lost’s the great Legacy. We know the beginning, middle and end. Legendary. Lost will go down in history as the best ________. In 10 years, lifetime achievement awards will be handed out to whoever worked on the show. It goes without saying, what Lost accomplished, no other show has come close. It is gratifying to be the audience that sat with Lost as it transpired every week. We have to recognize two unsung characters from the show, the Island and the music. Without either the show couldn’t have been the caliber of show it will be known as forever on.

Now that it’s over it feels as much a celebration as it does a funeral. The show deserves to be spoken about on a historic level, and now that Lost ended it will get the appreciation it deserves. When speaking about entertainment within the 21st century anyone would be remiss to not include Lost. Lost was groundbreaking in that it broke rules of how TV is supposed to be. We saw something very special play out. Look back on past seasons and appreciate the experience we went through.

More importantly, Lost will live on, not only in my DVD player, but in my life. In 5, 20, 50 years, It will be 8:15 AM, or someone will say “Guys, where are we?”, and I’ll smile to myself, and remember. Thank you for reading this every week. Thank you for living Lost with me. Lost is an original piece of work with its own legacy. I say Namaste for the last time as we set out into the sunset. For the first time LOST is waving “bye” from the shore and with a little bottle of sand in our pocket we sail into the future. The End.

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Part 6: Epilogue
How has this year been for you? How long did it take for you to notice Lost’s absence in your life? Did you learn the final lesson the show taught us? Did you let go?

It’s a copout to say Lost was just a TV show. It’s even a copout to say all it was, was a revolutionary one of kind TV show. We all know, whether we can admit it or not, we got something special from the show.

I may be over reacting, and maybe you don’t feel the same as me, that’s ok. But after taking a year to write this Fishbiscuit, I want to be completely honest and personal with you. I’d like you to know my experience with Lost. I hope you can take something from it.

For whatever reason, whether healthy one or not, I made Lost a huge priority in my life. I compared every person place and event that took place in my life to this show. For example, if the episode happened to center around electro magnetism, I paid close attention in my chemistry class that week. Everything in my life related to Lost. Every scientific theory, piece of literature, historical event, psychological concept, human emotion, mathematical equation, story from Torah, and every piece of Chassidus, I found a way to relate it to Lost. That was what many of my fish biscuits were about, the ways I found my life in Lost. By making the show into a microcosm of my life, in a way I married Lost. My life and Lost became one. I know it wasn’t healthy, but that’s what happened. I think Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, had their own Dharma-like experiments being tested on us, the fans. They created a show that included every topic of interest and developed it emotion! ally so the viewer felt the show meant something personally to them. They went into Lost wanting to create a cult classic. The only ending that could return the fans to sanity is the ending that played out. The End was like when the hypnotist claps his hands and the hypnotized person comes out of the trance.

It's the difference between Beatles fans and Elvis fans. The final message of the show was to let go. We lived a great life with Lost, and the characters lived a great life on the Island, with their fellow castaways, but we can't stay in side-ways reality forever, we have to move on and let go. Beatles fans were taught to “Let It be”. They were saying, there will come a time when the Beatles aren’t coming out with new music or going on tour, but its okay, just “Let It Be.” Elvis fans don’t have that, and some are stuck in side-ways reality, convinced Elvis is still alive.

Another thing, do you understand the meaning behind every Beatles song? No. Does that take away from their legacy? No. OK albeit, they were high and Damon and Carlton weren’t (speculation). But my point is some of you were unhappy with how Lost ended, and saw it as a cop out, but in the end, we were taught to let go, and go on with our lives. And that lesson, that answer is most important.

I survived six years addicted to a TV show and all I got was redemption.

Australia is the Key to the Whole Game by Brian Shipman (aka mystimus)

2011-05-12T14:52:00.000+01:00

Hurley was right. Australia IS the key to the whole game.

The six numbers (4,8,15,16,23,42) represent four stages on the Hero's Journey. The full theory and explanation of the number is posted on LOSTPEDIA at the link below. You said you didn't want short theories. Congratulations - this one is 15,000+ words, but I believe worth every syllable.

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Mystimus/LOST:_Australia_is_the_Key_to_the_Whole_Game

1. If you watch the DVD extra "A Hero's Journey" (LOST: the Complete Sixth and Final Season: Extras), you will notice that the opening title screen displays "A Hero's Journey" underscored with the numbers 4,8,15,16,23,42 - indicating that the hero's journey and the numbers are synonymous.

2. Hurley first hears the six numbers at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute while Leonard Simms repeats them over and over again while playing Connect Four. This is our clue that we must "connect four" meanings from the six numbers. We western-thinking viewers have tried so hard to isolate each number individually and find six separate meanings, but that has been our downfall. This paradigm has hidden the meaning even though it sits right in front of our eyes. Connect Four shows us how to shift our paradigm and see the meaning of the numbers come into focus.

2. The episode WHATEVER THE CASE MAY BE contains at least two major clues to Australia as the key to the whole game - the name of the banker (Mark Hutton) and the number on Kate's toy airplane (5025). Both point to a very specific and important location in Australia.

3. The episode THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, where Hurley tells us "Australia is the key to the whole game," contains several key clues as well - specifically the code Alex enters at the sonar fence (1623) and the phone call it triggers, interrupting the RISK game with the audio code 14J. Both of these codes point to a very specific time and place in Australia.

4. The six items that Richard places in front of the child John Locke (the knife, comic book, baseball glove, vial, book of laws, and compass) also represent the six numbers. This is detailed in the blog.

The theory posted on LOSTPEDIA walks you through every stage of the hero's journey, explaining each in detail using only in-episode clues. Once we see the meaning of the numbers, much of the mystery of LOST comes into much sharper focus.

Enjoy the read. Below is a link to the "book cover" for the blog.

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=User_blog:Mystimus/LOST:_Australia_is_the_Key_to_the_Whole_Game&image=CoverFinala-jpg

The Numbers of the Guardians by Scott Gingold

2011-04-18T14:48:00.000+01:00

Okay so in my last post I said I wouldn't post about Lost anymore, but hey I just can't stop thinking about it... I just can't move on.

So I think I stumbled onto something very big about Lost that's been bugging me for a long time. First off, I didn't think the numbers were completely explained the way they should have been on the show, and second off, I wasn't quite sure why they had spent so much time on the afterlife timeline in the last season.

Then one day I was driving to work and it hit me...

I had been reading Nikki Stafford's Finding Lost Season 6 book and in it she explains in great detail about how the writers most likely modeled the afterlife timeline on the Buddhist concept of Bardo. Basically Bardo is a series of hallucinatory experiences that one goes through after you die in which you are led around by visions of people whom you knew when you were alive and then you achieve a realization that you're dead. Once that happens you have a choice, either to ascend to a heaven-type realm or to be reincarnated as another person back on Earth.

I believe that the whole reason they spent so much time in the afterlife timeline in the last season was to stress the fact that our characters had the opportunity to be reincarnated.

Other evidence of reincarnation was the fact that they included the test that Richard Alpert gave to young Locke in "Cabin Fever" which is the same test that is given to the Dalai Lama to determine if the new potential Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of the old Dalai Lama and in this test they ask the child to pick an object that already belongs to him.

I now believe that the significance of the candidate's numbers is that they were all reincarnations of the old guardians of the island. I think that it's as simple as each number candidate representing the number of the island guardian (for example, since Hurley was Candidate number 8, then Hurley is a reincarnation of the eighth guardian of the island. And when Hurley dies he will be reincarnated as a child who will be the 200th or whatever number guardian Hurley was).

This explains a lot, as far as how and why Jacob chose these particular people. He searched the globe and time itself to find these people because they were the people who were always supposed to guard the island, because they had already. It also explains the significance of the lighthouse and why he was spying on them their entire lives.

When Richard gave young Locke the test, he thought he was looking for the new leader of the Others, but in reality Jacob was having him test Locke to see if he was the reincarnation of the fourth guardian of the island.

Whoever the first guardian of the island was, passed the torch onto someone close to him/her and so on and so on down the line, until any of the past guardians died. When they did, a past guardian or those close to them helped locate a child in the world who was a reincarnation of a dead guardian and then this person was a candidate for guardianship.

All of this predates Jacob, so there were many searches for candidates and guardians happening way before Mother & Jacob's time, given that Jacob's search is what forms the crux of the entire show. By the time Jacob was looking for these particular candidates, it was already shown to him that they were important.

I believe this was done by Mother and the tapestry. It is likely that the tapestry represented a history of the island and its past guardians and is how Jacob was able to figure out who the past guardians were and who the candidates should be. This combined with the power of the Lighthouse mirrors.

The Constant Search: A Study of Information Phenomena in ‘Lost’ by Andrea Lau

2011-03-24T08:24:00.001Z

Abstract

Time travel, true love and information-seeking behaviour converge on televisual terrain in
this study of how a character on ‘Lost’ tries to make sense of his predicament in the season four
episode ‘The Constant.’ To devoted viewers, each chapter in the story is fraught with meaning -
screenshots were analyzed, sounds were played in reverse, names and numbers were treated as
potential clues to the show’s many mysteries. This paper focuses on a single hour in the labyrinth of
‘Lost’ and examines how memory, expertise, and trust are instrumental in bridging information gaps.
In addition, this foray into imaginary information spaces describes the mechanics of collecting data
from the fictional field and analyzing it within the context of sense-making theory.

Read "The Constant Search: A Study of Information Phenomena in ‘Lost’ by Andrea Lau"

Lost: Sin and Misery – S1 E6 by Robert Lee

2011-03-01T15:32:00.001Z

And so we get to one of my favorite dysfunctional couples on TV, Jin and Sun. This episode continues the eye-opening Motif, but this time with Sun opening her eye in close up as she looks on at her husband fishing for their daily meal. But then, what’s that? She looks off to the right at Jack and Kate who are preparing to hike up to the caves…. Sun seems to understand them? But how is that possible, and why would she hide her English skills? This is a truly eye-opening moment for the audience.

I’d like to take a moment and point out that the production team (Writers, Directors, Producers) were extremely daring to have two characters like Jin and Sun as primary protagonists on a mainstream show, not because of their nationality, but because they spoke their characters’ native tongue on the show. American TV is too often close-minded to the fact that there are many nationalities besides Californian (Which is a tall, toned, tanned, US West Coast creature) and Lost strove to explore diversity even as it cut its characters off from the rest of the world. Bravo!

This was a transitional episode. A lot happens, but it is really sort of fragmented. We get a part of Michael’s NYC attitude, a splash of Jin’s frustration, some Jack and Kate flirtations, and a Charley revelation. While the Jin/ Sun flashback storyline is integral to their development, the on-island story was really just filling in a few blanks, wrapping up a few loose ends from the last few episodes, and planting a few new ideas.

The subtleties are one of the things I love about this show. There was a teeny tiny moment which was very telling about Jin’s character during a flashback. It was when he exits Sun’s home after asking for her hand. He very naturally misleads her for a moment, making her believe that the meeting went poorly. This masking of himself will become invaluable as he slowly becomes swallowed by the dark and dirty deeds that Sun’s Father will have him performing. Like a superhero, Jin has assumed an alter-ego. This alternate persona will work for Sun’s father and do what needs to be done to earn her hand and love. The problem is that this new Jin, created out of necessity, will encroach upon the nice sweet boy persona that Sun fell in love with. Sun, taking a cue from her husband, will create an alter ego for herself. She will create a person full of hope and new beginnings who learns English in secret. This person will plan to run away from her father and the man she on occasion loves but simultaneously grows to fear.

There was a wonderful use of a Hitchcockian plot device in this episode, known as a MacGuffin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin). A MacGuffin is plot element that drives a work forward, but loses importance as the story continues. It can really be anything. It simply has to be something that the characters desire, causes conflict, reveals character and motivations. It is simply a story catalyst. To name a few MacGuffins in Hitchcock’s films:

The stolen money in Psycho

The Secret Plans in the 39 Steps

The Microfilm in North by Northwest

A few more modern MacGuffins:

The rug in The Big Lebowski

The briefcase in Pulp Fiction

The Rimbaldi artifacts on the show Alias.

In this episode of Lost, the MacGuffin is the Rolex. The watch serves as the catalyst that sets all the episode’s conflicts in motion, but loses importance in favor of the character developments and their interpersonal relationships.

Please enjoy this humorous Hitchcock explanation to Francois Truffaut of what a MacGuffin is:

"It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says “What’s that package up there in the baggage rack?”, and the other answers “Oh, that’s a MacGuffin”. The first one asks “What’s a MacGuffin?”. “Well”, the other man says, “It’s an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands”. The first man says “But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands”, and the other one answers “Well, then that’s no MacGuffin!”. So you see, a MacGuffin is nothing at all." – From the book of interviews, Hitchcock/ Truffaut

And here is a great clip from an interview where Hitch explains how to handle actors, editing, suspense, and suitcase bombs. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dhbSUP9mhk

For more of my Lost re-watch visit: http://ialwayshaveaplan.wordpress.com/

Claire's Psychic Explained? by Jhisc9999

2011-02-25T15:24:00.000Z

Recently damnbueno and I were discussing the events surrounding Richard Malkin (Claire’s psychic) and it evolved into a theory that may explain his actions. As you recall, he told Claire that no one else must raise her baby. Then he, supposedly, found an American couple that were “good people” and he gave her a ticket onto Oceanic 815. In Claire’s first flashback episode, she and the audience came to the realization that there was likely never an American couple and we assumed that he put her on that plane because, being a psychic, he knew the plane was going to crash. Very cool back story.

In Season 2, we see a flashback of Eko in Australia where he crosses paths with Malkin. This is where things get confusing. Eko is sent by the church to investigate a possible miracle regarding Malkin’s daughter, Charlotte, who was clinically dead but came back to life during her autopsy. I don’t think there is anything special about the fact that Eko’s and Malkin’s paths cross. This was quite common in the show and illustrated the connection the Losties had with each other. It was Malkin’s reaction that was strange. He frantically tried to stop Eko’s investigation and proclaimed himself to be fake, even describing how he cons people. So what are we to believe about Malkin?

There are two possibilities:

1) He is a real psychic and saw something incredibly bad (end of the world stuff) if Claire didn’t raise her baby herself. Could he have foreseen the separation of Claire and Aaron when the O6 left? But if that’s the case, why send her to the island in the first place? Did he foresee a future where Kate did not come back for Claire and subsequently was not there to shoot MIB? Not likely, because the show has made it clear that there can’t be two possible futures.
2) He is a fake. He did intelligence gathering (as he described to Eko) and exploited her. But to what gain? Perhaps there really was an American couple and they were paying him to do it. This seems a bit extreme and would be a very expensive long con. I’m sure with that kind of money, they can arrange a normal adoption.

It’s possible that the writers were trying to lay the groundwork for an explanation by providing two key pieces of information in Eko’s flashback. First, Malkin proclaims he is a fake to get Eko to stop his investigation. Wouldn’t a psychic, real or fake, want the publicity? Malkin was hiding something. Second, a miracle occurred. The proof was when Charlotte gave Eko a message from his dead brother Yemi. This is where our theory comes in. The miracle is the motive. Who do we know could perform such a miracle and who also wanted Claire to come to the island? Jacob. Jacob has done this before – for Dugan’s son and possibly for Locke after his fall. Jacob brings people to the island. What if he promised Malkin that he would save his daughter if he would make sure Claire got on that plane?

A diligent review of the timeline by damnbueno confirms that Malkin’s dealings with Claire started around the time of the miracle. This theory fits in with what we have discovered about Jacob in subsequent seasons and it explains all of the, otherwise, confusing events surrounding Claire and Malkin. Admittedly, this is difficult to prove or disprove.

What do you think?

LOST: A Pair of Vile Miscreants Knapped Mark Silverman – S1 Ep. 5 by Robert Lee

2011-02-09T15:02:00.000Z

Again… we open with an opening of an eye. But who’s eye this time? Jack’s eye. Again. But this time it is young flashback Jack in a schoolyard, just after getting punched in the face. This is the furthest into the past a flashback has gone yet, because we need to go further into the past to pave a way to the future. To understand these characters, we need to know them intimately.

This episode is wonderfully Shakespearean. All of the elements of a great play of the Globe are present. An unsure leader is literally haunted! Sins of the father are visited upon the son! Insanity plagues the hero! Magical islands! A clandestine meeting with a wise old man in the woods! It is all here.

From the schoolyard, we cut to present day on the beach. Charlie runs up screaming for help. “Somebody’s out there!” He points to the water. Jack being the hero that he is, without thought to his well-being, rushes into the sea as Charley eerily mumbles to himself “I don’t swim.” We’re all going to find out the extent of your swimming capabilities soon enough Charlie…

Jack makes it to the thrashing person who is revealed to be Boone. Momentarily satisfied with his heroism of the day, he is about to make for shore, when hark, he hears another scream. Another person is even further out. A woman. Jack decides to bring Boone to shore before going back for the woman. She drowns. Her name was Joanna.

Jack has already established himself as the hard decision-making-leader… He will do what it takes to keep the camp safe. He will do what he can for people right up to and sometimes beyond rationality. At that point he has proven that he is willing to cross lines that doctors generally won’t.

In the next scene we see the foundation for Jack’s often times crippling fear. His father Christian commits a horrifying crime in the study with his words, by offering the most terrifying advice to a young black-eyed Jack. “Don’t choose Jack. Don’t decide. You don’t want to be a hero. You don’t want to try and save everyone, because when you fail… You just don’t have what it takes.” Wow. Talk about a mind screw. Worst Father of the Year Award goes to Christian Shepherd. What path would this encounter put a person on if they are experiencing a Joseph Campbell story arc? The redemptive path to prove themselves worthy? A path to prove he has what it takes. I’ve been on that path of proving yourself to others, and it can bring you far, but the aggressive fires of proving your self don’t last as long as fires created by positive enthusiasm. Jack seems to, from this moment, take the path of proving himself, just to spite his father, and it leads to multiple complete emotional breakdowns as he tries to prove that he can be the hero who has what it takes.

When the man who you NEED to prove yourself to is dead, what do you do? You hope to crash on a magical island of course. Jack has seen his dead father twice on the island. Why has he not talked about it? He is a man of science. He thinks it is a head injury or post-traumatic stress. Like Hamlet being led by the nose and the words of the specter of his dead father, Jack follows Christian into the jungle. Rather than looking for words of wisdom, I think Jack is looking for a showdown. He wants answers. He wants to know:

1. “How did you die?”

2. “Why did you leave mom?”

3. “How are you alive?”

4. And that which he’ll never ask at this point in his Island life, “am I good enough for you now?”

The phrase “The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son” can be translated and interpreted many ways. I like to think that it simply means that children learn from and mimic what they see in their parents, thus are doomed to repeat their mistakes. Jack spends his entire life fighting this very natural urge. He does follow his father into adulthood by becoming a doctor, but he wants to be more than a mender. In one way, he simply wants to surpass his father, and prove that he is better than he. At the same time, he wants to be a hero to his patients. He wants to dispel the darkness others feel, and if he fails because he doesn’t have what it takes, he’ll deal with it.

The use of a family squabble is wonderfully Shakespearean. Every great play written by the Bard, at its heart, is simply a family squabble. Some are more serious, like Hamlet, Richard III or Romeo and Juliet, but others are playful, like the Taming of the Shrew. Like Hamlet, Jack can’t live up to the vision he thinks his dead dad had for him. There is a plane crash in a far off land, which is very much like Twelfth Night, where people try to assume new identities and cast away old skins. Also in the Twelfth Night, we had siblings that were separated for so long that they no longer recognize each other at first glance, similar to Claire and Jack. The island is a magical place where transformations take place as they did in a Midsummer’s Night Dream. Some can even harness the magic as Prospero did in the Tempest, or like Locke to heal his legs.

The Alice in Wonderland references of “chasing a white rabbit” were a little blunt, but perfect at the same time. It is a universal story that evokes a very broad reaction, whether it is Hunter S. Thompson yelling “White Rabbit!” uncontrollably or John Locke speaking calmly in the woods like a kind grandfather, we get the point. They, we, you and I are all searching for something. It really was a perfect way to spell it out for the audience, because who doesn’t love Alice in Wonderland or feel like they are on the other side of the Looking Glass looking in from time to time?

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Added bonus! (sort of) In 1999 I chased a white rabbit that led me to film-making and directing the experimental short film Alice Underground, based on Lewis Carroll's tales. You can see the trailer for the film over at the my LOST site: http://ialwayshaveaplan.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/ep-5-a-pair-of-vile-miscreants-knapped-mark-silverman/

Thanks for reading!

Lost: Repurposed Destiny S1 Ep4 by Robert Lee

2011-01-27T11:33:00.001Z

Walkabout S.1 Ep. 4

I had a bit of trouble coming up with a theme for this episode. The obvious ones are there of course.

- Don’t tell me what I can’t do!

- Destiny

- Miracles and the magic of the island

None of them seemed entirely right to me, until I stopped and thought about Sayid’s side-story in the episode Walkabout…

Sayid had a problem with what Jack decided should be done with the bodies of those that passed away in the crash. At dusk the following day, the castaways will burn the fuselage to dispose of / in remembrance of / those that died.

Sayid, not wanting to take part in that, because it disrespected the 815 dead’s possible and completely unknowable final wishes, decided to focus on a side project. He removes wiring, electrics, and metal from the wreckage to build antennas, which will work with a repurposed transceiver to triangulate the mysterious signal left by Rousseau.

The idea of repurposing has often occurred to me while watching Lost. I’ve always had this thought, that I’ve mentioned in a few other articles, that the island exists outside the dimensional plane of the rest of the Earth. That is how and why things like the flashes, time loops, teleportation, etc. seem to not affect the rest of the planet. i.e. It isn’t so much that you teleport to Tunisia when you turn the wheel, so much as Tunisia is the closest place on Earth to the island’s dimension, when you open the “door.”

So, if you accept that the island exists in its own dimension, with its own rules governing time, space, distance, etc. then the rest of this won’t be that crazy.

I’d like to suggest that when a person crosses over to the island he or she leaves their destiny behind. They skew from the destiny that they were heading for and embrace a new one which includes time spent on the island, thus drastically changing their life-course.

What if all the characters had very specific destinies? What if they all had a purpose back in their lives before the crash? What if, by leaving, and crossing over to the island, these destinies were interrupted, changed, or diverted? (Course correction is a big theme later…)

I propose that Jacob, just like Sayid repurposing a few wires and circuit boards, repurposed the survivors of flight 815. He took their destinies that were set in stone, and changed them. It is no coincidence that in the season 5 finale we see that Jacob uses an ancient looking loom to weave tapestries. Many ancient mythologies compare fate and reality itself to the act of weaving a tapestry.

Three examples from wiki:

Navajo:

Many of the world’s people believe that the world is woven and that a weaving Creator wove its designs into being. Compare the Navajo legend of the Spider Woman, of Teotihuacan origin.

Greece:

In Greece the Moirae (the “Fates”) are the three crones who control destiny, and the matter of it is the art of spinning the thread of life on the distaff.

Egypt:

In pre-Dynastic Egypt, nt (Neith) was already the goddess of weaving (and a mighty aid in war as well). She protected the Red Crown of Lower Egypt before the two kingdoms were merged, and in Dynastic times she was known as the most ancient one, to whom the other gods went for wisdom.

"It takes a long time if you're making the thread." - Jacob, from the Incident part 2. The threads are the castaways. The tapestry is the whole story.

By pulling flight 815 to the island, Jacob removed these people from one tapestry and added them to another.

Jack, destined to live in the shadow of his father, even after his death, was given the chance to be his own man after Jacob crashed 815. The island made him a doctor not just for individual patients, but a doctor for the whole planet.

Sawyer was on the road to vengeance since his namesake caused the death of his parents. The island would give him a focus for all that anger and rage.

Sayid was full of regret for the pain that he’s caused and was seeking his true love. If he had not been one of the “Oceanic 6” would he have ever found her?

Through her island experiences Kate was finally able to stop running from her past mistakes.

Charley? In season 6 he declared on the plane “I was supposed to die!” Was THAT his destiny back in the ‘real’ world? Would he have just been another rocker that overdosed in a hotel? Probably. The island, through Jacob, gave him a grander purpose, and made his death mean something more than a TMZ headline.

Hurley experienced the grandest change to his destiny.

Then there was John Locke. John was destined for tragedy and heartbreak at every turn in his life. Betrayed by his father and constantly harangued by his co-workers, John was given a new destiny by Jacob. Jacob brought him to the island, and gave him what he always wanted, adventure, purpose, and family. In this episode we got to see the very first glimmer of this new destiny John is in the process of embracing. In this new place John is a strong and mysterious man. He carries knives and hunts for his food. He is trying to actually become the man that he merely pretended to be in his war games back at the box factory in California.

Walkabout was a terrific episode. I’m sure there are dozens of other topics we could pull from this fantastic example of scripted television, but this was the one is pulled. I repurposed an idea and made it fit into my Walkabout post.

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Further Jack/ John visual references hinting at the conflict to come:

John Locke and Jack Shepherd are set on a collision course right from the start, which never fully culminates until after one of them is dead and ends with the other dying. This conflict was hinted at right from the beginning by drawing visual parallels.

From the first image of this episode we get a familiar visual reference. A Close-up of John Locke’s eye as it bursts open, just as we saw Jack in the first image of the pilot episode. Then the camera movements are similar. We go from the close-up to a wide shot angled straight down at the body as it twists around almost like a spirit floating above. A very similar movement was used to show Jack’s location in the pilot.

They both lost consciousness, and when they came to they found themselves on a new road, with a new destiny, reborn.

The primary difference between Jack and John’s re-birth just after the accident is that Jack is reborn into the peaceful bamboo forest, while John is born into pain, screaming, and anarchy. In the midst of this anarchy though, a miracle occurs. John wiggles his toe.---- And don't you just love the small early clue in the episode when they show the unworn soles to John Locke's shoes?

LOST: Human Etch A Sketches on Gilligan’s Island – S1 Ep.3 by Robert Lee

2011-01-19T19:08:00.000Z

Season 1. Ep. 3 "Tabula Rasa"

Tabula Rasa is possibly the most over used episode title in the history of television. There was an episode of Buffy that used that same title where the Scooby gang suffered from temporary amnesia. Then there was a Battlestar Galactica episode, a Law and Order episode, Criminal Minds, Justice League, Stargate, and even Heroes. I’m sure there are more, I just didn't look that hard.

Why this fondness for the title? Is it because it sounds cool? Well, I think it is particularly apt in the case of Lost. Tabula Rasa means ‘Blank Slate.’ As far back as the fourth century Aristotle wrote of the unscribed tablet, or blank slate with regard to the human mind in his De Anima. However, it wasn’t until, no surprise here, John Locke’s "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" in the 17th century, that the idea became popular in modern philosophy. Simply put, the theory states that at infancy we are a blank slate. Our personality, behavior, and intelligence are products of the many experiences that we absorb and make part of ourselves over the course of our lives. Basically he believed that from birth we have all the potential in the world, we just need to strive to do better and be better.

Interestingly, over on good old Wiki, I was reading about the Roman tabulas, which were made of wax. After use, these tablets were heated and wiped clean so they could be used again and again. Is this more applicable to our castaways? Were they wiped clean by the fires of their ordeal? I think they were. Like human etch-a-sketches, their sins were shaken away by the turbulence and crash.

The focus of the flashbacks in Tabula Rasa is Kate. Kate desperately wants a go at a new life. She can’t have that blank slate though. There are two loose ends that tie her to her past, Agent Mars and a WANTED flyer in his pocket. She is so close to her fresh start when Mars opens his eyes and starts talking to Jack, that it must be infuriating!

When she returns to camp, as a viewer you start to wonder which side of “Right” Kate is going to fall on. The one man who can spoil her chance is at death’s door.

Kate goes to Jack and asks him “Can you put him out of his misery?”

Just the suggestion gets Jack’s goat! He stomps right up in her face and taunts her.

“I saw your mug shot Kate! I’m not a murderer!”

Has Kate Lost Jack’s trust?

The episode progresses to the last few minutes, where Kate talks to Mars alone. She wants to make sure that Ray, the man who turned her in, got his reward. Through this moment, we see the redemptive qualities of her character. She’s done something horrific. Something so bad that it caused her to run all the way to Australia, and for someone to go after her! Still, she still has the capacity for caring, love, and understanding. She can’t be THAT bad. Can she?

But then Mars asks if he is going to die?

Kate, tears appearing a little, replies “Yes” while nodding.

With the question “Well are you going to do it?” Mars establishes what he thinks of Kate’s capabilities. He thinks a mercy kill should be easy based on whatever she’s done.

The climax comes when Jack realizes that Kate is in with Mars, and she has a gun. He suddenly thinks the worst. He thinks that she’ll do anything to protect her secret. Running to the tent, he sees her casually exit. Relief washes over until…. BLAM. A shot rings out and Sawyer exits the tent declaring that he’s done what Jack couldn’t while territorially peeing all over the camp. He claims that Mars “Wanted it, and hell, he asked me.”

What’s that? They hear a gurgle from inside the tent.

Mars is still alive.

Crap!

Jack enters the tent and does what needs to be done. He euthanizes Mars with his bare hands. Jack once again proves that he will always do what it takes, even if it eventually leads to horrible beards and too many pills to dull the atrocities he will commit in the name of doing the right thing.

In a cathartic moment the next morning Kate offers to tell Jack what she did. She wants to come clean. Jack stops her, saying “I don’t want to know. It doesn’t matter Kate. Who we were… What we did before this…Three days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over.” So, their tabulas are rasa’d.

I’d like to take the musical montage at the end and break down the just visuals for a moment. The song is ‘Wash Away’ by Joe Purdy.

Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmWDN9-ySyk

Lyrics here:

I got troubles oh, but not today
Cause they’re gonna wash away
They’re gonna wash away

And I have sins Lord, but not today
Cause they’re gonna wash away
They’re gonna wash away

And I had friends oh, but not today
Cause they’re done washed away
They’re done washed away

And oh, I’ve been cryin’
And oh, I’ve been cryin’
And oh, no more cryin’
No, no more cryin’ here

We get along Lord, but not today
Cause we gonna wash away
We gonna wash away

And I got troubles oh, but not today
Cause they gonna wash away
This old heart gonna take them away

The lyrics are a pretty perfect fit with the tabula rasa motif.

We start with Hurley. He is literally washing something, pouring the sand from his shoe. He is serving a dual purpose here. Hurley is listening to the music in this scene which makes it diegetic, meaning that it is within the narrative and not external to the story. So, by listening to the song, he seems to have control of the environment, like he will in the END…. really big stretch I know, but who’s to say they didn’t have the basics to the end figured out right in the beginning.

Cut to a nice tracking shot of Jin.

Jin walks up to a sleeping Sun and shows unconditional love for the first time. Why can’t he do this in front of others, or even in front of her? The relationship is so strained, but you see a slim chance for happiness for the first time. Are Jin’s troubles rasa’d and washing away?

Cut to Shannon in a medium shot sitting on the beach.

Boone gives his sister a pair of sunglasses the he repaired for her. They too have a chance at happiness. What would make them happy? I don’t know. But it seems that there could have been a chance.

Cut To Sayid walking.

Sayid throws Sawyer an apple as he walks past. They might hate each other, but there is a respect that Sayid has for a person that does what needs doing. He respects Sawyer’s willingness to act.

Cut to.

Charley changes his writing on his fingers from “Fate” to “Late.” What is late? His self-respect? Him getting to California? Is he late for a date? I know he’ll be late for his destiny… or at least put it off for a bit.

The camera pans down to Claire. Maybe he feels that he was meeting her too late?

Cut to.

A beautiful family reuniting. Michael walks up with Vincent the dog on a leash. Walt is ecstatic! They frolic for a moment in the island sun and everyone is happy! BUT, this is a tainted reunion. Michael has established something about his character. He is weak. He has taken credit for this ‘miracle’ of finding the dog. He is willing to live a lie as long as it gets him what he wants. In this case, it is the love and respect of Walt, but later it will be a lot more, and it will cost other characters A LOT more… and someone notices this.

Cut over to and track around a pensive Locke. Locke orchestrated this beautiful family moment, and he doesn’t seem to care for it. He seems to see what his meddling has done. He sees that Michael might be useful to him… He might even know at this point that Walt is special. After all, the island talks to John.

Side note: As I watched this episode I kept feeling Deja-Vu. I finally figured out what it was after a bit of brainstorming… It reminded me of the Gilligan’s Island episode “Not Guilty” when a crate washed up in the Lagoon that had old Honolulu newspapers as wrapping for coconuts. On one of the pages was a story stating that each of the castaways is wanted for questioning in relation to a murder that took place the day that they left! I wonder if the writers’ room talked about the parallels while they were brainstorming? That would be funny.

This was a bit of a ramble I'll aspire to be more coherent next time.

More at http://ialwayshaveaplan.wordpress.com/

LOST: Foreshadowing and More Introductions. S1 Ep.2 Pilot part 2 by Robert Lee

2011-01-18T07:21:00.001Z

What we get in this episode is Character development, and a lot of it. So much information is crammed into 45 minutes, that I feel a bit Like Alex Delarge after watching it again. With this info comes quite a bit of foreshadowing, some of which doesn’t pan out for two, three or even five seasons.

What sort of character development? Well, It seems Kate is some sort of criminal. They keep it vague enough to fix us at the edge of our seat, and employ some wonderful editing, crosscutting from Kate relieving Sawyer of the only gun that they know of on the island, to her on 815 during the crash turbulence, then to Jack’s discovery of her criminal past, and back over to her on a mountainside leading a signal search party. We are barely told anything, and are left with the mystery of what this woman who seems inherently good could have done to be in so much trouble…

Charley is a drug addict. This was really no big surprise. The rock star drug addict is a bit clichéd but Dominic Monaghan pulls it off in such an endearing way. I love that Charley feels the need to interject “Ever heard of Driveshaft?” into the first thirty seconds of any encounter. Charley’s addiction storyline seems to be a personal demon story arc at first, but as anyone that has ever known a person with any sort of addiction issue, it will spiral out of control and suck in all the people around him or her…. Terrific set-up here for a redemption (song) story.

Shannon can speak French! There were so many moments where Shannon shied away from the group, claiming that “the boats will be there soon,” she doesn’t need to help, “there will be people for that,” establishing her as the epitome of a rich brat. Her brother Boone, the yin to her yang, is constantly trying to help, sometimes to the point of making a nuisance of himself. Their polar opposite personalities makes me think of a horrible Paula Abdul song for some reason….. which is then more blatantly referred to by Claire when she asks Shannon “Is he your boyfriend?” about Boone. Ewwwwwwww, I’m getting a Luke and Leia Star Wars vibe here.

Back to the French though. Shannon listens to the recording left by Rousseau over 16 years ago. This small but powerful moment will not completely play out until the final season. Bits and pieces of what is said will be explained and revealed over the six seasons.

A few other hints of future events peppered throughout the episode were:

- Jack Lies to the others on the beach about not finding any survivors in the cockpit. He begins making those hard decisions right away. HE decides what they NEED to know. He places himself in a leader role because he believes he needs to.

- The polar bear in the woods leads directly to the Dharma storylines and experiments that have gone on here.

- Sawyer, emotionally reads his letter that he keeps in his pocket. What is it? Who is it to? Who is it from? Mystery!

- The line is drawn in the sand as early as this episode between Jack and Locke. They haven’t even shared more than ten words, but editing tells me that the central conflict will be between these two characters.

How?

I’ll show you.

While talking to Michael, Jack searches for a blade to operate on Federal Agent Mars. He finds a straight razor in a shaving kit, and when he pulls it out, it is featured menacingly in its own close-up. A close up like this is always used to bring the object to the attention of the audience. This shot says to me “Keep an eye on this blade! This will be important.” Or it is symbolic. This is a tool that can be used to heal or kill. How will it be used?

CUT TO: a Close up of a Backgammon set in the sand. John Locke’s hands come into frame setting up the game. Walt approaches to ask about the game. John explains the nature and history of Backgammon. Light and Dark. Conflict. Good and Evil.

A transition like this is not a happy accident. This is masterful writing. Without even knowing it, the audience knows who is against who. A weapon was brandished followed directly by a conversation about good and evil.

The stage is set.

Lastly, Charley got to utter the exact words that spell out THE mystery that lasts until the very last episode and even beyond, “Guys, where are we?”

So we have conflict, multiple mysteries, plot threads established, and only barely scratched the surface of just how damaged this ensemble cast of characters is. What a great show.

Want to join in the re-watch?

www.ialwayshaveaplan.wordpress.com

LOST: Fate & Introductions (Ep. 1 – Pilot Part 1) by Robert Lee

2011-01-13T17:18:00.001Z

It begins again. Eight months later, I’ve gone back to the island with the knowledge of everything that is to come. While re-watching the pilot, I paid close attention to two elements: Introductions and the concept of fate as applied to the castaways.

1. Introductions – I wanted to keep a close eye on who latches onto who first. Boone and Jack saved Rose’s life. Jack paired Hurley with Claire so Hurley could keep her safe. Sayid enlisted Charley to build a fire. Shannon took care of herself and her own needs. Locke, on his new magic legs, rushed to help Jack pull people from wreckage. And when the dust had settled, Jack wandered off into the woods like a hurt cat so he could tend to his own wounds. That is when Kate comes walking out of the forest to complicate the rest of his life. And, of course, the Smoke monster was heard but not seen going for a walk through the jungle.

2.The Idea of Fate – The first night on the Island Charley writes the word FATE across four of his fingers on pieces of white tape. People often associate fate with something bad. The phase “accept your fate” carries with it a connotation that you have to accept something less than desirable. This is because so few of us actually have a fate in store for us that is something like, say, King Arthur. He needed to accept his fate after freeing Excalibur, but of course his fate meant he got to be king, marry Guinevere and rule from Camelot. His fate also entailed his wife cheating on him with his best friend, having an incestuous bastard child, and then killing that child. It was a tough life and a sorry fate but a grand fate nevertheless.

While paying attention to the featured characters in the first part of the pilot, I noticed that regret and acceptance are huge plot points. They all seem to have a guilty look about them as they tend to their wounds. What do they have to feel guilty about? Well, maybe EVERYTHING! They all think the crash is their fault in some sort of karmic way. Hurley believes that the cursed numbers crashed the plane. Sun believes that her cheating led her to this place and she deserves all the horror of the island. Claire thinks that she is on the island because she chose to give her child away. Kate is on the island because she is running from her crimes. Locke believe this was the price to regain his legs.

Then there is Jack. Jack carries the literal weight of the world on his back. He is the King Arthur of this story right from the start. He might not believe that it is all his fault, but he believes he can fix it all.

In an ensemble story, it is always important to introduce your characters early. If I’m writing a screenplay I like to get all my primary characters into the first five to ten minutes. Sometimes it is difficult to do that. To convincingly weave all of your characters into a story efficiently and quickly might feel contrived. One tool that I used recently was having all the primary characters in their various homes, jobs, offices, all watching the same television program about the main character of the story. So, I was able to link all of their interests and knowledge of the subject, and as they meet, it is already established that they have this common thread.

Lost introduced all the primary characters with organic ease. All of their quirks and traits were prevalent right from the start. Using the crash as the event that relates all the characters is brilliant in that the writers can constantly go back to that one moment and tell another character’s story of who, what, where, when and how they found themselves on flight 815. All at once it is simple and brilliant.

I’m going to have fun re-watching. If you'd like to join in on my 2011 Great LOST re-watch, visit me at http://ialwayshaveaplan.wordpress.com/

The List, The Lighthouse,and Jacob & Richard's Time travel explained... by Ralph

2011-01-09T10:02:00.001Z

So I have posted a theory about the Lighthouse before, but I never combined it with the right joining theories and missing elements to truly understand what was going on with the Lighthouse and the names on it and the whole deal with the mirrors and Jacob's visit with those on the list. The Lighthouse right off the bat, fascinated me-it's look is overwhelming and raised a great question when Hurley asked "If this has been here the whole time,then how come we never came across it before"?

Well, first off-Jacob was not a very bright person,as a matter of fact...he is pretty naive and never truly asked important questions(you could pretty much tell him something and he would believe you)....unlike his, bro who was inquisitive and very scientific(it was MIB who figured out how to manipulate the light&water via Donkey wheel 1st). But in defense of Jacob-He was a very artsy and creative guy(He made his own clothes and art design projects using a spinning wheel/sewing machine).

But one thing could be said for BOTH men...you live for a little over 2,000 years...you can learn a lot about things...and Jacob might not have been too bright,but he did show us through out what little we did see of him,is that he was a good listener(so this tells me that he is open to learning new things/skills).

Now that I have said that....let's talk about the Lighthouse....

THE LIGHTHOUSE:

Jacob DID NOT build this structure due to the fact that he is one man and I feel that it was there already due to the Egyptian glyphs on the wall of the lighthouse.Was it a lighthouse at first? I don't think it was....I think it was a Tower that was made into a Lighthouse later on down the line in time. If you noticed-it was modified into one and one thing I did noticed....it was locked from the outside and Jack had to kick the door in. This makes me think that at one point in time, the Egyptians were keeping someone(or something) locked in the tower(sorta like a Rapunzel-type prison)...could this person have been Mother at one point(were the glyphs some type of binding spell to keep her/it in the tower)?....well....that's not the important thing....the important thing is how and why it was modified? And who modified it? I think as kids, Jacob and MIB prob played in it along with many of their Island adventures and with their curiosity-they more then likely got the spyglass from the wreckage of the ship(just like the senet game)and would use it to take turns looking Across the Sea, having dreams of what might be out there.....

THE LIST:

Jacob and MIB had a list of everyone that stepped on that Island...before any of those people ever set foot on it-How is this possible? The brothers COULD NOT see or predict the future. The only gift that was given to them is that they were bestowed by Mother-Immortality.Notice that RICHARD ALPERT(who arrived on the Island in 1867) WAS NOT on the list, but who was on that list?...All of the Freighter people,Oceanic 815,French science team and the majority of DHARMA and some of the Others. So how could this be? It couldn't be possible.For two men to have these names who know nothing of the real world? Well the creepy thing is I believe the list existed before 1867-why?cause neither man knew who Richard was and from what we have been shown....Jacob and MIB knew everyone on that list(except Richard who was not on it).So once again....how is this possible?

BEING SPECIAL:

Like Mr.Eko,Ben,and Hurley....MIB WAS SPECIAL.Why? cause he could see,talk,and hear ghost/spirits.All of the spirits/ghost have actually helped/warned/or dropped important information to the people that see them(they never once hurt the people that seen them).What does this have to do with anything? A Lot!.....

THE CATALYST AND THE COMING OF THE NEW AGE:

When MIB was in his Twenties...He had the whole SCIENTIFIC DIG(Hmmm?) going on and the Donkey Wheel all ready to go(until Mother destroyed the village)....so how did he learn all of this science and were to dig? We know he wanted off, but in his twenties-he was so sure and confident that this was his time to get off the Island....who put this in his head?

IMAGINE IF YOU WILL....

Almost 2,000 years ago.You are MIB in his twenties. You are walking along the open field of the Jungle and you stumble upon a woman lying dead in the jungle.It's not Mother or any village woman you have seen before. She is dressed in attire that you have never seen before and that she is wearing some type of blue tough pants like a male would wear and a form fitting orange shirt that a woman of that era WOULD NOT wear. You see an odd metal band around her wrist that is displaying odd types of numbers and emitting a type of energy or heat from it's glass shell(Is this magic-some supernatural source)? As you look to examine the contents in her pocket, you find several pieces of paper folded with many names on it(not hand written but printed like if some type of press and when taken the time...around 360 names on that list).Shockingly! You hear a woman's voice with an accent startling you from behind saying "That's me"...and you ask, "who are you"? and she replies....."Charlotte".

SHE BLINDED WITH ME WITH SCIENCE:

Charlotte's ghost taught MIB science, gave him the list of names and taught him everything that Faraday taught her and explained to her about the Island-after Mother destroyed the well...

THE BACK-UP PLAN:

Charlotte's ghost helped MIB set-up the LIGHTHOUSE as a monitor/navigation station with the use of the mirrors and dial w/ the names on it. Faraday was able to notice "How the light scatters differently" and I think with the Location of the Lighthouse/the use of the mirrors and the dial in the right setting/and the properties of the Island. MIB was able to see into the lives of the people on the dial through the mirrors.(Side Note: I wonder if MIB used Charlotte's body to modify the Lighthouse cause if he did work on the lighthouse,it would be after MIB's original body died-but no matter what body he used, he was always able to take on his original appearance until they buried Locke's body,trapping him in Locke's body for good)

JACOB THE REPO-MAN:

At one point,Jacob figures out that MIB is using the Lighthouse and locks it up (and prob ashes it up,we just don't see it there-cause they didn't show us or MIB realized that he wasn't able to leave the Island so easy after being turned into Smokey,so it might have been no more use to him)...so Jacob figures it out and then...

NO TIME TRAVEL FOR JACOB OR RICHARD:

...monitors all the people on the dial(especially the people that Charlotte had files on and if you noticed-all the people that Jacob touched, Charlotte had a lot of interaction with and those people told her some of their back stories).When times were right and he was needed(or Richard)...they would leave the Island and come back when done(it appeared like time travel,but it wasn't....they just never aged).

I NEVER KNOWN ANYONE TO COME BACK FROM THE DEAD:

...As for Jacob bringing Locke back to life after falling 8 stories? I can't figure that out? I mean...if that was one of Jacob's gifts-then why not revive Mother? MIB? Did he use slight of had and pour some Temple water in his mouth? Who knows?

....Once again,enjoy folks!

What might have been for Mr.Eko.....but ended up Locke's journey instead....... by Ralph

2011-01-06T13:33:00.001Z

We all know that AAA(the actor that plays Mr.Eko was not happy and left the show,had he stayed-the powers that be had bigger plans for Eko and here is what I think)........

EKO TUNDE.

LOVING BROTHER. CRIME LORD. PRIEST. MURDERER. SAVIOR.

Eko proved to be a very complicated man more then Jack or any of the Others...In my opinion and theory-It was originally in MIB's plan to choose Eko for his escape,but Eko ultimately foiled MIB's plan and the man in Black was forced to go with his alternate...JOHN LOCKE.

You see. MIB and EKO are very similar in many ways and when reading EKO's history-MIB found his true match of a body he's been looking for his "Exit stage left" plan,so before I give you the reasons why he would choose Eko-let me give you the similarities between the two men.....

SIMILARITIES:

1)Both men cared and loved their brothers deeply but did not see
eye-to-eye on how the world and society is.

2)Both men choose to live in a Village(Eko's he originally grew-up in as a kid and choose later to come back as an adult) and help further the village's progress.

3)....Both men also had alternate personal reasons( but were actually good intentions) EKO to get the drugs away from his village and all MIB wanted was to be FREE and see the world(absolutely nothing wrong with this, and he actually wanted this before he turned supernatural and nothing bad would have came from this if he left as a mortal man....nothing at all).

4)Both men were BASTARDS(Fatherless) and then ORPHANS(If you noticed Eko and Yemi was raised by the church/village orphanage-I think Eko and Yemi's parents died from being sick-that's why the Vaccine/and money for the village was important to Eko).

5)BOTH Men had the ability to see GHOST and SPIRITS.

6)...and the most important....BOTH MEN WANTED TO REINVENT THEMSELVES TO LIVE A BETTER LIFE.

So to MIB, of all the Losties he could relate to....it would be EKO.

Why Eko?

1)MIB could relate to him and prob would feel comfortable in Eko's body.

2)Eko was 36 at his time of death and a pretty fit guy and healthy(When the Island was sinking, MIB became mortal-so would you rather be a healthy big as crap man who has at least a good 40-50 years of life in him who knowing Eko, prob has a stash of money waiting for MIB or a 48yr old man with health problems and prob has a good 20-30 years of life left)? A lot of people like to believe MIB wanted Aaron's body but if that was the case...MIB would be reborn and pretty much would forget everything that has happened and then that would make everything he was doing pointless.

WHAT I BELIEVE MIB NEEDED FROM EKO?

There were TWO versions of YEMI(Like Christian) running around the Island(MIB/Yemi's ghost)....As Yemi-he lead Eko to the Red flower field to get one last thing from Eko before his plans to "Off" him is that he needed Eko to have regret and total despair and ask him for forgiveness(If you noticed-all the human people that MIB impersonated were all good people who lost hope and were seeking forgiveness or something better for their lives).

YEMI- Priest. A good man who lost hope for his brother and feared for his village.

Alex- Teenager. A good girl who lost hope and faith that her Father(Ben), was a good man.

CHRISTAIN- Doctor,Father. A good man till he got lost in the bottle and lost hope that he will ever mend the rift in he and Jack's relationship....in the end, he asked for forgiveness from Jack unknown via through Sawyer at the bar and actually got it later on(it was almost like Sawyer was the message in the bottle that got thrown across the ocean).

But wait!.....

EKO BOTCHED MIB's PLAN...

He DID NOT need forgiveness. He was Happy and proud how he lived his life with no regret and basically when this went down....it pissed MIB off and he knew EKO had to go and he went his alternate(John Locke).Even though Eko went down a bloody road to save Yemi and his village, he really was a good man who just did it the wrong way(same goes for MIB he too was a good man,he just went the wrong way about it).

YOUR A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN.....

MIB also tested John just like Eko(But instead,saw light and not Black Smoke like Eko saw). John's asked for forgiveness his whole life. John went through life with NO HOPE and Despair...so all he need was for John to die(but this time, he smartened-up and used Ben for this)..and taking John off the island and showing John Helen's gravestone was what pretty much did it for Locke. And I have said this before,but....Locke's life and Happiness is like CHARLIE BROWN.....Every time Charlie Brown goes to kick that Football, Lucy pulls it away from him and makes him fall on his face....Just like John Locke and his life( John never got cut a break, but some people are like that in life).

I feel that Eko was going to be MIB in the end if AAA didn't leave the show.And remember what the Doctor played on the tape for Eko at the morgue of what CHARLOTTE MALKIN said waking-up from Autopsy table screaming..."LET JOHN LOCKE GO"!

Eko was a deep and interesting character....I wish we could have seen what they were going to really do with him?

Like always, enjoy folks!

The Journey by Hitta

2010-11-26T09:28:00.001Z

Final Explanation of Lost

The Journey

Within every person, there are core battles that exist. There are so many questions, so many fears, so many anxieties that exist; this is the focal point of Lost. Lost is a metaphysical show; it is meant to ask questions, science was a secondary protocol to the main them... truth. The two most fundamental concepts of the show were represented by the two different sides of the coin; Jacob and the MIB(which were supposed to represent the embodiment of all these questions). Jacob accepted things, he chose to live with what made him and others happy. It took a long journey, but in the end he represented existentialism; a man that thought that humanity was beautiful and everything rested on choice. This was contrary to Man in Black(MIB). He wanted answers. The more he tried to find them; the more they burned his will. He felt as if he never could escape anything. A fundamental embodiment of nihilism. He was the man with no name; as his name didn't matter. The only purpose was to end his pain.

To understand what Jacob and the Man in Black was; one would have to understand what the island was and what the light was that the island was "protecting". The light was simply everything. It was an entirely neutral spark of all creativity; the source of everything. When the Man in Black merged with the "Light", it demonstrated the supreme paradox that haunts all human existence. It showed that nothingness in itself is a creation of the light; that its all apart of the same fabric. The Man in Black became tied to everything; and the only way to rid himself of the pain and the guilt was to destroy everything. When Jack removed the stone, the light left. The Man in Black lost his power. This demonstrated when of my favorite quotes: "There is ness in nothingness". When everything vanished, so would the Man in Black. Not existing in itself is a paradox, pain and suffering are just parts of the human experience. The death of the MIB was kind of like a symbolic of the resolution of the karmic pain, anguish and anxiety that resided in all of the castaways. They had found a point of peace.

One of the most important things and protocols in Lost, was the hatch computer. It is very important this in order to understand everything that took place and the purpose behind everything that the show attempted to demonstrate. The hatch computer was a manipulator of the Light; the thing that bound us to this plane of existence. In simple terms, it was a cog of cycles of destiny. The numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 were its mathematical equation. To understand this, one will have to realize that the island was a stage for the castaways to work through their guilt, their pain, and their suffering. The island belonged to them; it was their special place that they found meaning. This is a very difficult concept for someone that is looking for concrete resolute answers to accept and completely comprehend. Was the island real? It is like asking if you are real. What is real? How does one define real? What matters to someone is the meaning that they take from it. Christian Shepherd said words at the end of Lost that perfectly describe the island; "it was a place that you all created so that you'll could find each other".

The numbers were meant to show that in the cycles of destiny; through all the different incarnations of their existence and all the possible realities; that they were continually meant for each other. 108 in several eastern religions is considered to be the divine number; the number of destiny and resolution; which is why the counter on the computer always started with it. When the number on the computer reached zero, this was intended to symbolize the failure to grasp the big picture of destiny; the end of the cycle and the fail into nothing ness. Which is why when the computer hit zero; everything literally started crushing down towards the light. This meant that everything that everything the light symbolized for us and the castaways was being Lost; a failure to grasp their true purpose. Locke starred at the screen in despair and wondered why he was pressing "the damn button" as if he was going to find some amazing divine answer. When all was lost for Locke and Locke realized he was wrong; another outsidered came in a found new found inspiration. Desmond turned the switch and became the failsafe; the human embodiment of the hatch computer. He became someone that could see the future; someone that was intertwined with the natural order in things(though he couldn't actually alter the natural order of the universe).

The next statement is where I'm probably going to get a lot of disagreement. The alternate reality was simply an alternate reality. The alternate reality was used to show that the things that made their time on the island so special wasn't the island in itself; but the time that they spend with each other. 4,8,15,16,23,42..... these people were simply meant to be together. Remember that what is real and isn't real is an irrelevancy in the metaphysics of Lost, its about the meaning. The scene at the end of Lost, was meant to symbolize that through all the planes of existence; and all the alternate incarnations of themself; they had finally realized their destiny and found their true self. People are going to bring up that the rules of time travel made an alternate reality impossible. The truth is; the rules of time travel were never broken. Ms. Hawking said it herself, no matter what happened the universe always had a way of course correcting itself; which was the entire point of showing the alternate reality. It was meant to show that they were meant to be together no matter what happened. Did the bomb explosion create the new time line? Well this is a very metaphysical question. They didn't all end up in LAX right after the explosion. The thing I think the writers were trying to show is that they created the possibility of the alternate timeline therefore it existed. It was like, they unlocked a new door; something parellel. Desmond was basically interwinned with the mechanisms of their destiny so he was able to break the boundaries between the planes and bring them to a realization point. That their peace was meant to exist on planes of existence.

They were once Lost, but now they are Found.

What may have happened had MIB escaped the island... by Jeremy Wolfe

2010-10-29T08:10:00.000+01:00

During the final season of Lost it was stated several times that an escape by MIB would be catasto phic. It was not clear exactly what would have happened though. During "The End" we saw MIB become mortal when Desmond removed the "cork" and the light and water were disrupted. Had Jack failed, MIB would have escaped in a mortal body. Locke's body was that of an approximately 55 year old man so a mortal MIB running amuk in the world "across the sea" is not much of a risk. The damage to the world that MIB could have caused would have been limited. The biggest danger that we saw during "The End" would have been the fallout from MIB's plan... a sunken island and the death of all life. It is not clear if that death would have been immediate or gradual, but clearly life would end if the island had sunk.

The bigger risk would have been if MIB would have found a way to escape in an immortal body. Had all of Jacob's candidates had died or turned down the job, and the failsafe (Desmond) had turned away from his task of "disabling" the island, then MIB would have been free to leave the island. With the island intact he would have held on to his power and immortality. Clearly from the statements from Widmore, Jacob, Illana, and Richard's late wife the idea of MIB walking in the world was a danger.

I'm sure that some will take issue with the idea that MIB could have potentially left the island with his powers intact. The statements made about the repurcussions of MIBs escape though never hinted at the island being destroyed. The statements implied that MIB would be a destroyer, or as Isabella would say "we all go to hell".

So what would have happened if MIB had gotten off the island and kept his power as an immortal smoke monster? Well we can surprise what MIB would have done based on what he said and did on the island. MIB was similar to Jacob in that although he interacted with people, he was never really one of them. While Jacob seperated himself from the common man while manipulating things according to what he felt was right, MIB used people. It was clear from the beginning that even when MIB lived among the people of the island he utilized them as a means to an end. MIB was always about manipulation. He had the people of the island helping him channel the water and the light via the frozen donkey wheel and his only goal was escape from the island.

It's hard to tell what MIB's original plan would have been had he escaped the island in his youth. I have no doubt that had he escaped the island at age 25, he would have sought out his people and ancestry and perhaps lived somewhat of a normal life. However by the time you've arrived to 2004 when the events of Lost started, MIB had been living on the island for almost 2000 years. So what would he have done had he escaped?

I doubt that MIB would have been content to find a nice girl and settle down. I think we can surprise what he would have done based on his history and actions on the island. MIB showed us that he was charismatic, highly manipulative (particularly targeting those with faith), faithless, obsessive and angry.

Lost always made allusions to the Bible, Biblical stories and characters. However JJ and Darlton never gave us the idea that anyone or anything on Lost corresponded to anything that was actually in the Bible. For example we were never meant to beleive that Jacob was the Jacob from the Bible, but by calling him Jacob it was a nod to the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau. Had MIB escaped though, I do beleive that he would have matched up perfectly with an actual Biblical character. I surmise that had he escaped that MIB would have fulfilled the role or very closely mirrored the role of Antichrist.

As I mentioned a mortal 55 year old man, no matter how charismatic or manipulative has limited power. However an immortal man who faithless, highly manipulative, and has power to destroy could cause a great amount of damage. Had MIB escaped with his power in tact I beleive he would have essentially try to rule the world. Since we know that he enjoyed utilizing those with faith to manipulate I have no doubt that he would have turned to the faithful people of the world and used their faith to give himself power. The difference between MIB and any other person who preys on people's faith is that MIB would have had the ability to perform miracles and be impervious to death.

So why would MIB want to rule the world? What would be his motivation? Well we know that at this point, roughly 2000 years after his birth he would have no home. No relatives to introduce himself to. The only thing that MIB would have had left would be to manipulate peopel and consolidate wealth. I beleive his primary motivation for doing this would be to continue his angry argument with Jacob. Even though Jacob wouldn't have been there, every manipulation would be a mental point in his game with Jacob. MIB had no faith in humanity and by ruling over them and causing them to turn evil or follow him would have been MIB's final revenge against humanity.

We also know that MIB was attracted to the light source. It's also possible that had he left he may have sought at some point to come back and either harness the island's power or put it out. This would have been his final revenge against mother.

To recap, had MIB escaped with his power intact I think that it's safe to say he would have continued his pattern of manipulation and anger. Once you couple that with supernatural power you quickly have yourself an Antichrist.

Neo/Architect conversation explains the Visual Inconsistencies in LOST by Haj

2010-10-12T07:35:00.001+01:00

In one of their last podcasts, Damon mentioned the Neo/Archictect conversation from the Matrix. In this scene, when Neo reacts to statements made by the architect, an array of monitors behind him displays some of the possible, or alternate, reactions Neo could have made. Despite all of those possibilities, free will led to the reaction Neo ultimately chose.

In LOST, whatever happened, happened. Despite minor changes in history that may occur due to acts of free will, the universe course-corrects. Desmond altered history by saving Charlie, yet Charlie ultimately died anyway. Desmond used his free will to alter history, forcing the Universe to course correct.

The important point to keep in mind isn't that the Universe course corrects, it's that DESPITE the course corrections, there existed an array of possibilities that have or might have occurred in defiance of WHH. The visual inconsistencies we witnessed (Chang's changing ties, the record players, the picture frames, the changing monologue in each iteration of Rousseau's recording, etc...), were the equivalent of the array of monitors in the Architect's office showing us what could have been despite WHH.

How Jacob and Eloise Knew About the Future by Jhisc9999

2010-10-11T15:26:00.000+01:00

I think Jacob could see the future and that this was made possible by the Losties’ time travel back to 1977. The light is in each of us, so the light traveled back too and Jacob could connect with it. He could see events that were to occur, especially death. This is why he ordered the runway to be built. I think he shared this gift with Eloise and that she could see flashes (like Desmond) of the future. Hence, she knew about the man in the red shoes. Desmond's flashes were also about someone who was going to die - Charlie. Jacob's and Eloise's clairvoyance was limited to the point when the Losties vanished off the Ajira flight. From that moment on, neither knew what was going to happen.

This knowledge of what was mostly going to happen was his advantage over MIB. He had to use this in some way to defeat MIB, but he had to let what ever happened, happen (at least the important stuff). Otherwise, he would lose his advantage. He knew what MIB was plotting, but he had to let it play out. I don’t think Jacob was committing suicide when he died because he could no longer see the future when Ben killed him which is why he was hoping, at that moment, that Ben would not do it. He was willing to take the risk, though, because someone needed to do what he could not, kill MIB.

Enter the Losties and Desmond, Jacob’s wildcard with the ability to be exempt from the rules. As such, he needed to be watched and steered into his path. This is why Jacob gave Eloise her gift of clairvoyance so that she could monitor Desmond. She noticed something different about Desmond and inserted herself into the Jewelry store to set him straight. In the end, Jacob would use Desmond to defeat MIB by seemingly giving MIB what he wanted, a way to destroy the light. MIB wasn’t counting on what would happen next, that he would lose his powers and be destroyed by the Losties. This was Jacob’s best chance of defeating MIB and protecting the light. He needed the Losties and they all needed each other.

This is one of the best stories ever told and it keeps giving.

Jacob The Time Traveler by WhoIsJohnLocke

2010-10-11T08:19:00.001+01:00

This will be my last ever theory. And perhaps my first good one. ;)

I believe that many of the mysteries surrounding Jacob that remained after the series ended can be explained rather simply: Before his death, Jacob had time traveled, perhaps also to the past, but definitely to the future. A few points I'd like to make first:

- We clearly know that Jacob was fully capable of leaving and returning to the Island.
- We know that Jacob knew more about the Island than anybody, including the MIB, hence his ability to leave the Island when MIB could not. It will never be explained, but we can only assume Jacob understood to some degree how to harness and use the Island's power.
- It is very possible that Jacob was actually the one to discover the Orchid station, and that he was the first person to actually use the Orchid's powers to travel through time. Even though Ben and Locke had no control over when or where they exited after turning the FDW, it doesn't mean that Jacob didn't know how to. Perhaps he figured out a way to control what time period he was sent to when he turned the wheel. Or perhaps he figured out a different way to travel through time. Either way, we have EVERY reason to believe that Jacob was a time traveler, and that this was how he knew so much about so many things, seemingly knew what would happen before it did, knew the Losties destinies, etc. - Because he already saw it happen at some point, or at least heard about it. Here we go...

- First of all, despite what Miles said, I still think Jacob easily could have escaped the situation. We saw him kick the shit out of Alpert. Ben isn't great in hand to hand combat, M.I.B. couldn't hurt him, and Ilana was RIGHT outside. What does this tell us? Jacob knew he was SUPPOSED to die. Perhaps he time traveled into the future and discovered from someone like Frank or Richard, who both left the island and presumably lived full lives, and who both were just meters away from Jacob when he died, that he was killed by Ben on that particular night, and instead of attempting to alter what was "supposed to be", Jacob simply let whatever was supposed to happen, happen. This would really clear up why Jacob surrendered so easily and seemingly just let Ben kill him - Because that's what was his fate.

- This would also obviously explain why Jacob had the Others building the runway at the beginning of season 3. He time traveled to the future and discovered that the Ajira plane eventually flys off Hydra Island, and so he ordered the runway to be built for when that time came.

- This theory also would explain why Jacob and Eloise were working so frantically to get Jack, Kate, Hugo and Sayid back to the Island. Eloise and Jacob were both on the Island in 1977, when the Incident happened, and knew that if they did not get those 4 back to the Island to make sure that "whatever happened, happened", it could cause a potentially catastrophic time travel paradox, with possible apocolyptic type results. This is why Jacob visited Hugo - It was simply the only way to get him to return to the Island. It also explains why he encouraged young Kate and James to continue on their dark paths, why he saved Sayid from being hit by a car, and why he saved Locke's life. They all had work to do, and needed "a little push" to continue on their destined paths. It's what HAD to happen. Perhaps this is why he tells Jack he just needed "a little push", and why he told Sun and Jin to make sure to never take their love for granted. He knew how all of these people's lives would turn out, for better or for worse.

- This could also explain why he allowed Ben to be healed by the Temple, instead of simply letting him die. I heard someone complaining once that if Jacob had just let Ben die as a child, Ben would never have been able to murder him in the future. However, Jacob was a firm believer in "whatever happened, happened", and knew that he could not allow any potential paradoxes. Jacob was willing to give his life for the Island and the greater good, just like Locke, Jack, and Charlie. He knew by letting Ben live, Ben would stay on a path that would someday lead to him murdering Jacob, but Jacob chose to allow things to play out how they were supposed to, instead of selfishly trying to save his own life, potentially at the expense of reality itself. This is more evidence that Jacob simply let Ben murder him.

- This might also explain Walt's situation a little better. If Jacob time traveled to the distant future and saw that Walt was the new protector of the Island at this particular time, he had to make sure that nothing bad happened to Walt. This is the true reason Jacob had The Others kidnap Walt - to protect the Island's future leader from the dangers of the Island, including MIB, who may also have known this vital information. After Michael got the boat from Ben, Jacob allowed Walt to leave the Island. Perhaps he wanted Walt off the Island until The Man In Black was killed. This is a tough one, but this theory does make some sense.

- Another good point in support of Jacob's time traveling is the scene in "LA X", in which Jacob tells Hugo that he must save Sayid, and instructs him to bring him to the Temple. Some people have said that this makes no sense, due to the fact that Sayid ended up turning evil and almost murdering Desmond. But it does make sense if Jacob already knew everything we saw unfold throughout season 6. Jacob knew that if Sayid died, there would be no Sayid on the sub when it exploded. No Sayid to tell Jack about Desmond, no Sayid to sacrfice himself for his friends... you get the idea. He knew that although Sayid was about to take a turn for the worst, that he had to live in order to save Jack, Hugo, Kate and Sawyer.

The following quotes strongly support my theory:

Man In Black: "One of these days, sooner or later, I'm going to find a loophole, my friend"
Jacob: "Well, when you do, I'll be right here."

Many of us simply thought Jacob was challenging MIB at that time, but perhaps Jacob literally knew that when MIB found his loophole, he'd be right there.

Jacob: "It takes a very long time when you're making the thread, but I suppose that's the point..."

This is probably the one statement that gives the biggest hint that Jacob was a time traveler. At the time, we were meant to believe he was talking about his tapestry, but was he actually talking about reality itself?

Jacob: "Jack is here because he has to do something. He can't be told what that is, he's gotta find it himself." Also... "I had to get you and Jack as far away from that Temple as possible. Someone's coming there. Someone bad."

Jacob clearly knew Jack's destiny. And Hugo's. And probably everyone else. Why did he need to get Jack and Hugo away specifically? Because they were easily the two most important people on the Island at that time. Jacob knew that Jack would go on to kill the Man In Black and save the Island, and knew that Hugo would go on to become the next true Protector of the Island, and knew that he could not afford to have anything come close to happening to either of them. He knew MIB would attack the Temple, knew that Kate and Sayid would survive, he KNEW everything. How? Time travel.

Locke, Jack, Sawyer, Eloise, Widmore, Faraday and Desmond may all have some pretty crazy time travel stories, but the craziest of all was the one that was never told: That of Jacob, the Time Traveler!

Only the Good Die Jung recap by pixiedustkaty

2010-10-09T23:53:00.001+01:00

Here's a recap of my original theory with some corrections now that I've seen the end of the show. The show LOST is based on the writings of Carl Jung, especially his Pisces 1 and Pisces 2 Theory about the End of Days. The show is about the beginning of the End of Days. At the end of the Age of Pisces, Jung predicted a battle between Good and Evil based on mythology and ancient literature. The signs for the End of Days include pregnant women suffering, mountain and island will disappear and a woman will give birth to a male child and the demons will want to destroy that child. The members of the 10 Lost tribes of Jacob will be scattered all over the planet and husbands won't even be speaking to wives and all of the tribes will reunite at the End of Days. That's why I thought the episode title "LA X" means "The Ten".

The setting for the battle is place in afterlife called Shoel. Shoel is the entrance to Heaven and Hell. These sections of Shoel were easy to identify:

1) The Righteous (the good guys) live in tents at the base of the holy mountain. The Righteous rescue "the doubtful" souls who end up in Shoel but didn't do anything seriously wrong in the lifetimes. The Others are the Righteous and they made lists and kidnapped the Doubtful souls which usually includes the children. Remember that Goodwin's explanation that they didn't take someone or have them on the list because "he wasn't a good person". The tent area is also where Abraham lives and I believe that Richard was Abraham because he has his tent open on 3 sides in Jughead and lived a long, long life. Abraham is the father of 4 of the major religions on the planet and taught in Egypt.
2) And there's the area where the Fallen Angels were housed until destroyed=The Dharma Initiative. The Fallen Angels were very interested in giving dangerous scientific breakthroughs to humans so they would destroy each other, thus "changing the world".

The top demon in Shoel is Samuel (MIB) who guards the entrance to Hell and the top archangel is Uriel (Jacob). Uriel is known as "the fire of God" who guards the entrance to Heaven. We first saw Jacob in the cabin as a pillar of fire whom Ben correctly identified by saying "oh, that's Jacob". We usually see Jacob around a fire and I think we saw him at the Flame Station as the scraggly cat. Uriel is the angel in the Book of Revelation who stands at the golden censer (the big fire bowl that MIB knocked Jacob into). Jacob also ended up being ashes in a fire in the end.

At each level of enlightenment, there's an angel and a demon to help/hinder the members of the Lost tribes of Jacob. The first level has archangel Sandalphon who is the tallest archangel and known for carrying a staff. Sandalphon's name means "brother". That was Mr. Echo and he discovered the first Dharma station. Sandalphon has a twin brother who is also called "The Youth" or Metraton. Metraton's name means "to take" and he is seen at the last level and whenever someone dies or makes a big transition. Remember how Walt kept showing up at big transition times? That's why I was glad to see Walt as the final Jacob in the additional material in Season 6. The demon at first level is Nahemoth - one who experiences and creates grief and misery. That's Anna Lucia-enough said.

Some of the more powerful archangels and demons can go from level to level but some can only stay at their own particular level. The next level has archangel Gabriel whose name means "God is my strength". Gabriel often heralds children and announces pregnancies. Juliet is Gabriel. Gabriel is also known as The Morning Star and Watcher of the South. Juliet got her branding as a punishment that looks like a morning star and she kept on eye on Sawyer who was from the South. The demon at that level is Lillith who usually is shown as a beautiful woman with long, red hair-=(Charlotte). Gabriel and Lillith battle and Gabriel wins. Juliet beat up Charlotte at the station with the gas.

The next level introduces Archangel Raphael whose name means "God heals". Raphael defeats demon Adrammelech whose name means "a high precipice from which the scapegoat falls". Dave is Adrammelech and he is defeated by Libby who is the archangel Raphael. We see Libby usually helping others and in hospitals and institutions. Raphael defeats Adrammelech and Libby defeated Dave.

The next level has the Archangel Haniel, "the grace of God", who is all all about love and relationships. Haniel argues with Moses at the End of Days trying to dissuade Moses from fighting Samuel. Haniel is Bernard. Jack is Moses who will lead the tribes at the end of days and usually is seen with a beard. Thus, Jack's famous beard. The demon at this level is Baal who is a false god. That's Pierre Chang whom everyone thought would provide answers. Pierre is the leader of the Fallen Angels (Dharma Initiative).

The next level has the Archangel Michael whose name means "Who is as God" and that's Michael because he fights for his child so much. Archangel Michael is a warrior and known as "one who escaped" because he was being dragged to hell when he defeated the fallen angels and escaped. Michael escaped from the Island. The demon at this level is Belpheger who grants power of inventions and discovery to men, is known for sloth and is "the disputer". I think Belpheger is Razinski.

The next level has the Archangel Khamel-the severity of God who has knowledge of karma (cause and effect). Thats Eloise-she usually knew what was going to happen and killed her own son. The demon at this level is Asmodeus, the demon of lust who is sometimes shown as humorous, diminutive and hates birds. That's Frogert. Asmodeus lives at the level called "The Burning Bodies" and Frogert did get struck with a burning arrow and that area of the beach definitely had it's share of burning bodies.

The next level has the archangel Tradqiel, "the justice of God" who is old with white hair and is the energy force behind wealth or poverty. That's Charles Widemore. The demon at this level is Ashtaroth who is the prince of accusers and inquisitions who teaches math, answers questions and tells of the past and future. I think that's Miles. He certainly would question the souls' choices all the time.

The next level has the archangel Ratziel whose name means "the secrets of God" and arrives when a person's wisdom has increased-I'm guessing that's Illana. Illana answered a lot of the questions the souls asked. The demon at this level is Beelzebub-the lord of things that fly who brings on war. He is also a demon who hurts by being too helpful…the codependency demon? I'd guess that's Frank who kept protesting he wanted to help. Or Frank could be a cherubim who is a charioteer of god and transports souls to their destinations. I think the literature is full of people not being able to figure out who Beelzebub actually is…so they did a good job if it really is Frank as he is such a likable character.

The next level has the archangel Tzaphqiel-the feminine aspect of unconditional love and forgiveness whose name means Knowledge or Contemplation of God. That's Rose. Tzaphqiel doesn't like to get involved…is very passive. The demon at this level is Lucifuge who is also called "the hairy one of God". He kills men, drowns them and overcomes warships and is in charge of the government in hell. That's Keamy.

The top level has Archangel Metatron (Walt) who is called "The Youth" or "the angel of death". At the End of Days, the angel of death will actually be left in charge of Shoel. The demon at this level is Samuel (MIB)-evil incarnate who needs to be defeated.

At the End of Days, 3 Messiahs will appear to help the souls: Moses (Jack) who will lead the tribes and do whatever it takes to defeat evil, The Messiah ben David (son of David) who is Hurley, and the Messiah ben Joseph (son of Joseph) who is Ben. Hurley's dad is named David. This Messiah rides on a jackass-we've seen Hurley do that. He is the lamb or person who tries to solve conflict peacefully. The lamb opens the first box and starts the process of the End of Days….Hurley used the numbers to win the lottery and "opened the box that couldn't be closed again". After breaking the first seal, the lamb rides a white horse with a crown. Hurley won the lottery and then rode around in his dirty white van wearing a Burger King crown. People will thilnk the Messiah ben David is insane. Ditto for Hurley.

The false prophet will fool everyone into thinking he is the Messiah. The false prophet is described as being bald with a spot on his head. Flocke meets all of the descriptions.

The Messiah ben Joseph will fall from the sky in a flying chariot, be despised and tortured, will be unable to walk but be cured, be "pierced" or thrust through, be betrayed by someone he trusts, will win many battles for good, and die hanging on a tree and be resurrected, and be the son of Joseph. As you can see, both Ben and Locke seemed to met all of those qualifications and the paternity of both were always in question. I think the father of Messiah ben Joseph was probably Kelvin Joe Inman. Simply because he is the only fellow named Joseph on the show that I could find. People did think that MIB was Locke resurrected and thus they follow him as the false prophet. That's a big prediction in all End of Days literature. A third of the surviving people will follow the false prophet.

A little bit about the lost tribes of Jacob and who is who. Tribe of ephraim known for being fruitful even in captivity-that's Sun and Jin. Tribe of Mehasheh-who makes to forget-that's Sayid. Tribe of Benjamin-son of the South-that's Sawyer. Tribe of Gad-known as lucky-Hurley. Tribe of Dan-thought to have moved to Ireland-that's Charlie. I honestly don't know much about the 10 Lost Tribes of Jacob at this point.

I think Charlie is the prophet Jeremiah who was humiliated by a powerful king and knew of his own death. Locke humiliated Charlie and Desmond told him when he'd die.

Daniel Faraday is the prophet Isaiah who is pictured in the Sistine Chapel with a little black book. Isaiah talks about changing or stopping time. Isaiah uses rocks and boulders to explain ideas.

Desmond is the prophet Elijah who confronts a king and goes into hiding for 3 years while the king's daughter searches for him. Elijah returns to catalyze the Messiah. Desmond was in the Swan Hatch for 3 years after fighting with Widemore while Penny searched for him. Desmond returned at the last level and helped catalyze winning the war against evil. Elijah is predicted to return 45 days after the Messiah returns. Desmond came back after Hurley had already returned to the Island.

Kate seems to mirror the character of Ester whose name means "hidden". Ester loved her stepfather and begged for his survival with a king. Kate hid her identity, loved her stepfather and begged for Sawyer's survival.

Christian Shepherd is the Nostrim or Watchman who is predicted to speak for the higher powers at the End of Days. Nostrim actually means "christian". The Nostrum will be know for drinking alcohol to excess and eating pork. They are always taking about pigs in a blanket and dipping ham in sauce when the Shepherds talk about food. Christian was an alcoholic so he meets all of the description and he even said "I can speak for Jacob".

The 4 horsemen of the apocalypse are in the show. The white horse is Hurley's white van. The red horse is Hurley's red sports car. The black horse is the black suburban (or the actual black horse Kate sees). The pale horse is the pale blue VW van.

When evil is conquered, none of the Messiahs really have to accomplish it according to the ancient literature. Kate kills the false prophet, Flocke.

The story really follows the Book of Revelations fairly closely. The Messiahs break the seals…you see Ben cracking through ice, falling thru a dirt floor. You see Hurley break through a window. You see Jack breaking into the funeral home. Then the trumpet blasts begin. The first trumpet is blown by Archangel Michael and you hear it when Michael drives his car into the dumpster in "Meet Kevin Johnson". First trumpet signals beginning of war on land. Keamy makes war on the Island. The two trumpets blow in same episode when you hear a ship horn followed by a train whistle. 2 trumpets indicate blood in the water and the Mountain disappears. Keamy slits the doctor's throat and throws him in the water. The Island disappears. When 3 trumpets sound, great star falls from the sky called Wormwood and the water becomes bitter. This may be Flight 315 falling from the sky. The water in the temple gets bitter. There are three train horns when Jack breaks into the funeral home. Sawyer blows a car horn in Dharmaville 4 times. At the 4 trumpets, day turns to night. That's what Hurley said happened when Jughead was exploded. The Archangel Gabriel is the angel who will provide the power to cross the Abyss. Juliet sets off Jughead. At 5 trumpets, a great war between good and evil begins. 5 alarms sound when Hurley tells the Others at the Temple that Jacob is dead. The war between Flocke and Widemore begins. At 6 trumpets, the troops assemble. Everyone gets back together. Locke's alarm rings 6 times in "The Substitute". At this time two witnesses are killed by the false prophet. The witnesses have been impossible to kill and have been sorry about their past actions. I think the witnesses are Dugan (the prophet Enoch who judges souls and went to afterlife without dying) and Jack (the prophet Moses). A third of the souls follow the false prophet, a third get killed and a third escape. This happened when MIB got into the temple. Seven alarm rings are heard in Pierre Chang's alarm clock. At 7 trumpets, the Messiah ben David resurrects the dead and wins the war without actually participating in the war. Hurley raises Desmond and Ben. I think Ben probably died on a tree per the prophecy when the tree fell on him. Kate kills the false prophet. The 10 Lost Tribes of Jacob are reunited. The sideways timeline is the rapture or "harpazo" when souls are taken up into the clouds and shown a heavenly future. In the middle of the End of Days, the Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph reign. Hurley and Ben ruled the Island after the war is won until they hand leadership to Walt.

Before I Let Go by Scott Gingold

2010-09-22T08:18:00.000+01:00

Before I Let Go

A long-form theory & personal essay by Scott Gingold

Introduction:

This will be the very last theory I ever post about Lost, because well, hey I need to let go. What I would like to do here is go over all the parts of the show that I felt needed some further explanation or extra time devoted to, and then give my take on either what I think happened or what I would have liked it to have been. Before I get into it, I'd like to say that Lost was a one-of-a-kind experience. I've never been as fully immersed in a piece of fiction as I was with Lost and probably ever will be again. It captured my imagination and was sadly ultimately frustrating. It was a giant puzzle that I followed for 6 years watching every episode multiple times, watching all the bonus material, reading theories, writing theories, writing blogs, reading books and even writing fan fiction about. And yet somehow the giant puzzle didn't fit entirely together just right. I will always have a special place in my heart for Lost, but I was left with a slight tinge of disappointment, not only that it's over, but that it didn't all add up to one cohesive whole.

So without further ado, I will try to tackle the larger themes of the show that I felt needed further delving into. These are not so much unsolved mysteries, as not-fully-explored themes and ideas that the writers presented.

Part 1: The Others and Their Motives

We learned in "Ab Aeterno" that the very first Other was Richard Alpert. Before Richard, Jacob just brought people to the island to prove his brother wrong and let them make their own choices until they ultimately died, like he said they all did before Richard got there. Then Jacob hired Richard to be his liaison between himself and the people he brought back to the island. We also learned in that episode that it was the act of the Man in Black trying to get Richard to kill Jacob that inspired Jacob to find a replacement. Jacob's search for worthy candidates to ultimately replace him is the story crux of the entire show. So why build the Others? In my opinion, the Others were all once possible candidates. Jacob would bring them to the island, test them, and then decided if they were worthy to be a replacement, or if they weren't. If they weren't worthy, instead of just letting them fend for themselves on the island and most likely get killed by the Man in Black, Jacob decided to let them form a society of people to help Richard in his duties as liaison. Jacob basically formed his own religion, a tribe of people who believed in his teachings without ever having met him. People who would do his every command, and people who would protect the island, but whom he could not fully trust to replace him as protector. So basically the Others were candidate rejects.

This puts Ben's motives into much better perspective. Now that we know that Ben never met Jacob (until the day he killed him) and that Ben was taking his orders as leader of the others from pieces of paper delivered to him by Richard, it makes much more sense why Ben acted the way he did. The Others kidnapped the children because they were looking for suitable candidates. After having seen "The New Man in Charge" where it's know obvious that Walt was a candidate and will be replacing Hurley after his reign as island protector, the fact that the Others kidnapped him and tested him makes sense. The Others couldn't send the Losties home because Jacob wanted them there, after all, he brought them there in the first place. So the Others manipulated the Losties against each other to not only test them, but to get them emotionally invested in the island. Ben even says to Jack at one point in Season 3 that he didn't want him to save his life, he wanted to him to want to save his life. Which was essentially a metaphor for Jacob wanting Jack to want to sacrifice himself for the sake of the island. A few things about the others I need to clear up. First off, Dogen. I think Dogen was more than just the keeper of the temple, I think he was the leader of the Others after Ben & John disappeared. We know that Richard wasn't leading the Others for 3 years, as that was never his position in the first place. Dogen was brought to the island by Jacob to take over the leadership role and that's why the Man in Black could not enter the temple when he was present. Just like the Man in Black could not harm Ben when he was leader. Because Jacob made it so. Just like Mother made it so that Jacob and the Man in Black could not harm each other. The other thing that's been bugging me about the Others was "Jacob's Cabin." In "The Incident", Ilana & Bram discuss the cabin and the fact that it hadn't been used by Jacob for some time, but in fact someone else had been using it. Now that we know that the Man in Black had been posing as Christian and we'd seen Christian in the cabin, it makes sense that the Man in Black had been in the cabin for a long time, even when Ben was visiting it, thinking he was receiving orders from Jacob. It's possible even that Richard was visiting the cabin thinking he was receiving orders from Jacob when in fact the orders were from the Man in Black who had been deceiving everyone for a long time. Since the circle of ash was broken, the Man in Black was able to come and go from the cabin he was probably once trapped in and that's why we've seen him in his smoke form and also in the cabin. The whole "help me" scenario was just a ploy to emotional invest both Ben & John Locke in the beginning of the Man in Black's loophole which eventually lead to Jacob's death. So some of the Others' orders were not given by Jacob but by the Man in Black, which would explain why Charles ordered Ben to kill Danielle and Alex the baby and why the Others performed the purge on the Dharma Initiative. It doesn't make much sense as to why Jacob would want to kill the Dharma Initiative when it fact it seems likely that he was the one who brought them there in the first place, just like he brings all the groups to the island. I'd also like to point out that it was made pretty clear in "Dead is Dead" that Charles Widmore was the leader of the Others at the time of the purge. Even Ben says at one point in "Cabin Fever" that it was not him who killed the DI but the leader of the Others. At the time he said it I didn't believe him, but it's obvious it was Charles, most likely acting on the orders of the MIB posing as Jacob.

Part 2: The Nature of the Island and Why it Needs Protecting

In "Across the Sea" Mother answers the question of what is the source pretty easily, in that it's birth, death and rebirth. It's the light that's inside of every man. In "Ab Aeterno" Jacob explains that the island is a cork keeping evil at bay. The source is evil, but it's also good. It's life but it's also death. It's creation and destruction at the same time. It's also electromagnetism. It's pure energy. If the energy is released into the world, the world would cease to be. The world could not exist without the energy in the source and for that matter neither could any form of life.

So essentially the island is the gateway to the creation of the universe. It's also the gateway to the afterlife. When you're born, the energy in your mind which makes up your soul/persona/brain comes from the source. When you die, it all goes back into the source. In "The End" Christian tells Jack that in the afterlife time doesn't matter. The afterlife is part of the source. It's a reality constructed by the memories and wishes of the people who have died and been absorbed into the source. When they step into that white light at the back of the church, they will fully move on past their corporeal lives and becomes part of the source.

Part 3: What is the Monster and the Loophole

That all being said, it makes sense that when the Man in Black fell down into the cave, he merged with the energy. His soul/memories were absorbed into the energy but because wasn't ready to move on, because he soul wasn't ready to let go, he took on the form of the black smoke and became a giant cloud of energy.

I also feel that Mother was a smoke monster as well, she alluded to her knowledge of the light and what it meant to go down there, and she also laid waste to the entire village of men in a single afternoon.

The Man in Black's loophole was very well planned. He wanted to get off the island so bad, he didn't care that he wasn't human anymore and that getting off the island meant the end of humanity. He just wanted to leave. So he manipulated the electromagnetic powers of the island to create a time machine, which allowed him to put his plan in motion. He used John Locke from the very beginning as a pawn to bring down Jacob. Most likely it was MIB who healed John's paralysis, who gave John dreams, who lead him to the Swan and the Pearl. Who gave him faith in the island and then took it away. He played John & Ben like instruments and lead them both down the path to turning the wheel, sending the island into a series of time jumps that would allow John to convince every he was supposed to be leader, so he could eventually pose as John and get Ben to kill Jacob.

Part 4: The Sickness

I don't actually believe there was a sickness or that Sayid and Claire had been "claimed" as the Others put it. I do believe though that they had near-death experiences, similar to the one that Desmond had in Charles' EM chamber which briefly sent them to the afterlife and brought them back slightly changed. Sayid came back with less emotion. Claire came back with less sanity. And Desmond came back (after turning the fail-safe key in the Swan station) with visions. It happened to Locke, Charlie & Eko too. After the Swan implosion, Locke temporarily lost the ability to speak, Charlie temporarily lost the ability to hear and Eko was plagued by visions of his brother. The island would not let them die (or should I say the MIB would not let them die) so it passed onto them some gifts to help/manipulate them to his endgame of leaving the island. I guess you can call this the "claiming" process. Remember also when Sun hit her head when running from the MIB and her mind merged with that of her afterlife counterpart and she temporarily lost the ability to speak English. When Sun later confronted MIB about that, he claims to know nothing about it, but you can't really believe a word of what he says anyway. He also claims to not have killed the other Ajira survivors, but really, we know he did.

Part 5: Other loose ends.

"The New Man in Charge" answered the pregnancy question finally, saying that it was the high levels of electromagnetic energy that made it dangerous for anyone humans or animals to bear to term on the island. But why then was Ethan able to be born? Well, that happened before the incident, before a button had to pressed every 108 minutes to release a small amount of electromagnetic energy. Makes sense now. And in great Lost irony, it was essentially Juliet's own doing by setting off the bomb (yes it did go off) which negated the energy from the Swan station drilling which led to Radzinsky creating the button which lead to the pregnancy problem, which Juliet was brought to the island to solve. We are the cause of our own suffering indeed.

I'm not really sure what else to say. I feel the smaller mysteries have all been solved and much of what was left up in the air can be pretty much explained through, "the island was filled with electromagnetic energy that is the source of life" and "the Man in Black & Jacob were manipulating everyone to satisfy their own means".

There, I'm done, now I can let go.