Post-Finale Theory: Outrigger Shoot-out...and thoughts... by DaveTheKlone

Call me sentimental, but even though we've been brought closure to the major story-arc, and our beloved characters, I'm not ready to let go of LOST. The LOST we all came to know and love, slowly, perhaps even cautiously at first, taking bite after bite on the line as the creators pulled us along. The LOST with the mysteries, subtle and overt, that for many of us will remain unanswered, because after all, LOST is about the characters...the mythology is just a beautiful bi-product. Well, I still have some questions, and I think there may have even been more hints and answers in the finale than we think. For the rest of us out there who feel the same way that I do, who aren't ready to let the sleeping dogs lie - especially on the first Tuesday without a new episode of lost (being written on 5/25), maybe this is our way of hanging out in the Flash-Sideways for a while, until we're ready to move on.

With that said, I have a pretty cool idea about the Outrigger Shoot-out from Season 5. What was left hanging out there was: Who was in the outrigger that opened fire on (then) Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Faraday? Where did they come from? Who sent them/who's side were they on? My theory doesn't exactly identify the gunmen (or women), but gives some general ideas.

Who was in the other outrigger? I'm not sure who exactly they were was as important as what TIME they were from. They appeared behind Locke and crew after a time-flash, and there wasn't much in the way of defining characteristics we could use as a frame of reference, so we could say that the WHEN of that scene is an unknown, and will not be defined. Let's let that sink in...

In "The End", we are given some indicators of a time-line for Island events that goes beyond what we see in the series. Take, for instance, Hurley and Ben's dialogue outside the church.

HURLEY: "You were a good number 2, dude."
BEN: "You were a magnificent number 1."

Clearly, Hugo had a reign as Protector of The Island. This is a brilliant and beautiful idea for the story, and was amazingly foreshadowed earlier in the season as we saw Jacob grooming Hurley into a more confident person. We can imagine by Ben suggesting that a new way of running things, a "better" way of running things would be the perfect job for Hurley. Most likely he'd have any Island arrivals build some kind of amusement park, so they can enjoy their stay, before they leave freely of their own will. After all, the whole purpose of Jacob's argument with the Man In Black was to prove that Man could be good. It was always going to be Hurley that would prove this. He just needed Jack and Locke to finally eradicate the Man In Black, so he would no longer directly influence their corruption.

The sad fact is that by Hugo even being present at the church, Ben too, means that they've met their end. LOST is absolutely laden with cyclical themes, and one can only imagine what the future could hold as far as Widmore lackeys looking to take-up his mantle, or even some sort of next-generation connection involving all the kids (Aaron, Walt, Clementine, Ji Yeon), who knows. There could be any number of new threats to the Island, both from without and within.

One more belabored point before I get to my most-likely obvious conclusion. The producers have said that the time-flashes were to significant points in time. Perhaps the outrigger shoot-out was a very early nod to the idea that there is a future beyond what we will wind up seeing in the course of the series. It wouldn't be until the finale that we would understand that concept, and the dialogue between Ben and Hurley was a final confirmation. This could explain a lot of unanswered questions I'm sure.

So, that's the Outrigger Shoot-out Theory. This was a hostile group from the future of the island, after the Jack/Locke Death-match. We may have to say Goodbye to watching LOST each week on TV, but the story lives on through these questions that are still driving us, and the endless possibilities for the answers.

Thanks for reading.