Instead of trying to arrive at a detailed understanding of the Lost mythology, I thought it might help to pull back the lens a bit and imagine how J.J. Abrams might have originally pitched the story to his team at a high level.
Perhaps it went something like this:
Throughout history, human cultures have developed remarkably similar sets of beliefs regarding death. Most religions, from ancient to modern, have a concept of one's being judged after dying. This common thread is not a coincidence. As most myths are, this one too is based in reality.
In fact, people from every part of history have experienced this judgment first-hand -- and some have lived to tell about it. The Egyptians have actually come the closest to understanding the phenomenon, documenting it in the Book of the Dead. But they missed a critical piece of the puzzle.
The Earth does indeed have an arbiter. But the arbiter doesn't simply judge individuals when they die. It is judging the entire human race.
How? Continually, over the course of time, it extracts samples from various cultures, placing representative groups in situations that test their worthiness, without giving them any idea they were being judged.. Eventually, the arbiter will have taken enough samples throughout history to be able to render a final judgment: whether humans have progressed enough to earn their place on Earth or whether they need to be purged so the planet can start fresh with a different dominant species.
Imagine what it would be like to be a part of one of these groups. To you and me, being selected to participate in this judgment would just seem like a series of chance events. Picture a group of people -- all seemingly unrelated, but connected in improbable ways -- all being driven somehow to board the same airplane. An airplane that will happen to crash onto a seemingly deserted island. An island on which amazing, impossible, terrifying things happen.
This is where our story begins, with what seems like an ordinary plane crash on an extraordinary island. Our main characters -- and our audience -- are unaware of the trials they'll face or why.
They are also unaware of the even bigger secret: Some very smart, very powerful people have discovered what is actually going on -- that humanity is being judged and that the verdict is imminent. With that knowledge, there are only two options. They can either try to keep this circle of judgment going forever, preventing humanity from ever reaching its ultimate fate; or, they can try to break out of the circle and stand up to be judged, hoping to redeem us from our past sins.
There are factions of these smart, powerful people secretly but earnestly pursuing each option. One side is counting on science to manipulate the outcome; the other has faith in humanity's ability to pass the ultimate judgment.
Perhaps it went something like this:
Throughout history, human cultures have developed remarkably similar sets of beliefs regarding death. Most religions, from ancient to modern, have a concept of one's being judged after dying. This common thread is not a coincidence. As most myths are, this one too is based in reality.
In fact, people from every part of history have experienced this judgment first-hand -- and some have lived to tell about it. The Egyptians have actually come the closest to understanding the phenomenon, documenting it in the Book of the Dead. But they missed a critical piece of the puzzle.
The Earth does indeed have an arbiter. But the arbiter doesn't simply judge individuals when they die. It is judging the entire human race.
How? Continually, over the course of time, it extracts samples from various cultures, placing representative groups in situations that test their worthiness, without giving them any idea they were being judged.. Eventually, the arbiter will have taken enough samples throughout history to be able to render a final judgment: whether humans have progressed enough to earn their place on Earth or whether they need to be purged so the planet can start fresh with a different dominant species.
Imagine what it would be like to be a part of one of these groups. To you and me, being selected to participate in this judgment would just seem like a series of chance events. Picture a group of people -- all seemingly unrelated, but connected in improbable ways -- all being driven somehow to board the same airplane. An airplane that will happen to crash onto a seemingly deserted island. An island on which amazing, impossible, terrifying things happen.
This is where our story begins, with what seems like an ordinary plane crash on an extraordinary island. Our main characters -- and our audience -- are unaware of the trials they'll face or why.
They are also unaware of the even bigger secret: Some very smart, very powerful people have discovered what is actually going on -- that humanity is being judged and that the verdict is imminent. With that knowledge, there are only two options. They can either try to keep this circle of judgment going forever, preventing humanity from ever reaching its ultimate fate; or, they can try to break out of the circle and stand up to be judged, hoping to redeem us from our past sins.
There are factions of these smart, powerful people secretly but earnestly pursuing each option. One side is counting on science to manipulate the outcome; the other has faith in humanity's ability to pass the ultimate judgment.
