LOST: How it all ends... by Vincent_Madison

LOST has always been the kind of show that you really don’t get things until thinking about the show the next day. That’s one of the things I have always liked about LOST. The episodes are usually much deeper than they appear. For me, (and I’m sure for many fans) Season 6 has been a bit of a disappointment, but that is to be expected – after all this is the Final Season and by now our expectations will likely never be met. Part of the problem is that up until now the destination (mysterious and enticing as it may be) has never been what it is all about, it has been the journey. But now, the journey is coming to an end, and the destination is in sight.

I’ve always had an idea of what LOST was about. If you think about, it’s never really been a secret. It is about Good and Evil, Light and Dark, being LOST and redemption. Season 6 had me confused for a while with the Alternate Timeline aka Flash Sideways. As I have previously said, the Flash Sideways seemed unreal because we had so much invested in the characters in what we perceive to be the ‘real’ timeline.

It was not until this morning, on my usual 45 minute commute to work, where as always, I have lots of time to think, that I started thinking about last night’s episode: “Lighthouse”.

Quite at once, everything started to fall into place – at least in my mind. Firstly, I’m beginning to think that the numbers are (and have always been) a bit of a red herring, designed to distract us. I don’t think they mean anything at all. I think the LOST Experience was designed to distract LOST fanatics like me to think the numbers were the key to the show. In the last two shows, seeing the candidates names on both the cave and the lighthouse wheel just made me mad. I thought the numbers were part of the Valenzetti Equation? It was important that they were on the hatch and had to be entered to save the world! But wait. A great illusionist distracts us so he can perform tricks that amaze us. I believe the numbers are LOST’s biggest distraction. They mean nothing at all.

So what was my sudden realization? It was this:

LOST is and has always been about White/Dark, Good/Evil, Opposing Forces, yet clearly we have seen how the lines are blurred so that it is not clear who or what is Good or who or what is Evil. In fact, LOST has taught us that there is Good and Evil in all of us, and even that both are necessary and one CANNOT survive without the other. That is the first critical thing. THAT is why MIB cannot kill Jacob. Think of the Dharma Imagery. Yin/Yang is the symbol of balance and wholeness – ONE that is made up of Black and White. NOT two – but ONE. Jacob & MIB (or their candidate successors) CANNOT exist alone. That is why MIB aka Smokey needs the other half to leave the island with him. They are ONE.

OK, on to the next realization:

The Flash Sideways is free will vs the Island Timeline which is not. We found out clearly last night that Jacob was influential in everyone’s lives and basically controlled what they did. The Flash Sideways is showing us how in spite of daily challenges, setbacks etc – like Locke being fired, in a wheelchair, and Jack being divorced and having trouble with his son, that people can rise above their challenges and succeed at relationships and be happy in the end. The Flash Sideways (hokey as it sounds) is the “Happily Ever After” story, albeit with realistic problems. IT is the reality where Sawyer will meet Juliet who is alive and fall in love, where Jack, divorced from Sarah, will connect with Kate and fall in love, where Desmond and Penny can be happy forever, where Locke invites his Dad to his wedding, where Rose has come to terms with her cancer, where Hurley is both the luckiest man in the world and a nice guy, where Sayid can be with Nadia, and even Ben Linus is! a High School history teacher.

The Flash Sideways is the end of LOST. It is the LOST people, redeemed because they realized what is important and by using their FREE WILL, they escaped from being LOST – thinking that their FATE was predestined.

So – how does it end? Well – we’re getting close. On the island, we already have dead zombie Sayid and Claire, and two halves of a whole (Jacob/MIB) that will keep battling each other to ‘protect’ the island. Perhaps FLocke is right – “There is nothing to protect James – It’s just an island.”

Jack will be the one to realize that they need to ‘end’ the endless cycle that has been going on forever. Jacob said when he was on the beach with MIB: “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress”. Jacob AND MIB AND The Island must be destroyed. Everything in that timeline must end. Jack will realize it and that is what will need to happen. Everyone there must die, so that everyone in the Flash Sideways lives.

It is not about taking one of two sides – good or evil – it is about taking control of your own destiny and doing what it takes to break the bonds of believing in fate, and instead having faith in yourself.

That is how the island ends up sunk – at the bottom of the ocean.

I hope that is how things turn out anyway – I think it would be a fitting ending to the greatest television show that I have ever watched.