Dealing with Jacob/MIB and the possibility that a Baseball is just a Baseball by Spooky2k

Last weeks episode, Sundown, got a lot of us thinking about these sideways stories. Thinking about them in the greater scheme of things. Why are we being shown them? What purpose do they hold? How, when we have seen the end of the story of LOST, they will suddenly be more relevant? I believe I've stumbled upon a theory that, strangely, gets stronger with each characters flash sideways.

In Sundown, we found huge meaning in Dogens baseball. When it fell off of the table during his fight with Sayid, the fact that he stopped himself killing Sayid (or so it seemed - really, he can't harm a candidate and the ball reminded him of why he was on the island and of this fact) to pick it up seemed to place great importance on the ball. In true LOST fan style, we all started thinking over the possibilities. Or is that over-thinking the possibilities?

The baseball turned out to be pretty straight forward - it's just a baseball. It was, however, Dogens sons baseball, who was killed in a car accident that was Dogens fault. He told us, just before dying, that a man (Jacob) appeared to him and offered him a deal. The deal was, if Dogen chose to accept it, that his son would live but that Dogen would never see him again. Some of us seem to have taken this to mean that his sons death would be undone but due to Dogen serving on the island, they would never set eyes on each other again. This, I believe, is wrong.

I believe that what we are watching is the epilogue of the show we know and love. Why? Because of the deals we're seeing each character make combined with the sideways flashes of each character.

Let's look at the seemingly improved characters:
Jack is a better man in his flash sideways, able to get past his father issues. Hurley is a lucky man in his flash sideways, full of optimism. Ben is a man who makes the right choices when it's crunch time. Locke is a man who can accept his limitations and love his life for what it is (more specifically, he's not so hung up on his father/disability that he pushes the love of his life, Helen, away).

All of the above characters made deals with Jacob or stood by his side (so far) this season.

Now let's look at the characters who are just as flawed as we have seen them in the first 5 seasons of LOST:
Sayid is a murderer in his sideways story. Keamy remains the same (if not a little worse). Jin is still doing Mr. Paik's dirty dealings. Kate is still responsible for making a bad choice and not accepting responsibility for it, even though her good intentions remain. These people have not changed at all.

What side are these people currently on? The side of MIB.

I believe the flash sideways are the epilogue of LOST. Each person who made a deal with either MIB or Jacob are having those deals play out. I think this due to Dogens speech about the deal he made with Jacob and the fact we saw him in Jacks flash sideways with his son. It is the only deal we can see played out before our eyes.

So the people currently sided with Jacob improve and get another shot at their lives with their character building lessons subconsciously intact. Those sided with MIB are being seen to live out the same flawed lives they had before (with small details changed).

Of course, another possibility is that we're seeing 1 other loop of their lives play out. This could have happened many times and until all candidates are improved then the wrong side will win. However, this being the final season, I think this is unlikely and that we're seeing the epilogue.

So in summary:

People sided with and who remain faithful to Jacob until death will have another shot at their life and will do so as better people (this includes people who do not try to scupper his plans).

People sided with MIB and who remain faithful to him will have another shot at life but are doomed to be the same people all over again, making the same flawed choices (this includes people who have tried, knowing or not, to scupper Jacobs plans).

The flash sideways are in fact the epilogue of the show, where we see the characters live out their second chance, for better or worse.

*Note: I have left some characters (i.e Sawyer) out of this theory because we simply have not seen what they are conclusively like in the flash sideways.

*Note: I wasn't going to post this theory until this weeks episode (Dr. Linus), but when I saw the episode play out as my theory had predicted (if the person is faithful to Jacob at the last minute, then they live their lives as better people next time around). I know some people will think it silly that Ben killed Jacob and still gets another shot, but the point is that he had to kill Jacob to get where he is now. He is sorry for doing it and, after being explicitly given the choice of which side to join, is now stood on Jacobs side.