The Explanation: Jack Saved The Afterlife by Randy JuJu

I'm beginning to accept the ending, and though I would have preferred a different direction for the whole of season 6 (and the finale of 5, where the show dramatically changed tones) I find The End satisfying and find Season 6 to be wrapped up completely. More importantly, the character arcs were finished with grace, flair and near perfection.

But, in all of this, I think people fail to understand the heroics of Jack. He saved the afterlife. The island housed the light, which in turn, held the afterlife. I view The Man In Black as a Lucifer type, looking into the Sylvan Scene of Heaven, as written in Paradise Lost. He wants to go home, into the afterlife. This is impossible. He can only hope to destroy it. He realizes this late in the season and settles to destroy that which he can't have. At some point he recruited Hawking, promising her that which she can't have: her son, Daniel. He can actually promise all the Losties their loved ones, because he knows that if the light goes out, the characters will forever be stuck in their limbo, the Flash Sideways. He was actually telling the truth about that. The island was in fact a cork, holding the afterlife in place, protecting its integrity, and keeping the evil of the MIB in check. When Jack uncorked the light, MIB's powers were negated, allowing him to be destroyed (or at least contained). I'm sure he reformed to terrorize Hurley in Season Seven. Jack then recorked and reinstated the light, upon his death, which allowed the Losties to Let Go from their limbos and move on together into the afterlife. Without Jack's actions, the characters would have been stuck in their limbo, which, strangely enough, doesn't seem all that bad.... but it is certainly a trapped environment.

Characters like Hawking are afraid to awaken Faraday to their real selves, fearing that they would move on and leave them. If Hawking would just accept that she has died and her road ahead contained happiness with Daniel in the afterlife, she would not be trying to restrain Desmond. Ultimately, I sympathize with Hawking, who worked in conjunction with MIB so that her son would stay forever ignorant, and forever with her in the limbo. This trend applies to other characters not seen in the Church, notably Widmore. Widmore, I do not believe, was working with MIB. Widmore only wanted power over the island, and even though he brought Desmond to the island, he was only worried about bringing himself to the island.

Much hoopla has been made about the key theme of the show being "love." Like it or hate it, it's true. The Losties love for one another created the limbo and reconnected them within that realm. That and their constant, Desmond. Of course, I should say that the Nuke never went off, that merely what happened was the EM flash which sent our characters into the future. What Happened, Always Happened. The Losties were always part of the Dharma Initiative. Michael and Jack could not kill themselves in the outside world because they were actually living the past, because their future selves would set about events that would lead to them time traveling into the 70's. What Happened, Always Happened with this show and with the timelines. As far as the Rules: People will be disgruntled about the show's explanation, but it was said several times: The protector of the light makes the rules. Jacob chose to make it that candidates could not be killed by MIB and it seems Ben could not kill Widmore off island and vice versa. However, whether these "Rules" are merely moral guidelines that are suggestions and not actual constraints is to be debated. I believe the rules were always suggestions and actually had no power to be enforced. But tell a person that he can not kill his brother and that there is no outside world for his whole life and they will probably accept that as fact. The world was in fact flat for more of Human History than it was round.

There are obviously hundreds of huge questions left unanswered: Why did Sun not travel into the 70's, Why did Jacob's Cabin travel throughout the Island, Who the Hell built all the Egyptian statues and systems and why did the Hatch Countdown have Hieroglyphics.... etc.... etc....

but a majority of the vague questions were answered: Pregnancy? Radiation from the Incident. Locke's body: a plan orchestrated by MIB, carried out by Hawking. etc, etc, etc,

But if you're going to take something from this theory: The Light, whether a collection of EM, Energy, Heavenly Light: it kept the After Life afloat. When Jack reinserted the cork, he saved all of their eternal future.

I miss Lost already.