LOST Theories - DarkUFO

As much as I hate to say it, the Island was a type of Purgatory, a level of existence after life and before Heaven. The big concept of the show is that there are multiple levels to life and death, not just two levels: Life --> Island Purgatory for Jacob's select few --> The next level of existence (ALT) --> Heaven/Nirvana/Whatever. There might be more levels of existence in between, but we don't need to go that far.

I think Darlton intended to be more clear about this when they conceived of the show, but chickened out when it became too obvious and didn't want that to be the only answer one could glean from the show, so they made the ending open to interpretation.

Why is it Purgatory? It just explains too much for it not to be the case.

1) If it's not, there's no "big idea" to the show, no "big reveal" that's the key to the entire series, just a Season 6 finale that wrapped up the Season 6 storyline -- I'm not buying it. Darlton always said there was a big plan for the series, so if the Island isn't Purgatory, they were lying -- which is possible.

2) This is a TV show. This was originally pitched somewhere. They didn't pitch it by saying "Imagine an Island where a plane crashes, there's a huge source of electromagnetism at its core which causes all sorts of weird sci-fi stuff to happen, and we end with our main character dying on the Island, and the last season involves our characters' afterlives." No, they pitched it by saying "Imagine an Island that actually turns out to be Purgatory."

3) The numerous clues that everyone was dead -- Cooper's comment that they were in Hell during Season 3, Locke's comment in Season 1 that many of the passengers survived with only superficial injuries, Naomi's comment in Season 3 that they were all dead, Richard's comment that they are all dead in Season 6.

4) It would explain why Locke can walk after the crash, something for which we have no other explicit, definite answer.

5) It would explain why Hurley can see dead people.

6) It would explain the "whispers" -- they are stuck in Purgatory, unable to "move on". Otherwise, the "whispers" are random dead souls on an Island of very much alive people, which doesn't make any sense.

7) The whole metaphor of the "light" implies death.

8) The concept of LOST -- people who all lived troubled lives, flashing back to their lives, trying to rectify their past mistakes -- just like Purgatory.

9) "See you in another life, brutha" -- this quote clearly has a double meaning ever since we first heard it

10) It accounts for the "So it Begins" mobisode where Christian Shepard tells Vincent that his son has work to do, because MIB wouldn't have referred to Jack as his son nor had any work for Jack to do. That was the real Christian Shepard, the same guy we saw at the end of "The End."

11) It would account for the strange rules on the Island that seem to transcend scientific logic, especially young Smokey's comment to Jacob that "When you get older, you can make up your own game and your own rules." It's easy to make rules in the hereafter, not as easy to do so in the Real World.

12) It would explain why Jack is alive in the Pilot, when the bamboo around him should have killed him.

I think the Island is a type of Purgatory, another level of existence, where the "gods" are Jacob and Smokey. I also think the Island was an actual, physical, real place discovered by the Dharma Initiative. Some people die to get there, other people travel there and back by bizarre means.

How do we explain Christian Shepard's final comments that 1) the Losties spent the most important part of their lives together and 2) some died before Jack, some died years after? Here's how I interpret that:

1) Shepard was including their time on the Island as part of their "life", as they weren't quite to the next level of death but weren't quite alive either -- moreover, the concept of "life" is probably very different to a soul who's living during the next phase, especially when that soul says that "You're real, I'm real, all those people in the Church are real"

2)Some died before Jack on the Island, some died years after in the Island reality, but they were all died in the Oceanic 815 crash. For this to make sense, Kate and Sawyer must escape to either a fictional Island reality (the same Oceanic Six reality seen earlier). Jacob, using the Lighthouse, engineered to bring their "LOST" souls to the Island so they could help Jacob prevent the devil from taking over the entire afterlife.

This theory isn't perfect, but it's the only theory that ties up everything and makes the entire show a coherent narrative. Even if I'm wrong and Darlton intended differently by the time of "The End", it's clear that the original concept of the show, and the groundwork laid for 6 seasons, built towards the Island being a type of Purgatory.

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