What Lost is really about : Light, Guardians, Smokey and afterlife by Khelek

The reason why I was so pissed at the end of Lost was that I had the feeling there was no conclusion for what happened on the island and that we didn't why the hell it was so important to protect that light and kill the smoke monster. I lost faith but still, I kept looking. How John Locke of me.

So here are some explanations, point by point. I think I manage to join the Island mythology and the characters' storyline... Of course I read other theories to reach this conclusion ;) It's very long but I think it's clear enough. Well of course, if, like me, you believe that it's on our good earth that we can make things better and "get better", you won't ever be satisfied.

- The island world and the alternative world : the island is the real world, a physical place on earth, a material world. The alt world is the afterlife. There is no real doubt to have about this : how could Jack's father be alive in the alt world if it was real ? It could be a vision that only Jack has, but it isn't since Locke and Desmond look at Christian in the church. I admit it's a bit confusing because Christian both says "there is no now here" and "this place is real". The answer for all that is in the Light !

- What the Light in Lost really is : the Light is the place where the souls of the dead go altogether. It's a real place on earth and on the island. The clue to understand this is the opening of the church doors by Christian. The light fills the church entirely. It's obviously not the sun, since the action is at night. So what the light in the church, eventually making all the characters disapear, tells us is : we are INSIDE the light ! So it explains Christian's phrasing : the Light is real, it's on the island, but it's also immaterial because it's the afterlife.

- Origin of the Light : there, we have no clear explanation. But there are only two : either it existed at the creation of earth, either it was created after the first two human beings alive died ("our very own Adam and Eve"). The second explanation is more interesting since Christian says : "this a place you all made together". Then, the Light would be a creation of human souls wanting to rejoign and find their way after death.

- Protecting the Light : Well now it makes a lot more sense to protect the Light, doesn't it ? If the Light is the place where all dead people go and have a chance to reach some kind of fulfilment, we might as well protect it ! At the end of Lost, if the Light was destroyed, it would mean the end of afterlife.

- Guardians of the Light : When Ben goes under the temple and is "judged" by Smokey, we see a picture explaining everything about guardians of the Light and smoke monster. We see the Egyptian god Anubis seated in front of the smoke monster. Anubis is the god who has to help the dead reach the afterlife and protect their tomb (you see the link with Light and afterlife !). Anubis is a symbolic guardian for all the real human guardians protecting the Light. And here it's very interesting : all mythologies (Egyptian, Greek, Chinese...) on Lost earth take origin when the Light was discovered. So let's make our mind work ! Some guys, a long long time ago, found the Island, found the Light, realised it has some special power (afterlife, magnetism, healing etc) and decided to protect it. To protect it, they created RULES. Egyptians created their mythologies : if Anubis protects the afterlight, we, as human being, might as well do it ! Later on, Jacob also created his own rules. The rules are not mystical or special, they are human laws to protect the Light ! So Jacob's fake mother, Jack, Hurley and all guardians before them where protecting the afterlife. They were playing the role of Anubis !

- Origin and purpose of the smoke monster : What we can know for sure is that the smoke monster existed BEFORE Jacob's brother died and went into the light. From spoilers, we know that Jacob and his brother were born around 23B.C. How the hell could the smoke monster be drawn on the Egyptian wall (earlier than 3000 B.C) in the Temple if the smoke monster was Jacob's Brother. One other clues : Jacob's fake mother Claudia, when facing the Light, tells Jacob that if he went into the light he would become something much worse than dead. She probably knows about the smoke monster inside the grotto.

- So what the hell is the smoke monster ?? Well, the answer is given in season 1 by Rousseau. It's a weapon, a protecting system. It is also a judge of who can go into the Light or who will stay as a ghost on the Island. Mickael and Eko were killed by the black smoke and we don't see them in the church at the end. As Ghost Mickael explains to Hurley, the whispers we hear in the jungle are the dead who didn't accomplish something good enough to REALLY die and go into the Light. Again, strong link with Egyptian mythologies but later on that.

As I said before, Smokey IS NOT Jacob's Brother. He assimilated him to trick Jacob just as he assimilated Locke to trick him. Smokey does have one goal : leave the island. To do that, he needs to kill the guardian and destroy the Light. When Desmond turns the Light off, Smokey finds his humanity again and can leave. Smokey was probably human (he says so himself) at first, he went or was thrown ALIVE into the Light (there is an unknow skeleton in the grotto). A living being has nothing to do in the afterlife, so it became Smoke monster. Cool enough. So from now on, Smokey is linked for ever to the Light and so, to death. So, he can't destroy the Light himself and so, he can assimilate dead people to trick the guardian. When Jacob's brother goes into the grotto, he broke his skull on a rock and died just before : dead = assimilated by Smokey. Christian was dead in his coffin = assimilated by Smokey. Locke was dead in his coffin = assimilated by Smokey.

- How to go into the Light or the Egyptian's judgement of the soul : as the Temple Kung-Fu fighter explained to Sayid, in every human being, there is a SCALE. On one side there is good, on the other one there is bad. During our Life the scale goes toward the one or the other depending on our actions. In Lost world, the result for each is : you go into the Light (and become somehow immotal) or you stay stuck on the Island as murmurs or ghost. This is quite exactly the process of Egyptian's judgment of the soul in their mythologies. When someone dies, Anubis brings the soul of the dead to Osiris. Osiris is the judge and he has a SCALE . One one side there is the heart of the dead on the other there is a feather from Maât, the goddess of peace, order and balance. If the scale is balanced, the dead becomes immortal (goes into the Light). If it doesn't it's hell (mumurs). When someone died in Ancient Egypt, a book was put into his grave to help him pass these tests. The title of the book is FORTH BY DAY (in french SORTIR AU JOUR). And if that is not proof of what Lost and the Light is all about, I don't know what is !


- Jacob and Smokey playing backgammon and the death of Smokey : the fight between Jacob and Smokey is a very long one. Two sides : one is light, one is dark (again we knew that from Season 1 !!) Jacob wants to protect the Light and afterlife, Smokey wants to destroy the Light to become human again and leave. But Jacob and Smokey also want to destroy each other. Only they can't because of their link to the Light. For centuries, people who were broken, sad and lonely were brought on the Island by Jacob. These people were used as pawns by Jacob and Smokey to reach their goal. Only Jacob is a bit more human since he wants a guardian who CHOOSES to be a guardian. In the end, Jacob was smarter than Smokey. He found Desmond, the only one able to go into the Light alive. He turned the Light off, Smokey became human in Locke's body just long enough to allow Jack to kill him (yeah yeah I know, Kate killed Smokey, don't get me started on that, I'm trying to black it out !!) and turn the Light on again. That was probably Jacob's plan all along (he asked Widmore to bring Des back). After that, the Light doesn't need to be protected from Smokey, only from greedy human beings who want to use its power.

But with Hurley as a guardian, greedy human beings can quickly turn into island golf players, hippy van drivers and dharma beer drinkers. So all is good on Island world !

The end !