The Mythology of LOST - Everything explained by LouCypher

Previously on Lost – Explaining the Mythology...

I posted up a theory last year and promised to finish it off one day. I have tried to explain EVERYTHING. There will be things I have forgotten or left out but on the whole all the important stuff is in here.

So let's get to it...

The Source

The light beneath the island is “creation” – a convergence of time and space, light and dark, life and death, matter and exotic matter – it’s the most powerful thing on earth, maybe even in the universe. But with every powerful force there is always a counterpoint or counterbalance to it. That other force was the Smoke Monster. In fact, calling it the smoke monster does it no justice – let’s just call it Darkness.

Don’t let the names fool you though just because the Source is LIGHT and the Smoke Monster is DARK – neither one at this point in the beginning had a concept of GOOD or EVIL. They learned these concepts from people and civilisations and came to embody them.

From this Source all life on Earth was formed and ALL LIVING PEOPLE harness a piece of the light within them; spirituality might call it the soul. When we die the light that exists within us returns to the source (hence The End church scene where they are all consumed by BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT).

What is the Scale inside every human being?

Now, in respect to what Dogen claimed about “a scale existing inside every man” where light and dark are both inherent within us, you could make the leap that the darkness is a part of the smoke monster to a certain extent. And it is very possible for any person to slip into that darkness in their life through the choices we make and the actions we take.

All the characters on the island lived and died trying to keep their scales balanced. Some succeeded, some failed.
What about the early Island history?

There is a grey area as to whether Jacob & MIB were first or the Egyptians but thanks to Lindelof and Cuse leaving enough ambiguity I am going to fill in the history in the order I think makes the most sense.

Long ago the island got colonised by Egyptian settlers who built the structures on the island, discovered the light and the monster, and eventually died out leaving one person as the ongoing “Protector” of the light/island. Enter Mother from Across the Sea.

So what was the reason these people died out?

The Ancient Incident is why...

It is clear to me that the CORK in the cave was very much reminiscent of The Swan hatch and that somehow way back when, through the misguidance of man, they tried to TAKE the light but caused a similar event that DHARMA would nearly cause roughly 2000 years later. An Incident that needed to be rectified by PLUGGING THE LEAK before it destroyed everything hence the cork.

Due to reasons we’ll never know and can only speculate about, the Egyptians died out from disease, war, radiation or even the Smoke Monster (this being the most likely theory). The only remaining survivor was the Protector aka Mother.

So what was the purpose of this protector?

To protect the island and the light from people who could end up destroying it (learning from the mistakes of her own people).
A protector gets this role after the light within them is “activated” and they become CONSCIOUS of it. They can ACCESS it to some extent. The island essentially chooses who it wants to protect it. There is no deeper explanation than this.

What is the Island?

You have to look at the Island as a living, breathing entity. The light is the island and the island is the light.

The Source is the HEART of the island, the Swan’s electromagnetism and the Orchid’s exotic matter are the organs, and the water that runs through and beneath the island is its circulatory system. It’s ALIVE.

Because it is, in effect, the source of creation, it is conscious of all that has come before it and after it. Remember, time and space have no meaning within the light. It knows the future and it knows who it needs to have protect it.

Everything happens for a reason...

Anyway... let’s not get sidetracked. Lots to get through!

What happened in Across the Sea and why?

Mother had been around protecting the island for a long time and grew lonely and weary, after all she was still just human (NOT a smoke monster). Claudia arrives with twins and is killed shortly thereafter by Mother.

Jacob and MIB are raised by Mother – one as a son (Jacob) and the other as her replacement (MIB). “I love you both in different ways,” she told Jacob. Yes, she loved Jacob as a son, and MIB as her REPLACEMENT.

Why was MIB special?

Like Walt, Locke and Hurley after him, some people when on the island have more of a connection to the light, or at least more of an awareness of it within themselves which gives them access to it on an unconscious level. They all are ideal protectors because of this “awareness” and can unintentionally harness its power for paranormal purposes (Walt’s projections/manifestations, Hurley’s ability to commune with the dead, Locke’s instinctive knowledge of the island). MIB was like them in this way.

All MIB ever wanted since being a young boy was to be free and to discover the world. His yearning turned into the bitterness and resentment of an older man trapped who could not fulfil his dreams. This feeling inside him was VERY, VERY STRONG.
Across the Sea showed us that Mother eventually bestowed the “curse” of being the protector to her son, Jacob.

She called upon the ancient, sentient being known as the smoke monster (that wiped out her people) to help her eradicate the other people on the island as they were coming too close to destroying the light.

What is the Smoke Monster?

The Smoke Monster’s key function since the beginning of time was to PROTECT the light. Like Rousseau once proclaimed, “It’s a security system to protect the island.” I believe she was spot-on right.

Like a puppy it was only aware of its function to protect and serve the source. Like a guardian of sorts that could be called upon by the protector to do their bidding. It’s made up of the same electromagnetic energy from the Source but it is the anti-light in the same way every yin has a yang.

But wasn’t the MIB’s demise in the cave the BIRTH of the Smoke Monster?

No. Like the Light, the Darkness ALWAYS existed. But until Across the Sea it never had desires or plans or schemes.

Two things happened that changed everything.

MIB killed his Mother. And then Jacob killed MIB throwing his UNCONSCIOUS BODY into the source. The MIB DIED and his body appeared on the rocks by the river where Jacob found him. THIS IS THE LAST TIME WE EVER SEE THE REAL MIB.

But what his body entering the light effectively did was allow the smoke monster to ABSORB this man’s memories, desires, feelings, his LIFE. It’s the same thing the light does with people – it absorbs the part inside them that is LIGHT, while the Smoke Monster absorbs the DARKNESS. Only this was the first time the light or the darkness had ever had someone ENTER their domain.

What this event did was turn the smoke monster from a powerful but ultimately benign source that co-existed with the light into a real MONSTER. It took the very STRONG memories and emotions of the MIB and was in essence corrupted by this mergence with a human being.

A quote from Lostpedia that sums this idea up for me:

“As seen in "The End", when Smokey takes on someone's identity long enough, it begins to believe that it is that person. It began talking to Jack under the belief that he/it really was Locke when they were lowering Desmond towards the Light. It is quite likely that MiB was Smokey's first transformation and became convinced that he/it really was MiB.”

Don’t forget he was intermittently transforming into MIB for almost 2000 years in ongoing attempts to manipulate Jacob. It is almost like a schizophrenic comprised of thousands of people’s memories and identities throughout the ages of people coming to the island.

It’s also why Ghost Jacob refers to him as an “old friend” rather than “brother” when he explains to Hurley that an old friend grew tired of his company and killed him (because his brother has been dead for centuries.)

Jacob created a monster that wanted nothing more than to leave the island and even destroy the light without realising that it was A PART OF THE LIGHT and its original purpose was to keep the balance between the light and its darkness in the world, and ultimately protect the light from destruction. One cannot exist without the other.

So...

Jacob’s power to harness the light within him as the protector and guardian of the island meant that the Smoke Monster could not destroy Jacob because it cannot DESTROY THE LIGHT without destroying itself. Those are the rules. BALANCE.

A battle between the two forces emerged; the light is trying to not be consumed by the darkness and the darkness wants nothing more than to escape (without knowing that it will spread as it deep down believes itself to be MIB).

Using an “emotional gambit” on Jacob (knowing that Jacob had the real power over it) the Monster tried to manipulate him by using the facade of MIB’s body (just as it did with JOHN LOCKE and CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD and YEMI and ALEX etc.) It can use the forms of the dead as vessels because the LIGHT inside them has gone out and returned to the source, which means it can take their identities as they no longer exist in this world.

Make this distinction between Smokey and the Light –
Smokey directly manipulates events and uses people’s memories and emotions against them to reach its own end game. It influences events and CAUSES situations to happen. It DIRECTLY affects change.

The light/source/island (and to a lesser extent Jacob) do NOT MAKE THINGS HAPPEN they merely guide and influence in a non-invasive way. For instance, MANY of the DREAMS on the island were given to people via the island itself...

What are the dreams and visions all about?

Claire’s dream (season 1) about her baby and Locke with the light and dark eyes was a message from the island warning her of the future. The scale within Claire (as we know from Season 6) slid into darkness through her allegiance to Fake Locke.

Locke’s dream (season 1) of the beach craft crashing and seeing Boone bleeding was the island setting in motion a chain of events to STOP THE WORLD FROM ENDING.

“Boone was a sacrifice the island demanded,” said Locke to Jack. And you know what? He was RIGHT.

The dream led Locke and Boone to the plane so that Boone would be fatally injured and lead a broken Locke BACK TO THE HATCH DOOR where he beat his fist bloody against it screaming so that DESMOND WOULD NOT KILL HIMSELF DOWN THERE AND LEAVE THE TIMER TO RUN DOWN. Without that dream to Locke – the world would have ended that very night.

“You saved my life brother, so I could save yours!” says Desmond to Locke at the end of Season 2.

Eko’s dream (season 2) where Yemi appears to him urging him to continue the work being done in the hatch as “it is more important than anything” was once again the island trying to stop the END OF THE WORLD. Without Eko on the island Locke would have stopped pushing the button before Desmond’s return by sailboat and with no one to turn the fail-safe key, it would have been goodbye creation. Eko’s ultimate purpose on the island was to help put John back on his path and to save the world.

Locke’s dream (Season 4) of Horrace Goodspeed telling John to come and find Jacob in the cabin was most likely the Smoke Monster interjecting into proceedings to get Locke back to the cabin so he could tell him (as Christian) to move the island.

This is the only instance I can think of where the on-island dream seems most likely to be of Smoke Monster origin. However, there was no evidence given that the Smoke Monster ever had this power (to cause dreams), so if it was the island it clearly wanted Locke to play into the Smoke Monster’s plans.

This is the thing about the battle between the Light and the Darkness – they both had to play (to some extent) into the one another’s plans to make certain outcomes happen. I’ll get further into this in a minute.

Jacob’s long-term goal (during the late-twentieth/early twenty-first century) was to get Desmond to turn the island OFF rendering the Smoke Monster mortal so he could finally be killed. To do that he knew he HAD TO play into the Smoke Monster’s plan by letting Ben kill him because once he was dead, the Smoke Monster would be stuck as Locke and inevitably rendered mortal.

Remember, Jacob made the rules! The light he harnessed within himself gave him the power to make these things happen. It’s like being the right hand man of God, or Thomas Edison’s Number 2.

What about Desmond’s visions?

Desmond’s visions (flashes) in Season 3 were given to him by The Island (the light) to make certain events happen the way they had to. Desmond really DID see Claire getting on that helicopter with baby Aaron after Charlie flicks that Looking Glass switch – but the reason it never happened is because The Smoke Monster INTERVENED in the form of Christian Shepherd and took Claire away for another purpose that he needed her for (Season 4).

Why did Christian aka Smokey need Claire?

Simple, the Smoke Monster needed to set-up John Locke and Ben Linus in an elaborate con. And the only way it could do that was to make them believe it WAS REALLY JACOB.

At some point after the Purge of the DHARMA folk, Horace Goodspeed’s cabin was occupied by Jacob (who occupied many different places on the island over the centuries). Richard went to the cabin to get instructions from Jacob when necessary. This is how Ben came to know that’s where Jacob was via Richard.

Jacob and/or Richard surrounded the cabin with a metallic mineral or volcanic ash (with special properties) that acted much in the same way as the DHARMA sonic fence and interfered with the electromagnetic properties of the Monster so he could never enter.

Eventually, Jacob vacated the cabin (for some reason – before the crash of Oceanic 815 and maybe even before the arrival of Desmond) in order to return to the Statue to finish his work.
Fast forward to the events of Season 4 - Smokey as Christian gets Claire to come with him. Claire, like the other Losties, goes through time flashes from era-to-era throughout the island’s history. They come to a point in time where Jacob has vacated the cabin and Smokey as Christian gets Claire to BREAK the magnetic circle allowing the cabin to be used by Smokey in the future to manipulate both Ben and Locke whilst pretending to be Jacob.

In a nutshell the Smoke Monster used the time jumps to set-up things it had already used the jumps to accomplish parts of its plan (in the present) and to set-up the things it still needed to make happen (in the future a la Locke and the compass). The time jumps served the Smoke Monster’s plan.

So why did the cabin move?

I would argue that it’s shifting in time was an effect of the island – it DID NOT WANT Locke and Ben to find it. Either that or the cabin moved because the Smoke Monster needed to buy time until certain pawns and events were in place so the island could be moved.

Remember, EVERYTHING that we have seen has been a part of a really large game between two forces – light and dark (represented in a sense by two ancient brothers) – where their moves are never totally assured because the pieces they are playing with are human beings that possess free will.

Free will versus destiny – which one wins in Lost?

The way I see it is like this...

Whatever happened, happened and the universe has a way of course correcting. The show proved these two notions to us as being DEFINITE.

So certain events are DESTINED to take place (e.g. Charlie dying) because his death brings about other events that need to happen in order for life to continue everywhere else. But that doesn’t mean “the variables” i.e. people can’t change things through free will. Desmond chooses to save Charlie multiple times – that’s his choice. So the universe (i.e. the island) course corrects so that Desmond and Charlie’s choices play into the END GAME.

You can’t change the past but you can try. When you try you FORCE the island to make adjustments so that the outcomes it needs to ensure its own survival play out as planned. Remember, the island/light is aware of past, present, future, life, death, everything. It transcends human perception of life & death and time & space. It knows what has to happen in THE END. But the human beings (our Losties) are always making their own choices, sometimes benefiting the island, sometimes not. While The Island cannot directly manipulate events like The Smoke Monster it can COURSE CORRECT.

And the Smoke Monster is constantly trying to disrupt the course of destiny to meet its own ends and plans.

How did Jacob know so much?

Because Jacob, like Desmond, could see the future. Flashes of it anyway. It’s never implicitly stated that he can but there is evidence to suggest it. One piece of evidence is The Lighthouse. Now the Lighthouse was a construction made with the sole purpose of being able to glimpse into lives off-island but who is to say its channelling of the light couldn’t do more than that? Perhaps it could bend more than just space, but time as well?

It’s also possible that Jacob was bestowed with a gift similar to Desmond that allowed him to piece together certain future events.

If you imagine Jacob as a representative of the light then a certain knowledge comes with that too. Like Locke just KNEW things, I think so too did island protectors. Knowledge is the ultimate weapon and this is proved time and time again in this show. Knowledge of the future makes one very powerful indeed.

So what about Eloise Hawking and her knowledge of the future?

Eloise Hawking was kind of a meta-comparison to the bigger picture – knowing the future meant she was compelled to make sure everything happens the way it is supposed to without realising she had the choice to refuse that responsibility.
There’s always a choice in this show regardless of how things may be presented.

Eloise had Daniel Faraday’s journal and with a forewarning of events to come set about making those things happen and to some extent so did Charles Widmore. He knew Desmond HAD TO GO TO THE ISLAND and he knew Locke had to go to the island too (remember Abaddon inspiring Locke to go on a walkabout?)

Who were DHARMA and what was their purpose?

As we discovered throughout the mythology DHARMA were a science commune dedicated to bettering mankind and believed that the island held the key to this. Their experiments plundered the island’s source and it caused the Incident.

They were a benign presence to begin with but their skirmishes with the Others led to bloodshed and the interjection of our Losties into their timeline led to their ultimate end.

What was the significance of the numbers?

The numbers are like a mathematical code for existence and to an extent, destiny. They are embedded throughout the world of Lost because they are representative of both DESTINY/THE FINAL OUTCOME OF MANKIND and the VARIABLES that may change that outcome.

The Variables in the equation were our Losties or CANDIDATES (as seen by Jacob’s numbering of them).

What are the candidates?

Candidates are POTENTIAL REPLACEMENTS for the role of Island Protector – Jacob’s role – and a candidate is selected by Jacob according to the people he RELATES to most. The people who he sees himself in – lonely, lost, confused, angry etc. He touches all the candidates because through that touch he ACTIVATES the light dormant within each of them.

Every single one of them had a purpose on that island (our core group) and even if that purpose was to die, they were variables that would help change the catastrophic outcome determined by the numbers.

So who were The Others?

The Others were recruits to the cause of protecting the island from all walks of life. Some of them may even have been candidates themselves once upon a time. They were a combination of scientists, doctors, soldiers, civilians and “good” people. At least they started off as good.

They were recruited over the decades by Jacob, Richard and eventually Ben.

They existed to keep the BALANCE of light and dark even when they were not fully aware of what the DARKNESS really was. Their understandings of the Smoke Monster came from Richard and ghost stories they told each other. Any encounters with it only added to the myth.

Ben was never meant to be a leader (always a number 2) and his obsession with his Mother’s death during his birth led him to “waste their time” on trying to resolve the fertility issues on the island.

Why couldn’t women have children?

This is clearly explained in the show.

Up until 1977 there had never been a problem with babies being born but after Juliet BLEW UP JUGHEAD it caused the crisis. The radiation and electromagnetism catalysed creating a problem with new life on the island. Any new life would be considered a foreign invader and neutralised. Remember, the Island is a LIVING THING.

The irony here is that Juliet ended up being the cause of the problem that she was brought there to solve in the first place. Juliet IS the reason women can’t have children. She is the cause of her own suffering. Depressingly poetic.

So why could Claire give birth?

She was much further into the late stages of her pregnancy and didn’t conceive on the island. Juliet and Ethan were covertly giving her doses of a vaccine that would save the baby and Claire from premature death. (This was finally explained in Season 3 by Juliet).

What are the whispers?

The whispers are the voices of those that have died (not necessarily all on the island) and those that have “unfinished business” like Michael. Because they are unable to “move on” they remain until they are given the opportunity to move on and return to the source.

The whispers frequently happen when DANGER is near or the living are about to engage in something that will bring about death and consequence. They are usually a forewarning to people. The whispers are observers stuck between life and death. This is the only instance of purgatory being shown on the show – the flash sideways was NOT purgatory but the light in each of our Losties returning to the Source to move on and be reborn as something else.

Who built the wheel?

As revealed in Across the Sea it was MIB. Using his special connection with the island he constructed the wheel until Mother buried it.

But how did he know to dig there in that spot? Because while Locke and co were time travelling and flashed back to Egyptian times Locke ascended down into the well on a rope and then during the next flash the rope Locke was on gets stuck and buried in the ground allowing the people who come upon it later to know that something is down there.

When you think about it – Locke’s time travel escapades did set-up a majority of events for the future without him even realising.

But here’s one of the kinks – if the Egyptian times were BEFORE the wheel was built how is Locke beneath the other time-jumping losties talking to Christian by THE WHEEL?
Well, the wheel is moving too. Remember, the light is where everything converges including TIME and that pocket beneath what will one day be The Orchid is having water channelled into it at regular intervals because the wheel is off its axis – therefore it is moving through time with the Losties. Where it flashes to, they flash to. In all the eras that they end up, the wheel is moving off its axis in those time periods BEFORE and even AFTER its own existence.

Trippy stuff.

So who rebuilt the wheel?

It was most likely people or a civilisation influenced by The Smoke Monster to rebuild it. Either that or they discovered the ruins of the well and dug beneath until they unearthed the wheel finishing the construction job off that MIB had started years before.

It is very likely the island was moved several times before.
Getting back to the subject of the wheel and Locke and Christian (aka Smokey) having a conversation down there in Egyptian times – didn’t anyone find it interesting that Fake Christian was there with Locke way back in the PAST? How did he get there?

It’s because when that wheel got turned and the Losties started skipping through time – The Smoke Monster skipped through with them. At some point during these multiple time periods that they end up in until Locke readjusts the wheel – there were two Smokey’s on the island!

Could that be future Smokey killing Rousseau’s team? It’s not necessarily an important question or answer here but one could argue a case for this scenario.

What was the sickness that Rousseau spoke of?

The sickness was revealed as DARKNESS overcoming people. The Monster could CLAIM those it touched (as long as they were not candidates like Locke). Through its touch it INFECTED people and the scale of light and dark within them began to tip towards the dark.

From a naive perspective it merely appears as though the people are getting sick with a strange fever and going nuts.
But Sayid was a candidate and the monster infected/claimed him?

Only because he was DEAD by the time his body was put into the INFECTED water supply.

Like I said, the island is alive and the water is its circulatory system. After Jacob’s death the island was left open to infection like an immune system left open to the ravages of disease – the Monster was in a sense the disease. Now that Sayid was dead, he could be claimed and in a way resurrected.

This did not mean that Sayid didn’t still have his free will. It is something that both Smokey and Dogen underestimated in him – the ability to choose, to be redeemed, to change.

Speaking of candidates and claiming – why was Eko killed?

Beyond the obvious production issues with Adewale it can be explained within the show as this;

Eko and Locke were both spiritual figures on the island. The Others at one point wanted both of them (Eko was almost taken in The Other 48 Days). And from The Smoke Monster’s perspective both were potential leaders who could gain it access to Jacob.

The Monster was hedging his bets because FREE WILL means that no con or manipulation of events can be certain to work out. It had the opportunity to manipulate both of them.

For Eko, his weakness was Yemi and the Monster used Yemi as a way to see if he could manipulate Eko effectively for insidious future purposes. Eko was the Monster’s “fail-safe” much in the way Desmond was Jacob’s.

First he needed Eko to be a broken man (much in the way Locke was) but Eko was stronger. He was letting go of his guilt about Yemi’s death therefore rendering Smokeys plan to use Yemi to manipulate Eko completely void. Instead, Eko was now a threat that needed to be eradicated.

When Ben went to be judged by Smokey he felt guilt and WAS a broken man by that point, which meant it was the time to act on Smokey’s behalf. Enter a dead Alex to put the final nail in the coffin.

Eko died because he realised that he was no longer held hostage by his past actions. He had moved on. When he whispered to Locke the infamous “you’re next” I think he meant it as “you’re next John” and John merely misinterpreted it.

Eko did see the Devil that day and he stood up to him. In fact, the first instance of the flash sideways can be glimpsed as Eko dies. In a brief moment we see him and Yemi walking away together as kids. That is Eko’s flash sideways universe and he and his brother are returning to the light together in the way they best remembered one another – as children. This is why Eko had no place in the Season 6 flash sideways as he had already moved on with the person who meant the most to him in his life.

He could have been a candidate but the likelihood is that he wasn’t at that point. Jacob was perhaps waiting (as he did with Sayid and Hurley) to see if Eko had the capacity to change or to step-up to the role.

As a side note to the Smoke Monster’s abilities – it can PROJECT the images of the dead people it is imitating. For instance, Smokey could be underground and still project the corporeal images of the dead it has scanned or come into contact with. Hence Christian Shepherd appearing on the Freighter to see Michael off. It couldn’t touch anything or go anywhere but it could project itself to locations contained within the electromagnetic bubble encompassing the island.

Why couldn’t Michael kill himself off-island?

For the same reasons that Jack couldn’t kill himself. They needed to live until they had fulfilled certain purposes towards the end game.

Michael needed to keep the freighter from exploding because of the people on it who still had purposes and roles to play such as Desmond and Jin.

It’s all very much based on ideas of causality. You can't get to A to D without having a B and C.

Why was Walt “special”?

As explained previously, like the MIB, Locke, Hurley, Miles etc. He had an unconscious awareness of the light within himself which gave him unusual powers and knowledge about things. Once a fully-grown adult, Walt would be the perfect embodiment of all the powers, insight, history, experience and goodness that the Island could ever need in a Protector.

Like the Source/light on the island he could draw things to him
Like the Smoke Monster he could PROJECT himself (although with a lack of control admittedly)

Like Hurley and Miles he would most likely be able to talk to the dead and save his lost soul Father

He WAS important. Watch the Lost epilogue “The New Man in Charge.” It’s a brilliant afterthought to the end of the show.

Who was ‘Taller Ghost Walt’?

It was firmly established that The Smoke Monster could NOT take the form of living people only the dead or potentially animals/insects (medusa spiders).

“Taller Ghost Walt” as Sawyer puts it is most likely Walt projecting himself. Remember when he told Locke that he had been having dreams about him? Perhaps Walt dreamt that he saw Locke in that DHARMA ditch one night and told him to get up because he had work to do.

Walt can transcend time and space as evidenced by his apparitions to Shannon and Sayid, at this point though considering how young he is perhaps he was doing it on an unconscious level.

The Island calls upon these "special people" to help sometimes – both the living and the dead.

What about all the ghosts on the island?

There are 2 kinds of ghosts;

The Smoke Monster apparitions (Locke, Christian, Yemi, Alex, imaginary Dave, Isabella)

And all the others were genuine ghost apparitions such as Michael, Ben’s Mother, the real Isabella, Charlie off-island, etc.

An interesting note here is when Ben sees his Mother back in the DHARMA days in Season 3. He runs towards her and she tells him, “It isn’t time yet.” What I believe she meant is that it isn’t time for him to be with her yet. In his flash sideways once he has made peace with the things he has done he will see her again.

Were the Oceanic 6 ever supposed to leave?

The adage “whatever happened, happened” applies to the fact that the time travel escapades ALWAYS had to take place because Locke always gave Richard the compass in the fifties just as Faraday was always murdered inadvertently by his own Mother just as Juliet always detonated Jughead and caused the Incident.

But perhaps the Oceanic 6 were really never supposed to leave and should have been there during all the time skipping from the start. Reasoning for this comes from many clues given including the fact that when the Oceanic 6 returned they were directly transported back to 1977 almost as if that’s where they should have been to begin with. Is this another instance of the Island course correcting? Since they left it had been calling to them in different ways to come back (Charlie’s ghost with Hurley, Kate’s dreams of Claire, Christian’s appearance to Jack etc.) because they never should of left and in so doing this the island had to course correct events by pulling them back in time from Ajira.

Before they got off the island Jack was struck down by a bad kidney – could this have been the Island doing whatever it could to keep them there?

The Smoke Monster wanted three things –

1. Jacob dead

2. All his candidates dead

3. To escape the island after destroying it.

In order to accomplish these things it needed a dead Locke to imitate. We have to ask ourselves how much the Oceanic 6 leaving was down to his design and NOT the island’s. Once again the two forces struggling in a game over the free will of our Losties.

So what was all this about? What was it all for?

This was just a blip – a tiny, microscopic moment in the history of the Island – that had the most significance in its entire existence. These people (our main characters) influenced and affected everything that came before (due to the time travel) and after their lives came to an end.

Every one of them had a purpose that The Island had to make sure they met in some way through course correction.

Their battle was with the darkness within themselves and the balance of their own scales while battling the very real darkness on the Island.

Which side won?

For our castaways the light triumphed – hence why they returned to it.

In the real world with Hurley as protector and then eventually Walt as his replacement it is clear that the island was in good hands for a very long time. I’m sure Aaron and Ji Yeon would eventually return to the place where they were born...

The Island was many things and created many paradoxes in order to remain in existence so that we all could. But the one thing The Island was beyond all else throughout the complex, bloodshed, time-twisting years was a home to those that were LOST.

And that’s that.

Any questions?

;-)