Lost: The Island, Characters, Dharma Initiative, Church by Christi Lieberman

The island is purgatory. So the characters are not yet dead... but they are also not alive. They are in some spiritual world. (Hence Miles talking to dead people, Desmond surviving electromagnetic radiation, Walt having psychic powers, whisperings, Richard never aging, the island moving and time travel.) When they show scenes (flash sideways and flash forwards) of the character back in the "real world" they are just spirits in the real world trying to find and remember each other from their experience in purgatory and move on together. It is easier for some to do this than others.

The island is ruled by Jacob and the black smoke who are fighting each other to win the island's inhabitants over to their side. (Jacob is heaven and the black smoke is hell.) That is why their is a stone cork holding back the evils of the underworld from overtaking the good. All of the dead people that are seen on the island is the black smoke impersonating them to try to win those individuals to his side. Llana and her crew are Jacob's bodyguards to assist him in getting rid of the man in black and determining who is honest and good to join Jacob's side.

Some people do die instantly when the plane crashes. Those that survive the crash and are on the island (the main characters) didn't die because they have unresolved issues from their past that they need to figure out before "moving on". They are also all somehow connected to each other from their past lives. Fate put them all on a plane together and stranded them on the island where they go through the most important experience of their collective lives. As they work out their issues on the island, they finally die. Like when Charlie kicked his heroin addiction and got over his self-doubt by forming a friendship with Hurley and romantic relationship with Claire - he died heroically. And when Shannon finally found true love with Sayid (a healthy relationship), realized her selfishness which led to her changed life attitude and she translated Rousseau's transmission on the radio, she died. This is true for every character as they die.

The Dharma initiative's goal was to manipulate scientific laws in order to change (and delay) any of the six factors of the Valenzetti Equation which was a sequence that had some connection to the date marking the end of humanity. Hence the six stations. Each station was testing different factors related to this and toying with the spiritual realm and natural progression of death for the people on the island. The people working for the dharma initiative were therefore also in purgatory and my far off theory about this is that the dharma initiative only hired people who wanted to extend the life of a loved one - the Dharma initiative made them feel important in this way. (Juliet wanted a longer life for her sister who died of cancer, Faraday wanted Charlotte back, Eloise regretted shooting Faraday, Amy wanted her murdered husband back, Kelvin Inman wants his suicidal partner back, Chang wants to know his son, Horace wants his son Ethan back, and Roger wants his wife back - Ben's mom). The Dharma is initiative is the one thing that still has some unanswered questions that I can't figure out.

The Oceanic Six consisted of characters who still needed to resolve their issues with someone/something back in the real world before they could move on. Jack and burying his father, Hurley and his lottery results as well as making peace with dead Charlie, Sayid and Nadia, Kate and her time to serve with the law as well as taking care of Aaron and handing him over to his grandmother, and Sun had her baby where it wouldn't suffer through purgatory and she made things right with her father.

So, in the church at the end, the people who resolved their issues and went towards Jacob are the ones who met up to move on to heaven together. It was hardest for Jack because his issue was "letting go". I told you my theory about the baby and Walt... Walt got a second chance at life because he was a kid. The baby was technically born in purgatory so it was never really alive. Those that were taken by the monster (like Eko) were not in the church because they went to hell. Michael is stuck in purgatory with the other whispers because he shot Libby and Ana lucia in cold blood and he has to live with that for the rest of his life on the island. Ben did not go into the church because he still had unresolved issues with his daughter Alex to work out and a possible relationship with Rousseau. Eloise and Daniel stayed behind to have a relationship together as mother and son that they did not have in real life because they were so consumed by their scientific work nor did they have it on the island because teenaged Eloise had shot adult Daniel. Charlotte was born on the island so she stayed behind to possibly continue her relationship with Daniel. Miles stayed behind to make up for lost time with his father (who was in the Dharma initiative).

Charles Widmore is like the head of purgatory. He meets people in real life and then when their time comes, brings them to purgatory to resolve their issues. He never moves on. The reason he and Ben were such rivals is because Ben wanted this power for himself. Richard is his assistant - hence why he visited all of the characters in the real world when they were kids.

Vincent is portrayed as man's best friend when they need it most. Michael and Walt.. Shannon.. Sun.. and ending at Jack's side at the final scene of the series finale.

Unanswered Questions: Where did Frank Lapidus go? What is Christian Shephard's role?