Jay P. Greene's Blog

Here is Brian’s take:

So I think I’m pretty pleased with the ending. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and it definitely succeeded in giving the characters closure, which I think was really what the show was about anyway.  Everything else that happened along the way was just a vehicle to the same inevitable point…”it always ends the same.”  I think this is about as good as they could have done.  I do think it left enough vagueness that people will discuss it for a long time, which is cool really….

Everything that happened, happened. Whoever survived the crash, survived the crash. But they were all dead at the end.

Boone died from the falling plane. Shannon was shot. Charlie drowned. Jack was knifed at the end.

Those that were alive at the end of tonight went on to live their lives, and they died whenever they died.  Bernard and Rose probably lived on the island for a long time before being ready to “move on.”

The Island was NOT purgatory, but the Sideways Reality WAS a kind of waiting room between death and the “next step,” which we saw as the bright light when Christian opened the door. The Sideways Reality was an artificial construct, which did NOT take place in 2004, as we had supposed, but was timeless, it existed outside of time. It was a construct, as Christian said, so that, after their individual deaths, whenever that happened, they could “find” themselves.

What we did not see was Hugo’s long reign as “Jacob,” which apparently he did very well, according to Ben.  Perhaps Hugo and Ben went on to guard the Island for another 1000 years.

Those not in the church aren’t ready to remember and move on yet (Faraday, Miles, Charlotte, etc). Ben remembers, but probably didn’t go in because he wants to move on with Alex. (that’s also why Desmond said that Ana Lucia “wasn’t ready yet”)

Here’s my reply:

I pretty much agree.  The writers did a good job of resolving things given the direction they wanted to go.  Lost was about characters working out their issues and embracing the purposefulness of life — primarily love and sacrificing for others.  And Lost rejected Smokey’s nihilism that there was no purpose to their lives, loves, or sacrifices.  Smokey never worked out his issues.

I loosely guessed this at the beginning of this season: “In the conversation on the beach between Jacob and Esau in the final episode of last season, Esau says that it always ends the same way.  I think he means that we all die.  He repeats this theme when he tells Ben that only Locke understood how pitiful his life was — perhaps all life is.  In Smokey’s view life is futile ending in death.  Jacob agrees that it always ends the same way (we all die) but there is progress.  Jacob believes in the purposefulness of life.”  Then again, I guessed a lot of things.

But I don’t find this kind of storyline fully satisfying.  If Lost is only about characters working out their issues, why bother with the whole Island thing.  They could have had a big group therapy session.  Characters need to work their issues out in a context that really matters — independent of them.  If the story is only about them and their issues, why should we care about saving the Island?  What does it matter if Smokey gets off the Island?  The writers failed to give closure to the plot outside of the characters’ personal development.

One of many unresolved plot items — Did jughead prevent the hatch from being built or not?  Why was Charlie’s sacrifice necessary or important?  Why can’t babies be conceived and delivered on the Island?  What about Michael and Walt?

I’m not asking for details.  I’m saying that the show did a great job of resolving the soap opera aspects of the plot but failed to even address the action aspects of the plot.  Character development without action development is only partially satisfying.

It’s been a while since I last posted on Lost, so let’s review what we’ve learned since then.  Most importantly, we’ve learned that something is horribly wrong with the parallel world.  After the side-flashes for Jack and Locke it seemed like the parallel world was one where everyone had worked out their problems.  But it now seems clear that it was all too good to be true.  Starting with the Desmond side-flash episode and continuing this most recent week with Hurley’s side-flash, we are learning that the parallel world is almost certainly bad.  It’s somehow false and people are detecting that, notably Desmond, Charlie, Daniel, and now Hurley.

One big problem with the parallel world is that it is missing love.  Desmond was missing Penny.  Charlie was missing Claire.  Daniel was missing Charlotte.  Hurley was missing Libby.  Is the show telling us, as I earlier guessed, that suffering and loss are virtuous?  Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

But this doesn’t quite fit everyone’s experience in the parallel world.  Jack and John seem to have great lives in the parallel world, including love.  Nevertheless, I’m willing to bet that the parallel world is somehow false and bad and they need to get back to the Island world.

Desmond already seems to be working on getting the band back together.  He’s manipulating everyone so that they awaken to what they are missing in the parallel world and could get in the Island world.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him getting everyone back on a plane with a dead Locke so that they can get back to the Island.  Maybe that’s why he ran Locke over. 

We learned a few other things that mostly confirmed things that we suspected.  The whispers are dead people who are stuck on the Island because they had done bad things.  And we have confirmation that Smokey really is bad.  Despite my efforts to build a theory where he might be good, it seems obvious that he is not.  We also know that people are supposed to work out their problems on the Island.  Jack and Hurley both made direct statements about how they used to be controlling (or passive for Hurley) but have now changed.  That was bad script-writing to be so direct about it.  Couldn’t they have just shown us without telling us?

There’s still a lot we don’t know.  In fact, we don’t know much about any of the important things.  What bad thing happens if Smokey gets off the Island?  Whose side is Widmore on?  What is the purpose of these people finding love or working out their issues other than the benefit to them?  Why should we care?

This time I really think I’ve figured something out.  Really.  I mean it.

The Island has two particularly strange characteristics (among several others):  babies can’t be born on it (with important exceptions) and dead people walk around on it.  We know that one of those dead people, Locke, is actually Esau (Smokey).  I’m willing to bet that all dead people we have seen walking around on the Island are in fact Smokey, including Christian, Claire, Boone, Harper, Ecko’s brother, etc…  Smokey is death.

I’m also willing to bet that babies born on the Island, including Aaron and Alex, are somehow connected to Jacob or are Jacob.  Jacob represents life.

In the conversation on the beach between Jacob and Esau in the final episode of last season, Esau says that it always ends the same way.  I think he means that we all die.  He repeats this theme when he tells Ben that only Locke understood how pitiful his life was — perhaps all life is.  In Smokey’s view life is futile ending in death.

Jacob agrees that it always ends the same way (we all die) but there is progress.  Jacob believes in the purposefulness of life.

Remember that Ben brings Juliet to the Island so that they can have babies, perhaps expanding Team Jacob.  Widmore, on the other hand, wants to kill baby Alex and ultimately does through the mercenaries.  Widmore is part of Team Esau.

Also, the dead Alex appears to Ben under the Temple scaring him into doing whatever Locke says, but Locke is actually Smokey at that point.  Alex has to be dead so that Smokey can appear as her and trick Ben into following Locke’s orders to kill Jacob.

I don’t know what the “infected” people, Sayid, the new Claire, and Rousseau’s colleagues, really are.  Perhaps they are being drawn into Team Esau.  Remember that Rousseau’s colleagues went under the Temple, where Smokey attacked them, and Rousseau did not.  Perhaps Smokey infects people there, maybe because they went into a spring like Sayid did.

We also know that Ben summoned Smokey to kill the mercenaries by draining a spring, again suggesting that Smokey and the spring are connected.

I don’t have it all figure out — not by  a long stretch — but I’m pretty confident that this death/life theme will help tie the plot together.

OK, I won’t gloat (too much) about how I correctly predicted that Locke was actually dead and was possessed by some evil force.

Instead I’m going to make new predictions for next season.  The secret to my success at Lost prognostication is just to make a lot of predictions and hope you all forget the majority that I get horribly wrong.

So, here is what I see for next season —  There are two supernatural beings Jacob and his nemesis, who I bet will be called Essau. 

Jacob is the god of life and Essau is the god of death.  Jacob can bring people to life simply by touching them.  We see him bring Locke back to life after he is thrown out of the window.  He brings Illana back from grave injuries in her Russian hospital.  I’m guessing that it was Jacob that saved Ben from death when Richard brought young Ben into the Temple.  In fact, I’ll wager that all of The Others are Jacob’s people because he has saved all of them from death.  That’s why they are so loyal to him and do not fear death.

Essau is the god of death.  All of the dead people we’ve seen around walking around the island are really Essau, including John Locke, Christian Shephard, Eko’s brother, Harper, etc…

Jacob and Essau have been through human history countless times, each working on their superpower of life or death.  They are also playing out a disagreement they have about whether human beings have free will and whether Fate can be changed.  Essau thinks that there really is no free will and Fate cannot be changed.  The details change but Time course-corrects and, as he puts it, “it always ends the same way.”  The way it ends is with death for the individual and global destruction for all of humankind. (Remember the Vanzetti numbers that the Dharma project is working to alter?)

Jacob thinks there can be progress.  He also seems convinced that human beings can make choices and change Fate.  He tells Hurley that he can choose when they ride together in the taxi.  He tells Ben that Ben has a choice before Ben stabs him.

The difficulty is that Jacob promotes the idea of free will at the same time that he manipulates the characters.  He saves Katie from being caught stealing.  He gives Sawyer the pen he uses to finish his revenge letter.  He saves Locke from death.  He save Illana in the hospital and recruits her for her mission.  And he steers Hurley back to the island.

The only flashback in the finale episode that did not involve Jacob manipulating the characters was the one involving Juliet.  And it was Juliet who chooses to let go and fall  into the drill shaft.  And it was Juliet who chooses to detonate the nuke.  She is the variable.  Her choices are different this time through history and that will lead to a change in Fate.

My guess is that the next season will begin on the Oceanic 815 flight to LA and it won’t crash this time.  So, we will think that Fate has changed.  But then all of the main characters will reconnect and find their way to the island.  We will begin to suspect that Time has course-corrected and we’ll think that we are back to things always ending the same way.  But is the grande-finale Jacob and his view of free will will prevail.  The characters will make important choices that avert global destruction.  And I’ll bet that their choices have to do with the affirmation of love, just as Juliet did.

It didn’t dawn on me until Patrick’s comment on Greg’s last Lost post, but I’ll bet that little Charlie, Penny and Desmond’s child, is in fact Charles Widmore.  Little Charlie will be whisked to the past on the Island where he can then grow up to be the Charles Widmore we know.  He is, as the song says, his own grandpa.

The reason why Ellie and Charles are so determined not to change the course of events is not that it is impossible, but because it allows Charles to exist.  So Ellie goes around convincing people, including Desmond and Daniel, that time cannot be changed because she doesn’t want time changed.

I’d further guess that the coming war will be between those who are trying to change the course of time and those who believe that it can’t or shouldn’t be changed.  Jack will lead the change faction and John will lead the destiny faction.  That’s why Charles Widmore needed back on the island to ensure that the right side is going to win.

Update — And I’ll bet that Charlie has already been kidnapped by Charles and Ellie.  The nurse oddly told Penny to leave her child while visiting Desmond.  You wouldn’t bother having that bit of dialogue unless it mattered.

(edited to add link, correct typo, and add update)

It’s as if the writers of Lost have been reading this blog.  They seem aware that there are problems with time travel and bringing people back from the dead without clearly defined rules to govern those exceptional plot devices.  Lost has not fully resolved these concerns but the show has clearly acknowledged the difficulties.  Perhaps for TV shows confession will bring absolution.

Two episodes ago (I know I skipped posting on Lost last week) in “Whatever Happened, Happened” Hurley and Miles articulate for us the paradoxes involved with time travel.  Hurley stares at his hand expecting it to disappear like in Back to the Future. 

And in the most recent episode, “Dead is Dead,” they directly discuss how strange it is to have people come back from the dead.  Ben alternatively tells John that he predicted John would be resurrected and tells Sun that he had never seen the Island do something like that and that it scared the living hell out of him.  John also admits to Sun that the idea of someone coming back from the dead is strange.

I suspect that the last two episode titles provide the Lost rules on time travel and resurrection.  Whatever happened, happened tells us that time cannot be changed.  And dead is dead tells us that people cannot come back from the dead.  I know that Locke appears to have come back from the dead, but I suspect that he is no longer Locke.  His emphatic statement to Sun that he is still the same person seemed strange and unnecessary, so perhaps he is lying.  Perhaps he is not the same person, but an incarnation of the smoke monster or whatever supernatural force inhabits the island.

That is one other thing that Lost has made clear:  there is a supernatural power on that Island that has a will of its own.  Greg correctly described this weeks ago and correctly predicted that the central questions will become: 1) what is the will of this supernatural force? and 2) is what that force wants good or bad?

There is still ambiguity about the answers to both questions, but I’ll offer my predicted answers.  I suspect that the Island may actually be evil.  This may be the big twist of the show.  The Island may be some Egyptian god that is intent on preserving itself and then eventually destroying the world.  When the Island judges it doesn’t appear to punish evil and reward good.  It lets Ben go despite his atrocities.  It destroys Eko despite his apparent innocence.  Its leaders, Charles and Ben, have been ruthless.  As Charlotte said, “This place is death.”  It, the Island, is evil and will eventually bring death to the whole world.

Ben and Charles may be struggling to be the Island’s representative, but there is a third group out there that is seeking to destroy the Island.  They are the good people because only by destroying the Island will the rest of the world be saved.