My All Conclusive Lost Theory

Lost is finally over. When I began watching this show I longed for the day when it would be over - when I would finally understand what in the world had been going on. Well, as I should have expected, now that the finale has come and gone I am STILL wondering what just happened!

The debate as to whether or not the series finale was a satisfying end to the show is now under way. Personally I was pleased with the ending and found it fitting. From others, I've heard everything from "It was beautiful" to "it was utterly disappointing." And I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen the phrase, "I told you so" on message boards from all of the Lost haters out there - those who have sat just on the outside of the hysteria pointing in at all of us Lost fanatics wondering, not about the island, but rather just what exactly was wrong with all of us!

I'm not going to attempt to give a commentary on the ending itself - I think this article did that quite nicely. Instead, I want to attempt to do what the series finale did not - answer the questions, because I believe enough bread-crumbs were laid out along the way to do just that. So, without further ado, here is my all conclusive Lost theory: (And I shouldn't even have to say it, but consider yourself spoiler-alerted!)

The Island:

The Island is the heart of the show, and any theory of what was going on must revolve around this one fact. I'm going to say this up front, the island was real. The characters on the island were never dead, it was not purgatory. If at this point you're still thinking that then, I'm sorry, but you just weren't paying attention.

But the island was special. What we know for sure is that at the heart of the island there's a light which is also associated with power and electromagnetism. Somehow it turned the Man in Black into a raging smoke monster, and tapping into it caused the "incident" that forced the creation of the Dharma Swan Station and the pushing of a button every 108 minutes. Tapping into this with the wheel at the bottom of the Orchid also was able to move the island and its inhabitants through time and space.

We also know that a common phenomenon on the island was hearing whispers, which were later revealed to be the voices of the dead who were unable to move on. In addition to this, there are several occurrences throughout the show of a dead person appearing to a living person, not to mention Hurley being able to see and talk with the dead, and Miles being able to hear the final thoughts of the dead.

What seems clear to me is that the nature of the island has to do with life and death. I believe that the island is actually supposed to be the gateway between life and the afterlife. Just consider the cliche of the light itself. How many so-called near-death experiences involve seeing a bright light? How many stories of the afterlife involve someone saying, "just go toward the light?"

The light at the heart of the island is "the light" of the cliche. This is why the whispers happen - for whatever reason, some people just can't make it to the light..

The Flash-Sideways:

The island being a gateway between life and the afterlife also explains the flash-sideways. As revealed in the final moments of the finale, the too-good-to-be-true flash-sideways timeline was also some sort of hereafter for the castaways where they struggled with their inner demons and/or lived the life they had always wanted to.

In their final conversation, Jack's father Christian essentially tells him that where they are, there is no time, so the people he's with could have died before him, or well after him. They then go into the church (the Dharma Lamp Post, the station that determined when and where the island was) and have their reunion. Some of the characters had talked about "leaving" prior to this, Christian calls it moving on. While everyone sits in the pews of the church, Christian walks into the light.

I believe Christian entering the light is supposed to symbolize some sort of reincarnation or rebirth. Again, "the light" plays a key role, and I think it's the same light that's at the heart of the island. Had Jack not fixed the light, Christian's, or anyone else's, moving on would not have been possible. This is why the events on the island were so important to the events of the flash-sideways. Without fixing the light, Jack would never have been reunited with his friends.

Time Travel:

Christian's comments about there not being time in the flash-sideways also explains the time-travel that was the driving force of Season 5, other "flashes" in time that occurred throughout the series, the fact that time on the island was different, and even the fact that the island could move through time and space.

If there is no normal sense of time in the flash-sideways, or afterlife, and the light is the gateway to the afterlife, then there would be no sense of time in the light either. So remember that all occurrences of time-travel or time variance in the show had something to do with the light. When Desmond's consciousness traveled through time, it was because of exposure to the light via turning the key in the Swan (remember the sky turning purple?). When the island moved through space and many of the characters began flashing through time, it was because Ben turned a wheel that was tapped into the light. When the second plane flew over the island and Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid were sent back to 1977, they were accompanied by flashes of light. Finally, when Juliet set off the H-Bomb at the site of the Swan (where they were attempting to tap into a pocket of energy, or the light), there was a flash of light and the characters were sent back to their original time.

This all makes sense of there is no time associated with the light. Tapping into the light, or messing with the light, would easily result in jumping through time because time would not flow consistently in a place where it didn't exist. I believe Christian Shepherd's comments to Jack at the end of the show were more telling than we might have realized.

(SIDEBAR: As for Juliet saying, "it worked!" in the Season 6 premiere. I don't think she was talking about the H-Bomb. Instead, I think at that point she was already "seeing" the flash-sideways and the line "it worked" was in reference to Sawyer unplugging the vending machine in the flash sideways to get the Apollo Bar. "It worked" was part of the same conversation in which Juliet said, "We should get coffee sometime, we can go dutch.")

The Island's Protector:

If the light at the heart of the island is not only the gateway to the afterlife, but is also so powerful, and potentially destructive, then it makes sense to have a protector. Obviously Jacob was not the first such protector, nor, I would assume, was his so-called mother. Unfortunately, the identity of the first protector cannot be known or accurately guessed at. Was there a higher power deciding? Did this higher power set up this protection system? If so, why? And who made the rules?

I don't think we can know these things. All we can know is that this system has been around for quite a long time. It was clear from the events of his birth that Jacob came from ancient Rome (his mother speaking Latin, styles of ships, tools and clothing, the nature of the Man in Black's dagger). So Jacob likely was the island's protector for around 2,000 years.

It sure seems like the island's protector was given some special abilities (long-life, control over who comes to the island, etc...). Some of the candidates for the next protector also had abilities, such as Hurley being able to communicate with the dead. Perhaps this explains why Walt was "special," he was a candidate and was given a special ability.

The Egyptian icons all around the island, including the statue, the writings in the temple, and even the game that Jacob and the Man in Black play indicate that there had been a protector at least as long ago as the ancient Egyptian empire. These themes might also give a clue to another of the island's mysteries.

The Cork:

In the finale, Desmond is lowered into the heart of the island where he pulls a cork out of a pool, threatening to make the island sink. The cork itself appears to be a carved stone covered with Egyptian Hieroglyphics. This begs the question, did the Egyptians make the cork? If so, and the light indeed is a gateway between life and the afterlife, then did the Egyptians somehow make this gateway? If so, how? Or did they simply leave their mark on the cork, or maybe even create a new cork? If so, how were they able to do this?

Again, these are questions that can't have definite answers. My theory is that the Egyptians knew some secrets of the island that were forgotten over time - secrets that Jacob didn't even know, especially since it appears from the final episodes that Jacob was clueless about a lot of things.

The bigger question, though, is what was the cork holding back?

Evil Forces:

When Desmond pulls the cork out of the pool, the water is drained and the bright, yellow glow turns red. To me, this seems like fairly clear imagery of Hell - the fact that Jacob tells Richard that the island is like a cork holding back Hell, I don't think that idea is such a stretch.

But what are the implications of this? Again, if the island is the gateway between life and the afterlife, then does removing the cork and opening up Hell mean that the gateway becomes a gateway to Hell? Or is it rather giving Hell an opportunity to escape and come to earth? Once again, I don't think that we can know the answer for sure, but I'd lean more toward the latter, and I think the Man in Black gives us more clues about this.

The Man in Black:

The Man in Black, or the Smoke Monster, is the villain of the series, even though we didn't realize it until the start of the final season (or the end of the 5th season if you were clever enough to figure it out). What we didn't learn until the episode "Across the Sea," however, was that the Man in Black used to be a regular human being who was turned into the Smoke Monster by being thrown into the heart of the island. What happened when he entered this place? We'll never know. What we do know is that he emerged seemingly unstoppable, having the ability to change shape and take the form of deceased people, and that he was bent on the destruction of the island.

The Man in Black plays the part of a deceiver, tempting anyone he could to help him in his plot to overthrow the protector of the island and ultimately destroy the island itself so that he could leave. His role in the series seems like a strong analogy for the devil, who is already condemned but is nevertheless trying to take as many people as he can down with him. I'm not sure that the creators of the show were trying to say that the Man in Black was the devil, but rather were setting him up in a devil sort of position. Would it be possible for another smoke monster to be created by throwing another person into the heart of the island? Who knows? But the fact that Jacob's mother said that to go into the heart of the island would be worse than death might indicate that it had happened to someone before.

The Island after the show:

While the show ended with Jack finally fixing things (repairing the light), and allowing his friends to go safely home, this was not the end of the island. Instead, Hurley became the island's protector with Ben as his assistant. We can only speculate what happened after this. I would imagine that like Jacob and Richard, Hurley and Ben experienced extraordinarily long life. I would also imagine that, like Ben suggested, Hurley ran things differently than Jacob did. It became clear toward the end of the series that Jacob did not have all the answers. While there might have been certain rules that he had to obey, and Hurley would have to as well, it seems as though it would be possible to run the island differently than Jacob had. I would hope that Hurley did things, as Ben said, better than Jacob did.

I would also imagine that Hurley still ran into problems. Perhaps a new smoke monster emerged. Perhaps groups of people continued to come to the island and try to tap into it's power. As is evidenced by the fact that Hurley and Ben ended up in the flash-sideways, they clearly did not live on the island forever. So either they voluntarily passed their duties on to someone else, or they, like Jacob, were overthrown. As with many of the other questions, this can't really be known, unless of course, the writers decide to create a Lost spinoff... but somehow I doubt it!