The Definitive Guide to WTF Just Happened on ‘Lost’
Television By Genevieve Blaber on May 24, 2010 | View Comments
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So when did Jack actually die?
Im really curious to know what happened to Richard.
Plus it never really explained how Ben was able to kill Jacob. Something else i noticed is that there was no explanation given as to how Jacob would leave to Island to go to every Candidate on the mainland when Jacob was bound to the island
Worst ending to a truly awesome and inspiring TV series. I can't believe that with such a fan base that was driven to find answers to questions, that the directors and screen writers would cop out with a cheesy and pathetic ending. They answer very little of the questions they goaded from us, and then made the possibility of those questions, of old and new, to never be found. To claim that they would giving answers in the final moments was a lie to us all. I am truly disappointed in this outcome.
The NUMBERS !!!!!
Why couldn't the MIB leave the island? How did Jacob brought people to the island?
What entity is the MIB? Why was It created?
Walt's powers? Why the Dharma Parachute kept arriving even though the Dharma Iniciative had already been shutdown? What the hell was the Widmore character for?
Thank you for summerizing that for me. I was so “Lost” when that ended. My brain just couldn't compute what happend. I did love the parts when people met up (Claire & Charlie, Sayid and Jenna, Sawyer & Juliet, etc) It was so moving. I am a tad confused though. Did the people die when the hydrogen bomb exploded or did they survive and die after? The reason i ask is because after the bomb went off the flash sideways started.
Okay, now you've got me started!
A bit of a stretch, I think … why is Penny in the church? She was never on the island. If it was so important for the six of them to go back to the island, wouldn't Aaron (as a three-year-old) have had to go back for the whole thing to work? Where are Richard, the pilot, and Miles? They spent more time with the original six than Desmond did. Why was it suddenly so easy for Kate to kill the smoke monster? Where did Desmond's ability to withstand extreme electrical stimulation go? How do they explain how Jack and Desmond met years earlier in the stadium while at the same time Desmond was in the hatch pushing the button, which he had been doing since the 1970s? What is this nonsense that Jack didn't really have a son, but all this other stuff is “real”? Why does Sayid wind up with Shannon The Princess, when Nadia is his one true love? And Juliet didn't actually die in Sawyer's arms … she died when she set off the bomb, which is what created the sideways world where the plane never crashes (hey, maybe that's when they all actually died).
I'm much more comfortable with it being Jack's visions while dying … then all the unanswered questions make sense, because in dreams, lots of things go haywire, change direction, or morph into something else. He tried to fix things, take control of things, heal things, reset things … none of it worked. Just because Christian said something doesn't make it true. It's what Jack wanted to hear so he could let go. And then, when he finally did let go, he was happy and at peace.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!! :-)
talk about being 'spoon fed', good job!
Why did Daniel's mother see Desmond's revelation as an 'abomination'?
Maybe the island is moving on top of the electromagnetic energy pocket. The red “hellish” light could be that source of electromagnetivity. If its uncorked then the electromagnetism escapes, creating destrucion. If you stop it from escaping with the cork, it bottles it up, and starts to move, trying to escape, but the island moves to prevent from doing so.
Another idea I have is, the movement of the island causes the water to flow somehow. If left uncorked, and the island stops moving, then the water stops flowing. If corked, the water flows again, the water enters the pool, and creats the light.
I'm not a scientist, so I have no idea, I'm just shooting ideas out there and seeing what happens :-)
who was jacob ?
Genevieve missed the call on Juliet's death. Juliet did not die in some romantic swoon in Sawyer's arms. She died alone, bursied and battered, beating on an atom bomb at the bottom of a miserable pit. She had no issues to resolve. I regard this entire “definitive” interpretation as just a bit too pedantic and imperial. The circumstances are not at all as simple and tidy as Blaber presents them. It is absolutely not a case of “any fool can see it,” if you just look at it the right way.
Okay so now I'm really lost..I think I get it and then I don't!! If all those who came to the church (all the main characters) are dead, but they did not die at the same time..do we know when they died? Like was there really the plane crash (episode 1) and they in the fianl episode did everyone except Jack, Hurly and Ben get off? Is that when Jack died or did he die in the plane crash in the beginning ..that's why he saw his father? Oh some answers please!!
Remember what Christian said? “there is no 'now' here”. We don't know when they all died, but because they are all in that world, they are all dead. All the survivors did survive the crash. Jack died after he killed Smokey aka Locke. Ben and Hurley may have lived a long time on the island as its protectors. Jack's father did die in Australia and what you saw on the island was smokey taking his shape.
Ok, so if everything that happened on the island really happened, we are to assume that the island was a real place…. so wtf was the whole Dharma crap all about? Widmore? All the others and the other others and the polar bears who lived there? And why the hell weren't they ever rescued?
Sorry, I don't buy it, it doesn't make sense
When Christian says “everything that happened to you was real” I think he means real for Jack, not that it actually happened.
It was a stupid, lazy ending
It was all in Jack's head no? Plane crashes and he stumbles to the forest, has some time to think about what's happened before he passes out (his passing out is when he gets up in the first episode but what really happened is shown when he closes his eyes in the last), lives out this spectacular island adventure in his coma state, then as he dies he goes to this church and is guided into the light by his father surrounded by all of the characters from his fantasy. Genevieve has explained the 'conventional' meaning clearly but if I took it as the true meaning then the finale was absolutely the most boring episode of lost I've ever seen. I think the theory that everything was in Jack's mind and everything played out from that spot on the forest floor as he died makes the series much more interesting and ties up the story nicely. It is supposed to be science fiction afterall. Unfortunately it seems most fans fancy Lost as a rom-com.
In spite of what the producers have said, and they have not always kept their word for very pragmatic reasons, the entire series has a dreamlike quality to it. In dreams things do not always make sense, and things transform into other things easily. Consider the possibility that this is all one man's (Jack's) last moments of life after the crash, hallucinating while laying in the jungle, with members he met on the plane acting out their parts (AKA Wizard of Oz) to a disjointed happy ending of a troubled life. He met Desmond in Australia before he died, and he appears in the dream. Other members not on the plane are just the kind of thing dreams add to stories. Good storytelling is just that. Why do we need more? Does Alice in Wonderland make sense? It need not be a puzzle. What “happened” on the island is that the plane crashed, and Jack and everyone else died. I can live with that. Why can't everyone else?
Why were polar bears on the island?
And when did everyone died?
Very nicely put. This is more or less on par with what I was thinking. Also, I'm sure you know this and accidentally just wrote the wrong thing, but it was Desmond who said Ana Lucia wasn't ready to move on, not Hurley. Hurley asked Desmond, “Isn't Ana Lucia coming?” to which Desmond responded, “She's not ready yet.” It's pretty minor, though, but it could possibly skew perceptions of Hurley.
The only questions I can't really come up with good answers for involve the protector's seemingly eternal life and under what circumstances exactly the protector can be killed. It also raises the question about Hurley and Ben's eventual deaths, why they stopped being the protectors, etc… They never quite explain the “powers” of the protector (if any). But these questions don't really matter.
So the flashbacks in the last series, were they the characters sort of life after death experiences but they weren't really real as they did really die on oceanic 815?
Why was the island Special??
Where did the polar bear come from?
Why could Walt bring animals to him?
Why does Walt warn Locke about the Hatch, and not to open it?
What was the significance of Kate and that Horse?
.. the above explanation explains the sideways world, thanks? But what about the rest of the series???????
Do you think Jack had to die? Couldn't he have been pulled up by Hurley? Also, how were Jacob and Richard immune to aging again? Are those powers granted by the island? And how exactly did Jacob's brother become the black-smoke-monster? Simply by going through the light?
Do the characters' calmness with the situation/knowledge of what's going on in the sideways world correlate with their length of life after the plane crash/deaths of everyone. Hurley seemed to be calm and knew more than the others in the sideways flash and he had lived considerably longer than most of the other people.
it was kinda disappointing, wanted other things to be explained in finale… but thanks for explaining everything
Great explanation here. Did you see how the sideways world was similiar to the movie Sixth Sense? The people didn't (even) know they were dead and couldn't move on until they accepted this reality. The whole last half hour was Jack remembering his life and the last thing he remembers about his life was his death–which allows him to move on.
This helped keep my mother off my back about how she didn't understand the episode.
However, i have a few questions.
What was the true meaning of the numbers? 4,8,15,16,23,42? They were never explained…
And what was the “magic box” that made real Locke's dad appear on the island? That has ate me inside out.
If you or anyone else can answer this, then I'd be sooo grateful…
Question you didn't answer: didn't everyone on the island die when they exploded the warhead that sunk the island in 1977 thus avoiding the plane crash in the first place? If that is the case nothing that happend on the island in season 6 actually happened because a) They all died already, and b) the island was sunk… While the sideways revelations were emotionally satisfying from a character perspective, I for one felt cheated out of a great mystery and was really looking forward to a clever and mind blowing resolution to they mystery they created over 6 seasons. To me it seems the writers just gave up… they ran out of time so they just decided to end it this way, or they couldn't come up with a way to end it and tie everything up. This show ranked right up there with Battlestar Galactica in terms of complexity and character development but the writers and producers of that series did a much better job managing the mythology and giving us an ending that, while not answering every question, certainly resolved the show well enough.
Question you didn't answer: didn't everyone on the island die when they exploded the warhead that sunk the island in 1977 thus avoiding the plane crash in the first place? If that is the case nothing that happend on the island in season 6 actually happened because a) They all died already, and b) the island was sunk… While the sideways revelations were emotionally satisfying from a character perspective, I for one felt cheated out of a great mystery and was really looking forward to a clever and mind blowing resolution to they mystery they created over 6 seasons. To me it seems the writers just gave up… they ran out of time so they just decided to end it this way, or they couldn't come up with a way to end it and tie everything up. This show ranked right up there with Battlestar Galactica in terms of complexity and character development but the writers and producers of that series did a much better job managing the mythology and giving us an ending that, while not answering every question, certainly resolved the show well enough.
Question you didn't answer: didn't everyone on the island die when they exploded the warhead that sunk the island in 1977 thus avoiding the plane crash in the first place? If that is the case nothing that happend on the island in season 6 actually happened because a) They all died already, and b) the island was sunk… While the sideways revelations were emotionally satisfying from a character perspective, I for one felt cheated out of a great mystery and was really looking forward to a clever and mind blowing resolution to they mystery they created over 6 seasons. To me it seems the writers just gave up… they ran out of time so they just decided to end it this way, or they couldn't come up with a way to end it and tie everything up. This show ranked right up there with Battlestar Galactica in terms of complexity and character development but the writers and producers of that series did a much better job managing the mythology and giving us an ending that, while not answering every question, certainly resolved the show well enough.
I'm wondering why the characters didn't seem to know each other (or their history on the island) in their sideways lives if they went through this whole experience in their real lives. Then something triggered their memory in their sideways lives.
tkx for ur text, it really helped “understanding” the story,
But if u wanna know, this r some of My questions…
Walt's “powers”?
Hurley's ability to talk to dead ppl (outside the island also)?
Dogen role in all of this, why was he… the miracle water… the temple… so many whys!
why all those Egyptian symbols in dharma stations (not all around the island, i'm asking in the dharma stations)
dharma supplys.
who was trying to kill the oceanic 6, and why?
the cabin were MIB was a prisoner… or not … or… duh?!?!
Just this … nothing else.
tkx if u have time and patience to give me ur ideas.
If Hurley became the new “jacob” who couldn't die… how did he die in the end?
The same way Jacob eventually died. He wasn't immortal – just the protector of the island. Granted, he could live along time, but all it took was a knife to the chest, and he was dead.
Good show all around! However, I could have sworn around season 2 or 3 the producers mentioned this was not a place of purgatory! One of the many reason I have been a fan so long. I had guessed this early on and when they(producers) said no to this question I was very interested in finding what the island is all about. Good show, however I am disappointed now in wasting many years of excitement of something I guessed early on. I may be wrong, however if you search…I think you will find were they said it is not a purgatory… I would like to pull the BS card for the producers and creator. Still good with mixed emotions of disappointment. Keep making series like this, however stick with what you say and do not make this easy to guess where or what is going on.
Oh yeah.. thanks alot:)
So where did the woman who fostered the two brothers come from and who was she?
I think you're reaching. In fact, I think that *any* attempt to really work everything out is reaching. I just don't think there's an “answer” that applies consistently to all the characters. And that is okay! More than okay. I think its a little crazy and anal to want to tie it all up neatly. I've always had trouble with some of the themes that Cruse and Lindelhof claim are so important to the show. For instance, they say that redemption is the main theme, but I've never thought that Hurley really had any behavior for which he needed to be redeemed. Although I'd phrase it differently, I think your point about the Sideways being where folks overcome their issues is valid. I think of the sideways as the “road not taken” that, due to the life on the island, they would have the courage to live if they could do it all again: so Saywer would choose to be cop rather than criminal, Kate would've chosen not to be guilty of murder, Hurley would've embraced his luck and shown his generosity and caring nature through philanthropy, and Ben would've been able to suppress his vanity and lust for power in true service to others. John Locke would have had true courage and a strong ego, from way back in his life. But I still don't think Charlie's, Sayid's, Claire or Desmond's stories make sense. Charlie's island redemption was so complete, I think it was silly for them to have him be a junkie in the sideways. Enough ranting.
the island was just the place where the light was. and they did kind of explain that the light is life. and with jacob throwing his brother in the light to die, he became death. at least that is how i see it.
the island was just the place where the light was. and they did kind of explain that the light is life. and with jacob throwing his brother in the light to die, he became death. at least that is how i see it.
what happened to desmond?!?!?!!?
Can you tell me why Penny joined Desmond in the church? I was thinking that only those on the plane were getting together until I saw Penny. How did she die? I remember seeing her getting shot, but I thought that was in a flashsideway. Also, can you tell me what the tattoo on Jack's left arm is and the meaning of it?
/
I have read many explanations online about the ending of Lost, and I tend to agree with this one the most. I think the detonation of the bomb was a clever way for the writers to throw us off the path about the sideways timeline being limbo or whatever you want to call it. It was just a method to get the characters back to the present time. I have heard a lot of people say what was the point of the island then? Couldn't they just come up with some other story to make a character redeem their life and realize it in limbo/afterlife (sideways narrative) prior to entering heaven? Was there really a need for the sideways narrative (i.e., the story could have just followed them on the island and ended with Jack dying)? I think the island was the place that each character had a fresh chance to start over and redeem themselves under extreme situations in which they acted for the greater good. But, it happened to be at the place that was the gateway that balanced good and evil (heaven and hell, etc.) and where you would be judged to see if you were ready to move on (i.e., Jacob bringing people to test them to find the next candidate). But, this does not necessarily give a concrete connection between using the island for this exercise and the sideways narrative. I think the key is Jack's story, shifting from science to faith, but more importantly, I believe Jack saved the very thing that “saves” him later–the light. Assuming “the light” on the island was similar to “the light” from the church at the end, Jack saved the very thing then that “saved” him. Had he not restored the light, then when he died, there would have been nothing to “move on” to (i.e., no heaven or whatever you want to call it). Also, if the island was destroyed, then all of mankind would be stuck and could never move on. Therefore, I also think the sideways narrative was centered on Jack since it would come full circle with his experience on the island (redeeming himself in real life) but also saving humanity by restoring the light and thus the place where we can go to ultimately be happy. Or something like that.
Did anyone else want it to be different between Jack and Kate in the church?
thx m8s
When did they die?? I mean, did the plane really crashed?? How about Juliet and Ben, how did they die?? What was the dharma initiative and did they know they were dead?? What about the others?? Who were they??? So many questions without an answer…..
What I am wondering is what was meant by that they created the Sideways World. Was that implying that the dead souls kind of got together and just made this place, in which case does this happen for everyone with issues letting go? Or was there some connection between the light when Christian opens the door and the light on the island which hinted that they were granted this privilege of coming to terms with their lives because they “made” the island when they helped preserve its light? I was hoping for a more conclusive conclusion to the series myself…
The man was giving an opinion not taking a spelling test. oh and people will never take you seriously if your always as anally retentive
mmmmDacowboyboot
OMG LOl!