Lost: The True Meaning of the Ending Explained

[MummyChunk]

Lost was one of the most popular and influential TV shows of the
2000s, but it also had one of the most divisive and misunderstood
finales of all time. Many fans were left confused, disappointed, or
angry by the final episode, which seemed to imply that the characters
were dead all along and that nothing that happened on the island
mattered. However, this is not the case. In this article, we will try
to explain what actually happened in the ending of Lost, and why it
was a fitting conclusion to the series.

The Flash Sideways
The key to understanding the ending of Lost is the flash sideways, the
parallel timeline that was introduced in the sixth and final season.
The flash sideways showed what would have happened if Oceanic Flight
815 had never crashed on the island, and how the characters lives
would have been different. However, the flash sideways was not an
alternative reality, but a form of purgatory or limbo, created by the
characters themselves to reunite with each other before moving on to
the afterlife.

The flash sideways was triggered by the detonation of the hydrogen
bomb at the end of season five, which was an attempt by Jack and his
friends to prevent the incident that caused the island to be an
electromagnetic anomaly. However, the bomb did not change the past,
but only closed the time loop and ensured that everything happened as
it was supposed to. The characters still crashed on the island, lived
through their adventures, and died at different times, some on the
island and some off it. The flash sideways was a place where they
could find each other again, remember their time on the island, and
let go of their regrets and attachments.

The flash sideways was also a place where the characters could fulfill
their personal desires and achieve some form of happiness, even if it
was not real. For example, Jack had a son, Locke was able to walk,
Sawyer was a cop, Hurley was lucky, etc. However, these scenarios were
also flawed, as they did not reflect the true essence of the
characters, and they still had unresolved issues and conflicts. The
flash sideways was a way for the characters to realize that their time
on the island was the most important and meaningful part of their
lives, and that they needed each other to move on.

The Island
The island was not a purgatory, but a real place with a real history
and a real purpose. The island was the source of a mysterious and
powerful light, which represented the essence of life, death, and
rebirth. The island also had the ability to manipulate space and time,
and to attract people who were lost, broken, or special in some way.
The island was protected by a guardian, who had the responsibility of
keeping the light safe from those who would try to exploit it or
extinguish it.

The characters of Lost were brought to the island by Jacob, the
previous guardian, who was looking for a successor. Jacob believed
that people were inherently good, and that they could choose to do the
right thing without being manipulated. He wanted to prove this to his
brother, the Man in Black, who was the source of the smoke monster and
who wanted to escape the island and destroy the light. Jacob selected
the candidates from the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors, and tested them
through various trials and challenges.

The final season of Lost focused on the conflict between Jacob and the
Man in Black, and the fate of the island and the light. Jack, who was
the leader of the survivors and the man of science, became the new
guardian of the island, after being touched by the light and receiving
Jacob s blessing. He then faced the Man in Black, who had taken the
form of Locke, and managed to kill him with the help of Kate. However,
Jack also realized that he had to sacrifice himself to save the island
and his friends, as the light had been temporarily turned off by the
Man in Black, causing the island to become unstable. Jack returned to
the cave where the light was, and restored it by plugging the hole
that the Man in Black had opened. He then died peacefully, lying on
the same spot where he first woke up on the island, and seeing a plane
carrying his friends fly away.

The Church
The final scene of Lost showed the characters reuniting in a church,
where they were greeted by Christian Shephard, Jack s father.
Christian explained to Jack that the church was a place that they had
all made together, so that they could find one another and remember.
He also told him that the time they spent on the island was the most
important part of their lives, and that they were all dead. He then
opened the doors of the church, and a bright light engulfed them as
they embraced each other.

The church scene was the culmination of the flash sideways, and the
final stage of the characters journey. The church was a symbol of the
afterlife, or whatever comes next , as Christian put it. The
characters had all died, but they had also lived, and they had all
mattered. They had found redemption, love, and purpose on the island,
and they had formed a bond that transcended death. They had also
learned to let go of their past, their fears, and their guilt, and to
accept their fate. They were ready to move on, together.

The church scene also included some characters who were not part of
the original Oceanic Flight 815, such as Juliet, Desmond, Penny, Ben,
etc. These characters were also important to the story, and to the
lives of the others. They had also been touched by the island, and by
the light, and they had also found their place in the flash sideways.
However, some characters were missing from the church, such as
Michael, Walt, Ana Lucia, etc. These characters had not been able to
move on, either because they had not been able to let go, or because
they had not been able to find their connections, or because they had
a different destiny.

The Meaning
The ending of Lost was not a cop-out, or a trick, or a lie. It was a
poetic and profound way of wrapping up a complex and ambitious story
that spanned six seasons, and that explored themes such as faith,
destiny, free will, good and evil, love and loss, and the meaning of
life. The ending of Lost was not about answering every question, or
explaining every mystery, or satisfying every fan. It was about giving
closure to the characters, and to the viewers, and to the show itself.
It was about celebrating the journey, and not the destination. It was
about finding the light, and not the darkness.

[Robert Goodman]

All wrong, except for the assertion that the island was not a purgatory. It wasn't except in a mild symbolic sense.

"Lost" is a story of a lost heir scam that was infiltrated by other scammers. An airliner was brought down, killing all aboard, and a bunch of fakers pretended to be survivors of the wreck, along with a few "Manchurian candidates" programmed to believe they really had survived such a wreck. They falsely witnessed the birth of a supposed heir of a great estate, that of a fictitious person code-named Jacob, for Jacob Baker, the subject of the biggest lost-heir swindle in history. The effect on the "candidates" was enhanced by a series of flim-flams and magic tricks. The time travel, mysterious illness, monster, and other strangeness were all fakery.

Bobbo in Andover NJ

[MummyChunk]

> > On Tuesday, December 26, 2023 at 2:41:32PM UTC-5, MummyChunk

Hello Bobbo, thank you for sharing your opinion on the ending of Lost.
I respect your right to have a different interpretation of the show,
but I have to disagree with your claim that it was all a scam. There
is no evidence in the show to support your theory, and it contradicts
the official explanation given by the creators and the actors.

I feel that the ending of Lost was not a cop-out, or a trick, or a

lie. It was a poetic and profound way of wrapping up a complex and
ambitious story that spanned six seasons, and that explored themes
such as faith, destiny, free will, good and evil, love and loss, and
the meaning of life. The ending of Lost was not about answering every
question, or explaining every mystery, or satisfying every fan. It was
about giving closure to the characters, and to the viewers, and to the
show itself. It was about celebrating the journey, and not the
destination. It was about finding the light, and not the darkness.

The explanation given in The End is that they all died at different
times, some way back in season one, and others many years after the
end of season six. But time works differently in the afterlife. To the
characters, it feels as though they all arrived around the same time,
even if their actual deaths were many decades apart. The flash

sideways was a place where they could find each other again, remember
their time on the island, and let go of their regrets and attachments.
The flash sideways was also a place where the characters could fulfill
their personal desires and achieve some form of happiness, even if it

was not real. The island was not a purgatory, but a real place with a

real history and a real purpose. The island was the source of a
mysterious and powerful light, which represented the essence of life,
death, and rebirth. The island also had the ability to manipulate
space and time, and to attract people who were lost, broken, or
special in some way.

The church scene was the culmination of the flash sideways, and the
final stage of the characters journey. The church was a symbol of the

afterlife, or whatever comes next, as Christian put it. The characters

had all died, but they had also lived, and they had all mattered. They
had found redemption, love, and purpose on the island, and they had
formed a bond that transcended death. They had also learned to let go
of their past, their fears, and their guilt, and to accept their fate.
They were ready to move on, together.

I hope this helps everyone understand my opinion about the ending of
Lost better, and why I feel it was a fitting conclusion to the series.


This is a response to the post seen at:
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=657877435#657877435

[Robert Goodman]

On Wednesday, December 27, 2023 at 9:41:00 AM UTC-5, MummyChunk wrote:

> Hello Bobbo, thank you for sharing your opinion on the ending of Lost.
> I respect your right to have a different interpretation of the show,
> but I have to disagree with your claim that it was all a scam. There
> is no evidence in the show to support your theory, and it contradicts
> the official explanation given by the creators and the actors.

"The official explanation" (to the extent it even exists) is all part of the game. They're all playing along with a superficial interpretation of the depiction.

You want evidence? I could supply tons, but how about right here and now just a FEW items on the show that can't be explained by your interpretation, but can be by mine? I won't even delve into the meta-material like the promo that literally said, "They're not the survivors. They thought they were," and just limit myself to the show proper. I won't even go into the abundant allusions "Lost" made to other works with similar plots, nor my long familiarity with Damon Lindelof as a friend before "Lost", nor analyze according to the experience of the other writers (detective shows, not fantasy), but just limit myself to what you can infer with only the show itself as evidence.

Why was Charlie sending tap code to Locke (or at least someone) on the airliner? This makes no sense unless some of these "strangers" on the flight were working together.

How did Charlie wind up with the other "survivors" in the ostensible wreckage rather than in the front with the pilot? Makes no sense if the crash was real, but is easily explained by its being fake.

How did the victim described by Kate as having every bone in his body broken get into such a condition? Makes no sense under ordinary conditions of a sneak attack overnight, but it works perfectly if he was an organ and tissue donor whose marrow was harvested and then body planted in the wreckage. "Oh, [his driving license] says he was going to be an organ donor." Guess what, he already was, along with the other corpses that were used.

How can you explain the "other" Oceanic 815 accidentally found in the Sunda Trench? If you go by Benry's story, why would Widmore have hidden it there if he wanted it to be found? But it makes perfect sense if that was the REAL wreck that Widmore and Benry hoped would never be found!

How could the ostensibly voracious reader Sawyer have discovered ONLY THEN that he needed reading glasses? How could he quote a passage from "Of Mice and Men", yet not recognize the more prominent one Benry quoted him? It makes perfect sense if Sawyer was a Manchurian Candidate programmed to THINK he was a big reader and fed certain lines to be memorized.

Speaking of Manchurian Candidate "tells", why did Saïd reach for the Koran with his left hand? Why did he think of proximity to Christmas as he looked at the calendar? It's easy if he wasn't really a Muslim.

Why did Shannon move her gun BEFORE Saïd hit her, and in the opposite direction from what you'd expect by the force of his tackle? Yet why did Locke's head injury match what would've been a miss in the opposite direction from where she moved her gun? Surely the makers of "Lost" would've expected some viewers to examine the scene in slow motion and notice the discrepancy. It makes no sense by your explanation, yet it makes perfect sense if everyone on scene except Saïd was working together, and Locke had a sharp object concealed in the hand he clapped onto his head. But if they were all working together, the whole scenario of strangers surviving an airliner crash is blown!

At the scene of Aaron's birth, why does his ostensible umbilical cord end under Kate's hand instead of extending to his umbilicus? Makes no sense if that was his actual birth being depicted, in which case they didn't need to give us such a good shot that we could see that clue. However, if his birth was faked, everything falls into place: the fortune teller's being fooled by Claire into thinking she was pregnant, Kate's weeks in isolation on the ranch in Australia to give birth, Jin's playing along by ostensibly feeling the kick from Claire's womb, Jack's being distracted by "injured" Boone so the better sleight-of-hand artist (Kate) could attend to the "delivery", Kate's being upset when she dropped the bag that held the baby while she ran, Jin's shooing away Sawyer to where he would not have a front view of the magic trick of "childbirth", Claire's nearly cracking up with laughter at faking labor. Of course if all these people were working together, that's additional evidence of how they weren't strangers on a plane.

Why do scenes taking place ostensibly in the 1950s and 1970s have prominently placed anachronisms? Too prominently highlighted to have been production errors. For instance, the camera dwelled on a shot where, centered in the frame, the light switch on the wall is decades ahead of its supposed time (that of Locke's birth). These clues mean one of two things: (1) "This isn't happening." (2) "This is being acted out at a much later time than it seems on superficial examination." Among other things, these prove that the "time jumps" were fakery, produced by knocking out the (Manchurian) "candidates" and having them return to consciousness aong shills who'll convince them they've jumped in time. Hugo even gave us a wink at one of the anachronisms when he questioned whether the washer and dryer in Swan looked more modern than the other items there, meaning the whole installation was much more recent than a superficial look at the series would lead us (and the "candidates") to believe.

Why does the Monster exhibit undulating motion while translating over a distance on land? Makes sense if it consists of a cloud of conductive particles magnetically levitated over buried coils. Why did you think they gave us that clip of the electromagnetically levitating frog in the Swan instruction film? And supply the "ratchet" sound for the Monster, cluing us to the fact it was machinery?

Why does Hugo in the record store roll his eyes at the camera while singing, "You all everybody, acting like those stupid people, wearing, wearing their clothes"? Get it? They're doubles, engaging in identity theft.

Speaking of identities, didn't you get even the slightest bit suspicious at the famous names of many of the characters? Did you not figure out that these were assumed names they were operating under? And why would they be doing that unless they were scammers?

Why would Ben have given his name as the ONLY ONE THAT COULD BE DISPROVEN ON THE SPOT, "Henry Gale", and then lead people to that evidence, UNLESS HE WANTED THEM TO FIND OUT and then observe their reactions, to see whether they were in on it or not?

Why does Charlie, in the center of the frame, show the camera the "rescue note" he'd palmed instead of putting on the bird Claire found? it doesn't make sense unless he wanted to make sure nobody found the note. Which doesn't make sense if these are really crash survivors, but makes perfect sense if it's all an act.

Why do they show us Kate and Ana Lucia each pretending to be hostages unless they wanted us to infer that every time we see Kate seeming to be a hostage, it's an act? Which would mean they're all working together, which makes sense only in the context of a scam. That's also why they showed Sawyer as a scammer, so we'd be thinking "scam" as we watched the show generally.

Why was the lottery ball drawing person shown with long sleeves unless they wanted us to infer that Hugo's lottery winning was just a gag video? Why did they show us the rockets homing in on Faraday's location if they didn't want us to infer it was a rocket (whose sound Hugo even pointed out) that bombed Tricia Tanaka? Why did the timers on Faraday's two rockets show an impossibly long flight time on one, unless they wanted us to understand all the time-and-space distortion stuff was flim-flam?

Why did they give us the facial scar clues of the ship's doctor unless they wanted us to infer he had a double, meaning the time loop scenario was a false inference? If you explain it by a time loop, you can't explain how the doctor's shaving cut healed so fast if he was the same one who washed up dead on the beach. And once you realize doubles are in play, you can explain the ostensible rapid healing of the bite on Locke's hand.

All the ostensible coincidences on the show, while not impossible, sure become easier to explain if they were not coincidence but conspiracy.

I could go on and on like this. The evidence abounds to such a degree you'd have to be willfully blind to it to dismiss it.

Bobbo in Andover NJ

[Robert Goodman]

Got any explanations yet for the problems I posed for your interpretation? Want some more to explain?

How about the widely remarked difference in the lamp on the desk of Swan between shots? Or the fact that, just after Kelvin made a to-do about Desmond's shaving daily, they gave us an extreme close-up of his face stubble ostensibly after killing Kelvin? Easily explained if there were two Swan stations (on the same design) and two Desmonds (doubles). How about the egregious lack of effect on nearby ferrous items at the beach camp if it was magnetism that pulled down Oceanic 815? Easy if that was just a cover story and the real wreck, from sabotage, was the one found later on the sea floor.

How about the sequence purporting to show the landing of the Tailies in the water, where we got a POV shot of coming up out of the water upside down, then going back under before emerging? Makes sense only if someone was suspended from above by feet; makes no sense in an actual crash from above.

Ever look in slo-mo at Walt's double 6 roll in backgammon? That type of action by a die makes no sense if Walt had psi power, but is exactly right if it was a loaded die. And what would Walt be doing with loaded dice unless he was a scammer?

How does the smuggler's plane land on the island if it's in the Pacific (or even the Indian Ocean as some have supposed)? But it makes perfect sense if the island is in the Atlantic's Bight of Bonny and is, or near, Fernando Poo. Which would mean, again, that the whole airliner crash scenario was phony, and everyone on scene was either in on it or had been knocked out and came to consciousness there as a "Manchurian candidate".

How can Richard Alpert be centuries old? Easy if he only THINKS (as a result of "candidate" programming) he's that old.

Why do some characters develop nosebleeds immediately following the ostensible time jumps? Simple if, rather than experiencing actual time jumps, they've been knocked out and are bleeding thru the cribiform plate from brain damage, side effect of the knockout-and-program process; sometimes it's lethal! Knockout-and-come-to also explains the instantaneous disappearance of some passengers from Ajira 316 -- it only looked instantaneous to those who were knocked out and therefore didn't see the disappeared land and disembark.

How can the Monster seem to receive images of characters' past, as shown to us? Easy if those are not characters' actual memories, but false ones being INPUT to the characters via the same buried coils that mag-lev the black "smoke".

How was Jack seemingly able to hear from much farther away what those nearby couldn't hear the patient on the stretcher say? Your interpretation would require super hearing or psychic ability, while mine requires merely that they were in on it together. Why did so many patients require needle relief from hemothorax or hemopericardium? Easy if it's a scam.

Bobbo in Andover NJ

[Dario Spanovic]

On 26.12.2023. 20:41, MummyChunk wrote:
> Lost was one of the most popular and influential TV shows of the
> 2000s, but it also had one of the most divisive and misunderstood
> finales of all time. Many fans were left confused, disappointed, or
> angry by the final episode, which seemed to imply that the characters
> were dead all along and that nothing that happened on the island
> mattered.

I really don't know how someone can misunderstand the finale when
Christian literally explained everything to Jack when he came to the
church. The finale didn't even imply that they were dead the whole time,
Christian said "Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you,
some... long after you.". It's wacky that people didn't get it.

--
"I'll wait for you. Always."

[Robert Goodman]

Speaking of confusion, did you notice the confused state many of the characters in that scene seemed to be in? I'm thinking at least some of them were the programmed doubles we'd seen earlier in island scenes that actually took place later. Yes, Christian "explained" things to Jack -- falsely!

Bobbo in Andover NJ

[MummyChunk]

Hi,

I did some reading and I'll try to give some answers while not
thinking much of the OP.

The difference in the lamp on the desk of Swan between shots could be
a continuity error, or it could be a clue that the Swan station was
not the same one that Desmond was living in. There were two Swan
stations: one that was built by the Dharma Initiative, and another one
that was a decoy. The decoy station was used by the Others to trick
Michael into leading Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley into a trap. It is
possible that the lamp was different in the decoy station, and that
the scenes switched between the two stations without the viewers
noticing.

The fact that Desmond had stubble after killing Kelvin could also be a
continuity error, or it could be a sign that Desmond was experiencing
time shifts. Desmond was exposed to a high dose of electromagnetic
radiation when he turned the fail-safe key in the Swan station, which
gave him the ability to move his consciousness through time. It is
possible that Desmond s stubble was a result of his consciousness
shifting to a different point in time, where he had not shaved yet.

The lack of effect on nearby ferrous items at the beach camp if it was
magnetism that pulled down Oceanic 815 could be explained by the fact
that the magnetism was not constant, but rather triggered by a system
failure in the Swan station. The Swan station was built to contain a
pocket of electromagnetic energy that was discovered by the Dharma
Initiative. The station had a computer that required a code to be
entered every 108 minutes, otherwise the energy would build up and
cause a catastrophic event. The plane crash was caused by such an
event, when Desmond failed to enter the code on time. It is possible
that the magnetism was only strong enough to affect the plane when the
system failed, and not the items on the beach.

The sequence showing the landing of the Tailies in the water could be
a stylistic choice by the director, or it could be a hint that the
Tailies were not actually in the water, but in a different location.
THe island had the ability to move through space and time, and was
protected by a barrier that prevented outsiders from finding it. It is
possible that the barrier also created illusions or projections that
made the Tailies think they were in the water, when they were actually
somewhere else.

Walt s double 6 roll in backgammon could be a coincidence, or it could
be a manifestation of his special abilities. Walt was one of the
candidates chosen by Jacob, the protector of the island, to replace
him. Walt also had psychic powers that allowed him to influence
reality with his mind, such as summoning animals or making things
happen. It is possible that Walt s double 6 roll was a result of his
subconscious desire to win the game, or to impress Locke, who was
teaching him how to play.

The smuggler s plane landed on the island because it was caught in the
island s electromagnetic field, or because it was brought there by
Jacob. The smuggler s plane was carrying heroin and the bodies of two
priests, who were actually undercover agents. The plane was flying
over Nigeria, when it was caught in a storm and veered off course. It
is possible that the storm was caused by the island s electromagnetic
field, which pulled the plane towards it. Alternatively, it is
possible that Jacob, who had the power to manipulate events and
people, brought the plane to the island for a purpose, such as
providing Eko with a sign of his brother s fate.

Richard Alpert was centuries old because he was granted immortality by
Jacob, or because he was exposed to the island s healing properties.
Richard was a slave on a ship called the Black Rock, which crashed on
the island in the 19th century. He was freed by the Man in Black, who
offered him a deal to kill Jacob. However, Richard was convinced by
Jacob to join his side, and was given the gift of eternal life as a
reward. It is possible that Jacob s gift prevented Richard from aging
or dying, or that the island s healing properties, which could cure
diseases and injuries, also extended Richard s lifespan.

Some characters developed nosebleeds following the time jumps because
they were more sensitive to the changes in the island s temporal
location, or because they had been on the island longer than others.
The time jumps were caused by the island s wheel being moved off its
axis, which disrupted the island s connection to space and time. The
time jumps affected the people on the island differently, depending on
their personal variables, such as exposure to radiation, genetics, or
history. It is possible that some characters, such as Charlotte,
Miles, or Juliet, developed nosebleeds because they had a higher
sensitivity to the temporal shifts, or because they had been on the
island longer than others, either in the past or the present.

The Monster seemed to receive images of characters past because it
scanned their memories and used them to manipulate them, or because it
was connected to the Heart of the Island, which contained the source
of life, death, and rebirth. The Monster was actually the Man in
Black, who was transformed into a smoke-like entity when he was thrown
into the Heart of the Island by Jacob. The Monster had the ability to
scan people s minds and take the form of their dead loved ones, such
as Locke, Christian, or Alex. It is possible that the Monster scanned
the characters past and used the images to influence their actions,
or that the Monster was connected to the Heart of the Island, which
contained the essence of every living thing, and could access their
memories through that link.

Jack was seemingly able to hear from much farther away what the
patient on the stretcher say because he had enhanced hearing, or
because he was hallucinating. Jack was a spinal surgeon who suffered
from alcoholism and drug addiction after leaving the island. He also
experienced visions of his dead father, Christian, who appeared to him
in various places. It is possible that Jack had enhanced hearing,
either as a result of his exposure to the island s properties, or as a
natural talent. Alternatively, it is possible that Jack was
hallucinating, either as a result of his substance abuse, or as a
manifestation of his guilt and trauma.

So many patients required needle relief from hemothorax or
hemopericardium because they had internal bleeding, or because they
were part of a conspiracy. Hemothorax and hemopericardium are medical
conditions that involve blood accumulating in the chest cavity or
around the heart, respectively. They can be caused by trauma,
infection, or disease. It is possible that so many patients had these
conditions because they had internal bleeding, either as a result of
the plane crash, or as a complication of their injuries.
Alternatively, it is possible that they were part of a conspiracy,
either by the Dharma Initiative, the Others, or some other group, and
that they were injected with something to fake their conditions, or to
manipulate them in some way.

[MummyChunk]

> > On Wednesday, December 27, 2023 at 9:41:00AM UTC-5, MummyChunk

> Speaking of Manchurian Candidate "tells", why did Sad

reach for the Koran with his left hand? Why did he think of proximity
to Christmas as he looked at the calendar? It's easy if he wasn't
really a Muslim.
>

> Why did Shannon move her gun BEFORE Sad hit her, and in the

opposite direction from what you'd expect by the force of his tackle?
Yet why did Locke's head injury match what would've been a miss in the
opposite direction from where she moved her gun? Surely the makers of
"Lost" would've expected some viewers to examine the scene
in slow motion and notice the discrepancy. It makes no sense by your

explanation, yet it makes perfect sense if everyone on scene except
Sad was working together, and Locke had a sharp object concealed in

Again will also try here to pose a few possibilities without much
thought about the text of the OP

Charlie was sending tap code to Locke because he was trying to warn
him about the impending turbulence that would cause the plane to
crash. He knew this because he had a flash of his previous life on the
island, where he died. This was part of the flash-sideways timeline,
where the characters experienced an alternate reality where the plane
never crashed.

Charlie wound up with the other survivors in the ostensible wreckage
because he was in the bathroom when the plane broke apart. He managed
to escape from the front section and swim to the beach, where he was
resuscitated by Jack. The crash was real, but it was orchestrated by
Jacob, the protector of the island, who brought the passengers there
for a purpose.

The victim described by Kate as having every bone in his body broken
was Edward Mars, a U.S. marshal who was escorting Kate back to the
U.S. He was injured in the crash and later killed by Jack, who
euthanized him with a lethal injection5. He was not an organ donor,
nor were the other corpses that were used by the Others, a group of
people who lived on the island before the crash and who sometimes
posed as survivors.

The other Oceanic 815 found in the Sunda Trench was a fake plane that
was planted there by Charles Widmore, a former leader of the Others
who wanted to find the island and exploit its power. He did this to
deceive the public and prevent anyone from looking for the real plane
and the island. Ben Linus, another leader of the Others, knew about
this and tried to stop Widmore from finding the island.

Sawyer discovered that he needed reading glasses because his eyesight
deteriorated over time, possibly due to the stress and trauma of
living on the island. He quoted a passage from Of Mice and Men because
he had read the book before, but he did not recognize the more
prominent one Ben quoted him because he had not read it recently or
did not remember it well. He was not a Manchurian Candidate, nor was
anyone else on the island.

Sad reached for the Koran with his left hand because he was
ambidextrous, or because he was not paying attention to which hand he
was using. He thought of proximity to Christmas as he looked at the
calendar because he was aware of the date and the significance of the
holiday, even though he was not a Christian. He was a Muslim, but he
was not very devout or orthodox.

Shannon moved her gun before Sad hit her because she was startled by
his sudden appearance and tried to defend herself. She moved it in the
opposite direction from what youd expect by the force of his tackle
because she was not a skilled shooter and panicked in the moment.
Lockes head injury matched what wouldve been a miss in the opposite
direction from where she moved her gun because he was hit by a stray
bullet that ricocheted off a rock or a tree. The makers of LOST did
not expect viewers to examine the scene in slow motion and notice the
discrepancy, or they did not care about the minor inconsistency. The
scene was not staged, and the characters were not working together,
except for Ethan, who was an Other and infiltrated the survivors.

Aarons umbilical cord ended under Kates hand instead of extending to
his umbilicus because it was a prop or a mistake by the production
team. It was his actual birth being depicted, and the makers of LOST
did not think that viewers would notice or care about the detail. His
birth was not faked, and Claire was really pregnant. The fortune
teller was not fooled by Claire, but rather manipulated her into going
to the island, where he knew she would give birth and raise Aaron.
Kate did not give birth to Aaron, nor did she spend weeks in isolation
on the ranch in Australia. Jin did not play along by feeling the kick
from Claires womb, but rather genuinely felt it. Jack was not
distracted by Boone, who was really injured, but rather rushed to help
him as a doctor. Kate did not drop the bag that held the baby while
she ran, but rather dropped her backpack that contained guns and
supplies. Jin did not shoo away Sawyer, but rather told him to get
some water for Claire. Claire did not crack up with laughter at faking
labor, but rather expressed relief and joy at giving birth. The
characters were not working together, and they were strangers on a
plane.

The anachronisms in the scenes set in the 1950s and 1970s could be
intentional clues that the characters are not really experiencing
those time periods, but rather are in a simulated reality or a
collective hallucination. This could be related to the experiments of
the Dharma Initiative, which was interested in manipulating space and
time. Alternatively, the anachronisms could be simply production
errors or artistic choices that were not meant to be taken literally.

The Monster, also known as the Man in Black or the Smoke Monster, is a
mysterious entity that inhabits the island. It is revealed to be the
corrupted form of Jacobs brother, who was thrown into the Heart of the
Island, a source of electromagnetic energy and light. The Monster can
take the shape of dead people or animals, and can scan the memories
and emotions of those it encounters. It can also manipulate
electromagnetism, which could explain its undulating motion and
ratchet sound.

Hugo, also known as Hurley, is one of the main characters of the show.
He is a lottery winner who believes he is cursed by the numbers he
used to win. He is also one of the few characters who can see and
communicate with the dead. In the flash-sideways timeline, where the
plane never crashed, he is the owner of a record store and sings along
to a song by Drive Shaft, the band of his friend Charlie. He rolls his
eyes at the camera because he is aware that the song is cheesy and
that Charlie is a drug addict. He is not implying that he or anyone
else is a double or an impostor.

The names of many of the characters are references to famous people,
such as philosophers, writers, scientists, or historical figures. This
could be a way of hinting at the themes and influences of the show, or
a way of creating connections and parallels between the characters and
their namesakes. Some of the characters do use aliases or false
identities, such as Ben, Juliet, or Sawyer, but this is usually for
personal or strategic reasons, not because they are part of a scam or
a conspiracy.

Ben is the leader of the Others, a group of people who live on the
island and claim to be its protectors. He is also a manipulative and
ruthless liar, who will do anything to achieve his goals. He gives his
name as Henry Gale, a balloonist who crashed on the island, when he is
captured by the survivors of the plane crash. He does this to hide his
true identity and to test the trust and loyalty of the survivors. He
leads them to the real Henry Gales grave, where he knows they will
find his identification, to see how they will react and to create more
confusion and doubt among them.

Charlie is a former rock star and a heroin addict, who becomes one of
the survivors of the plane crash. He is also one of the candidates
chosen by Jacob to protect the island. He writes a rescue note and
puts it in a bottle, along with the notes of other survivors, hoping
that someone will find it and save them. However, he later decides to
keep the note for himself, as a reminder of his past and his hopes for
the future. He does not show the note to the camera, but to Claire,
the woman he loves and the mother of his unborn child. He does this to
express his feelings for her and to reassure her that they will be
rescued. He is not acting or lying, but being sincere and romantic.

Kate and Ana Lucia are two of the female survivors of the plane crash.
They both have criminal backgrounds and are skilled in fighting and
survival. They both pretend to be hostages at different points of the
show, but for different reasons. Kate does this to escape from the
marshal who was escorting her to prison, and to blend in with the
other survivors. Ana Lucia does this to infiltrate the Others camp and
to get revenge for the murder of her friends. They are not working
together or part of a scam, but acting on their own interests and
motivations.

The lottery ball drawing person is wearing long sleeves because it is
a common attire for such events. There is no evidence that the lottery
was rigged or that Hurleys winning was a hoax. He won the lottery by
using the numbers that he heard from a former patient at a mental
institution, where he was treated for his hallucinations. The numbers
are also related to the island and its mysteries, and they seem to
bring bad luck to those who use them. The rockets that homed in on
Faradays location were part of an experiment to measure the time
difference between the island and the outside world. The timers on the
rockets showed different results because the islands electromagnetic
properties cause temporal anomalies and distortions. The time and
space distortion stuff is not flim-flam, but a scientific phenomenon
that affects the island and its inhabitants.

The facial scar of the ships doctor is a clue that the islands time is
not synchronized with the outside world. The doctor was killed by the
mercenaries who were sent to capture Ben, and his body washed up on
the shore of the island before he was actually killed. This created a
paradox that confused the survivors and the freighter crew. The doctor
did not have a double or a twin, and the time loop scenario was not a
false inference, but a consequence of the islands temporal
instability. The bite on Lockes hand was inflicted by a polar bear
when he was exploring the frozen wheel chamber under the Orchid
station. The bite healed faster than normal because Locke was healed
by the islands powers when he first arrived, after being paralyzed for
four years. The islands healing abilities are also not flim-flam, but
a mystical property that affects some of the characters.

The coincidences on the show are not necessarily evidence of a
conspiracy, but of a deeper connection between the characters and the
island. Many of the characters have crossed paths or influenced each
others lives before the plane crash, without being aware of it. This
could be a result of fate, destiny, or Jacobs intervention, as he
visited and touched some of the characters in their past, and chose
them as candidates to replace him as the islands protector. The island
also seems to have a will of its own, and to attract and manipulate
people for its own purposes.

[Robert Goodman]

On Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at 1:19:58 PM UTC-5, MummyChunk wrote:

> > > On Wednesday, December 27, 2023 at 9:41:00AM UTC-5, MummyChunk

> wrote in part:

> Charlie was sending tap code to Locke because he was trying to warn
> him about the impending turbulence that would cause the plane to
> crash. He knew this because he had a flash of his previous life on the
> island, where he died. This was part of the flash-sideways timeline,
> where the characters experienced an alternate reality where the plane
> never crashed.

So you think Charlie and Locke, having had future/past/sideways experience with each other, would not have acknowledged each other by any means other than Charlie's sending tap code about a coming crash? Why would he have taken only this seemingly ineffectual action, communicating with only one passenger? And why would Locke not have the same knowledge?

> Charlie wound up with the other survivors in the ostensible wreckage
> because he was in the bathroom when the plane broke apart. He managed
> to escape from the front section and swim to the beach, where he was
> resuscitated by Jack. The crash was real, but it was orchestrated by
> Jacob, the protector of the island, who brought the passengers there
> for a purpose.

Then why was Charlie shown running OUT of the bathroom to a forward seat?

> The victim described by Kate as having every bone in his body broken
> was Edward Mars, a U.S. marshal who was escorting Kate back to the
> U.S.

No, it was another ostensible passenger. Had it been the marshal, she would've identified the body as such, given her intimate relationship with him. Also, it would be unreasonable for her to refer to the breaking of all the bones as having happened to someone who was already dead, when they were discussing ostensibly mysterious nighttime deaths.

> He was injured in the crash and later killed by Jack, who

> euthanized him with a lethal injection.

Jack said that after Sawyer's bad shot, the marshal would have to bleed to death. There was no indication that Jack even had a syringe handy at that point. My own inference (and that of another friend of Damon's, John Pachak) is that the gun Kate had was loaded with a blank. Jack had expected Kate to enter the tent and fire a shot to convince Sawyer and Saïd she'd shot the marshal, but Kate double-crossed him (for reason I've yet to determine) by handing the gun to Sawyer, who didn't know it held a blank load. Desmond's line to Bakunin about the flare gun, "How do you think you'll feel when it goes off in your chest?" was to remind us of such possibilities.

> He was not an organ donor,
> nor were the other corpses that were used by the Others, a group of
> people who lived on the island before the crash and who sometimes
> posed as survivors.

The driving license read by Claire from one of the bodies said he was to be an organ donor. You may not believe he'd been one, but that would've been a convenient source of corpses. We don't know whether the marshal's license said similarly.

>
> The other Oceanic 815 found in the Sunda Trench was a fake plane that
> was planted there by Charles Widmore, a former leader of the Others
> who wanted to find the island and exploit its power. He did this to
> deceive the public and prevent anyone from looking for the real plane
> and the island.

Then why would he have put it in such a deep part of the ocean, a place where it was extremely unlikely to be found? Also, viewers have identified markings on it that match closer to the model of plane being shown boarded in Sydney than the ostensible wreckage on the island.

> Sawyer discovered that he needed reading glasses because his eyesight
> deteriorated over time, possibly due to the stress and trauma of
> living on the island.

You're saying that after living for so many years and not needing reading glasses, his eyes would've changed to such a degree in a matter of DAYS on the island? That's not how presbyopia works!

> He quoted a passage from Of Mice and Men because
> he had read the book before, but he did not recognize the more
> prominent one Ben quoted him because he had not read it recently or
> did not remember it well.

It's not a matter of not remembering that passage WELL, but of not RECOGNIZING it! He had no idea what Ben was referring to.

> He was not a Manchurian Candidate, nor was anyone else on the island.

Have you read it? Review it and see how much Sawyer's personality characteristics are like those of Ray Shaw (misogyny, bookishness, having had one romantic love), plus the similarity of name, as well as the situation of having been ostensibly one of few unlikely survivors of a terrible misadventure and having been a prisoner. Notice how Sawyer's programming was put to a similar test by having him kill someone. Also notice how "Saïd Jarrah" sounds like "Sawyer". They were trying to tell us there was more than one of them. Plus there were other references to the novel and movie: a prominently placed Queen of Diamonds card, mention of the Korean War and "Bad Korea", and allusions to at least one other Frankenheimer movie, that of Ely's novel "Seconds".

> Saïd reached for the Koran with his left hand because he was

> ambidextrous, or because he was not paying attention to which hand he
> was using.

But to a Muslim from that part of the world, using only the right hand to pick up a Koran would be second nature, because of their association of the left hand with wiping one's tush.

> He thought of proximity to Christmas as he looked at the
> calendar because he was aware of the date and the significance of the
> holiday, even though he was not a Christian.

To people brought up in a society where Christianity is not prominent, Christmas would not spring to mind as something to relate the calendar to.

> He was a Muslim, but he was not very devout or orthodox.

Then why was he shown participating in a prayer? And even going partway thru a conspiracy to engage in Islamic terror-violence?

> Shannon moved her gun before Saïd hit her because she was startled by

> his sudden appearance and tried to defend herself.

He was not in her field of view.

> She moved it in the

> opposite direction from what you'd expect by the force of his tackle

> because she was not a skilled shooter and panicked in the moment.

But she moved it that way BEFORE she was hit, and she had no reason to panic since she didn't see him coming.

> Lockes head injury matched what wouldve been a miss in the opposite
> direction from where she moved her gun because he was hit by a stray
> bullet that ricocheted off a rock or a tree. The makers of LOST did
> not expect viewers to examine the scene in slow motion and notice the
> discrepancy, or they did not care about the minor inconsistency.

They would not have constructed it so carefully had they not expected close examination, and there was no reason for the actress to have moved that way unless deliberate. One of the DVDs had Marvin Candle telling us, "Close observation is the key to enlightenment." We'd already been shown Shannon's demonstration shot, which was to her left into the ground. Even had the bullet of her next shot hit a rock in the ground -- there was no tree there -- it would've had to deflect to such an angle that the bullet's force would've been spent before hitting Locke.

> Aarons umbilical cord ended under Kates hand instead of extending to
> his umbilicus because it was a prop or a mistake by the production
> team.

It was in the center of the frame, and more importantly, THEY DID NOT NEED TO SHOW US THAT SHOT unless they wanted us to see that detail. They didn't have to include a view of an umbilical cord at all. They would not have gone so far out of their way to show this only to make that bad a mistake.

I had the pleasure of acting a small part in a movie made by Damon Lindelof before he turned professional, and I was impressed at the attention to small details of props in continuity. Everything was placed carefully and replaced for every take, even in a scene where such details would not seem important to the audience. And that was without all the hired help he had for "Lost"!

> Kate did not give birth to Aaron, nor did she spend weeks in isolation
> on the ranch in Australia.

She did according to the rancher's account of her duration there.

> The anachronisms in the scenes set in the 1950s and 1970s could be
> intentional clues that the characters are not really experiencing
> those time periods, but rather are in a simulated reality or a
> collective hallucination.

I agree, it was a simulated reality.

> Alternatively, the anachronisms could be simply production
> errors or artistic choices that were not meant to be taken literally.

See above for the reasons that viewers should do so.

> The Monster, also known as the Man in Black or the Smoke Monster, is a
> mysterious entity that inhabits the island. It is revealed to be the

> corrupted form of nJacobs brother, who was thrown into the Heart of the

> Island, a source of electromagnetic energy and light.

So wait...THAT mumbo-jumbo you DO take literally?!

> The Monster can
> take the shape of dead people or animals, and can scan the memories
> and emotions of those it encounters. It can also manipulate
> electromagnetism, which could explain its undulating motion and
> ratchet sound.

I'll have to introduce some outside knowledge here. Damon's father David was very interested in the work of Michael Persinger in wireless thought implantation. David discussed this with me, and I infer that he did with Damon as well -- similarly to David's interest in classic Haitian zombies. Those flashing scenes in the "smoke" clouds I believe represent thoughts being transmitted INTO selected characters it encounters, by the same means the cloud of particles is controlled via buried coils. Those are FALSE memories -- a past that did not exist.

> Hugo, also known as Hurley,

But Hugo's named for "Hungry Joe" Lewis, "King [Reyes, get it?] of the Bunco Men", and given a Hispanic flavor to resemble that of Gomez from the original A.C. Doyle story "The Lost Special" (for which "Lost" is named, along with its being about a "lost heir" scam). "HUngry JOe Lewis" even sounds like "Hugo Reyes". Where the "Hurley" part comes from I'm not sure, but my guess is from King David.

> He is a lottery winner

If he'd won a real lottery, why would the lady drawing the numbers be shown wearing long sleeves?

> In the flash-sideways timeline, where the
> plane never crashed, he is the owner of a record store and sings along
> to a song by Drive Shaft, the band of his friend Charlie.

No, it's not in the "sideways", he's just a customer.

> The names of many of the characters are references to famous people,
> such as philosophers, writers, scientists, or historical figures. This
> could be a way of hinting at the themes and influences of the show, or
> a way of creating connections and parallels between the characters and
> their namesakes.

Indeed, but "Lost" also tries to be realistic, and so many famous names is not realistic -- unless there's a reason WITHIN THEIR UNIVERSE for the characters having such names. The only plausible reason for such a confluence of famous names is that they're assumed (or given them by their programmers in the case of the "candidates"). Not that not all of the characters have such names, so we can tell which characters were not meant to use those names in the outside world. As Kate said, "Come on...`Christian Shepherd'?"

> He gives his
> name as Henry Gale, a balloonist who crashed on the island, when he is
> captured by the survivors of the plane crash. He does this to hide his
> true identity and to test the trust and loyalty of the survivors. He
> leads them to the real Henry Gales grave, where he knows they will
> find his identification, to see how they will react and to create more
> confusion and doubt among them.

It was indeed to see how they'd react, but not to create confusion and doubt. Rather, he was fishing for reaction as Hamlet did with "The Mouse Trap" -- to see who among them knew what was going on. He told them a story like the one Hamlet had his uncle watch, mimicking possible real events. Did you not notice the resemblance between Benry's story of crashing and the supposed Flight 815 scenario? How about all those allusions to Mouse Trap, and the fact that Michael Emerson had been playing Hamlet when he was cast for "Lost"?

> Charlie is a former rock star and a heroin addict, who becomes one of
> the survivors of the plane crash. He is also one of the candidates
> chosen by Jacob to protect the island. He writes a rescue note and
> puts it in a bottle, along with the notes of other survivors, hoping
> that someone will find it and save them. However, he later decides to
> keep the note for himself, as a reminder of his past and his hopes for
> the future. He does not show the note to the camera, but to Claire,
> the woman he loves and the mother of his unborn child. He does this to
> express his feelings for her and to reassure her that they will be
> rescued. He is not acting or lying, but being sincere and romantic.

Then why is he showing this TO THE CAMERA WHILE THE BIRD IS FLYING AWAY? Review the scene and you'll see you have it wrong?

> The lottery ball drawing person is wearing long sleeves because it is
> a common attire for such events.

No, they forbid it, to prevent any hint of sleight of hand!

Have to go now, more later.

Bobbo in Andover.

[Robert Goodman]

On Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at 1:19:58 PM UTC-5, MummyChunk wrote:

> The rockets that homed in on
> Faradays location were part of an experiment to measure the time
> difference between the island and the outside world. The timers on the
> rockets showed different results because the islands electromagnetic
> properties cause temporal anomalies and distortions. The time and
> space distortion stuff is not flim-flam, but a scientific phenomenon
> that affects the island and its inhabitants.

Then why did the rockets record flight times impossibly long for the size they were? The timers were on the rockets themselves, so any time distortion would've been experienced by the rockets themselves. No rocket that size could've maintained powered flight for anywhere near the duration shown. It's also been pointed out that for the distance they supposedly covered from the ship, rockets that size could not have reached.

> The facial scar of the ships doctor is a clue that the islands time is
> not synchronized with the outside world. The doctor was killed by the
> mercenaries who were sent to capture Ben, and his body washed up on
> the shore of the island before he was actually killed. This created a
> paradox that confused the survivors and the freighter crew. The doctor
> did not have a double or a twin, and the time loop scenario was not a
> false inference, but a consequence of the islands temporal
> instability.

The ostensible doctor cut himself shaving shortly before having his throat slit by Keamy and then being thrown overboard. The corpse on the beach had a cut in the same place, but it had been sutured and healed; that doesn't happen to bodies in the ocean! Bernard recognized the deception, and so got the message to the ship by Morse code that the doctor had washed up there. So the doctor's double must have stowed away, killed the doctor, and then thrown him overboard. Keamy took the hint and killed the double.

> The bite on Lockes hand was inflicted by a polar bear
> when he was exploring the frozen wheel chamber under the Orchid
> station.

No, this is the bite Cooper-Seward gave him.

We saw a pattern on "Lost" of characters being marked by injuries and tattoos. This is because characters were aware that other characters had doubles, and wanted ways of distinguishing them. Goodwin, for example, gave himself a burn on one forearm, ostensibly by accident. By examining the forearm of one ostensible Goodwin closely, Ana Lucia determined that the one in her presence was the one she should kill. One Jack went to considerable trouble to resemble the other Jack, by matching his tattoos and then getting an ostensible appendectomy scar. But these marks are there for us to use too, so for instance we can tell the Locke with the "healed" hand is different from the one whom Cooper-Seward bit.

We can even use anatomic clues on the dead on "Lost". The severed arm that the ostensible Roger Workman remains had was the same side as that still attached, so we know the body was fake. (It also alludes to another A.C. Doyle story, "The Brown Hand".) This tells us the whole back story of the supposed Roger Linus was phony. But we could already tell that from the fact that the VW mini-bus was able to start, although if its fuel had really been in there since the 1970s, it would have jelled and become useless.

Bobbo in Andover

[Robert Goodman]

Is this discussion still being carried on at the JLA forums?