Could Be, Who Knows?

Here's an explanation of the Lost finale that I kind of like, even if it may seem unlikely. Since the show left a lot open, we're allowed to believe what works best for us.

It's from a talkback at AICN:

My theory
by pjdon May 28th, 2010
07:58:27 AM

Whoa, it's been about 3 years since I came onto this talkback. Had a child and all since series 3 so forgive my absence and don’t worry I’ve been keeping up with LOST

Hear we go again...

People seem to be inferring that the ending was spiritual. In fact people have stated in this TB that they actually confirmed it is not a flash sideways but a construct of their minds. As if a giant voice-over suddenly stated so at the end of the episode. To me the writers have left it so either a scientific or spiritual explanation is possible. And my money would be on the scientific.

There is a tendency for people to assume that because something is stated by a character who is old or mysterious that it is gospel. We assume because Jacob sees the island as spiritual, because there where letters carved into the stone ‘cork’; that it means the island is a spiritual power.

Jacob only based his knowledge on what his mother told him. The original inhabitants who built the light house, statue, temple and cork did not do so because they understood the islands spiritual power, it was their version of the Dharma experiments. The cork is just a primitive version of the hatch computer.

I believe the light is just one of many pin holes on the island and throughout the world which tap directly into an electromagnetic field which holds the molten core of the earth in place and stable.

Ancient people probably saw these outlets as something mystical whereas modern observers would have a more scientific and accurate understanding.

To ask why the show never explains the science if it exists is missing the point. The only source of information we have is what the characters know and reveal to us. By the end all the scientific explorers of the island i.e. Dharma and Faraday are dead so naturally we are left with Jacobs explanation.

If Jacob had of had access to scientific training and equipment when he was a boy he probably would have come up with similar conclusions to Faradays. But he was influenced by ancient thinking. When Jacob was born no one even knew what electromagnetism was.

So maybe the flash sideways literally still are flash sideways.

Christian tells Jack that everything that is happening or has happened is real.

Juliet told Sawyer ‘it worked’ before she died, Lock told Jack ‘it worked’ when he woke up in hospital.

These all point to the fact that the flash sideways is a direct consequence of Jacks actions at the end of season 5. He created a alternative world where the island was destroyed in the 70’s.

But the human mind is only supposed to exist in one reality at a time which is why they have to all accept their death in the original timeline before they move on.

When Christian told Jack that there was no ‘time’ in this world he meant that it was not affected by ‘when’ people died in the original universe.

So he is just stating the age old scientific fact that ‘time is relative’.

Even though both realities are technically running side by side it does not mean a person at an early point in one could not remember a later point in the other.

Christian never outright states that it is heaven or a construct of the mind. The fact that whole characters like Jacks son exist in this world and have secrets like playing the piano means it must be a tangible reality.

To have all the drama that happened in the flash sideways be pointless and metaphorical seems like a bit too much of a copout considering the writers knew how much viewers had invested.

The show has clearly been left so either answer is possible.

The only hole in my ‘scientific’ explanation is Christian.

Did he fake his death in this world to get Jack on the plane and bring them all together? Why would he even know about the alternative reality before them?

Maybe MiB Lock meant for Jack to kill him after Desmond had released the cork. Maybe that was his way off the island.

Wait till all the trapped souls on the island where released by Desmond's actions, let yourself be killed and then escape to the alternative reality by entering Christians body once again.

Any thoughts?

Thanks. I have a few thoughts to add. The most compelling evidence that the altaworld is "real" is right from the start we see a submerged island. This is the world that happened in a timeline where Jack's plan worked and destroyed the Island (though perhaps not immediately--many or most were allowed to get off in time).

So two timelines were created by the Incident. But in either, it was possible to get flashes of the other. Perhaps letting go and moving on meant returning to the original timeline, even if it means going to your death.

Here's another similar explanation from a fan responding to a nasty review at TV Squad:

Why are people so stuck on this idiotic purgatory idea? Two words - TIME LOOP.

I think the writers went out of their way to leave the ending ambiguous and open to interpretation. While I am somewhat disappointed (I SO wanted to see Jack come out of the cave as a white smoke monster), I think I can be satisfied with the ending, even though I DO want to smack those writers upside the head. You set it up PERFECTLY and then blow it right at the end? Dips!

The quasi-religious ending doesn't fit at all with what LOST has been about, with time traveling, electromagnetic energy, and I still believe the "flash sideways" are an alternate reality created by the island's destruction by the bomb in the 1970s. Without Jacob molding their lives, their lives went in different directions.

However, that timeline was never meant to exist, and as Farraday's mother said long ago, "You can't change the timeline, it will correct itself," you could see the island pulling at them, trying to merge the timelines, to get them to remember the island, and draw them back to it.

Wasn't the church they were sitting in the same church where momma Farraday had the pendulum swinging finding the island? And wasn't that church built over a pocket of the same electromagnetic energy found at the island? I don't believe for a second that white light was taking them to "heaven." It was the merging of the timelines, and setting in motion the time loop. Whether or not the characters would start the new loop with the memories they had newly gained I can't say, although if they did, and went back to the correct timeline with the knowledge they needed to "do it right this time" (ala Groundhog Day) that would be an unbelievably satisfying ending for me.

As far as them all dying? Yes, in the real timeline they had all lived out their lives. Charlie drowned, Sun and Jin drowned (and remembered it in their flashes), Jack died where he did, and Hurley and Ben died much later. The Hurley and Ben conversation where "You were a good number 2...you were a good number 1" would be ludicrous if they hadn't continued their lives there together, a part of the story that we never got to see. That would make Christian's statement, "Some died before you, some long after" make perfect sense. They received all the memories of their entire lives in the alternate reality, and realized that they needed to go back to the correct timeline.

And don't forget that Christian WAS dead in both realities. Only in the electromagnetic energy the church was built over could he have come back to life and speak to Jack. I believe very much that, as has happened very often on Lost, Christian was a manifestation of the island, the island speaking directly to Jack, and how appropriate that the "island" open the doors to the white light, to merge and thereby correct the timeline.

I believe this idea fits the facts, and also the feel, that the show has given us. If the ending is open for interpretation, and I don't find anything that openly disagrees with this, I think I can come to my own interpretation of the ending and be very satisfied with it.

Further elements to support my theory: When Desmond was forced into the machine by Widmore's people and he was hit with that blast of electromagnetism, he was able to see into the other timeline, how much better it was for everyone, and agreed to help Widmore.

He also believed that when he pulled the cork out of the island, they would all disappear and go somewhere...the alternate timeline. This makes sense with his role of being "The Constant" It would make no sense that he was looking into Purgatory.

Also, Juliette's final words as read by Miles, "It worked."

Also, the shot of the island being under water. If this was a purgatory reality, and not an alternate timeline or temporal disturbance created by the bomb going off, then this scene was useless and should not have been included.

Not bad. Lost always tried to have it both ways, and even when it's over, it continues to be open to scientific and spiritual interpretations.

I do prefer this explanation to the more common purgatory concept. This means that the bomb accomplished a certain goal--it allowed all the Losties, many of whom gave up their life to the Island--to meet one more time and work out their issues. And the energy unleashed is related to the Island--thus Sayid connects with Shannon, not Nadia. The bomb also did what it was supposed to do in the regular timeline--create the Incident, but also get the Losties back to where they belonged because they had work to do. And what they did was great. It may have been Jacob's plan, but they operated with free will and through great sacrifice saved the Island and (perhaps) saved the world. It all ties together, rather than the purgatory seeming like a post script.