Another thing: the cork which stops the Man in Black (the Security System, the Smoke Monster, the Black Smoke...) theory is just all sorts of wrong with me.

I mean: Jacob, this supernatural being or whatever he is, is there to stop him from going out into the world.

Yeah.

The Man in Black wants to escape to kill everyone on Earth. No sh*t. And then what? Why would he want that?

I am happy for you. Sincerely. I wish I felt that way.

I quoted your first line too because I just can't get a hold of the timeline. What happened when? It makes no sense, it is all so schizo. Sure, a (crappy) way to get out of it is to say: This is Lost, there time passes in a different way.

Maybe it is because I read comic books as a kid, but timelines don't bother me. Jack died. His spirit went to an alternate timeline where he got to live a happier life (wife, kid, etc) and so did all the people he cared about. None of them died in this fabricated existence. This timeline kicks in after Jack dies. Now in it, Desmond is placed there because at some point when they are ready it is time for them to "see the light" and wake up to the truth and go to heaven. The most logical answer to who created this timeline is Jacob but I could see a a case for the timeline was made ready by Juliet's bomb mixed with the Island's power. In any case, Jack dies and his mind or spirit or what have you starts to live again in this half way house of a world where everything is great until it is time. Then all the people in the alternate reality slowly start coming into contact with each other. Then Desmond wakes up. He knows the truth that something is not quite right. He is dead too. But stop for a second and backtrack to before Jack and Desmond die. Charles Widmore brings Desmond to the island and bombards him with island force. This awakens his ability to see the future and he sees the future that Jack or Jacob or the Island has created for everybody where he gets Penny and Charlie gets to live and everyone is happy. He even told Jack none of this matters because he knows that as soon as they all die things are only going to get better.

So it goes

Desmond is brought to the island by widmore

Desmond sees the future where they are all dead

Jack dies

the future where they are all dead begins and we have been watching bits and pieces of that future every episode because for lack of a better term it is a parallel universe created by Jacob or Jack that not only is the future but got backdated so they lived out their imaginary lives for decades just waiting for the moment when dead jack was ready to learn the truth.

(the show is now over and everyone back in reality lives to a ripe old age or dies in completely random normal events over the course of decades just like normal)

Desmond goes about gathering everybody and everyone wakes each other up (we have been watching this all season)

Jack wakes up and since Jack is now hip to the fact he is dead there is no longer a need for this alternate reality and he and his friends can go to heaven together to be dead happily ever after.

I can't say whether it evaporates once Jack leaves and where that leaves people like Ben, Farraday and the few others, but the show implied that when they are ready to go forward they will realize they are dead too.

I liked this article, so many truths:

Lost was the ultimate long con

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;">...

In the end, it's hard not to see Lost as the longest con of them all. Not because we didn't get enough answers - it's really true that after this episode, I don't need any more answers than what we got. But because all along, Lost seemed to be a story. Until the end, when it wasn't. In the end, it was just a bunch of stuff that happened.

It's way too early to tell, but I have a feeling that this will go down in history with the "Patrick Duffy stepping out of the shower" thing on Dallas. It just felt like a cheap, cop-out ending. In a sense, nothing that happened in the "flash-sideways" universe mattered because they were all already dead, and they were going to "move on" eventually one way or another. And nothing on the island mattered, because... well, it just didn't seem to matter very much.

...

Read the rest here.</span>

Edited May 24, 201015 yr by Sylph

Ah damn, and I'm SO enjoying the second season right now.

Maybe it is because I read comic books as a kid, but timelines don't bother me.

I read them too. Thank you, QF, but it all really makes no sense to me. At all. I understand the separate timelines, but I can't glue them together in a way that feels satisfying.

I feel — robbed, the finale just blew it all up. Just awful.

I just rememvered discoalan's comment from The Guardian's website and how it made sense. But not anymore... This is how a timeline could've been explaind. This:

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;">To the question 'are they making it all up' — large parts, probably, but something interesting happens if you just look at the series finales. You can see the big story arc pretty clearly. Here's the entire story in chronological order, rather than episode order,

—In 1845 Jacob and the man in black sit on the beach watching the Black Swan and discuss how much the man in black wants to kill Jacob. But for some reason he can't [season 5 finale, see comment above about the recurring images of black vs. white, in the series]. A war begins, good vs. evil, although we have only seen hints of it.

—An electromagnetic pocket on the island explodes, creating the 'incident'. [season 5 finale] The hatch is built to stop it recurring. The island undergoes some kind of trauma — no children can be born here. The war escalates.

—Jacob goes out into the wider world and makes contact with our heroes. [season 5 finale]

—When Desmond fails to operate the hatch, the oceanic plane is brought down on the island [season 2 finale]. It brings with it all of the people with whom Jacob has made contact. Presumably they are here to save Jacob/the island from the Man in Black.

—The man in log cabin, previously thought to be Jacob but lets assume it's his enemy the man in black, tells John Locke to 'help me'. [season 3 finale] The man in black takes the body of Christian Shepherd and tells him more explicitly that he needs to leave the island and die [season 4 finale] Locke dies [season 3 finale, Jeremy Bentham's coffin] prompting Jack to have visions telling Kate 'we HAVE to go back to the island.' They don't know why, but now WE know that they are pawns between Jacob and the Man in Black.

—Locke's dead body returns to the island. Just as with Christian Shepherd, the Man in black takes control of Locke's body [season 5 finale] and uses it to kill Jacob. He tells him 'you have no idea what lengths I have gone to get back here.' Jacob dies.

Not sure where it goes next, but feel it's significant that our characters are being controlled by higher forces. We now know that 'Locke' is helping the Man in Black / Shadowy figure from the Log cabin / Christian Shepherd on the island. And we know that Kate, Jack etc. have been touched by Jacob, possibly making them his guys.

Charles Widmore and Ben Linus are just pawns in a bigger game. A game, that will presumably end with a couple, dying in a cave, with a black stone and a white stone — a clue planted early in season one.</span>

Ah damn, and I'm SO enjoying the second season right now.

You just shouldn't have read all this.

But who know? Perhaps you'll love it.

Edited May 24, 201015 yr by Sylph

You just shouldn't have read all this.

But who know? Perhaps you'll love it.

I didn't really read everything, just some thoughts in general. The plot is still very much a mystery to me. But over the years I've learned about many things when I shouldn't have. That's the worst thing about the spoilers. But hey, it doesn't really matter.

I hope it won't ruin the rest of my viewing. I still have four seasons to watch.

I didn't really read everything, just some thoughts in general. The plot is still very much a mystery to me. But over the years I've learned about many things when I shouldn't have. That's the worst thing about the spoilers. But hey, it doesn't really matter.

I hope it won't ruin the rest of my viewing. I still have four seasons to watch.

Good. Watch, ask if something's not clear, then report back when it all ends for you.

BTW, The Guardian has a piece with an "interesting" definition:

What did they answer?

Yup, it's some kind of holding station for your soul, while you sort your emotional baggage out from the wreckage of your life. You might want to call it purgatory, or limbo. (Steve Busfield certainly will!)

http://www.guardian....pisode-reviewed

If it's a holding station, then... The stuff on the Island never happened. But it did? Right?

Nothing makes sense, as I said.

Edited May 24, 201015 yr by Sylph

So, basically, they were in purgatory. Didn't the people behind LOST promise viewers in the very beginning that the characters weren't in purgatory?!

Love it how you hated it, but felt the need to see how it ends. (Probably in large part, but not completely, so that you can sh*t on it without end afterwards.)

Everyone loathed it, but cared enough to watch the ending.

I just can't believe the show's producers LIED from the get-go to their fans about the "caught between heaven and hell" angle, when they shut down that theory from the beginning. They should have had a backup plan, if they even had one. I think these hacks were flying blind. And even worse, the die-hard fans just bent over and took it and liked it.

And when this show couldn't come up with a suspenseful and satisfying finale, they went for the heartstrings at the end with a stirring string cue over images of white lights and Jack accepting that, like his life and like the show you were watching, this was the end. Schlocky, cheesy ass pathetic cop-out of an ending. But no doubt the college students and elitist morons that kept up with this show for six years will want to make themselves seem brilliant by spouting off utter inanity about this show's plot for the next year like it was some beautiful early 20th Century novel. Give me a f*cking break.

Edited May 24, 201015 yr by bellcurve

Love it how you hated it, but felt the need to see how it ends. (Probably in large part, but not completely, so that you can sh*t on it without end afterwards.)

Everyone loathed it, but cared enough to watch the ending.

The last thirty minutes of course. I spent the rest of the night watching Bret Michaels kick ass on Celeb Apprentice. Hell, at least that was a predictable finale I could get behind.

But this?!

It was utterly deplorable. Just dismal.

I am NOT sorry I watched the show, however, so NOT sorry, but this was just...

Predictable. I saw it coming.

And I love how they lied to Diane Sawyer, bellcurve, , that was just...

I just can't believe the show's producers LIED from the get-go to their fans about the "caught between heaven and hell" angle, when they shut down that theory from the beginning. They should have had a backup plan, if they even had one. I think these hacks were flying blind. And even worse, the die-hard fans just bent over and took it and liked it.

And when this show couldn't come up with a suspenseful and satisfying finale, they went for the heartstrings at the end with a stirring string cue over images of white lights and Jack accepting that, like his life and like the show you were watching, this was the end. Schlocky, cheesy ass pathetic cop-out of an ending. But no doubt the college students and elitist morons that kept up with this show for six years will want to make themselves seem brilliant by spouting off utter inanity about this show's plot for the next year like it was some beautiful early 20th Century novel. Give me a f*cking break.

Let me see if I am getting this. To like the show you have to be an elitist moron, and you are using that term to describe people who think they actually understand the show? That's good to know.

The last thirty minutes of course. I spent the rest of the night watching Bret Michaels kick ass on Celeb Apprentice. Hell, at least that was a predictable finale I could get behind.

But this?!

As io9 person said:

Never should a show ask so many questions and answer so few. In fact, it shouldn't ask any question it doesn't already know the answer to. That's just bad storytelling.

Let me see if I am getting this. To like the show you have to be an elitist moron, and you are using that term to describe people who think they actually understand the show? That's good to know.

Like I said, bellcurve came here to sh*t on it (and people who watched it and liked it). So I'm not surprised.

It's just the standard state of affairs.

And it would be utterly futile to try to explain things to bellcurve.

Let me see if I am getting this. To like the show you have to be an elitist moron, and you are using that term to describe people who think they actually understand the show? That's good to know.

Like I said, bellcurve came here to sh*t on it (and people who watched it and liked it). So I'm not surprised.

It's just the standard state of affairs.

And it would be utterly futile to try to explain things to bellcurve.

Fair enough. I'm just going by what I've observed from people I know who are obsessed with this show offline. I didn't come in here to troll and sh*t on LOST. I think I'll find a stall that has better toilet paper. Besides, I think the LOST team did a fine job of self-defecation.

Edited May 24, 201015 yr by bellcurve

As io9 person said:

Like I said, bellcurve came here to sh*t on it (and people who watched it and liked it). So I'm not surprised.

It's just the standard state of affairs.

And it would be utterly futile to try to explain things to bellcurve.

I wouldn't dream of it. I will leave them to the intellectual intricacies of Celebrity Apprentice.

The resentment of college students and need to call everyone who likes something they don't understand a moron sort of makes sense now.

Edited May 24, 201015 yr by quartermainefan