The Best LOST Finale Interpretation and Explanation

Like many people, I came into the LOST craze slightly late, powering through the full six seasons in a couple of months, just in time to get caught up for the big finale.  While I’m immensely thankful I was able to experience it without spirit-crushing commerical breaks and what must have been unbearable waits between new episodes, there is one downside: having all the episodes immediately at my disposal means I didn’t really get a chance to sharpen my “interpretation chops”.  While most viewers became seasoned pros at scrutinizing pearls, swans, wooden shacks and H-bombs, I was sailing through episode after episode, blissfully unaware that the finale would require the mother of all interpretations.

So I turned to the Internet.

Here is a compilation of the very best theories I’ve found, mixed with my own thoughts–the combination of which completely put my heart at ease and allow me to celebrate J.J., Lindelof and ilk’s contribution to the spectrum of television, rather than scrutinize it for not spelling everything out at first glance.

1. EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED ON THE ISLAND ACTUALLY HAPPENED:

815 crashed, the passengers uncovered an island full of mysteries, some died, some survived, some traveled through time, some left and came back–but it all actually happened.  The Dharma Initiative WAS there to study electomagnetism.  The Others WERE a collection of inhabitants who had arrived on the island through different means and had come to revere and protect it, with Richard’s help.  Those like Charlie, Alex, Shannon, Boone, etc who died on the island, actually died when they died.  Those like Lapitas, Sawyer, Kate, Miles, etc, went on to escape and live to undetermined ages.  Eventually they died too.  Jack died right at the end, with the final brilliant shutting eye.

The best support for this is when Hugo says to Linus outside the church: “You were a really good number 2, Dude.”  This tells us that they did, in fact, go on and have many adventures as #1 and #2, protecting and running the Island, before they eventually died.

2. THE FLASH-SIDEWAYS UNIVERSE WAS THE IN-BETWEEN (PURGATORY) BEFORE FINAL REST:

The events on the Island showed us a collection of charaters each struggling with their demons, fears and desires.  The alternate universe showed us those same characters coming to terms with their lives’ failings. FINDING lost loves (such as with Sayid/Shannon and James/Juliet), REDEEMING themselves to each other (as with Benjamin and Alex, even with Desmond/Charles) and ESCAPING from their personal prisons (Jin/Sun finally getting away from Mr. Paik, Locke getting up from his chair).  Everything we saw in the alternate universe was happening in a timeless reality at a point after all the characters have died (whether on the island, or naturally and later in their lives).  this is evidenced by Christian’s statements at the end: “There is no NOW in this place”….”We all die eventually” –this reality shows how all our characters are able to come to peace with their lives and reunite.  Everyone got their bit of redemption before moving on to the next world…Heaven, if you will.

3. THE ISLAND IS “THE FIRST ISLAND”, AND A DAMN MYSTERIOUS PLACE:

Yes, it is the mythical Eden, and the birthplace of all good/evil and religious myths.  The Island’s numerous traits that were presented over the course of the seasons show elements that are taken from many mythologies–Pagan (the statue), Judeo-Christian (good/evil, creation) and even quantum theories (all the electromagnetic pockets, fourth-dimensional “advantages”).  The Island SPAWNED all these beliefs, and slowly, they were exported to the rest of the world and altered to what we now know as different interpretations of similar origin myths.  We don’t know for sure how many generation of Protectors came before Jacob, Smokey and their mother, but it’s not really relevant.

The fact that Jacob brought all our heroes there is sort of coincidental–after learning of Jacob’s insecurities, and that he was bascially a mama’s boy, it’s easy to believe that he, on a whim, has brought hundreds of people to the island, looking for the right person to replace him.

4. WHERE THE HELL ARE MICHAEL AND WALT?!:

After so much attention was given to Walt’s ‘powers’ and Michael’s relationship with him (“WAAAAAAALT!”….”WAAAA…HAAAAA…HAAALT!”) it feels like a bit of a cop out, but even this was dealth with thanks to Hugo’s brief chat with Michael.  Michael is the equivalent of a ghost now, a tortured soul that is unable to find rest, along with the rest of the Whispers.  Walt, we presume, went on to live with his grandmother, but there’s really no explaining why he didn’t appear in the church at the end.  I’m assuming it’s because the actor probably looks like a 30 year-old NBA player by now, based on his creepily deep voice the last time we saw him.  Also, Eko should have been there too.

5. BENJAMIN STAYED BEHIND BECAUSE HE’S GOT TOO MANY DAMN THINGS TO ATONE FOR:

Sure, he may have been forgiven for what he did to Alex, but Ben was easily the most evil character on the show: the abductions, the murderings, the moral flip-flopping, and most of all, his eerie overpronunciation of any word longer than one syllable.  It’s take a while for him to clean all that up in the in-between.

There are most definitely some other fabulous roundups and threads delving even further into things.  A great summary of all the unanswered/answered questions is here: http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2010/05/unanswered-questions-report-card.html.

I’d love to hear your alternate versions or critiques–for me, the above points adequately tie up most of the loose ends, and leave me free to move onto my next project: never watching TV again.

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