LOST Explained

Now that LOST has concluded its six season run, we are left with nearly as many unanswered questions as we started with. The final episode promised a ‘big reveal’ but didn’t deliver one as thorough as many fans would have liked. Nonetheless, Christian Shephard’s speech in the final ten minutes was as close as we will get—and with it we can reason backwards to explain many, if not all, of the mysteries of LOST. Christian’s speech was one of those rare moments of revelation on LOST and will be considered truthful in its entirety. As we know, the characters on LOST are frequently dishonest or misinformed when they explain events—so to the extent that anything they have said conflicts with Christian’s speech (either explicitly or implicitly), Christian’s speech will control. Other character’s statements can be used to expand and explain it but never contradict it.

So what exactly did Christian tell us? (1) The afterlife exists and (2) Jack’s life and the people in the church were real. The Island could have been explained scientifically, or as a dream, or as an illusion perpetrated by a tiny slug—but Christian told us that at the core of the mystery was the afterlife. You could argue this only explains the sideways timeline universe, but if the sideways timeline universe has no bearing on the main universe—why show it at all? The main timeline also regularly depicts life after death in the forms of countless ghosts and whispers who talk to the characters.

How exactly does the afterlife work in the LOST universe? The line between real world and the afterlife is blurred, if not non-existent. A place that seems real can be supernatural (see: the sideways timeline) or a place that seems supernatural can be real (the island). Death is a gradual process—souls transition from reality to an illusion thereof to heaven. They don't always move forwards and different people take different routes. The Island is an early step towards death, and roughly akin to purgatory. What the island does, like purgatory, is keep people from returning to their old life or moving on to the next one. We’ve seen how it keeps them from leaving in countless ways: it conceals its location; it prevents ships from sailing out, etc. And even if someone does escape (like the Oceanic Six) it will call them back--like a moth to a flame, Jack and Michael and Locke cannot resist being drawn back to the island even after they 'escape' it. The only people it lets come and go are the ones it knows will return (see Jacob, Ben, Richard).

How does the island prevent people from moving to the next life? It keeps their flesh alive. It heals the infirm (see Rose’s cancer). It can revive the dead (See Sayid). It keeps people from aging (see Jacob & Richard). It provides food and water (see the DHARMA drops and Christian leading Jack to water). And if people aren’t cooperating, it prevents them from committing suicide (See Jack, Richard, Locke, etc.). Despite many people referring to the island’s “rules” (like those governing the Ben/Widmore or Jacob/Smokey conflict), the only rule that seems to be inviolable and independently enforced is the prohibition on suicide.

But most of all, the island provides distractions—it manufactures conflicts and mysteries to keep people attached to their mortal lives. All the polar bears, buttons to press, magic numbers or huge birds that screech “HURLEY,” are simply there to divert people’s attention like a magician’s slight of hand. The stakes are often high (pressing the button and fighting Smokey were to “prevent the destruction of the world”), although it’s unlikely the Island could deliver on its threats. But the island will say whatever is needed to keep people on it, engaged in its drama. Perhaps this is most evident in some of its longest residents. The island kept Jacob busy for two millennia as a ‘guardian’ before he passed on. It kept Desmond in the Swan pressing a button for three years. Who knows how long it kept Hurley and Ben there? The island can trap people in more direct ways too: like the Smoke Monster, who could neither die nor leave, and Michael, whose soul is “stuck on the island.” Despite Jacob and the Smoke Monster being seen as the highest authorities on the island, they are just some of its victims.

I will go a step further and say that I do not believe that the Losties died on Oceanic 815. Although the island is where the dead go, the living can go there too. Like Orpheus traveling to the Underworld to see his deceased wife Eurydice, the land of the dead is not necessarily closed to the living. This is supported by Christian’s statement that all the people in the church were real and with each other during the most important time in their lives. If the Losties did not survive Oceanic 815, they would have never met Desmond, Penny & Ben--who were in the church. However, this point is immaterial as the bulk of the theory works either way.