ENHANCED FOR YOUR PROTECTION

Since the "sideways" story line has been used this season, the enhanced episode repeats have consistently said this story line is what would have happened IF Flight 815 did not crash on the Island. This "what if" tangent is a meaningless diversion, mere filler, to the original story line of the 815 characters.

Unless, it is a cue that Flight 815 never "crashed" on the Island.

For the first five seasons, TPTB used the flash back storytelling mechanic to flesh out the characters, and to tell the audience of secrets that the characters were keeping from each other. The viewer has been led to believe that those flash backs were "real" events, just as the Island action was in "real" time.

Unless you believe in parallel or multiverse theory, the sideways world and the Island event time line are inconsistent, incompatible. Some believe that the end would be the merger of these two universes in order to create some sort of happy conclusion. I don't think it is logically possible, and at the very least, a real paradoxical, ho-hum series climax.

The basic premise for the show was that survivors of a plane crash must survive together on a strange place. There sole hope and purpose was to get off the island. There were many hurdles placed in their path, including savage Others and an Island that could disappear. But when the O6 actually got off the island (mission completed), a few then most decided that they had to return "to save" their fellow cast aways, from a new band of savage supernatural beings. It seems odd that people trusted those who once tormented them in order for the self-directed expectation that they would "save" some one else. But that is the reality of the series.

If it is not the reality of the series, the Island, the flashbacks and character interaction was not a truth but at best an illusion contained in the sideways world. In the sideways world, the plane did not really crash - - - it would have to be dream, mind control, delusion or collective nightmare. And those possibilities are not very good for hard core fans who invested their time and intellect in a smart show that cannot end with another Bobby Ewing shower scene.

The other problem with the sideways world is if it is the reincarnated re-boot of the island time line, a realm reward for the souls once trapped on the island, but through redemptive powers have been reborn in another universe, one would have had to have finished their time in the island plane before moving on through the levels of death. In other words, the sideways view is the cart before the horse.