A VICIOUS CIRCLE

It was one of those recent random thoughts that got my attention.

What if LOST never ended?

Ben consoled Hurley when he became the new island guardian with the concept that Hurley could do the right thing and allow an injured Desmond to leave the island and go home. (Besides the philosophic connotation of what "home" could be - - - reality or heaven - - - will be left for another post.)

But we observed that the island had a continual cycle of people coming to the island to be "candidates" in Jacob and MIB's game of human Senet. As stated in previous posts, there is no clear, direct evidence that Jacob or MIB actually ceased to exist when they were allegedly "killed."

At the end of the island story arc, we have only nine main survivors:

Ben, Hurley and Desmond, who are left by the light cave to mourn the demise of their friend.

Frank, Miles, and Alpert are ready to take off on the Ajira plane when they are interrupted by the presence of Kate, Sawyer and Claire running toward them.

Claire told Kate that she won't come with them to the plane because the Island has made her crazy. Kate offered to help her, which convinced her to go with them. The plane is seen flying overhead a dying Jack.

But what are the survivors looking forward to?

Frank has nothing to back to since no one would believe his story about "losing" his plane and passengers on a mysterious island. He is only second person able to escape the island twice (Kate is the other). One would think the island would cause Frank mental problems for the rest of his life.

Claire already acknowledges her crazy state of mind caused by the island. Upon her return, we would assume she would remain crazy. This puts her in the mode of Locke's mother, who was institutionalized when he was a small boy. Perhaps Locke's childhood drawings of the smoke monster and island events were stories past down to him by his mother, who had escaped the island. This would be down the basis of a new theory that the candidates were not randomly chosen by Jacob, but bred or conditioned to come to the island.

Kate returns to nothing. Even if Claire takes back Aaron, she would be in Australia. Kate would be alone, without purpose, stuck in LA pining away for dead Jack? How long would that fact led to Kate being depressed to suicidal like Locke's life prior to meeting his con artist father?

If Kate returns to nothing, Alpert would be transported to an alien world. He has no family, no friends and no place to call home back in the United States. He was an unemployed island minion. We think that his immortality ended with a single gray hair. But what if he is still tethered to the island, like Mr. Abaddon?

Sawyer's life long quest for revenge is over. The whole purpose of his life was completed by the death of Cooper on the island. Sawyer's return has one pending murder investigation in Australia, but it is not likely that case would be solved unless his buddy who gave him the hit confessed that he sent Sawyer to kill that man he thought killed his parents. So Sawyer returns to the states as a "dead man" in more than one way: no job, no family and no future except a return to his criminal ways. If Juliet was the love of his life, would he get over her quickly?

Miles is in a similar situation of Sawyer. He returns to the states the son of island scientist, one of the few people conceived on the island who survived. His ability to listen to the final echo thoughts of the dead may be that native connection to the island itself. One would think that after being on the island, Miles would be haunted by it in future years.

The people on the Ajira flight we saw leave the island all had the seeds of doubt and misery that could have drawn them back into the clutches of the island destiny as it did Locke.

Which may have been the plan all along. Jacob and MIB's human game of Senet spanned thousands of years and countless number of people. It was a chess match with real people and real weapons. A life and death amusement for immortal beings bored with their island existence.

When Hurley, Ben and Desmond presumably left the island, it is possible that Jacob and MIB would wait for the other survivors to "return" to the island to re-populate their game.  As you recall, the game of Senet is "won" when the player removes his last piece off the board (island). Both Jacob and MIB never left the island - - - both "died" on it. That may be the only way the island ceases to exist: when either Jacob or MIB physically leaves the island as the last piece standing. That did not happen. Until that point, when Hurley leaves the island for good, the vicious Jacob-MIB game restarts again.

Claire is the new Locke's crazy mother (to Aaron). Aaron may grow up to believe that he has an island destiny. The same could be true of Walt, who was "special" and of extreme interest to the Others until he escaped with his father. It is possible that Walt's intense father issues would make him the next Jack.