CONTRA VIEW

In the previous post, we outlined an alleged show insider's statements on the meaning of the LOST series. We are not convinced that that person was an insider, but we published his or her theories and explanations. Now, we examine this fan theory:

“ It is the difference of opinion that makes horse races. ”
— Mark Twain

The counter-points:

1. "It was real."

That is one premise to the show. The other premise is that the characters were already dead and their survival journey was not on Earth but through the Underworld. There was never broadcast clear evidence.

 2. The Island's role was to balance good and evil.

The show being about “good and evil” may be the greatest myth of the show. Good people died. Evil people prospered. Bad behavior was rewarded. There was no morality in the story line or in The End. For example, Ben was never punished for his sins. He killed the entire Dharma collective in his purge. That open pit contained more than 40 bodies. He put Sayid into assassin mode during the O6 story arc. He kidnapped, tortured and lied to everyone he met. But in the end Ben alone got to decide his own fate. He chose to stay in his fantasy sideways world playing house with Rousseau and Alex (two people who died because of his decisions).

The island as a balance point between good and evil does not stand scrutiny either. There were more evil actions, pain, suffering, anguish, fear and death on the island than good moments. The concept of “free will” seems inconsequential. All the candidates were brought to the island against their will. They were trapped like lab rats in an experimental maze. Their actions had very limited effect or consequences to Jacob or MIB.

Also, the concept that the island was the sole mechanism to balance good and evil on Earth makes little sense. It would mean that the island emits some form of elemental wave of both good and evil into the world. It would mean that mankind’s concept of individual freedom and free will is a fiction. Man’s soul is being nourished by both good and evil spiritual energy.

If that is the case, then the island is a self perpetual machine. There would be no need for a “protector.”  And there is no evidence that the island was “out of balance” that either Jacob (good) or MIB (evil) had the upper hand.

3. The problem that had to be solved was the Man in Black.

The idea that the Island was the stage for Jacob’s plan to bring candidates to the Island to do the one thing he couldn’t do: kill his brother, the Man in Black. The fallacy to this argument is simple: Jacob’s brother was already dead. He was buried in the cave next to Crazy Mother.

MIB was the release of some supernatural demon, the smoke monster, caused when Jacob killed his brother (and his body somehow “uncorked” the island’s light cave to allow for smokey to roam the island, corrupt humans and cause time travel). There was nothing “super human” that actually ended MIB’s reign of island terror.

The problem that really needed to be solved is the inconsistent, tangental and mixed up story lines of the characters which was not tied to a solid science fiction mythology fact set.

The problem could be that Jacob was conned into being the external jailor for the devil. The only way he could “move on” was to have MIB destroyed by someone not from his world. But that would negate the concept that the island was “real” on Earth, and the characters were on Earth battling for their lives.

4. Dharma was brought to the Island to kill MIB

The idea that Dharma was brought there by Jacob as part of his plan to kill the MIB also has huge flaws. We never saw any indication that the scientists were actually studying the smoke monster. In fact, all evidence points to Dharma being deathly afraid of the smoke monster by creating sonic barriers around the barracks.

5. Ben was a pawn of MIB and not a servant of Jacob.

The theory that MIB was aware of the Dharma plan to kill him so it sabotaged the plan by “corrupting” Ben is also speculative. There is nothing in the story lines to show that MIB corrupted any individual to the dark side. All the characters came to the island with a fully developed individual belief and moral compass. The island events did not alter their basic instincts, personality traits or motivations. In most cases, the events reinforced those elements.

In Ben’s case, he was influenced by Alpert, who was tied directly to Jacob as his liaison to his candidates. There was never a direct offer of power, wealth or immortality given to Ben by either Jacob, Alpert or MIB. Ben himself was manipulated by his emotional strings being played like a violin by MIB when Ben confronted Jacob for the first time in the Tawaret statue. It led to Ben treacherously stabbing Jacob and MIB burning his body.

6. The one variable was free will.

The theme of “free will” is common in the series, but if is nebulous concept in practical terms. The characters had the free will to make decisions, but the deck was already stacked against them. Their decisions had no bearing on the resolution of the Jacob-MIB conflict. They did not have the “freedom” to leave the island. The candidates were all marked, kidnapped and captured on the island.

The key question posed is fate vs. free will.  Fate presupposed a predetermined set of personal events to one conclusion. The universe will course correct you to the final point. This concept excludes free will if it is already predetermined what your destiny will be in the end. There is no science in a universe that predetermines the final outcome. There is also no faith to change the outcome by prayer to a higher being if the universe is one of pure destiny.

7. Jack's role and destiny was defined by the first episode.

It is acknowledged by TPTB that originally, Jack was going to be killed off early in Season 1 to increase the dramatic effect and horror of the island. The show was going to focus on Kate as the leader. But many fans were emotionally drawn to the Jack character, so TPTB kept Jack as the focus. So it is incorrect to state that Jack’s role was defined from the pilot episode to the end scene.

In addition, Jack never “saved” anyone in the church.  Jack never saved Locke. In fact, Jack’s total disgust and disregard of Locke and his position led to Locke’s demise. Jack never saved Kate from her running away from her problems or commitments. Jack never saved Sawyer from his lying and conning ways. Jack never brought Bernard and Rose back together; they found each other when the Tailies were reunited with the beach camp.

8. The sideways world represents a humanistic religious philosophy.

The sideways world is not a mix in of theology and metaphysics. Even if the show's creators were proposing is that we’re all linked to certain people during our lives (“soul mates”), the writer’s explanation of the sideways world literal nonsense. The people in the church made up a vast and complex fantasy world because they shared  “the most important moments of their lives?”  The explanation is that subconsciously, everyone created the “sideways” world where they exist in purgatory until they are “awakened” and find one another.

Well, how can one create a subconscious purgatory existence without first being dead. As I have theorized for years, if one takes the ancient Egyptian beliefs of the after life, a person’s spirit is separated into a ba and ka, who separately journey through the after life, to be reunited and reborn in either paradise or darkness. The characters only met each other within their journey to the purgatory sideways world by banding together their lost soul in their underworld events after their deaths on Earth. This clearer explanation defeats point number one, that everything was “real.”

9. The spiritual premise of the show was throughout the series.

If the LOST story is a spiritual take on various religious doctrines, then there are problems with that explanation. If one could not “move on” without making amends for their sins, like Ben, then the church members never atoned for any of their transgressions. Murder, fraud, lies, adultery, kidnapping, stealing, and deceptions were never judged and the characters never punished for their deeds. In fact, the series had no moral compass at all. People who did bad things actually got rewarded with control, power or wealth.

And the statement that all the main characters were “supposed” to be together on the plane seems disconnected. There were other people on the plane. They were all basically strangers except for family members traveling together. Unless this is a take on Albert Brook’s concept of passage into the after life (Defending Your Life), where individuals dream of their own means of their demise (plane crash, etc.)

10. Each new island mystery was a piece of a larger plot mosaic for each viewer.

The idea that everything stated on the show one was puzzle piece in a giant mosaic is a fine goal, but it would appear that the box was missing thousands of pieces because there is no complete, unified theory to LOST that everyone can agree on. There are still more unsolved mysteries than solid answers. If a writer’s job is to create series of plot mysteries, it is the expectation that the writer will reveal the answers to those mysteries by the end. The ending in the sideways church did not definitively answer anything. It caused more questions to be raised by the fans.

11. Season 6 sideways world was to contrast the island events.
Season 6 was the most messed up season of the series. Some fans lamented that it appeared that TPTB were creating wild tangents so characters could have a new “show reel” for future auditions. The creation of a sideways world (purgatory) made no sense in resolving any of the island characters main personal issues. The purgatory sideways world did not judge, punish or redeem any of the island characters.

 12. Those who made it to the sideways world were linked by mutual destiny.

Further, the link to the main plane survivors is tenuous at best. They were not the most important people in their lives.  Example, Juliet. The most important person in her life was her sister. She had devoted her work so her sister could conceive. She also was in love with a colleague who was killed by a bus. On the island, her only strong connection was Goodwin. She was in the church only because of the unexplained time travel arc and her hook up with sheriff Sawyer. Penny had no connection with the church goers except through the small window of the O6 rescue. She had stronger ties with her father (Widmore) than any islander. Desmond also did not have a deep connection with the 815 survivors. He had one brief encounter with Jack while running stadium steps. How that became the most important person in his life (since Jack is alleged the most important character in the series) is a stretch.

How all the characters were “supposed” to be on the plane pre-supposes that there is a grand finite plan for the entire universe and in inhabitants. The main characters had no connection with each other. They had families. They had friends before boarding Flight 815. But all of the back stories are erased to irrelevancy by the statement that the characters were eternally linked from the very beginning to move on in the afterlife together.

If the one lesson was supposed to be “live together or die alone,” the series failed to make that point in the end. In life, everyone dies alone. Each person’s human spirit is unique. The sideways world takes a mirrored or opposite view of that statement. In the sideways world, it is “die together or live alone (in the afterlife).” I don’t think that is a philosophy that would hold much water with American viewers.

13. Ben could not move on with the Flight 815 survivors.

In the final scene, Ben “could have moved on” with Hurley, but Ben chose to stay. So it is a specious argument to say Ben could not move on because he had no connected with his own group that has yet to awaken to their island time. The people who Ben would connect with would HATE him! He murdered his own father. He kidnapped Rousseau’s daughter. He got Alex killed by Widmore’s men.
Unless you take the tact that all the pain, suffering and blood shed by Ben was all “make believe” like kids playing combat on the school yard, there is no way that group of people would state that knowing Ben was the “most important” thing in their lives.

14. The reason Ben was excluded from the Church scene was because it was written with the pilot episode.

The idea that all the church characters were linked from the first episode is also false.  Juliet, Desmond, Ben and Penny were not season 1 characters so the statement that the church scene was written with the pilot does not hold water. Ben was only signed for a three show arc. But his performance and fan reaction made TPTB keep him on as a regular. Further, each person in the church had long standing links with their pre-island friends and family members. The prime example of this deep pre-existing bond was Juliet and her sister. That bond was unbreakable. But in the end, Juliet’s sister was not part of Juliet’s after life.

15. LOST was an important show that dealt with big themes.

LOST may have dealt with big themes, but had big problems in meshing those themes into a rational overall premise. It was chunky and vague in giving us a clear explanation of the writer’s viewpoint on  faith, the afterlife, spiritual questions, and sci-fi elements of the show. The biggest problem with the ending to LOST is that it did not explain itself and what TPTB wanted to show us about ourselves. Instead, it jumped off a writer’s crutch cliff to the perceived happy ending with the reunion in the purgatory church. That turn led many to wonder out loud what about the time travel? What about the island? What about electromagnetic energy? How was everything interconnected? Who knew what and when? And was the conflict with Jacob and MIB even relevant to the conclusion? 

The problem with raising big themes even in a television show is that the writers need to deliver big explanations by the show’s conclusion.  If you pare away every element of the LOST saga to just see what was truly necessary for the reunion in the sideways church, it would come down to this: everyone died on the island. Even if the show revealed that Jacob was a reaper bringing dead people to the island to find some form of redemption or friendship, the vast majority would accept that premise and still enjoy the show (and understand the church conclusion). But the writers never dealt with the big themes in such a way to adequately conclude the show.


The previous post does not stand up well to cross examination. If the show's writers' idea was let the viewers draw their own conclusion episode after episode, character event after character event, then writers were not writing a narrative but tossing scenes against the wall to see what would stick in the hearts or minds of the fans. The bottom line that the show is "what each viewer thinks it is" is a white wash. If the writers' had a grand, unified metaphysical explanation to all the show's mysteries, then why not just come out and tell us by the end of Season 6?