LAYERED DREAMS

It was not one of the best Doctor Who Christmas specials, but this year's did have an interesting concept at play: dreams within dreams where the characters believed they were dealing with real time, interactive events, even though they were not even in the same location.

In LOST, dream theorists believe that the characters were all hooked up on machines that criss-cross neuron-impulses to create a fabricated, collective dream matrix. It is run by the subconscious mind, like running through levels of a video game. Nothing is real, even though your brain and your senses think it is real.

But the application of dreams within dreams can explain the problematic sideways universe. In essence, the characters mental comas or sleep states could have created the following layers: background stories; the flight from Sydney; the crash onto the island; the island events; the off-island events like the O6; the inconsistent time travel events; and the sideways world. Even when someone died on the island, like Libby, she was still an illusion in the next layer of the complex dream state: the sideways arc.

The dream state explanation is one of the true unified theories to LOST. Since dreams are not reality, basic tenets of fact like time and physics (such as a moving island) do not matter so there is no continuity errors. Vivid dreams can take the place of actual events in minds that are broken, drugged or fragmented - - - which are traits in most of the characters who landed on the island.

TO HIS OWN DRUMBEAT

"If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer"? - - - Henry David Thoreau

Companionship is the keystone to the foundation of human relationships.

It is often taken for granted by couples.

One's compassion and passion are the mortar that sets companionship to the solid foundation of the relationship.

In all of the LOST relationships, only one truly met the requirement for a lasting love affair: Rose and Bernard.  All the rest of the main characters were missing some real compassion or passion for their partner. For example, Sayid may have felt sympathy for Shannon after losing Boone, and had a passionate spark for her, but Shannon's M.O. was to find a man, anyone, who would support her. Her only asset was her good looks. That was not a solid relationship in any sense of the term.

The same goes for Jack and Kate. Kate used her charm to bounce around from man to man in order to get something from him: protection, money, a hideout, or escape. Jack did not seem to have the passion to hold on to Kate, and Kate was never head over heels in love with Jack during their island time. If she was, she would have never left a bleeding Jack after they defeated MIB/Flocke.

Besides Rose and Bernard, the main characters of the show walked to their own drummers because they were loners, lost in their own fears, self-esteem issues and social awkwardness that stunts human growth.

PRESENTS

In the holiday season, if Jacob was the magical Santa, what gifts did he give the islanders?

Santa is an immortal character passed down for centuries. The lesson was that if little boys and girls were good, they would receive presents in their stockings. Some consider that the first parental mind control game. The holiday gift giving traditions corresponds to the bounty of the harvest and cultural imprints to share with those in need. Noble concepts, indeed.

But there were few, if any, noble concepts in LOST.

What Jacob gave most visitors, including his followers, was pain and suffering.

What present did Jack get from the island? Death. He died fighting an immortal smoke monster which we still don't know what it was, what it was made of, and what purpose it truly had on the island.

What present did Locke get from the island? Death. He was murdered by Ben who in a sudden fit of rage subconsciously thought he was protecting the island from Eloise Hawking.

What present did Michael get from the island? Death and imprisonment. His soul became a trapped island whisper. Was Michael's sins any different from the lives that both Jack and Locke took on the island? The answer would be no - - - they were senseless acts of violence.

What did Charlie get from the island? Death in a senseless, but noble way. Charlie sacrificed himself to contact a rescue boat, but then warned Desmond it was not Penny's. Charlie only wanted to save Claire, but by dying he lost that opportunity.

What did Jin and Sun get from the island? Death. When Sun was trapped in the submarine, Jin stayed with her knowing that their decision would leave their only child an orphan. Normally, a parent would do anything to help their child, to protect her and support her. Jin's death was really a senseless suicide.

What present did Kate get from the island? She got the marshal killed, and she got the chance to continue to run away from responsibility and accountability for her actions. She never got punished for the men she killed. She got a free pass and a Get Out of Jail Free card.

What present did Walt get from the island? He got the status of being an orphan after Michael died, and he lost his dog, Vincent. At best, he got a normal life living with his grandmother, but he was still haunted by his island memories.

What present did Sawyer get from the island? He got only a short glimpse of a wonderful, normal relationship with Juliet. But then the island killed her off in a bizarre incident at the Hatch construction site. So he left the island still a bitter man.

What present did Sayid get from the island? He got an even shorter glimpse of a physical relationship with Shannon. But then the island killed her off in a senseless accident. The island turned Sayid back into the dark torture monster of his past; a self-loathing character with nothing to live for (even though he had pined for decades over his lost Nadia) and eventually perished only to be reincarnated as a evil minion. He would die trying to do something noble, but wound up killing more of his friends.

No, Jacob's and the island's graces to the castaways were not holiday presents. It was a struggle; a lot of pain and suffering; and death.

THE BACKGROUND CHARACTER

There was one thing that moved through the island stories in stealth mode: Vincent.

Walt's dog was the first to find and wake Jack after the crash.
Vincent was also the reason Michael tried to bond with his son by going into the jungle to find the lost dog.
Vincent was the one character that no one suspected of doing anything wrong.

But one clue that everyone missed first time around was this:

if Walt was so attached to Vincent, why did he not bring the dog with him on the raft?

If the one true rule of the island was that the smoke monster could not leave it - - - that could lead to an assumption that Vincent was NOT real, but a smoke monster in disguise. Which makes perfect sense if the smoke monster wanted to learn about the new humans on its island. What better way to gather intelligence than roaming through the camp listening to what everyone was saying. Vincent would have been the perfect spy.

We were introduced to Vincent in an odd way. Shortly after the crash. Vincent was searching the jungle. While doing this, he heard a whistle. It was Christian, who we would know later, was dead. And this Christian form was actually a smoke monster. He called Vincent over and told him to go wake up "his son." As Vincent ran off towards Jack to do this, Christian stated that Jack "had work to do." Vincent then continued running until he found Jack, who had just regained consciousness. As Jack awoke, he saw Vincent running towards him through the jungle and stopping to look at Jack. Vincent then continued exploring the jungle.

But since he had a "light" coat, perhaps Vincent was a manifestation of Jacob, who some believe was also a smoke monster due to his immortality and his inability to kill another smoke monster, MIB. Perhaps, both smoke monsters needed to awake, reincarnate or "save" a dead or dying Jack in order to fulfill their mutual desire to "die and leave the island."

We know that many "lost" souls remain trapped on the island (the whispers) including Michael. In the end, Vincent returns to the bamboo jungle to curl up next to dying Jack. Was this Jacob comforting Jack for taking the leadership role on the island - - - to direct his soul to the afterlife reunion?

Likewise, was Jacob in Vincent form attached Jack's dying soul from the plane crash into the island realm so it could be prepared for the after life?

BLACK & WHITE

It was a simple analogy: black and white.
It meant there are two things in the world: darkness and light.
It also means that the two represent many things, like good vs. evil; moral vs. immoral; trust vs. distrust; caring vs. apathy; friendship vs. enemy.

When you look at Locke's face above, you notice that he is scarred above and below his right eye. In Egyptian mythology, the Eye of Horus was a scar on the left eye of a sky god. In one story, Set and Horus fought over the throne after Osiris' death. Set gouged out Horus' left eye, which was restored by the magic of Thoth, the moon god. So the dark piece could be the moon and the light piece the sun, Ra, the most powerful god who had to traverse the dangerous underworld each night.

For the left eye of Horus represented "protection, royal power and good health."

But since it was a mirror image on Locke's face, would it represent the opposite?
"Insecurity, servitude and poor health."

In many ways, insecurity, servitude and poor health was Locke.  He was clearly insecure in his own self, his skill set, his dreams and his handling his own expectations. He thought of himself as a great man, but never had the drive to be his own boss or leader. He was boxed in various meaningless tasks like a clerk at a box company, or a pest control specialist. And his poor health, his disability, was direct result of mistrusting his con man father and his inability to defend himself.

In many ways, Locke was set up from the very beginning to be the series Fall Guy. He would never be the true leader. He would never have any true power over other people. And he would not live a happy or healthy life.  He embodied the dark fears of most people's subconscious. Even when things are going well, there is a hint of pending doom, despair or questioning in the back of one's mind. "This has to be too good to be true."  Self-doubt at times turns into real doubt on the road to failure.

It is ironic that Locke was trying to teach Walt, a young black child who had no mother and a stranger as a father, the symbolism of backgammon. Walt would wind up with a better fate than most island castaways: he would find some security with his grandmother, he would have a chance to control his own future, and he was in good health the last time Locke saw him. The time Locke could have tried to convince Walt to give up his new life and return to the island with him. But Locke did not even try to convince Walt to return to the island. It really was the clearest black and white decision Locke ever made in the show.

ALTERNATIVE LEADS

If one was going to shift the main focus of LOST to two different lead characters, then the "bad" chemistry between Boone and Shannon could have been a good alternative.

Through a roundabout way, Jack and Kate became the lead-romantic figures in the series. Jack was saved from being axed early on for dramatic effect (which ironically Boone would serve that role) while Kate was originally to be the lead lead character, but got downplayed to partial secondary lead (on the missions as surrogate for the fans).

Boone and Shannon could have leveraged their rich arrogance into strong willed aristocratic rule upon the beach survivors.  Shannon was quite the manipulative rich girl who was used to getting her way. Her wiles were downplayed in the series to only be a doting, spoiled, lazy brat. Her character could have been written in a more bold fashion. She could have used her sex appeal to bond loyalty with various male characters, such as Sawyer, Sayid and even Locke. Once she got muscle behind her, she could set herself up in island luxury (almost in the same mold as Ben).

Boone was smart enough to run a large business for his mother, he should have had the skill set to "manage" the castaways in an efficient manner where they would look up to him for their survival, instead of Jack. In fact, Jack was still afraid of authority figures due to his father's belittlement of his skills. Boone could have been the skilled politician who cut the deals to keep everyone in line.

Such a cutthroat couple was not foreign in the writers, since they used that concept with the misguided introduction of Nikki and Paulo, who conspired to kill a wealthy man for his diamonds and wealth.

A ruthless Boone-Shannon couple, linked by their dark secret of a sibling affair, would have added a new layer of darkness to the series. It could be used to keep them together, or later, pull them a part.

THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE

Throughout human existence, mankind has been aware of a few absolute truths: people are born and people die.

It is how one perceives life is what has changed over the tens of thousands of years.  In the past, ancient cultures mostly saw their lives in the cycles of Nature. Every year, like the seasons, would follow birth, harvest, death and rebirth. But in modern societies, the view is that life is a linear plane where each year of existence is another marker on a ruler.

Also, it is interesting that ancient cultures believed that there were present gateways from their creator gods to themselves on Earth. Ancient people looked to the stars in the heavens as the source of their own lives, including seeing the Milky Way as a portal to everlasting life.  Modern religions have adapted some of those past beliefs into a system of morality, where the human spirit lives on after mortal death on Earth, to be transported to a new realm of existence (heaven or hell).

But in this modern view, there is debate on whether there are intermediate steps in the transition from human to soul spirit. The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul is divided at death so one part has to suffer judgment through a long, dangerous journey through the underworld with the hope to be reunited with its other part in paradise. Modern theology tends to state that if a person is good in his or her life, they will be rewarded in some fashion: external bliss in heaven in angelic form or reborn as another person or life form on Earth.

It is the transitory nature of life to death to potential rebirth that keeps the human mind from going completely mad at the prospect of nothingness at the end game.

So how could LOST fit into this existence time line?  The island was supposed to be the place of life, death and rebirth. It did not have the physics of an actual Earth island, so it is assumed that it is either a supernatural place or overlaps into another dimension of time-space. In other words, the island could be the space between human life and death.

For some viewers, that intermediate place makes sense. The characters pre-815 back stories show edtheir lives, troubles and sins. The sideways world showed the waiting room in the after life. The bridge between the two different existences had to be the island. It goes to show then that the characters could still be "alive" on the transitional island realm, but not able to "move on" to the after life unless certain conditions were met.

If you then view the island as a land of make believe, not of Earth but its own unique sphere of existence, it is easier to gloss over the factual inaccuracies or inconsistent story plot points because none of those really matter in a place which has no normal rules.

BOONE DOGGLE

Locke is a hard guy to like . . . or be a true friend. On the island, Boone was the only character that had any empathy for Locke.

As stated previously, Boone had his own familial issues with Shannon. Boone tried to be helpful from the beginning of the post-crash CPR, which Jack told him he was doing it wrong. Boone tried to fit in to a fractured beach camp, but he never found any true connection.

It is probably because he was a loner, like Locke. Maybe Boone needed an older brother figure to cope with the stress of being a castway, estranged from his stepsister.

Originally, Boone was supposed to be a major presence in the LOST story. However, he got shifted to a secondary role after the emergence of Jack as the lead male character.

Still, Boone was involved in two key moments in the series (or so we thought at the time of original airing): finding the Hatch and finding the small drug airplane.

The Hatch was supposed to give us viewers the Big Answers to the current island mysteries. It would have been a window into what was the island, who were the Others, and why strange things were happening to the castaways. At the very least, it would have given the beach camp real shelter from the smoke monster, wild animals and the Others attacks (but strangely, that never happened).

The plane was supposed to help guide the viewer into the soul of the island, because it was physically impossible that an African small plane could have crash landed on a remote Pacific Island. The presence of the plane was either a) an illusion taken from Eko's memory; b) an echo of a parallel dimension or realm; or c) a magical trope to create faux drama.

Boone took it upon himself to go up on the cliff to investigate the plane for clues and a possible chance to be a hero, to find a radio and call for help. But the plane fell, and Boone was severely injured.

It was Boone's traumatic demise that got Jack to "let go" of a patient, for there would be no "medical miracle" on an island that allowed at least two big miracles: Locke being able to walk and Rose's cure for cancer. By Jack being unable to save Boone, some consider his death "saving" Jack from the haunting criticism of his late father.

Locke would justify the reckless behavior of his subordinate as "being the sacrifice that the island demanded." But we never get the sense that the island was a conscious being that needed human blood in order to survive. (This is a very ancient, pagan-primitive ritual belief system).  Why Locke made that assertion could only be to ease his own guilt for allowing Boone to do a dangerous task.

It foreshadows Locke's only senseless demise when he tried to be the hero (getting everyone back to the island). Perhaps self grandeur is why both Locke and Boone are alone in the sideways church. For some reason, they could never connect or find their own soulmates.

EYES CLOSED

For those with a work ethic, a close family and bills to pay, the idea that one can shut out the realities of Life is impossible and reckless.

Life's challenges are multiple daily decisions that have ramifications, both big and small. Navigating the pot holes in the road of Life is something that is conditioned upon experience, upbringing, morality, culture, education, skill and common sense. Life is Hard.

But in many ways, Life was easy for the many of the main LOST characters.

Closing one's eyes to the problems around you so you don't have to confront them (or your fears) was symbolic of many relationship issues throughout the series.  When Jack opened his eyes in the bamboo field after the crash, it was symbolic of Jack going on a journey to deal with the problem he had put off until it was too late: reconciling his issues with his father.

Likewise, Kate kept a blind eye to responsibility and accountability for her actions. It seems she was never punished for her childhood transgressions. She learned that your cute charm could get people to do her bidding. She never seemed to work hard at anything because people, boys, would try to help her. Her eyes only opened when she uncharacteristically decided that she needed to help Claire, a stranger and fearful young mother, with the birth of Aaron and his later rescue to the mainland.

Hurley also had an easy life. His doting mother gave him a home and plenty of room for Hurley not to have to work hard. The safety net of his mother's love closed Hurley's expectations for himself. He was ashamed about himself. He had self-esteem issues. He was closed minded about his future (like working as a fry cook would be his career). He was self-conscious about meeting women because he lost the feeling of love when his father abandoned him. It was when Hurley closed his eyes and went into his dream world did he find comfort with his one true, but imaginary friend, Dave. Hurley avoided the need to make hard choices by being in a mental institution where he had no pressure to do anything.

Even if one went wide eyed into a new venture, it does not mean he would see the truth. That was Locke's problem: no matter what path he tried to take in his life, he would stumble and be made the fool.  He was blind to the fact that other people used his good nature against him. When he dreamed about himself, it was of a grander man that he could ever become in real life. And that image of himself haunted his daily life to the point where he went from meaningless and unfilled job after job with little responsibility or expectations for himself.

Many characters kept their responsibility meters off. They did not want to confront their own problems in such a way to be accountable for their own mistakes. They would rather wallow in self-pity than change. It was only by the basic instinct of survival did any of them actually have to come to terms with their closed minds to make some sort of personal mental redemption. One can skate through life with your eyes closed to the harsh realities of life, but in the end that is not really living.

GUILT & SHAME

One of the undercurrents in LOST was the troubled back stories of the main characters. One of the most pulp fiction background relationships was between Boone and his stepsister, Shannon.

In the category, the Rich have hard lives, this relationship had a creepy guilt and shame dynamic.

Boone Carlyle was Shannon's stepbrother. Before Flight 815,  he had been used by Shannon for money and as a result of this, his love for her was revealed and they had a one-night stand.

Boone Carlyle was the son of Sabrina Carlyle, and stepson of Adam Rutherford, a man who was killed in the auto accident in which Jack "saved" Sarah. When Sabrina and Adam  married when Boone was ten, and Shannon, who was two years his junior, became his step-sister. His parents frequently left him with a nanny when he was young, and Boone, angry at being left alone, called her to his room repeatedly without cause. During one of these calls, when Boone was six, the nanny fell and broke her neck.  This may be the impetus of Boone's character trait of helping Shannon throughout her life; guilt.

By the time he had turned 20, Boone was living in New York. After flying back to Los Angeles for Adam Rutherford's  funeral, Boone comforted Shanno by giving his underage stepsister some alcohol to mollify her grief. He told Shannon she could live with him in New York if it would help get her career as a dance instructor started. After Shannon got the job, Boone was then offered a job by his mother. He accepted the job as the Chief Operating Officer of the wedding clothing subsidiary and he had to move from New York. Shannon had asked him to ask his mother for some money, but he came back empty handed. He that said his mother knew why he asked for the money. Boone then offered Shannon some of his own money to get her started in New York without him, but she refused because she wanted to prove herself. Shannon would fail in her attempts (feeble at best) to be self-sufficient and independent. She was daddy's little girl, who got anything she wanted from him, but when he was gone she was mad that her life had been so disrupted by his death. She would be seeking out other men to take care of her. She polished a devious streak to get what she wanted from men.

Although he would not openly admit it to anyone, Boone was in love with Shannon and he would do anything to help her out of her jams.  He paid men to end Shannon's abusive relationships. Shannon would take advantage of Boone's feelings. He received a phone call from Shannon pleading for him to come and help her with her boyfriend, Bryan,  in Sydney. Boone flew to Australia and, although she initially denied there was anything wrong, Shannon showed him a bruise on her forehead discreetly, as Bryan kicked Boone out of their house. He went to the police station to file a report but the Detective was unwilling to help because Boone and Shannon were not blood related, and joked, they were not the "dating police." Boone decided to take matters into his own hands.

He tried to bribe Bryan to leave Shannon. He took the money, but when Boone came to pick up Shannon, Bryan was still there - - - willing to share the loot with Shannon. In other words, Boone was conned into giving Shannon $50,000. There was a fight, and Boone lost.  Later that night, Shannon appeared at Boone's hotel room and told him that Byran had left her, taking all the money. They had drinks, and the alone Shannon seduced Boone. Afterward, Boone felt confused and dejected when Shannon suggested that they return to LA and act if nothing happened that night.

Throughout his time on the Island, Boone would spend a lot of his time with Shannon before finally getting over his love for her and letting her go. He later became Locke's apprentice when the two discovered the Hatch and they formed a close friendship.  Unable to open the Hatch, they followed a dream Locke had and found a small plane sitting on a cliff. Boone climbed up into the plane but suffered severe injuries when the plane fell to the ground. Despite Jack's  best attempts to save him, Boone realized he was going to die and told Jack to let him go. After Boone's death, Locke described him as a "sacrifice the Island demanded."

Shannon's time on the island was not one of personal growth. She kept to her spoiled trust fund persona, rarely helping out. Boone's death did affect her deeply, but it may have been slightly more shame on how she treated him that deep affection. For Shannon, being totally alone, began to seek out company of someone to support her. That person was Sayid, but their relationship was very brief, as Shannon was killed accidently by Ana Lucia.  Sayid's grief over Shannon's death was much more than Shannon had when Boone perished.

So despite the close relationship between Boone and Shannon, they were not "together" in the after life reunion. For little apparent reason, Sayid was reunited with Shannon (and not Nadia). And Boone, like his friend Locke, had no one to sit next to during the final church sequence. Why Boone, who only tried to help his step sister throughout her life, was punished with a lonely eternity, is one of those major downers in the story. And Shannon, who used men to support her, and had little moral principles in doing so, was rewarded in the after life. Life is not fair.

THE FUTURE

It is a rare opportunity to see one's future and not act on it in the present.

In LOST, many of the main characters had a unique opportunity during the time flashes. When the crew was trapped in 1977 Dharmaville, they knew what their futures held for them . . . nothing really good on the island. Only one person seized the opportunity based on his future: Sawyer.

Sawyer took advantage of his future knowledge (being a prisoner of Ben's group) to leverage a position of power within the group (since he did not know whether he would ever return to his real time). He forged his position with his relationship with Juliet, which was non-existent in the real island time line. In fact, Juliet is the exact opposite of a person Sawyer would normally have gone after.

One suspects that this 30 year diversion was so strong a personal bond that Sawyer kept it in his heart until he died (and was reunited with Juliet in the sideways world). But if the characters were bouncing back and forth between time periods, both in the past and future, could Sawyer have actually known about Juliet's fate with the Incident/Jughead? "It worked," she said during the EM implosion - - - was that the final bond to her soulmate, James?

But then, it is fairly sad that Sawyer left the island and presumably lived a long life without Juliet AND a long life without another true companion. Sawyer would have been the type of man who needed company - - - both physical and mental challenges. (Which is why Kate, also a survivor, would have been his better match after leaving the island for the final time.)

It could be argued that Sayid was the one character who understood best what the flash back in time meant to changing the future. It was Sayid who met Young Ben before he turned into the monster dictator. So Sayid took it upon himself to shoot Ben in the chest, presumably killing him. By killing Ben, Sayid thought that the terrorism of the real island time would be extinguished . . .  but in all time travel lore, altering the past could have great repercussions on the future. For example, Young Ben was still naive child. But he may have found his true love in Annie or another girl, made childhood island friends, or even left the island for college and a more normal life. He may not have become the Ben who wanted to control the island.

It is more likely that Sayid's gunshot of Ben altered the course of history to actually create Evil Ben. Since the dying child was taken to the Temple by Alpert, who said he would be altered forever by the spring (as we saw in Sayid himself, an evil reincarnation). Sayid's actions in the past may have actually doomed Ben to the island maniac future, including the mass murder of the Dharma group.

RE-BIRTH

It was a miracle when Aaron was born on the island. First, the baby survived a high altitude plane crash. Second, her mother was a stressed out bundle of emotions. Third, there were no medical facilities. Fourth, the Others "tested" and "injected" him during a kidnap of Claire. Fifth, no trained medical person helped deliver the baby in the jungle.

The next miracle was that Aaron survived on the island. There would have been pests, disease and malnutrition factors. The Others should have kidnapped him because the Others were obsessed with children. Claire would go through some crazy mom postpartum depression.

The next miracle was Aaron's escape from the island. He survived a helicopter crash into the ocean. He survived the blazing sun in the open seas without his mother. Once on the mainland, he survived under the care of the anti-Mother, Kate.

Aaron was one lucky kid. Luckier than even Hurley.

But does this all add up?

Since Claire left the island with Kate, to fulfill her own self-anointed destiny to reunite Aaron with his mother, one must assume that Claire did re-bond with Aaron.  We were led to believe that Claire's mother, Carol, was in an irreversible coma. Christian came to Australia to help pay for the extended care, when Claire berated her father with blame. But Claire was to blame for her mother's condition (the traffic accident). So after the escape from the island, a fully recovered Carol shows up at Christian's memorial service. Is this also a miracle? Or a bad plot device to get Kate thinking about doing something right and noble in her life?

Carol's reappearance does give us the undertone that something is not quite right in the LOST time lines. If she did not make it and her hospital care cut short and she died after Christian's demise (a likely possibility), then the O6 arc is not real but a surreal bridge to the sideways after life realm.

Because if Claire left the island and she was reunited with Aaron, then there was no reason why Aaron would have needed to be "reborn" at the sideways world concert. How can a living human being be reborn in the afterlife? Or was the whole island Claire story a tale of a dramatic false pregnancy? Or a delusion that masked the fact that Aaron died in the plane crash or at birth?

For if Aaron was born on the island, and lived a normal life off the island, he would have been an adult with his own family and not a prop in the sideways conclusion. He was not needed in order to reunite Claire and Charlie at the concert.

But since the pregnant Claire was in the afterlife in that state of unwed, the question is then asked whether the after life is merely a dream state. And if it is a dream state, would re-living a traumatic time in one's life (like emergency child birth) rekindle the "best" time of your life?

The re-birth of Aaron in the sideways world has always been a troublesome plot point. It makes him more a prop than an actual human being.

Or, an alternative explanation: hysterical pregnancy. Though rare in the United States, pregnancies rooted in the mind but entirely absent from the body do happen. Victorian-era doctors referred to them as "hysterical pregnancies." Today, the favored terms are "delusional pregnancy," "false pregnancy" or "phantom pregnancy." When a patient suffers from some or all the symptoms of pregnancy— stomach growth, cramps, loss of period, morning sickness—without a fetus actually being present, it's known as pseudocyesis.

The division between the physiological and psychological aspects of this syndrome isn't always clear. Essentially, the word 'delusional' means the person is ill with a psychiatric disorder of some kind. But pseudocyesis can occur without any psychiatric illness: you can believe that you're pregnant and have signs of pregnancy for any number of reasons. Certain drugs will do it. There have been cases reported where a woman gains weight, starts having other signs like nausea and she starts believing she's pregnant—but she's not mentally ill and she never has been, other than this one area. And so she'll have some trouble being convinced she's not pregnant. 

If Aaron's "double" births were merely vivid hysterical pregnancies of a delusional woman, was the whole series then a collective delusion?

ESCAPE

It was an easy plot magic to have Michael, whose back story was an artist who had to work in construction to get by, to build a raft to escape the island. Of course it really did not make any sense since hanging drywall or nailing trim pieces is not the same as building a seaworthy vessel out of bamboo and tarps. But at least it had some obvious element that made it believable: Michael and his construction experience.

Even multimillion dollar racing yachts cannot compete with the harsh nature of the Pacific Ocean. the vast ocean and high rolling waves takes it toll on all shipping, including the large cargo container vessels. The idea of a small amateur raft being able to sail hundreds or thousands of miles to Fiji seems implausible. But at least it fulfilled one critical human element of the story: escape and rescue.

That was the key point to the start of the series. Human beings shipwrecked on an island want to go home. They need to get home. Their lives are not on the island. They would do anything to get home. Building a raft for a dangerous journey across a brutal sea makes sense when the overriding human emotion is to get home. The building of the raft made the most sense in the early story lines.

It also caused one of the first true leadership splits in the group. Michael was in charge of the ship, not Jack. Jack was really not interested in their rescue plan. Michael was motivated to take his son home. But Walt had different ideas. He did not want to live with a stranger (his father). He would rather stay on the island and create a new life since he had nothing to go home to on the mainland.

The building of the raft led to the first true betrayal. The first raft was set a blaze, which led to charges and countercharges amongst the group's alpha males. Sabotage was a volcanic destabliizer for the beach camp. Fingers were pointed at Sawyer, Locke, the Others . . .  but Michael channeled his anger in order to build a second raft. It was the only thing bringing hope to the group.

When the raft set sail, it marked a turning point in the series. The show could have gone in several different directions. First, the comparison of the "good" camp life with food and shelter could have been contrasted by the harsh starvation and terror of being lost at sea for weeks on a raft that was slowly falling a part. Second, the raft could have made it civilization which could have set up the second betrayal - - - Michael and Sawyer not telling their rescuers of the island survivors. Third, and what happened, was the Others taking charge of the castaways lives. This was the flash point for serious bloody conflict between the Others and the 815ers. Why the Others would break the truce in order to kidnap Walt, who was special was unclear, considering Ben would release Walt and his father on the boat for freedom (in exchange for another betrayal, which seems now as the only real currency on the island.)

The raft symbolized freedom, escape and rescue. But in the end, the raft set in motion a series of bloody decisions leading to dozens of senseless deaths, kidnapping and torture of individuals. Walt's kidnapping led to Michael going insane with rage. His rage killed Ana Lucia and Libby. His plan to rescue Walt led to Jack, Sawyer and Kate being captured and tortured. It forever divided the beach camp and the Others as enemies.

BATTLES

When we think of "battle," we think of the ancient art of warfare in all its glory and blood shed.

You can imagine warriors on armored horseback, with a shield, a long sword, arrows or a war club. They would charge directly into the enemy's lines without fear or hesitation. Soldiers are trained to do only one thing: kill or be killed.

In LOST, when we were told of an impending "battle," we got a wet noodle fire work at best.

After Jacob was slain by Ben, the remainder of the followers were in panic. The statement that gave them great pause, "they are coming!"

Now, in the imaginative circles of the LOST community, this was supposed to be a brilliant "whoa" right story angle of monumental proportions.  At the time I wrote that I thought it would be cool that above the Tawaret statue would rise the silhouettes of men carrying spears. Then there would be a huge loud cracking scream from above, and the men above would suddenly sprout black wings. These would be Hell's soldiers returning to the island to reek havoc, since a central theme of the series was good vs. evil.

But alas, nothing as out-there or big as Hell's warriors coming to the island. There would be no pitched battles, hand to hand combat, or a reason why the island was under attack.

Who was coming - - - was another vague threat to raise dramatic tension.

Widmore? His men had already been on the island.
Jacob's reserves? The followers left in the Temple were wiped out by Flocke/Smoke Monster.
Jack and the Candidates? They were not organized to do anything, let alone fight against an unknown foe.

For if the one key battle was that of Jacob against MIB, then MIB won when Ben betrayed his master. But somehow, that did not stop Flocke's continued quest to kill off all the candidates, who still did not know their true purpose on the island.

For if the battles were more symbolic, mind games, then the resolution of daddy-issues, accountability, fear of loneliness or mental illness was anti-climatic.

I think somehow we are still owed a "battle" by TPTB.

Yes, there was a lot of red shirts in the struggles between the survivors and the Others, but those incidents really had little basis in true conflict. The Others claimed the island as their own, but did nothing to remove the survivors from it. The truce was created because the survivors lacked a killer streak, and Ben found it more useful to mentally manipulate the new castaways then to kill them all off.

No a real battle has to resolve real issues, like territory, property or even for a cause. None of those things were present in the characters final motivations. The heart of the island was unknown to them except for Desmond, Hurley and Jack at the end. Kate, Sawyer, Claire, and the rest were not fighting to protect mankind or the heart of the island from evil; they had no idea that it existed or what MIB was trying to accomplish by controlling it.

The build up of a battle without an actual battle was quite disappointing, and most fans do not dwell on it because the story rushed to an even more uneven ending arc.

HOW PATHS ARE RARELY STRAIGHT

Everyone's life path is filled with twists and turns. Opportunities, forks in the road, pitfalls, etc.

So it is no surprise that Evangeline Lilly's path to stardom was one of those curves from her initial career road. She was a model who was coaxed into auditioning for a role in a TV pilot. Since it was going to be filmed in Hawaii, it probably was a no brainer. A diversion. A lark. Because she says her real dream, she said, has always been to be a writer. 

She has acting as a means to pay her bills, but her passion is still writing. 

Lilly, 35, who landed her breakout role on the ABC series "Lost" in 2004, said that at the time, she wasn't even sure she wanted to act professionally. A few years later, she decided she "really hated working as an actress." 

"I was like, 'Well, then, what do I want to do if I don’t want to be an actress?' Because I didn’t really mean to become an actress. I was sort of an accidental actress," she said. "I wound up deciding that I wanted to make a go of a career as a writer." 

Ultimately, however, dream roles kept finding her. Lilly's childhood passion for J.R.R. Tolkien was the catalyst for accepting her role in "The Hobbit" film franchise, as was her desire to play a strong female lead. She then accepted a role in the upcoming Marvel film, "Ant-Man," because of her desire to work with its star, Paul Rudd. 

However, Lilly, who recently wrote a children's book, "The Squickerwonkers," isn't planning on doing any other acting projects at the moment -- not that she minds. 

“There are so many reasons why, for me, writing is superior to acting,” she said. “One of them is anonymity. Writers can live relatively normal lives. Most [working] actors can’t. Writers can work from home and be near their family most of the time. Actors usually can’t. Writers expend a lot of intellectual energy, but not so much emotional energy. And I have intellectual energy coming out of my yin-yang, but emotional energy — I am so lazy. I just don’t have a lot of emotional energy to give. I don’t like drama in my life, and I don’t like having to pretend [to have drama].”

WORST COUPLE

PROBABLY the worst LOST couple was Sayid and Shannon. In just about every level, it made no sense.

Shannon was the stereotypical rich, white, affluent, trust fund bitch who had no drive, no vision and no goals except to make herself happy. Once her father died, she was cut off from the easy allowance, but had no skill sets to change. She went from one abusive boyfriend to another. It was only Boone who kept bailing her out. And despite that, Shannon was cold and unappreciative because that was her true character. Her self worth was tied to her material worth. She would have been brought up in a class system which looked down upon the common man who lacked the sophistication that only wealth and culture can bring.

Sayid was an troubled Iraqi soldier. He came from a large family, but it seemed he had to do his siblings' dirty work. He hated himself for becoming a torturer; but he could never change his tortured soul. He would have resented the manipulations of the American soldiers who captured him. He had nothing in common with a spoiled rich girl. Besides, for the entire series we were told that Sayid pined for his one and only true love, Nadia. Nadia, the woman he finally found after he thought he lost her forever when Flight 815 crashed, was killed in LA by Jacob stopping Sayid from crossing the street with her. Nadia's tragic death caused Sayid to revert in a cold blooded killer.

So when it came time for the "happy ending" to the series, one short island hook up trumps an entire life of long lost love?

It is totally unbelievable. Sayid should have wound up with Nadia.

Shannon should have wound up alone because she really did not have any strong connections to anyone. In the church, both Boone and Locke had no one to share the next stage of existence. Boone and Locke sat alone in the church, waiting while Shannon cuddled with Sayid.  It would have been better if Shannon and Boone sat together, and Sayid, the tortured soul who could never find happiness, sat alone in the back.  That would have made more sense.

To Shannon's personality, she would have been more apt to find a "sugar daddy" than a boyfriend - - - but lottery winner Hurley had Libby (but again, apparently you can take your wealth with you to the afterlife) or even an easily manipulated doctor in Jack.

The Sayid and Shannon thing was a major head scratcher. If Nadia was Sayid's true love, and if Sayid did actually get together with her in the O6 arc, then Sayid would have met her in heaven. Then this leads to the conclusion that many dislike: that Sayid never got together with Nadia, that she was figment of his imagination or dream. It disrupts the storytelling if major portions of the story cannot be proven to be real or an illusion. If it was an illusion, then Sayid's only physical love of his life was Shannon - - - then that is why they were together?

TRANSFORMATION

Transformation is a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance:  such as:
• a metamorphosis during the life cycle of an animal.
• Physics the induced or spontaneous change of one element into another by a nuclear process.
• Mathematics & Logic a process by which one figure, expression, or function is converted into another that is equivalent in some important respect but is differently expressed or represented.
• Linguistics a process by which an element in the underlying deep structure of a sentence is converted to an element in the surface structure.
• Biology the genetic alteration of a cell by introduction of extraneous DNA, esp. by a plasmid.
• Biology the heritable modification of a cell from its normal state to a malignant state.


Many consider LOST a trans formative series.


It created new format (back back and flash forward) of editing stories together. It revived a large core cast of main characters in a drama series (which was usually reserved to mini-series). It was one of the rare series that had both critics and viewers fanatical show worshippers. It was one of the first series to have a large, devote internet fan community dissecting the show in near real time.

The major transformations in the series may have been large, but its meanings light.

For example, the island's big transformation was it disappearance after the freighter explosion. How can an island just vanish? This was after the set-up by Daniel Faraday that his experiments showed that the island was actually in motion, moving away faster from the freighter than the rocket.  Since we know that islands are stationary objects anchored miles below on the ocean floor, it is not physically possible to make one disappear or move. The only other explanation would be that the island was not an island but a spacecraft or floating object. Such an explanation would put a different spin on what the show was really about. Since we don't have a fleet of floating islands on Earth, was it alien technology. Was the manipulation of time (time travel arc) and space (the island vanishing) the real key?

In many religions, a person on Earth will be transformed upon death into a secondary being. There are a few theorists who now believe that ancient cultures aligned their pyramid observatories to the heavens in order to possibly open star gates to the center of the Milky Way, believed to be the origin place of everything. If the human body is merely a bio-chemical machine operated by an unknown spirit, upon the end of the useful life of the machine, the spirit would be released into his natural form (energy?) Such a release (or perhaps "awakening" in the jargon of the series) is what the final transformation is the creator's vision of ourselves. We go on as ourselves in the after life. The only change we take with us is our memories.

AMBIGUITY

One aspect of LOST left open to personal interpretation is whether Jacob was good and MIB was bad.

MIB seemed to represent the "dark," while Jacob the "light."  But the relationship between the two is more gray.

A key component of ancient Egyptian burial rights is the story of Set and his brother Osiris.

Set is portrayed as the usurper who killed and mutilated his own brother. Osiris' wife Isis reassembled Osiris' corpse and resurrected him long enough to conceive his son and heir Horus. Horus sought revenge upon Set, and the myths describe their conflicts. The death of Osiris and the battle between Horus and Set is a popular theme in Egyptian mythology.

In the temple, there is a painting of the smoke monster sitting across from Osiris, the god of the underworld. They look at each other on the same level, which may represent equality in the spirit world. 

In one interpretation, Jacob could be the Osiris character while MIB the boastful brother Set. In the island world, Osiris would have taken revenge on his brother as Jacob did with his brother. As a result, Set is transformed not into a sun god, but a smoke monster, to continue their underworld battle.

Another interpretation could be that Jacob is Horus, the nephew of Set, who set out to revenge his father's death. The crocodile statue of Tawaret represents fertility so the island can be considered a place of rebirth of Osiris. So it is possible that the smoke monster is a transformation of the underworld god (who can shape shift) while MIB is is also a disembodied spirit. Jacob, as Horus, the sun god, must be weary of the night in the underworld where he is most vulnerable. So the dynamic between Jacob and MIB is one of caution.

In either case, they are not purely evil or purely good.