GODS OF DEATH

LOST contained many rites and passage of death themes.

In Japanese religion and culture, Shinigami ("death god" or "death spirit") are gods or supernatural spirits that invite humans toward death, and can be seen to be present in certain aspects of Japanese religion and culture. In popular culture, Shinigami have been focal points in shows like Death Note or Bleach. 

But a case could be made that LOST was a show about Shinigami or gods of death.

If you agree with the premise that there is a supernatural barrier between life and death, earth and heaven, mortality and immortality, then there would probably be gatekeepers who would be present to either a) effectuate death ("the grim reaper"), b) help souls make the crossing ("the ferrymen across the River Styx") or c) mess with human beings (like the Greeks gods did in their mythology).

The island was an unusual place. It contained an immortal guardian, Jacob, and a smoke monster, his dead brother's apparent spirit. Everyone is "brought" to the island by its guardian. Humans notice that the island is unearthly - - - you cannot escape it, and time is different. Hence, the island is in the realm of the supernatural.

The inhabitants of a supernatural place would include gods of death. And the situation that called them into action would have been the Flight 815 plane crash. Hundreds of humans would lose their lives when the plane broke up at altitude. But what if a Shinigami, bored with his existence, decided to have fun playing with human lives. He would call these people "candidates" and put them through a series of games and challenges with his spiritual rival, MIB.

If you can imagine that Jacob "spared" the survivors of the plane crash to be his pawns, then the main characters were in a state of limbo: they were technically still "alive," but caught in a supernatural world of illusion, misdirection and danger.

Jacob played with his candidates much like Daniel did with his lab rat, Eloise. The island was a maze of psychological tests and video game style quests that would probably amuse a superior being like Jacob or MIB. The game could be as simple as whether any of the humans were intelligent enough to know where they were or what happened to them. When sideways church Christian told dead Jack that everything was real but there was no past or future but just now, this would confirm the state of death-limbo that Jacob snatched from each of them when the plane crashed. 

It is a cruel premise that a death god would play with human souls like they were robotic toys. But in a hierarchy of power, a supernatural being would view humans as humans would view wild animals. 

The island gave the survivors "suspended animation" from their deaths so that Jacob and MIB could experiment and play with them - - - to feed off their fears, emotions, laughter and tears. 

It would help explain the ending where the immortal Jacob just "gives up." It is like a little child who outgrown his infant toys. He just walks away from them; they are put in the box in attic to be lost from memory. He releases the final governors of life to allow the main characters the false chance to save themselves from the inevitable: death. But even that was a cruel hoax.

Yes, gods of death do not portray themselves as nice guys. The culture puts the stamp of evil on them because death is something no one wants because it is the possible premature end of the line.

LOST as the playground of gods of death is a plausible premise for the series.