THREE AND OUT

Yahoo News reported on LOST's back story from one of its co-creators.

LOST launched a television phenomenon by creating mysteries and Easter egg hunts like the numbers, the hatch, and The Others.  It had high ratings from the 2004 pilot right up until the finale in 2010.

A common debate has been when the series jumped the rails to go out into filler tangents and story line dead ends. Some believe the middle seasons were merely filler episodes which distracted from the original intent of the show.

Co-creator Damon Lindelof  all but admitted it when he recently said the original outline for the ABC series was a three-season run.

“There were all of these compelling mysteries and so we were saying, ‘We wanna have this stuff answered by the end of Season 1, this stuff answered by the end of Season 2, and then the show basically ends after about three years,’” Lindelof told Collider. “That was the initial pitch.”

“[ABC] were not even hearing it… they were just like, ‘Do you understand how hard it is to make a show that people want to watch? And people like the show? So why would we end it? You don’t end shows that people are watching.’”

Eventually, ABC allegedly agreed to set an end date for the show – but on its own terms: 10 seasons.

That never came to pass, as Lindelof eventually reached a compromise during negotiations around Lost’s third season.

Lindelof was set on a longer fourth season to wrap the story up which still involved “a number of the characters” getting off the island and later returning for the final run. When ABC offered just nine episodes, the two parties settled on slightly shorter seasons up to season six, a marked departure compared to the 20-plus episode seasons we got in the show’s first two years.

Despite the apparent directional conflict with the network, LOST moved forward, with all its flaws, to the controversial finale. Would have a concentrated LOST series have been better? Would more mysteries been solved? Would the End be different?

 Let's look back at the first three seasons as a guide with the help of lostpedia:

Season 1 concentrated on the middle-section survivors and their fight for survival and rescue. This was the modern update of the Robinson Caruso shipwreck story. It is a classic premise to hook viewers with a familiar story told in a new way.

Major plot points included:

Finding a suitable camp location.
Half the survivors, including Kate, Sawyer, and Sayid settled on a beach near the crash site.
The rest, led by Jack, chose to live in the caves which are located in the jungle, near a source of fresh water.
Investigating the Island (searching for food and water, discovering the caves, and learning about the Black Rock).
Confrontations with The Monster.
Getting to know and trust each other (see especially Kate, Locke, Sawyer, and Jin).
There is a relatively long-standing animosity between Michael and Jin: the latter attacked the former in order to get his watch back, which Michael had found in the wreckage of the plane.
The survivors (especially Jack and Shannon) begin to question Locke's intentions due to his lie about Boone's injury and consequent death.
Trying to leave the island.
Building and launching the raft.
Hunting for Claire, after she was taken by the Others.
Opening the Hatch found by Locke and Boone.
Started to tell the survivors' story by introducing and using Flashbacks.

The early story was basic survival: food, shelter and water. Also, a means of rescue.
But the survival group was not unified so individuals personal instincts were more important than uniting around  common leader. This was the early character conflict between those who thought they would lead.

The mysteries were unusual: the Black Rock ship found in the middle of the island; the Smoke Monster, the Others and the Hatch.  The story pivoted from basic survival to danger from Monster, the Others and the Island itself.




Season 1 Finale: As the castaways brace themselves for an attack, Claire's baby is kidnapped, leading Charlie and Sayid on a dangerous chase into the jungle. While the threat of the Others bears down on the castaways, the raft crew continues their flight from the island - but when the hope of rescue appears on the horizon, they will soon learn that appearances can be deceiving. Charlie and Sayid stumble into a trap as they race to confront the kidnapper. Jack and Locke argue as they prepare to blow open the hatch. The raft crew is overjoyed to be discovered by a passing ship, but their elation is short-lived when they realize things are not what they appear. The hatch is opened, and what is inside it stuns the survivors.
 

Season Two focused on the Hatch. To find something scientific and out of the ordinary on the Island filled the castaways with hope (and food and protection) but also doubt (what was its purpose on the island). The writers were praised for effectively using flashbacks to flesh out the secrets of the characters.

Major plot points included:

The Swan, the Numbers, and pressing the button, all of which appeared to have been resolved by the end of the season.
The tail-section survivors, whose stories began and ended in the season, with the exception of Eko and Bernard.
The Others, including Tom, Goodwin, Klugh, and the fake Henry Gale (Ben).
The DHARMA Initiative stations/
Continued to tell the survivors' story by using flashbacks

Finale: Live Together, Die Alone: After discovering something odd just offshore, Jack and Sayid come up with a plan to confront "The Others" and hopefully get Walt back. Meanwhile, Eko and Locke come to blows as Locke makes a potentially cataclysmic decision regarding the "button" and the Hatch.

Season 3 mainly focused on the Others who had become the biggest danger to the castaways survival.

Major plot points included:

The Others (including Juliet Burke, Tom Friendly, Ben Linus and Richard Alpert), who they are, why they are on the Island, the way they live their lives and who leads them.
Contact with the outside world, including Penny; the Flame and Galaga being destroyed.
Desmond's future-telling powers, going back in time and Charlie's imminent death, and to a lesser extent, time.
The mysteries of the island, mainly pregnancy issues and the healing properties (see Mikhail).
The arrival of Naomi and the freighter.
Continued to use Flashbacks and during the final episode of the Season 3 they first introduced the Flash-forward idea that was used throughout all of Season 4.

Finale: Through the Looking Glass:  Jack and the castaways begin their efforts to make contact with Naomi's rescue ship.

"Through the Looking Glass" means where nothing is quite what it seems. In Lewis Carroll's book, it can mean clocks that work backwards or "... a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."
Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic (e.g. running helps you remain stationary, walking away from something brings you towards it, chessmen are alive, nursery rhyme characters exist, etc.).

At the end of Season 3, current reflection shows series turned to pure fantasy and not reality.


But by the end of Season 3, LOST could have wrapped up its main stories without jumping the shark (literally and figuratively) with the entire Jacob Temple worship story which attempted to merge ancient religions with an old Greek surreal tale of sibling rivalry.


A three season run would have boiled the LOST story universe into easily absorbed plots:

1. The conflict and tension in the 815 survivors camp on leadership and direction for survival. A passenger class struggle between the middle section and the tail section who had more contact and suspicions about the Others.
2. The external conflict and combat with the Others who claim the Island and its magical properties as their own. The story would have concentrated more on the science cult's obsession with time, pregnancy and mental experiments (which could have easily explained the Monster as being the physical manifestation of mentally ill minds through the Island's unique electromagnetic fields). In other words, the Smoke Monster would have been the island Frankenstein, roaming the island after breaking out of its captivity.
3. The realization that the only way to leave the Island was through the Others assets (boats, communications, etc.) or through rebellion (the freighter coming back to dethrone Ben as the island leader.) It could have been an interesting dynamic on whether Widmore would be as evil as Ben or whether he would have rescued the 815ers then restore the "real" original research of the Island. This would have been a cleaner and more logical ending to the series as it avoids the pitfalls of supernatural beings and clear evidence of a purgatory premise. The main characters would be given an opportunity to "go home" on the freighter or "stay" to live a new life on the Island.

BEN'S RAGE

We know this is not true: LOST was not about Ben.

Or was it? We know in reality that Ben was going to be a throw-away character; a leader of the villain clan who would have been killed by the survivors as they marched toward Lord of the Flies madness. But Michael Emerson's strong acting performance soon made Ben a fan favorite, and a new story engine for the series.

People have theorized that the LOST mythology centers around Jack, or Hurley but in the beginning we know from the preproduction notes that Kate was supposed to be the focal point for the series. But again, that changed when Jack in the pilot became the instance face of the series. Instead of killing off Jack to "bump up the island drama," Jack became the leader of the survivors instead of Kate.

So the show has a history of changing course in mid-stream.

You can apply just about any centrist theory onto Ben.

It can lead to a compelling case that the workings of the show were in Ben's head.

For example, Ben has spinal cancer. He dreams/prays/desires a miracle surgeon. And right away, a great surgeon literally falls out of the sky to save his life. How does that happen?

Considering that Ben had the means, opportunity and wealth to leave the island and do whatever the hell he pleased, why he was stuck on the island waiting for fate to take his life was odd. There are a few explanations for this behavior. One, he was scared of living the island because he may not be able to return. Two, he was the embodiment of the island's power, like Jacob, so he would be naturally healed because he was the island's native leader. Three, he really did not have cancer - - - it was a myth or phobia or a nightmare.

By putting the context of the show into the mental state of Ben could explain many contradictory aspects of the story lines.

We know Ben was an insecure child. He was raised by a drunken father. He was blamed for his mother's death. He was quiet and introverted, he made no real friends. Everything we saw and heard could have been the transcript of a lonely child's imagination.

A telling point is when Hurley invites Ben into the church reunion to "move on" to the next plane of existence. However, Ben passes on the opportunity. He has personal things to work on. Again, why would Ben even show up in the main characters' purgatory reunion world?

The sideways world appears to be one made for "second chances." In it, Ben is a lowly school teacher. He is taking care of his ill father. He does not have any friends, only colleagues at work. He is meek and naive. But there is a part of him that is a dreamer. He thinks he can help other people, that he can be a strong leader, and that he can find happiness (maybe as a step dad to Alex). But in this alternative universe, nice guys still seem to finish last.

But if you view the island world as a prequel to the sideways fantasy world, it could make some sense. Ben dreamed of being a powerful and wealthy man. He dreamed of the island fantasy because in his "real" life (which the sideways world is based upon) is so dull. When Ben dreams of being special, his mind races to create nightmares based upon his anxieties such as falling in love with women he could never have (Juliet and Kate were island examples.)

Each of the main characters could represent the problems in Ben's life. Hurley could represent the unlucky lottery winner. Locke could represent the trapped personality in both career and personal life. Kate could represent either women who don't find him attractive or his need to escape his routine. Jack could represent his fear of success. Desmond could represent his fear of failure. As he tries to figure out how to change himself, his dreams attempt to try to change these fictional characters into better, stronger people.

As we have discussed, researchers do believe that the purpose of dreams is to allow a person's mind to make calculations and "what if" variable runs to find solutions to waking problems. The variables in Ben's life could be represented by the main characters and how they are trying to cope with the various hard-wired problems in Ben's persona: including rage, desire, needs, fears. It seems that Ben's biggest problem is that he feels that he is not acknowledged or recognized as being a good person. He is merely a background player in the sideways school. Only one of his students finds him approachable and helpful. His colleagues dismiss his talk as being merely fiction or a wild dream. He is a dog without a bark or a bite.

So, the show is a series of dreamscapes showing Ben how he could be more like Jack, Locke, Kate or Hurley. How can he find love. How can he be more open and confident. How can he get people to listen to him. How can he get people to follow his lead. How he can lead a better life.

But it is Ben's pent-up rage that feeds a long pattern of nightmares. His mind is sidetracked by personal failure that he envisions himself as a diabolical tyrant who acts like a god-like figure over stronger willed people. Perhaps by the time he has the sideways church conversation with Hurley, Ben has learned that he has to let go of his inner rage - - - and to also let go of all the imaginary characters that he created to help him cope with his miserable real life.

Ben has to "wake up" from living in a fantasy world in order to "move on" in his real life. The sideways world was closer to reality than we thought; it was really the last act in Ben's elaborate self-examination. He decided that he no longer needed the main characters to help him figure things out in the real world. He decided to let them go (and symbolically be erased by the white light at the end of episode).

From that point forward, Ben had the mind-set of cleaning up his act. To begin to work on how mend his fences with his father (as Locke had done in the sideways world),  and to work on finding true companionship with Rousseau and Alex.

IN A GAME OF WAR (PART II)

In the past two posts, we have had our "draft" of characters to be on the Light Team and the Dark Team.

JACOB'S LIGHT TEAM members:

Jack, Locke, Daniel, Dogen, Iana, Mars, Ana Lucia, Goodwin, Kate, and Danielle.

Field leader(s): Jack, Ana Lucia
Mission specialist(s): Daniel
Survivalists: Danielle
Athletic/Military: Iana, Goodwin, Kate
Intangible: Dogen, Mars

MIB'S DARK TEAM members:

Ben, Sayid, Jin, Sawyer, Mr. Eko, Keamy, Patchy, Ethan, Naomi, Kelvin.

Field leader(s): Ben
Mission specialist(s): Sayid, Ethan
Survivalists: Mr. Eko
Athletic/Military: Jin, Keamy, Patchy, Naomi, Kelvin
Intangible: Sawyer

We have gone through a sports-like "preview" of the strengths and weaknesses of both teams, finding that there was a slight overall edge to MIB's Dark Team.

So how would an actual island war game work?

In the actual series, there were several aspects and statements that "war" would be coming to the island, propositioned by the conflict between Ben and Widmore. In Season 6, this battle seemed to shift as a conflict between Jacob and the smoke monster with MIB's sole goal "to leave the island." But it left the island, the world as we would know it would be destroyed. But we were never told how or why that would happen.

The island was a special place. Despite what Jacob said, it could give people "immortality."  It could also alter time and space. It could teleport people to different times and places. The island itself was a weapon. It could give death and rebirth.

As such, the key to controlling the island would be the Light Cave where the mysterious "cork" kept the island from blowing up and destroying the universe. Whoever controls the cave controls the power.  So in one respect, it could be like the childhood game of "find the flag."

Jacob and MIB both knew where the Light Cave is (MIB came screaming out of it after Jacob killed his brother). But the Light Cave itself is hidden in stealth mode for any other person. In that way, it could be a shifting place since it sits on the unique EM properties that control time and space (as well as the fact that the island is constantly moving).

So in one respect, Jacob's main goal in the game is defense - - -  keep MIB's forces from finding the Light Cave. In order to do so, he needs a team member(s) to figure out where the cave is to divert the enemy away from it. Therefore, Jacob's early pick of Daniel makes perfect sense.

Likewise, MIB's main goal in the game is offense - - - find, attack and seize the Light Cave from Jacob. As a result, MIB has stacked his team with paramilitary soldiers capable of recon, mission planning, dark ops, extreme combat and battle toughness to charge at opposition lines.

The game could be a violent "hide and seek" as squads of the team members criss cross the island trying to find the cave. Jacob's team could have missions to "bait" MIB's team into traps, pitfalls or ambushes to diminish their numbers. Likewise, MIB's team could be stalking, trailing and trying to gather intelligence to find the Light Cave.

Throughout the island, the old Dharma stations could be critical tools in helping either side with their mission planning and goals. The Flame communications station could be critical in getting messages to distant teams since normal radio signals get jammed by the island's EM fields. The Hatch could be important station for logistics and supplies (since it can trigger food drops). There could be battles just to obtain these stations just like in most World Wars where the occupation and holding of territory was critically important to victory.

If LOST was ever rebooted, I think this "alternative" island story premise would be compelling enough to bring back old fans and possibly create a new, younger viewership who have grown up on battle simulation games.

IN A GAME OF WAR

Last post we picked "teams" for a battle of island survival.

JACOB'S LIGHT TEAM members:

Jack, Locke, Daniel, Dogen, Iana, Mars, Ana Lucia, Goodwin, Kate, and Danielle.

Field leader(s): Jack, Ana Lucia
Mission specialist(s): Daniel
Survivalists: Danielle
Athletic/Military: Iana, Goodwin, Kate
Intangible: Dogen, Mars

MIB'S DARK TEAM members:

Ben, Sayid, Jin, Sawyer, Mr. Eko, Keamy, Patchy, Ethan, Naomi, Kelvin.

Field leader(s): Ben
Mission specialist(s): Sayid, Ethan
Survivalists: Mr. Eko
Athletic/Military: Jin, Keamy, Patchy, Naomi, Kelvin
Intangible: Sawyer

So, if the series was about a rough and tumble, no rules, winner-take-all survival contest on who would control the island, who would win?

If you were going to write a preview story for an NFL game, a writer would look at the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. How the coaches view strategy. And which teams can exploit another's weakness.

If it was a game of "hide and seek," Team Jacob's Rousseau and Kate would be excellent hiders/seekers. MIB's team has no real stealth operatives except for Naomi. It is interesting that it is female characters who best fit this strategy.

If this was a game of "brutal strength," each team could lock horns in drawn out matches. Jacob's best "fighters" would be Ana Lucia, Goodwin, Iana, Mars and Danielle.  MIB's strongest fighters would be Keamy, Sayid, Patchy, Mr. Eko and Kelvin.

If it was one on one, ranked bouts:

Ana Lucia vs. Keamy.  It would be a brutal prize fight since pound for pound Ana Lucia is a pit bull.

Goodwin vs. Sayid. Also a close contest with Goodwin having the size, but Sayid having extensive combat experience.

Iana vs. Patchy. Again, a closer contest than one would imagine since Iana seems to have the background in hard, unwinnable situations as Jacob's Girl Friday Hunter while Patchy seems to throw himself into danger and miraculously survives.

Mars vs. Mr. Eko. It would seems clear that Mr. Eko's size, strength and meanness in a street fight would take down Agent Mars. If there was some strategy, traps or weapons, Mars could close the gap but Eko still would be the favorite to prevail.

Danielle vs. Kelvin. This match in some ways happened on the island. Both of the them were long term island inhabitants. Danielle kept away from the Others, baited trapped and killed some of them. Kelvin's position in the Others camp is less clear. Was he a hold over from Dharma (unaware of the purge) or a recruited ex-military from Ben's Others? Either way, both combatants have a roundabout tactics to ambush their prey.

That leaves "tactics and strategy," or leadership in game planning. Who has an advantage in that area?

Team Jacob's brain corps consists of Jack, Locke and Daniel. Daniel has the scientific background to potentially exploit the islands' natural energy sources. Locke has the survival-hunting skills to operate the base camp. Jack has the power position to make life and death decisions, but he has no background in war strategy. Locke, having been an avid gamer, is more suited to be a field general.

Team MIB management team consists of Ben, who had been a proven, driven, hard-nose and brutal dictator who also had a keen sense of strategy, manipulation and cruel traps. He is a cold blooded villain. Sawyer is also a person who can "think" a series of actions to get to "a solution," such as conning a woman out of her life savings. Sawyer can iron out the details, and put a plan into motion.

Clearly then, Team MIB has a much stronger leadership team to devise and implement battle strategies in the field.

Then it comes down to the "intangibles," Team Jacob's spiritualist Dogen vs. Team MIB's medical researcher Ethan. Both men have a killer streak in them. When cornered, they will strike like a cobra. Ethan has a much bigger build than Dogen, but he seems to have martial arts in his soul.

So in a game of island war, it would be a very close battle. On most fronts and one-to-one bouts, the teams balance out as a wash. It would be a close contest but Team MIB (Evil) would seem to be the slight favorite to capture the island.

OUR JACK AND JILL

There was an untapped undercurrent in the show which could have dramatically changed its course.

And it reminds us of an interpretation of an old nursery rhyme.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Up got Jack, and home did trot
As fast as he could caper
He went to bed and bound his head
With vinegar and brown paper.

There are several different tales about the origin of "Jack and Jill." One of the most popular versions involves French royalty. Many believe that the rhyme about Jack falling down and breaking his crown refers to the king of France, Louis XVI, who was beheaded during the French Revolution. And the "Jill who came tumbling after?" That would be his dear wife, Marie Antoinette, who also lost her head in the French Revolution.

Juliet could have been the Island Queen if she had accepted Ben's advances. But since Ben killed her lover in order to control her, that relationship was DOA before it began. Ben's relationship with women was more torturous than normal. But even afterward, Juliet held a lot of sway among the Others, possibly because she stood up to Ben and lived to tell. She was smart, she knew how things worked, and she could navigate her way to manipulate even Ben.

Jack was the leader of the survivor camp. Over time, he began more assertive and controlling as he made unilateral decisions on missions. He became the focal point of the Others ire. So much so that Ben tried to convert Jack into an Other, an ally. It almost worked as Jack stayed in the Others camp after Kate and Sawyer escaped the cages.

Both Jack and Juliet had similar fates of the French nobles. Both died on the island, at the hands of the island politics.

THE OTHER STORY

Viewers got a glimpse into the background story of the Dharma Institute. But we never understood how a bunch of 1970s academic researchers "found" the island, and then were able to build massive research stations while surrounded by hostile natives, the Others.

There is a massive black hole in logic and story telling.

Prior to any known character coming to the island, Crazy Mother was alone as the guardian. When a Roman ship wrecks, she steals two newly born children, Jacob and his brother. Jacob's brother yearns to leave the island after he finds a survivor camp. He uses the knowledge of the Romans to try to harness the power of the island to get back "home," which would be Rome. Jacob's brother embraced technology in order to find a way to get to his dream or goal.

Crazy Mother and Jacob did not embrace technology. They lived in a primitive camp, making due on a self-sufficiency level including weaving their own materials.  Crazy Mother destroyed the camp and its technology in order to stop Jacob's brother from leaving the island. At this point in time, Jacob and his brother stopped aging. She decreed that neither could harm the other. But when Jacob's brother killed her, Jacob's rage set off events that eventually killed his brother.

When Jacob's brother's body floated into the light cave, we see the smoke monster fly out. We would later find Jacob's brother's body down stream. Some speculated that the brother's death created a smoke monster, but most believe that smoke monsters existed prior to this event as Crazy Mother's actions in wiping out the Roman camp was the work of a smoke monster. Temple graphics from an apparent earlier age depicts the smoke monster seated in the ancient Egyptian underworld. The smoke monster then took the form of MIB in order to pester and engage Jacob in conversations and games. Both Jacob and MIB were immortal beings, and the "rules" did not allow each other to harm the other.

MIB said that he was growing tired of Jacob bringing humans to the island, since they eventually turn greedy and corrupt and die.  It seems that Jacob and MIB were playing a human pawn game of philosophy or Senet.

So if Jacob was playing a game, and he was the only person who could allow people on the island, then why did he allow technically advanced people (like the ones Crazy Mother hated and killed) to build massive research facilities. MIB was the only person aware that there could be a technology answer to allow it to "leave" the island.  Apparently, smoke monster(s) are imprisoned on the island even though they are thought to be "security systems." If MIB absorbed all the memories, emotions and logic of Jacob's brother, then MIB's purpose probably changed to match his: find a way to leave the island.

So MIB would have wanted technology advanced humans to come to the island, so it could manipulate them to find the answer that Jacob's brother was so close in finding. The question remains why would Jacob allow that? Jacob was stuck on the island for as long as he was the guardian. Perhaps that was the bargain: humans came to the island as candidates to replace Jacob while at the same time puzzle pieces for MIB to find a way to leave the island barrier.

Some believe that Jacob was himself a smoke monster. When he visited Jack at the LA hospital, the lobby smoke detector went off for no apparent reason. So if Jacob as a smoke monster could leave the island, why could not MIB?

This leads to two alternatives. First, Jacob was not a smoke monster so he could leave the island. Second, Jacob was a smoke monster and the off-island scenes we saw were illusions. That would mean that Jacob learned about mental manipulation technologies from the Dharma researchers and used it to create vivid holographic (Star Trek NG) worlds so real that humans could not tell any difference.

So it is possible that both Jacob and MIB wanted new technologies present on the island to meet their own goals. If Jacob truly wanted to release his obligations as eternal guardian, he would need to create such an environment where some human would want to become "a hero" in order to save his friends. The only way to become such a hero would be to accept the island guardianship, thereby releasing Jacob from his duties.

But that does not explain how resetting the light cave cork made MIB mortal or made an immortal being like Jacob dead. One could argue that MIB and Jacob were not real beings but holographic horror projections that seemed so real that the humans accepted them as real.

Which gets us back to the opening question. If Dharma was brought to the island for its knowledge and research, why were there other less tech people (the Others) still on the island? Perhaps the conflict between two groups was part of Jacob's plan to find his "hero."  It also could be that MIB kept certain human "pawns" to play the game with Jacob. Or, another alternative would be that the Others were actually Dharma members who splintered off from the group because they did not like the research paths established by Horus. The latter conflict would have made a good side story on why the Others were so hostile to outsiders and what were the island's true powers.

For if LOST was solely about the origin story of Dharma and the island, it would have been just as interesting as the actual story lines.

LOST IN A BOTTLE

LOST had a large ensemble cast, for which many were used as dramatic fodder in death scenes.

But could LOST have been better, with a tighter script, if its cast was concentrated into 6 main players?

And who would be those six?

Instead of a plane crash, a small cruise yacht could have shipwrecked off the island, leaving six survivors coming on shore.

If one was to "dramatize" Gilligan's Island, the characters would be a captain, a sailor, a rich man, a rich wife, a model, a farm girl and a professor. The closest analogous characters would be the marshal Mars, Desmond, Bernard and Rose, Shannon, Kate and the jack-of-all trades, Sayid.

This group would have the possible sub-story lines of the original pilot:

Mars could have been tracking a con-artist-murderer in Kate on this voyage, just before he arrests her in open waters.

Desmond is the one person with transoceanic experience. He may have been the yacht charter captain out of Fiji.

Rose and Bernard, both professionals, could be luxury type cruise passengers on holiday. Or, if Rose cancer story remains, both trying live life to the fullest before she dies.

The self-absorbed lazy model persona would fall to Shannon, the rich girl who expects people to be at her beck and call with a flip of her long eye lashes. She would be the center piece of conflict between the men.

Sayid played a professor like role in LOST. Whenever there was a science, mechanical, communication issue, Sayid had the answers. He fixed broken equipment. He could build things.

If you take away all the Dharma, supernatural, Numbers, Others and smoke monsters, where would this version of LOST taken us?

One would expect the idea of rescue would have been foremost in the minds of this landing party. There would have been some conflict between Desmond, the captain of the ship, and Sayid, the military-survival expert, on how to organize their camp and signal passing ships. This conflict would allow the other survivors to begin to choose sides, and work each other in political moves to make their stay on the island better.

As the one with medical training, Bernard would be called upon to be the one to keep them all alive. But he would be torn up inside with the secret Rose wants kept that she is dying. The idea of helping others live while he has to allow his wife to die would emotionally tear up Bernard.

The dynamic between Mars and Kate would be edgy and in constant conflict. Mars would probably "arrest" her, but there would be a backlash from the others who may agree with Kate that "his laws" don't apply on the island. Everyone has to work together in order to survive. This tension that Kate is having extra freedom from her crimes gnaws at Mars to the point of near violence against the others. Some see him as a threat. There could be talk of exile as Kate cons and charms her way into an important role in the camp.

While Kate may be helpful in setting up camp, the signal fires, and gathering food, Shannon appears to be aloof and troublesome. Her constant nagging and complaining would grate on the other survivors to the point ultimatums from the leaders to "shape up or ship out."  This could give Mars an opportunity to "recruit" Shannon on his side to get "a confession" from Kate about her crimes.

After some time, when rescue is not coming, the group dynamic could shift into petty jealous taunts and leadership breakdowns. Desmond and Sayid may try to build a raft to get out into the shipping lanes, while others believe that it is not worth the physical effort when survival materials are in short supply or when some of the survivors start to become ill from dehydration, and possible tropical disease. The added stress on Bernard could lead to emotional to violent outbursts which further tear apart any unity within the group.

Since JJ Abrams has a habit of "rebooting" series, like Star Trek in alternatives, perhaps if LOST returns (which is doubtful), this is the format that a new show would take, as a true dramatic survival 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.

MINIMALISM

Minimalism was a trend in sculpture and painting that arose in the 1950s and used simple, typically massive, forms. It is also an avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases that change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect.

Is it possible to strip away all the tangents, subplots, tangents and secondary characters to find a Minimalistic LOST? 

By looking to simple, large story elements, can LOST be condensed into a more focused driven drama?

I think you could condense the entire series into five characters trapped on the island. You don't have to change the characters personalities or motivations. You just have five large puzzle pieces to focus the action and interactions. If LOST was about relationships, then a concentrated, intense story between these characters living through in untenable situations would be epic.

I think you can start with the starting point of a single person living on the island (like Crazy Mother when Claudia's Roman ship wrecked off the island's shore): Ben.

Then, like in that back story, only four new characters need to wind up floating ashore (from a plane crash, ship wreck, booze cruise disaster-fight going overboard into the ocean, etc.): Sawyer, the con man; Locke, the bitter dreamer; Kate, the fugitive muse; and Jack, the miracle doctor.

The island, through Ben, is a dark and dangerous place. Ben's back story is simple. He was brought to the island by his bitter, alcoholic father (who blames him for his mother's death). Ben is extremely unhappy being a peon in the Dharma labor camp, so he seeks revenge against everyone because no one acknowledges him. He kills them all. And once he is alone on the island, he goes a little crazy.
(There is no need for guardians, magic, time travel or any other twisty tropes.) Just a young boy who turns himself into a serial madman.

 The rest of the characters could have been plane crash victims, a charter plane that goes off-course from Fiji, and ditches in a storm. The minimalistic background for each person on that plane:

Kate: still running away from the authorities for murdering her father;
Sawyer: searching for his parents' killer;
Locke: having quit his job, he is seeking adventure and purpose in his life; and
Jack: having a Thailand-like booze vacation to forget about his father's sudden passing.

Each of these passengers realize that surviving the plane crash was their second chance to live their lives the way they thought they would have if not sidetracked by the events in the back stories.

The plot lines are also fairly simple.

Kate, being the lone woman, would use her charms to get the men to protect and serve her.
Sawyer, also being a charmer, but a territorial possessive person, would push back to get what he would want.
Jack, being the lone professional, would seek compromise, balance and common sense to survive their ordeals.
Locke, being mindless and reckless, would seek to claim the island as its new demi-god.
Ben, who for all purposes, the current island god, would seek to enslave, manipulate and control the new arrivals until he tired of them or found them of no use.

Ben could start off as a sympathetic figure: a long, lost survivor of a different "tragedy." He can help the new castaways with food and shelter as a means of gaining their trust. A trust that his mental condition will twist over time into betrayal.

Kate could also have the initial upper hand. Men are drawn to her magnetic, gregarious personality. She is a little of "the girl next door" and a little tomboy. She is clever, witty and flirty. It is possible that she could see the benefit of getting close to all the men on the island. In fact, her charms would be the catalyst to learn the backgrounds of the other characters.

Sawyer is an anti-social element. He is a loner. He can find a person's weakness in order to exploit it to his own advantage. He had seduce women to steal their money. He seeks a challenge, and on the island that turns to Kate. He would find conflict in following other people's orders or directions. He could easily be labeled a saboteur by evil Ben, as he starts to divide and conquer this group.

Locke has the arrogance of self-delusion of greatness. He believes himself to be the great outback hunter trapped in a shipping clerk's body.  His lack of leadership skills (and results) will put him at the bottom rung in the new island order. The others will not take him seriously. He will become resentful, cold, and at times, lash out verbally and physically. This could parallel the madness that engulfed Ben during his long time on the island.

Jack is not only trapped on the island, but trapped in his own ethics of "saving" people. He will do anything to save his fellow islanders, to the point of being blindsided by their manipulations of him. He may be an initial figurehead leaders, but the people around him are trying to be the puppet masters behind the facade. He will be challenged first by Locke, then by Sawyer. He will be betrayed by Ben (and Kate, who uses Sawyer's physical desires to her advantage.). The love triangle turns into a Bermuda Triangle of hate, suspicion, arguments, and shuffling of alliances.

Things would get to the tightrope stage when Ben makes his move on Kate (like the beach scene when she was kidnapped with Sawyer and Jack and taken to the Barracks). When Kate is repulsed by Ben's advances (and his "deal" to make her queen of his island paradise), Ben turns into a raging smoke monster of hate and revenge. This would pit two hot blooded avengers (Ben and Sawyer) against each other. This conflict would appease both Jack and Locke, for they have positioned themselves in a faith vs. science resolve for survival, with each believing their position will lead to safety, rescue or most of all, winning Kate's heart.

But at a certain point, Kate realizes that all her flirtations, manipulations, promises and passions have turned the other characters into cavemen. She can see their personalities change, and she become afraid at what she has done. The more she attempts to withdraw from their conflicts, the more the anger and resentment levels increase.

The close quarters of just a few strong characters could lead to excellent drama, action and plot twists without using the ruse of magic, time travel, supernatural elements or invading mercenaries.

BETTER END

It may be hard to admit, but LOST lasted too long. A season too long to be exact.

There are two schools of thought on Season 6.  One, it provided a confusing back story of the island and Jacob. Two, it provided nothing to the original story lines. The former would have just ended the series with the cliffhanger of Season 5, with Juliet pounding a rock on Jughead. That would have had just as many outraged viewers and unsolved mysteries. The latter would have just squeezed the key Season 6 bits into the last episodes and forgot about the sideways world filler. So the series would end with Jack dying in the bamboo grove with Vincent, while the last of his friends flew overhead for the last time.

In one respect, that last sentence would have made a more powerful and true ending to the series than the happy reunion in the purgatory church.

What happened on the island in Season 6 was masked by the confusing sideways parallel universe arc. The key resolution of the survivors's stories was on the island.

Jack accepts the role of guardian from Jacob, but he does not feel any different. 

The big mission was to go into the Heart of the Island, where the unique electromagnetic energy was strongest, and to "reset" the island. This is like the Hatch fail safe operation key that Desmond used to destroy the Swan. Since Desmond survived that re-set, he was the chosen one to re-set the island for good. But despite the guardianship role and Flocke's presence, no one knows exactly what is going to happen. Flocke believes the island re-set will free him and the island will fall to the bottom of the ocean. Jack hopes that the re-set will destroy the smoke monster and free his friends.

Once at the cave of the Heart, Flocke ties a rope to a tree while Jack ties the other end around Desmond. Desmond tells Jack that this - killing Flocke and destroying the Island - doesn't matter because once he goes into the cave, he'll go to another place where they can be with the ones they love, where they never have to see the island again, and where a happier version of Jack exists. (This is the foreshadowing of the sideways church reunion, but can be just a way of saying that everyone will meet up again in heaven some day.) After saying that maybe there's a way he could bring Jack there too, Jack says he already tried that  and that he found there are no shortcuts or do-overs; that whatever happened, happened and that all of this matters. The three men enter the cave.

Jack and Locke enter the cave and begin to lower Desmond into the brilliant abyss. Flocke remembers John Locke's memories of Jack and he, looking at Desmond down in a hole in the ground, lightheartedly commented on their bickering on whether or not to push the button.   Jack cuts him short. "You're not John Locke; you disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you're nothing like him." Jack insists that John was right about almost everything, and wished he got to tell him this when he was still alive. Flocke says John wasn't right about anything and that when the Island drops into the ocean and Jack drops with it, then he will realize this. Jack suggests they just watch and see who turns out to be right, and the two look down the waterfall now that Desmond has reached the bottom. (This is the big theme of science vs. faith playing out for the last time.)

Desmond reaches a chamber below after passing skeletons. He finds the Heart, a glowing pool, filled by a small waterfall, with an elongated stone with ancient hieroglyphs engraved on it at its center. He enters the water as electromagnetic energy emanates from the Heart. Desmond is clearly in pain, and his nose bleeds. Jack and Locke hear his screams. Desmond reaches the center stone and lifts it, like removing a giant stopper in the center of the pool. The stream from the waterfall stops, the electromagnetic force recedes, the light goes out, the pool dries up and there is a red hot glow emitting from the center.  Desmond screams "No!" Flocke says to a very worried Jack: "It looks like you were wrong." Flocke says goodbye and leaves as earthquakes begin to wrack the Island.

Jack chases Flocke out of the cave in a fit of fury, punching him in the mouth and jumping on him when he falls. Flocke bleeds from the mouth. MIB is shocked to see he's bleeding. Jack sees the blood and says, "It looks like you were wrong too." Jack's hands move towards Locke's throat as they struggle. Locke finds a rock and hits Jack in the head, and gets up and runs off as Jack becomes unconscious.

On the Hydra Island beach, the outrigger reaches the shoreline.  Miles calls Ben, who is sitting with Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley. Miles informs him they're going to fly off the Island and that they should get to Hydra Island now. Claire emerges from the bushes and holds Miles' group at gunpoint and shoots into the sand. Through the radio, Kate hears that Claire is there. Claire assumes Flocke has sent them there to kill her. To convince her this isn't the case, Richard tells her they can go home and be free of Flocke. He invites Claire to join them but she refuses and leaves.

The predicted wild storm arrives and the earthquakes continue. Ben notices a large tree beginning to fall and realizes it will crush Hurley. Ben pushes him out of the way and the tree falls on Ben, pinning him. Sawyer, Hurley and Kate can't lift it. Sawyer says Flocke was right, the Island is going down. Miles radios Ben. Kate finds Ben's radio in the mud. Miles tells Kate that Frank is fixing the plane and they should get over there quick smart. He also tells Kate that Claire is around but won't come. Sawyer uses a fallen tree branch as a lever to try to free Ben. Ben says he knows how they can get to Hydra Island - that Flocke has a boat.

On the main island, Flocke stands on the cliff above the cave, looking at Libby’s husband’s boat anchored a short distance offshore. Before he can make it to the boat, Jack catches up to him, mad as ever. Flocke turns around and the two face each other for the final showdown. (This goes to the theme of black vs. white; good vs. evil.) Flocke draws his knife and they run at each other across the uneven ground. Jack leaps at Locke and they fight as the storm rages and cliffs disintegrate.

Flocke drops his knife, but during the struggle he picks it up and inflicts a fatal wound under Jack's rib cage. As he tries to finish him off, Flocke tells Jack that "he died for nothing." Just then, Kate shoots him from behind; she had "saved him a bullet." (This final act of defeating MIB was Kate, not the island guardian, in such a way that Jacob was destroyed not by MIB but by Ben.)

Jack struggles to his feet, but another quake shakes the Island and Flocke says Jack is "too late" just before the rumbling stops. Jack kicks him off the cliff to the rocks below, and MIB, the Smoke Monster, is apparently dead.


Kate holds Jack, who looks at the knife wound in his side. Jack says "I'll be fine, just find me some thread and I'll count to five.” This is what he said the first time they met in the jungle after the crash. Kate sewed up Jack's wounds, which may be symbolic of threading their lives together. Sawyer, Hugo and Ben arrive and as Kate tells them that it's over, the Island rumbles again and Sawyer says "Sure don't feel like it's over."

Ben tells the group that Frank and the rest are leaving, and if they are going to catch up they had better get to the boat and sail to Hydra island quickly. Jack says that whatever Desmond turned off, he needs to turn it back on again. But he says that if people are going to leave they need to get on that plane.  Kate tells him that he doesn't need to do this, but Jack is adamant that he does. Jack wishes Sawyer good luck.


Ben passes Sawyer the radio saying that if the Island is going down then he is going down with it. Hugo refuses to climb the rickety wooden ladders and tells Jack that he is with him. Kate and Jack share a tearful goodbye - they have a final kiss and declare their love for each other. The island continues to shake uncontrollably. Sawyer calls Frank, who tells them he is going to leave while there is still ground to leave on. Sawyer and Kate jump off the cliffs and into the sea. They swim out to the Elizabeth.

Frank fires the plane up. Kate and Sawyer swim ashore to Hydra Island and find a disconsolate Claire sitting on the beach. The Island continues to disintegrate. They hear the Ajira warming up. Claire says to Kate that she won't come because the Island has made her crazy. Kate offers to help her and they all run for the plane. Frank prepares for takeoff and doesn't hear Sawyer's plea on the radio for him to wait. Just then they make it to the runway, and Kate, Sawyer and Claire climb aboard.
The plane takes off as the runway disintegrates.

Hurley helps Jack as they return with Ben to the Heart. Jack tells them he is going down alone and makes it clear that he knows he will not survive. Jack explains to an overwrought Hurley that this is what is supposed to happen. Jack tells Hugo that it is he who the Island needs, that his job was to fix the Heart but after that it should be Hugo. Jack tells Hugo that he believes in him. Hugo agrees, but only till Jack returns. Ben finds an Oceanic bottle and Jack fills it from a leftover pool of water from the previously active stream and gives it to Hurley. After Hurley drinks, Jack tells him,


Ben and Hugo lower Jack into the Heart. Jack finds Desmond and carries him back to the rope. Desmond wants to return the plug but Jack tells him he has done enough and he needs to go home to be with his wife and son. Desmond asks Jack what will happen to him. Jack says that he'll see him in another life, "Brother." (This ties up the connection between pre-island Jack and Desmond when they first met on the stadium steps. It would seem that destiny would unite their lives in the near future.)

Jack lies exhausted in the empty pool but a trickle of water starts flowing and then the light starts to return. Hugo and Ben haul on the rope and find Desmond on the end of it. Below, Jack sobs with relief as he is engulfed in the light. (Some may speculate that this should have made Jack into an immortal smoke monster.) Ben and Hugo are with Desmond. Hugo takes in the idea that Jack has gone. Ben comforts him by telling Hugo that he did his job. Ben tells a frightened Hugo that he can do his job as the island's new island protector  by doing what he does best: taking care of people.

Hugo asks how he can do things like helping Desmond to go home when people can't leave the Island.  Ben says that that is how Jacob ran things and that maybe there is a better way. Hugo asks Ben for his help, saying he needs someone with experience. Ben says he would be honored. 

But Jack is not really gone, as the final scene on the island is Jack in the original bamboo grove.

How he got to the bamboo grove is another mystery. One theory is that Jack never left the bamboo grove in the first place; that it was all his dream. Another theory is that after re-corking the island, saving it from destruction, the light cave transported him to this place as it was the end of a portal. It was so that Jack could see his friends fly away; so he could pass in peace and move on.

You could have just ended the series without the Hurley assuming command immaterial plot point.

But this sequence as the true finale would have made pretty clear that the ultimate sacrifice, one's own life, is needed at times to save others. Dying alone meant that others could live.

We would know that the island's magical powers over life and death have a valve, the rock cork, that once disturbed can cause great riffs in time and space. It has its own fail safe mechanism if released, which is to destroy the planet (extinctions are part of planetary evolution). This changed the immortals into mortals. But rebooting the island is also possible as Jack did - - - not to save the world (he was unaware of the consequences) but to save his friends.

 Eliminate the sideways story line and one gets a better picture of the island mythology, and a better end to the show.

THE ONE

Kate was The One.

Kate was the first character with a complex back story.
She was the first character guys immediately attached to: the cute, girl next door.
Kate was the most troubled character.
She had done horrific things in her past; she was a classic woman on the run.

And Kate was the One who really got everything she wanted, on her own terms.

For those looking for an alternative solution to the many tangled plots, Kate may be your answer.

She was in the center of most of the action, but she never got hurt.
If she wanted something, men jumped to her aid (no matter the consequences, which ran the gambit to sex to death). She was never accountable for her desperate actions. Other people took the brunt of the punishment that should have been directed toward her way.

Women envied her freedom. Men adored her spunky tomboy appeal.

If there was a series puppet master, it would be Kate.

We were told that Jacob was the island guardian, whose "touch" brought the candidates to the island. Jacob was manipulating people to replace him. Kate was a candidate, but somehow conveniently taken out of the equation because she became "a mother." But that was not true. She took Aaron off the island, and "pretended" to be his mother, but gave him back to his grandmother to return to the island. Jacob should have known that - - - but maybe he was also being manipulated by Kate.

Since it is best to be hidden in plain sight, Kate walked among all the interests and conflict groups. She got the adrenaline rush of the missions, but none of the dire consequences of being killed by the Others or the smoke monster. Everything seemed to fall her way. She was the luckiest person ever, or her thoughts and dreams manipulated and controlled island events.

The dream is the only way to explain the laughable, implausible and totally wrong legal resolution of her murder case. The whole O6 story arc was fraught with childish story lines and illogical conclusions. Why would Sun abandon her daughter to go back to find Jin, who everyone believed is already dead? Why would Jack turn into a madman after leaving Kate alone with Aaron? Why did not her Florida husband come to her side when her trial-of-the-century was being broadcast to the nation?  None of those items makes any common sense. They are more the delusional thoughts of a classic spoiled adult who turns away responsibility for personal adventure.

LOST was an adventure story, but it was Kate's adventure. She was used to gathering "red shirts" like the bank robbery gang who would die for her. She gathered up enough "red shirt" survivors to keep the blood pumping and tension high. She was an adrenaline junkie. That is why she volunteered for all the dangerous missions, knowing that she would get the rush but not bad consequences. The island was her own haunted house, a dirty trick she made for her new friends to experience.

Who is not to say Kate was not a supernatural being like Jacob or MIB? If past island history was true, then the real guardian of supernatural world would have been a woman. The gods who ruled life and the bounty of life were women, like Taweret, the goddess of Birth, Rebirth and the Sky. Sound familiar? That was close to the definition of the "life force." The island was the creation and re-creation of a woman-god. Kate is the only character who meets the criteria of being able to rule the island in plain sight. She is the one who gets off the island, but returns to re-connect her bonds to Jack - - - her only hope is that they can overcome the greatest obstacle, together, which would be defeating MIB. Once that happens, Kate does not stay - - - she leaves the island and Jack dies alone. A normal caring person in love with Jack would have stayed by his side to the bitter end. But this moment was a trap, set by Kate, to capture Jack's soul in the after life. For what is a few more moments on Earth compared to an eternity together in the stars.

A highly charged, highly complex series of events that one can consider one long blind date?

If a smoke monster can manipulate both matter and energy, why can it manipulate human emotions such as love?

When Christian states that everyone in the afterlife church is there because the island was the most important thing in their collective lives, one still has to question that viewpoint. Under normal circumstances, the most important things in one's life is family (parents) and loved ones (children and spouse). Is this the lonely losers club?

Kate was the most estranged from her loved ones: she killed her father, dismissed her mother, abandoned her Florida husband (and as a runaway committed various acts of adultery). Her character would have been the most likely to have been "alone" at the pearly gates (or the opening of hell's fire pit).

For example, Hurley was extremely close to his mother. As a momma's boy, don't you think she'd be in the final scene to comfort Hurley in the afterlife? Jack had his estranged father, but not his mother. He got along with her fine, so there is another disconnect to the church ending.

To alone Kate, Jack needed to see, speak and reconcile with his father in order to be with her. So one could argue that the church reunion was only stage dressing for Kate's spirit to get what she wanted: Jack, so you would not be alone forever. In some respects, the island was Kate's best life moment, not anyone else's. She needed friends and lovers in order to create some self-esteem, some self-worth. But at the same time, she was an unaccountable spoiled brat in how she dealt with people and problems. The church ending was her solution to her eternity problems. How interesting that she could have choreographed the events on the island (remember we never got the full beach deal conversation between Ben and Kate) in order to increase her status and control of her own immortality. If she was the puppetmaster, she put herself into the action, in a secondary role, to help guide the character developments and affection for her. She needed friends in order to survive the pit of damnation. The island could have been her cosmic con. She had the most to gain by the final union. Perhaps, this explanation will help smooth out the bitterness of why Kate wound up with Jack.

THE ISLAND'S UNKNOWNS

On the blast door map and a few conversations, people were warned against travel in the Dark Territory.

The Dark Territory was an region that featured the Black Rock, Rousseau's camp, and the Temple. It was supposedly the area where the smoke monster was most active. It attacked the survivors on their mission to get dynamite to blow the hatch. The blast door map indicted that "primary nexus of Cerberus related activity" in close approximation to the Black Rock. 

Rousseau's crew was killed and taken by the smoke monster at the temple's outer wall. One of her crew said the Monster was security system that was guarding the Temple.

It was also the place were the "Hurley bird" made its first appearance. The bird was thought to be a warning device to Hurley that danger was present.

Warning devices, security guards, and danger in the Dark Territory should have allowed for more detailed stories instead of miscellaneous mission treks through the jungle.

Was the smoke monster a temple spirit? Or was the smoke monster created from the dead damned souls of the departed Black Rock crew? Or was the smoke monster more than just a thing, but a growing conglomeration of dead souls - - - which increase its knowledge base, but add more mental confusion and anguish with the emotional fears of the deceased's memories.  Then one could speculate that the smoke monster's existence could have been to absorb the minds of any island intruder, which in itself could have made a fascinating case study of a supernatural being.

Yes, the one true and great back story that was never shown on the series was that of the Smoke Monster.  The writers always claimed that they wanted to leave certain mysteries for the fans to figure out on their own, but this one is really too big to avoid. There were not enough clues for fans to connect any dots to determine what the monster was - - - and there is a high probability the writers had no idea either. It was merely a plot device, the dark shadow creek under the bed, to scare the childlike innocence in the viewers.

The slow reveal of the island mysteries should have included the smoke monster, who came to default prominence as Flocke in Season 6. We still don't know why the smoke monster had to take Locke's form (or have Locke's body on the island in order to do so). So was the monster merely a mechanical projection of the dead, or it is a spiritual evil construction of life force energy? Since we don't know if it was good, bad or malfunctioning, the smoke monster embodies the weakest link in the island mythology.

THE RAFT

The series could have had a major story arc with the raft. It represented what the pilot episode stressed as the focal point of the show: rescue. The idea that four survivors would had the ability to build a raft, let alone sail it, across the Pacific to find rescue would have upped the ante.

It would have given the audience time and episode space to get a better understanding of an early character that was exiled from the series: Walt.

In the confined space of the raft, Walt could have been the center piece of the story. He really did not want to leave the island, because he really had nothing to go back to. His mother was dead. His adopted father abandoned him. Michael, his biological dad, gave him up when he was a child. Walt was totally alone. But, we were told he was "special."

If he was indeed special, why did Ben let him go so easily after Michael's final betrayal? Did Ben's science stations extract Walt's special qualities like draining a battery?

But the raft portion of the series was very short lived; interrupted quickly by a rescue fishing boat, with the quick twist of kidnapping Walt, shooting Sawyer and destroying the raft. It could have been a real cost saver to kill off three main characters.

But they wound up washed on shore into what some consider a filler arc of the show, the Tailies. Besides Bernard, the other 48 tail section passengers were merely red shirts - - - fodder for grisly deaths to come.

It would have been better to run a half season of raft episodes (or cutaways) than the Tailies and their back stories. The show did not need new characters, but better development of the ones we were told were important clues to unraveling the series.

The tension was there for the taking. Sawyer would have gotten on Michael's nerves. Walt would have looked to rebel against his new father's orders; so Walt would have been drawn to Sawyer's rebel attitude. That would have further inflamed the situation. The odd part of the raft was Jin's presence - - - for he would be the silent provider, fisherman. It also could be comic relief if the only English he learned was from Sawyer's verbal jabs.

It also could been an avenue to smooth over the rough edges of the Sawyer character. He could have communicated his rough childhood to Walt, so he could understand the problems he would face.  It could be an older brother moment.

But the real lost opportunity was to focus on Walt. Since he had the ability to communicate (and kill) birds and possibly other animals, he could have been a magical provider of food on the long voyage. Or he could have contacted the Dharma sharks for assistance. Since at this time we had no idea about Jacob and why visitors were brought to the island, Walt's abilities would have been critical clues into the island's purpose.

There could have been several paths this long raft arc could have taken. One, the raft could have met a horrible fate in the open seas. A storm could have crushed the small vessel. The heat could have boiled the men to madness, conflict and death. Two, the raft could have made it to another island, where a) they could have found native people who (i) greeted them warmly or (ii) captured them for cannibal sacrifices; or b) been rescued by a container ship heading towards America. Then their story of survival would have made the O6 story arc pale in comparison. It could also set off a rich man's war to find the island between Sun's father and Widmore. It would have been an expensive America's Cup race to find the island, which could have brought in the mysterious Eloise to manipulate both sides to her own game of betrayal.

So, the raft island escape was a missed opportunity for deep story development and character spotlights.

THE QUEST FOR THE LOST GRAIL

It may be like trying to chisel the statue of Crazy Horse with a metal toothpick, but the final epic quest is to try to find the center piece, the keystone, the Rosetta Stone, or the Holy Grail that perfectly merges the desperate elements of the series into one cool unified theory.

Yes, it is like trying to obtain world peace.

In order to figure out this major puzzle, we need to find all the pieces.

In season one, the key elements were:

Flight 815, Sydney to LAX.
Flight 815 plane crash on the Pacific island.
The polar bear.
The smoke monster.
Rousseau being crashed on the island for 16 years, sending out a looping SOS in French.
Locke finding the Hatch

In season two, the key elements were:

The conflict with the Others.
Control of the Hatch between Jack and Locke.
The Numbers.
The other survivors, the Tailies.
The ghosts of the Dharma Initiative, and its scientific experiments.
Desmond being trapped in the Swan pushing a button every 108 minutes to avoid a catastrophic event.

In season three, the key elements were:

Benjamin Linus, the sociopathic leader of the Others.
Time travel elements begin to appear in the series.
Desmond is believed to be "unstuck" in time.
Survivors make contact with the Kahana freighter.

In season four, the key elements were:

Widmore's army arriving on the island.
The strange time differential from the ship to the island; the nose bleeds.
The frozen donkey wheel chamber and its apparent ability to "move the island."
The Oceanic 6 survivors and the plan to return to the island.

In season five, the key elements were:

The two concurrent timelines: one current and one in the 1974.
The three year gap to the reunion of the time lines in 2007 with Ajira flight 316.
The mission to assassinate Jacob, the island guardian.
Flocke, the MIB's impersonation of dead Locke.

In season six, the key elements were:

Back stories of Jacob, his brother, Crazy Mother,  MIB/smoke monster and Alpert.
The final conflict between MIB and Jacob with the rebooting of the "cork."
The deaths of Jacob by Ben, and MIB by Jack and Kate.
Hurley becoming the last island guardian.
Several 815 survivors take off on Ajira plane to leave the island.
The flash sideways universe where Flight 815 never crashed on the island; an after life limbo.

To get how the pieces could fit together, they need to be sorted into categories.

The factual pieces are:

Most visitors to the island came via crashes, and shipwrecks.
Many people like Rousseau, the castaways and others were trapped on the island.
The island was used for various experiments, including on polar bears.
The island contained various stations, such as the Hatch.
If one did not input the numbers into the Hatch computer, an alarm would sound and an incident would occur.

The science pieces are:

Rocket experiment and the doctor's body coming ashore showed the island was moving at a different time than the freighter.
One can only leave the island by a precise bearing or using the FDW.
The island caused inconsistent illness and death to visitors.

The supernatural elements were:

The smoke monster.
The immortal Jacob and Alpert.
The island moving in time and space (especially after Ben turned the wheel).
Certain characters were transported to 1974 while other characters in the same time-space did not.
The island's light source has unique properties (said to contain life, death and rebirth).
The sideways world was an alternative or parallel after life limbo where the characters did not remember their past island time.

So what was LOST? Based on the ending, a supernatural show. Based on the beginning, a survival show. In the middle, a science fiction mystery. There different genres trying to play well together like three spoiled toddlers fighting over one seat on the swing set.

Let's take the weekend to ponder what this all means.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

Is it possible that someone will be able to take the LOST story and re-work it into a unified climax of the desperate, tangential plots?

Yes, if someone took the time and effort to re-edit the series into chronological order (which I have not seen except the first two hours), then in the buried archeological pit of the scripts there is a lost treasure that ties everything together.

In order to tie every piece of the LOST puzzle together, one will have to consider suspending belief but not to the point of irrational McGuffins. The best science fiction has at its core science principles "extended" by theoretical advancement.

For example, is it possible to survive a mid-air plane separation at 30,000 feet? No. Is it possible to survive a free fall from 9,000 feet (as shown in the Others centric episode showing the crash from Ben's perspective)? Perhaps, but unlikely. Is it possible that since Desmond did not enter the numbers promptly, causing a system failure and release of electromagnetic energy, that the unique EM properties could have acted as parachutes or pillows for the survivors who landed alive on the island? That could be a possibility. With the Desmond error causing an electromagnetic incident, is it possible that based on the FDW's ability to harness the EM to shift the island in time and space, that the EM discharge selectively carried the survivors into a different time, space or dimension (including the afterlife as in Dante's Inferno)? That could be a greater possibility since it links together more key elements of the story mythology.

And this is how it could be possible to use the story clues, stated science principles, island factors, and cause-and-effect relationships to build a detailed model of what actually happened to the characters in a unified story that would tie all the loose ends.

In order to accomplish something this grand, one will need to extract the core mythology elements and make them core building blocks from which "the answers" can logically be found for the show's mysteries. There truly needs to be story rules to avoid continuity issues.

It will be complex, confusing and frustrating. For example, the writers had no consistent concept of "time."  It was linear. Then it was circular. Then it was classified as a moving stream. Each one of these time concepts is different. And when the writers dropped the bomb in the sideways world having "no past, no present, no future, but just now," how does one deal with characters moving forward in a space with no time at all? The "now" is not the present because the present represents the future minus the past. Unless the after life principle is that souls live in a null space, then why would they appear to live "normal" lives along a progressive time line?

Even if one can forge through the serious stuff, can one weave an explanation that would appease, delight and answer all the questions of the die-hard fan? Probably not. And that is why no one has really tried to tackle this ambitious project.

THE ORDER OF JACOB

All religions have been obsessed with the meaning of life and death. In this alternative LOST, Jacob is the leader of secret sect whose mission is to protect the most sacred of places, the source of the life force. The life force which creates, destroys and renews all life in the universe. A force so powerful that its protection is protection of all life.

Jacob would have his followers in an underground temple in an abandoned California mission. There, we would see the Lamp Post facility with its old computer and swinging pendulum. Alpert would be Jacob's liaison to Dogen, the temple master who would teach the new recruits like Locke to the path of enlightenment. 

There is one concept that is clear as day. The concept of god, creator, and all knowing being is found in one place, in the light source. It has the power to create life, destroy life and to give rebirth. As such, it is an entity of enormous power. But in its energy form, it is venerable to attack or discharge which to throw the universe into chaos.

Jacob's cult is part religious order and part paramilitary guards. Chief among Jacob's recruits is Sayid, a despondent Iraqi War veteran who seeks peace and redemption for his past sins. Sayid is trusted with a crusade to protect the energy source from the heathen capitalists that want to exploit its power to the destruction of mankind. Sayid believes that this mission will get him to paradise in the after life.

It is Sayid who finds a wayward Locke the perfect tool to help in Sayid's quest for immortality. Locke is a man without a family; without dreams; without hope for a future. Sayid can use that emptiness and fill it with the purpose of the Order.  Locke falls for the high purpose and his elevated personal stake in something much larger than his pitiful life. So Locke is recruited to spy on Dharma. But Locke, thinking himself as an avenging angel, takes it upon himself to destroy Dharma which leads to major headaches for Jacob and Sayid. Locke's actions actually brings Dharma and Widmore closer to finding the hidden light source. Jacob must scramble to contain the damage.

He finds a prospect in Bernard, a dentist who is searching for a miracle cure for his wife's terminal cancer. Bernard finds Jacob at the mission and asks him for Divine intervention. Jacob makes "a deal" with Bernard - - - he must get a job at Widmore's research facility in order to disrupt Widmore's chase of the light source. The early information Locke acquired from Dharma is Bernard's passport into Widmore's facility . . . posing as a disgruntled ex-Dharma employee.

Rose only learns of the deal after Bernard has started to work for Widmore. She is livid that Bernard was conned by some "religious nut," and their relationship turns sour. Bernard is distraught. Widmore sees a sudden change in Bernard, and he confesses that his mind is on his sick wife. Widmore offers him hope (a false promise of a cure that he is close to achieving) if Bernard can recruit "someone special" for his project. Bernard goes to Rose's social worker mission where he meets a lonely boy who has lost his mother, and is abandoned by his adopted father for foster home placement. Bernard talks to Walt about the future, how it is always darkest before the light. Bernard sneaks a peak at Walt's file while waiting for Rose to end her work day. He finds out that Walt's adopted father abandoned him because Walt has "unusual abilities" to control nature, especially birds in dangerous ways. Bernard steals a copy of this report and takes to it Widmore, who is impressed by Walt's condition.

Bernard says he is not unsure Walt can trust him. So Widmore gives Bernard the candy to lure Walt to their side: the identity of Walt's real father, Michael. So Bernard makes another deal with Widmore to recruit Walt with the promise of giving him a chance at a new family life. Walt, who has no future on his own, accepts the proposal to go with Bernard to meet his father. But once in Widmore's compound, a distraught Bernard confesses that it was a trap - - - a pledge to get a cure for his sick wife - - - that Walt was merely a pawn in a bigger game. Walt feels betrayed by adults, again. So he lashes out, causes lab animals to die, foam at the mouth, bite their handlers, and destroy much research gains. But this mental ability fascinates Widmore to no end. He could use Walt's mind to find a portal to the life source.

But after confessing to Rose his bad deeds, Bernard is told that he has to make amends to Walt. So Bernard, through the files at Widmore's offices, tracks down Michael. He tells Michael that his son "needs" him. That he is being held like a lab rat at Widmore's facility. He needs to rescue his son.

But Michael has no means of taking on Widmore and his men, like Keamy. Until he meets a man outside the research campus who stops his car to ask Michael if he needs a lift. That man is Alpert, who takes Michael to the mission to meet Jacob to discuss his problem. And Jacob offers Michael a solution: Sayid and his skill set. And thus Jacob finds a weapon to pierce Widmore's iron gate. But Sayid will only use Michael and his life as a diversion for his own plan to take down Widmore's research facility.

Jacob's cult then has a two front battle on its hands: one to take down Dharma, and another to take down Widmore.

HURLEY'S ISLAND

Fifty years ago, American television debuted a new show called Gilligan's Island. The premise was simple: several passengers get on a charter boat for a three hour cruise. But the ship gets caught up in a violent storm. It is shipwrecked on an uncharted island. The survivors have to learn to make do with coconuts, palm leaves and goofy comedy.

Gilligan's Island represents the basic shipwreck story, but in a comedy as the first mate, Gilligan, is a hapless buffoon who keeps getting the group in trouble. In some ways, the success of this episodic series showed that this premise could work on prime time television.

It was never suggested that LOST should have been a reboot of Gilligan's Island. Until now.

The original cast featured the ship's captain, first mate Gilligan, a professor, a model Ginger, a farm girl Mary Ann and a rich couple, the Howells. We can re-cast the main characters of LOST into these roles.

There was only one married couple on the island. Rose and Bernard would be the Howells. However, they would not be the flamboyant multimillionaires, but a quiet retired couple searching for peace.

The farm girl would be played by Kate because she grew up in rural Iowa, and acts like a tomboy. She would probably be more aggressive than Mary Ann.

The model would be played by Shannon, because she grew up as a spoiled, jet set brat. She would probably be more snooty than Ginger.

The professor would be played by Sayid, since he had the encyclopedic knowledge of all things electrical and mechanical. He would mirror the professor's role of finding impossible ways to make machines out of nothing.

The goofy guy that always gets in trouble would fall to Charlie. Charlie never fit in with any group except with his best bud, Hurley. Charlie was never that strong, he never led on missions, and he had personal demons he needed to keep secret. He was insecure and lonely. He tried too hard to be a part of a group.

So this leads the heavyset skipper role to Hurley, which in some ways fits into LOST because Hurley winds up as the island guardian. As the skipper, Hurley would be a reluctant leader with a sense of humor. Like on the LOST island, Hurley would be the glue that keeps the group together because of his even demeanor and kind outlook.

Taking parts of LOST's cast to re-imagine Gilligan's Island is not that hard.

THE NEW WIDMORE

Charles Widmore was a wealthy businessman obsessed with one thing: returning to take control of the island (and its energy source).  In an alternative setting, sans island, Widmore's motivation would remain the same: finding and controlling life itself.

As a wealthy industrialist, Widmore Industries would take a different tact than Dharma's academic-grant roots to find the source of the life force.  He would throw money and resources to push results.

We could imagine Widmore's main scientific team being Dr. Chang, his son Daniel and even Keamy since one needs someone to get their hands dirty in order to get the job done. Widmore could pay for brilliant, outside the box thinkers, like Minkowski who would go mad in their quest to find the source. Widmore's iron fist would keep the team in line. He would crush the non-believers.

In the Widmore circle, Daniel would be the lynch pin. Daniel would be the theorist who has a difficult time shifting between reality and theory. When he injures his assistant in a mind experiment in space-time, he becomes a shell of himself, drawn away from his parents. But it his mother, Eloise, who gives him new hope to find "a cure" by joining his father in the quest for the scientific Holy Grail, the life source energy spring.  Daniel takes up the research to help amend for his past, but quickly becomes enamored with another research assistant, Charlotte, who is highly motivated to find the energy source. Widmore's sees quickly that he can use Daniel's affection toward Charlotte to keep Daniel in his game.

Because of Widmore's large donations to hospitals and charities, he gains access to a necessary component of his research projects: human test subjects from mental and hospital facilities. Here is where he gets transfers to his "research hospital" who have little life to go back to in the real world: Hurley, who speaks to the dead and has imaginary friends; Miles, who also speaks to the dead; Charlie, the drug addict on his last legs after being abandoned by his brother. These subjects have very little to live for - - - so they are used to search for the root of the human soul, which Widmore believes contains individual life force energy. If he can tap into a person's life force, he can trace it back to the source.

Dr. Chang has to balance Widmore's plan and keeping the subjects alive long enough to harness the life force profile, and globally trace it to its source. Dr. Chang has reservations about this plan, deeming it science fiction. In order to keep Dr. Chang from sabotaging his vision, Widmore brings in Miles, Chang's son, as a test case since his soul seems "multi-dimensional" if he can communicate with the departed. So Chang needs to push forward with dangerous research without harming his own son in the process.

As with the Dharma structure, this friction between Dr. Chang and Widmore can cause the conflict and mixed loyalties within the research facility. As things do not go forward as planned, Chang grips on to his science principles while Widmore searches for a short cut - - - through the religious beliefs of his wife, Eloise, and Brother Campbell. It is through Brother Campbell's monastery that Widmore takes a dysfunctional monk, Desmond, into the test subject department as control subject in his soul experiments. But while on the grounds, Desmond becomes infatuated with Widmore's daughter, Penny, and begins to ruin the context of his role in the experiments by running away from his religious principles for primal emotions. Widmore was going to get rid of this problem, but Penny quickly becomes attached to Desmond's quirky behavior. So Widmore secrets Desmond from being a test object into a corporate spy - - - giving him one opportunity to prove himself by infiltrating Dharma and collecting their key research data.

Whether Ben's spies know of this deception will have to play out over time. But Desmond as a clumsy spy could be the detonator for Jack's coup against Ben. But Ben and Widmore do not know that Desmond's loyalties lie elsewhere, with the third player in this quest to find the light source: Jacob's religious order.

THE NEW DHARMA

Ben Linus is the ruthless CEO of Dharma. He obtained his power by leading a coup against the former chief executive, Horace, who struggled in finding the magic life force energy, and Juliet's former lover that Ben killed in "a bus accident."

Ben's focus in recruiting Juliet to Dharma was her research in infertility problems. Ben wanted to use her knowledge in order to understand why in a petrie dish filled with the same elements of a human womb, life could not be created and sustained to term. The missing component was the life force found in all living things. Ben wanted to find out how the life force created or sparked new life.

Ben's other problem was the failed fertility experiments where he had dozens of women dying in their third trimester. It was becoming a disposal problem. As a result, Ben would lock down the Dharma facilities and become the tyrant he was on the island. This was his reaction to his rival's alleged advancements in "life source research" coming from spies Ben planted in Widmore's facilities.

Ben would recruit a down and out surgeon who ratted out his own father in a medical malpractice case to be head of his research department. As a result of his own initial cover-up, Jack lost his hospital privileges and started his downward spiral toward drug and alcohol abuse. But Ben took advantage of Jack's personal misfortune and gave him a job, a purpose, and a leadership role in something bigger than what Jack was told. But Ben would also use Jack's own weaknesses to control him. Over time, Jack and Juliet would find a common bond in realizing that they were trapped in a madman's plan. They would begin their own escape plan to leave Dharma (which they realized the only past escape for Dharma people was death.)

Just as Jack and Juliet were about to launch their escape plan, Ben throws them a curve: human test subjects. Juliet had been wrapped up in her own life's work of saving pregnant women. Now she is rocked with guilt if Ben was going to forge ahead with more deadly experiments on innocent women. So she has a conflict with Jack, who needs her help in order to escape. So Jack seeks an alternative avenue, and starts to align himself with new assets: Kate and Sawyer, the new test subjects.

Here is where some of the island romantic friction begins to assert itself between Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet.  As the heat is turned up, Ben suddenly becomes jealous and threatens them all with severe sanctions. Kate and Sawyer are then clued in on what a mad house Dharma was becoming, so they agree to work with Juliet and Jack in order to escape. In exchange, Juliet and Jack hold off on actually experimenting on Kate or Sawyer, faking data or giving fake injections to keep Ben at bay.

As Kate is prone to run away from problems and authority, Sawyer begins to revel in the concept that overthrowing Ben and taking his position is worthy prize for a lowly con man. He begins his own alternative path to wealth and power within Dharma's own ranks, using his charm to entangle other scientists in his revolutionary thinking.

Things get complicated when the Dharma Widmore rivalry gets personal. Instead of raiding talent, the companies begin to actually physically attacking each other's facilities. A bitter turf battle begins, and it pits highly placed researchers like Jack and Juliet as targets  in the cross fire. But just as things get real nasty and dangerous, Jack's group encounters a new, low level janitor and former monk named Locke, who has some crazy ideas of his own. Locke is a plant from the guardians of the life force order. His mission is to gather information, assess the situation, and sabotage Dharma's ultimate research and path to the life force spring which could include eliminating any people in his way.

With another faction inside Dharma, office politics will turn into open warfare over the destiny of the research and the lives of the researchers. Ben will become more paranoid and cruel. He will hire paramilitary assistants to keep his people in line. He will have a siege mentality that Jack and the others will try to exploit to their advantage.

But the best plans derail when Locke, being Locke, stumbles across underground tunnels that lead him to a frozen chamber containing hieroglyphs. Inside, he finds a wooden donkey wheel implanted into the stone wall, with an green light flickering inside. He does not know what it means, but not thinking logically (but believing  he is destined to be a super hero), he turns the wheel. His action leads to a cascade of terrible events as the universe itself become unbalanced.