THREE QUESTIONS TO A SOLUTION

A BBC.com article posed the solution to any problem. The author postulates that it takes a person only three answers to find a solution for a personal or professional problem. 

If you think of any problem you are dealing with right now — a difficult colleague, changes to your business wrought by the digital revolution, or even, say, the struggle to get into better physical shape —and honestly ask yourself these three questions:

Are you really willing to change what you’ve been doing?
Can you think of a better strategy or idea than the status quo?
Can you execute on your chosen solution? 

Nothing gets done until you say “YES” to "are you willing to change what you've been doing." Otherwise, you are just spinning your wheels in self-pity.

Everyone struggles to adapt to changing conditions;  most are held back almost entirely by their own unwillingness to change. It’s not that people cannot change, it’s that they’re unwilling to do so.

How about your own life? That colleague who is congenitally uncooperative? He’ll keep doing it until he has a reason not to. Are you prepared to take him on? If he works for you, are you prepared to reassign him, or fire him if necessary? It might take a lot of work, but if you’re not willing to do it, then stop complaining.

By this point, you should be able to connect the dots on the third example: improving your physical health.  Despite all the excuses we come up with — too busy, we don’t really have a problem, I’ll get to it later — the reason we choose not to go to the gym or select a healthier diet is because we don’t really want to.

All of us — individuals and companies alike — could be well on our way to better personal and corporate health if we were willing to recognise that things could be better and have the guts to do something about it. There is no replacement for the courage to say yes.

Can you think of a better strategy or idea than the status quo?

Even if you are willing to change, you’ve got to come up with a solution to your problem. In some cases, it’s quite easy. Becoming healthier by improving your diet and doing more exercise is not exactly a secret or a revolutionary solution.

Other times, however, it is more difficult. The writing was on the wall for some time for mom-and-pop video  and Blockbuster stores when digital streaming became a better solution for more people than heading to your local DVD store.  Blockbuster did have choices — buy Netflix when they were still quite small and run them as an independent entity, create their own “Netflix” business, retrench into a small niche player doing what you’ve always done for the tiny market that might still prefer to browse the shelves, or selling out to another company better — or dumber — than they were. Blockbuster made an attempt, too late, to create its own version of Netflix, but ultimately collapsed under the weight of change.

On a personal choice, if one wants to lead a healthier lifestyle, then one has to map out goals and how to achieve it. If you want to lose 30 pounds, then write out a plan: join Weight Watchers, get a calorie intake calculator, plan out weekly meals in advance, impose limits on snacks or sweets, start an exercise routine, and/or join a gym.

The point is, when you are open-minded, curious, and creative, you’ll have options to tackle your problems.

Finally, the Big Question: can you execute on your chosen solution?

You may understand your problem. You may have a brilliant solution. But if don't get off the couch and take action, nothing will happen.  No matter how great your strategic idea, if you can’t execute on it you’re doomed. All of this is hard work, something that runs counter to your current habits and behavior.

Even going to the gym and eating better doesn’t happen by itself. Maybe you need a personal trainer to keep you motivated (and raise the embarrassment factor if you quit or the financial strain if you have to pay for a missed training session). If you don’t have the personal discipline to stay away from those wonderful high calorie desserts, there’s an entire industry that has sprung up to help you execute on your eat-healthy strategy: diet clubs, diet programs, diet apps galore.

Every step of the way is challenging, from having the courage to change, to creatively developing a new way of doing things, to actually making it happen. But these three questions will always be at the heart of any solution. Problem solving need not be so confusing, complex and overwhelming.

The author concludes, "When you really think about it, you’ve got everything you need to solve your problem."


It really is sound advice.

HOW LOST IS PERCEIVED TODAY

In the top of some search news pages, there is usually generalized questions and "answers."

Recently, during a scroll down the page the headline "7 Worst TV Show Endings of All Time."

Of course it was click bait, but the first item on the slide show was LOST:

The Answer stated:

After six seasons of intricate plot build-up and a never-ending series of loose ends and questions about the true nature of the island and its inhabitants, the writers revealed they had written themselves into somewhat of a corner.

Instead of answering the audience's questions, the two hour finale "The End" ended up smoothing over most of the show's most important and unresolved problems by explaining that they all were in purgatory, though if they had really been there the whole time, no one knew.

Ask a "Lost" fan about the finale and you're sure to summon rage and frustration years later.

MAD MEN

Having only seen the last 2.5 episodes of Mad Men last night (on the recommendation of many), I cannot personally conclude whether the ending was good, bad or indifferent since I don't know all the background stories of the characters (though I had a basic understanding through articles and reviews throughout the years). 

I did observe the New Hollywood thematic plot lines for a large ensemble cast woven into a premise of 1960s nostalgia. Advertising is the illusion to elicit dream fulfillment. Don, the golden boy advertising wunderkind, seemed to have had it all, twice, and lost it because of his personal demons, career pursuits, work stress and the gnawing fear of failure in a high pressure profession. One theme may have been you have to sacrifice everything to get to the top.

But I found two redemptive themes in the finale. First, the cliche that it is always darkest before the dawn as represented by Peggy's story. Our generation had the iron spike of work ethic pounded into our skulls. We were supposed to work hard, focus on the tasks at hand, and advance our careers to the top of our field. Success was measured by titles and bank account balances. But Peggy's story ended with a better reality check: that life is not about just work. You don't have to sacrifice everything for a career. And what may be missing in your life may be right in front of you if you stop and really think about it. Work, like life itself, is better shared with someone who cares about you.

Second, I believe in the principle that every person has one great financial opportunity in their lives. This principle can also be applied to one's own personal life. The problem is that people don't realize the opportunity when it comes along, or are too afraid to take the risk. In Pete's case, he never thought of the Lear job as an opportunity since he was dead set on his advertising career path (to be the next Don Draper). But once he realized it was an opportunity, he was given a second chance (another opportunity) to have the family life he always dreamed he would have, but far away from the corrupt action of NYC. If Pete did not make that realization and put his feelings on the line for his second chance, he most likely would have wound up like Don.

Now, another feature of New Hollywood series writing is the "non-ending ending" to a major character. The creative staff may do this in order to allow the fans to finish the story with their own theories and opinions. Don's story has that non-ending end vibe. He was the anti-hero. For a man who knew the human psyche so well to tap it to make impulse purchases, he could not control his own impulses. He was the focal point of what was good and bad in his generation. Many will think that he had a transcendental awakening on his road trip journey of self-discovery, but I saw it as a selfish guy running away from his responsibilities and problems. We never see him get back to work so it is speculative leap to conclude that Don's spiritual retreat galvanized his creative soul to make the iconic Hilltop Coke commercial (in reality, the idea for that spot was from an ad executive stuck in an airport in Ireland who observed a group of diverse people in the waiting area laughing and joking while drinking soda.)

It also harks back to the LOST controversy, where the final credits rolled over the airplane debris on the beach. Many thought that was the final clue to the mystery that the show's characters died in the plane crash and the plot was all based in purgatory (which TPTB still deny).

Instead of going back home to support his family with the struggles of his ex-wife's impeding death, Don pushed farther west, away from those responsibilities. It is more probable that he wanted to drop out of society, get away from the material culture his subconscious helped create; to be a loner so he would never get hurt again from the pain of meaningful relationships. When he told Peggy goodbye, he meant it. The advertising industry's Great White Whale was going to beach himself to never return to his past. Is that the great redemptive moment for this character? Maybe. Maybe not. There was a segment of the culture that did decide to "drop out" to become part of the Lost Generation.

Many loyal viewers liked how Mad Men ends. Prior to the show, there were many fan theories on how the show could end (including Don jumping off a roof like in the opening sequence.). But that open ended non-conclusion to Don's story line allows fans to project their own ending to their favorite character's journey. I still think that is a writer's cop-out in some respect.

THREE CHOICES

In the continuing LOST universe, there are three basic choices a viewer has to make (during the series and upon reflection ten years later) of what they believe happened to the plane passengers.

As the human beings are falling from the sky after Flight 815 breaks a part in mid-air, something will happen to them.

One option is that the human beings miraculously survived the plane crash.

Another option is that as they were falling, they went through or were diverted into another plane of existence, possibly a spiritual realm, but they were still physically alive.

Final option is that the passengers fell to earth and did not survive the plane crash. It was their souls that carried on in an after life which looks real.

One: alive on earth.
One: alive somewhere other than earth.
One: dead in the afterlife.

DISSOLVING ISSUES

It recently struck me as odd that throughout the series, MAJOR CRISIS (life or death) problems seem to fade away, lose survivor interest and become non-issues without any true resolution.

It is like the attention span of a child being bombarded with multiple stimuli. Once he has had enough of one thing he goes on to the next.

Things started off in a logical manner. The survivors needed food and water, so they plundered the plane and baggage for supplies. When the threat of disease from the dead bodies (and boar attacks), the survivors torched the plane's fuselage.

When there was an issue of safety with the reveal of the smoke monster, the camp started to become divided. It got worse when they were running out of drinkable water. When Jack found the water fall cave, his plan was to move the survivors to this safer location. But he was rebutted by half the group. So the significant water issue and relocation faded away from being a crisis to a non-factor.

Then there was the natural drive to be rescued. When no one showed up for weeks, Michael got the ball rolling on building a raft to get into the ocean current and cargo traffic lanes. Despite this being the only viable option, very few survivors actually helped with the plan. And after Michael's boat was ambushed, the survivors remaining on the island no longer planned on how to seek rescue or leave the island. It was only at the very end of the series did the subject come up with the Ajira plane.

The next great crisis was the attacks by the Others. Again, in a moment of personal safety, the panic was felt throughout the camp. But after a while, the idea of enhanced security at the beach was dropped like there were no problem by most of the survivors. Out of sight out of mind.

Then there was the infection or disease which Desmond and Claire were told about. The Others had a serum to ward off the effects of the infection especially in pregnant women. It was said to be fatal. If there was a serious pathogen on the island, it faded from memory quickly. Some fans believe that it is was just a false ploy to gain confidence of the survivors or keep people dependent on those in power.

The time travel and time skips were major issues for those main characters. Instead of trying to figure out what was truly going on, and possibly use the supernatural properties to their advantage, they just rode the time rifts like surfers until they stopped. And afterward, the time skippers did not discuss their adventurous plight with any of the non-skippers.

The story pattern is fairly clear: set up an improbable situation. Throw the main characters into a dangerous mix. As that story line is about to unravel, set up a new improbable situation and drop the old one. One of the better examples of this switch was when a small group went on a mission to stop Ben from using the poison gas plant. The unguarded facility was used briefly as a "trust exercise" between the survivors and the freighter science team, but there was only a faux emergency. And once that mission ended, the poison gas was never referenced again, including when the candidates were about to brainstorm how to defeat Flocke.

Because of LOST's story format, the individual story events seem to show the final pattern of a preschool pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game.

KING OF THE HILL

With the dozen or so main characters, it is hard to pin point whether any of them were essential.

For example, take your favorite character and imagine that they were never in the series. That character's back story, island life and eventual sideways appearance would be erased from the plots. Never a hint that they were present in the story lines. Now think to see if that missing character would have made any difference in how the series ended.

My conclusion is that it would not.

The ensemble cast was a diverse group of individuals who had some strengths, more weaknesses but common emotional themes that some of them could have be interchangeable during a budget cut. Call it the Neil "Frogurt" effect.

In Star Trek terms, the Frogurt character was a red shirt . . . a disposable crew member who often got killed on the mission in order to show the dangerous nature of space travel. Frogurt really did not have to be a character in the series. He played an immaterial, irrelevant bystander for most of the action sequences.

For example, if the original story synopsis was followed, Jack was supposed to have been killed off in the pilot episode. If Jack was killed off in episode one, or was never a character in the series, would have LOST traveled on a different story path, or would the ending been different? Probably not. There were plenty of other "candidates" on the lighthouse dial and cave walls.

Was Locke an important part of the Season 6 final episodes? No, his character was already dead. MIB was the character (in Flocke form) that made the mayhem, threatened people, killed people and ran around trying to convert followers. If Locke was never in the series, nothing major would have gone missing from the story lines. Some other person (Sawyer perhaps) would have gone down the well to turn the frozen donkey wheel.

If we look at the island climax and its after math, there were only two essential characters left: Hurley and Ben. Ben was not even an original story character, but a short term guest star who was to be killed off by the survivors. Hurley was the everyman character whose insecurities made him the background observer of events and conflicts like the TV audience. In many ways, the show and its themes filtered through the Hurley perspective.

In the child's game of King of the Hill, Hurley and Ben would be the ones at the finish line. Hurley would claim the flag. But there standing in the island ending does not mesh with the sideways ending because Hurley did not awaken all of his friends, and Ben respectfully refused to move on with Hurley. So, neither was critical in getting Jack to the church to meet his dead father.

Which gets us back to the convoluted split ending. What was more important: the island ending or the sideways ending? And why was the sideways ending contingent upon the characters remembering the island events? And if those events were so important, why did the sideways (dead) characters forget all about them? There is an illogical loop at work. The gears of "Live Together or Die Alone" do not mesh with the sideways "Live Alone and Die Together" for many of the central characters' conclusion. It would seem that no one character was more important than any other character in the primordial soup that was the lost story lines.

BREAKING

I did not watch the acclaimed show Breaking Bad. I know of its premise and general plot line: an R&D chemist does breakthrough research, but gets let go. He winds up as a high school chemistry teacher until he is diagnosed with cancer. Fearing that he needs to provide for his family, he takes a local drop out under his wings and starts home brewing meth.

Walt, the main character, is a typical American anti-hero protagonist. When this series was concluding this season, fans knew that there were probably one or two standard endings for the show. And from the reaction in the media, Walt had his own indulgent swan song: he had a good bye moment with his family;  he went out and attacked his enemies in a dark redemptive message to himself that he needed to correct his bearings because he was going to die.

Being bad was the means for the main character to feel alive. He lived a lie but in the end  tells the truth. "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really... I was alive," he says.

Being Alive was a theme in LOST.   Walt's terminal cancer diagnosis wasn't so much a death sentence as it was a reminder to live. It just turns out that Walter including a dark footprint of  murders,  poisonings and criminal drug dealing. But Walt, like John Locke, wanted to be respected, and to have a  significant position that other people would admire in him.

This series wound up the way most of the show's fans thought it would - - - which means the show runners kept the fans along for the journey to a logical conclusion that everyone could clearly understand.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

"Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in cage!" Smashing Pumpkins

If there was one universal trait in the LOST main characters it was "pent up rage."

Jack had a burning pit of anger about his father's treatment of him. Christian refused to acknowledge his accomplishments; failed to treat him as an equal; belittled his leadership qualities.

Sawyer had an active volcano of rage in his sole life goal to avenge his parents deaths. That rage changed an innocent young boy into an adult murderer.

Kate had a sea of troubled emotions. It seems that she felt smothered by her rural upbringing. She became quite upset with her stepfather's treatment of her mother. Her emotions turned to psychotic rage when she blew up the house in order to "save" her mother from future abuse. But when her mother rejected Kate and Kate's reasoning, Kate seethed inside.

Hurley also had a mountain of bitterness induced by chocolate candy bars as a substitute for his father abandoning him as a child. Without his father's influence and direction, Hurley never finished anything in his life. He was angry about it, but so depressed by his fate he did nothing about it. Instead he developed the excuse that he was cursed.

Locke was angry at the world. He also had abandonment issues. He never fit into the foster homes. He never fit into his school teacher's vision of his career path. As a result, Locke had no path. He wandered from meaningless job to meaningless job. His anger made him a loner because he could not keep friends or girlfriends, which made him even more upset. His anger led him to become selfish - - - believing his only self-worth was to get his own way (no matter how crazy it seemed, such as being wheelchair bound in the outback desert.)

Even Bernard was an angry man. He was upset that after a very long time, he found a woman, Rose, who loved him. But soon after, fate gave Rose cancer. Bernard was angry that the cancer was terminal and he would in a short time lose her forever. At some point, Rose herself, was mad about her medical condition. She took all the treatments, but nothing worked. It was after the plane crash, when she was sitting alone on the beach, that she came to terms with her plight.

And this may be the symbolic or allegory of the series.

The plane crash was a symbolic mental crash inside the characters to get them to focus in on more important things - - - like survival, their fellow man, people who need them. The island was symbolic of a treatment plan, alternative therapy or mental reconditioning protocols which gave the characters the tools in which to deal with their rage issues. As the series wound down, the characters were not self-absorbed with the issues that caused their internal rage, but they were focused on helping each defeat their collective demons and get off the island.

There is a corollary to this anger management resolution.  As I have written in the past, I always thought that when Rose was sitting alone on the beach, she came to terms with her plight and knew everything would be alright because the pain of her cancer was gone. Rose at that moment knew the only release for that pain was her death. She came to terms with her death immediately. She then knew that the others around her had to deal with their issues in order to come to terms with their deaths, in their own way. So with that knowledge, she went along in the background knowing that she would be okay in the end.

DISTRUST

 “ Self-distrust is the cause of most of our failures. In the assurance of strength, there is strength, and they are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers. ”
— Christian Bovée

Distrust was a common theme in LOST. Throughout the series, it was a common refrain, "Trust me," especially when one character was trying to get another character to agree to their position, mission or action.

Self-distrust is an interesting sidebar to this discussion. If one cannot trust herself or himself, then how can that person trust another person? In real life, the biggest trust factor is in a committed relationship like marriage. If one cannot trust one's spouse to be loyal, then the bonds between them are weak. But if one cannot trust one's self to be loyal in that relationship, there is added anxiety and stress - - - even if the other spouse is not at fault.

There were a few characters who had no faith in themselves. They could not call any inner reserve to change the course of their life. Desmond was a person who could not trust his decision making process or even his instincts, especially with his relationships with women. He calls off his engagement to join the military as a means of avoiding a commitment. But when Penny rejects him, instead of trusting himself to win her back, Desmond goes off on a crazy mission to impress her father, Widmore, instead of working on his personal relationship with Penny. He ran away instead of trusting his own feelings and strengths in order to win back Penny.

Hurley was another character who could not trust himself. He could not trust himself in relationships with women. His shyness and abandonment issues led him to cower in asking a girl out on a date. When his best friend wound up with his first crush, then put Hurley into a distrustful hermit mode.  His continued depression which started with his father's abandonment led him to body imagine issues. Like Desmond, he ran away from his problems, but instead of a suicidal boat race, Hurley took to food. On the island, he could not trust himself to be the pantry keeper. He could not fathom rationing food when he craved the the very thing he was meant to protect.

Sawyer had a distrust of everyone. Growing up as a loner, he made sure he could only count on himself. He did not trust even his partners in crime. When he let down his guard, his partners took advantage of him with disastrous results. But Sawyer distrusted himself in regard to his own personal relationships. He saw people he met as "marks" and not friends or potential lovers (until he time traveled and became close with Juliet.) Sawyer somehow distrusted the "normalcy" that a normal relationship would have on his psyche, which was solely devoted to revenge for his parents death.

In Sawyer's case, when he began to "care" (in his own way) for his fellow castaways (when Jack, Kate and Locke were gone), this opened the door to care about other people . . . to open up to become involved in a real, adult, committed relationship.

In Hurley's case, he had to be literally dragged off the edge of insanity by Libby in order to learn that non-family could love him for himself and not for his money.

In Desmond's case, he never proved to himself that he trusted himself to be with Penny. It was blind luck that it was Penny's boat that rescued him when the island disappeared (and the O6 was created to deceive the world).  Penny's will had more to do with Desmond returning to her than anything Dez did. Further, Desmond did not trust his own inner strength because he kept himself and Penny away from them - - - hiding from the ridicule that Widmore would heap upon him for being a coward. Desmond's weakness that he would not be accepted by powerful people kept him in a state of confusion and on the run for his entire life.

LIMITATIONS

The sky has never been the limit. We are our own limits. It's then about breaking our personal limits and outgrowing ourselves to live our best lives. — Unknown

The strengths and weaknesses of any character is his or her strengths and weaknesses. Those characteristics are either physical, emotional, cultural, environmental, chemical or mental.

What were the personal limitations of the main characters?

Jack's potential seems to have been met when he became a highly qualified spinal surgeon. However, his personal and emotional state was in question based upon his failed marriage and strained relationship with his father. As a result, Jack had no strong support group of family or friends.

Kate's potential seems to have never been met. She was a tomboy turned tom cat. She never made much of her life. She had no career. She had no real job. She was self centered and looked to an easy way to charm herself out of difficulties. The time she lashed out of her status quo, she blew up her house and father, which did not lead to any personal growth but a long criminal record. She was a loner who would rather run than stand up for his actions.

Locke's personal growth was stunted as a boy. He was intelligent enough to become a professional but he wanted to be liked more by his peers than to accomplish anything for himself. As a result, he wandered through his life in meaningless jobs. He never broke through his personal limits because his self-induced depression led him to fantasy diversions. He was a loner.

Hurley's personal growth was like Locke's. It was stunted as a young boy when his father left the family. He was raised by a religious mother. Unlike Locke, Hurley accepted what he was told to do. But he was shy, overweight, introverted and not good at anything in particular (academics, sports, arts, etc.) Hurley was basically stuck in a fast food worker minimum wage rut. He seemed to have accepted his limitations because he rarely tried to stand up for himself. He was a loner.

Sawyer's personal growth also ended when his parents died. His family life after his parents' deaths is unclear, but Sawyer's deep rooted revenge ethic morphed into the adult con man whom he had hated as a child. He did not have any earth shattering dreams or ambitions. He was self-centered, self-reliant but extremely lonely.  He maintains his loner status even on the island.

Sayid seemed to have detoured when he joined the wrong crowd, the Iraqi Republican Guard. In a closed dictatorship run by madmen, it is hard to imagine that a young boy would have the ability to name his own development course and career path. As a result of being a soldier, the dark side of Sayid's character came out. He did what he had to do. That meant torture and murder. That meant that he became a human tool to do other men's dirty work. His own personal goals and aspirations were killed long before he came to the island. He was also a loner amid the group on the island.

By far, Jin broke his personal limitations of being a poor fisherman to marrying a wealthy heiress, Sun. He outgrew his limited education to become a respected person in society. But his success was tempered by the fact that Jin also became a tool for a power man, his father-in-law. Jin wanted wealth, respect and power - - - which he achieved, but at the personal cost of any emotional stability in his marriage. As a result, Jin housed an inner bitterness that his early dream had turned into a waking nightmare.

Only Jin had the hope of outgrowing his situation by growing together with Sun. The rest of the above characters did not have anyone to help them on any path of self-discovery or change. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Locke and Sayid were all destined by their pasts to live out meaningless lives alone. So the one thing that the series allegedly resolved was this deep loner status of these characters. The island was the opportunity for them to "find" someone to re-direct them on a better path to a more fulfilling life. 

Maybe that is the one lesson from the end: in order to break one's personal limitations, you need another person to share your pain, sorrow and dreams.

THE FUTURE

The best way to predict the future is to create it. — Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee

After the pilot episode, the story engine was simple. There were only two things that needed to be accomplished by the 815 passengers: survival and rescue.

Survival was complicated because there were a diverse group of passengers, each with their own secrets and faults, who would not work well together. They had landed in a mysterious place which made no perceptive sense (the smoke monster's roars and polar bears). 

Rescue was only on the mind of a few people (Michael and Jin). The rest first believed that they would be rescued in a few days. But once a week had past, Jack realized that no one was coming to rescue them. He had to bring together those whose hopes of rescue were dashed with those who who more concerned with their own survival.

LOST had two conclusions set up at the end of the pilot. The 815 people would either live or die on the island. The 815 people would either be rescued or live out their lives on the island as castaways.

 How did those primarily conclusions work out?


Plenty of people lived and died on the island. A few people got rescued (a couple even twice) but we would learn that the island was a trap, a snow globe, an extraordinary place where the island visitors were pawns in a vague, ancient game between two supernatural powers.


No was was retrieved from the island without deep scars. No one was truly "saved" from the dangers of the island confines. The reason is that the story engine took a sudden series ending U-turn into a parallel universe axis which had little bearing on the original crash and survival story most people thought was the premise for the show.

If one tries to connect these diverse realities, one notion is that all the island events somehow influenced the sideways world in such a fashion to create "the happy ending." But the sideways world did not involve the 815 passengers having to suffer through the crash, the island tortures, the hardships or even the emotional turmoil of life and death struggles with opponents. The sideways world was for the most part a plain vanilla, milquetoast, nice alternative reality. The question is then how or why did the sideways dream/fantasy world come into existence?

Was it the creation from the dreams and life's promises of the passengers in the three minutes from the time the plane broke a part to the passengers falling to the sea and ground? Was it created as everyone's life "flashed before their mind" in the moments before almost certain death? Christian said the sideways reality was created by everyone. It had no past, present or future; it was just "now." It was a Polaroid moment in fixed time or collective memory. When Christian said the people in the sideways church all were dead, and that some died before and after Jack, he did not put an actual time frame on that statement. It could have been seconds to minutes - - - or the feeling of an eternity when you are the highest anxiety levels when your mind knows that you are going to die when the plane hits the ground.

In those final moments before impact, the sideways world had to be created by some supernatural force. As the actors and many critics found, the writers resolution that turned to a "spiritual ending" reinforces the idea that the main characters perished on the island. But before the characters perished, they dreamed of their dreamed of what their lives would have been - - - what could have been - - - as a means of coming to terms with their peril.

The plane crash was the crossover point between human existence and the spiritual world. There is no other logical conclusion to make common sense of the relationship between the island and the sideways world. In some ways it is Wizard of Oz in reverse. Instead of human Dorothy being swept away into a fantasy world, it was the passengers souls being trapped on a real island unable to cope with their own deaths . . . so they continued to live on as if they were "alive." For some, this was a chance to live their dreamed futures. For others, it was a chance to become something better than they were before the crash; soul searching so to speak.

This concept does not go over well with a majority of original LOST viewers. They still believe what the TPTB stated in the first year that the show was not about purgatory. But in a show filled with character lies, half-truths, emotional manipulations and confidence games, TPTB had a biased, vested interest to keep the series going as long as possible; to keep the viewers in the dark with mysteries as long as possible.

The sideways world dream reality (the second chance for the dead passengers) makes sense from its own internal construction. If we believe in the backstories of the 815 passengers during the island time, then the sideways world does not fit into that past. For example, in the sideways world Jack was not married to Sarah but to Juliet. Jack was divorced, but in the sideways world he has a son named David. In the island time, Juliet is unmarried. Her lover was killed by a strange bus accident. As a result, she was whisked away to the island - - - and away from the most important person in her life, her sister (who does not appear in the sideways story line).

There are major story inconsistencies in the sideways story arc based on just those factors alone. One could say that the sideways world was "the truth," and the island and its backstories were the dream alternative of the sideways souls living out a trite existence in purgatory. In the sideways world, Ben is a meek teacher. But in the island realm, he is a ruthless, powerful leader (something he dreamed about in his confrontation with his principal). In the sideways world, Locke is a crippled substitute teacher. But in the island realm, he is the outback survivalist leader. In fact, in the sideways world all of the characters seem to be good people. In the island realm, their inner demons are unleashed.

So how could sideways souls kept in a suburbanite purgatory story loop be transported to the island? Their Flight 815 landed safely in LA. How could their current memories be overridden by the harsh trauma of the island events when they could not remember them in the first place? 

Another answer follows the ancient Egyptian belief that upon death, a person's spiritual existence is split into various components to journey into the after life planes. The ba and ka are separated and have to travel a part until a point where they are reunited in paradise or destroyed at the moment of judgment. This parallel religious belief does mirror the possible parallel after life story lines of LOST. The evidence of this possibility was clearly represented in the temple, statue and hieroglyphs shown throughout the series.

The bottom line is that dead souls, at some point, dreamed of a better existence for themselves. They dreamed of a better future, one lost during their real life time. They were able in a supernatural world to live parts of their lost dreams as a means of coming to terms of their own individual deaths. It was only when they came to terms with their death (and the regrets of their lives) did they awaken to a higher spiritual plane.

STOP TRYING

There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no insurmountable barrier except our own inherent weakness of purpose. — Elbert Hubbard

Despite all of his hope and desire, O6 John Locke gave up. In the hotel room in LA, he decided to end his existence because he could not convince any of his fellow survivors to return to the island. He was a failure. There was nothing left for him to do.

Ghost Christian a/k/a MIB/Smokey told John when he was about to turn the FDW that he had to bring all the people back in order to save the island. The island was more precious to Locke than his friends. He felt a connection with it. He knew of its magic. He wanted to protect it. When he asked how he could do it, MIB replied that Locke would have to die.

The island put into Locke's head the solution: death. Death would solve Locke's problems. 

When Locke was at his wit's end in the hotel room, he had lost everything. Helen, his former girlfriend was dead. Abaddon, his driver-advisor, was gunned down in the street. Locke was once again a wheelchair bound loser. He had no purpose going forward if he could not complete his mission.

The irony is that Ben saved his life. Ben interrupted John's suicide. He comforted John and told him that he would help him. Everything would be alright. Locke believed him. And when discussing the next step, Locke told Ben he should go see Eloise because she would know what to do next. At that moment, jealous rage boiled up in Ben. Ben strangled Locke because the name of Eloise was his trigger flash point.

It makes sense that Ben was jealous of Locke if Eloise now trusted him. If Ben and Locke wanted to get back to the island to be its true leader, Ben would not want to be a second banana. No, suddenly pathetic Locke became a major obstacle in Ben's path back to the top. 

As another ironic plot twist, Ben's killing of Locke actually made Locke's mission a success. Locke's death suddenly moved Jack to drastically change his behavior. He took Locke's mission to bring everyone back. It drove him mad. And just as Jack was nearing the end of his rope, Ben intervened to manipulate everyone at the marina into just hearing out Eloise at the church. As a result, most of the O6 people met Eloise for the first time. But Ben was still brooding, because now Jack had taken Locke's place as a potential rival.

On the island, Ben only found some peace when he stop trying to be a leader. Even after he was found to be Jacob's killer, he was forgiven by one of Jacob's followers, Ilana.

Ilana, being the only remaining member of Jacob's followers, then led a new group composed of  Sun, Ben and Frank.  The newly-formed group decided that they should trek to the Temple but before they left they decided to bury the body of Locke. Later, they rescused Miles from the massacre. Ben was separated and attacked by the Smoke Monster. They rejoined at the beach with Jack, Richard and Hurley.  When Ilana found out that it was Ben who killed Jacob, she ordered him to dig his own grave. While he was doing so, MIB appeared to Ben and tried to get him to join his group. Ben ran into the jungle to escape Ilana, resulting in a standoff in which Ben apologized for killing Jacob, stating that he will go with "Locke" because no one else will have him. Ilana then accepted Ben into the group, thereby letting him leave. At this point, Ben became a follower. The burdens of leadership faded away.



That night, the group discussed their next move around a beach campfire. Ilana told them that Jacob had told her that Richard would know what to do. Richard denied this, and angrily walked into the jungle. After following him, Hurley helped him communicate with the ghost of his dead wife telling him that if the Man in Black leaves the Island, they will all go to hell.

If this was true, then Locke's purpose in dying was correct. They key for any island group to get to heaven, i.e. avoid hell, was to keep MIB on the island. It was a test. A test of wills. A test of friendship. A test of trust. A test of team work. A test of spirit. In Locke's own death, he gave others  the will power to carry on his mission to save the island (defeating MIB). It sounds like a simplistic video game final level conquest, but if dead souls true mission was to defeat the devil to release their sins (and the chains of being themselves trapped in the sideways purgatory) to move on to heaven.

Death was the solution for Jack as well. When he closed his eyes after defeating MIB, he had them opening in the sideways world.  His destiny of moving on in the after life was the same destiny of John Locke, except they did not know it until the very end.

THE SECOND ACT

“I once thought that there were no second acts in American lives, but there was certainly to be a second act to New York's boom days,” - - - F. Scott Fitzgerald 

The Second Act in anything is not a guarantee.

In the series, the First Act was clear: the elements of surviving a plane crash with no hope of rescue. How would average people cope with extraordinary circumstances? It was like the survivors were thrown back to primitive mankind - - - little technology, hostile environment, dangerous beings surrounding them at night.

The Second Act was more tenuous: "we gotta go back" was Jack's scream to Kate. The idea that the O6 would want to "go back" to the island after they had been rescued defies basic human instincts of self-preservation. There was no real reason to go back. The people they "left behind" were mostly still strangers in a strange land. They had only known each other for a few months. For Jack, he had a life to actually go back to: his mother and his medical practice. Kate had a personal mission: to raise Aaron for Claire. Sayid had lesser bonds with the people left behind on the island. He actually received his dream when he was rescued: Nadia and a new life. Hurley had the least need to go back. He had a family and enough wealth never to work again. 

When Nadia was "killed" by Jacob's agency, one would have thought that Sayid's pain would be with him forever. If it was truly real, he would have wound upon reunited with Nadia in the sideways church. But he did not. Once he lost Nadia, he would still have no reason to go back to the island because there was no one there he cared about to save. 

Hurley's guilt about The Lie the O6 told was enough to get him back into his "comfort zone," being committed to the mental institution and away from the preying public. His best island friend, Charlie, was already dead. His potential girlfriend, Libby, was also dead. There was nothing to pull Hurley back to the island. 

Kate had even less motivation to go back. She "beat" the multiple charges against her. She was accepted as Aaron's mother. She had enough money to live quietly in peace. She never had to run away from any problems. This is what she dreamed about when she was in custody. The idea that she had to go back to the island to "save" Claire was irrational since to the eyes of the O6 survivors, when the island disappeared, everyone on it was dead.

The idea that a few mental jabs, some coaxing language and heart string pulls by Jacob or Widmore would get people who had no reason to go back to the island onto the Ajira plane is perplexing; so much so it calls into doubt whether the O6 story arc was actually real or as the boat in the harbor stated, an Illusion.

The Island's Second Act was more confusion. The time skip by "some" of the Ajira passengers made no physical or logical sense. We were already shown the "longing" by Sun to the loss of Jin, but she saw him blow up on the freighter. There was no evidence that Jin was alive. There was no reason for Sun to leave her baby and go off on a crazy scheme told by a known liar, Ben. 

If the whole purpose of the O6 was to reclaim something lost when they left the island, none of the O6 really got what they were searching for except Kate, who allegedly reunited Claire with Aaron after the Ajira plane took off the Hydra Island runway. Jack did not come back to the island for anyone or anything. He came back to die, something he could have accomplished without returning to the island. Hurley came back for nothing. His island actions saved no one. In fact, the returning O6 folk were merely pin balls going back and forth between camps as followers in the convoluted tale of Jacob and MIB. Only Kate and Jack fought MIB in the end. And Sawyer showed up only to escort Kate to the Ajira plane while Jack wandered back to his martyrdom. But even Kate's mission to find Claire was one of an accident. She did not know Claire would be brooding near the runway.  So Kate really stumbled to her goal of getting Claire off the island. 

So if the first act was all about Jack trying to keep the survivors from killing each other and the second act's only success was Kate getting Claire home, what bearing does that have on the End?

If the Second Act was the pivotal climax to resolve the LOST story, then the LOST story was really only about Kate. That may be hard to swallow that the story was all conceived by Kate as a dreamweaver.  But since Kate was the only person to get her wish upon returning to the island - - - she is the Dorothy in this Oz. And if we try to look objectively at the sideways church reunion, it was Kate's wish fulfilled that Claire would be reunited with Aaron. And the undertone is that Kate true feelings toward Jack would make him be with her forever. She did so by giving Jack a room filled of people who acknowledged his leadership and friendship. She took away romantic rivals by putting Sawyer and Juliet together. Kate's real Second Act was finding peace in the after life.

TRAGIC RESOLUTIONS

The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. — Benjamin Mays

From a point blank, black or white, yes or no answer - - - - did the main characters attain what they were seeking when their LOST saga began?

JACK. His sole goal or mission when LOST started was to bring his father "home" for his funeral. 

In a roundabout way, Jack did have his father's funeral in O6 story arc and "another one" in the sideways world conclusion. It seems redundant that Jack "experiences" two funerals for his father, but we get the sense of no resolution within Jack.

KATE. Her sole goal or mission when LOST started was to get away from Marshal Mars and her criminal charges including murder.

In a sense, Kate got her wish when the marshal died with her secret, but she could not run away from it forever as in the O6 story arc, she was put on (a legally dubious) trial and received no punishment from her crimes. She re-lived her runaway nature in the sideways world when Flight 815 landed in LA. 

LOCKE. His sole goal was to become independent, to take charge of his own life (beyond his disabilities). 

As terrible as it sounds, Locke was crippled more by his mental fixation of abandonment and betrayal by his parents than his paralysis. The island gave him his miracle of being able to walk, and then his opportunity to become the man he never was . . . but the mental baggage of his own personality would doom him over and over again. He would get a second "miracle" in the sideways world by allowing Jack to do surgery, but we now know that was a meaningless fictional device to jump start the final reunion.

SAWYER. His sole goal in life was to avenge his parents death by killing Anthony Cooper. 

Sawyer was granted the opportunity to kill Cooper when Locke's "wish" was granted by the island's "magic box." In order to become the island leader, Locke needed to kill his father in order to become worthy (whether symbolic or real ritual is unclear). Locke could not do the deed, but he got Sawyer into the same locked room with Cooper knowing that Sawyer's rage would get the better of him. In the sideways world, Sawyer did not get any revenge on Cooper, who was a feeble old man being taken care of by Locke and Helen.

SAYID. His sole goal was to change his dark evil torturer past in order to find happiness with Nadia.

In all respects, Sayid failed in his goals. He really had nothing in common with the other main characters. The closest person to him from a purely mental background was Ben. Both had embraced the dark side of the force. But with all the pining for Nadia, including the O6 story arc, Sayid winds up as a reincarnated dark minion and with Shannon in the sideways reunion.

HURLEY.  His mission was to find the source of his problems, The Numbers, which he believed cursed his life by bringing him pain of people dying, people taking advantage of him (like his father in his return).

Hurley's blessing of winning the lottery added more mental pressure on his low self-esteem.  He could not see anyone liking him for himself because of the fame and money. At the most basic level, Hurley failed in his mission to find out what the Numbers truly meant. Even when his secret got out on the island, most people did not believe him. In the O6 story arc, Hurley was more comfortable voluntarily committing himself in a mental institution than dealing with the real world. And that fantasy escape seems to have transfixed his final resolution by ending up with Libby, a person he only "knew" for a few weeks on the island (and never had a first date until the sideways world.)

ROSE and BERNARD. To be together, until death do part.

Bernard wanted to find a miracle to cure Rose's cancer so he could spend more time with her. Rose was stoic and resolute that her cancer could not be cured so she only wanted to live out her life in peace with her husband. The island did give them that peace after they decided to get away from all the beach politics, leadership issues and dangerous battles with strangers like the Others or Widmore's men. It is interesting to note that they did not have to be "awakened" in the sideways world. One aspect of Rose's early introduction after the crash was that she knew her cancer was gone. Many assumed the island's healing powers, but a few of us thought that Rose knew then and there her cancer was gone because she was dead. Everything was going to be alright because she accepted her fate. 

JIN and SUN. Their confusion over their relationship was in part fueled by each individual's desire to run away (Jin from his poor fisherman past; and Sun from her domineering father). The open ended question was whether they had the personal resolve to run away from their past together.

Only in death on the island, did Jin and Sun truly sealed their bond (even though Jin's failure to take into consideration of their young child is a troublesome issue). They could never live "happily ever after" except in the fantasy sideways world.

CHARLIE. His pre-flight goal was to "get the band back together," but in some ways Charlie was looking for family to fill his drug induced void in his life.

Charlie never reached his goals. His overture was rejected by his brother, who suddenly had a nice family life in Australia. It was seeing that family life, and the rejection by his brother, that made Charlie "dream" of such life for himself. But he never got a chance to realize the full extent of any such relationship on the island, or really in the sideways church as he was engulfed by white light shortly after Aaron's "re-birth."

MICHAEL. His sole mission was to get his son, Walt, back into his life. 

Michael never succeeded in his goal. Walt was a stranger. Walt had issues on why his father let him go as a baby. Walt was also dealing with the death of his mother, and abandonment by his stepfather. Michael's desire to protect and save Walt from the island dangers clouded Michael's judgment so much that he turned into a killer and betrayer of his fellow survivors. As a result of his actions, Walt became bitter and estranged from his father. Michael, so despondent over his personal failures, tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions. In the end, he is literally a lost soul trapped in the spirit world of the island.

A summary of the main characters and their pre-crash goals being met:

YES: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Rose & Bernard,

NO:  Locke, Sayid, Hurley, Jin & Sun, Charlie, Michael

There is no consistent story pattern from reviewing this simple pre-crash question. It is hard to pinpoint one critical pre-crash issue that was buried in the gut of each character. Maybe all the characters were looking for a way to say they were sorry to a parent. It also seems that the sideways world main unresolved issues were transfixed just before the plane crash (which gives some credence to the parallel purgatory theories). Maybe 40% of the characters attained some form of closure in their pre-island personal issues. But that means more of them did not.

FEAR

"There is nothing to Fear but Fear itself." --FDR

That Roosevelt quote was from a time of war. We were told by secondary characters that the Island, and therefore everyone attached to it, was also in the midst of a war.

The conflict was murky.

First, it was the survivors against the inhabitants, the Others.

Second, it was the survivors against their fellow survivors.

Third, it was Widmore against the Others.

Fourth, it was everyone against everyone else.

Fifth, it was Jacob against his brother.

Finally, it was Jack and Kate against Flocke.

If you are in the school of thought that LOST was merely a character study of individuals, then the show could be considered as thesis on how they coped with their personal fears.

Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat; a mixed feeling of dread and reverence; a feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something or the safety and well-being of someone; or  the likelihood of something unwelcome happening.

What were the main characters biggest fears?

Jack's biggest fear was failure. He always had the drive to "fix" people, even though people who could not be cured by his medical skills. Part of this fear was based upon his relationship with his father; he feared that his father would not acknowledge him as an equal.

Kate's biggest fear was responsibility. She always ran away from her mistakes. She always tried to avoid the consequences of her actions. It may stem from the fact that she does not believe in commitment because she came from a broken home.

Locke's biggest fear was acceptance. His loneliness was compounded by the fact he had a crazy mother and he was shuffled from foster home to foster home. He never fit into the social situations. He wanted to be someone else in order to belong to a group, but throughout his life people rejected him.

Claire's biggest fear was motherhood. She was a rebellious child who did not get along with her family. She wanted bigger things for herself. But when she got pregnant and her boyfriend ditched her, she could not handle raising a child on her own. When she gave the baby up for adoption, she was riddled with guilt.

Sawyer's biggest fear was acceptance. His entire life was spent tracking down his parent's killer, which turned him into a person that he himself could not like or stand. He took it upon himself never to get close to anyone so he would be an anti-conformist. He thought that if he was accepted by other people his goal in life, revenge, would be thwarted.

Hurley's biggest fear was rejection. He had a difficult time dealing with people on a personal level. It was very difficult for him to ask women out on dates. It may be basis on the fact that his father left him as a child. As a result of this void, he consumed food instead of seeking love.

Jin's biggest fear was poverty. He was the son of a poor fisherman. He thought the only path to happiness would be wealth. When he lucked out at met a rich heiress in Sun, he thought that his life would be exactly what he wanted it to be: easy and rewarding. But Sun's father did not respect him. Jin turned into a criminal enforcer making him a poorer man than he ever was before his marriage.

Sayid's biggest fear was accountability. He knew what he did in his past like torture was morally wrong. He was brought up in strict religious beliefs, but his actions were constantly at odds with those beliefs. When he had to make a decision, he continually fell back on his military behavior over a moral choice. He chose to work for the U.S. military in Iraq to avoid the accountability for his treason. He chose to work for the CIA to betray his friend in Australia instead of being accountable for his own past crimes. He chose to become to a secret assassin for Ben in order to be remain above authority. He knew he had turned into a monster but he did nothing to change himself.

The character study question would be whether these characters ever overcame their fears to find eternal happiness. Did Jack overcome his fear of failure to lead the plane survivors to rescue? Based upon the body count and only a handful of people to actually depart the island, no. From a personal level, did Jack's death after fighting Flocke a success? No, not really because living would have been preferable end than dying.

Did Kate get responsible in the sideways church by allegedly committing herself to Jack? We don't know because we saw that relationship start and blow apart in the O6 arc.  Did Claire overcome her fear of motherhood and take care of Aaron? We don't know that, probably not, since she had to "re-birth" Aaron after death in order to smile. Did Sawyer find acceptance by other people for who he truly was? Perhaps, with Juliet in the time skip and the reunion with her in the hospital. Did Hurley find love in the end? With Libby, there was that probability even though their relationship was clouded by the fact they were both at the mental institution but did not recognize each on the island is a troubling mystery. Did Jin overcome his fear of poverty to find a materially rewarding relationship with Sun? In life, they never came so close as they did in death. Did Sayid ever overcome his accountability worries? He did not have to because he was never punished for his actions.

Which brings up another point. The fantasy ending that the main characters "got" want they truly wanted from the island "time" did not change, redeem or improve any of the main characters personality flaws. There was no great revelation that changed their hearts or minds. At best, they survived their fears at a basic level but at most times those fears were repressed by the physical danger present in their daily island time.

CONFIDENCE

I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
In a poker game, a small "tell" can give another player the "big picture" of what cards his opponent may have - - -  that gives someone confidence and the strength to move forward.

Confidence means:

the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something;
the state of feeling certain about the truth of something;
a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities; or
the telling of private matters or secrets with mutual trust.

Trust was one of the pronounced themes of LOST. Characters constantly asked each other whether "they trusted" them or their decisions. Some said yes, some said no, and some lied to gain one's trust.

Beyond the hard core daddy or parent issues of the main back stories,  the main characters did have major unresolved "trust issues" to resolve. For example:

Jack did not trust his father. He even suspected that his father was behind the break up of his marriage to Sarah. Jack came to distrust his father's skills as a surgeon. That was the focal point for the severe break in their relationship.

Kate apparently trusted no one but herself. She got other people, mostly boys and men, to trust her, but in the end those trusts were betrayed in the most tragic ways.

Locke had a history of being "too trusting" of other people, who used him as a scapegoat, a mule and a victim. Locke was aware of his own character flaw, but could not change. He became a bitter and angry man - - - which ruined any chance to have a normal life. His need to have a trusting relationship with his father destroyed his relationship with Helen.

Sawyer used the concept of trust to gain an advantage in conning his marks. But he fell and trusted one of his victims, and that put him on the path of normalcy (with the birth of his daughter) rather than his path of revenge. When he trusted an old friend's information about his parent's killer's location, that trust turned Sawyer into a cold blooded murderer.

Hurley could not trust even himself. He knew that he was finding solace in food when his father left him, but he could not stop himself. He could not trust himself to act rationally. He trusted other people, including his mother, to make decisions on his behalf.

Sayid trusted that his superiors would make the right decisions. But once he was put into personal moral conflicts, he began not to trust himself. He knows it is wrong to follow the path of darkness, and he betrays himself when he continues to torture and kill other people.

But on the other hand, event those with trust issues held themselves out in a confident manner.

Jack was quite confident (really, overconfident) in his abilities. He was quite uneasy in the position of leadership, but his medical skill confidence (the count to five stress release) allowed him to become the leader of the group.

Sawyer was always about showing confidence, almost in a reckless manner. He may have relied on instincts and the cleverness of a fox to charm the pants off of his marks. His confidence was part and parcel with being able to control the situation: create the ideal situation (the set up) to run his game (which had become second nature to him).

Sayid was also confident because of his military training. He was aware that he could defend himself at any cost. He was aware that his analytical skills could get him out of troublesome situations.

On the other hand, Hurley lacked the most confidence. He was shy and meek. He avoided confrontation. He would go out of his way to avoid trouble. He was not a risk taker. He felt that things happened to him - - - he was cursed, the unluckiest man on Earth.

Kate also lacked confidence in herself. That was the result of her bad decisions and her inability to take accountability for her bad actions. Since she had no control over her life, she lacked any confidence in herself to change to become a normal person. She tried once, marrying a police man in Florida, but at the first sign of her troubled past catching up to her, she fled like a scared mouse.

So there were various undercurrents of confidence and lack of confidence throughout the main characters. In some ways, several characters sought validation for their trust issues. Others could never truly cope with gaining any level of confidence or trust in their fellow man or woman. They (especially Hurley) always found doom around the corner.

Jack always had some level of personal confidence. So when he became the next island guardian, that was no real surprise. He accepted it by default since the other candidates stood silent after Jacob's campfire chat. It is not really clear that the other candidates even trusted Jack would accomplish the plan to kill Flocke. Sawyer, for one, made haste to get back to the plane to get off the island. Kate could have made the greatest character change if she trusted herself completely and stayed with Jack on the island, but she did not - - - she ran away not relying upon her true feelings.

It is possible that regret and not confidence or trust was the universal bond between the main characters in the after life. Confidence alone cannot explain the motivations and actions of the characters throughout the series. Hurley did not have the confidence to replace Jack as guardian; he had to have a strong crutch in Ben by his side. And what was the final resolution for Jack? His meeting with his father did not resolve any trust issues per se. His reunion with Kate may have offered him a third chance with her. Why Kate chose the after life to bond with Jack is also a mystery because there were other men in her life that she had deeper emotional connections. Jack and Kate had trust issues on and off the island. But if the island was the high point of her life, then regret that she abandoned Jack could explain why they were together in the end.