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 BOMB

It is hard to put context on the transition from Season 5 to Season 6. Season 5 had led up to the climax of the "need to escape" theme of the show. Season 6 made a drastic lurch into a sideways world purgatory.

What really happened with Juliet and the Bomb is major problem of the LOST mythology. Many fans assumed (based on the opening to the Season 6 premiere, "LA X") that the bomb that the Losties detonated in the 1970s (the Season 5 cliffhanger) resulted in the Island sinking and an alternate timeline being created, in which Oceanic 815 never crashed, and things were slightly different in the lives of the passengers.

This was based upon the flash and Juliet's cries that "it worked."  But what worked?

Later,  the “alternate timeline” was shown as a  purgatory where the Losties all met up when they were dead, and the whole “alternate timeline” bit was a red herring. So what, exactly, did the bomb do?

One commentator tried to answer the question:

The obvious answer is that the bomb propelled the Losties back through time to the present day, where the the Swan station (a.k.a. “The Hatch”) was now a slightly different version of its former imploded self.

Like most time travel narratives, the situation with the hatch raises a ton of logistical questions, such as: Would Desmond still be on the island if the hatch had been destroyed in the past? Wouldn’t that alteration to the time stream have a ripple effect that disrupted everything else regarding the Oceanic 815 crashing? And so on...

Instead what we got was a time travel scenario where that one location, the 70s Swan station, seemed to “overlap” on its present-day self, while leaving the rest of the time stream unaffected (or something like that). It’s confusing and very problematic – yet another reason why time travel is something you probably want to stay away from as a storyteller...

In the end though, the outcome is the same: Whatever conduit to the Island’s energy source that the Dharma Initiative tapped when they made the Swan station was ultimately exhausted. Whether it was exhausted by the bomb Juliet set off, or the the moment in season 3 when Locke lost his faith and refused to push the button (“Live Together, Die Alone“) the energy was released, and The Swan was destroyed. The Losties made it back to the present, and there was never two timelines, apparently.

Try not to think too hard about it, I guess... But it certainly is a major thread left dangling.


Considering that this was the most talked about cliffhanger in the series, the resolution was hardly great art. Fans were still left dangling questions about the cliffhanger.


From the obvious conclusion that a person cannot detonate a bomb by banging it on a rock (a-bombs do not operate that way), the scientific explanation was that the bomb did not go off. This is further buttressed by the fact that Juliet "survived" the incident in the implosion wreckage (until such time that she got her death reel for her resume). The final clue is that the implosion crater is similar to the one shown earlier in the series when Desmond used the fail safe key.

So the bomb did not go off. What happened to it? As a metal casing, it was ripped down into the ground along with the scaffolding by the intense electromagnetic energy of the island. It is likely that the bomb was disassembled and made inoperable by the energy field. (Perhaps, if the island was its own intelligence, it used the incident to take out something that could have harmed it, a nuclear device.) 

The crater must have sealed the light source incident just as it had done with Desmond's incident.

So what happened to the people? This is worse than a dangling plot explanation, because if the "incident" that imploded the Hatch site teleported the characters "back" to the present (even though several of the main characters never made the leap but were on the same island), then the whole time travel theme makes no sense. It has been totally inconsistent in its application. Ben's FDW stumble created the problem of time shifts on the island. Locke corrected that problem by turning the wheel again. But with the 1970s implosion, no one knows how it re-set the island perfectly back in linear time. Because if the Hatch had already imploded 33 years before Desmond, there would have been no Hatch when the island returned to the present (thereby erasing Desmond's story arc). If Desmond's story arc, which predates the Flight 815 characters, is erased then the series has has a major flaw of "remembering" things that never would have occurred in real time.

One could argue that Dharma would have built the Hatch after the implosion and after the Losties left, but that would mean that there would have been multiple time dimensions occurring on the island. But that would be in conflict with Daniel's time explanation, Eloise's island location device and prior representation of single cause and effect of the light source to the island space-time location. 

At that is the problem with incomplete thinking when throwing out a "time travel" story line. Writers need to answer the how and why of time travel in some logical and consistent way or it creates more problems.

If the bomb was neutralized by the implosion, then the Dharma group would have had little reason to continue working on the site. If the bomb was still feared, Dharma could have sealed it like any nuclear disaster in a concrete coffin. But in the Hatch with Desmond and Locke, the concrete bunker was not really sealing a bomb, but somehow controlling the intensity of the electromagnetic energy that could cause another implosion (and purple sky time flash). 

The bomb was not the catalyst to the last season. It seems like a red herring, increase the tension device, to instill a level of fear. The Incident, i.e. the implosion caused by massive electromagnetic pull, was the real danger. A pull so great that it could take the island in and out of time itself. Something that human technology could not control.

Another theory about the Season 5 cliffhanger was that when Juliet said "it worked," it meant that the implosion created the sideways universe. Since the implosion was known to change time, one thought was that the sideways world was the real world and that Flight 815 did not crash in the Pacific. The main characters were then living out their normal lives, not "remembering" the island side trip since human beings cannot have two sets of different "time memories." If this was actually the case, more fans would come to accept Season 6 as a character reboot to their past lives with the ticking mental time bomb of the island experience lurking in their future. A time bomb that when activated would lead to each character going into some sort of personal madness, depression and despair. Again, that could have been a final wrap up to a series that was "character driven."

But we were led on a different path. There was no character re-boot. The sideways world was created as a purgatory holding room for the lost souls of Flight 815. Now, why in the sideways world where there is no past, present or future, just the now, would each character have an extremely complex and real existence? This alternative world had characters in different relationships, different careers, and different adventures - - -  which makes no sense if the island time was "most important." If the sideways was truly a holding area, the lost souls could just be in suspended animation or a coma only to be awakened when everyone died on Earth. Instead, why give these "lost" souls a meaningful alternative lives?

Isn't that just like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown just before he attempts to kick it?

Is the true LOST mythology just a cruel joke on us?

THE SIDEWAYS

One explanation for the Season 6 sideways plot exit into a confusing after life realm is that two points have to be taken as true.

Christian told Jack in the finale that in the sideways world he was dead (they were all dead) and that his friends died before and long after him.

In other words, people take Christian's comments as the basis that the plane crash and island events were real - - - that Jack and his friends survived the plane crash and were alive until they lived out the remaining time on Earth. The sideways universe was a "purgatory," a place where souls put themselves in limbo until their friends died on Earth.
 
Each person in this “purgatory universe” created a reality for themselves based on their lingering issues in life – that which they could not “let go” of. For Jack it was Daddy issues; Kate, the guilt of murder; Sawyer, the quest to find “Sawyer” and be a better man; Sayid, the unrequited love of Nadia; Charlie, looking for something “real” like a family instead of trivial past fame as a rock star.


The explanation is that the main characters made a connection amongst themselves because they were all  still attached to their  personal life concerns. Because of this strong island survival connection,   they never forgot the journey and growth they had experienced because of the Island, and then each character could finally understand the connections and “purpose” brought into their damaged lives by being there. With that greater understanding of themselves, they were each ready to “leave” or “move on” to the next phase of existence – i.e., the true after life. 

This view does not answer all the lingering questions, like how a dead soul can create a memory blocked sideways world with thousands of strangers based upon the "unforgettable" island experiences. Who or what directed each character's dead soul into a cosmic holding place - - - to actually live out totally different lives than the past, including Jack having a son!, and not making those "new" experiences count for anything except filler?

As explanations for the ending goes, this falls into the supernatural bin.

But look at a few other key elements of the sideways story arc. Eloise, who had present knowledge in both the island world and the sideways after life, tried to keep Desmond from "remembering" his past because she feared Desmond would awaken Daniel, who would leave the sideways world and Eloise. Why was Eloise so hellbent on keeping Daniel in the dark about his life and his current death status? Simple: she feared that Daniel would leave with the other Losties to the next phase of the after life.

But was Eloise smarter than the rest? The puppet master of the entire series? If we look at the Season 6 back story of the island, the answer would be no. Eloise would have just been another "candidate" brought to the island by Jacob. It would then seem that Jacob was the supernatural being capable of creating an after life purgatory.

Jacob did grant Alpert "immortality" on the island. And if one looks at the canon that only the island guardian can bring people to the island, then Jacob manipulated the lives of all the characters to come to his island world. There is something "mad scientist" about Jacob collecting human beings with personal issues and faults to conduct some crude and cruel experiments on them. It is then probable that Jacob orchestrated his candidates to get on the same plane in Sydney in order to crash it on his island. In normal circumstances, everyone on the plane would have died. But Jacob intervened magically and "saved" his candidates from certain death. (Or perhaps, reincarnated them as human beings without their souls - - - which were dispatched to the sideways purgatory to continue to live a false life).  The split soul concept is found in ancient Egyptian culture, which was featured heavily in Season 6. 

It comes down to a personal definition of "life." Is life the mortal existence on Earth? Or is there a life "ever after?" 

All cultures have some sort of "creator" mythology. A super being, usually from the stars,  that created all life on Earth. The same could be true for the sideways world - - - some creator imagined a continuation of the characters' airplane journey without the detour to the island - - - while Jacob kidnapped the characters to his island. Perhaps, this is the real conflict between Jacob and MIB. Jacob was the one how kidnaps souls for the island world, while MIB is trying to find a "loophole" in Jacob's game. It is possible that MIB's loophole was the creation of the sideways world (since as a smoke monster, a supernatural being that can manipulate matter and memories of human beings to take any form). 

If MIB created the sideways world in order for the characters' souls "to remember" the island, that could be the check mate move - - -  no one before had ever "remembered" the island after dying. Once the island was recalled in the after life, Jacob's game was revealed to his superiors as an unsanctioned interference with normal people's lives. Thus, knowledge of the island was the key to stop Jacob's candidate games (like a Hunger Games for lost souls).

OPT OUT

In an alternative universe, not being the sideways one, what could have happened in Season 6 stripped away the after life parallel story line?

The fork in the road is the solution to the cliffhanger of Juliet pounding a rock on the atomic bomb while the Incident was happening, imploding the Hatch dig site.

Alternative 1A: Juliet somehow detonates the bomb and there is a huge explosion.
Result: Everyone on the island would "die" due to the nuclear blast and radiation fall out.
Problem: Then the paradox of killing the people in the 1970s would destroy the future, including Jack, Kate and the others being born,  and Flight 815 would have never crashed on the island.

Alternative 1B: Juliet does not detonate the bomb (which we believe we saw in the series), but the implosion causes her severe injuries which she will succumb.
Result: Everyone except Juliet would be "alive" on the island, but put back into their real time lines.
Problem: This implosion event in the 1970s would have changed the course of the Dharma collective, most likely causing it to fall a part (which actually may have happened) and thus not allowing Ben to become the leader of the Others. A leaderless Others would be merely the nomadic remains of other candidates brought to the island.

If we take the latter and move forward, the "re-boot" of the series would eliminate the Widmore-Others conflicts with the plane survivors. They would "disappear" from Season 6 as they would have been eliminated in the alternative.  This leaves the plane survivors back at the very beginning of their journey: to point where they survived the plane crash and are looking for rescue in order to survive.

The alternative Season 6 would have been the basic struggle to get off the island. There would be no Ajira rescue plane because Ben would not have built the runway. The final conflict remaining between the survivors would have been simple: those who wanted to go and those who wanted to stay on the island.

Those who wanted to stay on the island would include Rose and Bernard, who had little to do with the politics and violence swirling around the island groups. Also, Kate and Sayid would have nothing to go back to on the mainland so they probably could care less about rescue. Despite their personal differences, Jack and Sawyer would want to get off the island.  Sawyer's plan was always to leave. Jack had his mother and career to go back to, as well as his "duty" as leader of the survivors to get them home. Sun would want to leave to be reunited with her daughter. Claire would want to be reunited with Aaron. The other survivors like Hurley could be neutral.

Jin perhaps has the skill set as the son of a fisherman to take Michael's place and build a rescue raft. Sawyer had experience building the first raft.  The only person left to sabotage this plan is Jacob and the smoke monster, MIB.

We assume that Jacob and MIB would want everyone to stay on the island and fight, kill and corrupt for their amusement. But even if we take those supernatural beings out of the equation - - - no reference to them in Season 6 - - - there still could be major conflict as the island's resources could be at issue between the rafters and the beach camp.

Alternative Season 6 could have concluded with the tearful launch of the raft and its occupants. As they cross into the horizon, those who stayed behind make a vow to make their own family and community. But immediately after the launch, there is a violent tropical storm that hits the island, causing havoc and hardship on those who stayed behind. This is another cruel "re-set" of the plane survivors who have to start once again from scratch to rebuild their camp.  The series could end with a pan of the beach away from the beach camp, to find specific objects from the raft, coming on shore with the driftwood storm debris.

SS6: Number 1: The Smoke Monster

Coming into the final season, the biggest, baddest question to be decided in fan's minds was "what was the Smoke Monster?"

The blast door map noted a "Cerberus," a security system, guarding the island. The mysterious black smoke monster had a chilling sound (some believed it to be mechanical). The monster appeared to have only base, violent instincts. It killed the 815 pilot. It created a sense of horror throughout the jungle to survivors. But throughout the seasons, we did see contradictions. Kate and Juliet were saved by hiding in a banyan tree (though Juliet was "scanned.") Banyan trees are said to be home to "good spirits," implying that the monster was a "bad spirit." Ben used his secret closet and opened a drain to send water underground to "summon" the smoke monster, who arrived at the barracks in a rage to kill everyone there (Ben stated he had no control over it when they ran into the jungle). The monster also showed intelligence to take on other forms from character's memories, like Eko's brother when Eko refused to repent for his past sins.

There were always questions of what the smoke monster was made of; and what could repel it (the sonic fence? the rain? water?)

In Season 6, we learned "who" was the Smoke Monster, but not "what" it was.

Jacob was appointed by Mother to be the new island protector in a simple ceremony outside the Light Cave. This was done because Jacob's brother's actions. Jacob's brother left their home to be with the Others, shipwrecked members of his real mother's crew. He learned that there was a place beyond the island, his "real" home. He lived with the Others and learned a way to leave the Island (by building the unexplainable FDW). In a rage, Crazy Mother killed all of the villagers so as to keep her sons on the Island. In response, Jacob's brother killed Mother, who had turned "mortal" through the transfer of the guardianship to Jacob. Her rules still applied to them: they could not kill each other. Jacob, finding that his brother had killed Mother, threw an unconscious MIB into the light cave - - - and as a result, the violent smoke monster rushed forth, leaving only Jacob's brother's dead body (for which Jacob buried in the caves with Mother as Adam and Eve.) It is unclear whether the Light Cave itself killed MIB, "awakened" by the man's presence or combined with Jacob's brother to form this new being. In any event, Jacob found a "loophole" to kill his brother; and his brother's alter ego, the Smoke Monster, spent centuries trying to find his "loophole" to kill Jacob.

As the Smoke Monster, it could manifest itself in many forms, including deceased individuals, most frequently as Jacob's brother (MIB) and in the end, the deceased John Locke (Flocke). As a mind reader and manipulator of matter, it is clear that the Monster was a dangerous force. The dynamic between Jacob and MIB continued to be one of sibling rivalry, an enlarged game of human senet.

The creation of the Smoke Monster is not clear. Some have suggested that Crazy Mother herself, was the Smoke Monster, who was really the immortal guardian of the Island. It was not explained how throwing a man into the Light Cave, the source of life, death and rebirth, would create a monster. We saw that the Light Cave contained skeletons of men, who apparently died trying to figure out the mystery of the light source. We also saw that once Desmond uncorked the stone, the Island went into chaos, and once Jack replaced the stone, the Island returned to normal but the Smoke Monster as Flocke suddenly turned "mortal" (as did other "immortals" such as Richard). How did this Island "re-set" button change the fundamental physical properties of MIB-Smoke Monster? And why did the immortal Jacob "die" before this Island re-set inside the Light Cave? Was Jacob also a smoke monster, with powers equal to MIB? If that is true, then why could Jacob leave the island but MIB could not? Was it just one of Jacob's own "rules?"

The majority of LOST fan base is probably satisfied with the knowledge that the Smoke Monster was part of the Jacob-twin brother back story. But a minority probably view the Smoke Monster sage as a lost opportunity to fully develop a sci-fi basis for the entire Island mythology.

We think we know who was the Smoke Monster (Jacob's brother's spirit), but not was never confirmed as fact. We all can agree that we don't know "what" the Smoke Monster was except a homicidal chameleon in MIB's form. We don't know if there were other smoke like monsters on the Island (but we know that trapped souls/spirits remain like whispers as Hurley found out in his last encounter with dead Michael). We don't know why the smoke monster was created or viewed as a security system by Dharma and the Others. We don't know what they thought it was protecting besides the island itself. And finally, we don't know "how" the smoke monster formed, transformed, lived and died (cease to be immortal).

SS6: Number 2: The Polar Bears

What is the deal about the Polar Bears?

The polar bear question surfaced in the pilot as a puzzling mystery when a survivor's scouting party is attacked by one (and Sawyer pulls a gun and kills it). The polar bear is last seen in Season 3 episode, "Further Instructions."

Since it was one of the first "shock" revelations in the series, fans continue to hark back on the polar bear question to try to find some deeper revelation in the underlying LOST mythology.

Why were polar bears on the island begs Charlie's question, not where but "what is the island?"

According to Dharma information, polar bears were brought to the island for experiments. On the Hydra Island, they were kept in cages. They learned to get out fish biscuits from a complex puzzle machine. Dr. Chang in a film indicated that the bears were used for studies in electromagnetic research. The bears were used to test the frozen donkey wheel chamber, and were transported to the desert of Tunisia, where Charlotte found the remains of one with a Dharma collar tag. Ben and Locke also wound up at this exit point after turning the FDW.

For creationists (those who believe the island is the mental creation of some one or group), Walt was reading Hurley's comic book which contained a picture of a polar bear. The theory is that Walt's mental abilities created the polar bears on the island.

Another explanation was contained on the Blast Door Map. The Latin name for "polar bear", Ursus maritimus, is mentioned on blast door diagram, implying that the bears were used during experiments on the Island as follows: "STATED GOAL, REPATRIATION ACCELERATED DE-TERRITORIALIZATION OF URSUS MARITIMUS THROUGH GENE THERAPY AND EXTREME CLIMATE CHANGE. Valenzetti theorists would conclude that polar bears experiments to change arctic animals behavior and adaptation of harsh climates was an attempt to change the variables in the doomsday equation for humanity.

Alien theorists (those who believe aliens or alien technology was the root of the Island powers) thought this description was for the cosmic constellation of Ursus Maritimus, as an origin or nexus point in time space to the Island and its creators.

The science or science fiction aspects of the reasons why polar bears were on the island faded away but remained a gnawing mystery in some fan's minds. After the purge, why were the polar bears let out of their cages? Why use large, dangerous animals like bears to conduct experiments when the closest human counterpart is monkeys? Or in Ben's case, he directly used human subjects in his experiments to find a solution to the fertility problem.

The use of polar bears roaming a tropical jungle island was an absurd and strange hook in the pilot episode. It could be viewed now as a symbol or metaphor that the Island was not a real island, but a different place or realm where our notions of reality are not the rules.

SS6: Number 3: The Numbers

Oh, The Numbers. The six numbers that haunted LOST fans for Six Years. Those pesky numbers kept on showing up on props, signals, odometers, cave walls, lighthouse dials, lottery tickets, flight numbers, the hatch door, computer screens, computer read-outs, and numerous theories.

The Numbers. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

Was there any final conclusion to what the Numbers represented?

I guess it depends if you think the Numbers were important.

Hurley thought the Numbers were important: as bad luck, a curse or a bad omen, every time he encountered them. Danielle must have thought the same thing, as the signal repeating the numbers led to her coming to the Island.

Many fans speculated that the Numbers had to deal with Dharma or some unknown group trying to change the values of the Valenzetti Equation. That theorem is a 1970s equation that attempts to determine the end of humanity. Dharma was conducting various experiments to either create, change or modify life in an attempt to change the coefficients of the equation to save the world. But that does not explain why the numbers were broadcast as an island location beacon; why they were on the hatch serial number; or why those numbers had to be put into the Swan computer in order to avoid a release of electromagnetic energy.

The fans really, really, really wanted an answer to the Numbers. They wanted the Numbers to be foundational to the whole story line. They have to be disappointed.

We found in the lighthouse and in MIB's cave, the Numbers allegedly represented potential Candidates.T he Numbers represented the last six candidates to succeed Jacob as island protector:

4 was John Locke, who was killed off the island, and his body taken by MIB to create Flocke.

8 was Hugo Reyes, who feared the Numbers the most, and wound up the guardian after Jack.

15 was James Ford, Sawyer, who never wanted to take responsibility for anything until he time traveled with Juliet.

16 was Sayid Jarrah, who was taken over by "The Darkness" and MIB.

23 was Jack Shepard, who defeated MIB and became the island protector for just a few short hours, until Flight 316, piloted by Frank, allowed Sawyer, Kate, Miles, Claire and Richard to leave the island.

42 was for Jin Kwon, who never left the island, who killed himself to stay with Sun in the sinking submarine.

Were the Numbers critical to the final explanation of the show? Or were the Numbers merely a clever plot device, a red herring, to keep fans watching intently and discussing the meaning of them from week to week? (I really liked by Periodic Chart of the Elements Theory). The conclusion, as written, the Numbers were basically used as immaterial bait to keep fans interested in the show. The function of the numbers being so coincidental throughout the seasons is an easter egg not found and left to rot in the yard. The idea that the Numbers were merely symbolic placeholders in Jacob's still convoluted plan to maintain the Island special powers seems disappointing, especially to die hard sci-fi fans looking for a deeper explanation. There is little elegance in the Numbers being merely a scorecard.

Considering the lighthouse contained hundreds of names and numbers crossed off during the centuries, the LOST numbers appear just to be random footnotes. And in the vetting of these final Candidates, there are very little cohesion or moral values between the actual characters. In fact, three had violent or criminal pasts (Ford, Kwon, Jarrah). Two were real life losers (Locke and Reyes, until he won the lottery then began to lose his mind). So by default, Jack winds up as the least flawed person on this list, if you exclude his personal life and drug addiction. In fact, none of the final Candidates had high moral standards to protect something so important as the Light and Island, the source of life, death and rebirth. I guess it is true, when your number is up, your number is really up.

SS6: Number 4: Adam and Eve

In 2004, Jack, Kate and Locke were chased into the caves by a swarm of bees. Inside, they found the remains of two bodies. Locke called them Adam and Eve. Jack, being a doctor, stated the bodies must have been dead 40-50 years based upon the deterioration of their clothing. Jack found black and white stones, but failed to tell Locke of his discovery.

In 2007, when Jack and Hurley went to the caves, Hurley thought that the skeletons might belong to two of the Flight 815 survivors as a result of time travel.

In the Jacob-MIB centric episode, "Across the Sea," we learn the identities of Adam and Eve: Jacob's brother and their crazy, adoptive mother. Jacob placed them in the cave after his brother killed Mother in a rage, and after Jacob threw his brother's body into the light cave, killing his mortal soul. From that point forward, Jacob used black and white stones to represent him and MIB.

For some, the revelation of the names of Adam and Eve was a non-event. It also showed that Jack's assessment of decomposition was off by thousands of years.

The cave of Adam and Eve was one of four burial rituals shown during LOST. The concept of laying out bodies in caves as a funeral rite goes back thousands of years in the Middle East. But it begs the question, how did Jacob know of that custom if he was born on the Island and separated from the Others?

The other known grave was the pit where Ben had the Others toss the purged Dharma members.
This mass grave is representative of warfare.

For the Others, we saw Colleen's ritual to be a Viking-style funeral pyre. It was apparently done to avoid that person's body being taken by MIB. The crash survivors used cremation of the deceased passengers from the plane in a beach funeral pyre.

Afterward, the 815ers buried their dead in a graveyard. The Tailies also did the same during their separation from the 815ers.

Who were Adam and Eve? Jacob's brother and his adoptive crazy Mother.
Why were they buried in the cave? Jacob did it out of respect and/or grief.
What role did Adam and Eve play in the resolution of the LOST story? A footnote in Jacob's back story.

SS6: Number 5: Richard Alpert

Who was the ageless Richard Alpert?

We received a one episode miniseries on Richard's epic background story, in "Ab Aeterno."

In 1867, Richard was married to Isabella, who comes down with a fateful disease. He rushes far away to get medicine from a fraudulent chemist, who refuses to give him the medicine because he has not enough to pay for it. In a struggle, Richard kills the man. He rushes off with the medicine to his home, but finds his wife dead; and the posse comes in shortly thereafter and arrests him for murder. His whole life is ruined; and his quest for a cure for his wife was for naught.

He was convicted for murder. For some reason, Richard, a peasant, learned English through reading the Bible. He sought a priest's forgiveness for his crime, which was coldly denied. Then later, as the gallows were prepared, Richard's life was "spared" by being sold by the priest into indentured servitude on the Black Rock crew. But that ship did not reach its destination, as a storm took it from its Caribbean destination to the Island (which we assume is in the Pacific). We believe it is the ship that Jacob and MIB talk about on the beach; where MIB claims Jacob's brought people to the Island.

The Black Rock is shipwrecked on the Island. A fellow slave looks out of the cracks in the ship and tells Richard he sees land. He then sees the Tawaret statue and yells that he sees the Devil and guesses aloud that the Devil protects the island. The ship is carried up to the crest of a gigantic wave and thrown against the head of the statue.

Only a few crew members survive. An officer comes below deck and begins to kill the slaves to conserve resources. Just as he is about to kill Richard, the Smoke Monster appears on the deck killing the crew. It then takes the officer and rips him through a grate to his demise. Then Smokey comes down and comes face to face with Richard (apparently reading his mind) and leaves. Days probably pass and Richard is in and out of consciousness. Then, he sees a vision of his dead wife, who tells him they are both dead. Then the noise of the monster returns, and Richard yells at her to flee, and is led to believe she is destroyed above deck. More time passes, and MIB shows up as a "friend." He explains that this is Hell. And that he has a job for Richard: to kill the Devil.

The Devil was Jacob, who easily stops the attack.
Richard explains that the Man in Black said that the only way he could see his wife again was if he killed Jacob. Jacob says the person he saw was not his wife, that he is not dead and he is not in Hell. Richard remains convinced that he is dead so Jacob drags him into the sea and submerges him four times, asking if he still thinks he is "dead."

On the beach the two sit together. Jacob says that he is not the Devil. He also explains that he brought the Black Rock to the Island. Jacob explains to Richard why he brings people to the Island by using a wine bottle as a metaphor for the Island. The wine is evil, malevolence; the bottle is containing it because otherwise "it would spread". He explains that the cork represents the Island, holding the darkness where it belongs. Jacob says that the Man in Black believes everyone can be corrupted because it is in their nature to be bad and that he, Jacob, brings people here to prove the Man in Black wrong. Richard asks whether or not Jacob has brought people to the Island in the past and what happened to them, Jacob replies that he has, but they are all now dead.

Jacob says he wants people to know the difference between right and wrong without being told. Richard says that if Jacob won't help these people then MIB would step in. Jacob thinks a moment and then offers Richard the job of being his representative, an intermediary to the people he brings to the Island. When Jacob can't or won't intervene, he proposes Richard can step in on his behalf. When Richard says that in return he wants his wife back; Jacob admits he cannot do this. Richard then asks to be absolved of his sins, so that he will not go to Hell. Jacob says he cannot do that either. Richard then asks to be granted immortality and to never die. Jacob says that he can do this, and touches Richard on the shoulder.

So Richard apparently becomes the ageless go-between for Jacob to the Others for 130 years.

Richard's backstory, however rich in history and drama, creates more conflicting representations in the overall story line. There were many references and situations of Richard's own death prior to being released by MIB. The shipwreck could be considered a metaphor for Jacob being the ferryman into the afterlife, bringing lost souls to the Island realm. Forgiveness and resurrection were Season 6 themes attached to Richard's story. But those ideas conflict with what Jacob said to Richard that he could not bring back the dead to life; but we believe he did when Locke was pushed out the building by Cooper. Jacob said he could not absolve sins; but he never stopped anyone on the Island from sinning through he wanted to prove people should know the difference between right and wrong. In the end, Richard's immortality ends with the death of Jacob and the re-boot of the Island cork.

The mystery of Richard turned out to be a simple one: he was an earlier version of the lost souls from Flight 815; caught up in the debate of man between Jacob and MIB.

SS6: Number 6: Widmore vs. Ben

There was always an intense hatred between Charles Widmore and Benjamin Linus. The open question was the reason behind this blood feud.

We knew Widmore was a former leader of the Others. He was on the island in 1954 when the time skippers, including his son Daniel, arrived to deal with Jughead. At that time, Eloise appeared to be in charge or the co-leader. Richard followed her lead more than Widmore's as time passed and their roles changed. The Others were clear followers of the word of Jacob. At some point, Eloise left the island (possibly to give birth to Daniel?), leaving Richard to scheme to find a replacement.

The Widmore-Linus rivalry may have started when Ben was recruited by Richard to join the Others. Widmore had ordered Ben to go kill Danielle and her child. When Ben got to his mission, he changed it. He kidnapped Alex and told an angry Widmore that Jacob had told him what to do. It was a lie. But the statement bolted Ben, even as a boy, up the Others leadership ranks. The finale coup de tat in the Others hierarchy was Ben's execution of the Dharma collective. The killing of his own father for the sake of the Island was held in great esteem by the Others. He had trumped Widmore. Shortly thereafter, Widmore was conned or "exiled" from the Island by Ben. The reason was unclear, but it could have been Widmore leaving the island and having another child, Penny. Widmore vowed to return after his banishment and reclaim his role on the Island. Another mystery was how did Widmore, a brash lad on the island in 1954, suddenly become a super-wealthy industrialist? Did he leave the island and take over all of Dharma's assets to become an instant millionaire?

For unknown reasons, Ben claimed that he was unable to kill Widmore even when given the opportunity, and that they both knew it. This relates to the Rules governing the two’s dispute, which he said Widmore "changed" upon his mercenary killing Ben's daughter Alex. But if the Rule was that family could not be killed, Alex was not Ben's real daughter (a loophole). As a response to this, Ben told Charles that he would find and kill his daughter, Penny.

Concurrently, Widmore was plotting to indirectly kill Ben by using Sun's anger against Ben to Widmore's advantage. It is unclear whether Ben's use of Sayid as an assassin was the counterbalance to Widmore's plan of killing Ben.

In 2007, Widmore finally returned to the Island in a submarine after claiming to have been invited by Jacob, who “convinced [him] of the error of [his] ways.” At this time, Ben's leadership role in the Others was gone. MIB/Flocke had taken control (under the threat of death). Ben became a weak follower, his vision of his future as Island leader, lost. It was under the vague promise of Flocke that if MIB could leave the island, Ben could have it. The only way that could happen was that if Ben killed Jacob, which he did.

Widmore claimed Jacob told him everything he needed to know to stop MIB from leaving the island. He brought Desmond back with him, as a last resort in case all of Jacob's Candidates died. Widmore was eventually shot to death by Ben in front of MIB/Flocke. Ben broke the Rule against killing Widmore directly. But it apparently had little consequence in the final end game of MIB's quest to leave the island.

What was the intense Widmore-Linus battle about? The power or control of the Island? But that was Jacob's role. The control of the Others? They both had leadership command, but it was not absolute. The island survivors were merely left over pawns in the game between Jacob and his brother. But the big build up of the Widmore-Linus "war" in Season 6 fizzled.

Was this blood feud supposed to symbolized something else? The Widmore-Linus dynamic of needing to return to the island in order to control it is the mirror opposite of the Jacob-MIB dynamic of the brothers wanting to leave the island at some point to move on.

Widmore's return to the island and his death had no impact on his life in the sideways realm. Widmore's death on the island did not trigger any awakening in the sideways realm, where he is the dutiful husband to all-knowing Eloise.

Ben's fall from leadership of the Others in some ways led to the death of Alex and Danielle. His acceptance of a role as second in command under Hurley's apparent island guardianship because he had no place to go. This second island term may have caused Ben to stay behind to make amends with Alex and Danielle in the sideways realm, but only after he was "awakened" by Desmond hitting him with a car.

It is debatable whether the Widmore-Linus story arc was an important aspect of the LOST mythology or merely filler.

SS6: Number 7: Claire's Disappearance

Claire was one of the central early mysteries whose story arc suddenly dropped to no relevance. The initial conflict between Ben and the Others and the 815ers centered around the Others inability to conceive children to term. Juliet was held on the island to solve the pregnancy issues that no child could be born on the island. The reason was never truly explained. When Claire arrived on the island pregnant, she was kidnapped by the Others, tested in the Swan station against an unknown infection. We would later learn that children had been born on the island before: Jacob and his brother, and Alex.

Everyone had an interest in Claire's baby except Claire herself. It was only after the relationship with Charlie did Claire feel comfortable with her child.

In season 5, Claire is living with Kate at the Barracks. When freighter mercenaries attack, Claire is blown up in her house. Sawyer digs through the debris and finds her, but she thinks he is dead Charlie. Following her rescue, Ben summons the smoke monster to attack Keamy's men. Claire is horrified by the monster's violence. She escapes into the jungle. Miles strangely stares at her during the march back to the beach. This is a clue that something is wrong.

During the night, she wakes up to find Aaron missing. She finds him in the arms of Christian. "Dad?" she says. When Sawyer asks where Claire went, Miles says she went off to the jungle. Sawyer only finds Aaron. When the crew rejoins Jack and Kate, they ask what happened to Claire since Sawyer is holding Aaron, Sawyer says "we lost her." This is when Kate assumes responsibility for Aaron and leaving the island.

Claire is next seen by Locke in Jacob's cabin. She is an apparent odd, drug like state. She has no concern for her child. She is with him (Christian, or the image of her father). After the O6 leave, Claire comes to Kate in a dream scolding her not to bring Aaron back to the island. Instead, Kate vows a personal quest to bring Claire back to Aaron.

For the three years of time gap in the O6 return, Claire has apparently been living the life of Danielle Rousseau. Living in the jungle, fearful of the Others at the Temple, hiding and setting traps. In one of the stark, gross and crazy props of the show, she is caring for a Dead Squirrel Baby as a substitute for her own child, which she was wrongly told by Flocke was being held by the Others at the Temple. It seems that during the three years in the jungle, Claire had continuous contact with "her friend," the image of Christian, which in reality was Flocke (MIB). Dogen said that she had become infected with "the darkness" and turned into a murderous, vengeful being.

When Claire is in the temple pit singing "Catch a Falling Star," Kate comes to apologize to her, and to rescue her. Claire is upset and angry at Kate. Then suddenly, the smoke monster attacks inside the Temple, nearly killing Kate.

If the sickness was code for being "put under a spell by MIB," then Claire's three years alone on the island only served his purpose of harassing the Others (Jacob's people). She was never a candidate, and she served no useful purpose except as self-pity baggage during the long meaningless jungle marches of Flocke.

For those who believe that Claire was killed in the freighter attack on the Barracks, then Claire's "disappearance" was no more than MIB creating another zombie killer as a tool on this island purgatory, just as he did with Sayid. Just like in her real life, Claire was discarded when something better came along (in Flocke's case, the weapon called Desmond who he'd throw down the Light cave). If Christian's words in The End were true, that her time on the island "was the most important thing in her life," then Claire's life was a miserable void.

So what happened when Claire disappeared into the Jungle with Christian? If she was alive, she replaced Danielle as the Island's crazy woman. She was an Other attacker and murderer. She became mentally unstable. She became a follower of MIB, who may have been the devil himself. For three years, she lived in the darkness; the pitch black evil of spiritual existence.

SS6: Number 8: Why is Walt Special?

There were many LOST characters who had special gifts or talents, like Charlie and Daniel who had musical talent. But there were very few characters that were directly told that they "were special."

From recollection, these characters were once called "special:"

Claire was told by Aussie psychic Richard Malkin that Aaron was special.
MIB was told by Crazy Mother that he was special.
Ben told Locke that he thought he was special, as an island protector just like Locke thought of himself as having a special destiny to protect the island. Both men never wanted to leave the island, but did so in a time of crisis by turning the FDW.
Locke was told he was special by his Mother, because he had no father (immaculate conception).
Locke was also told by Richard Alpert that he was special when he was being recruited for a school.
Desmond was called special by Daniel because of Desmond's ability to mentally time travel and harness the island's electromagnetic properties.
Walt was called special by Tom and the Others who kidnapped him. Also, Walt's step father called him different (and dangerous) from his psychic abilities which included killing birds.

One could argue that "miracle babies" would be classified as "special."
Ben was born prematurely in a forest, far away from any medical care or treatment.
Locke was born after a car crash, and miraculous survived in an ICU chamber.
Aaron survived a plane crash to be born on the Island.
Jacob and his brother both survived a shipwreck to be born on the Island.
Alex survived a shipwreck to be born on the Island.

But Walt had none of background of the miracle babies.
Until he literally outgrew his role, Walt was the focal point for the Others.
He had some power or ability that the Others, including Ben, wanted to test or harness.

Walt had psychic abilities as a child. Some believe they were premonitions. Others thought
that he could control events, and cause death (such as various bird deaths). His step father was so afraid of him, he dumped him off to his father, Michael. "Sometimes when he is around, things happen," Brian told Michael. Example, he stopped the rain in order to search for Vincent in the jungle.

Walt also appeared as an apparent apparition: a) his imagine leads Shannon into the woods, who is then shot and killed by a startled Ana Lucia; b) he appears before a dying Locke who was shot by Ben and tells him to get out of the Dharma mass grave because "he has work to do." Now, this could have been the work of MIB taking the form of Walt in order to get the 815ers in motion for his "loophole" plan to kill Jacob (for which MIB may have needed Walt off the island -- through Michael shooting Ana Lucia and making a deal with the Others to leave with no chance of returning and then having Locke become his patsy to con Richard, Ben and the Others to lead him to Jacob for his revenge.)

Many theorized that Walt was supposed to be the new guardian. There is no conclusive evidence to support that theory. Walt's name did not appear in the Lighthouse as a Candidate for Jacob's replacement. Jacob never "touched" him.

Some theorized that Walt's psychic kinetic powers would be a weapon the Others could use against Widmore. He Walt thought about something, his mind could make it really happen. Like after reading a comic book on the plane about polar bears, a polar bear attacks the survivors.

But all speculation led to a dead end. Walt was written out of the series.

Was Walt "special?" In the first four seasons he was deemed special in the story lines. But in Season 6, his role brought no insight into the Finale. Walt only appears in archive footage with Locke in the End. Walt's character had no role in the events that led to the church conclusion.

But the mystery leading up to the last season was Why was Walt special? What was the reason or purpose for Walt special traits? Like many LOST questions, we really do not know.

SS6: Number 9: Man in Black

The set up for Season 6 included the mystery surrounding Jacob's apparent rival, the Man in Black.

Non-canon references aside, we never learn this man's name.

In Season 6, MIB was the haphazard Island tour guide marching groups all around the Island in circles waiting for the final showdown. It is unclear whether Jacob kept MIB from leaving the Island, or whether the immortality of the Smoke Monster form kept him trapped by the Light cave cork.

The Man in Black lived with the original Others, the other survivors from his real mother's shipwreck. By living with these survivors, he believed that the Island wasn't his real home. He learned to question things by living with the survivors. Over time, he developed knowledge on how to leave the Island by creating the Frozen Donkey Wheel, to harness the power of the Light. He was correct, since the FDW did transport people from the Island to Tunisia. Crazy Mother thwarted his plans and killed all the ship survivors in his village. He, in turn, killed Crazy Mother with a dagger in a rage. Jacob took revenge by casting him into the Light Cave, which transformed him into the Smoke Monster.

The brothers spent the following centuries in conflict, drawing people to the island to test their nature. MIB grew weary of the humans Jacob brought to the Island. (It must have been just as Crazy Mother did, to find a replacement for her island prison). One would have thought that after centuries of humans being brought to the Island, MIB would have found a clear path of escape. The 815ers as a group were not that different or brilliant. They never solved the mysteries of the Island. They never answered Charlie's basic question, "what is this place?"

Though their mother had prevented them from hurting one another, the Man in Black eventually killed Jacob indirectly by assuming the form of John Locke, the Others lost new leader, and convincing Ben to kill Jacob with a dagger, just as MIB had done to Crazy Mother. The Greek tragedy mythology had come full circle. The Island could have been this family's sideways world waiting room to the final afterlife.

But, apparently, the killing of Jacob did not allow MIB to leave the Island. He then tried to kill Jacob's Candidates for Island protector role. MIB finally tried to use Desmond's unique power to destroy the Light Cave, thinking it would set himself free himself and destroy the Island. However, the disruption of the stone "cork" in the center of the Light Cave only rendered MIB mortal. A state of being that MIB himself did not realize until he was physically injured. Before the mortal MIB could leave the Island, he died falling off a cliff as a result of a confrontation with Jack, the new Island guardian, and Kate.

It is unclear whether the destruction of Jacob and MIB were necessary in order for the remaining survivors to leave the Island, or to "move on."

Who was MIB? Jacob's twin brother.
What was MIB? An immortal representation of Jacob's dead brother.
When did MIB arrive on the Island? More than 2000 years ago.
Where did MIB come from? Jacob's brother was born from shipwrecked Roman mother, Claudia, who was killed on the Island by Crazy Mother. MIB, as the personification of Jacob's brother, was created when Jacob killed his brother by throwing him into the Light cave.
Why was MIB important to the LOST story?

The last question is really the dead end alley in the previous Jacob post. For if the Jacob-MIB story line did not exist, there were alternative "conflicts" that the 815 survivors would have had to deal with in order for their characters to develop and grow together.

SS6: Number 10: Jacob

At first, Jacob was an unseen entity that the Others feared, followed or both. His words and commands held great weight with the leaders of the Others, who refused to question his authority. Since we did not see him, viewers did not know whether Jacob was a man, a god-like entity, a priest, or spiritual religious icon.

We find out that Jacob's name causes the Others to react. The Others follow him, but he is not a leader in their midst. He lives in the base of the Tawaret statue, weaving mixed civilization tapestries.

It is apparent that Jacob can summon people to the island, as with the case of the Black Rock. It was an open question of whether or not he brought Oceanic 815 to the island or whether it was Desmond's failure to put in the Numbers into the Swan computer that led to an electromagnetic energy release.

The beach conversation between Jacob and the Man in Black was supposed to be the Big Clue as to the nature of the Island and the long, dynamic conflict of those trapped on it:

JACOB: I take it you're here because of the ship.
ENEMY: I am. How did they find the Island?
JACOB: You'll have to ask them when they get here.
ENEMY: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?
JACOB: You are wrong.
ENEMY: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
ENEMY: Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?
JACOB: Yes.
ENEMY: One of these days, sooner or later... I'm going to find a loophole, my friend.
JACOB: Well, when you do, I'll be right here.

And here is the set-up: Locke's backgammon analogy in practice. One white player (Jacob) against one black player (MIB).

In Season 6, "Across the Sea," we learn that Jacob and his brother, MIB, have been on the Island for more than 2000 years. They are somehow "immortal" beings, caused by the psychotic criminality of the Island's protector, Crazy Mother, who killed Claudia, their real Roman mother shortly after childbirth. Crazy Mother made the rule that the brothers could not harm each other. From a mythos, this relationship is a truce among equal Greek or Roman gods. A governor on some special powers that the Island gives its protectors.

In their childhood, MIB finds an Egyptian game, Senet, on the beach. MIB explains that it is a game and that he "just knows" how to play. He agrees to play with Jacob, but only if Jacob doesn't tell their mother because he believes she will take the game away from them.

Mother tells MIB that he is "special." She says that it was she that left the game for him. MIB says that he thought it may have come from a place not on the island, but "across the sea." She tells him that there is nowhere else, that the island is all there is.

MIB asks where they came from, to which Mother replies that the brothers came from her and she came from her mother, who is dead. The boy asks what "dead" means. His mother says that it is something that he will never have to worry about.

Later, MIB and Jacob find hunters on the island. They asked their Mother who these people are, and she replies that they are not supposed to interact with the Others. But later, Jacob makes a choice to stay with Mother while MIB disobeys goes off to the Others to determine if there is a world beyond the Island.

And this break within the family makes Jacob inherit the Island protector role from Crazy Mother. MIB stays with the Others, but tells Jacob that they are greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy and selfish. He explains he stays with them as a means to an end, that is, to leave. He has found knowledge of the Island's light source, and is constructing a wheel in a well in order to leave the Island. But it was always Mother's rule that they could never leave the Island.

It would seem that after Jacob's brother killed Crazy Mother, and Jacob found a "loophole" that killed his brother (throwing him into the light cave), Jacob was filled with remorse and pain. Whatever family he had was gone, and he was left alone on the Island with the Smoke Monster, the evil spirit of his brother.

As a strange means of penance, Jacob brings people from "across the sea" to the Island for the benefit of his dead brother's spirit, who can never leave the Island. It must be because his brother lived with the shipwreck survivors that Jacob thought that bringing other people to island would somehow comfort MIB. It did not. In fact, some would infer that the bringing of other people to the island was the physical manifestation of the boys game of Senet, but with human beings as game pieces.

Jacob, himself, has left the Island in search of suitable "candidates" for Island service, including the Temple priest, Dogen, and the Oceanic 815 survivors he visits in his flashbacks, along with other characters:

Kate and Sawyer are touched by Jacob as children.
Jack, Locke, Jin, and Sun are all touched several years before Flight 815.
Hurley and Sayid are both touched by Jacob after having left the Island.
Ben is touched after stabbing Jacob himself.

Though being an "immortal," Jacob fell upon the tiresome role of Island protector just as his Crazy Mother did in her final days. He needed to escape the physical bond of the Island. He allowed MIB to trick Ben into the statue. He allowed Ben to stab him. The result was that Jacob was transformed into a fully spiritual being like MIB (Hurley would think of him as a ghost). This was Jacob's end game from the beginning: to find a way his brother could kill him so they both could move on, away from the metaphysics of the Island realm, possibly to join their real mother in death.

So what was Jacob's true role in the tale of Flight 815?
It is still unclear. Was he necessary in order to bring the characters of Flight 815 together? His "touch" of the 815ers were made at various times, including after some left the island. So it was not a requirement that Jacob touch them before they could arrive. Did his "touch" actually significantly change a person's character or life choices? No. Was Jacob the Wizard behind the Curtain, manipulating all the characters actions? No, the concept of free will and choice were too strong.

So by the show's conclusion, we did find out about the character Jacob. We learned about his back story with his brother who transformed into MIB. We found out some generalizations about his role, but not about his true powers. Or why he was chosen over his "special" brother to be the island's sole protector of the light source. Or why the Others worshipped him while the Dharma leaders tried to kill him or confine him. And we did not find out the correlation between the imagine/ghost of Christian in the cabin and Jacob himself. Was it MIB manifesting himself or was it Jacob manipulating his candidates?

Who was Jacob? The Island protector.
What was Jacob? An immortal being.
When did Jacob arrive on the Island? More than 2000 years ago.
Where did Jacob come from? A shipwrecked Roman mother, Claudia, who was killed on the Island.
Why was Jacob important to the LOST story?

The last question is really a dead end alley. For if the Jacob-MIB story line did not exist, there were alternative "conflicts" that the 815 survivors would have had to deal with in order for their characters to develop and grow together.

Set-up Season 6 (SS6)

In surfing the minefield of the Internet, one comes across the abandoned tombs of Lost fans and bloggers. Prior to Season 6, there was a strong consensus of the Top 10 LOST Mysteries. For five seasons, TPTB created story lines that led viewers down various paths with questions. Questions people wanted answers because of the importance placed upon them for five years.
The creators had five years to set up their conclusion for the LOST series. How did they do?

As a matter of housekeeping, the ten main unsolved mysteries before the final season:

1. The Smoke Monster
2. The Polar Bears
3. The Numbers
4. Adam & Eve
5. Richard Alpert
6. Widmore v. Ben
7. Claire's Disappearance
8. Why is Walt Special?
9. Man in Black
10. Jacob

It may not be a list that you or I would have made before the start of Season 6, but it is fairly straight forward. But over the next ten posts, I will examine them in the context of Season 6 and the finale.

S6E11 BLEEDING

I think the correct term for flashes between universes is "bleeding through" (in homage to the recent rash of head gashes). I also believe that if both universes were real and were to merge, instead of nose bleeds, characters' heads would explode.

I also have come to a speculative conclusion of where the writers may be headed: that one of the universes does not exist; it is an illusion, a Room 23 construct, part of a long con. That is probably the sideways world.

I think the sideways world was a way to attempt to overwrite the real world to test candidates, to see if they could be fully mind controlled by Widmore. In the sideways world, Desmond's only purpose was to serve Widmore. He had no family life. He was all work. Complete loyalty. No questions asked. After the EM blast, those are the strong memories that are guiding Desmond, who now suddenly is following Widmore's orders.

The other candidates have too much "free will" or other baggage (like daddy issues) to be totally manipulated and controlled by the island keepers like Widmore.

Comic book science answered my question about Desmond's being EM-microwaved: Widmore was not "testing" him but actually "creating" a new Smoke Monster (DeSmokey) to take on the old one, Flocke.

I can see this projected sad ending: Desmond defeating Flocke in a smoke and lightning battle. But instead of keeping the false memories, Desmond sees flashes of his real life with Penny and his son. He rushes to the Hydra dock to find Widmore's sub already leaving the island. "Come back! Don't leave me here!" he screams.

From the deck, Widmore tells him he was the sacrifice the island demanded, that he can never leave the island, and that he could never see Penny or his son again.

Enraged, Desmond turns into a dark smoke monster and turns back into the jungle, ripping up trees along his path, just like the old Smokey in Season 1. He has become the new island Cerberus.

The whole island story would loop back on itself. This is how MIB "lost" his humanity, because he was turned into the island security system, a smoke monster, by Widmore's predecessor, Jacob. MIB was trapped on the island for eternity. Over time, he could not stand his plight and just wanted to end - - - cease to exist. Suicidal. The island does create a sense of madness in people.

Then over the final credits we could see Desmond wandering the beach and coming across the same Jacob-MIB beach scene, but this time when he says "You don't know how much I want to kill you," he would be speaking to Widmore.

EGADS!

From EW, a quote from TPTB on Season 6 premiere:

“I wish it was already here. The audience may hate it. The audience may not hate it. But at least they will finally see it, and when they do, it will be a relief.”

Ah, that does not sound too confident.
Some viewers may HATE it? That's really strong, but even though they HATE it, it will be a relief?

Does not put one in a confident frame of mind.

LA X

There is some question of what S6E1 episode title, "LA X" means. If we go back to my tangent to the Periodic Table of Elements:

La is the symbol for lanthanum, a silvery-white rare earth metal. It comes from the Greek word for ESCAPE NOTICE.

X is the symbol for TEN or in math, an independent variable.

LA X could then represent the phrase THE TENTH ESCAPE NOTICE, which could trigger a response from higher forces (They're Coming! as Jacob said).

It would tie nicely into the Hatch's warning symbols from the countdown timer which said HE ESCAPES PLACE OF DEATH.

LOST ENDING

How will Season 6 end?
Well, looking back on my notes, way back in Season 4, I quipped about how LOST could end:

Camera pans sky to show a large airplane breaking up over the island. As the debris falls, the camera pans back to Locke, viewing it from the Barracks. He shouts: "Jack! Sawyer! There may be survivors. I want you to go, now! Observe. Don't get involved. And I want lists back in three days."

TO REBOOT

To re-boot or not to re-boot. That is the question.

If Juliet detonated the Jughead bomb (reality aside), then if the Rules of Continuity are the same, she would have the same result as Desmond when he turned the fail safe key in the Hatch. The time line did not reset, skip or move. Desmond had conscious mind travel, but his body stayed in 2004 on the Island.

If the bomb went off, speculation is that it would re-set the 1977 time skippers back in sync with the rest of the 815ers, circa Jacob's death. It would be a literary cue to get all the characters back on the same page to resolve their interpersonal conflicts, but it would not resolve the underlying Island supernatural properties. We still do not know what are the Island rules. You would think that they would apply equally to Desmond and to Juliet. If that is true, then Juliet would survive the explosion-implosion at the drill site, but transport her memories to her off-island self which in turn, would cause her not to go to the Island in 2001. Her new mission could be to stop the other prisoners (the 815ers) from not boarding the plane that crashes in 2004, and thus changing history.

Even that premise does not help to resolve the Big Questions. It almost serves to erase the past five seasons of story lines and personal conflicts in exchange for one final sprint to the finish line.