A CONFESSION

There is an internet story making its way around the web and landing on a few of the only still functioning LOST fan sites. It contains admissions from one of the show's leading front runners, and an acknowledgment that there was no plan for the story line so the writers and producers had some plausible denial when confronted by fans seeking Answers. It adds fuel to the fire for the critics who thought there were real problems with the show's path and ending.

An edited summary of the article follows:

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) — Damon Lindelof only wanted a gig writing for "Alias" when he agreed to meet with J.J. Abrams about "Lost" -- and the pair threw in lots of wild elements just because they never expected it to get on the air.

If it seemed like the writers were making things up as they went along, by the way, they often were. And also? Lindelof tried to quit the show, again and again.

These were just a few of the admissions Lindelof shared about one of television's most beloved shows Thursday on the seventh anniversary of its first airing on ABC.

Lindelof was an established TV writer himself, working on NBC's "Crossing Jordan," when he first met Abrams. He told interviewer Andrew Jenks, host of MTV's "World of Jenks," that he had been "stalking" an ABC executive friend for years to get a job on Abrams' spy series "Alias."

Eventually the executive, Heather Kadin, called him in January 2004 saying he could meet Abrams about a project.

"The bad news is," he recalled her saying, "it's this ridiculous show idea about a plane that crashes on an island and everyone here doesn't think anything is ever going to happen with it. But Lloyd Braun who was the president of ABC at the time, just thought he had lightning in a bottle: He wanted to do a drama version of 'Survivor.'"

Braun had told Abrams he had a script for an island drama but wanted him to "work your magic on it," Lindelof said. He said Abrams told Braun he was too busy, but would supervise another writer.

"So Heather told me, you meet with J.J., this pilot goes nowhere, but then you get a job on 'Alias'!"

But the pilot went somewhere. Lindelof came in with plenty of ideas, including nonlinear storytelling and flashbacks.

"The biggest issue with a desert island show was the audience is going to get very frustrated that the characters were not getting off the island," he said. "My solution was, hey, let's get off the island every week. And the way we're going to do that is we're going to do these flashbacks. We'll do one character at a time and there's going to be like 70 characters on the show, so we'll go really, really slow, and each one will basically say, here's who they were before the crash and it'll dramatize something that's happening on the island and it will also make the show very character-centric."

Abrams liked the idea, and also had another: "'There should be a hatch on this island! They spend the entire season trying to get it open. And there should be these other people on the island,'" Lindelof recalled Abrams saying. "And I'm like, ''We can call them The Others.' And he's like, 'They should hear this noise out there in the jungle.' And I'm like, 'What's the noise?' And he's like, 'I don't...know. They're never going to pick this thing up anyway.'"

Lindelof said the idea to tell the story out of chronological order came in part from "Pulp Fiction."

Lindelof said he almost immediately felt overwhelmed by the responsibilities of running the show -- and repeatedly decided or tried to quit. By its eleventh episode, he convinced Carlton Cuse, who had been his boss on CBS's "Nash Bridges," to come in and help him lead the show.

He said he agreed with critics who said the show could never last more than a season.

"If we put it on the air and we're like, there's a polar bear in the jungle, somebody better know where the (expletive) that polar bear came from," he said. "That pressure was enormously debilitating."

Abrams, meanwhile, had "plausible deniability" because he had left the show in Lindelof's hands to focus on movies, Lindelof said: "When the torch-wielding mob shows up at his house, and they're like, 'Where does the polar bear come from?' he could say, I'm working on 'Mission Impossible,' go to Damon."

He said he resolved to quit after 13 episodes, then after the first season. Eventually the show went six seasons with him and Cuse in charge.

He also said the show might not have lasted more than three seasons without the Internet, because it allowed fans and the show's creators to spur each other on. He noted that 23 million people tuned in for the first episode, and only 13 million for the finale -- a sign that the show lost many people as it went on. But those that stayed with it did so in part because the Internet gave them somewhere to vent, he said.

"What got them through those periods of doubt and 'Are you going to break my heart?' was their feeling that they were communicating with us," he said.

But trying to please fans was a Catch-22.

"There were these two things happening on the show from the minute it began. The first thing was that the audience really wanted to feel like they had an impact on the show," he said. "And the other thing was, you didn't want us to be making it up as we went along. You wanted us to have a plan, you wanted us to have a big binder with the entire show and you didn't want us to deviate from it. And the audience didn't realize that there's a huge contradiction between these two ideas. If you want to have a say, then there can't be a binder. And if there is a binder, then we're basically going to be like, 'we don't care what you guys have to say. We're just turning to page 365 and we're doing Lupitas.'"

He added: "The show had to become sort of an exercise in, 'Here's what it's going to be, guys: We're going to come out and we're going to play our set, and once the set is over you guys can shout out what songs you want to hear and we'll do those for the encore.' And that was the way that we modulated it, and maybe it worked and maybe it didn't.

"But the interaction of the Internet and our genuine desire to hear what the fans were saying and make ourselves accessible to the fans was absolutely essential to the show's success. I am absolutely convinced that we probably would not have made it to season three or season four at the most if the Internet didn't exist."

CLIFF HANGERS

The final episode of each season left us with a mystery or major event to consider in the whole mythology of the show.

At the end of Season 1, "Exodus," we had the Others take Walt from the rescue raft and blowing it up while Hurley panicked at the sight of the Numbers on the Hatch cover as Locke was ready to explode it open. We were left with the view of the Hatch shaft, which Locke believed was the key to their destinies.

At the end of Season 2, "Live Together, Die Alone," we had Desmond turning the Hatch's fail safe key causing the explosion-implosion at the same time Michael and Walt get on a boat for freedom after Michael double crossed the survivors. At the end Penny gets a message from the listening post, "I think we found it." They found the Island.

At the end of Season 3, "Through the Looking Glass," Charlie dies but writes on his hand NOT PENNY'S BOAT to Desmond. It ends with a new flash forward of suicide Jack on his binge of self destruction at the airport, yelling "Kate, we have to go back!"

At the end of Season 4, "There's No Place Like Home," the freighter is destroyed as the helicopter is running low on fuel; Ben turns the frozen donkey wheel and the Island vanishes. The Oceanic Six are rescued by Penny's boat, who fake a cover story, and leave Penny and Desmond who says, "see you in another life brother" to Jack. In the flash forward, it is revealed that Jeremy Bentham is dead John Locke.

At the end of Season 5, "The Incident," the Island is split between 1977 and 2007. In 2007, outside the statue, it is revealed that inside Ilana's crate is John Locke's body to the horror of Richard. Inside, Ben kills Jacob for Flocke, but Jacob's last words were "They're coming." In the 1977 time, Juliet is ripped down the drilling hole with Jughead bomb. The episode ends with Juliet pounding a rock on the warhead, leaving the viewer wondering if it exploded in a white flash.

If cliffhangers are supposed to be the most important story elements, were they in LOST?

Season 1: Escape by the raft foiled and the Hatch the new mystery found.
Season 2: Escape granted to Michael and the Hatch is destroyed.
Season 3: Escape is foiled because Not Penny's Boat and Flash forward tells Jack needs to get back to the Island.
Season 4: Escape is granted for Oceanic 6 and Flash forward tells Jack that Bentham is dead John Locke.
Season 5: Escape is granted to Ben by the FDW but death for Jacob and Juliet, who tries to detonate the bomb to reset the Island time.

As a key plot element, escape or rescue from the Island was foiled, achieved but in the end a non-factor because many of the survivors never left the Island or the twist was those who did escape wanted to return.

The Hatch was supposed to be a critical element in the survival of the 815ers. It was only a holding device to drumbeat the Numbers are being a key role in the Island mysteries (which turns out to be not true).

The battle for the control of the Island between Widmore's freighter crew and Ben's Others was a non-issue for the controlling entities were Jacob and MIB.

It was inconsequential whether Jughead exploded or not. Time patterns, the FDW, Faraday's scientific observations and what was the Island remain without a real explanation.

None of the driving cliffhanger plot points: escape, the Hatch, Jughead, the Others, the frozen donkey wheel, had any impact in the final season as solutions to the nagging questions about the Island.

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 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.