THE JOURNEY

Poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “The only journey is the one within.”

The basic structure of a good story is a good premise, strong character development, action, reaction, conflict, choices and a journey's end.

The quintessential story arc in this generation is Luke Skywalker's journey to become a Jedi. From humble beginnings, a tragedy propels a naive young man into a dangerous adventure across the galaxy in search of truth, purpose and family. But throughout, the journey was within Luke's heart and soul - - - the mixed emotions, conflicts, set-backs and new friendships that affect how he would become a man.

Did anyone in LOST have such an heroic journey?

Sun defied her rich and overbearing father by marrying a poor fisherman's son, but her life did not end well.

Locke tried to rebel against his miserable life without a family, only to be crippled by his own father which led to a lifetime of mistrust and failure. His life did not end well either.

Kate was a bored, troublemaker as a child who kept her selfish ways of manipulating others in the forefront of her personal survival game. She had an opportunity to change (as did all of the characters) but she did not. She could never find true happiness in her life.

Sawyer was a vengeful boy who turned into the man he despised for destroying his family. But when he could have had a chance to led a family, he turned his back and fled responsibility. He took the easy way out because his personal bitterness and torment was his own internal best friend.

Sayid led a life of struggle and burden of responsibility. He did the dirty jobs. It affected his mental state. When he left Iraq and found his true love, it was taken away from him. In his journey to find her, he failed the woman he claimed to be the love of his life - - - and wound up with a woman he had only a short affair.

Hurley was an introvert scarred by his father's abandonment. He felt he was unlucky at life and that he was the sole cause of his own problems. But when he got lucky and won the lottery, a life changing event, he willed himself into more bad luck. In order to keep himself together, he invented his own best friend and checked himself into a mental institution to be safe from the world that brought him only bad luck. Even when he tried to change his life (by finding the meaning of the numbers), his plane crash lands on a dangerous island. He has an opportunity to re-invent himself but he never does. We don't know how much of Hurley's experiences and thoughts were real or imagined as some theories believe.

Jack may have been the closest to a clear path journey. His story starts as being a highly successful surgeon. He is at the top of his profession. He is well respected. He holds life and death decisions in his hands. But his demon is the lack of love from his father. His relationship with his father eats away at his soul to the point of jealousy, ire and mental breakdowns. The fact his father dies in a Sydney alley causes Jack to begin a journey into a downward spiral of personal torment. He becomes the reluctant leader of the survivors. His decision making becomes fragmented between himself as being the leader and good of the group. He decides to hide his island past when he is rescued, causing even more pain and suffering to the people around him. When Locke is killed, Jack has his final mental breakdown - - - the illogical quest to return to the island to fulfill some unknown reason. At this point, objectively he lost his ability to be rational. But since he left enough of the old Jack in the minds of his island mates, they joined him on a fateful journey back to the island. But the resolution on the island did not solve any of Jack's life problems. It was merely murky waters of his own discontent to the point of a suicide pact with the Man in Black as they went down into the Light Cave. Jack did not die a hero's death, but a foolhardy attempt to runaway from his problems. He did not have a personal redemption. He did not find the solution to save his friends. He did not get them off the island or home.  Jack's journey was the reverse path of Luke's. Jack did not find his journey's end with true answers to make his life great.

AWAKENING

In ancient Egyptian mythology, when a person dies his or her body needed to be preserved so it could be reunited with the person's soul in the afterlife.

This ritual mummification has mysterious origins that archaeologists and scientists do not quite understand how a culture created such a complex death ritual.

In simple terms, when a person passes away their body "is at rest," but its spirit or soul, embarks on a journey through the underworld. There are many tests, dangers and judgments in this passage toward eternal paradise.

The disunion of the body and soul is the key element. Once the soul completes its journey, its body is resurrected in the after life to be joined back together again. This reconstruction apparently would incorporate all the deceased memories, personality, position and power had as a human being.

This ritual does have a parallel in the LOST universe.

It is hard to grapple with the fact that the characters were in the sideways world, but could not remember their past, especially their island time. If you look at the memory cycle of the main characters it was:

PRE-FLIGHT 815 . . . . . ISLAND CRASH . . . . . . .  SIDEWAYS WORLD AWAKENING

There are a few ways to comprehend this disconnect.

First, the characters were killed in the plane crash, but their "souls" continued to live on to journey through the underworld (the island) on their way to be reunited with their bodies in the sideways world (the awakening). It would then seem that the body and brain would contain the hardware in which to access the memories of the departed, especially those "unknown" or new ones of the soul's passage through the underworld.

Second, the characters were killed in the plane crash, but their "bodies" continued to live on in reincarnated form at a base level while their souls left this plane of existence to create the sideways world purgatory (limbo - - - waiting for their bodies to return). The ancient Egyptians respect for the dead body could be the answer here, since the body is the vessel for the soul. The "new" body could have the physical attributes to move in the plane of another dimension to be re-fused with the old body in the after life.

Third, the characters barely survived the crash but part of their spiritual being prematurely fled to the afterlife (and then had to create a second world, the sideways narrative, in order to provide a beacon for its full soul to find it.) The characters continue to live out their lives, both on and off the island, only coming to re-connect with their departed soul fragment after their death. But this does explain the delay in the reunification of the soul and body with the deep memories of the island time. The island experience is what brought the characters together.

One theory was that Eloise was suppressing the final unification of the body and spirits of the island friends so she could keep her son, Daniel, from awakening and realizing that she had killed him while he time traveled on the island. Only a strong emotional hit or jolt awakened the characters in the sideways world.

These elements do fit in the heavy Egyptian themes on the island but do not fully fit together in the sideways context.

A HERO'S JOURNEY

The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development.  It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.

Its stages are:

1.        THE ORDINARY WORLD.  The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

2.        THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.  

 

3.        REFUSAL OF THE CALL.  The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly.  Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

4.        MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.  The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.

5.        CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.  At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.  

6.        TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.  The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.

7.        APPROACH.  The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.

8.        THE ORDEAL.  Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life. 

9.        THE REWARD.  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death.  There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.

10.      THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

11.     THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.

12.       RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.  The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

THE QUEST

In all great historical stories and myths, there is a difficult quest that the main character must endure in order to find his answers.

A quest is a long or arduous search for something important.

In the series, various characters were looking for answers but few were truly on a quest.

Locke was an angry, lonely child - - - bounced from foster home to foster home. He had no father. He had a crazy mother. He longed to be popular, but his intelligence outcast him to the geeky group in school. Throughout his life, he turned away from applying his natural talents in order to chase the illusion of grandeur of the high school jock, or adventurous outback hunter. In the show, Locke continued on his fantasy illusion, not finding answers but running into the same societal judgments and roadblocks that angered him so.

Sayid was also an angry child - - - having to do the dirty work for his older brother. He was the one who became tormented by family honor to become a self-hating soldier. He knew he could not fit into normal society because his training had created a monster within him. He ran away from his homeland, feebly chasing a vision of his dream girl, but only to wind up in a miserable place with people weary of his background and his purpose.

Sawyer was also an angry child - - - having his parents killed by a con man's greed set him on the path of revenge. Finding the man who ruined his life became an obsession that ruined Sawyer's own life. Instead of learning from the experience, he became what he hated most: the con man. In the show, Sawyer never changed his self-preservation mode.

Most people believe the LOST mythology best suits Jack. Jack was a child who wanted the attention and admiration of his father. But he never got it. This void motivated Jack to become a miracle worker surgeon. And that got nothing from his father but criticism. So when his father died suddenly, Jack had no means to get the acknowledgement from his father. He was lost in his own psychic pit of growing despair. It was on the island that Jack chased the ghost Christian to find an answer to the hole in his heart. But in the end, the long journey led Jack not to an answer, but to a cruel, unfortunate death. There was no grand revelation. There was no grand moment of enlightenment.

It does not fit the classic pattern as used in Star Wars. Luke is also a lonely child, his parents gone. He is living on a desert planet doing mindless work. He has no prospects and has no adventure if he stays on his home world. But once his family is killed, he is set on a course to fight against the tyranny of the Empire. He joins forces with an old wizard and slowly learns the way of an ancient religion, to grasp and combine with the Force to defeat his enemies. Along his journey, Luke meets up with a cast of misfits, royalty and evil masters - - - so he has to confront danger, and defeat it in order to protect the people he cares about. Luke overcomes his sparse upbringing to become an enlightened Jedi Knight.

Jack's journey does not have all the elements of Luke's. Jack is not transformed into an enlightened individual. He would have met up with his father in the after life no matter what happened to him on the island. The people in the church were people he knew from the island, but they did little to mold him into a better person (some would say his island experience threw him into deeper darkness and despair). And what did Jack find in the end? The anti-climatic twist was that he was dead, everyone was dead, and it was time to "move on."

STAIRWAY

Try to imagine what it took to get to The End.

Then try to figure out why it took that path.

Trying to work backwards from memory of the key deaths that allowed the main characters to move forward, I found an analogy to the Stairway to Heaven.

It seems that each step needed a death, a sacrifice, a closure.

We don't know why some 815 passengers died while others survived the crash. We don't know why the Tail Section survivors were killed off to leave just Bernard alive. We don't know why Daniel was killed off by the time skip nose bleeds (considering he was never on the island before and had a "constant" in his own theory). It did not stop the time quirks on the island. We don't know why Charlie killed himself (he had an opportunity to open the station door and leave with Desmond). We don't know if Juliet accomplished anything tangible when she died after she was recovered from the site debris. Ben got his revenge by killing Widmore, but that did not stop or appease MIB. Sayid took the submarine bomb down the hallway (and created a more dangerous situation by not closing any blast doors to minimize the impact of the blast). Sun's entrapment was improbable and staged, as was their farewell which did not take into account their child on the mainland. We don't know if immortals like Jacob or shape shifting smoke monsters like MIB can ever really "die."  But it seems all those deadly steps led to Jack collapsing in the bamboo thicket to die. The place where his island adventure began ended in the same place.

Now, a few people could conclude that Jack never left the bamboo thicket. He was thrown to the ground and laid there, semi-conscious from his injuries. He could have imagined the entire series in his head. Jack, the hero, in his own mind, "fixes" things in a plane load of broken people. It seems more plausible than the apparent random death steps to get the souls to the sideways church.

LEVELS OF DEATH

There is still a nagging question about the sideways purgatory stinger. First, it came out of left field and led many viewers to question the first season plane crash as being unsurvivable. Second, it clearly stated that all the characters were in fact dead, but some died long before and others long after Jack did. But Jack realized his death in the church before we saw him actually "die" on the island. Third, the story telling vehicle of flashbacks, flash forwards and leaps in time create an uncertainty of WHEN the characters "died."

If death is the ending, when did the characters actually die?

It is not as simple answer.  For those who steadfastly believe that the characters survived the plane crash, then bear in mind in the scheme of LOST universe, the characters were "alive" in their own perception and interaction with people and objects in the sideways world. It was "real" to them, even though they did not realize it was not the Earth existence we know as life.

As such, there is no prohibition that this perception of a sideways "real" life could extend to the island world, or even to each character's flashback or background events.  In other words, LOST may have been a show about death from the very beginning.

I speculated long ago that deep within the background stories of the main characters, there were chilling life and death moments which we were led to believe each character survived. But what if they did not?

No one knows what happens after death. Many cultures believe a human soul must travel through inter-dimensional portals to find paradise. Some religions believe a soul is judged in hell or the various levels of the underworld before it is cleansed or purged of its sins to be worthy for heaven.

The LOST universe could be a construction of various levels or stages of the after life. If during childhood, the main characters were killed by the accidents or traumatic events in their lives, then those child souls could have been given an opportunity to perceive or "live" a new life in a sideways world like existence. Those could be contained in the recent or adult flashbacks; illusions and dreams of children coming to "life." Once those souls ran their course in their first after life level, they were rounded up and boarded Flight 815 for the next level of spiritual attainment, the island. With themes like sacrifice, trust, redemption and judgment, the island is the ideal place for a religious component or a place where lost souls could get rid of regrets or selfish desires in order to move on to the next level of spiritual existence.

It is probably hard to imagine that the characters who boarded Flight 815 in Sydney were already dead. But it does make sense in reference to the season finale in the church. The characters died at different times in different places and they could not move on without finding each other. The whole series then did not have to follow Earth bound concepts of linear time, physics, time or any form of relativity because it was not of this planet.

Now, the show's creators and writers would dismiss this theory as nonsense because they continue to be adamant that the characters did not die in the plane crash. Again, it may be parsing words, but if they were already "dead" before the plane crash, then it would be true that they would not die in the conventional sense in the plane crash on the island.

For example, Locke's "miracle birth" aftermath was actually the beginning of his soul's first life in the after life. It would have been highly improbable that a premature baby injured in a car collision in rural America in the 1950s would have survived the trauma with limited medical technology. This theory is bolstered by the fact that an immortal, Richard Alpert, visited him in the hospital.

Jacob was then not recruiting human beings but lost souls who were given a second chance to live a normal (abet fantasy) life.

It would also explain why Michael, after he left the island, could not kill himself. Mr. Friendly told him that the island was not through with him; he had work to do. A supernatural place was affecting Michael's suicide attempts; therefore, off-island was also a realm of supernatural actions. They could be classified as one in the same. If the island was a place of death then so to would be the off-island.

And then there is the Aaron problem. How could he be "born" twice? He was "born" just as the series ended in the sideways purgatory where everyone present was already dead (but just not aware of it). Aaron was so born earlier on the island. How could that be when the island did not or could not allow births of babies (if the island is hell or the after life that makes sense: who can bring new human life in the after life that is made up solely of souls). So this gets the trace back to Claire and her auto accident which severely injured and ultimately killed her mother. It could have also killed herself and her baby, leading the moments after the accident her first stage in the after life. Since Aaron was never born, he was always a spirit in the show who would manifest himself when Claire needed him.

This levels of death theory tries to unify the various aspects of a disjointed story line under one single premise: death.

THE TOLL

A new clue opens this discussion of the big premise.

"We Sin Toll."

It is an anagram.  TPTB loved to put anagram Easter eggs throughout the series.

We can all agree that Flight 815 was the biggest piece of the puzzle. It was of critical importance because those 324 people on board were either destined, kidnapped, trapped or caught by the island.

There were great pushes and pulls to get the main characters on that flight. Sun was supposed to leave Jin at the airport to flee her marriage, but relented at the end. Hurley rushed through the terminal and barely got on board. Sayid was not supposed to be on the flight at all, but he made a last minute change to stay a day to bury a friend that he had betrayed. It was more than just coincidence that the passenger manifest turned into cherry picking candidates for Jacob's lighthouse.

Jacob said that he had spied his candidates from the island. He knew about them. He had gone to see them. He touched them. He found each of them to have a common trait: a miserable life like his own. That is why he brought them to the island. 

The question is whether Jacob manipulated each candidate or gave them the free will option to follow him. It would seem that Jacob had power over them and supernatural powers to get them to the island.

In Greek mythology,  Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of  Hades who carries the souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron  that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay for passage was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years (which may explain the island "whispers," trapped spirits who cannot move on.)

It is possible that Jacob was Charon, the ferryman who directed souls toward their after life journey.

Which brings us back to the new anagram. 

There was always a question on where Jack was seated on the plane. There was confusion of whether it was Seat 23 A, 23 B or just before the crash, 23 C.  In the plane scenes, there was no one seated next to Jack. However, during the eulogy at the memorial service for the dead passengers (Claire using the passenger manifest),  Harold Wollstein was named as the person who was seated in 23 C.

We never saw Wollstein, in person or his body in the wreckage.  However, the anagram for "Wollstein" is "We Sin Toll."

Was he, or better yet, Seat 23 C, the trigger for the ferry ride to the after life? In a plane load of sinners, was Jack marked to be the "toll" for everyone who "survived" the crash to begin their journey through the levels of the underworld to arrive in their sideways after life? In order for anyone associated with Jack to have a chance for a happy ending in heaven, Jack had to sacrifice himself on their behalf. Is that why Jack was last to awaken? Is that why Jack had no other life after MIB's defeat (like we presume Sawyer, Claire, Kate, Miles and Frank did after they left the island)?

If you believe in the big premise that the passengers died in the plane crash, but "lived" on in the underworld called the island, then Jack's "destiny" to become the island guardian and to save his friends souls would all be tied back to Jack being on Flight 815, and in the seat of from which "the devil" (as Jacob was called by MIB) extracted his toll.

JOURNEY

Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip. — Dean Karnazes

Perhaps the series was merely a journey for otherwise dull, boring, lonely people. The common trait of the main characters was unhappiness. They were all in a rut; their futures looked bleak; and they have relationship issues.

If the island was a proving ground for a life worth living, then it was probably a successful intervention.

Putting a collection of diverse people into a savage, unknown, mysterious and dangerous island with no chance of rescue is going beyond the comfort zone of all the characters.

In order to survive, each character had to go beyond their routine. They had to demand more from their inner self - - - change or adapt to the new circumstances. They had to make decisions and not loiter on their past routines. They had to learn to live together, to trust each other, and to value the security that various levels of friendship would provide. It was the personal expansion of each character that was the most noticeable aspect of the show.

For example, Hurley was a shy, self-doubting individual who never wanted to take risks for fear of failure. He had mental issues and blamed himself for bad things happening to other people. He was most comfortable hiding away in a mental institution, away from the normal stresses and anxieties of daily life.

Jack was a brilliant spinal surgeon, but he led a tortured monk-like existence outside of work. His relationship with his father was an anchor around his neck. He could not handle relationships with women; his marriage fell apart due to his own illogical behavior.

Sawyer was a charming but devious con artist. His noble cause to find his parents killer turned him into the same person that he hated as a child. As a drifter, he kept no lasting personal relationships. He was a loner, and that caused him to be bitter - - - to lash out at others because the only person he could trust was himself.

Kate was also a loner. She was popular, a tom boy who learned early that she could manipulate men to do what she wanted them to do for her. But she was troubled; she did not understand the big picture. She had no direction or big dreams. She lashed out for her mother's attention, but she was shocked when her mother turned on her. Kate's survival mechanism was to run, escape and hide from her problems.

Sayid was brought up in a stable family, but the war changed him into a dark soldier. He was recruited and trained as a torturer, who turned on his childhood friends. He would become a loner by his own actions, fearful that he would revert to being a killer. As such, he had no close friends. He kept to himself because his instincts made him believe only in himself and to distrust others.

From each viewer's own observations of the characters, the amount of change in their personality is apparent. If the show was all about character development, then the main characters did have to cope with the insane circumstances thrown at them, to trust themselves and others, in order to fully experience life at its best and at its worst.

THE JOURNEY

Some believe LOST was merely a journey by the various characters through the pitfalls of danger and friendship which led to a lasting impression to reunited in the afterlife.

Others believe that LOST symbolized the ancient religious journeys through the afterlife.

Thoth, the Ibis headed humanoid, was the guardian of the souls on their journey through the afterlife. Other cultures around the globe used bird-men to symbolize the passage from life on Earth to new life in the stars. Ancient cultures believed that the Earth had been visited by star children who gave them knowledge and spiritual rituals to guide them.

In both ancient Egypt and China, leaders of those civilizations were entombed with a massive amount of supplies and other people, such as wives, consorts, guards, soldiers, and servants. The reason was simple: the leaders needed to have people around his soul to help navigate the after life to find paradise. So they were buried with their closest staff members, along with food, weapons and important writings. They left behind cult priests who would pray for their leader's safe passage and appease the gods during his journey.

The statement "live together or die alone" is a modern take on this ancient ritual. In order to move along in the afterlife, a person needs to have "friends" to help him make it to the end. That is why most cultures revere their ancestors, whom they hope to meet in the afterlife to help them get to heaven.

LOST was never heavy on overt religious symbolism. Religion rituals and symbols may be an explanation of what the writers were trying to hide in the plain sight as their vision of what was really happening to the characters. They kept on saying the it was the journey that was the most important thing of the show. That could mean the wild ride of plot twists given the viewer, or the slow progression of angst, loss and perseverance that the characters had to show in order to move on with their lives.

GATEWAYS

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many LOST fans were sent on their own personal voyages of discovery, pushed along by the tangential winds of the story clues, island mysteries and plot twists. Along my path, I learned much about ancient Egyptian culture to the point of interpreting hieroglyphs on background objects as part of fan discussions between episodes. I also learned that the Internet community can galvanize around a show to have intellectual to emotional discussions about fictional characters in fictional realities. It was a nostalgic return to the old college late night bull session. 

The mysteries of the series opened gateways to research, plot dissection, speculation, theories and projections from die hard fans. It spawned a few cottage industries and writers publishing their own LOST manifestos. But from today's perspective, there is no avid Internet show discussion board anywhere close to the peak of the LOST years.

Just like minor skirmishes before major Civil War battles fade into the footnotes of history, so has the LOST communities and fan threads. But just as the fan base has moved on to other things, the main character actors have faded slowly into the background as well. One would have imagined at the height of LOST hysteria in six critically acclaimed seasons, the actors would have launched into more high profile careers. But that was not the case.

Matthew Fox (Jack Shephard): He went to do a play after the series shut down; he was no eager to get back into television roles. His claim to fame was a drunken altercation with a Cleveland bus driver during a film shoot.

Terry O'Quinn (John Locke): He was reportedly set to team up with Michael Emerson (a.k.a. evil genius Ben Linus) on a pilot called "Odd Jobs," which never made it into production. He also had a sci-fiction horror drama set in NYC which was cancelled after one season. Emerson plays a quieter version of Ben in a current television series.

Josh Holloway (James "Sawyer" Ford): He had a role in 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.' He next project out this month is a movie about break dancing, which looks like an odd choice in viewing the trailer.

Evangeline Lilly (Kate Austen): She starred with Hugh Jackman in 'Real Steel.' And she is currently cast in the next Hobbit movie.

Jorge Garcia (Hugo "Hurley" Reyes): He has had a few guest appearances on TV, and was a cast member on Alcatraz, a sci-fi series that was cancelled in its first season.

Daniel Dae Kim (Jin Kwon): He is a cast member on CBS' reboot of  "Hawaii Five-0."

Harold Perrineau (Michael Dawson): He appeared in various projects including  the Nicolas Cage vigilante thriller 'The Hungry Rabbit Jumps'  and Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") in the dark comedy "Cooler" and James Caviezel in the crime drama 'Transit.'

Dominic Monaghan (Charlie Pace): He hosts a adventure nature series for BBC America.

Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume): He has made a few guest appearances on TV dramas.

Naveen Andrews (Sayid Jarrah): He appeared  2011 film drama 'Hullo.'

 None of the main cast members of LOST has moved into the lead role in either a major film or ground breaking television/cable series. But that is the nature of the entertainment business. There are steady work as character actors and then more hit or miss work for those who believe they should headline. Headliners are only as good as their box office/ratings.

The LOST series probably did open up casting doors for the main actors for future projects. But fans of LOST seem not to have migrated with the actors to view their new ventures. In some respects, the LOST actors have been stereotyped in their LOST character roles. Some have speculated that the ending of the series may have soured fans and executives on them (classic blame the messenger situation). But this is not unusual for high profile television actors to find it difficult to find further high profile work in the industry.

THE JACOB ALTERNATIVE

There were a few absolutes in regard to Jacob.

1. He was immortal.
2. He was the island guardian.
3. He was the only person who brought people to the Island.
4. He had the ability to spy on people throughout their lives.
5. He had the ability to go off the island and touch his "candidates."
6. He gave the people brought to the island free will to make their own decisions.

What purpose did Jacob truly serve?

Most of the main characters in the series had no religious consciousness. Most were not devoted or true followers of any faith. Many, like Charlie and Hurley, grew up in religious families but had waned on their observation.  Many, like Eko and Sayid, referenced religion in the daily routine but acted in the opposite manner in their real lives.

LOST could have tackled the idea of sinners without religious observation by the background character of Jacob.

What if Jacob was not just the island "guardian" but a guardian angel?

Jacob dressed in white, which is symbolic of angels.  Instead of the scythe of a grim reaper, Jacob used a lighthouse and the touch of of hand to guide lost souls into eternity.  He may have been one of the spirits entrusted with guiding the souls of the no longer living to the other side.

Unlike the devils in literature who approach their grim duty with detachment or even malevolence toward sinners,  Jacob may have tried to "save"  those about to cross over.

He did not give solace and sympathy to those he brought to the island, but an opportunity to resolve lingering issues in a person's life,  or even a chance to make amends. He does not directly lecture these lost souls but gives them a complex environment in which to re-live their troubles in a different setting to see if they can resolve them.

Jacob would give the island visitors the opportunity to believe in something, including themselves, in order to reconcile their confusion and pain attributed to their lives on Earth.

It is not purgatory, but a diversion program toward the afterlife. 

As we learned, there are people who did not find what they were looking for on the island. They became trapped souls (the whispers) like Michael. In Michael's case, he may have been brought to the island to reconcile his abandonment of his son. But in the end, he made things worse by killing innocent people in order to get his son back. Michael failed to reach his afterlife.

Those people who reached the sideways church did reach their afterlives. They may have reached the church because they fulfilled something missing in their lives, such as true friendship or love, which only came about due to the events that Jacob created on the Island. Each found a new purpose and reason for living by passing the island challenges. In a clever way, Jacob allowed each person to help themselves without sermonizing their faults. That is what Clarence did to Jimmy Stewart's character in It's A Wonderful Life.

THE JOURNEY

Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you. — Heidi Johnson

There is saying that "the journey is more important than the end."

It depends on one's perspective and mission of the journey. For example, if a person's goal is to graduate from college in four years, the journey and its experiences would be important educational and social events in that person's life. But the goal was always getting the diploma, which in itself would open new doors, i.e. employment or career paths.

Life experiences can be broken down into segments and lessons learned for each individual. A young child who liked to play with tinker toys and build objects may take that interest and grow it into an engineering career. Even outside the academic arena, a kid who likes to play soccer may train hard and develop his skills to become a world class player. Both in both cases, the individual may nurture a skill or interest towards his final goal.

Goals are important. It is how we measure our expectations against our accomplishments.

In the arts, a good story should have a beginning, middle, climax and conclusion. And during the chapters, the storyteller needs to weave interesting events, trials, tribulations, character flaws and choices in which to make the main character(s) grow or change to meet their goals.

In the LOST series, it was never that clear road map to the end. 

If we reverse engineer the standard storytelling method, does it give us any new insight?

The creators stressed that the LOST saga was more about the characters than the actual events. People related more to the characters than with the surroundings. It is said the characters made the show and not the character's activities within the show. In one respect, fans did gravitate towards certain characters. However, the rationale is like taking a hydrogen molecule out of H2O and still call it water.

So, if we fast forward to the series conclusion, what did our main characters "achieve" in the end?

They were reunited after they all died.

Then, all the series events ("the journey") were constructed so that the main characters could achieve their individual goal ("an after life") with the people who they met on their journey.

If this is true, then the majority of viewers would be disappointed in the show because the premise was truly about lost souls navigating through purgatory. (I was always in the minority in the community blogs in regard to the after life premise to the series.)

But even if one assumes that the main characters were "alive" during their island existence, it would still have been a pre-purgatory test if the final goal was to have peace of mind and go forward in the sideways church into the white light. 

So how did the island adventures "help" the main characters in getting to achieve their goal of a happy, heavenly after life? There was lots of excitement, lots of missions, lots of lying, lots of killing, lots of dying, lots of puzzling inconsistencies, lots of unsolved mysteries - - - there was a lot of disjointed stuff going on. But in the context of the main character group, there were no harsh personal judgments of themselves or their fellow survivors as being good or evil. The characters did not redeem themselves from their personal demons. In fact, it is almost universal that none of the characters changed their personalities or overcame their fears. For example, Hurley was an overweight, shy, quiet and responsible person before Flight 815. At the island end, Hurley was an overweight, shy, quiet and responsible guardian. The only difference was that he had more people he could call "his friend."

It would seem that the whole journey was one of creating friendships. Some friendships were forged by similar interests (like music with Hurley and Charlie), some made through lust, some through fighting and mutual respect, and some just by the shared experience of survival.

When Christian told Jack that his friends were waiting for him, it meant that their collective journey was the most important thing in their lives. In turn, that meant that all of them had pretty crappy real lives. And it is still bothersome that the main reason Jack had a bad life was his father, but his father was the master of ceremonies in the sideways church. It was also bothersome that no one else in the church had a parent or sibling for the after life graduation except for Jack. Didn't Shannon have a very close relationship with her father?  Sayid was close with his older brother, too. And the fact that Rose and Bernard left the group to be off on their own should have logically eliminated them from the final church scene. The same reasoning would apply to Desmond and Penny. It also meant that all the people who left the island on Ajira plane never found any close friends or family once they returned home.

The conclusion in the sideways church did impart final closure to the series, but at a large cost to the overall story lines.

If the final scene was developed at the beginning of the series, it left gaping holes in many of the character's lives. Just as important as who was in the church, who was not present. Why was Locke's love of his life, Helen, not there for him? Why did Boone sit alone? Why was Aaron present as a baby (does that mean he never grew up?) And why was Ji Yeon not there for Jin and Sun (was she a prop like Jack's son David?) And why was Penny and Dez's son Charlie not in the church?

If one could only move on to heaven in a group, then why was it limited to just the 20 people in the church? Christian had no real connection to 17 of 20 people present.

Was 20 the final magic Number? Was that the amount of souls needed to complete the reservation to the next after life rebirth?  Or, had Christian already "move on" (since he seemed to know what was coming next) so he was the other 19 souls' guardian angel?

If you look to see number connections, if 19 is the key number to move on, is it supported by the candidates strong bonds with other candidates to reach a critical spiritual mass to move on?
Hurley plus Sawyer gets us to 19. Jack minus Hurley equals 19. Jin minus Jack equals 19. None of these formulations leads to an answer.

This may be the greatest unanswered series questions: why were just these characters allowed to move on in the end? What did they do to deserve or qualify them to move on? And why did this group have to reconvene in order to move on?

The journey itself is not answer but the silent proposition left by the writers.