by Andrew Osborne
Okay, so after last night’s episode — SPOILER ALERT!!! — I think I finally understand the meaning of Lost.
Or I would if I actually trusted the writers.
See, here’s the thing…
…IF I trusted the writers with coherence, I’d say it’s seemingly unmistakable now that Jacob is at least as much of a monster as Smokey. Nearly every single touched-by-Jacob Lostie (and the people they touched) would have had a better life if Jacob had just left them alone…except for Rose, I guess, but she seemed philosophical about her fate. Jack: loving father. Locke: happily married and relatively sanguine. Hurley: lucky not cursed. Sayid: not with his soulmate and still a killer, but in a much nicer way. Sawyer: happy-go-lucky, not weepy and bitter. Claire: with baby & not crazy. Kate: still a fugitive, but not much worse off than she is on the island. Arzt and all the other Lost red shirts: still alive. Sun and Jin…to be determined.
And Ben: NOT a maniac who killed his own father and countless other Dharma Initiative innocents (and let Alex die), seemingly at Jacob’s behest.
So…are Jacob and Smokey BOTH evil? Or is it simply that we should be wary of both of them?
My current theory — IF I trusted the writers — is that the island represents organized religion, and Smokey represents the amorality of nature and/or a godless universe, and the flash sideways universe is one where the Losties are living their lives with common sense and decency (rather than magical thinking and the whims of an unknowable God whose dictates must be obeyed, no matter how ludicrous). The sinking of the island in this scenario represents man abandoning superstition and advancing to a higher plane of reason — which would be incredibly ballsy for a network show, raising all kinds of fascinating questions about how Lindelcuse sold it to the Suits.
But, again, all of the above pre-supposes that I can actually trust the coherence of what the writers are showing me…
…heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…
I guess I can remove it from the TiVO queue, yes?
Of course, yes!
LOOK LIKE A BIT OF A GOAT NOW DONT YOU….?
THERE IS NO DENYING THAT THE END OF LOST WAS BRILLIANTLY DONE, BUT NO DOUBT YO WILL HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT
IN LAYMANS TERMS….
“The alternate realities neatly tied together as each character has glimpses of the Island and all the time spent there with varying degrees of memory. From the time of the crash to Jack’s last breath. The big question was which reality was real and when Christian and Jack finally meet back up that question is answered. As all the characters converge into a church where Jack is to bury Christian, Jack finds his father and everything is made clear. Christian tells Jack they have all died, some before Jack and others long after Jack. They made this realty to come together in the end and walk into the final light. Each character having touched another member of the Oceanic Flight 815 that crashed on the island. They enter into the light together”
Except…uh…why isn’t Jack’s mother there? Why did people have jobs and get shot and run over in the “fake” reality if the fake reality was just a place for everybody to wait around until Jack was ready to go into the light? Why didn’t Ana Lucia go into the light, considering Jack had some affection for her at one point? Why did Jack have a fake son in the “fake” reality, and was it really so easy to simply forget about the kid he’d presumably loved? Etc., etc. — but, you’re right, I guess everything “neatly tied together.”