So I presumed that everybody died on the first episode of the first season. I have a couple of questions though, if the final episode means that everybody on the chapel died and is moving on, why is Penny with them?... I welcome any theories and other questions that you may have, just don't expect to get the answers to them... Good luck getting unlost... Namaste!
**Spoiler for Lost, click "Show" to see** Spoiler The island was real. I was also thinking everyone died in the initial plane crash, which I think would have been cool also, and the entire show was purgatory... but as Jack's dad explained it at the end, and many other hints stated, the island was real. The alternate reality in Los Angeles was the purgatory. In the final exchange between Hugo and Ben, Hugo stated that Ben was a good #2, and Ben stated he was a good number one. That is because they actually DID protect the island for an unknown amount of time. As Jack's dad stated in the end, there is no time there (LA purgatory), and some of the people died earlier, and some later than Jack. Penny was there because she died, eventually. Desmond was waiting for her. Everyone, in my theory, was waiting for Jack to accept death. If the purgatory was the entire show, and only meant for the passengers of the plan, then none of the other characters (Desmond, Whitmore, The Others, etc) would either have been imagined, or I suppose other, unrelated souls in purgatory. Essentially, I'm 90% sure the island and everything that happened on it was real. The characters were simply reunited in the church when everyone (Jack being the last) finally accepted their death.
I have to say your Penny explanation did make sense. And I guess it took jack that much to accept. Great theory, I think your's has the best explanation somehow.
That is pretty much my interpretation of things, however few things still annoy me, such as: Why is this group of people so important/special? why must they all be together to continue on? Were they chosen by Jacob only to get to go to purgatory or must the island really need protecting? An explanation of Jacobs/Man in Blacks powers? Is the island still being protected? There is more stuff that I'm not going to bother putting here. Overall I was satisfied with the ending, I didn't expect them to take all the mystery away.
-They were important to the island because Jacob chose people like him... people with nothing to live for, to come to the island as candidates for its protection. During some of the flashbacks, Jacob "tapped" these people before the crash (paying for something Kate stole, giving Sawyer a pen on the day his dad died so that he could finish the letter to the real Sawyer, etc). -They had to be together because before the island they had nothing to live for. Their lives had no meaning. Every meaningful, good thing that happened to them happened on the island. This is where their real bonds were formed. After they died and moved to the purgatory, they needed the help of everyone else to "let go" of the issues they had in life (Jack fixing Locke, everyone seeing their loved ones, etc). They needed help from the others to remember their deaths. -The island really needed protecting. Purgatory had little to do with the island. For example, some people in the plane who died on the island didn't need help in purgatory, such as Echo who was searching for his brother in life (who was already dead). Jacob simply chose them as candidates to protect the island. -Jacob/MiB powers were based on the awesome power found on the island. There were rules (that were not really explained), and they had to follow those... which is why they could not kill eachother. Jack was able to fight and w/Kate kill Locke because the powers had be disrupted by Desmond. -We don't know if it's still protected. We do know Hurley/Ben continued to protect it based on their last exchange (you were a good #1) for what could have been a very long time (they were nearly immortal). The show never went into whether they handed the job off to someone else or what happened. All of that is left unsaid.
Personally, I thought the ending was pretty effing stupid. It was a great series up until the last 15 minutes. I agree with Ben Hoffman from "Infomania", why did I waste 121 hours of my life for this f'd up ending?
Why is a good question: Why did a plane take off at the end? Why did Jack die again, if he was already dead, why did we spend six seasons watching the smoke monster and the Dharma Initiative? At this point, I don't care. What the last episode meant to me was that the writers had no clue how to end an otherwise great series, so they came up with some BS, unsatisfying ending. If the end had to be explained, it means the writers didn't do their job.
1) The plane that took off at the end had Kate, Sawyer, Claire, etc on it. They were fleeing the island. They got away and lived their lives (presumably). All this happened in real life. The island and everything on it was real. Only the sideways reality in LA was purgatory. 2) Jack only died once. He was alive on the island. The island was real. Jack died after saving the island at the end when he closed his eyes, and the dog laid down next to him. That's when he moved on to purgatory (Los Angeles) where others already were). 3) The smoke monster and Dharma initiative were simply things that existed on the island. The ONLY THING that deals with them in purgatory are the sideways flashes in Season 6. That is where everyone met up to move on after they had all died. Jack's dad says "Some died before you, some after you", meaning Kate & co probably made it off the island, and Hurley/Ben protected it for much longer after Jack died. 4)Like the show, the ending is deep and complicated. They wanted people to discuss it, like they have every episode since the beginning. Obviously the type of people who like Lost are not the type who like answers being handed to them. As I think about it more, it's my opinion that this was pretty much the only way it could have ended. I was happy with it.
This is like the Matrix... I can get a head-ache drinking alcohol. I don't know why I let myself go through with this... LOL
I understand symbolism and I know that they were all dead at the end and in some kind of afterlife. I just think it was not a satisfying ending. The direction I thought it was heading in the last episode was to reverse the roles, so that Jacob was the bad guy all along and smoke monster was right to destroy the island. That would have freed them from the island, put everything back the way it would have been had the flight 815 never crashed except that they would have all been aware of some special bond and their time on the island. The recognition of each other would have made sense. The ending as it was reminded me of an old Twilight Zone episode. I would think most people were not happy with the end. But that is just my opinion.
Actually from what I've heard the vast majority of people were happy with it. Of course they can't please everyone. I was actually hoping everything wouldn't be made right. If the island never happened, or if they forgot everything that happened on it, it would make the entire experience pretty useless.
I loved it. In the end, many of the questions were answered and many of the ones left unanswered turned out to be of no importance. Can't wait for the blu-ray complete box set
