Lost but Never Forgotten

An in-depth examination of the series finale of Lost - by Ember

It's been months since the finale of Lost aired - months in which my mother and I have continually talked out, sketched out, thrown out, and worked out different theories for the whole Alt-Verse storyline. Why, you may ask? Because purgatory, the afterlife, heaven, whatever, doesn't make any sense. If this is simply a sort of afterlife, why is there a zoom in on a sunken island in the first episode? An island that obviously sunk sometime after Dharma was stationed there? This could simply be a red herring, thrown in to confuse us viewers. But based on the intricacy and usual finesse of the Lost writers, I doubt it. Also, we know from THE CONSTANT that Desmond is capable of time jumping. But why would Desmond be time jumping in HAPPILY EVER AFTER to an afterlife? That doesn't make sense in any way. .

So if it's not an afterlife, what is it? altJack's 'father' tells him it's a place they all created to be together. My own personal theory is that it is a ......wait for .....alternate universe ... that's right. Just what it had appeared to be from the very beginning. How? This is how it goes:

auDaniel tells auDesmond that he thinks he set off a nuclear bomb - that this wasn't supposed to be their life. I think this is EXACTLY what happened. When Juliet detonated the bomb, 3 things happened - first, the prevention of The Incident created a completely new timeline, branching off from the original timeline (like a fork). Second, the electromagnetism from the explosion sent Jack and Co back to their own timeline - NOT simply pushing them back to the future, but actually throwing them over to the original timeline, which is why nothing has changed when they awake in 2007. And third, it sinks the island and kills all the inhabitants. So now there are two timelines - Alt-Verse and RegularVerse

In RegularVerse, 2007, the incident has still occurred and nothing has changed. And why should it have? Why would Jack assume that if he prevented the incident, they would magically transport to the plane as if nothing happened? What happened has happened, right? And in the theory of alternate universes, this is technically true. You can never change history, you simply create new strings with new versions of yourself and others. Jack and Co., of course, aren't' aware of this, and simply feel they've failed.

In the Alt-Verse, 1977, we know that there are Alt-Versions of everyone already - There's a baby Miles at the same time there is a grown up Miles. Baby altMiles leaves the island as regMiles stays to help blow up the bomb. It's reasonable to assume that there is also an young altJuliet, altJack, altKate, and so forth, living happily and obliviously off the island at the same time regJack and Co are trying to detonate a bomb. So when the island sinks and the incident is prevented, what happens to these young Alt-Versions?

Simple: The all board a place in 2004 and land safely at LAX. altJack's 'father' was right - they did create a place for themselves, just for different versions of themselves. (Extra note - this would also explain the lack of Richard in the Alt-Verse. There would be no young Alt-Verse Richard in 1977 when the bomb detonated and broke the universe into two timelines. So when the island sunk, Richard died and left behind no AltVersion of himself. It would also explain altBen's acknowledgment of having lived on the island when he was young - but then he left during the evacuation and went on to lead a normal life after the island was sunk. The same is true for Eloise and Widmore - they evacuated and went on to have altDaniel. Eloise, I believe, already has experience with time jumping, so she is more aware as altEloise of what is happening, which is why she tells altDesmond to stop looking for the others.)

So what's the deal with the whole regaining-of-memories thing? Simple again: Course correction. Fate has always been the big theme of the show. It was these people's fate - not to land on the island, not to save the light, not to kill smokey - but to simply KNOW each other. That was their fate, their collective destiny. And as soon as they land safely in LAX in the Alt-Verse, the universe - maybe even the island itself - starts doing damage control. Starts to make sure they remember each other, and the effect they've had on each other, for good or bad. Now, my mom always gets hung up on the concurrence of the two timelines. But we already know that the two timelines aren't running concurrently together. When Jack regains his memories in the Alt-Verse in 2004, he receives the memories of his WHOLE life, including his death which took place in Regular-Verse 2007. The same is logically true for everyone else. When altKate speaks to altJack at the concert she tells him she's missed him - this is because altKate has also received memories of her (regKate's) whole life - which may have been 40, 50, 60 years after leaving the island and Jack behind. She missed him because she had lived her whole life after leaving the island without him. And she had eventually died. Just like all the rest of them - so when altJack comes to that conclusion in the church ("they're all dead), he is right because they - their Regular-Verse version of themselves - are dead and gone.

So if it's not purgatory, what's up with altJack's dead father? I think he was simply a manifestation of the island. We've already established Smokey's ability to transform into the dead, a trait he got from his little trip down the rabbit hole to the middle of the island. We know the island can manifest the dead as well - it did it for Jacob and Smokey's mom. I believe Hurley was never speaking to the actual dead - he was speaking to the island which, because it is "life, death, rebirth", can retain and project the figures and personalities of those who have died. Jack's father at the church is simply the island reaching out to them. I believe this is also true of the light the filters into the church at the end. This is no heavenly light - we can't ignore the prevalence of 'light' on the island throughout the show. Light -"the most beautiful light"- is at the very center of the island. So why would it be strange to assume that this is the light we see at the end?

But the real question is (which I have no answer to) - where did they go once the screen lit up to pure white and the credits rolled? Did they all 'die', since technically they had lived their lives and died already? Did they simply go about their business - Jack being a good father, Locke marrying Helen - but with a sort of enlightenment as to their world and their connection together (and who they used to be in "another life")? Or did they return to the island? I'd like to believe the latter - that they all returned to a cleansed island where they could live together because they were 'ready' - and those like Ben who had some things to take care of, will meet them a little later.

This is just my little work-in-progress theory, and I'm sure there are plenty of holes and things that I've missed.