Brief Overview
The flash sideways is revealed to be a type of purgatory for the main characters, where they reside until accepting their life and death, and are then able to "let go" and "move on".
copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Flash Sideways
People who had been on the island begin remembering their island selves as they make contact with someone with whom they'd had a close connection on the island. Then they all head for a chapel.
Sun and Jin recover their island memories when Juliet performs a sonogram test on Sun. They also then recover their ability to understand English.
Sawyer and Juliet recover their memories when she helps him get a candy bar out of a stubborn vending machine.
Kate, Claire and Charlie recover their memories when Kate helps Claire give birth to Aaron. (Charlie had already been kind of recovering his memories.)
Sayid and Shannon recover their memories with help from Hurley and Boone.
Daniel and Charlotte don't really recover their memories, but seem close. Especially Daniel.
Eloise seems to be fully aware of what's going on, and is concerned that Desmond will take Daniel away from her. (In the normal timeline, she spent her whole life preparing Daniel for his eventual trip to the island, despite knowing that her younger self would kill him in the 70s.)
John recovers his memories while recovering from spinal surgery when he wiggles his toes.
Near the end...
John arrives at the chapel. Ben is outside it sitting on a bench. He encourages John to try standing and to relinquish the wheelchair. John stands up and walks towards the chapel's entrance. John also forgives Ben for having murdered him.
Hurley steps out of the chapel and asks Ben if he'll be coming in. Ben says that he's not ready yet, still having some things to sort out. Hurley tells him that he'd been a good "number two", and Ben replies that Hurley had been a great "number one". Then Hurley re-enters the chapel.
When Jack arrives at the chapel, Kate tells him to enter through a back entrance. There he finds his dad's coffin. On opening it, he discovers it is empty. But he also begins to remember the island. His dad then appears standing behind him and says that everyone is waiting for him in the chapel.
Christian then explains to Jack that this flash sideways reality had been "constructed" collectively by all of them to help them come to terms with their lives in this place that was outside of time (i.e. they didn't all die at the same time... some before Jack had died, and some well afterward) and so that they all could reunite before "moving on".
The two of them enter the chapel, which is already filled with many of the major characters from the six seasons greeting each other. Christian opens the main doors and a bright light spills into the room, enveloping everyone.
Main characters in the chapel: Christian, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Bernard, Rose, Charlie, Claire, Aaron (as a baby), John, Sayid, Shannon, Boone, Hurley, Libby, Desmond, Penny (without their baby, I think), Sun, Jin (without their baby, I think).
Main characters not in the chapel: Frank, Miles, Charlotte, Daniel, Ilana, Richard, Jacob, Eloise, Charles, Ben (though he was outside of it and had his island memories), Ana Lucia, Michael, Walt, Danielle, Alex, Mr. Eko. Of these, Michael, Walt and Mr. Eko had not been in any flash sideways episodes.
Island Events
Everyone's now looking for Desmond. Fake Locke and Ben had already discovered that he'd escaped when Ben discovers Sawyer spying on them. Sawyer then tough-talks them before snatching Ben's rifle away from him and leaving.
Desmond wakes up to discover that Bernard and Rose had rescued him, despite this action having violated their rule to not get involved in everyone's games anymore. With Rose additionally commenting that she didn't even know what year it was now, but didn't care anyway.
Fake Locke shows up and demands that Desmond accompany him, or he'd kill Bernard and Rose slowly and painfully. Desmond agrees to go with him as long as Bernard and Rose would be left alone and unharmed.
Jack and his group meet up with Fake Locke and his group, and they all continue together to the Source, with Jack and Fake Locke each convinced that he is right and the other is wrong, but both planning to use Desmond. Jack things Jacob had brought Desmond back to the island to be used as a weapon to kill the Man in Black, while the Man in Black thinks Desmond can be used to destroy the island allowing him to leave.
Meanwhile, Richard and Miles head for the Hydra station island, and find Frank alive and clinging to debris from the submarine explosion. The three of them continue to the other island where they discover Claire waiting with a rifle. She at first believes that "he" sent them to kill her... they convince her that they're really there to get the plane started so they can all leave, and invite her to join them but she refuses and walks into the jungle. The three of the continue on to the plane and begin making repairs. Duct tape to the rescue!
Once the others arrive at the cave containing the Source, Jack and Fake Locke lower Desmond down. Desmond enters a cavern containing a pool of water having a light emanating from it, and with a large stone stopper in its center. As expected, Desmond seems immune to the electromagnetic energy in the pool. He removes the stopper. The light goes out and the pool of water dries up. Then a red light appears as the island begins experiencing earthquakes.Fake Locke gloats, knowing that he was right (the Desmond could be used to destroy the island). However, turning off the light also made the Man in Black mortal, which they both discover as he and Jack fight at the cave's entrance. Somewhat frightened, Fake Locke runs off after wounding Jack. Jack pursues and they fight on a cliff before Fake Locke can reach his boat. After fighting some more, Kate shoots Fake Locke, and then Jack kicks him over the edge of the cliff. He falls to a lower cliff and lies motionless... the Man in Black is dead.
After contacting Frank via radio, they realize that anyone who wants to leave on the plane needs to get to the boat now. Jack says that as the island's protector he's still committed to protecting it, which right now means preventing its self-destruction. Hurley and Ben decide to stay with him, while Sawyer and Kate jump into the water and swim to the boat.
When they reach the other island, they meet Claire and Kate convinces her to join them in leaving. The three of them run to the plane which is preparing to take off, and manage to get on. The plane takes off... Frank piloting with Richard (who now has some grey hair), Miles, Kate, Sawyer and Claire as passengers.
Jack, Hurley and Ben return to the cave. Jack tells them his plan to restore the light at the Source and try to rescue Desmond. However, they all can see that Jack is unlikely to live much longer due to his wound. Jack talks to Hurley, and Hurley agrees to be the island's new protector. Jack descends into the cave, ties the rope to Desmond and has them pull him up.
After getting Desmond out of the cave, Hurley tells Desmond that he'll get Desmond home, then laments that there's no way to do that. Ben tells Hurley that he's the island's protector now, and doesn't have to follow Jacob's rules. Hurley then asks Ben to be his "number two" (fulfilling Ben's lifelong desire to be special), to which Ben happily agrees.
Jack restores the stopper in its place after getting Desmond to safety, which causes the water to resume flowing in the pool, light to return and the earthquakes to stop. The light envelops Jack. He wakes up outside the cave, and slowly walks through the bamboo forest, falling to the ground at the same spot where he'd originally found himself after the plane crash. Vincent the dog appears and lays down next to Jack, as Jack looks up the sky and smiles seeing the Ajira Airlines plane flying overhead, and closes his eyes as he dies. (This scene exactly mimics in reverse the opening scene of the first episode of the series.)
The series ends with shots of the original plane crash, the only sounds being the wind and the waves.
Commentary about the Flash Sideways
In my opinion, having the flash sideways timeline actually be some sort of purgatory was really lame. I think it does kind of fit within the overall story of Lost, at least in that it doesn't contradict anything, but it was a lame overly-emotional cop-out.
If it were me, I'd either not have done that at all (that is, just have had season 6 be about island events in the normal timeline... which is what I would've preferred), or would've had it be some weird alternate timeline created by the Incident that had to merge back with the normal timeline in order to defeat the Man in Black.
And having the chapel represent multiple faith/belief systems was lame, too... though it does fit in quite well with the post-modern early 21st century notion that it doesn't really matter what belief system you adhere to, if any, since everyone will go to heaven/ascend anyway no matter what you do in life. As long as you're "good". And I also realize the producers probably didn't want to offend anyone by having their depiction of the afterlife be obviously tied to a specific religion. Though I was amused by seeing the donkey wheel be one of the religious icons on the stained glass window. That was a fun Easter egg.
I didn't really realize that the flash sideways story was going to be about purgatory until Jack and Christian met in the back room at the chapel. Until that point, I thought everyone was congregating to somehow merge that flash sideways timeline back into the normal timeline. Which, now that I think of it, wouldn't have made sense since some of the people in the flash sideways had already died during the normal timeline (e.g. Shannon, Boone, Ilana).
The final scene (I think it was the final scene) of episode "LA X" depicted the island being at the bottom of the ocean. It's implied in the finale that the flash sideways reality was an idealized version of how each of the castaways' lives would've played out had the island never been able to influence them. Yet, the island had to exist at some point else there would have been too much change from actual reality. That, or the scene of the sunken island was just a red herring (which is what I think the sunken island really was all about).All in all, this ending was pretty emotional, especially with all the reunions that took place in the chapel. But it was still lame. I think the season would've been better if the entire flash sideways narrative had been dropped.
Commentary about the Island Events
I'm really glad that Frank had survived the submarine explosion.
Similar to the Oceanic Six from a few seasons ago, this time around it's the Ajira Six: Frank, Miles, Richard (no longer ageless), Sawyer, Kate and Claire.
The finale really wasn't as big as I was expecting. Though I probably had unrealistic expectations. Lost is neither scifi nor epic fantasy... it's really more of a drama/soap opera with a little fantasy & scifi mixed in for fun. When something magical happens on Lost, there's no flash of light, weird incantation or explanation.
As the producers liked to say, the series was always about the people drawn together and marooned on a mysterious island, and not about the island itself. That is really key to understanding why the series played out the way it did, especially in the finale, and also provides at least some justification for having the flash sideways timeline actually be a post-life purgatory existing outside of time.
Both Jack and Fake Locke thought they could achieve their opposing purposes by having Desmond descend into the Source and "do something". Which was interesting in itself. What Desmond actually did, though, was somewhat anti-climactic. Pulling out a big plug? That's it? That was a little lame, too.
When Jacob sent the Man in Black into the Source, his physical body was killed and his soul became the Smoke Monster... a "fate worse than death" as their mother had warned. Yet when Desmond and then Jack went into the Source, nothing particular happened to either of them. Perhaps an explanation is that Desmond is already known to be immune to those electromagnetic effects, and when Jack entered that cavern the Source had been extinguished and his restoration of it expelled him from the cavern.
While Jack truly saved the island (as I'd expected would happen for a long time), Hurley replaced him as the island's protector. I had not predicted that, though saw it coming once he and Ben chose to remain with Jack rather than leave with Kate and Sawyer. But it's fitting... Jack was the protector when the island needed a hero; Hurley will be the protector now that the island is at peace.
It was a nice touch having the show end how it began, with Jack laying on the ground, the camera focused on his eyes. Very poetic. Doubly nice touch having Vincent join him.
Note about the final scene: I learned that the ending quiet scene of airplane wreckage was added by the network itself, and not by the producers, to aid in the transition to local evening news, which started immediately afterward with a commercial break.
Was My Prediction Accurate?
In my prior Lost post, I made a long list of island mysteries I expected to remain unresolved at the end of the series.
I was 100% correct. Unfortunately.
Comments About the Mysteries
While I accept the producers' remarks that Lost was about the people, lost in their lives and stranded on a mysterious island, and not about the island itself, I do think it was a little cheap/exploitative to create so many mysteries that have been intentionally unresolved. I do believe they did have a high-level game plan that they'd been following all along, but that it wasn't too detailed. So they made up details as they went along (McGuffins) until they realized they probably couldn't have the show keep going past six seasons.
On the other hand... leaving so many mysteries unresolved does leave a lot of room to be filled by fan fiction.
Dharma Disappointment: My biggest disappointment about the series is realizing that all the Dharma Initiative and Hanso Foundation stuff (as fun as it was) was really nothing more than a huge McGuffin that ultimately didn't have anything to do with anything.
Polar Bears: I think it's funny to read so many comments on the Internet from people complaining about the polar bears never being explained. They were explained. Dharma brought them to the island as part of their experiments on animals at the Hydra station island. Duh.
Project Runway: It was neat how Jacob had the Others construct the runway needed by Frank to land the Ajira Airlines jet.
Jacob's Cabin: Another web site mentioned that the house was probably actually for the Man in Black, who was pretending to be Jacob to (possibly) Ben and others. If so, this might explain why Ilana and her people became so concerned when they discovered that the circle of ash around the house had a break in it. (The ash circle would have kept the Man in Black imprisoned there until someone broke that circle.)
Smoke Monster: Based on some other posts I've read and my own opinion, I think that when Jacob tossed his brother down into the Source, the "fate worse than death" was that MiB's soul became separated from his body. His body was killed by the experience and tossed out/teleported. His soul manifested as the Smoke Monster, black & monstrous, reflecting how he now felt, perhaps worsened by literally losing his humanity. That didn't happen to Desmond because he was immune. And didn't happen to Jack because... I don't know... maybe because he recorked the Source and that teleported him out before separation could occur. Or perhaps being a "protector" protected him. I believe the Smoke Monster generally killed whenever it could because it could... a way of expressing his rage against the island and humanity. Looking back, it really only seemed to spare people it thought it could use or who were protected by Jacob.
Time Travel: Why introduce time travel if it ultimately didn't matter? McGuffin.
Desmond & Charles: I believe that Charles Widmore tried so hard to keep Desmond away from his daughter, Penny, because Charles knew that Desmond would somehow be instrumental in ridding the island of the Man in Black, and wanted to spare Penny the heartbreak of him using Desmond that way. This, though, is just pure speculation on my part.
The Source Cork: I read elsewhere a good explanation for the purpose of the "cork" Desmond removed and the effects of doing that. The woman who'd raised Jacob and the Man in Black said that there was a little of that light in all people. Jacob had told various people that the island was a cork holding in ultimate evil and/or annihilation. The light of the Source might have been the collective "life force" of humanity... each individual's "life force" being what would "move on" in the after life. Pulling the "cork" released annihilation... if left uncorked (and thus allowing the island to self-destruct) people would no longer be able to "move on"... they would cease to exist at death. The Man in Black didn't necessary want to kill all humanity, but he did want to leave the island regardless of the cost, even if it cost all humanity their souls & eternal life. Which I think is what was at stake. Because he'd been disembodied by the Source, the Man in Black was tied to it... his inability to leave the island was not really linked to Jacob (or subsequent protectors) but to the Source itself. It needed to be snuffed out in order for him to be able to leave. But when it was snuffed out, he lost his immortality (which had been tied to the Source), thus allowing Jack and Kate to kill him. (Speaking of which... I was quite glad that the Man in Black actually died. I despise the modern horror story tendency to have bad guys continually escape death like cats having nine lives.)
Note
The post's title refers to the fact that Jack literally saved the island, first by killing the Man in Black (with Kate's help), and then by restoring the light at the heart of the island (thus halting the island's self-destruction).
Want to kill several hours? Below are two great starting points in learning more about Lost:
- Wikipedia's article about Lost (TV series)
- Lostpedia - The Lost Encyclopedia
- ABC's home for Lost... catch up on episode you missed
