[Lost Finale Poll. VOTE!]


1) What is the island?
The island is a place that you cannot get to unless you are invited by its guardian.


2) Who is the guardian?
To our knowledge and in this order: a crazy murderess called Mother, Jacob, Jack and Hurley.


3) Where is the island?
It is thought to be some where near Australia. In truth it is always moving which is why it is so hard to find.


4) How do I find and get to the island?
You cannot get to the island unless the island needs you. It is hidden by a powerful electromagnetic force that keeps it off the radar. Most people will never be able to find the island.


5) What is this electromagnetic force and why does it need to be guarded?
It is called “the light”, “the Source” or “the heart of the island”. It is supposed to be the life-force of all humanity. It is believed that if all of humanity has access to the light that they will diminish it. Supposedly, if the light goes out, evil will reign the world.


6) That’s it? Then WTF was the whole 6 year drama about?
Yes, that’s it. No one really knows and you were screwed.


7) Are all the people on the island dead?
It is my personal belief that after Juliet set off the bomb (season 5 finale) that everyone died. You don’t set off any type of hydrogen bomb, modified or not, and not destroy your immediate vicinity, not to mention the radiation poisoning.


8) That’s bullshit Cat! They were alive in season 6. What about the events that took place in “island present” and the “flash sideways”?
Ok, fine. Daniel modified the Jughead bomb’s core so it would react with the electromagnetic force on the island. It did not work as planned and some how all of the Losties were moved to “island present” time.
The “flash sideways” doesn’t exist in reality. It is a purgatorial or limbo existence. (Lostpedia had this definition on their website but removed it. If you go to http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Purgatory , you will find an extensive entry on the “flash sideways”.)


9) Is the “flash sideways” purgatory?
It depends on how you define purgatory.


-If you define purgatory as the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.
The “flash sideways” is everywhere & nowhere in time and can be described as purgatory. The Losties where ghosts walking around the “flash sideways” until they figure out that they where dead. The candidates and loved ones agreed, off-screen, that they would meet in this place to “move on”, as lead by [the] Christian Shepherd, into the light.


-If you define purgatory as a celestial waiting room where Christians are punished so that they may atone for their sins before passing into heaven. Purgatory is very unlike hell in that it is simply temporary.
This totally describes the island and all the madness that “The Others”, Jacob, Smokey, etc put “The Candidates” through. The island happens to be “real life” so can’t be called purgatory… or can it?


-If you just want to relax and take the writers at their word. The “flash sideways” is just a place that isn’t purgatory because it isn’t controlled by God but the Losties. They created this place, they wrote their own ticket for their soul’s departure.


10) Ok, so what is the “flash sideways” again?
It was a Lindelof and Cuse primetime public circle jerk. :-D


11) Why were these people brought to the island in the first place?
Jacob, the island’s guardian, needed a someone to take his place. He somehow picked these then people influenced things in their lives so that they could be on Oceanic Flight 815 to crash on the island and partake in the island saga.


12) Why did he pick so many people? Why didn’t he just explain the island to one person & perform a transfer of power?
Jacob was in constant battle with his brother Man-In-Black (MIB also known as Samuel) because MIB wanted to leave the island. Because Jacob wouldn’t let MIB leave the island, MIB vowed to kill Jacob. MIB told Jacob that he’d kill him and anyone that was a candidate to replace him. I assume that with so many people, MIB didn’t know who to kill. He didn’t just kill everyone because not killing the Candidates was part of “The Rules”.


13) What are these “Rules”?
They could never leave the island.
They could never kill one another.
Assumed rules are that they could not kill candidates for island guardianship. And that they would live forever, a really long time or until someone took their place.


14) WTF was the smoke monster?
Apparently, MIB, not being pure of heart, was thrown into “the Source” by Jacob. After his entrance, he exited as black smoke. No one really knows the mechanics of the black smoke, how it happens, why it can assume the shape of any dead person & access their memories or how he retains his own memory of his time as a human.

Also, leaving the island was a desire of MIB as a human. It is never revealed why as the smoke monster he wanted to leave the island. People always assumed it was for evil and that he would destroy the world.


15) Jack went into “the light” and didn’t turn to smoke. What is up with that?
He was “aborted” from “light” and gingerly placed on some rocks outside of the cave with “the light” just like MIB.


16) Desmond went into the light and did not die, turn to smoke or get laid gingerly on the rocks outside of the cave. Why?
Desmond, somehow survived an electromagnetic explosion which not only gave him the ability to predict death but time travel (or at least his send his mind through time). Him being able to withstand electromagnetic events is the reason why he could go into the heart of the island unaffected.


17) If Desmond could withstand “the light” why didn’t he put the cork back into the island instead of Jack?
Jack needs to be a hero. I believe even the writers was sick of Jack’s whining and gave him the hero’s death that he had such a hard on for.


18) Then what was the whole Charles Widmore experiment about?
Desmond was lead to believe that if he did what he was supposed to do on the island that everything would reset and he would transport to the “flash sideways”. He thought the “flash sideways” was the prime reality. Instead, he was responsible for making everyone in the “flash sideways” aware that they were dead and needed to “move on”.


19) What was Charles Widmore’s role in everything?
He started out as an “Other” and took orders from Richard Alpert. He had an off-island relationship that resulted in Penny’s birth which got him kicked off the island by Ben Linus. Every since then, he searched for the island to get revenge on and kill Ben Linus. Widmore was so aggressive that he sent mercenaries to the island to kill everyone. Eventually he was visited by Jacob. Jacob told Widmore about his struggle with MIB and the importance of getting Desmond back to the island to fulfill his role and save humanity. Charles was rewarded with a bullet to the chest by Ben Linus.


20) Who were these “Others”?
They were also known as “The Hostiles”. I believe “The Others” have been on the island as early as the murderess Mother which was supposed to be the classical Roman era. They are a combination of people who crashed on the island with Claudia (Jacob and MIB’s real mother) and indigenous people whom may have lived there the whole time or arrived there by an arranged accident by Jacob. Due to the warhead’s introduction to the island in 1954, women became unable to get pregnant on the island. “The Others” seemed to have gotten organized under Richard Alpert’s rule and are vicious when it comes to protecting the island. They killed a US Army unit in 1954, purged the Dharma Initiative in the 1970’s and were extremely aggressive with the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.


21) Wait, the US Army was on the island?
Yeah dude. Pay attention. Back in 1954, they wanted to use the island for weapons testing. That’s where the “Jughead” bomb came from. The audience finds out about the bomb after Ben turns the donkey wheel and the island skips through time.


22) What was the “Dharma Initiative”?
DHARMA stands for (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications). They were “a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism”, etc. They found the island with Eloise Hawking’s Lamp Post. Dharma survived on the island for about 20 years until the truce with The Others failed. The Others, lead by Dharma traitor Ben Linus, killed the entire Dharma crew including his own father. “The Others” now live in and use the resources left by Dharma.


23) Why wasn’t Michael or Walt in the finale?
Uneducated and ridiculous answer: Because Hollywood hates Black people.
Uninformed answer: My guess is because Malcolm David Kelley now looks like a 30 year man and they couldn’t find a way to write around it.
Actual answer: I don’t know.


24) Who is alive in “island present”?
Hurley, Ben, Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, Frank, Milo, Richard, Michael*, Walt, Rose, Bernard, Penny, Desmond, Eloise.


25) What was the statue about?
It is a statue of the Egyptian Goddess Taweret also known as Tuat. She is the goddess of birth and re-birth. We still don’t know who built it and for what purpose. We do know that it was destroyed when Jacob brought Richard Alpert to the island. He flung the Black Rock ship through the air which crashed into the statue and broke it. Jacob also lived in the chamber below the foot of the statue.


That was fun! Most of the answers I knew, some are speculation and some are just for laughs. I fact-checked and quoted a few things using Lostpedia. It’s a great resource if you still have questions about LOST. Namaste!