Long Live Locke.: It's the End of the World As We Know It

"Whatever happened, happened" turned out to be true.
The crash happened, the Oceanic 6 left, they came back, the time-travelers jumped around through time, they attempted to detonate Jughead...but that did NOT work.
The Island timeline was the only one that was ever "real."
So Sayid died, Sun & Jin died, the MIB took Locke's body, Jack became the next Jacob, then Hurley took over, with Ben staying to help. When Jack finally died after restoring the Island to its proper state with the glowing light, he saw the Ajira plane containing Lapidus, Richard, Miles, Sawyer, & Kate & Claire! taking off above him. And Vincent kept him company in his last breaths.
The "sideways" timeline was the afterlife for all of the main characters. It was not any sort of alternate timeline that occurred because of the Jughead detonation. It was each character's version of the "in-between"; Jack was the last one to realize he was dead, and when he did, all of the Island ppl who had grown to be friends met together in the church to move on to the next phase.
THE ISLAND EVENTS DID HAPPEN. That is why Hurley said to Ben that he "made a good number 2." They both lived out their reign as Island Protectors and eventually died at some point long after Jack. It's just that in the afterlife, once again, there's no strict sense of time.

So that's how I interpreted everything, and that's why I loved it. I certainly hope Heaven is where you're back together with everyone you love.
As I mentioned last week, I'll be back with my full -- and I do mean full -- analysis before the end of June (at the very latest), but until then I'll just say that I am extremely happy with how everything wrapped up.
And you can of course feel free to write whatever you'd like in the comments. .. -e



the contrary view:
-Normal life ended when Oceanic 815 crashed. We know that because of the empty crash scene when the credits roll. The crash scene had long since been disassembled on the island, this can only be shortly after the crash. The island was purgatory, which Jacob brought people to when they needed more time to prepare for heaven or hell. No. pretty sure not. but ok, what was going on with the empty crash scene?
-adamnorten: My big question is this. The only argument that I have to the ones who are saying that the events on the island really happened is that in the final scene of the finale with the credits rolling we see the wreckage of the plane (Flight 815) from the first episode and there are no survivors. yeah what was up with that credits shot? wreckage on the beach. In the series the wreckage gets dismantled then burned. right. So since the wreckage is still lying on the beach & nothing has happened to it this entire time maybe they were all dead through out the entire series and their souls were struggling with moving on to the light. I so not want this to be true. aw. Someone please tell me what is wrong with this theory. I so want the island reality to be true.
oh good! a confident answer fr e:
-Those crash scenes were shown AFTER the final LOST credit. They were just a shout-out to Oahu from the producers: still shots taken from the filming of the pilot. Matthew Fox has always known was *the last scene* was going to be, and he confirmed on the Jimmy Kimmel show that it was Jack's eye closing (and Jack dying).


-I thought it was a genius ending. me too! I'm really too emotional to say anything else.


-I love your summary. In my opinion though, they did create the alternate world. It was their own personal purgatory. Juliet's thoughts after Jughead - "It worked." Christian said something to the effect of you created it. The in-between for the Losties was that much more special because they created it. hmmm. y this is a qstn, do we think of this 'sideways' dreamworld experience as an effect of their island experience? or (in the world of the show) does something of the sort happen to souls generally, after death? I mean: are they special!? Such an emotionally satisfying finale.

oh hey so where was Desmond when Jack died? Jack had sent Des up on his (Jack's) own rope, so now Des is unconscious w Hurley & Ben .. still on the island then. y I guess so:
-Jack's sacrifice at the end enabled Frank,Miles,Richard, Sawyer,Kate & Claire to get off the island. Hurley became the protector with Ben as his advisor so Hurley could make up his own Rules about the island & probably would find a way for Desmond to get home. ok.