Lost Theories

Hello Lost fans,
SPOILER ALERT for Lost: after Ab Aeterno.

Inspired by extensive conversations with my brother, Doc Jensen's recent articles and a podcast conversation between Bill Simmons and (more importantly) Chuck Klosterman, I have decided to put together a compendium of my Lost information and theories in the hopes of finding a unifying theory of Lost. Previously, I have talked a lot about how Lost can mean different things to different people and specific theories I have about overarching themes, but now I'd like to focus more on what the heck is going on.

To do this, I'd like to start by (relatively) quickly summarizing the show to the best of my understanding including some of the major mysteries and how they can be grasped in context. (For now, this leaves off issues that appear somewhat thematically unrelated to the grand context like how Walt appears to be special.)

The show is about a group of people who survive a plane crash in a remote Pacific Ocean island. On the Island, they immediately find out two pertinent facts that cause growing divergence within the camps: (1) because of a series of circumstances, they are not close to being rescued and (2) the Island is more dangerous than they anticipated because of normal island peril along with rogue polar bears, an inexplicable smoke-like monster and other potential human inhabitants. As these characters make decisions, whether every-day decisions or survival decisions, they are forced to confront their pasts, through memories of their own mistakes, the struggles of their lives prior to arriving on the island, and visions of people/ghosts who affected their lives.

The characters find out more about the island's history, when they discover a hatch that leads to a person who has been living underground for years pressing a sequence of numbers (with a larger significance) that appears to release tension from some powerful electro-magnetic device, (in which the occupant believes he is saving the world.)

We then learn that there were multiple "others" on the island who appear to be from all over the world and different times in history. The current group of others appear as a number of rustic individuals of indeterminate origin that are a spiritual people religiously obeying the words of a mystical figure, Jacob, and his human emissaries (Richard and the various leaders who somewhat blindly follow Jacob's will). While the group appears as natives, few of them were born on the island, but rather most joined this religious sect from when their various groups encountered the island (including Richard Alpert's origin, 1800's Spain, possibly World War II era soldiers like Widmore (maybe?), members of a scientific team that was studying the unique properties of the Island like Ben Linus, survivors of the plane crash and assorted others. The religious sect exiled (e.g. Widmore) or killed (e.g. the Purge) all of the people who refused to join, although it remains unclear whether that was actually Jacob's will.

The exiled people sought to return to the island igniting a war that involved quasi-religious rules. This battle caused at least two major occurrences. In an effort to protect the island and its inhabitants, the leader(s) decided to "move" the island using its unique time properties, (guided by a higher power, possibly Jacob or more likely The Man in Black,) making the island and some of its dwellers shift through time, (at first seemingly randomly and then eventually settling on a specific time in which the others were unhappily co-habiting the island with the group of scientists studying the island.) The other major occurrence from the battle between the exiled party and the current leader is that six of the plane crash survivors were able to escape the island. Those six returned to find fame, fortune and misfortune. Three years after their rescue, the 5 adults used the help of both the exiled party and the island leadership to return to the island because of survivor's guilt, a mystic belief in the island's alluring powers or by force of will.

Upon the return to the island, some of the members landed safely in an airport constructed by the others in part using the forced labor of the prior plane crash survivors (Sawyer and Kate.) Other plane crash survivors found themselves in 1977 with the island dwellers who time-traveled (3 years earlier.) It appears they do not substantially alter the historical timeline, as even an attempt to murder a future leader results in the future leader being saved nearly miraculously in some apparent effort for fate to course-correct. But finally, the time-travelers decide to irrevocably alter history with the help of advanced scientists and religious sect members by exploding a nuclear weapon during a unique moment in the history of the island in 1977, (the Incident,) which highlighted the mystical elements of the Island.

The result of the explosion creates two separate realities. In one reality, everyone in the world lives out a timeline as if a bomb went off on the island in 1977 (meaning most people had substantially similar lives and problems as we had been shown with subtle differences, while a few people who were more connected to the island and its inhabitants had their lives play out in vastly different ways.) However, in this "Sideways" reality, because the time travelers never crashed on the island and thus never went back in time, so they never went back to 1950's when Locke spoke to Richard Alpert. Therefore, things in this reality were likely different even prior to 1977, but even moreso after 1977. But even in this reality, it still appears that there is some supernatural pull between the characters that were connected on the island. The time travelers in particular, have some degree of physical and subconscious memory of the events that exist in the other "Island timeline".

Speaking of that other timeline, it must have existed because otherwise that bomb would never have exploded in 1977. So, two realities were created, one where the bomb went off in 1977 and where the world exists as such and one where the bomb did not go off, so a rift was created. However, in this Island reality, the time travelers were transported from 1977 back to the present day to end their time traveling escapades.

The time travelers arrived at the reality where one of the opposing god-like figures of the island had just made a major move. The Smoke-like monster (who is able to shape-shift) had been struggling for centuries to find a loop-hole to kill the otherwise immortal Jacob and he finally found a way to accomplish the task. To gain access to Jacob, he assumed the body of a person the island inhabitants knew to be a leader/emissary (Locke), though that leader/emissary (Locke) was killed by a former leader/emissary (Linus). Then, the smoke monster, in the assumed body, convinced the same former leader/leader-killer (Linus) to kill Jacob. Although the as-of-yet unnamed smoke monster's plan was successful, Jacob seems to have been prepared for this specific eventuality for years, including the manipulation of the lives of the island inhabitants and searching for candidates who are supposed to take some sort of responsibility with regard to the island in his stead. (Jacob apparently used the special sequence of numbers to identify the potential candidates.)

The Smoke Monster's stated goal is to leave the island after years of being trapped and his next step was to recruit followers throughout the island, particularly Jacob's followers, but even more particularly, the candidates (and to purge all those who oppose him.) Jacob's plan meanwhile slowly manifests itself through various tasks he assigned/assigns to the candidates and other calculations (like Widmore reaching the Island with a stated goal of eradicating the Smoke Monster. It's still unclear whether Widmore is pro-Jacob because Bram, who worked with Ilana as part of Jacob's guard, told Miles that Widmore was on the wrong side. It is possible that Jacob does not want to kill Smokey, but rather is trying to prove to Smokey that human beings can be good in an effort to rehabilitate Smokey. "They come, fight- they destroy- they corrupt. It always ends the same." He has thus far been unsuccessful.)

I am not sure how much we will ever learn about Jacob or the Man in Black because if they are deities, than there is a limited amount we could learn about them. But, there is something special about the island that in the hands of the right protector, allows it to imprison the powerful Smoke Monster. Jacob the Jailer and others imprisons Smokey on the island using quasi-scientific, quasi-paranormal and religious/spiritual methods (island's special qualities including the islands time midi-chlorians, the much maligned Star Wars quasi-scientific explanation for the force, located on the island.)

Unfortunately, science and pure reason cannot answer all of our questions, so we have to turn towards more philosophical, spiritual and religious explanations to understand the Lost world.


So, who are they?
Theory 1: Clash of the Titans
Jacob and Smokey are gods (in the polytheist sense of the word.) Since we're starting simple, let's play on a simple good and evil level. Smokey is bad and was imprisoned on this island on the fringes of time to prevent Doomsday. Jacob is his jailer, who may do almost anything, including lie, kill or even affect human affairs (blasphemous) to keep Smokey safely locked away. In order to keep Smokey locked up, Jacob uses selected humans to perform specific tasks required to maintain an effective jail. Certain things keep Smokey at bay, including scientifically created sonic fences and ash that may be powered by a unique spiritual conviction created by an individual's redemption (Dogen, the temple master seems to have been powering the ash that protected the temple after he made a deal with Jacob that would bring his son back to life to redeem his car accident (though he would never be enable him to see his son again) in exchange for loyal devoted service and faith.)

A similar theory would be that they are gods, but not gods of good and evil, but are rather slightly more specific gods, like Jacob may be the god (or the titan) of time and weaving and lists (and optimism or maybe the god of balance?), while Smokey is the god of destruction and smoke and imbalance (and truth? Nah.) (While Jacob may not be the devil per se, he may be some type of incarnation of the devil. What? If Smokey is evil incarnate and is imprisoned in this type of separate, "under" world, then Jacob is some type of keeper of this underworld, something akin to the devil, though more like Hades.)

For many people these lines of inquiry and this theory is too simple and result in a deus ex machina wherein all of the unsolved mysteries are unsubtly explained as the will of the gods. And even though I think a lot can be garnered from this explanation alone, I tend to agree with those people. Thus...

Theory 2: Paradise Lost
Jacob is some version of God and Smokey is some version of the devil (though not actually god and the devil because under most Judeo-Christian-Muslim incarnations of god and the devil, neither ate.) Since the final episode of Season 5, this has been my favorite theory, even if it is the most obvious theory. God establishes a set of rules that the inhabitants must obey, but the devil, who was more spectacular and special than any other follower, refuses to obey because he thinks all others are lowly inferior malleable beings, that are given substantial leeway on the rules that apply to him. And yet, the devil who yearns to return to the comfort of heaven (or in this case the splendor of earth,) commits to foiling god's plans whether that means to lead people to evil, commit massive destruction of god's creations or declare war on god itself. However, depending on how you choose this theory, god may have wanted a foil to test humanity in the face of evil, to make humanity appreciate goodness and/or to demonstrate that what god truly values is humanity making choices for goodness with the free will to choose "other".

These two entities are mostly able to civilly interact and weigh souls like Job's because Lucifer is not powerful enough to really kill god and god does not want to kill Lucifer because Lucifer is part of its plan.

In this scenario, each human being is left to his/her own devices and is presented a framework of the world. In that world, there are oft-occurring miracles like birth and myriads of unexplained phenomena, for which a person could develop a certain degree of faith in god and obedience to god. On the other hand, there is plenty of obvious carnage, destruction and tragedy in the world that would make people stray from god, to believe that god is either so tolerant of horrifying things like death as to appear pro-evil or more commonly in the modern context, god is non-existent.

In other words, the good God as the three monotheist religions have come to perceive it, is now absolutely hidden. The only proof that god exists in the world today is by pointing to existence itself and saying... "See!" So, our current understanding of god is not only saddled with mystery, but fraught with half truths (not lies, but half-truths and half-mysteries.)

On the other hand, the devil as popularly perceived, is more blunt and easier to detect. Through tragedies, such as death, one can point to the devil for partial credit, but the devil can also just ruin your day. So, what's appealing about the devil? Why do people like the bad boy? First of all, the devil is the underdog against a more powerful and more obvious god. Second of all, the devil has come to symbolize free will. He doesn't care about anything, he does what he wants. (I'm not sure of the origins of the "devil-may-care attitude.") Third of all, in the face of god's reliance on faith and half-mysteries, Satan is notoriously good with his tongue. In other words, while god is silent, Satan is talking and purportedly telling half-truths and half-lies. And thus, the devil cannot on his own, kill god, but man, through a (collective) loss of faith, can kill god.

Theory 3: The Phantom Zone
In the Superman mythology, (Superman being an alien from the planet Krypton, which had advanced seemingly ethereal technology,) Jor El, Superman's birth father, imprisons Zod (and others). The place in which he imprisons Zod is called the Phantom Zone. The Phantom Zone is a veritable inescapable island where criminals are kept until they learn their lesson. Let's keep it going. (Richard, Dogen, Locke, Kate, Sawyer, Ben, Jin... and others appear to be obvious criminals. And all of the others on the island appear to at least require redemption.) In various incarnations of the comic world, the Phantom Zone appears like hell filled wit dangerous criminals and spirits, while in others it is a place that freezes time and is lost in space in order to rehabilitate the criminals.

You may say that this is all fine, but who cares and how does this help? The Island is not actually the Phantom Zone, just like it's not actually ancient Atlantis, or Mount Olympus or purgatory, nor is it the Heart of Darkness. Viewing it as such merely provides context for understanding what the heck is going on here.

Learning about the philosophy and the science, the literature and the pop-cultural reference of Lost makes the experience more fun and more provocative. The fact that someone has the name Locke or Faraday or a deity named Jacob and another powerful entity known as the Man in Black (whether his actual name is Esau or Fake Locke, Flocke, or B-Locke, Un-Locke or whatever.) But, this is just the B story. The A story is what the heck is actually happening and how does it fit into the context of the plans of Jacob and the Man in Black.

Let's amass our knowledge of the island's two deities. Smokey may have had a crazy mother (like John Locke did.) Jacob purportedly took Smokey's body and imprisoned him on the Island. Both Jacob and Smokey can be very persuasive (tends to be used in a passionate context)/convincing (tends to be a more reasoned context) and can manipulate people and circumstances to their own ends. It is very likely that Jacob weaved all of these characters onto the Island. If Jacob is the god-like character, then he tasked Richard to be his presence on earth, which in Catholicism (Richard's religion,) would make him the church. But, it is very possible that in Jacob's absence, Smokey started influencing the leaders with lies and promises starting with Ben and Locke (or maybe Widmore or Hawking). It may have been Smokey's plan that the time traveling would occur enabling a specific circumstance that would allow for the loophole in which Jacob could be killed.

But, Jacob was possibly prepared for Smokey's plan, but rather than affecting Smokey's plans to alter history, he made alternate arrangements using other humans to create an anomaly in order to protect the island prison and contain Smokey by creating a greater anomaly that destroys the Island in one world and protects his successor in another world. I don't get it yet, but there is something there.

So, where does that leave us in Lost? Well, if we want it to have global implications, we revert to the theory above about how if the Smokey devil is released, he would unleash hell upon the world, but God wants man to redeem himself and fight certain seemingly human impulses, like Jack's pride (as a man of science, he thinks he can solve every problem himself) or Sawyer's wrath (from season 1 re: parents and season 6 re: Juliet.) These chosen people must extol virtues such as self-sacrifice in order to keep the devil at bay or teach the devil a lesson. In this theory, one of the candidates may be required to forfeit his/her life and potentially his/her eternity in order to maintain the wondrous island prison.

Theory 4: The Balancing Game
This is not only the title of an unpublished manuscript that my father wrote (and I co-authored with my minor contributions,) but it is also an accurate description of the sets of scales that have been discussed. This is not a specifically religious theory, but is rather a more spiritual theory. Not only do various Eastern religions revere such balances, but so does Star Wars and so does The Matrix and various other more modern science fiction.

In fact, the Lost theories that rely on balance can be divided into several sub-theories depending on whether you believe Jacob is good, evil or the referee who is in charge of the game AND whether you believe the balance is between goodness and evil or between free will and fate or some combination of both. It's pretty awesome, in that these two supernatural figures are duking out mankind's great philosophical questions on a backgammon board of the island. So, what kind of game is it? It's a little like chess because there are pawns and important people to protect, but one thing is for sure. It's a lot better game than checkers.

Some of the above theories can be adjusted if we find out that Jacob is the objectively worse character of the two, which is possible given that he may or may not have caused the purge and often deliberately hides information and may be kidnapping Smokey's body to maintain his own importance.

Then, the trickle down theories include how the deities machinations impacted the battles between Dharma and the hostiles, between Widmore and Ben, between Jack and Locke. It's also important to note that Jacob, while obviously special dies (and fights Richard and eats fish) and is fungible or at least replaceable. This may be why the man in black still cannot leave. He may need permission from the new keeper of the Lost world or he may have to kill that protector. (Or of course, the protector may not have Jacob's abilities and may be tasked with destroying the Island ala exploding a nuclear weapon on the Island in the present day, but that seems less likely now.)

Theory 5: Nonsense
None of it makes any sense... just like life. Enjoy the ride, figure out what's right for yourself and enjoy the haunting love stories of The Constant, Lafleur and Ab Aeterno. I know I will.

What an amazing show and there's only half a season to go. And if you don't stop to appreciate the beauty and the tapestry, then you might miss it or we might all go to hell.

Some of the things I said make sense, some of it doesn't. But it's all there.
Enjoy,
ME (The Papa Bear)