cornixt:
While a lot of people stopped watching because of the tedious filler episodes of series 2 and 3, I kept at it (although they were really bad, not sure why I continued!) and the final season is going all-out in explaining stuff. I came up with this theory at the start of this season, and it hasn’t been disproved so far, and in fact has been confirmed more.
Here’s my current theory:
The man in black/smoke monster did something bad in the past. Jacob is forced to trap him on the island and can’t release him until humans can be proven to do a selfless act (or something similar to that), but he wants to be proved wrong so he can release Smokey. So Jacob continually gets people to the island to try to make it happen, but it never works and Smokey remains trapped.
Smokey gets annoyed by this series of events that are making it clearer that he will never get out, so he decides to make his own way out by getting Jacob killed.
So the final episode is likely to have someone do this selfless act (my bet is on Ben), Jacob releases Smokey, who then goes on to change the world that we are observing in the alternative version of events.
The only snag is that the last couple of episodes imply that the alternative universe is somehow wrong. Desmond appears to have entered some kind of zen state where I think he is in constant knowledge of the future.
Smokey can’t kill the candidates, but he is also still stuck on the island unless they leave at the same time as him. Which implies that Jacob isn’t the only one that was keeping him on the island, probably something to do with the kids who pop up to annoy him.
And Jack’s son look like a young Jimmy Carr.
That’s me done for now.
Ronshank:
I am one of the many that stopped watching but I watched the eposode last week and OMG what is going on. Shape shifters, Long lost relatives that have known each other on the island but not realised it. I still don’t get what the whole time travel bit was about either. I have missed alot but at least the shape-shifter thing explained some of the season 1 and 2 things that I could never figure out. So at least I’m happy with that. I’m going to watch the next few (I think I have like 3 or so eposodes to go). This is an example of a show that went crazy. Like when the X-files went all aliens centric on us. Still good night time veiwing. I kinda want to know what happens in the last eposode
bas_2312:
I’m not convinced that the Man in Black actually is the bad guy. It seems too easy for a show like Lost, and after the great Richard Alpert flashback he seemed like a victim of circumstances more than a really evil guy.
Also, I think Jacob has to be a little evil, but that might be because the same actor plays the devil on Supernatural 
Bolg:
I'm not convinced that the Man in Black actually is the bad guy.
bas_2312
I was thinking the same, but the series the last season really suggest that thats the case.
In my opinion: Doc will become evil Locke new nemesis and thats there is to it.....
But i;ll keep watching anyways
[edit]
But that would be utterly disappointing because John Lock's character has been the coolest of the show (and the doctor most defiantly the most boring)
I wish they wouldn't have just killed of characters just because their actors got caught wile drinking and driving...
[/edit]
cornixt:
I’m sure we’ll learn of the mitigating circumstances behind whatever it was that the man in black did, and someone will forgive him despite that fact that he has killed thousands of people on the island.
bas_2312:
It seems to me Desmond is being set up as the new Jacob…
I’m just hoping for a little more of the Dharma Initiative in these last few episodes, but I guess that won’t happen.
kerbak:
Im agree, Desmond has lived 3 paralel times altought (in some kind of way), so he definitly has some important things to do
Willmark:
I’m boycotting until the series is over because despite what the writers/producers have claimed the have no f****** clue what the are doing with this series. Seriously I think they have dart board they throw at to come up with ideas.
And I actually like the show :S
slev:
Only three episodes to go now!
Don’t forget boys & girls, while it shows in the US on a Tuesday, the rest of the world has to wait a few days (hence downloading 4tW)!
Ronshank:
This died about 16 days ago but the last eposode just finished here and the part (don’t worry it’s not the end bit) were Jack is in the bowels of the island had me thinking. It looks pretty close to what I imagine a good sunken Hashut temple to be like. Lava glowing all around, dark carved rock, cracks forming & an interesting middle focal piont. Just something to ponder if you watch it.
Pyro Stick:
I looked up the plotline for what happens since i dont have sky and havent been able to watch it since series 2 and im so glad i didnt buy any of the dvd’s as i would have been so disappointed. Sounds like it had a terrible and infuriating ending.
kerbak:
This died about 16 days ago but the last eposode just finished here and the part (don't worry it's not the end bit) were Jack is in the bowels of the island had me thinking. It looks pretty close to what I imagine a good sunken Hashut temple to be like. Lava glowing all around, dark carved rock, cracks forming & an interesting middle focal piont. Just something to ponder if you watch it.
Ronshank
Could be then that the black smoke is Hashut :o
after all,,, ends ok,, just ok,, but a lot of misterius of what the island is really about and who-when was the temple built,,, for me could be a type of atlantida,, but not many explication on that.. al least it finally end
cornixt:
The ending would fit pretty easily just after season 2. All the other seasons were pretty much irrelevent in terms of reaching the end game, there are just a couple of extra characters in it whose past isn’t significant (although you would need to see a couple of recent episodes to catch up on the whole Jacob thing). No questions answered, a pointless afterlife alternate universe, smokey still never had a name. Disappointing.
bas_2312:
I don’t know why people keep complaining about the lack of answers on the finale. The whole show was about questions and mystery, and imagining what the answers could be. If they actually answered them, it seems to me it would only disappoint. To me Lost was a show you created for yourself in your mind, because it left so much to the imagination.
When they answered what the whispers where, or how the statue got destroyed, it felt too easy. I think they really don’t need to literally say what the island is, because everyone had his own ideas about it. And Man In Black is just way more mysterious without a name. What if Jacob suddenly called him Bob, of Samuel or whatever, that would just take away something about the character, who really benefited from this lack of identity.
That said, I do agree that the whole flashsideways where a bit of a waste of time. The moments in the finale where they remembered their island lives were nice, like the connection between Sawyer and Julliet. I just think they could’ve done more with it. Maybe let them remember earlier in the season so they could do something with it.
kerbak:
That said, I do agree that the whole flashsideways where a bit of a waste of time. The moments in the finale where they remembered their island lives were nice, like the connection between Sawyer and Julliet. I just think they could've done more with it. Maybe let them remember earlier in the season so they could do something with it.
bas_2312
agree with you,,, much could be done with this,, but well,, in 20 more years we will see the remake movie of LOST, and maybe some thing will be answered there x.x
Grimstonefire:
Much as I think the final ending wasn’t great, I think it was entirely appropriate. They should have done a lot more with the final battle between john and jack.
They have actually left it wide open for them to carry on the series if they wanted to, at the point when Hurley is jacob and Ben is the new Richard. The final ending I’m sure represents how they would look based on their time on the island together, not how they necessarily looked at the time they died (which could have been years later). So they’re back to real time if they wanted to.
Off the top of my head there aren’t a lot of questions left unanswered imo, but those that are left are pretty huge…
Assuming the Island does actually exist in the “real world”, did they actually travel back in time or not?
Did they survive the bomb? What the hell was the smoke monster supposed to be!?
I still don’t understand why it would have been such a bad thing for the smoke guy to leave the island.
cornixt:
Here’s my list of unresolved issues:
Walt - so he had magic powers but they weren’t actually important for any reason?
Who built the statue and why? Same for the Temple and other places.
How come jacob seemed to know everything and nothing at the same time?
Why didn’t he speak to Ben?
Why couldn’t smokey leave the island, even when he was human?
Why couldn’t anyone else leave the island except of a specific bearing?
Why couldn’t women have children on the island for 30 years?
Why wasn’t the hatch built as a self-release mechanism and why didn’t they turn the failsafe key themselves?
What was the significance of the map in the hatch?
I’m sure there are more that I’m not thinking of right now. I didn’t expect all of them to be answered but at least some of them would have been nice.
Grimstonefire:
Who built the statue and why? Same for the Temple and other places.
Why wasn't the hatch built as a self-release mechanism and why didn't they turn the failsafe key themselves?
cornixt
I think these are just there to set the scene really, insignificant.
Walt - so he had magic powers but they weren't actually important for any reason?
cornixt
Interesting that he actually had the ability to 'spirit walk', but as you say, not really important.
How come jacob seemed to know everything and nothing at the same time?
Why didn't he speak to Ben?
cornixt
Jacob was not really written as a proactive character, and they never explained how Ilana and the others were able to see him off the Island. Infact the only way I can possibly see this happening is that the Ajira flight actually crashed. Anyhow, he didn't speak to ben, because ben was not worth saving.
Why couldn't smokey leave the island, even when he was human?
cornixt
No idea, I'd love to know the answer to that.
Why couldn't anyone else leave the island except of a specific bearing?
Why couldn't women have children on the island for 30 years?
cornixt
These two would be easier to explain if the bomb had 100% certainly gone off, it would be electromagnetism/ radiation after the incident. The tricky part would be explaining why this changed with claire.
What was the significance of the map in the hatch?
cornixt
It was a map. End of. ;P
Patrikson:
I haven’t really watched lost since they found the french guys in the bunker in late 2004 but i tried to watch last night’s episode the last ever episode and it didn’t make much sense so i turned back my tv to austar ((australian cable tv))… Anyway read the end bit of it on wikipedia and it still made no sense.
slev:
I watched and understood. There was a few things bout the origination of the island and it’s environs I’d have liked to have seen answered, but I’m content with it overall.
That said, a lot of people seem to have misread the whole thing…