Movies - TV
Lost Ending Explained: No, They Weren't Dead The Whole Time…
By JEREMY MATHAI
“Lost” is remembered as a series that was the pioneer in encouraging Internet fan theories and also set the precedent for future pop culture hits like “Stranger Things” and “Game of Thrones.” But it also had a divisive final season and finale that had many fans thinking (incorrectly) that the characters had been dead all along when in actuality, they actually didn’t start living until the final moments.
As the series went on, the writers focused so much on shocking and plot-driven ratings grabs that the audience started to forget that the show’s crux was the characters’ ever-changing dynamics and relationships with each other. The flashbacks in the earlier seasons were to illustrate the fact that there was a direct connection between the plot and the interior lives of the characters.
In the last season, the series utilized the idea of “flash-sideways,” which appeared to be glimpses of an alternate universe where the bomb had detonated and Oceanic Flight 815 didn’t crash. Fans then found the happenings on the present-day island to be anti-climactic as Jack and John Locke had their final conflict, and Jack plugged a hole in a cave with a cork to prevent evil from escaping into the world.
As underwhelming as this reveal was, it goes back to the idea that the characters were never more alive and truly themselves until they had all met each other after the crash. This is especially emphasized by how deeply Jack, Kate, Sayid, and others fell into despair when they finally escaped and left the others stranded on the island.
The flash-sideways turn out to be glimpses of the purgatory that the survivors had created for each other after their deaths, and they reunite at the church to move on from this afterlife. So while the characters are indeed dead in the flash-sideways, the events on the island actually took place before the events in the alternate universe.