**SPOILER ALERT**
THE SIDEWAYS WORLD
The thing I latched on to the most in the sideways world was
also the part that was the most relieving; the island was real. For everything
that seemed too far-fetched to resemble anything we know in real life, there
was something that almost every human could relate to in some way, shape or
form. Sure, a huge column of angry black smoke wasn’t something that any of us
could relate to in real life, but haven’t we all found ourselves in a situation
similar to an island castaway at one point or another? Certainly these
characters were ‘lost’ souls since we first met them and we learned that some
of them were tortured in ways that we will hopefully never have to experience. However
in every character’s story, their complex emotions which led to their reactions
and motivations are certainly coming from a place that is easy for most people
to understand or relate to. In television and film, characters and their traits
and behaviors are often exaggerated to ensure that the point of their story is
driven home. That being said, I have always felt that the behavior of these
characters as they interacted with each other and dealt with the diverse and
unpredictable variables that were thrown their way was executed to near
realistic perfection. ‘Realism’ is not quite the word that most people think
about when it comes to Lost. Which is
why it is such an achievement that the writers were able to build an intricate
and compelling character-based story around a fantasy environment that was
beyond the realm of our comprehension. After all, none of us can say from
experience that ‘this is how someone would act when confronting a monster made
of smoke’. While time travel is something that is studied and researched, no
one can claim that they are the authority on realism when it comes to traveling
backwards or forward in time. But the combination of brilliant writing and
(mostly) great acting, helped us to believe in this story despite the
improbable and even impossible elements. I could even go on a tangent about what
we think is impossible and what is actually possible even though humans may not
be privileged enough to fully comprehend it.
When you think about it, all we ever cared about were these
characters because it was the characters, not the island that we were so
invested in all along. Sure, the island mysteries were compelling and
intriguing and we desperately wanted answers! Just like we desperately seek
answers to the questions that haunt us in real life. The fact of the matter is
we simply won’t get the answers to some of the questions we seek in life. The
real life that we know allows people to die without explaining themselves, it
boggles the mind that our earth is merely a grain of sand on a gigantic beach
known as the universe. We wish we could know the answers to life’s most
inquisitive mysteries and we wish we could gain some sense of peace or closure
even if it meant doing things that we know are not humanly possible. Many
unanswered questions will be pondered in our lifetimes, but perhaps there is
none greater than the meaning of life in general and what happens to us when we
die. Everyone has their own interpretations and beliefs in regard to this query,
which brings us back to Lost as a
series and particularly, what the finale told us.
Season 6 used a ‘sideways world’ as a narrative device and I
may be in the minority of people that feels it was completely unnecessary, but
yet very satisfying at the same time. The last 15 minutes of the series was
explaining what the sideways world was. It was telling us that everyone in this
world was already dead, but hadn’t yet realized it in the context of that
world. (Interesting sidenote: How do we
know we aren’t waiting for that same awakening as we live the lives we
currently live?)
That thought aside, the sideways world provided us with the
stories of each characters’ supernatural journeys to the ultimate afterlife. In
other words, while the stories in the sideways world were never actually
happening in reality, they were still explaining the mindset of the characters
had they been given the opportunity to craft their own existence independent of
the variables of the human condition. I’m not even sure that makes the sense I
want it to make, but imagine an existence where you could live your life as the
person you wanted to be if you hadn’t made the mistakes and decisions you made
in your actual life. It’s like a second chance. The second chance that none of
us will ever have because it’s the chance to change the path that your life
would have taken had you done things differently. That is not to say that the
decisions and even mistakes that we make are things that we want to erase.
Sometimes a mistake can lead you to happiness that you never would have
achieved had you not made that decision. In fact, it is impossible to pin point
one decision as the one that led you to a certain point or place, because every
move we make is ultimately guiding us down our path. In the sideways world they
are not trying to change their paths or erase past decisions or mistakes, but
rather experiencing a different life based on the lessons they learned while
they were alive. It’s kind of like the classic line ‘if I had it to do over
again’. But they aren’t doing it over again in a real life as we know it, they
are doing it in a stage between death and the final afterlife. And they aren’t
doing it with the knowledge or memory of the things that they would have liked
to change, they are doing it based on the person that they ultimately became
when they were alive. In the finale, Jack talks about this sentiment with
Desmond when he tells him that there are no shortcuts or resets. Jack tried to
do that once (with the hydrogen bomb plan) and it didn’t work, but that very
mistake (as well as countless other decisions he has made throughout his life)
helped shape Jack and led him to where he is both physically and spiritually.
Every decision that each of these individuals has made over the course of their
entire lives not only led them to where they ended up, but it led them to each
other, and in each others presence, they experienced their most important
defining moments on the road to whatever person they would eventually become, even
if it was only shortly before their end in some cases.
The awakenings are the characters remembering their mortal
lives, and coming to an understanding of what got them to where they are, and
what ultimately led them down their life’s path which would inevitably led to
their deaths. Once that realization occurs, they are enlightened to the point
where they can finally let go of their corporeal struggles that they
experienced in their real lives. In other words, the length of time it takes for
a soul to let go or move on from their earthly life, depends on what they were
holding on to at the time of their death and how difficult it was for them to
attempt to overcome it in real life. This after-death existence is meant to
help cleanse the soul so that it can truly be free of all earthly burdens
before finally passing into the afterlife.
The explanation of the sideways world satisfied me because
it gave me an interpretation of a possible scenario for the soul after one
dies. More importantly, the sideways world really satisfied me because it gave
the characters an opportunity to reconcile, reminisce, explain, apologize and
find the peace that they longed for after someone or something important to
them was lost in their real lives. I absolutely loved the conversation between
Ben and Locke outside of the church. Ben came to grips with his real life
issues and admitted to himself and John Locke that he was jealous and selfish
because Locke was everything that Ben wished he could be. I’d also like to
think that at some point Jack told John that he was right about everything and
should have believed him instead of vehemently and even violently opposing him.
It’s a world where the castaways were able to be forgiven for the errors of
their ways and reach redemption, while at the same time their souls can now be
free by completing the puzzle to their hearts with those they loved the most.
It’s the very idea that I think most people would like to believe exists. The
idea that you can reunite and live happily ever after with your loved ones in
an afterlife even if their times of death are decades apart. There was a point where
I thought about how everyone met with their soul mate or true love in the
church and felt bad that poor John wasn’t reunited with Helen, whom I believe
he really loved. I guess the point was that she wasn’t there with John during
his true defining moments of his life, which for everyone in there, happened on
the island. That, as well as the fact that John’s enlightenment came courtesy
of him remembering his connection with the island itself made it seem as if it
was the island that was John’s soul mate. Jack had been semi-triggered to
enlightenment by Kate, and ultimately we are meant to understand that Kate and
Jack truly loved each other and their souls were meant to be together, but we
also see that it was the empty coffin and Jack’s father that truly enlightened
him because it was the unfinished business and guilt of his father’s death that
Jack truly needed to let go of before he could move on.
All of that being said, I feel that the sideways world was
unnecessary to the overall story of Lost
especially because so many people I have talked to, are harping on the sideways
world and how it was not the ending that they had hoped for. I have heard
people call it a cop-out and a slapped together ending because the writers
couldn’t think of anything better to do. I disagree completely. If anything,
the writers created the sideways world and this afterlife ending as a gift to
the fans who wanted to see their beloved characters have a happy ending, rather
than just an unsatisfying and in some cases, a seemingly meaningless death. I
am starting to believe that people think they would be happier with the
finale and series as a whole if the sideways world and explanation of the
afterlife was never included.
And to you people I say this: If you got more answers to the
mysteries of the island instead of the sideways world, you would have been
disappointed in the fact that you got no closure or happy ending for everyone you
became attached to that perished throughout the series. The sideways world sort
of doubled as a way to ‘resurrect’ these characters that have died without
actually bringing them back to life. I know that for me personally, I would
have been disappointed if I never got to hear another word out of the real John
Locke’s mouth with recognition of his island life. Do you think you would have
been happier if the Locke we all knew and loved died a confused and broken man?
Not me, but I guess that’s just one man’s opinion. I admit that I too expected
something slightly different, perhaps even something that would have been less
realistic. I also think that my (and many others’) initial expectations for
what the sideways world was or could be, was skewed by the fact that we were
led to believe that the hydrogen bomb that Jack dropped in Dharmaville at the
end of season 5 had something to do with its existence. But hey, that’s what we
call a twist, and as Lost fans we
ought to be used to them by now.
So the detonation of the hydrogen bomb (if it even blew up)
had nothing to do with the sideways world. The incident was what it always was:
an unplanned, chaotic reaction to drilling into the pocket of electromagnetic
energy. Jack and company created a more chaotic situation and lives were lost
that may not have been, but even had they not been there, Radzinsky still would
have insisted on the drilling and that is why he was punished into the role of
button pusher until he eventually killed himself in the swan hatch after Kelvin
had shown up. As I eluded to earlier, I am not convinced that the bomb even
detonated and it was actually the penetration of the drill into the pocket of
energy that made everything fade to white and flash our characters back to the
present time.
So yes, I was fooled into thinking the sideways world was
something different, but I certainly don’t have a problem with what it turned
out to be and it was not even remotely the point of Lost as a whole series. So for those that are disappointed with
that aspect of this season or the finale, remember that it merely explains the
writers’ interpretation of an afterlife experience. What’s that? You’re
disappointed because you wanted to know more about the island? Read my analysis
and interpretation of the island story below...
ISLAND WORLD
So you want to know more about the island, its origins, its history
and the general mysteries that it has taunted you with for the better part of
six years. I understand, I too long for certain answers that they did not
provide us with, but if you read my ‘sideways world’ finale analysis, you have
realized that I am on the side of the entire story being all about the
characters. It always was, and so it ended as such. The most important part of
the overall story was the journey and change that took place in these
characters. It was the way they reacted to a multitude of challenges and
obstacles and how each time they overcame something or fought for their cause
or belief, it changed them and shaped them. The island tested these characters,
but it was not a place where people went in order to prove themselves before they
died.
The island was a real place that you or I can go to, we just
don’t know how to get there or where it is exactly. Now that Hurley is running
the show, the path one must take to get there and/or even leave the island might
be different, but what remains the same is the fact that the island must be
protected. Therefore it will continue to always be on-the-move, so that it is
not easy to find and exploit. Only this time when people find it, they may
encounter a different, less frightening experience especially since there is no
more smoke monster. Perhaps if they want to leave, they will be granted access
without nearly as many trials and tribulations, but that is up to Hurley now. And
‘the rules’ are now created and enforced by Hurley, rendering Jacob’s set of
rules irrelevant. People will come, and eventually one of those people will
replace Hurley as protector of the island. Perhaps this time though, Hurley
will let fate bring people to the island, rather than guiding and influencing
them towards it.
One thing we should take from the series and the finale
especially, is that everything seems to be a cyclical pattern. Which
unfortunately for Hurley may mean that he will be murdered, but that’s for us
to decide in our ideal interpretation of how things pan out after Jack closes
his eye. Maybe Christian’s explanation to Jack that some died before him and
some died long after him is a way of implying that Hurley ran the island for
another thousand some odd years. Or maybe ‘long time’ doesn’t imply thousands
or even hundreds of years, but perhaps it implies 60 or 70 years because Hurley
didn’t want to live a supernatural life as Jacob did. I am going with the
theory that during Hurley’s tenure as island protector, Walt somehow manages to
wash up on the island via shipwreck or plane crash and is groomed for the role
of island protector for when Hurley needs to be replaced. The only thing we
know for sure is that the island continues to exist and because of that, the
rest of us can go on living our lives they way we do now.
Everyone has some good within them, even those that seem to
be bad people. This has proven to be the case with many of the characters that
we have gotten to know. Some were more bad than good, some made complete
transformations and some people were led into bad decisions that made them feel
or seem like a bad person even if they were coming from a good place. Ben,
Sayid, Kate, Sawyer, Michael, Tom, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko, and Ethan are just some
of the names that immediately come to mind.
The good within everybody is that little bit of light that
‘mother’ told her boys was within everyone. The same light that was located at
the heart of the island. The light that was the literal source of the island’s
existence and all good in the world, and if that light was put out on the
island, it would be put out in everyone in the entire world. So when that light
was temporarily out, it allowed the smoke monster to lose its immortality so
that it could be killed, but the smoke monster himself was not the source of
evil. So it was not enough to simply kill him despite the statement, ‘if he
leaves the island it will unleash evil onto the entire world.’ It was the fact
that in order for him to leave, the island had to be ‘uncorked’ first. The
‘uncorking’ was the real unleashing of the evil on to the world, which is why
the cork needed to be put back so that the light can once again shine bright
and the world as we know it could be saved. Jacob’s cork metaphor was actually
more literal than we thought.
Desmond had to be the one to uncork it because nobody else
would have been able to survive the electromagnetic energy long enough to get
the job done. That being said, I don’t know why Desmond couldn’t have also been
the one to put the cork back, thus saving the world and Jack without harming
himself. But he did offer to do so, and Jack was determined to do it himself.
Maybe it was Jack’s island protector knowledge that led him to the conclusion
that Hurley was really the one destined for the job, and this was the only way
for Jack to turn over the throne immediately. But why didn’t Jack also turn
into a smoke monster? He was down in the same place and was seemingly hit with
the same electromagnetic energy that the Man in Black experienced, but Jack had
not murdered the protector of the island like the Man in Black just had, thus
he was not overtaken and cursed or trapped by the evil as punishment for that
sin. Also, there is evidence that the structure/cork apparatus down there was
built after the Man in Black was turned into the Smoke Monster (more on that below) and thus, the Man
in Black would have likely been subject to a different, more raw and volatile
environment when he was thrown down there. Still, I believe that if this light
is the source of all the good in the world, it would not have taken too kindly
to what the Man in Black had just done to it’s protector. Jack was spit out of
the cave and appeared to land in the same place that the body of the Man in
Black landed, but unlike the Man in Black, Jack’s body and soul were still
connected even though Jack was about to die because of his wounds and exposure
to the electromagnetic energy (as indicated by his bloody nose).
Widmore knew that Desmond was a weapon to be used against
the Smoke Monster, because he knew that ultimately the cork had to be pulled in
order to kill the Smoke Monster. He was given this information by Jacob as a
measure of last resort, but we did not see Jacob tell the remaining candidates
exactly what needed to be done to slay the beast. This was because Jacob’s
life’s work was trying to prove that people could make the right decision
without intervention. Jacob embodied the innocence of blind faith, and
ultimately wanted the new protector of the island to possess this quality as
well. Jack had been going through this transformation of ‘man of science’ to
‘man of faith’ already, but he drank and fully swallowed that blind faith when
he officially took on the role of island protector. Jack didn’t know for sure
what would happen, but his faith led him to the conclusions he came to and he
turned out to be right about the slaying of the monster and what needed to
happen to save the island and the world. A victory for Jacob’s principles and
beliefs.
So what about the cork and the structure that was clearly
man-made down in the depths of that cave? We saw skeletons of those that
perished in either their curiosity and pursuit of knowledge, or they died in
the process of building the structure/cork apparatus that we saw in the finale.
We also saw markings that appeared to be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics on the
cork. I believe that this is an indication that the structures built around
that light were built by the next inhabitants on the island after ‘mother’
killed all of the Man in Black’s original group. That group was trying to build
the donkey wheel system before ‘mother’ killed them. (Sidenote: I think that mother was able to kill everyone on the island
with her protector powers, but I don’t necessarily think she was a smoke
monster herself. My main reason for this, is that she was able to be killed and
the smoke monster was not) I believe it is also safe to assume that the
next people to come to the island were Egyptians based on the timeline we were
given as well as the appearance of an ancient Egyptian game that washed up on
the beach. The game that ‘mother’ clearly did not leave on the beach on purpose with the intention to be found, despite
what she told the then Boy in Black. The truth is, the game washed up on shore
because the Egyptians were close to the island and ‘mother’ wanted to keep the
two boys sheltered from knowing that there was other land and other life beyond
the island and across the sea.
So with the help of the smoke monster, (likely in the shape
of his former body) the Egyptians finished the donkey wheel apparatus, hence
why there is hieroglyphics and man-made structures down there. Unfortunately
for the Man in Black, he was no longer a man anymore, so even though his donkey
wheel creation did in fact work as he thought it would, he could not turn the
wheel and teleport himself off the island because he was not actually human
anymore and was bound to the island. This must have been the point at which he
decided that Jacob needed to die in order to break the spell that was trapping
him in the first place. Once Jacob was dead, it was the Smoke Monster’s
intention to kill all potential candidates as well, in order to complete the
elimination of an island protector, thus setting him free of this curse. It was
only at the very end, with knowledge of the information that Charles Widmore
gave him that Smokey came to the realization that he could destroy the entire
island and finally do away with all potential candidates and new island
protectors in one fell swoop.
Did Ajira 316 make it off the island and land safely? I
think it did, but that question is very unimportant to me because regardless of
their story, the island still exists and people from the main lands still know
about it, will try to find it and will most likely try to exploit it
eventually. After all, we don’t know when Eloise passed away and she had a
method for locating it. We don’t know who Ben’s butcher friends are, but it’s
safe to assume they know about the island and will at some point try to access
it for some reason. I think it’s also safe to assume that people will
accidentally stumble upon the island. I know it’s almost blasphemous to claim
that anything happens by accident when it comes to Lost and the island, but instead of accident, let’s call it fate.
As indicated by Ben when Hurley was first coming to grips with his new
position, there was Jacob’s way and there will be Hurley’s way, which might be
a better way. So I don’t think Hurley will call out to people and bring or push
them towards the island like Jacob did, but when they come, they will fight,
corrupt and destroy. How Hurley deals with those situations is up to him, but
amongst the new visitors there will be candidates to become the new protector
of the island, and when destiny somehow brings Walt back to the island, he will
eventually be ushered in as the new protector.
The only thing left to ponder in my mind is why there were
fertility and pregnancy issues on the island from the late 1970’s to the
present. (Assuming that Ethan’s birth is an indication that pregnancy was not a
problem on the island before the late 1970’s) That being the case, I think that
it is safe to assume that it was the incident of drilling into the
electromagnetic energy at the building site of the swan station that was
causing the fertility/pregnancy issues. ‘The Others’ probably realized that
this unstable electromagnetic radiation was a potential cause for the pregnancy
problems, which is why they recruited Juliet to the island since through her
work and research she had been able to successfully impregnate her sister, who
had previously not been able to conceive because of her radiation cancer
treatment. So to truly tie it up in a nice, neat little package, let’s assume
that women can now conceive and give birth on the island without complications
since the pocket of energy below the swan station was fully released and is no
longer a threat after Desmond turned the failsafe key below the hatch. Unless
of course there were always
pregnancy problems on the island for those that conceived and tried to give
birth on the island, but that would mean that Horace and Amy had to have
traveled off the island to conceive Ethan. I am cool with either scenario being
the truth.
So that’s that! I am at peace with it all. I have the
answers to the questions that I wanted, even the ones that I had to piece
together on my own. The clues were there and I am sure there are more of them planted
in places that we didn’t realize before. With each time we watch the series, we
pick up on something, or even more importantly learn something new. Lost was such an amazing show because it
was not just a thorough and entertaining piece of writing, it was an experience.
The psychological and spiritual journey that Lost takes the viewer on is unlike any show I have ever seen
before. Shows before Lost and shows
after Lost will certainly exercise
your brain, but Lost begs you to ask
questions about faith, love, purpose and the development of the character and
person that we are now and will become. Throughout the course of the series,
the characters, relationships, hardships, situations, decisions, reactions,
reconciliations and redemptions were all a metaphor for real life. That is why
a large majority, if not all of their fan base (myself included) can find a way
to relate or become inspired by Lost,
which is also why I am happy that the writers didn’t give us all the answers,
because in life we can never have all the answers to all of our questions, and
it is our imagination, creativity and blind faith that keeps us going despite
our unanswered questions that we’ll never get the answers to. Or at least not
until we find each other and that enlightenment in our ‘sideways world’.