Rather than a completely merged hybrid of the realities, you could simply have one or two characters permanently cross over from one to the other. Not have their consciousness transfer over. Have their physical body transfer over. For example, alt-Locke could cross over into the prime reality and replace the now-dead Locke Prime.
Poll : Which Reality will the show end on?
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Maybe they said the flashsideways timeline isn't an alternate timeline because it's the main one. And maybe everything we've seen on the show is just a sojourn from that "main" timeline.
My guess is that there is only one full-scale reality, which contains a separate mini-universe (the Island). The timelines of each is mostly shielded from the other. So, changes in one timeline won't necessarily affect the other, except in extreme cases like exploding the nuke in the pocket of energy.
So, what we're calling the flash-sideways reality is the only full-scale reality. It is the main timeline. It was just modified by the events on the island. So, there's no way to go back to the 815 crashes reality. That has been changed to the FS reality.
The big question is, do the islanders stay on the island, or do they go to the mainland, which would require bringing MiB with them. Presumably MiB will make returning to reality very attractive to them personally. So, it'll become a question of personal benefit versus global costs of having a manipulative smoke monster running around.
Enter the reason why the writers have taken so much effort to make us care about the new reality. The islanders will have to forgo what their mainland counterparts have acquired. Which in some cases, (Hugo with Libby, Jack with his son) would be difficult. But, other cases not so much (Sayid), although even he would know that Nadya is alive.
Mr Awe
So, what we're calling the flash-sideways reality is the only full-scale reality. It is the main timeline. It was just modified by the events on the island. So, there's no way to go back to the 815 crashes reality. That has been changed to the FS reality.
The big question is, do the islanders stay on the island, or do they go to the mainland, which would require bringing MiB with them. Presumably MiB will make returning to reality very attractive to them personally. So, it'll become a question of personal benefit versus global costs of having a manipulative smoke monster running around.
Enter the reason why the writers have taken so much effort to make us care about the new reality. The islanders will have to forgo what their mainland counterparts have acquired. Which in some cases, (Hugo with Libby, Jack with his son) would be difficult. But, other cases not so much (Sayid), although even he would know that Nadya is alive.
Mr Awe
I think the flash-sideways will remain (as a result of the actions taken in the Series Finale) but the Losties in the flash-sideways will be affected by the Lost island reality. Carry over scars, memories, everything. Kinda like TNG's Inner Light (the one where Picard learns to play the flute! 
) or the DS9 ep where O'Brien spends several years in confinement.
) or the DS9 ep where O'Brien spends several years in confinement.
But those are two separate realities from each other - if that's what they mean, they are really being devious!
After this week's ep, I'm getting the strong impression that the flashsideways characters are remembering the other reality on the island because that is their past. There can't be two independent realities with two Sun's and two Jin's and two Sawyers, etc. That wouldn't work dramatically because only one of each character is the "real" one for us. They need to literally be the same people, just at different points in their lives, or else the audience will feel cheated that they're watching a bunch of new characters whose stories we haven't spent years fretting and theorizing over.
Something will happen in the series finale that knocks everything on its head and sinks the island. The whole world forgets about the famous Flight 815, and so do all the characters. They don't remember they were on a Flight 815 before. That also explains why Desmond was on the plane - it's not the same Flight 815.
Dead characters like Charlie and Boone will come back to life. The original Locke also revives, yippe! I dunno about Shannon and Juliet. I guess it depends on what happens in the finale, who gets resurrected and who stays dead. Jack's son suddenly pops into being, and both he and Jack, and Jack's ex-wife remember a past that never actually happened, with the kid being born and growing up. Sun and Jin don't recall being married before. Ji Yeon has sadly blipped out of existence but presumably she's re-blipped into fetal stage. Ditto for Aaron.
The finale has the characters increasingly remembering their former lives and realizing their current reality and memories are all wrong. How that situation is resolved, whoooh, I have no idea, but I'm sure that it happens because Smoky gets off the island and timeline havoc is the result.
This is pretty crazy shit, but I'm going with it as my prediction. It's really the only scenario that I can think of that will work dramatically without feeling like a cheat or that this season has been a waste of time.
The one thing that would upend this theory is: has the year the flashsideways are taking place in ever been established? It "should" be happening in November 2004, right?
^^ I don't know. I suspect the islanders either die or are permanently marooned on the island in order to keep the FS timeline (the only timeline outside the island in my theory) intact. They are separate characters but they shall never met. Perhaps the islanders will somehow see the FS timeline and choose to defend it even requires a sacrifice.
Mr Awe
Mr Awe
Lindelof established in a podcast that the date of flight 815 in the flashsideways is the same as the date in the pilot episode, September something 2004. Claire's ultrasound machine had the date off by a month, late October 2004, but Lindelof's explanation was that the machine was malfunctioning.
Lindelof established in a podcast that the date of flight 815 in the flashsideways is the same as the date in the pilot episode, September something 2004. Claire's ultrasound machine had the date off by a month, late October 2004, but Lindelof's explanation was that the machine was malfunctioning.
Then that means the only on-show date for the FS reality is unreliable! It could be any year.
Okay the one thing I'm sure of: the flashsideways characters are the same people as the normal reality characters. The FS's must be in the future (their own future). But the world around them isn't necessarily real.
I wouldn't put it past the writers to create some kind of virtual or "test" world for the characters, to trap them in and see how their lives would play out if the crash hadn't occurred. It could also be a purgatory-style supernatural test as opposed to a scientific one (the characters are all asleep in VR machines or whatnot). The year appears to be 2004 because that's part of the faked reality.
The purpose is to see which of the final candidates should win the prize. Everyone is involved since the characters all interact.
I wouldn't put it past the writers to create some kind of virtual or "test" world for the characters, to trap them in and see how their lives would play out if the crash hadn't occurred. It could also be a purgatory-style supernatural test as opposed to a scientific one (the characters are all asleep in VR machines or whatnot). The year appears to be 2004 because that's part of the faked reality.
The purpose is to see which of the final candidates should win the prize. Everyone is involved since the characters all interact.
Yeah, I also think that the "flash-sideways" characters are remembering their past lives in the main universe. Something happens that resets the world and everyone gets an alternate life. Then they all remember their previous lives and have to band together to... do something.
Makes me wonder if this is the first time this has happened. Maybe they're all going round and round through alternate lives until they get it right. That might explain all of the strange coincidences in the season 1-3 flashbacks.
Makes me wonder if this is the first time this has happened. Maybe they're all going round and round through alternate lives until they get it right. That might explain all of the strange coincidences in the season 1-3 flashbacks.
Perhaps only the dead will get the sideways universe (as a reward). Those few that choose to stay on the island - Jack, for instance, will know that they are giving up some happiness (his son) for the greater good of the island.
Having said that, we can expect most of the main characters to die in the island reality so they can live out the sideways reward.
Could be Jack, could be Hugo (I can see him readily giving up his successful off island life, even without Libby, to save everyone else. The last seen shows him standing on the beach alone - or is he? (pull back and all the dead characters are standing on the beach with him)
Having said that, we can expect most of the main characters to die in the island reality so they can live out the sideways reward.
Could be Jack, could be Hugo (I can see him readily giving up his successful off island life, even without Libby, to save everyone else. The last seen shows him standing on the beach alone - or is he? (pull back and all the dead characters are standing on the beach with him)
You referring to Jack's "What happened, happened" line?
Wowza, with major characters falling right and left, those flashsideways had better be a virtual reality or purgatory style scenario. It ain't right to kill off characters when their stories are left so unfinished.
At the rate they're going, I think all the characters will be dead by the end of the series finale - but we've already seen how the story really ends.
Something about the flash-sideways determines which of the candidates takes Jacob's place. My brain is too overloaded to figure this out right now, but the whole thing strikes me as one big gigantic test.
Locke and Sayid are the most obvious characters who CANNOT be dead for real and ever. That would be criminally unsatisfying!
At the rate they're going, I think all the characters will be dead by the end of the series finale - but we've already seen how the story really ends.
Something about the flash-sideways determines which of the candidates takes Jacob's place. My brain is too overloaded to figure this out right now, but the whole thing strikes me as one big gigantic test.
^^ I don't know. I think that while this cycle may have happened before of finding replacements. Jacob may have been a replacement for someone/thing. This seems like it's the end of the cycle. Clearly MiB's goal is to end the cycle at least by killing all of the candidates off. Doesn't mean it will happen.
There also seems to be the implication that even though Jacob is dead, the candidate selection process can continue and someone can still be selected. Something knows that there are still candidates alive and hence MiB cannot get off the island. Apparently the test runs independentally of Jacob.
I guess we'll see if the cycle ends or there is a replacement. Agree that it seems like a big test.
Mr Awe
There also seems to be the implication that even though Jacob is dead, the candidate selection process can continue and someone can still be selected. Something knows that there are still candidates alive and hence MiB cannot get off the island. Apparently the test runs independentally of Jacob.
I guess we'll see if the cycle ends or there is a replacement. Agree that it seems like a big test.
Mr Awe
Well this thread is certainly interesting now! I find it really interesting how the writers did succeed in avoiding the "emotionally unsatisfying" options of negating either of the realities, or having the flashsideways characters be mere dopplegangers of the real characters.
That left us with only the future of the Losties, but in an unreal place where the world's amnesia about the famous 815 survivors could be explained. I think I would have preferred it to be a hallucination/test vs the afterlife.
Tsk tsk. He lied.
I find it really interesting how the writers did succeed in avoiding the "emotionally unsatisfying" options of negating either of the realities, or having the flashsideways characters be mere dopplegangers of the real characters.That left us with only the future of the Losties, but in an unreal place where the world's amnesia about the famous 815 survivors could be explained. I think I would have preferred it to be a hallucination/test vs the afterlife.
And that would have solved the problem that people are bitching about - the flashsideways had no purpose in the story.
Tsk tsk. He lied.
