I've figured out the flash-sidways (spoilers up to Dr Linus)

[propita]

Ooh...maybe...just maybe...the flash-sideways are actually somehow Jacob's/Smokey's way of judging the Losties. Not a purgatory per se, but a way to see how they would respond in certain situations to determine their future role on the Island.

^Exactly what I'm trying to say. Just better and more concise.

A sort of purgatory, as it's a judgment ground for their souls, but not quite the Catholic idea of it, where they died to get to it and are now being purified for heaven.

Ditto

 

[RoJoHen]

Oh look, a theory that makes sense!

I can't wait until next week when something happens that completely ruins it!

 

[Jenee]

I give them thought only because these are the writers of Lost we're talking about. Nothing they have done has been meaningless. The flashbacks and flashforwards of previous seasons have always been, in some way, relevant to the present-day story on the Island.

If the flashsideways are just "what-if" scenarios with no real connection to the Island story, then that's really lame.

I agree. But, I can't see how they're relevant.

[...]

Well. That's interesting. I can't imagine how they're going to merge the two - or why, but ... I hope it's interesting.

 

[RoJoHen]

I give them thought only because these are the writers of Lost we're talking about. Nothing they have done has been meaningless. The flashbacks and flashforwards of previous seasons have always been, in some way, relevant to the present-day story on the Island.

If the flashsideways are just "what-if" scenarios with no real connection to the Island story, then that's really lame.

I agree. But, I can't see how they're relevant.

Well, no, neither can I. That's the whole point of speculating.

 

[Jenee]

Ok. I'll agree with that.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The flash sideways are connected to the island storyline.

Are you basing that on this comment?

"People are saying [they] don't need these stories and all we can say is they're absolutely 100 percent necessary to tell the story of Lost, and hopefully by the end of the season it will be more obvious as to why," he said.

He could mean that telling the "story of Lost" requires that we come to a greater understanding about these characters and the choices they make in each reality. That understanding could happen because we are watching the two stories and comparing them - the plotlines won't need to literally intersect in order for the story to be fully told.

This format of storytelling isn't unusual and it doesn't mean the story is badly written. Just this morning I read a review of a play called The Pride that uses the same structure - three characters in two different time periods. Same actor playing the same characters in two different realities, but their stories never intersect. The connection occurs in the audience's mind.

Come to think of it - doesn't The French Lieutenant's Woman use the same kind of structure?

I agree. But, I can't see how they're relevant.

After seeing this week's episode, I understand how Ben's flash-sideways is relevant to my understanding of the character of Ben who is on the island. The stories haven't intersected yet, and I get the connection. So it's not necessary for Ben's plotlines to literally intersect - I get what the writers are trying to tell me already.

To put it another way: why assume that the plotline is the writers' main concern? Maybe the characters are their main concern, and they create a plotline or several plotlines to serve the characters.

I don't think it's purgatory, and I suspect the stories aren't meant to intersect. Everyone needs to stop thinking so literally.

 

[Hunter X]

^I assume that the sideways story will literally intersect with the Island story somehow because that's been the style of Lost so far. It's a show with a lot of symbolism and literary allusions, but I don't believe it's the sort of show that will actually dedicate a plotline to such things. I agree that it can, and has, worked in other stories and other formats, but it's not following the precident Lost has set for storytelling so far. Any major plotlines introduced have always been a literal part of the story, something that eventually adds to the mythology of the show. To say that the sideways-flashes are storytelling techniques that flesh out the characters and nothing more just isn't in keeping with the way Lost has told its story.

 

[label]

The flash sideways are connected to the island storyline.

Are you basing that on this comment?

"People are saying [they] don't need these stories and all we can say is they're absolutely 100 percent necessary to tell the story of Lost, and hopefully by the end of the season it will be more obvious as to why," he said.

He could mean that telling the "story of Lost" requires that we come to a greater understanding about these characters and the choices they make in each reality. That understanding could happen because we are watching the two stories and comparing them - the plotlines won't need to literally intersect in order for the story to be fully told.

Of course you're correct about them not "having" to literally intersect. However, given Lost's track record I can't see them providing us with half a season of sideway's flashes merely to provide us with insight into each of the characters.

I could certainly be wrong. That being said, I hope I'm not because if the stories don't literally intersect then either they are what you theorize, windows into their souls, or they are the epilogue of the story being presented concurrently with the climax (which would be sort of neat and original) and I don't really prefer either of those.

 

[coolghoul]

[...]

Well. That's interesting. I can't imagine how they're going to merge the two - or why, but ... I hope it's interesting.

Well, I posted my theory earlier in the thread that we are seeing their eventual futures in the flash-sideways.

But either it is the most popular/evident theory (and therefore is too obvious to comment on) or I wasn't able to have what I wrote make sense.

 

[Jenee]

I don't see how it could be their eventual futures because most of the people are dead. The one's who aren't - Jack doesn't have a teenage son in this reality. Locke doesn't get along with his father. Sayid's love isn't married to his brother.

 

[coolghoul]

Thanks for responding, Jenee.

Your question is legit. But I don't think the climax is going to be setup in the current Lost-Island time period (which seems to be Oceanic + 3 years later). I think they are at some point going to go back in time and change things at the same time that the bomb was going off at the time of season 5 finale. That would completely wipe out the island timelines and we will eventually result in the only timeline remaining being the one currently being shown in the flash-sideways.

The flash-sideways is different from what we know about the Losties because the timeline diverges at a point earlier (I think it's the instant of the bomb going off in 1977) than Oceanic 815's flight. That is the only way that Jack can have a kid, Ben can be a teacher (instead of being on the island attending a book club session with Juliet)and so on.

 

[Jenee]

So, you think we're seeing "what happens after the end of the story", before the story ends?

 

[coolghoul]

Yes. Exactly.

And thank you for clarifying for everybody in *one sentence* what I've been trying to say in my totally inadequate way for a few posts!

Man - I feel *dumb*!

 

[Jenee]

Ok. Well, I guess that kinda makes sense.

In order for their lives to be "good", they had to go through the trials of the island, as well as going back in time to alter future events.

 

[bigdaddy]

I don't think you are right, and I hope you aren't right, but it is an interesting theory.

 

[Mojochi]

So, you think we're seeing "what happens after the end of the story", before the story ends?

I've been starting to think that as well. Telling two stories is what they've always done. The entire show's "Flash" phenomenon has been used to develop our characters. What better way to complete their story arcs than to finish them that way. Treating them not just as the characters who have been lost for six seasons, but rather as the characters who came to the island lost. Why they were lost, took us six seasons to discover, & it all started with specific events, in their history, i.e. Sawyer's parents dying. This is why the lighthouse mirror shows those visions

These events were a turning point, where their lives went down a path toward them being the lost people we met in season one. These new realities, are the people they should have been, were they to not let these life altering events effect them the same way. They are now the people who have learned the necessary lesson, that we've been watching them learn over the whole series, on the island

I'm not entirely certain that this suggests the island is purgatory, or a guardian angel, like in "It's A Wonderful Life" but it just seems that this time on the island was there for them to learn who they are & should be, & this alternate reality is them now living with that understanding

This will have to make sense in the island reality too, because the island is also a character, otherwise, why show us all the Dharma stuff, & other island history. I'm certain, by the end, they will have given us a better understanding of what the island is, or represents, such that these people's lives have had this development there. Will they answer all our questions? No, but I think we'll be able to piece together many answers we seek, once we start connecting the dots, by examining the entire series, as a whole

We'll be pondering this story for some while, after the finale airs, without a doubt.

 

[Hunter X]

Yeah, whatever it is, I don't think any of us have it 100% right. But that's why Lost is fun.

That said, I'm hoping that the ending does not involve either of these options:
1. I hope it's not a reset. So all of those theorizing that it's what happens after the climax, that these characters get a new start on life...well, I hope you're wrong. No hard feelings. I don't want to see Sun and Jin going back to the "button up" couple. I don't want to see Sawyer without all of the development his character's gone through in the past five seasons. I don't want the dead characters to come back for real, tragic as some of their stories may be. Although I think I'd give Locke a second chance at life. His was just so sad the first time around. A reset isn't good storytelling, to me. It's an easy out. The characters should always finish their story with scars, whether it's a happy or sad ending overall.
2. I hope it literally connects to the Island at some point, for reasons I've already mentioned above. I don't have a problem with alternate realities used as a storytelling technique, used in the way Temis is describing. I just don't think it fits with Lost: The button was real. Charlie really died. Dead is dead and whatever happened, happened. The show sticks to what it tells us, literally, no matter how weird it gets. I don't see why it would stop now.

But if it does end up being one of those two things, well, then that's the story the show-runners wanted to tell and I'm just along for the ride. A ride I've enjoyed thus far, and I think I'll always consider Lost one of the best shows ever to be on TV just for what they've done up to this point.

 

[Checkmate]

I seriously doubt if it'll be a reset or disassociated with the island. The whole point of this season is to explain exactly what the island is (hence the four-letter riddle floating around) and why it's so important to the rest of the world.

 

[coolghoul]

Yeah, whatever it is, I don't think any of us have it 100% right. But that's why Lost is fun.

Hell yeah. The whole point of the thing is to kibbitz about what it could be. (Which is why I was disheartened by being ignored! )

I still remember the time when I was certain that the "monster" on the island was a rogue elephant. (That's when I believed the writers when they said this isn't sci-fi). And boy, did I turn up wrong there.

Tho' I wish I was one of those who came up with the Ron-is-Dumbledore guys. The whole point of the thing is to try to come up with theories that shed a completely different light on things.

1. I hope it's not a reset. So all of those theorizing that it's what happens after the climax, that these characters get a new start on life...well, I hope you're wrong. No hard feelings. I don't want to see Sun and Jin going back to the "button up" couple. I don't want to see Sawyer without all of the development his character's gone through in the past five seasons. I don't want the dead characters to come back for real, tragic as some of their stories may be. Although I think I'd give Locke a second chance at life. His was just so sad the first time around. A reset isn't good storytelling, to me. It's an easy out. The characters should always finish their story with scars, whether it's a happy or sad ending overall.

But Sun and Jin will have another chance to grow up from being the "button up" couple. That is what we are in a way seeing in the flash-sideways. Where the new people are going thru life and seemingly making better choices. (Not always great, of course). But Ben does decide to do good by somebody he thinks highly off and Jack does try to become a good parent. Kate does stop running (even for a little while).

Similarly we might see in the future eps of this season Sun and Jin make "better" choices and also "Sawyer" lose his "can't stop conning people cos my life was destroyed by a conman" attitude.

Actually I am not certain that Jin is married to Sun in the flash-sideways yet. But that's another story.

I don't think you are right, and I hope you aren't right, but it is an interesting theory.

.



Well I do have another theory that I mentioned in my post. I mentioned it briefly in my previous post. This means that the world outside the island currently is the world from flash-sideways but 3 years later.

So, the Widmore that we saw coming to the island isn't a Ben-hating guy. For all we know he was one of the others on the island at the time of jughead and then around 1977, he was off the island - the whole past where him and Ben have the big "we are enemies" thing never happens. He might be somebody that has interacted with all the flash-sideways people and maybe there are a few of those people too on his sub who will be arriving at the island.

I don't know where that will take us... but it's a theory...

How do you like that?

 

[McCoy]

Interesting. So many of these people now exist in two places in the physical world.