S5 finale speculation no spoilers beyond some vague hints...

[Temis the Vorta]

Just for the hell of it, list what you think will happen in the finale that could possibly top the flash forward and island vanishing. Michael Emerson gives some vague hints, but this thread is just for speculation, no actual spoilers (if known):

As a Lost fan yourself, how shocking did you find this season's finale? Is it more shocking or less that the season-three finale where we learned Jack and Kate got off the Island?
Ours is a show that specializes in big shock endings, but I think season five...None of the other shock endings left me wondering how the show goes on. We have two kinds of huge shocks at the end of this one. Each one alone would be enough to keep an audience eating its own soul for the whole hiatus, but with two, I don't know what you can do with that.


It's like nine months until season six! We're gonna die!
[Laughs] It's going to be a long one. I'm sorry.

And I can just hear that evil laugh of his, too.

Well the obvious one is that Jack succeeds in his quixotic quest to change history and then the entire cast forgets that they know each other. The last scene is them landing uneventfully at LAX. But since that's entirely too predictable, how about:

1. The entire main cast dies (except for Juliet because we expect that - no, she dies too).

2. The entire island explodes.

2. The entire planet explodes.

3. Someone switches off the holosuite.

4. The island turns into a giant, fanged mouth and eats everyone.

5. Everyone wakes up one morning and the ocean is...gone!

6. Yknow that "fake" plane crash Widmore staged? Widmore faked that he faked it. Heh heh. No, I'm not letting that theory go! Otherwise why was Daniel crying over a fake plane crash?

 

[Hober Mallow]

Well the obvious one is that Jack succeeds in his quixotic quest to change history and then the entire cast forgets that they know each other. The last scene is them landing uneventfully at LAX. But since that's entirely too predictable...

...then it's probably going to be the one that happens.

Jus' kiddin'.

How about a Robert Heinlein ending where we find out that Jack is actually every character we've ever met on the show from a different time period, including the Smoke Monster and the Island itself?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

None of the characters are real. They are all merely manifestations of the island's subconscious.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

That or they're all inside Libbys head

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I think it'll end with Jughead going kaboom, and Jack, Sawyer, and Kate (along with Jin and Hurley) caught in the explosion, hence Emerson wondering how the show goes on without them.

 

[Mr Light]

Jack will attempt to nuke the Swan to prevent the Incident... but this IS the Incident. The explosion transports all the time displaced characters back to 2007, and the entire cast is finally reunited for the first time since 4X1... only to be captured by the newly arrived NuDharma Initiative! Ilana got the location to her people and we see their massive flotilla arriving offshore... LOST!

 

[chrisspringob]

It's hard to imagine what twist could be so big that it would cause people to wonder how the show could go on. I wonder if he's just engaging in hyperbole. A couple of obvious possibilities for a big twist:

-Jacob turns out to be a future incarnation of one of the main characters.
-The Losties stuck in 1977 turn out to have been hiding on the island for 30 years, and aged versions of them show up in 2007.

Other possible twists:

-One of the main characters (Locke? Hurley?) knows much more about the island than they've let on, and have known it for ages, but have been hiding it from everyone.
-We get a BSG-like "one year later" jump in time, except maybe it'll be something enormous, like "100 years later"....the story picks up in 2100, but everyone still looks youthful because they've been drinking the same "anti-aging" juice that Richard drinks.
-The entire world is destroyed, except for the Island, which is protected.
-The Island is destroyed in the Incident. Everyone on the Island is transported to safety in Ancient Egypt, where refugees from the Island develop Egyptian mythology.

Oh, regarding more serious speculation, I think we'll get some kind of answer to these two dangling threads:

1) Why did Hurley get on Ajira Flight 316 (I think it'll have something to do with Jacob)?
2) What was going on with those people firing at Sawyer & co. in the canoes (in "The Little Prince")? (Presumably, this is Ilana's group who was shooting at them.)

I also think that Ilana's group will inevitably run into the Others, and there'll be some kind of confrontation. Also, something happening in 2007 will end up having ripple effects back in time and lead to the Incident.

[All of this is speculation. I haven't read any spoilers.]

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The more I think about it, the more I think the Widmore fake crash has got to turn out to be real. All the Losties die - which leaves us to wonder how the heck the story can go on?

The Losties time travel and end up back on Flight 815, but have their own memories. The plane is on a collision course with the island again. But since the Losties all know each other, they can concoct a quick plan - which will involve getting the gun away from the US Marshall who has Kate in custody (did the gang ever see where the guy keeps his gun? Jack saw when he took it from him while trying to treat his injuries, right? can't recall the exact sequence). Then they use the gun to hijack the plane and fly it anywhere besides the island, but they crash anyway. Jack gets them all killed!

And the nice thing about this is that the past doesn't need to change since the crashed plane is already part of the timeline. Predestination rules!

 

[Hober Mallow]

-Jacob turns out to be a future incarnation of one of the main characters.

Unlikely considering...

Spoiler: jacob

A young actor was cast to play Jacob.

 

[chrisspringob]

The Losties time travel and end up back on Flight 815, but have their own memories. The plane is on a collision course with the island again. But since the Losties all know each other, they can concoct a quick plan - which will involve getting the gun away from the US Marshall who has Kate in custody (did the gang ever see where the guy keeps his gun? Jack saw when he took it from him while trying to treat his injuries, right? can't recall the exact sequence). Then they use the gun to hijack the plane and fly it anywhere besides the island, but they crash anyway. Jack gets them all killed!

Hmmmm....do they have the budget to bring back all the "dead" 815ers as guest stars in one episode for just one scene? Maybe they can solve that with creative camera angles. You know, not everyone who was on the plane has to be featured.....Charlie was sleeping in his seat. Shannon and Anna Lucia were in the bathroom, etc.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Then again, the "Widmore faked the fake crash" scenario has nothing to do with the bomb. Probably what we'll get is a mushroom cloud over the island, and it clearing to reveal that the island has been blown to smithereens, as the final image of the episode.

Which leaves the possibility that they all skedaddled underground. Maybe there's a really BIG fallout shelter/network of tunnels down there?

 

[chrisspringob]

Which leaves the possibility that they all skedaddled underground. Maybe there's a really BIG fallout shelter/network of tunnels down there?

Yes, they could save $ big time by setting all of Season 6 underground. Just use the cave sets from Berman era Star Trek. those things have more than stood the test of time.

 

[zengoth]

The Losties time travel and end up back on Flight 815, but have their own memories. The plane is on a collision course with the island again. But since the Losties all know each other, they can concoct a quick plan - which will involve getting the gun away from the US Marshall who has Kate in custody (did the gang ever see where the guy keeps his gun? Jack saw when he took it from him while trying to treat his injuries, right? can't recall the exact sequence). Then they use the gun to hijack the plane and fly it anywhere besides the island, but they crash anyway. Jack gets them all killed!

And the nice thing about this is that the past doesn't need to change since the crashed plane is already part of the timeline. Predestination rules!

the only quirk with this is i've never seen a bit of time travel here that's been so exact - down to the day, the hour, the moment.

Plus, if they do pull off this stunt - doing without all the original cast is going to be a downer (but they DID say, we'd see Rose and Bernard in the finale, so...)

and- what of the non-815 characters we've grown to love (or hate)?

 

[Seven of Five]

Surely the new faction from Flight 316 will show up again? So my speculation is that the Losties will reunite in the present timeline. There's gonna be a Sun/Jin reunion in there somewhere too, IMO. Perhaps the twist will be the reveal of who the 'new' faction is, which could turn out to be Dharma as people have speculated.

And if what Jack is trying to do (blow the Jughead?) ends up causing the Incident in some way, then present-Dharma might have shady motives.

All the talk of resetting the timeline has me half-convinced that will happen now. Maybe not a full wipe though - the Losties land in LA in 2004, but their memories remain unaffected. Some revelation leaves them believing they have to get back to the island - again!