[I've been getting terrific responses to my latest round of "What (TF) is going on on LOST" (keep it coming, lovely LOST readers!). Many responses were in the same vein, so I've created a separate post to address the primary question.]
Question: "What you're doing with your theory makes sense, but one thing gives me pause. How will Team LOST explain a complete backstory [of the island] like the one you outline here with only 4 hours left to go on the show?"
Answer: They won't.
I strongly advise we prepare ourselves accordingly.
The only way Team LOST can defintively demonstrate that the LOST world is like the one I describe in my posts (not physically real) would be to include a scene that shows someone working on or waking up OUTSIDE the system in the end. Problem is, that ONE scene will make 99% of LOST fans across the planet mad at Team LOST for all time.
There's no way ABC/Disney will let that happen. My best guess is that LOST will resolve the current story line -- connecting, transferring and correcting everyone's personality in the "sideways" -- and that will be the only resolution we'll get. Period.
In short, I think they have NO intention of explaining the island at all.
RECALLING TOTAL RECALL
I'm betting LOST will play out the same way Total Recall did.
This 1990 film staring Arnold Swartzenegger was about "Douglas," a regular Joe content with his life, who goes to a facility [against the advice of his way-hot wife, Sharon Stone], where customers design the fantasy they want and pay to have it implanted as a VR/dream experience into their brains. Arnold skips a tropical vacation and chooses a fight-the-bad-guys, "guy" adventure. Unfortunately, something goes wrong during the implantation process, and he wakes up struggling and screaming about how his mission is being compromised. They knock him out. When he finally comes to, he unovers a corporate conspiracy that will kill everyone on Mars (don't ask). He starts killing everyone, mainly with whatever's handy, trying to get to Mars to expose the conspiracy and save the day.
Halfway-ish through the movie, his wife brings in a doctor who tells him everything he's currently experiencing is a dream. He is lost in a VR fantasy world experience. To "wake up" he'll need to take a pill to symbolically acknowledge "the truth" (kinda like pill choice in The Matrix). If he takes the pill, he'll wake up back in his old life and everything will be fine. If he refuses the pill, he'll be lost in this fantasy world forever and end up hopelessly insane.
Naturally, Arnold refuses, kills everyone (again) and continues on his "mission." The trick for us as the audience is this: it's NEVER clear in the film whether the doctor was telling the truth OR if he was part of the conspiracy. Basically, we never know if our guy has chosen to stay crazy or if he's beaten the bad guys at their own game.
In the end, Arnold's mission is successful, he gets the girl, rights the wrongs, and saves all the deformed-yet-psychic people on Mars (don't ask). However, everything that happens to him is the exact story line of the VR vacation he paid to have implanted at the beginning of the movie. When all is good and right in the world again (or Mars, in this case) Arnold says something about how it all seemed like a dream. Fade to black. Roll credits.
We could argue till the cows come home over whether or not Arnold's experience is real or not and never come up with a definitive answer. Neither side can be validated (as right OR wrong) because there's ZERO conclusive evidence anywhere in the film. When the film came out (and made a LOT of money), Team Total Recall specifically avoided revealing "the answer," saying that it was up to the audience and part of the fun of enjoying the movie.
Fans didn't and still don't bother arguing about Total Recall because that movie was on this side of "who cares?" However, fans arguing about LOST, especially online, has been the show's bread and butter from the start. The show's ambiguity makes MONEY.
"LESBIANS EQUAL RATINGS" -- HOWARD STERN, PRIVATE PARTS (1997)
In the end, I think we'll be given what we were promised: an ending of the story via resolution of the characters. By that I mean we won't be left wondering whatever happened to Sayid or whether or not Sun and Jin escape her father for good or if Claire decides to keep Aaron or put him up for adoption. Those things will be resolved in the "New World," the sideways world.
We might EVEN be told what happens to "save the day" on the island (my call: Jack's gonna sacrifice himself to stop Mock Locke). Maybe.
But we will NOT be told where the island came from, or whatever was up with the flash forwards, or how these characters are shifting from the island to the "sideways world." The mechanics of the island, what happens to the island after the last lostie leaves, where Smokey came from -- all of those things will be left open to interpretation.
This does two things:
- It fails to validate the teeny, tiny minority of fans (including ME) who can prove the story of LOST does not take place in a physical world (with the evidence). The sh&t we've put up with for the last six years will increase and continue, and we'll be marginalized for all time. [Thanks for nuthin,' guys.]
- It creates a solid basis for ambiguity and debate that will continue to sell the series long after it ends.
Heed my warning! As the finale approaches, prepare yourself to NOT know anything definitive about the island. If this bothers you, consider: in the studio film/TV biz, regardless of ANY other factor, it always, always, ALWAYS comes down to the money in the end.
"THE END"
I'm so sure Team LOST is gonna screw me over, I already hate them for it. I figure, that way I won't be disappointed, and at least I'll get to be definitively right about SOMETHING. I'll still love the show, write about the show and hang out with my LOST pals. I'll still think the show is brilliant and benchmark and worthy of academic study.
But I'll never forgive them for this one act: condemning me and fans like me to a lifetime of helplessly arguing the evidence to a legion of fans who'll say, "If that's true, then why didn't they tell us?"
Do I understand it? Yes. Am I surprised? Not really.
Do I think it's unfair for them to ride the thematic fence like a bunch of spineless, mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy corporate whores?
Abso-f***ing-lutely.
END NOTE
AMY'S ENDGAME THEORY: Basically, I think in the end ALL of our losties will "die" on the island, and whoever's the last one to "die" will make the difference. The island world will "disappear," the "sideways" world will remain, but we won't be told exactly how or why. I also think that Jack and Kate will hook up in the sideways world, but we'll only see the POTENTIAL for them to end up together. As in, Q: "What do you think happened to Jack and Kate after the show ended?" A: "I think it's obvious from what we saw that they end up together."
This post created by Amy/aohora for LOSTblog.com.
