I’d like to welcome my cousin Michelle, who does such an awesome job summarizing her theories on Lost and presenting ideas on some of the unanswered questions, that I’d like to share it with you guys. Enjoy!
The earth exists as a living thing and there is a point where all the energy that allows life comes from. This is the island. It is the ‘heart’ where all the energy, life force, (electromagnetism) exists. This was the light that had to be protected. Just like in acupuncture there are certain parts of the body that when pricked can stop pain etc. There are hot spots on the earth where there is more energy than others. This is what the psychic was talking about to Rose and Bernard when they were looking for a cure for her cancer. She said that she couldn’t be cured there but there was another place that she could (the island).
The island is also where all time exists or comes from like The Dark Tower (Stephen King’s series). Time does not pass there at all or in a different way that is why babies could not be born. At certain points in our time (when the series began for instance) the island appears. Like in Star Trek 2009, Nero had to wait years for Spock to come out of the wormhole, when the time periods lined up. This is why it was necessary to build the pendulum in the church to find out what time and place the island would appear. The church itself may be a hot spot, which is why the pendulum works.
The island does exist physically, it is real and the time our characters spent on the island did happen when they were alive. People (like Widmore/Dharma) believed in its existence and were able to create the pendulum to find it. Just like people have always been searching for Shangri La, Eden, Fountain of Youth etc. Once they found the island they discovered the energy and electromagnetic effects that it had. They began doing experiments to see if they could harness this energy. When they realized the dangers involved, they created the hatch/station with the button to help contain places that they accidentally drilled/released.
They also knew about the island being the center of all time (or that it was only existing at a static point) that was where the bunny experiments came from. They also experimented on other animals (hence the cages) including polar bears. Widmore had a picture of a polar bear on his wall, so he was the one who brought them to the island.
They also began doing psychic experiments. That’s why they wanted Walt, because he had some kind of psychic ability. There were also other people who had psychic abilities like Milo being able to hear dead people and Hugo see/talk to them. I think the psychic storyline was a red herring, something Dharma hippies in the 70′s would be into or simply something intesting to add. The writers incorporated many different philosophies, mythologies, religion, science and that would include things like psychic abilities and numerology.
Desmond is special because he is able to live through exposure to large amounts of electromagnetism. I think it could be like a natural immunity or like why some people are able to live after being hit by lightning. Widmore knew about this and that’s why he wanted to bring Desmond to the island to help him harness this energy. This is also why Desmond was the only one who could open the cork of the island because it was the place of largest concentration of electromagnetism. The cork was keeping the energy from ‘exploding’ and destroying the island and the earth. When Jack went down to put it back, he knew he wouldn’t survive the exposure, that’s why he gave the duty to protect the island to Hugo. The whole point of taking the cork out was to allow Jack to kill the smoke monster. During that period, the island was no longer providing its healing powers so the monster became mortal in Locke’s body. Jack had to put the cork back to save the world and contain the energy again. This was his destiny, which he finally realized.
Like Adam and Eve, Jacob and the Man in Black (and all the protectors of the island) were human. The island has been around forever-exists at all time- that is where the statue and hieroglyphs came from, ancient people that had found the island.
When Jacob put the Man in Black into the light, it killed his mortal body (from exposure) but it released his soul (Terry O’Quinn’s theory on Jimmy Kimmel), which became the black smoke. The smoke was often referred to as the security system; this could be a reference to the fact that he was originally one of the people to potentially protect the island. Why he became smoke, I’m not sure of but would suppose it had to do with the fact that he was ‘bad’, had just killed his mother. He also was not ready to ‘move on’, he wanted to live. He didn’t go into the light voluntarily, he was murdered by Jacob. He always also wanted to leave the island and the only way that he could do that was to become mortal again (by possessing Locke’s body). He was the one who was always speaking to Ben, not Jacob and he was the one who convinced Ben to kill everyone in the Dharma Initiative and to kill Locke and bring his body back. Like the devil, he would promise things like making Ben head of the island, giving Sayid Nadia back etc. He didn’t plan to keep these promises; he just wanted to use them to get off the island. He also hated the island and wanted to destroy it. He didn’t know that destroying the island would destroy the rest of the world (that he wanted to return to), that is why when Desmond released the cork, Jack told Locke that they were both wrong about what was going to happen.
The black smoke was the one that was appearing as dead relatives. He wasn’t physically taking form but he was able to hypnotize or make Jack and the others see what he wanted them to see. Once he was smoke he was able to do things like show them their lives (like Echo), ability he may have gained when he was in the light.
The people in the Dharma initiative were the ones who built Jacob’s cabin as a way of protecting themselves from the black smoke. They referred to it as Jacob’s cabin because Ben thought it was Jacob speaking to him, not MIB. Some people believe that you can protect yourselves from evil spirits by putting ash (across a doorway/in a circle like in the movie The Skeleton Key). I think that is why the ash was around the cabin. The black smoke was trapped in the cabin for a period and that is why he told Ben to kill everyone in Dharma, so he could be released. The Dharma people (who became the Others when Ben took over) obviously knew about the smoke, that’s why they had the sound poles surrounding their camp. The cabin appeared/disappeared because it was built on top of a spot with a high concentration of electromagnetism, so it flipped through time.
The island’s electromagnetic energy is what caused things to crash there (a la Bermuda Triangle). Jacob had a way of manipulating it, that’s why he kept bringing people to the island, to find a replacement/protector. The Dharma people also had found the wheel of time that the Man in Black had started and they got it to work. This wheel allowed the island to be moved to so it could be lined up with a specific point in time. This is how Jacob was able to leave the island and visit our castaways during their lives. It was also how the real Locke was able to get off the island. There was always something special about Locke, which is why he was the one who could be possessed (perhaps it was his faith in the island) by MIB. MIB couldn’t leave until he had a mortal body again.
Just like God put humans in Eden, he put humans in charge of the island. Because we are all human we can make mistakes so there were probably good guardians and bad ones. The guardians are the ones who made the ‘rules’ that is why, Hugo told Ben that they could change the way that the island was run.
The show was always about the characters and their journey/destiny as well as debate over science and faith. Jack had no faith in the beginning, so one of the main points was that he gains faith and ultimately realizes he had a destiny. All of the characters were ‘lost/broken’ in some way and they all needed to come to terms with the wrongs in their lives before they could move on. The final season’s alternate timeline was a purgatory/place that they created to help them live the lives they wanted to live, fix mistakes etc. Once they had done that they were able to move on/go to heaven/ the next world/dimension etc. I interpreted it as them going to heaven but they left it open. In The Dark Tower they were in a world that had ‘moved on’, so depending on your belief they could have moved on to another existence/world/dimension.
They all died at different points but they were all able to meet in this fictional life. They were all important to each other, their experiences on the island (and off for oceanic six) were the most important time in their lives and that is why they needed each other to move on. Jack was always afraid of dying alone (We live together or we die alone) but his father tells him that no one dies alone. This reminded me of Star Trek V when Spock tells Kirk that he shouldn’t have been afraid that he was going to die because he was ‘never alone’.
I believe that Sayid and Shannon were together because they were members of the original crash and those were the people that were all coming together. Also it was a place that they created to finish things that they hadn’t had a chance to. Sayid and Shannon never had a chance to get together because she died before him. Another reason why Shannon may have been important was that she was the one who allowed Sayid to love again. He came to the island a broken, ex-torturer, she allowed him to regain some of his humanity.
Aaron appearing at the church as a baby could also be a result of it being a place that they created (fictional) and Claire and Charlie had only seen Aaron as a baby so that’s the way that they would remember him. It could be that Aaron was able to be born on the island because he was ‘special’ like Desmond, somehow immune to the effects of time. Or there is a certain limited amount of time that the island exists in which includes the few months/weeks that it took for him to be born. Other babies could not age or come to term a full nine months.
After I had written this, I woke up and remembered that Ben and other people did age on the island (Ben grew up there). There were only certain people who were guardians (drank the “blessed” water) that were immortal, like Richard, Jacob and MIB. This means that my theory about the island being stuck in time as the reason for babies not being born is wrong. On the pre-show finale, the creators said that when Jacob touched our heroes during their lives that protected them and meant they wouldn’t die. I don’t see how that could be true because our characters could and did die. But that would be a possible explanation as to why Aaron and Claire survived his birth. As long as they were candidates, they were protected.
My other thought would be that babies couldn’t be born because of either the electromagnetism and/or the closeness to the light/source of all life. I liked my other time theory much better and was really disappointed when I remembered about Ben.
I do think that the creators had a plan and knew what they wanted the final scene to be. But I also think that in order to fill six seasons they had to come up with new mysteries all the time, so that’s why a lot of “mini-mysteries” were left unanswered.
But then I could be wrong about everything too. 
I always envisioned football players having massive out of proportion hormone induced bodies. But that’s not the case at all, thankfully! They are all very tall – Eli Manning is 6’4 and brother Peyton is 6’5 for example. The shortest players like Ahmed Bradshaw are around 5’10. They also don’t have those abnormally big muscles. The linebackers don’t have to worry about running very far since they are responsible for tackling. So they are large (like 350 pounds!) but it’s more from fat than muscle. The others who do have to run are strong but as Goldilocks would say – just right. Like Eli… Do I have to say any more?
*Side note: I was really excited to find out there is an Eli Manning calendar. I was expecting the pics to be like that one. Instead they are like this…what an expression!
There is a great interview with Peyton Manning on the Colts Superbowl DVD, in which he explains his strategy as Quarterback. Unlike many who simply use whatever play was called in the huddle. Peyton will often skip the huddle and decide what play to run after he’s seen how the defense has lined up. In order to tell his offense what play he has chosen, he uses all kinds of weird gestures and code words. The really funny thing is what the plays are called. Like Oklahoma, Bonanza and Ice Cream. It’s very amusing. Although it does kind of take away the drama of the moment.
Ohhh, the drama! Learning about the different team rivalries and behind the scenes action is like following a soap opera. Such as the case when the coach of the San Diego Chargers left for Tampa Bay and gave all of the game tactics to them so they could beat the Chargers in the Superbowl. How awful is that? It’s not only entertaining in a gossipy sort of way. It makes the games more exciting when you know what’s happened before. Case in point: The Colts got to the Playoffs several years in a row, only to be beaten every time by the Patriots. In order to thwart Peyton’s stategy (see above), the defense would change their positions as he was making the calls so he wouldn’t know what they were doing. Also the Patriots fans made even more noise than usual to make it hard for him to communicate. Knowing all that, made watching the 2006 Playoff game when the Colts finally beat them even more intense and their victory all the sweeter.
Another false belief that I had about football was believing that like other sports the game could be somehow rigged. After all they are making tons of money — win or lose, why would they care?
Take for instance, Tony Romo, the Quarterback of the Cowboys. Sure he’s known because he’s dating Jessica Simpson. But did you know that he actually cried when he fumbled the ball, causing the team to lose a playoff? I felt terrible for him but at the same time, it made me see him as human, not just a superstar.
On the other side of the spectrum is the absolute joy that players show when they are winning. No where else can you see grown adult men jump up into each other’s arms in celebration. All the players do this and more – high fives, pat each others backs or butts etc. They will even practice what little dances they are going to do if and when they get a touchdown.
Brett Favre is probably the best example. He’s known not only because he will one day be in the Hall of Fame, he’s also known to be someone who shows to the Nth degree how much fun he is having. He still jumps up and down like a kid who got a pony for Christmas.
I have to admit I used to be really miffed about sports players salaries. And I still believe that they are overpaid but it doesn’t bother me as much. Why? Yes, because in football your career isn’t that long. You are considered an old man if you’re 35. Yes, you are constantly putting your body on the line risking all kinds of broken bones and serious injuries. (Seeing a Cardinal player get knocked unconscious from helmet to helmet contact was very disturbing).
Mostly, though I started thinking about the criticism you are putting yourself in for. A movie star can get their ego hurt by a bad review but it’s so much worse for football players because fans take it so personally. If you are a winner, you’ll be treated like royalty but if you lose… Goodness help you! They couldn’t pay me enough money to have everyone in the city hate me. To have to go into every restaurant or store and have people boo or beat you up. No wonder the players need to have big egos!
The number one reason why I became addicted to football was because of the Superbowl last year when the Giants pulled a remarkable upset, beating the (to that point) undefeated Patriots. Nothing gets the blood pumping more than a game that comes down to the last plays in the final minutes of the game. This can be heartbreaking for the losers, such as the Chargers who lost their last four games in the final 24 seconds. Ouch!
In the case of the Superbowl however it was …different. The Patriots pulled ahead with just 2 minutes and thirty nine seconds left on the clock. Everyone especially the cocky Patriots assumed that it was all over. But Eli remained calm and determined and brought the Giants 82 yards in two minutes and scored the winning touchdown. I still get chills just thinking about it.
Great plays don’t have to come at the end of the game. They can happen anytime. Plays that take your breath away. Like Colts receiver Marvin Harrison making a one handed catch. Or Giants Tight End, Kevin Boss weaving in out and high jumping over a tackler. In the last game against the Eagles, the Giants Kevin Dockery blocked a field goal and ran it back 71 yards for a touchdown in the last seven seconds of the half.
I have to go back to the Superbowl however for the best miracle play. In that last 2 minute 39 second drive. Eli Manning came this close to having the ball intercepted which would have ended the game. On the very next play, he was swamped by Patriots, everyone was sure he was going to be sacked (taken down). But somehow, someway he escaped and just heaved the ball down field 32 yards.
Growing up watching the Twilight Zone on video has both it’s pluses and minuses. On the one hand it made me appreciate a great twist but on the other it made it more difficult to be surprised. Cases in point – “The Sixth Sense” and “Identity”. Both great movies, particularly the latter because I love John Cusack and creepy hotels with people being killed one by one. Unfortunately, unlike many, I guessed the end in the first 10 minutes. Maybe it’s that my mind has become twisted by both The Zone and David Lynch movies. “Lost Highway” is another that I figured out early on. I still enjoy all those movies but I do miss having the “A-HA!” moment that others have. It does make me appreciate all the more those movies that do that for me like any Agatha Christie. She pulled the “Usual Suspects” twist first and the astonishing revelation at the end of “Murder on the Orient Express” left me dropped jawed. “Primal Fear” with Richard Gere defending Ed Norton and “Jacob’s Ladder” with Tim Robbins as a Vietnam vet also did manage to surprise me.
The ending that I absolutely never saw coming was “The Mist” I’m fairly certain there has never been an ending like it before or since. Stephen King had left the short story open and believe me, I would much have preferred that. The real bummer for me was that I was really enjoying the movie up until that point. The characters were interesting, the monsters were scary, the people’s reactions were horrifying. Then BOOM! The end hit me like a ton of elephants. Despite it being ironic and very Twilight Zone-ish it left me feeling disturbed. The only ending that I have found worse was “The Life and Death of David Gale” containing a scene so vile I wish I had never seen it. But there was nothing redeemable about that movie for me. At least “The Mist” was worth watching.
On to the other end of the spectrum are those super movies that make you cheer at the end. There are few experiences greater than being in a huge audience watching “Star Wars”, “Aliens”, or “The Karate Kid”.
The clapping, hooting and stomping of feet that always came at the final scenes lifts the spirit and brings a lump to the thought and/or streaming tears. I sadly never saw “Jaws” in the movies but I’m told that it brought about the same reaction. If you are one of the three people who never saw those movies – RENT THEM NOW!
Two lesser known movies that I would also heartily recommend are “Two Brothers” and “Hero At Large” Unlike the ones above these I can simply watch the last ten minutes and get that warm and fuzzy feeling. “Two Brothers” is about tigers that are separated when cubs and are brought together in a Gladiator style fight as adults. The movie does contain heartbreaking scenes when they are being mistreated by their human captors. But the ending is so sentimental and uplifting, it makes the whole thing worthwhile. “Hero at Large” is a movie with John Ritter playing a normal guy who dons a hero costume and decides to fight crime on his own. I remember watching the last ten minutes of this movie dozens of times when I was a kid, any time I needed a pick me up.
These are endings that some consider a twist, but what I say – Nay! Thou has undone everything that I have seen up til now. Movies like “The Game” with Michael Douglas, M. Night’s “The Village” or the old slasher film “April Fool’s Day”. Movies that don’t make me feel fooled as much as a fool. “The Village” was the most disappointing because I’m a fan of M. Night and it was advertised as being a horror movie. Instead it was more of a social commentary drama, not scary with an ending that made me groan. Better more intelligent movies such as “Donnie Darko” and “Mulhulland Drive” make you rethink everything that you’ve seen on the second viewing. But they don’t make you feel cheated and are therefore worth that second and third viewing.
These are the ‘revenge’ or standing up for yourself movies. Movies which bring out that primal instinct that we don’t want to admit having. Movies that make you cheer “Yah! Get ‘em!” or something like that at the end when the villain finally gets their comeuppance. Though I’m not a Jodie Foster fan, I did enjoy “The Brave One”. I mean who couldn’t like a heroine who growls “I want my dog back!” before dispatching one of the baddies. Also not crazy about Julia Roberts but the end of “Sleeping with the Enemy” gave me a similar feeling with her last line (which I won’t give away). There’s another old movie, “Defiance” with Jan Michael Vincent that we used to love as kids where he helps the townspeople stand up to a gang. It’s a serious version of “Blazing Saddles” or “The Three Amigos” (which I love). The movie “Death Sentence” with Kevin Bacon has a more realistic end to the tale of vengeance. But who wants realism in a movie like this? Give me my Kirk kicking Klingon off the cliff “I’ve had about enough of you” moment any day.
I love horror movies. “The Shining”, “The Exorcist” truly scared me so I can’t watch them that often. “Poltergeist”, “Jaws”, “JoyRide” and most recently “1408″ on the other hand scared me but they were just plain fun too. I can watch them time and time again. They leave you feeling scared but overall good at the end. Then there are those movies whose endings left me feeling completely creeped out like “The Ring”, “Dead Silence” and “May”. I saw “The Ring” in the movies and when the girl crawled out of the TV, I literally put my arms up in front of my face as if someone was trying to whack me on the head. It’s one of the only movies that gave me nightmares for days after. The director of “Saw” made “Dead Silence”. There aren’t many things creepier than ventriloquist dummies and the flashback end was surprising and ick-y. “May” is an independent and little known movie about a shy girl with an obsession for dolls who begins a gory search for the “perfect” guy. The final scene of this one had an even higher ick factor then “Dead Silence”. These are movies that keep giving you a chill on the back of your neck long after.
Ones that first come to mind are “The Royal Tennanbaums”, “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Wild at Heart”. The first two are both stories of dysfunctional families that come together in unexpectedly sentimental ways. “Little Miss Sunshine” is great from the start but the ending puts it over the top in my mind. “The Royal Tennanbaums”, I only enjoyed after seeing the ending. “Wild at Heart” (yet another David Lynch) is filled with crazy offbeat characters that you’re not even sure you like at first. But they grow on you and the movie has one of the most romantic endings ever. “Splash” being runner up.
There are two types of movies that fall into this category – the difference between a good cry and a bad cry. Movies like “E.T.”, “Glory”, “Lassie” and “The Muppet Movie” (any Jim Henson will reduce me to tears) all made me cry but left me feeling good after. A bad cry to me is one that leaves me feeling down. Three that come to mind are “Phenomenon”, “My Life” and “Sunshine”. “Phenomenon” has John Travolta seeing a flash in the sky and then becoming smarter and smarter. It’s like “Flowers for Algernon” if anyone knows that. As much as I love John Travolta the ending leaves me feeling incredibly down. “Sunshine” is a sci-fi movie about a team going into space to reignite the sun and save the earth. It’s a fantastic story with great actors (Cillian Murphy & Chris Evans), is very suspenseful. I can’t even say the ending was bad but it left me in a puddle of tears. At least one knows what they are in for with “My Life” (Michael Keaton as a cancer patient who makes home movies so his new born son will know him). I sat in my car for 15 minutes after the movie ended bawling my eyes out. I would recommend all those movies but with a warning, you will want to have a feel good movie like “Snow Buddies” handy to recover after.
Many movies have big revelations at the end, but few are as memorable and supercharged as “Saw”, “Signs” and “Dead Again” They have not so much endings as Grand Finales. “Saw” is the most notorious with it’s keep you guessing who is the villain plot. Like “Dead Silence” it’s revealed in fast paced dizzying editing with soaring music. Even though it was completely ghoulish, the directing makes you feel like it’s a triumph (of who I won’t say). 
“Signs” was one of the most beautiful and spiritual endings, everything coming together and displaying a message of hope that there is a reason for everything. Kenneth Branagh’s “Dead Again” is one of my top faves of all time and it’s largely due to the finale. Switching between flashbacks and present, the murderer is revealed and another key twist occurs, all the while the heroes are fighting for their lives. Patrick Doyle’s score is simply amazing adding that great orchestral crescendo. Again if you haven’t seen that one – RENT IT NOW!
