ABC’s LOST explained!
Still wondering what the television show LOST was all about? I have answers!
SPOILER ALERT – the following article will completely explain and therefore give away to the most important puzzle pieces from the hit ABC television series LOST. Therefore if you haven’t seen the show and don’t want the end to be spoiled, stop reading this article right here! As for the rest of you who have wondered… what did it all mean? I have the answer for you!
Now that the spoiler warning is out of the way, lets get right to it…
The most mysterious lingering question remaining regarding the television show LOST is… what is the golden light in the cave at the heart of the island?
If only we knew what the light was maybe we could determine what the island was. And if we knew those facts we could piece together all the remaining details. Some might say the question was already answered when Jacob claimed the island was like a cork (when he said that he wasn’t lying which I will explain later) yet saying the island is a cork really only raises another question instead of giving any type of comprehensive answer, after all… if the island is a cork, what does that mean? I for one am glad that the writers didn’t spell it all out for us because if they had, it would have robbed us the opportunity to ponder the larger questions and solve the puzzle ourselves and ultimately that was the fun of LOST.
SO WHAT WAS THE LIGHT?
The golden light in the cave at the heart of the island is the same light that was behind the frozen donkey wheel that the MIB, Ben, and Locke, all were attempting to manipulate or channel to their benefit throughout the show. It also seems to be the same light (or a type of it) that engulfed the island when Desmond flipped the fail safe, when Juliette ignited Jughead, and each time our losties were bounced around when the island was skipping in time.
Most folks assume the light is God, or spirituality, or possibly the personification of goodness, or life, or something similarly vague. None of those solutions help us piece together the puzzle that is LOST.
Drum roll please…
Continue…
That was great man.
Jonas, if it is so pathetic to try to answer the questions of Lost and you are so over it and so over trying to find an explanation for everything, then how did you happen to come across this little article in the first place? Hmmm…. I mean, wouldn’t searching the internet for theories or looking on Lost message boards be even more pathetic if you are already resolved to hate it? Why should you care?
I’m sorry, but this is just sad. Really really sad! Don’t get me wrong, you get an A for effort, but you are twisting and turning everything to make your theory fit, and everyone is cheering you on (even more sad).
Lost failed! Accept it. Stop with all these crazy theories. It’s really pathetic, to tell you the truth. But maybe you admit that the show lacked any real resolution or plan, and that you are only doing this for your own fun? If so, that is ok I guess. But when doing the writers’ job… NO!
Nice! I’ve thought of something that I think would go well with your theory.. the donkey wheel proved to be quite difficult to move… so what if it was actually attached to another heavy cork (like what was in the main light cave).. and so turning the wheel changed how the cork was placed.. thus altering the flow of the water/light and thus explaining the time shifts.
That’s a good point. So either there had been other small lapses in Desmond’s button pushing prior to Sept 22nd, or it was a continuity issue with the show, or possibly I might need to alter that portion of my theory.
To be honest, the part of my theory that talks about just what exactly Dharma was doing with the button is almost all pure conjecture. My main premise that the light was time and the smoke was the past isn’t built upon any of those smaller details so maybe we can come up with a better explanation as to what Ben, The Others, and Dharma, were up to.
My only question is this: Didn’t Ben know about his cancer before the plane crashed? Aside from that, this is an excellent theory. I wish I had thought of it myself!
superlostfan, thank you for your in-depth constructive critique. :/
Lame
Bravo, sir, bravo.
This is the most logical and satisfying of any of the theories presented for the show. This makes more sense then anything I have read.
You made the statement:
[i] “I could literally discuss every single LOST episode and show proof of my theory in it but if I did I would be writing a book and not a blog post. “[/i]
You should really consider writing a book about this. It would help bring some closure and satisfaction to all the Losties out there that are “lost” due to the way the show ended. I would wager that you would not have a hard time getting something like this published.
You could start with a intro explaining your theory about the show’s meaning and each chapter could be like:
Chapter 1/Season 1
And you could explain all the key points of the season that substantiate your theory.
Get ahold of one of the major book published like Random House and pitch your idea, man! I really think you could be on to something here.
Boomer, thank you for your well thought out comment. You raise some great points especially the one about the Dharma food drops. When I was writing this story I realized rather quickly that if I weren’t careful my blog post might get so long that nobody would ever want to read it. I could literally discuss every single LOST episode and show proof of my theory in it but if I did I would be writing a book and not a blog post. 🙂 Therefore I tried to limit my article to something that was fairly short and easy to read.
I was hoping that folks like you would find tid-bits that helped support my theory as you have done in your comment, so thank you very much for that!
Zonker states… “would not it have had a much more profound effect when Locke smashed the computer, and all hell broke loose right before Desmond turned the failsafe key?” It may have, but we will never know because Desmond pushed the fail-safe key. But even if he hadn’t pushed the fail-safe key it would be hard to tell that the island had shifted in time unless you were in a place that would show aging (like the medical station), after all… our losties never could tell what time they were in until they saw something that demonstrated being in another time kinda like when they stumbled across the yet-to-be-destroyed Taweret statue. In other words…. the island seemed to be moving under their feet of our characters (so to speak) and it was difficult for them to determine what time they were in which is why even Daniel had a hard time calculating the time they were in and he KNEW they were traveling in time.
“And maybe I missed it, but did your theory explain the Season 5 time flashes when the frozen donkey wheel was off its rocker?”
Simple, (at least simple in Sci-Fi terms) Locke was the one who was supposed to move the island not Ben. Apparently Ben did not properly set the wheel which left it skipping like a Willie Nelson record. With each ‘skip’ the island shifted uncontrollably in time, sometimes jumping far into the past, sometimes jumping back near the present, and everywhere in-between. As Daniel Faraday said… “the island has become dislodged. Dislodged from time.” In that case the island itself had no ‘constant’ and was bouncing around with little direction. It wasn’t until Locke properly set the wheel that the island finally stopped skipping.
Yet, all of this further demonstrates that the light was in fact time. After all, the questions you ask of me are good ones, but just imagine trying to answer them if the light was goodness. (that would make entirely no sense)
Wow! This totally changes the way I feel about this entire show! I really don’t think that any other theory can conceivably tie together and make as much sense out of everything that happened in the six years of the show as well as this theory does. I think you hit the nail on the head when you asked why manipulating goodness, or power, or God (as many people have supposed the light was) would ever cause the island to time travel. That just doesn’t make sense. Plus, and I am really watching for this now that I am re-watching the show with my parents, but I don’t think they ever call the light “goodness” or “righteousness” or anything to that effect. And they don’t ever call the smoke monster “evil.” Jacob says something about it being “The thing you call evil,” but never says that is is evil himself.
And, the whole comment that “Mother” makes about everyone having a little of the light in them, but always wanting more, well that wouldn’t really make sense if the light was goodness either. I don’t think most people in the world yearn for more righteousness and would do anything to get it. I don’t even exactly know how that would work in the context of the show. Really, the only thing that manipulating the light is ever shown to do, is make the island time travel, and spit the person (or polar bear) who turns the wheel out in the Tunisian desert. Again, why would a pocket of “goodness” or “God’s power” or whatever, accomplish these two things? But if the light is a physical source of time, and a worm hole exists in or near the place where the island used to be connected to in time, then this would make perfect sense.
Then, when you think about this concept, rather than the idea that it is a battle between good and evil, everything seems to fit into place. I mean, the show’s creators could have decided to make a show about a crazy island where good and evil are doing battle and then decided to just throw some wacky time travel stuff in the middle to freak people out, but would that really make sense with all of the time, effort, and detail they put into the 3 1/2 seasons prior to the time traveling plot lines? Why would they even add that in if their main goal was just to lead up to the big revelation that this island is home to the great battle between good and evil? That just doesn’t add up! And then when you take into account that they spent so much time showing us the battles that these people had with their pasts, ( and as you pointed out, the way it mirrored their interaction with the smoke monster on the island) it makes the whole show come full circle. Throughout the entire show, the characters keep asking “what is the monster”? And while they obviously do battle with the smoke monster on the island, their lives prior to the island are what they are really shown to be battling with through the entire show!
There are also other fun little things early on that give clues to the fact that time traveling is happening in earlier seasons! Such as the Dharma food drop by the hatch! The Dharma initiative had been gone for years, yet they are still getting food drops? Why would that be? And when Sayid and Hurley pick up a radio station which is playing an old song and Sayid says he wonders where it s coming from, Hurley says something about how he wonders what time it is coming from! There are a lot of little things like that which don’t make sense unless you realize that this island is already out of synch with normal time. And I think that only makes sense if time, not good and evil, are at the heart of the island!
Also, the donkey wheel skipping and causing the time flashes really only makes sense if the light is time. If the light is time, and the turning or moving of the wheel is what directs or channels the light, then it only makes sense that time would be skipping around if the light and/or water where not flowing properly. Every time the wheel was jolted, the light/time would be jolted as well. So this is really the only way that it could account for that!
Oh and as far as time rushing through when the button wasn’t pushed, well as was mentioned in the article, it wasn’t necessarily years that passed! They don’t really give us a whole lot of evidence to be able to deduce how much time would have rushed through, so I don’t think they would have noticed an extreme change if it was just a few months, or even a year or two. Or, if they were time traveling too, (that is, they were moving with the island in time) then they wouldn’t have aged at all. This is where time traveling gets confusing! Haha! Also, when the Oceanic 6 returned home, I don’t see how they would have known that time was passing differently there than on the island. How could they? It wasn’t as if years and years had passed for them on the island. They felt that they had only been there for 3 months. And they had, in the real world! Time was shifting on the island, but they were going along with it and there wasn’t really anything on the island that would lead them to believe that years had passed. So when they got home, and in the real world it was three months after they had crashed, nothing would seem out of place to them!
A for Effort!
But… if momentarily delaying the pressing of the button allowed time to rush to catch up (first when Desmond brought down 815, then when Jack & Locke had their standoff), would not it have had a much more profound effect when Locke smashed the computer, and all hell broke loose right before Desmond turned the failsafe key? You would think someone would have noticed a time effect of that purple sky event, but no one visibly aged on-island (well… except for Walt! LOL). And when the Oceanic 6 returned to the real world, no one remarked about time having passed differently than they would have expected from being stuck on the island for what appeared to them to have been a little over 3 months.
And maybe I missed it, but did your theory explain the Season 5 time flashes when the frozen donkey wheel was off its rocker?
Thank you for all the nice comments folks! If you have anything to add that helps my theory or any material that don’t seem to fit, please post those ideas here.
Dang! That’s intense. Interesting. In other words, great writing. My short attention span fizzled before I finished. But I will finish it. I like.
Love it!
I feel satisfied with this explanation. This really was an eye opener and brought it all together for me! Thank you for sharing this with us! I enjoyed LOST before I read this, but now it is even more awesome!
Wow. this seems like a perfectly legitimate explanation to me. This completely leaves me feeling satisfied and conclusive. The world must know about this.
However, there is that leauge of ignorant-to-the-end LOST fans that will tell you you are going too far, but thats only because they don’t care about the details, they just like…tv in general i suppose. But for any true lostie, this theory is absolutely perfect.
Well done, sir.
It’s good.
Ok pretty much all I can say is, wow!!!!! Lol this isn’t a theory this is it! I don’t know how you were able to put it all together and then somehow write it all out in such an easy to understand way, but I sure am glad you did. Now we just have to spread this around like a bad cold haha. Or at the very least go to all kinds of Lost sites and leave just enough info to kind of nudge people into figuring it out for themselves. Great job yup truly do know it all hahaha