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…
Why couldn’t the women have babies?
Why was Claire at the shack with Christian when Locke went in?
Emma, and Chad, thank you soo much for your kind comments. Those types of comments are very encouraging to me.
It’s awesome knowing there are so many folks out there that are as passionate about this TV show as I was/am.
you have won the internet.
Thank you for your wonderful prose.
I have really enjoyed reading it.
I am re-watching LOST for the second time (just finished season 3 last night) and I can’t wait to go home to watch season 4 with ‘fresh eyes’.
Also, I am somewhat relieved to see that I am not alone with my LOST obsession.
*PHEW* :oP
I hadn’t thought about this show in years. The episode of the Simpsons today made me look up theories again. They said the show was about people who died, even though the producers claimed they were not dead repeatedly. I remember reading posts where everyone was trying to figure out LOST and saying they dies on the plane and were in purgatory. Critics starting writing it would be a slap in the face to fans if they were all dead and in purgatory, and Abrams eventually posted that the characters were not dead and it is not Purgatory. He also said that he has a final plan for the show and they could cancel it at anytime and he would put his final episode into play that would explain everything.
In the later seasons they played a recap with the producers. They said when someone dies on the island they are dead. I don’t remember if this was the last season or not, but I do believe Abrams had left the show. They stated when people die on the island they are dead and they do not come back.
So, is it possible that the people left to run the show after Abrams had no idea what Abrams plan was? I love your theory of time and past, but I think that is the basis and there has to be more to it. It still makes me feel like I could have watched the last two seasons or the last episode of season 5 and season 6 to get the whole show. The rest of the seasons and earlier characters still seem like a waste.
Why make all of the characters intertwine? Why did they bring in new people all of a sudden and go into their back story? Why did Locke’s father end up being the man Sawyer was after? Why does Claire start showing up when Jack sees Christian? Penny’s father sends Desmond to the island to keep him away from her daughter, but no wait…he’s really there to push the buttons and at the precise moment give up so the plane crashes? And…Ben wants Desmond to not press the just so the plane will crash and Jack will come to perform surgery. Why do we have to delvelop so deep into everyone’s back story if they are all there to die from a bomb explosion just to find them selves again? None of this makes any sense.
I really think they got it wrong. The producers and actors had been saying that most times they never had the whole script and didn’t know what was going on in an episode. So how could the producers have known how to end it? I think the producers were scrambling for an ending and came up with this garbage that had no conclusion. It seemed they were reading the blogs and doing the opposite of what people were saying. The episode where Hurley sees Jacobs in the cabin. People were speculating that Jacob was Christian and the silhouette even looked like Christian. Everyone on the blog went crazy on the blog. They then wrote an episode to show that the Jacob was actually the MIB in the cabin and he wanted to appear as Christian. This seemed like they were trying to string everyone along. It seemed every time someone posted a theory in a blog they would quickly write up a show that disproved it. They tricked everyone into thinking they intended everyone to draw their own conclusion. but they really had no clue how to end it. They still have yet to explain everything. For a show that is said to have been one of the greatest in history, you never see it in reruns since the final episode pissed everyone off. Even the sopranos has reruns. They had the balls to make an episode that said they had no clue how to end it. they didn’t claim they answered everything in the final episode.
Hey Eric, i’m Richard, french, so i apologize right now for the mistakes i’m going to do in english 😉
I just wanna tell you THANK YOU, THANK YOU about your BIG, HUGE LOST theory, you’ve been able to give to my favorite show a meaning concerning the ENTIRE serie.
I’m currently translating your theory in french because i want some people in my family to read it, some people who don’t really believe me when i said that LOST has been misunderstood by everybody… but it’s hard to translate keeping exactly the way you wrote it, but i’ll do my best! French guys absolutely need to read it, i’m afraid that many french fans of LOST don’t look at your theory just because they don’t wanna read in english, it’s too bad!
According to me, the only default of LOST is that the authors did’nt have enough time and season to clearly explain, or be more clear about their story… but your theory is more than a theory, it’s a thesis!!
Did JJ Abrams or Damon Lindelof contact you after your theory? I’m serious, if they read it, they automatically should have thought “damned, Eric understands everything”! But i think that NEVER, NEVER they will say if somebody in the world have the answers, they prefer conserve this mystery around the show… they probably will tell us all the truth when they will die, not before!
Congratulations for your HUGE WORK!
A French translation of my theory???? Oh man that’s so cool thank you very much for your encouragement, it really means a lot to me.
Hey Eric, i’m a french man, so i apologize right now for mistakes i’m going to do in english language 😉
I just wanna tell you THANK YOU, THANK YOU about your BIG, HUGE LOST theory, you’ve been able to give to my favorite show a meaning concerning the ENTIRE serie. I’m translating your theory in french because i want some people in my family to read it, some people who don’t really believe me when i said that LOST has been misunderstood my everybody…
According to me, the only default of LOST is that the authors did’nt have enough time and season to clearly explain, or be more clear about their story… but your theory is more than a theory, it’s a novel lol!
Congratulations for your HUGE WORK!
Well, this actually makes a whole lot of sense in many places, and is at least much better than what they offered as an explanation in the series itself (which was hardly anything really, but ok).
just one remark regarding your comparing of Jacob and Chronos, who is often found turning the wheel of the zodiac. I don’t think Jacob ever turned the wheel (on the island) himself….
I’m so glad to see that people are still reading and commenting on this blog post. I read it as soon as the series ended and it made a lot of sense to me. I recently started watching LOST with a couple of friends who had never seen it before. Watching it a second time through is so much fun, even knowing what’s about to happen. We’re 6 episodes away from finishing the 6th season, so I came back to your blog to refresh my memory on your theory. Having a fresher recollection of the whole series, in addition to knowing the ending and reading your blog again, I have to say: I think your speculations are spot-on! Thanks for the post. 🙂
Yeas Eric, could be! I’ll pay attention to that part of the story when I get there again.
And I agree John, where I am in my life, I could use the Island too.
your final summation in your blog says it all for me. This series
has actually impacted my views on life. Imagine that, in this day and age.
I, too, need to return to the island.
Over 200 comments on this article! I want to thank all of you for taking the time to check out my theory.
Paul, Thanks for the kind comments.
It could be that Ben’s strategy to preserve himself via his manipulation of time had side effects i.e., the tumor. Maybe the continuous reset was an imperfect plan.
After all… we do have evidence that time travel was particularly hard on some animals as well as humans (bloody noses, etc.).
As Jacob tracked his potential replacements/candidates in the Lighthouse he numbered them via their coordinates on his mirror-device. Therefore the numbers were a type of coordinate.
I enjoyed it too, very much. But any comments on why Ben’s tumor was present BEFORE Desmond failed to push the button and time rushed forward? That’s a pretty big hole. Shouldn’t Ben have died instantly then if he didn’t have long to live anyway, then time all of a sudden rushed forward?
I have to look at pushing the button as keeping the pocket of electromagnetism under control, and nothing more. But I still love the main premise of your theory, just not the part about constantly resetting time.
great explanation!
one question though…why the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42? is it just random?
Chris, thank you for the kind comments!! It really makes me happy that you enjoyed my theory.
Eric, I’m blown away. My wife and I just re-watched the entire series because our daughter started watching it. I can’t believe it took me this long to find your theory. But I’m so glad that I did!
Light = Time.
It’s fits. Finally, someone with an explanation of the light. It’s been bugging me for years. I agree that it was great the writers didn’t spell everything out, but I would still LOVE to read or hear the writers officially come clean on this.
Like others in this thread, I have smaller subquestions, but I don’t want to ruin your great work with those. I’m just going to enjoy feeling like I know something now that I didn’t before. And, yeah, I might just re-watch the series a THIRD time.
Thank you!