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…
First off, I saw this and plenty more on another website a while back so shame on you for stealing a complete section pics and all… but this theory is a very good one. You should give the credit where it due instead of attempting to steal someone elses thoughts…
Well after watching the interview with Lindeloff, I guess I did get an answer about whether they were lost or not… he said they definitely were. The context in which way they are lost could perhaps be debatable still.
Very insightful explanation, Very early on I myself speculated that Lost was all about the Space/Time Continium. I’m still taking it all in and intrigued. My wife and I have been watching Lost (start to finish) anually since we first became aware of the series. We are now on the 4th time around and own the series on DVD. We agree with much of what you say as far as we can understand it all at once.
Something to ponder…
L.O.S.T. = ? of space time.
The “L” could represent a number of words like; Legend, Limit, Lesson etc.
This could be a key and begs the question… were those that make up the scenarios (Others past, others present, Dharma, flight 815 etc.) lost in time or never really lost at all?
(I’m not sure if the question actually makes any sense… just a thought)
Another question (I’m no scientist)… is electro-magnetism (energy source?) a product of the time/light or vice versa. When the Hatch implodes the light is released isn’t it?
230 (and counting) comments on my theory, thank you to everyone who took the time to read it.
Wow! Dan, thank you. You guys are bringing a tear to my eye today.
I wish we could all get together and have a giant LOST marathon!
Fantastic read; the best theory out there without a shadow of a doubt. Really enjoyed everything about this and now feel at absolute peace with LOST.
Class act.
Anthony, thank you sooooooo much for your kind comments. Comments like yours mean a great deal to me.
Eric, you are a genius.
With the recent resurfacing of the issues around the ending of LOST through Damon Lindelof’s interviews, I once again found myself returning to the disappointment over never having an explanation for the mythology of the show…but having read your theory…AMAZING! I finally feel at ease with the show, and may even rewatch the show (I couldn’t bring myself to even watch a single frame since it finished).
I think your theory Eric is spot on. Sure, there will be some inconsistencies with some story threads but I think this would be down to writers not having an endgame or true understanding of the rules that were at play. But overall I think it fits perfectly with the main themes and ideas from the show, time & time travel was always my favourite element of the show so I can’t believe this theory never crossed my mind (admittedly it would never have been as detailed). It even ties into the whole structure of how the show was presented with flashbacks & flashforwards. What I love most is that now I can actually start piecing it together, so thank you.
Moving forward, we need to find the island, travel back & undo the last series & let Eric write it! The parallel/sideways world should never have been the afterlife, it was clearly the alternate reality created once jughead was set off & the Eric’s theory needs to presented as canon within the series of LOST.
Thanks eric.
I’ve read through this twice and I love everything and I’m watching the series for the 3rd time. Not sure if you still check this even but I believe you stated that either the incident (hatch exploding) or the day of the crash, when Desmond didn’t hit the button in time ,you concluding that Ben got cancer, however 3:16 “One of Us” shows the X-Rays of Ben with his tumor prior to the plane crash meaning he developed it before that brief skip in time. Correct me if I’m wrong but can you email me or comment on how Ben got cancer on the island if that’s the case. Thanks
Here is a video of a fairly interesting interview of LOST writer Damon Lindeloff, which pretty much kills the idea that LOST was a about God and religion which many folks still cling to. This interview in my opinion actually helps my theory mainly because Lindeloff affirms the notion that the events on the island REALLY happened and there REALLY was a reason that they happened. It also affirms (to me anyway) that the smoke-monster was indeed the past haunting our Losties. If you have a spare 25 minutes watch it and see what you think. (Note, there are a few “F-bombs” in the clip).
If the video above doesn’t load you can go to the site that featured the video here… http://nerdbastards.com/2012/05/23/damon-lindeloff-defends-lost/
Eric,
This is wonderful. I have read and seen and heard many people explain what they thought Lost was all about but usually they left me with more questions than answers….until I came upon this explanation. Everything you have said fits the show exactly right. The most constant thing on this show was time, the flash forwards and backwards of each persons life, how Richard never aged, then the sideways flash after the bomb, not to mention how a bunch of them ended up back in time to set off the bomb to begin with. There are still a few small things that went unanswered but with any show that is this complex there are things that will be overlooked or things that moved the story forward at the time but became less important as the show progressed. This has made me want to watch all 6 seasons again now that I have a fresh perspective and see what I missed before. I will for sure bookmark this page and refer to it when I do decide to re watch it. Also, I might just print a copy out and give it to my dad for reading material as he was just as confused as I was by the show(also just as captivated as I was by it) all though I do disagree with one thing. I do think that good and evil had some small part in all of this. Ill never forget the scene where Locke is talking to Walt on the beach and has the two stones, one black and one white and he is talking about ying and yang and good and evil and the balance between them(now its been a while since I have seen Lost so maybe I am not remembering it correctly, so please correct me if I am wrong) I think there was a deeper reason why Mother and Jacob did not want the MIB/Smoke Monster to leave the island than just because Mother didnt want her replacement to leave…I mean she still had Jacob to replace her if MIB did leave, so why care so much if he left or not? So this leads me to believe that part of the reason she wanted him to stay (and if I am remembering correctly, she even told Jacob the MIB could never leave the island) because he is human embodiment of evil and that maybe she did know that there would be an entanglement of the MIB’s soul and the smoke monster and having that released into the world would destroy everything, maybe including time itself. Or maybe I am just thinking too much into this haha. It’s just the one thing I remember is how bad he wanted to leave and how bad no one else wanted him to. I can’t remember who or when in the series but I keep thinking I remember someone say if the MIB ever left the island that a dark shadow would be cast over the world….now that is not verbatim as I can’t remember exactly how it was put, but it was something to that effect. So not only do I agree with your theory but I also believe that on top of protecting time that it was meant for the survivors of flight 815 to take on the challenge of facing their past and being able to let go, as well as finding a way to protect the world from the escape of the the MIB off the island.
Either way, thank you for your view on the subject, it has shown me things I would never have thought of before! Kudos to you!!!! 🙂
Eric, your theory is very interesting. I especially like the correlation between the light and time. I think the mention of Forbidden Planet is also apt, given that the film was based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, another story about mysterious islands (and one that is name-checked by a Dharma station).
I wonder about your theory regarding The Swan’s purpose, however. According to Dr Chang in The Swan’s orientation film, the Swan’s purpose was altered after an “incident.” Season 5 closes with an episode entitled “The Incident,” in which Jack & Co detonate Jughead at the site where the Swan is being constructed. My theory is, the detonation of Jughead combines with the “light” of the island to create a powerful and unique ball of eletromagnetic radiation.
The detonation in 1977 created a paradox: Jack & Co now HAD to be on Oceanic 815 twenty-seven years in the future. If they didn’t get on the plane in 2004, they wouldn’t have been on the island, and therefore wouldn’t have traveled back in time and been able to detonate Jughead (or any of the other events in the past) in the first place.
Therefore, The Swan becomes a method of ensure these events came to pass – the “reason” that Jack & Co had to be brought to the island. When Kelvin tells Desmond that pushing the button every 108 minutes is saving the world, he’s correct: if the button isn’t pressed, the energy will reach critical mass, The Swan will meltdown, and won’t be there in September of 2004 to cause the crash of 815. If 815 doesn’t crash in 2004, the events of 1977 cannot occur, thereby causing the collapse of the paradox, and a world-ending event.
This is why Desmond can turn the fail-safe in November of 2004 without any world-ending result: the energy has already fulfilled its “purpose,” to crash 815 and avert cataclysm.
The incremental release of energy every 108 minutes is what affects pregnancies on the island between ’77 and ’04.
True dat!
It’s very simple, Lost was about entertaining us and keeping us on the edge of our seats for 6 years.
Very interesting to read. Thank you for clearing many things for me. I am still left wondering why people who had left the island can never go back to there. Why could Ben not return with the others to the island after he moved the wheel? Do you have any theories for this?
You didn’t mention anything about the pregnant women dying. Pretty much the whole glue for me. I like the idea of how pushing the button every 108 minutes resets time 108 minutes which explains Ben’s sudden instant tumor but if it explains Ben’s sudden instant tumor when time was ‘unleashed’, how do people age in a place where time is constantly being reset? So his body has been aging since he was a boy when the button started to (presumably) be pushed but suddenly he develops a tumor when the button wasn’t pushed? Makes no sense, would really appreciate an idea interlinking dying pregnant women (and conceiving on island vs. off island) into the time travel as well. Thanks
Got to say that although a lot of this crossed my mind at various times, it was never at this level of cohesion and detail. I can say that with your theories on time, it certainly goes a long way to explaining the lack of human conception on the island for me; with exception of Sun and Jin – although she *did* have her child off-island, and Claire, who was already well under-way upon arrival, much like Mother. Really interesting read … kudos.
Hi Eric. Your article is so helpful. I watched Lost from 1-6, but as I read your blog, it made me understand the series better. Thanks 🙂
I’m not even going to lie. This is the BEST lost theory I’ve ever read. Really makes sense, thank you kind sir what a good read xx