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…
I like it a lot, really.
But, you forgot that actually the Incident was caused by Juliet and co. during dharmatimes. Whatever happened then (my theory: the bomb went off, it eliminates some electromagnetic energy, but there was a leak. Thus Dharma put a 108 minute countdown to slowly eliminate the leak, and install a brand-new H-Bomb which would be eventually activated by Desmond), it was the reason for which they put the button.
Remember:whatever happened, happened. As it happened.
I agree with Lost buddy: light is mixure of time and electromagnetic force…cuz time wouldn’t attract the metal.
excellent theory…I was looking for something like this to make the ending of the show more “comprehensible”…¡lacagaste, super buena tu teoria!…desde Chile un abrazo y thank you very much!!!!!!!
Extraordinary insight. This makes a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing.
TWO THUMBS UP!! Bravo, Eric! Very thought-provoking and satisfying work. I especially liked the point about Forbidden Planet, because I haven’t seen it. Love all the graphics!
You have put a lot of thought into this, and I think this is exactly what the writers wanted us to do. When we use the clues they carefully inserted and work it out for ourselves, it is much more satisfying emotionally and psychologically. This is what makes Lost a classic, like one of its inspirations The Twilight Zone, because folks want to go on thinking about it and discussing it. I liked the finale and it made me want to rewatch the whole series. I’m glad I waited to start until I read your piece. It will make the experience so much richer. Thanks!
Did you watch ew.com’s “Totally Lost”? Hilarious, but also some thought-provoking stuff. They interviewed Michael Emerson in their final episode. He and his wife are fans, and I loved what he said. He said he was very satisfied with the way it ended: things were left unsaid, but there were lots of clues. (I am paraphrasing from memory.) He likes to think about the things left unsaid as he’s drifting off to sleep.
Thanks again, Eric. Glad to find your blog!
I’ve been (and remain) a HUGE fan of this show, and it’s nice to see someone else exploring in such detail. As an English teacher, I also appreciate the use of “textual” evidence to support your points. I’ve read a number of theories, but yours is by far one of the best that I’ve seen to date. My own reading shares a number of things with yours, but I have to give you credit for honing it down to a pretty clear, concise presentation given what you are taking on here. Very nice job. Well done.
Well done..and solid. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this,as it gave me the satisfaction I lacked for unanswered questions about the mythology I was interested in for six seasons. after the LOST finale. Don’t get me wrong,I loved the final episode,but after reading what you wrote,there would never be enough ( no pun intended) ‘time’ to explain everything in the series. It’s so well done,how can it not be true,right? 😉
Just like the origin of Tom Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings, you finish read and tried to analyze the book with theories.
Good effort, make me want to start watch from The Pilot to The End.
Just another thank you. That’s all. I really enjoyed reading and it makes perfect sense to me.
The reason I love LOST so much is that everyone is able to build and interpret theories based on their background knowledge and past experiences.
I did like this theory. It brings out several interesting points. I always associated the light with time, especially in season 5 and the Donkey Wheel. And I always knew there was more than the Smoke Monster just scanning/judging the characters.
This theory is excellent—if it explains Lost to YOU.
There are hundreds of theories out there. The reason people like/dislike certain theories is because it helps them connect to the show better.
In my opinion (and I think someone else mentioned it in the comments) LOST is many theories combined.
I do believe that the island moved between space and time. You’ve laid it out brilliantly.
I like to think of the light /water source as the fountain of youth and the energy source time / time travel element. Jacob could not do anything for Richard except give him time and he did that by drinking from the source. Which would also explain the overall healing powers of the island. Hurley became like Jack and Jacob by just drinking water from the stream of the light source. One could presuppose that all the water on the island somehow had a healing power since it would be exposed to at least some of the energy.
The electromagnetism is what, in my opinion moved the island through time and space. It is what MIB had discovered and why his people were killed. It is the same reason that Dharma was killed off. No man or group should be allowed to control time. The fact that as Eloise said it was connected to other island around the world … pulling and pushing it seems to confirm this as well.
As to the MIB I believe that the source would just be too much for anyone to handle without being affected in a very profound way. From the skeletons we saw there, this is not the first time that this played out on the island. I can easily agree with you that he assimilated all of the past of the island, its history and its people and was a manifestation of all of that ‘past’.
I thought the ending was poetic and beautiful but didn’t like the ‘purgatory’ implication. I aspouse to the theory that they created another reality for themselves when Juliet finally blew Jughead up. It is a total ‘recall’, they remembered one another and their time on the island. I don’t think they had all pass on together. More time could have gone on before and/or between these incidents.
Further, I believe that the ‘end’ was Jack’s death knell. He, like all the other characters would have had all of the people in their lives present at their passing over. Sun / Jin would have had their daughter there. Hurley is mom and dad. Charlie his brother. Claire her mom etc etc
This is really very brilliant. The only part that I find bogus is:
“when Mr. Eko looked into his past what he saw was very dark indeed and it eventually consumed him, yet when Locke looked into his past, what he saw was beautiful. Locke’s past wasn’t as dark as Mr. Eko’s was”
Locke? Bright past? Huh? Locke was THE character on this show most tortured by his past.
Also, I think you’re making quite a big stretch with the sound effects the Monster makes. The creators pretty much just picked cool noises.
Really though, this theory is a great piece of work. Awesome thinking on a lot of this. Mostly makes perfect sense.
Eric – congrats for giving one of the best explanation so far . and probably THE explanation.
But however I think that the light is just not time . It is combination of time and electromagnetism. ( my physics is poor . So time and electromagnetism in a way related to each other)
@ Phabien – I don’t think that every mystry in lost can explained by one theory or solution alone. Lost is combination off different solutions.
So the healing factor might be caused due to time but maybe an effect of strong electromagnetism.
@Phabian
With the first thing I totally agree with you…
about the second: As late as the 1970s, women were able to carry a child to term on the Island, as seen by Amy’s delivery of Ethan. This timeline hints that the Incident may have caused this.
@erick
very well writing and explained.
but i think your too imaginative and i dont believe the lost writers were the same..
When smokey confronts the ppl, he scans them -> seeing their pasts
Also when desmond turned safekey, wouldnt the time rush up? I didnt see any of the others were aging or sth…
Good theory, I can say I agree with your explanation, but there still are some aspects I find confusing …maybe you or someone else can help. First , the healing thing. It seems that your theory about time and the perception of time for the people on the island explains the fact that everyone’s wounds seem to heal faster than normal. But then, why can Locke walk again right after they crash on the island? I mean, in my opinion, no matter what happens with time, I don`t think Locke could get the sense back in his legs. And neither can cancer be cured, which is the case of Rose. Unless, they travel back in time to a point which is prior to Rose getting sick and John beeing tossed out on the window. But this is clearly not the case. So what does time have to do with this and what makes them well?
The second question is about the women who get pregnant on the island. Why do they die? Juliet is brought to the island to stop this from happening but she never finds a solution and what’s more than that, she never even finds out what is actually causing this. Neither do we…
I would like you to understand that I came up with these questions not in an attempt to fight your theory but in a hope that you might help me fit these final pieces into the puzzle. Thanks!
Wow – THIS was what i wanted to have as a solution for all this LOST-theory and it DID NOT destroy the mystery of lost. I always sucked in interpreting poems – because in 50% of them i was wrong (refering to the teachers opinion), so it was not that nice leaving all the interpretation to the fans. Because not everyone is that genius to see this “little hint” that the golden source is time. So thank you for “enlighten” me 😉 it was really a pleasure of reading it and now well it makes sense (even the little things not explained in the show like the egyptian signs, the statue, the “numbers” etc.)
Thank you for your “time” you put in this interpretation. 😉 I hope the authors of lost had the same thing in their mind writing it.
nevertheless i think the quality of the last season should have been better than just papermache-temple/cork and cheepy-animating goldsource.
bute nevertheless no i see the seasonfinal with different eyes and that i like a lot – thanks for saving at least a little bit of my last 6 years 😉
anne from cottbus (germany)
You have done a great job here Erick. Regardless of right or wrong, you have placed together a great overall theory, more detailed and clear than almost any I have heard.
I’m going to sit on it for a little, but since you have been replying to posts:
I will say that I believe that some of your timeline is off a little. The writing on the cork was cuneiform script, which was the oldest text we have found, dating to the Summarian era, so it was pre-Egyptian, and -and this part is my opinion – there is a good chance that the Egyptian era occurred after the Roman Times. If you are saying that the manifestation of the Smoke, as it was roaming around the island, didn’t happen until MIB, than the Egyptian images under the Temple with the Smoke and Anubis, would have been created after the Jacob/MIB thing. I don’t think that this actually screws with the theory, but thought I’d say it anyway.
I’m not sure I agree with the button-pushing exactly. I believe there would have been some discrepancies when the O6 got back, because they were keeping up with the days. I might have gotten it wrong, but it sounded like you were saying that DHARMA kinda planned the Hatch more so than I thought. It ended up right where they were planning it, but I don’t think they went in planning on being forced to push a button. Radzinsky was warned by Chang, he was stubborn, and had to pay the price for his arrogance, eventually with his life.
I like that your theory goes back to the origins of the light/time cave. I definitely have always agreed that a major plot/philosophical focus has been the past, and the ability to let go, and I love the way you incorporated this into a manifestation form. I first really got into this when I read the AA book last year. Don’t laugh. I read that book, and their other book, the 12&12 and all that went through my mind was lost. Paragraphs describing people in the books, described characters in the show. The key themes were mentioned, past, future, regret, science, faith, and combining them all. I thought I was crazy. Even the “numbers” could be corresponded to page numbers in the AA book. Check it out, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. I took it that far. People thought I was crazy until I went through all the correlations. Lets just say that if I could ask Darlton any random question, it would be, “Has anyone in the creative team been in AA?”. Anyway I just say that because that was my favorite surprising find, and I’m in a ranting mood.
Oh, and don’t forget that the extra footage in Aug, will explain the pregnancy, food drop, and other questions. Also the Encyclopedia coming out will have clarifications from Darlton, I have read that though there is no new revelations, the writers were allowed to clarify anything with Darlton, and some of these will be like new answers when compared to current thoughts in the fan base. Have fun seeing how the theory works with the stuff in just over a month. I hope it meshes well.
Great job again.
Awesome theory. I already loved lost, even the ending, before this but now i need to watch all over again.
thanks!
Sir, you are a genius. Just one thing. When many months passes on the island so that the medical station Claire was in now appeared older would not other things on the island also have appeared older such as the camp of the LOSTaways?
Interesting! I only hope that Darlton write an open letter explaining the show in a similar way to what you have. Then we’ll know for sure if you are on the right track. Thanks!