I’ve been very right in some of my predictions about LOST (Locke being in the coffin) and very wrong (too embarrassed to link) but I’ve got an interesting theory that, if I’m right, will mean LOST ends the same way that another one of my favorite shows did, over 40 years ago.
One of the shows that JJ Abrams and producer/writer Damon Lindleoff has cited as an influence to LOST was The Prisoner, the groundbreaking 1960s spy show from the late great Patrick McGoohan that confounded viewers as much as entertained them. That series ended with the Village being destroyed (or at least abandoned) and The Prisoner (also known as Number 6) “free.” Until…
You saw the last scene. The last scene of The Prisoner saw the lead character driving his car towards the camera – the exact same scene that began the series. What did this mean? That it was all going to happen again, with the same result? Was he in a loop?
Yes. And No. It was all in the eye of the beholder.
“The Prisoner is ultimately what the show aspires to be,” Damon Lindelof said in 2006. Was this an off-the-cuff comment, or a very big clue? I think the later.
We have seen flash-backs, flash-forwards, and now, with this last season a concept called “flash-sideways” which is supposed to show what happens if they don’t get on the island.
Except they get to the island. They ALWAYS get to the island. They are meant to be. Or, to quote another recently-ended favorite program: “All this has happened before, and will happen again.”
They are in a moebius strip, and we will see both timelines merge by the end of the year, in a stalemate, and almost all will be explained. How does that end? No idea. And only a few people know the final shot we will see of LOST, and one of them is actor Matthew Fox (who plays Jack) – he said on Jimmy Kimmel he knows what it is.
Of course he does, ’cause he’s the only actor in the shot.
The last shot of the series – Jack’s opening his eyes as he lies in the jungle after the crash – will be the same as the first shot of the first episode. The perfect bookend. The end is the beginning is the end. Just like on The Prisoner.
The symbolism of the show has been clear – the record, the donkey-wheel – all are circular, not linear… Heck, they even had the “Oceanic (Number) Six” – They ALL are The Prisoner. And I’m not the only one to see similarities in both shows.
“They have to go back!”
Of course. They have no choice. That is the wheel, and that is their fate – to be forever LOST.
UPDATE: OK, we are now more than half-way done with the last season and I am pretty much convinced we are seeing seeing LOST season six AND “season seven” – the flash-sideways are THE FUTURE, after they get off the island… and only some of the people (members of the Oceanic Six – DEFINITELY Sawyer) “remember” the Island. Basically, The Man in Black AKA Fake Locke granted people their “wishes” and that is the “flash sideways” we are seeing.
BUT… I still think that my ending is gonna happen, because Something Bad will happen if the timeline is not “corrected” (basically, the flash-sideways is a version of the last Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “All Good Things…’, writ large – and Damon Lindeloff LOVES that episode). So, again, “They have to go back!”
And the cycle repeats.
“They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.”
UPDATE 2: Found this youtube video that traces some references to recursion/loops that has been used throughout the show – the author of this apparently shares my theory. Oh, and I just found out what the original title of the show was, before it was changed. That title? “The Circle.” Hmm.
FINAL UPDATE: OK, the show has ended, and I was half-right. The notion that the show would end how it began was correct… in a way. SPOILERS!
Jack’s in the final shot, as he dies, and we see him closing his eyes, a perfect bookend to the beginning shot of the show – I got that part. And, just as I noted, much like Patrick McGoohan’s enigmatic subject-to-interpretation ending to the seminal The Prisoner, the LOST ending brings some clarity as well as some ambiguity… and the reaction to the last episode has been very very varied. Some loved it, some hated it.
My reaction… well, I may save that for another post. But it was passionate. And the show, like all Art, provokes. And that, more than anything else, matters. Was it worth the time, no matter our reaction to the finale? Absolutely.
“Everyone dies, Jack.”
