OK, I’m just a fanboy with no connection to the show LOST but I have been there since the beginning, when it first debuted on September 22, 2004 (which is also my birthday, BTW) and after last weeks episode I have a good idea where we are heading.
Think The Wizard of Oz meets “Paradise Lost.”
What I think we have been seeing in the flash-sideways is actually what happens AFTER the Man in Black AKA the smoke monster AKA “Fake Locke” gets off the Island, which IS Hell… the Hell as written in John Milton’s famous poem Paradise LOST… the Hell which is a prison to Lucifer. To get off the island the devil offered everyone a bargain… they got to get their heart’s dreams fulfilled. Just like at the end of The Wizard of Oz.
(Earlier hints: The balloonist who Ben pretended to be in his first appearance? Henry Gale – also the name of Dorothy’s uncle. And the Wizard left Oz in a balloon. And a nickname for Australia, where Oceanic 815 was coming from? Oz.)
So the “Wizard” gives them what they want: Kate didn’t kill her father, Hurley is the luckiest man on Earth, Sayid’s love Nadia is still alive, Sawyer is a good guy, Jack has a son… Except… Not everyone remembers the Island. And they end up living in a world that is NOT the perfect scenario they had hoped for (Kate is still on the run, Sawyer still hasn’t found the conman who destroyed his family, etc.). Kinda like “The Monkey’s Paw.”
Very soon I’d wager that someone (Desmond?) in the “flash-sideways” will let them know that the balance must be restored, and so when the Man in Black is recaptured… Flashpoint.
They are back at square one. The beginning. They crash on the island, again. The cycle continues.
I may be wrong… heck, I HOPE I’m wrong, cause I love to be surprised… but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m onto something.
UPDATE: OK, so the series is now over and I was wrong… But ya know, I like my ending better.