Amazing Grace

For those of you who don’t care, this post is dedicated to my final theory of Lost. Not to say that I won’t have more theories after the glorious evening of February 2nd. This is just everything I’ve gathered thus far and what I think everything means. Which could actually be a load of hogwash in the long run, but I digress. Anyways, even if you guys aren’t obsessed with Lost like me, you may want to stick around. You might learn a thing or two.

It has long been obvious that Lost is not a show about a bunch of people who crash on an island. They do crash, and they are lost, but not just because they have no idea where they are. This is a show about people. What makes you human. What makes you flawed. A story of the human condition. It’s not about the fact that these strangers are lost on an island, or lost in the forest. The castaways of Oceanic Flight 815 are metaphorically lost within themselves. Each one has a flaw, or a secret, or a stain on their record. What some of them don’t realize is that by crashing on this island they’ve been given what so many people long for: tabula rasa or a “blank slate.” Upon which they are free to write what they will.

A con man can become a gracious leader with a heart of gold. A torturer can be a symbol of hope and strength. A marriage so weighed down with deceit and lies can rise up and embody the true love that is at its roots. A man embittered with his father can finally be at peace with himself. A cripple can once again walk among the people who look to him for hope. A drug addict can become a father figure and protector. A fugitive can become the girl next door who you always knew would break your heart. A man who has been called a coward can save the world by pushing a button.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”

Forgiveness. Redemption. Betrayal. Murder. Salvation. Revenge. Life & Death. Fate vs. Free Will. Rebirth. Good vs. Evil. All of these are common themes in Lost. But what everything really boils down to is faith.

John Locke has always been the self proclaimed “Man of Faith” to Jack’s “Man of Science.” But at the end of season five, we see Jack’s evolution into a man of faith. He now believes completely and whole heartedly in destiny and fate. This represents one of the two huge role reversals we see in last year’s season finale. The other being a Locke/Ben situation. For seasons now we’ve seen Ben as the ultimate badass. He always has a plan after all. Always. He’s always in the know of what’s going on. He’s the man behind the curtain. Ben has always manipulated Locke expertly into doing the things Ben wants him to do. Yet, now we’ve seen the complete opposite when Locke convinces Ben to murder Jacob. Of course, as we all know, Locke isn’t Locke he’s actually the Man In Black, Jacob’s Nemesis, Mr. Loophole, Smokey, etc. But that’s another matter. Anyways, these roll reversals are huge. Both Jack and Ben cause the catastrophic season finale after all. Jack decides to blow up a hydrogen bomb and Ben kills Jacob (Christ?).

These incidents, of course, both stem from each individual’s fatal flaw. Jack has always searched for a purpose, to fix things, to make things better. He married his greatest accomplishment. He got like 5 people off the island. He took everyone to the rape caves (Shannon). Yet when he’s off the island and seemingly happy he does the exact same thing that got his father fired: alcohol. He ruins his relationship with Kate and then tries to jump off a bridge. I won’t mention the beard. So, when he gets back to the island and Sawyer is the leader now, he’s all jealous and whiny. And when Faraday comes along with a plan, Jack is all for getting that power back so he goes with this whole idea of altering time and thus messing with the space time continuum, etc. etc. Ben just wants to feel wanted and needed. His father blamed him for the death of his mother during childbirth. The only person that ever really gave a shit about him was that girl Annie that gave him that wooden doll (Whatever happened to her is going to be important.) He’s always been alone in the world until he initiated The Purge and became the leader of the Others. All of a sudden he was needed. Then, when Locke confronts him with the ugly truth: that maybe Jacob just used Ben. Maybe he was never really needed, Ben is all for stabbing the dude even though he’s like, the nicest guy ever. “A man does what he does because he wants something for himself.”

So, you see, there are always two sides. It takes two to tango, after all. “Two players. Two sides. One light. One black.” Ben vs. Locke. Locke vs. Jack. Jack vs. Sawyer. Jacob vs. Mr. Loophole. And so on. But can anyone ever really win?

Wow. I digress, again. Sorry. Back to my theories:

1. Juliet succeeded in blowing up the H-bomb and we’ll see a reset of the timeline. I’m totally right on this, you guys. We’ll see the plane land in LAX. But, everything is gonna suck of course.( I mean have you seen Back to the Future? His mom hits on him!) And everyone’s fates are still intertwined. For instance: Maybe Kate still delivers Claire’s baby? Maybe Jack still saves someone’s life? Maybe Locke is still a figure of hope for someone? Maybe Hurley still hits it off with Libby? Everyone who died is back. Jin and Sun still hate each other and everything still basically sucks. Then like 1/3 of the way through the season, people start figuring out that something is amiss. (Like in The Matrix, whenever there was a glitch in reality, everyone saw it as déjà vu, but it was actually reality trying to fix itself.) So everyone bands together to set things right. How? I don’t know. What I do think is that eventually we’ll get back to where season five ended but not for a while. “Because Jack, what’s done is done.”

2. Ilana and her Ajira peeps are Others. Jacob asks Ilana for help. They know about Locke not being Locke. They know about the cabin and the ash surrounding it. Ilana finds a piece of Jacob’s tapestry in the cabin and knows exactly where to go. She asks “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” To which Richard (oldest Other ever) replies: “He who shall protect us all.” Only he says it in Latin (THE LANGUAGE OF THE OTHERS). Totally. Oh and when Jacob says “They’re coming.” He’s probably talking about Ilana and them. Just saying.

3. “You have a choice.” Jacob says this to Ben, just before Ben kills him. I think what he’s trying to say is that you always have a choice. Fate has its plans, yes. But, free will still exists.

4. Jacob is a Christ like figure. Loophole is Devil like. (Coincidently, the official name for Smokey/Loophole is Cerberus. In Greek mythology, Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld. Coincidence? To quote John Locke: “Do not mistake coincidence for fate.”) Basically, I think Jacob and Loophole have been on The Island forever and that they are there to judge humanity to see if it is worth saving. Loophole is pessimistic and wants out. He doesn’t like playing these stupid games and he’s ready to go home already. So, he concocts this elaborate plan to kill Jacob so he doesn’t have to put up with Jacob’s optimism about the human race any longer. But, Jacob, being Jacob, has his own elaborate scheme to parry his nemesis’s elaborate scheme but he’ll still have to die (a sacrifice? To save his people? Sound familiar?). Jacob knows the whole time what’s up so he’s prepared for his death.

5. “Just because we love each other doesn’t mean we’re meant to be together.” I don’t have a very positive outlook for the romance in Lost. I really wish Sun and Jin would be together in the end. And maybe even Charlie and Claire. Oh, and Desmond and Penny of course. But, things aren’t looking good. I don’t think Kate can just “end up” with anyone. It would be too easy to end the love triangle with her just picking one. The whole point is that she can’t pick. She should be with Jack, but she can’t resist Sawyer. It’ll have to be the men that decide. One way or another. One of them will have to choose to step down or sacrifice himself or something dramatic like that. (PS, whenever Juliet let go of Sawyer and plummeted to her death? I think that was a metaphor of her letting go of Sawyer all together. As she said “You would stay with me forever if I let you.” I think she was letting him go. What a woman.)

6. Some interesting tidbits: On Jacob’s tapestry, in Greek, are the lines “May the Gods grant thee all that thy heart desires.” Perhaps this is Jacob’s power? We know he touches Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Locke, Jin, and Sun in those flashbacks (Hurley and Sayid were AFTER they had already returned from the island, everyone else was BEFORE they ever went to the island). Jacob also says to Hurley that he isn’t cursed, he’s “blessed”. The tapestry also says: “May the Gods grant thee happiness.” Jacob’s gotta be the good guy. Maybe he wants the castaways to be happy but they keep screwing everything up. (Both of these quotes are from The Odyssey)

7. The bottom of the tapestry also says, in Greek: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” Which happens to be quote from the Greek philosopher Plato. And… I don’t really know where to go with that. Maybe Jacob wants world peace? Or maybe since war is suffering, he wants to see the people who he chooses suffering to end? By everyone dying? Gosh, that would be sad.

As for the mysteries of Lost, well they’re another matter. What do the numbers mean? Who built the four-toed statue? What is the island? Who put it there? Why does the DHARMA Initiative exist? Who are Adam and Eve? Will they ever leave the island for good? What exactly goes on at The Temple Station? Why was Charles Widmore banished? The list goes on. I’m not so naïve that I expect all the mysteries to be solved and delivered to us in a nice little package. I realize some things will remain a mystery. But, I think some things shouldn’t be known. We shouldn’t know every little thing because that would take away from the magic of Lost—a show that dares to spend whole seasons developing characters and that pushes the envelope of what people expect to see on TV. I just hope they find some way to wrap up everyone’s story the way they’re supposed to end, and somehow reach a conclusion that does the show justice.

But if Kate and Jack end up together, I’m gonna be pissed. Damn it.

In conclusion, I leave you with this lovely clip—which, in my opinion, is the best we’ve seen so far. If you watch very carefully, you can see some new footage. My personal favorite being the emergence of Claire (!!) wielding a gun. Oh, and it totally supports my theory of an alternate timeline.




(Note: “Amazing Grace” by Willie Nelson is the best version of Amazing Grace ever. Plus, they play it in some of the previews for the final season of Lost.)