Discussing
Dr. Shephard's Strange Love

Here's a couple thoughts:

First, on what the plot meant [SPOILERS!]:

As the LA Times puts it, "it turns out the passengers of Oceanic 815 are all dead, victims, if the end-credit imagery is to believed, of the same tragic plane accident that started the whole thing."

They died in the original crash, and everything else was some sort of afterlife. For shorthand, I’d say the Island was purgatory, and the sideways world was nascent-heaven-experience. And as Bob Keeley points out on the TC Facebook page, there's a significant chance it was all just Jack's purgatory-to-heaven dream-like experience. The whole series was an afterlife tailored for Jack.

So, like in a dream, none of the details matter or have coherence except the broadest themes. All the weirdness, minor characters, and dead ends don't have to make sense. And now it's time to wake up.

Second, the Lost worldview boils down to something like:

a) Sticking together is the goal of humanity (Live together, Die alone). How you connect with other people is the most important thing. It's a bit of carpe diem with a strong dose of teamwork tossed in.

b) And because we love each other and life so much, it must mean something. Humanity must have cosmic significance. Something must matter beyond the physical now. There’s no system to it, or cause for it, but the urge for meaning is too strong to ignore. So we're left with a lot of mushy this-can’t-be-all-there-is transcendence.

c) And thus, the operating question for each person is: will you overcome your selfish temptations for the sake of others, and so enter into significance? This is the question all the major characters had to face. All of them seemed to have some big selfish error to correct.

(In that sense, I disagree with the LA Times, who says the theme is just carpe diem: “the message of "Lost" had nothing to do with smoke monsters or even true love — it was about living in the present. The slippery, ever-shifting, oh-now-there's-a-temple-in-the-jungle present. Viewers either went with it or they didn't.” If anything the finale was about, it was about the eternal significance of choices made in the now. )

So in the end, it's a complete reflection of North American vague spirituality:

-My loved ones are the most important thing in the world
-There must be a "heaven" for me and my loved ones somewhere, because they're just so important to me
-So I'll do my best not to be selfish and get us all to heaven


In the end, Lost did espouse a particular worldview. Call it transcendent humanism. It just happens to be one that's pretty mushy to begin with.

I personally wished the oceanic 6 were back on the Island living happily ever mystery. The ending, while not doubt creating numerous possibilities, seemed very un-LOST like.

Taking from other myths, the island seemed more along the concept of the fountain of youth as mankind always tries to escape death. By having them all die at the end seemed to short change the previous 120 episodes. I don't think labeling it as universalism, or even catholic for that matter, misses the mark of the show.

The show more than anything else was about the characters more than philosophy or the smoke monster. I think labeling it misses the point. While you cannot separate theology and philosophy from what it means to be human, it is the human side that the show looked to bring out. This no doubt leads to multiple references to various beliefs.

My two cents

Re Steve K's comments: your first three paragraphs echo my thoughts since the first season---they all died in the plane crash; their lives are "flashing before their eyes," or rather, flashbacking; the dreamlike reality/unreality are their last conscious moments; toss in purgatory or Dante's levels, spiralling, corkscrewing, events reflecting personalities and past-life decisions and choices, etc. Fun stuff --- transcendent humanism at best, but much better than the cut-throat "reality" of "Survivor" and its portrayal of inherent human nastiness.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead) Ty, you made a great point. I don't want a label put on the show. I don't really want it's truth to be clearly Buddhist or Christian but I admit I did make it sound that way. What I think I am wrestling with is that I didn't want it so abstract, malleable and vague. I would have preferred the guiding value here to not be a safe and ambiguous "love" and "light." I called that in the column not having a worldview but Steven is exactly correct in saying that WAS the worldview.

And what redeems it all for me is exactly what Ty said: This is about the characters. And that's why my heart was happy and why I've learned to stop worrying about the worldview and like the finale!

On a side note, I am surprised by the "They died in the crash" sentiments here. I love that we can have differing interpretations, but I've seen this one in very few places. My thoughts: Everything on island was real. They really crashed. They really survived. (A great article on this and other murky issues from the finale is here: http://screenrant.com/lost-fin... But Steven is right about this: Whether the island was "real" or not, metaphorically for us viewers, it was certainly a place of testing and working out your eternal destiny and redemption in fear and trepidation.

And then, the only place we saw our heroes dead in the afterlife was the Sideways reality which Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff Jensen said was "a timeless realm that actually may be part of a larger 'Purgatory' that has always existed, or it may be a pocket universe that began to form over time as the castaway soul cluster began to connect...The Sideways world is a manifestation of the castaway soul cluster's collective yearning. They wanted a world where they never crashed on The Island. They wanted a world where The Island had no sway over their lives. Ergo, their purgatory paradise reflects that yearning." (Read Jensen's recap here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0... and here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0...

I could be wrong, but did the show say they died from the actual crash, or that they just died? I thought the flash sideways was them actually being dead, and not the entire show. The writers mentioned that the island was not purgatory. My thinking is the 6th season describes how most of them died.

While everything comes from a worldview and whether intended or not will promote a worldview, the show addressed key questions: death, the problem of evil, and purpose of life. While some may shoot me for saying this, this show hit on themes and concepts that also made Shakespeare so great. It dealt with more than just the entrainment, but gave us a mirror in which to ponder and think about our own plight. This is why I think a label for the show is amiss. The promotion is to engage in the discussion, not the promotion of a particular viewpoint.

The key question the series drives us to is what & why of the human condition, but even more can the human condition change? The show predicates that change is based on circumstances, and given the proper circumstances, struggle and outcome, mankind will improve. That under trial the best of the human experience is seen, not when things are easy.

(Spoilers Ahead) I am with you Ty. There have been those theorizing that the finale was arguing that castaways died in the original crash. I think this is largely based on the shots of the wreckage that accompanied the end credits. But this afternoon, ABC has clarified that the network added those shots to harken back to the beginning--not to communicate that everyone was always dead. (See here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...

And so, I think Ty is right: The Sideways World was a type of purgatory that was set outside of time where these friends met up even tho some died earlier and some died "much later" as Christian said.

As far as your take on the show's purpose as stirring conversation and self-reflection, Ty, I am with ya. Good thoughts.

Here was my take last year:  http://sinema7.net/2010/05/the...
I sort of saw a theological pattern that incorporated the quantum theory aspects of the show. I do think it was about sin and redemption but in a theologically undefined universe that really does reflect the many theories science, world religions, and personal mythologies offer about God, life, and death at the beginning of the 21st century. I would like to have had some loose ends tied up but I am grateful for a show that stretched my brain, kept me entertained for seven years, and offered so many opportunities for conversations about big important questions.