Jack and Desmond – The Finale
Have been stuck, ironically in the US, due to the volcano, so am a little behind the times with respect to theories, so apologies if I am repeating anyone else’s! (Had to seriously fight the urge not to watch Lost on US TV, but have now been rewarded by being able to watch 3 epsiodes in succession – was in heaven for 2 hours!).
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OK, so trying to figure out what might happen in the end like most of you. Have read a few posts below, and I can’t believe that it involves the redemption of MIB. Not sure how you could sell that particular story. One thing I have been convince of for a verrrry long time is that Lost would end as it began, with Jack waking in the jungle. So I am frequently trying to figure how that might come about. Jack is clearly very important – ‘He walks among us, but he is not one of us’. Is the heart of the Lost story Jack’s transformation to a Jacob like character. Jacob certainly seems to want Jack to make that transfomation on his own – in the Lighthouse he wants Hurley to leave Jack alone to contemplate. It was clear from Jacob and MIB’s first confrontation that Jacob knows that MIB cannot directly kill him. Jack also now seems to be aware that MIB cannot directly kill him. Therefore, I suspect that the ending to Lost will be Jack waking up in the jungle again, he will hear the carnage from flight 815, he will run to the beach. But finally enlightened, Jack (Mr Fixit) will walk away.
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But how does he get there? I wonder if this is Desmond’s role in the end. It would require a turn of the donkey wheel. Desmond would be ejected from the Island to Tunisia. I would think that the writers might want resolution for Desmond – perhaps Mrs Hawking would be waiting with Penny?
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I also suspect that prior to Jack’s return to the pilot episode, he will require a final confrontation with MIB. I’m not sure exactly how this will play out, but I suspect it will end up with MIB neutralised in some way, unable to influence anyone in any timeline. Perhaps this is due to the sinking of the Island. Perhaps it involves Jack’s complete redemption. Don’t know! But Desmond could walk off into the sunset with Penny knowing he was finally free of the Island, Jack could walk away from 815 crash knowing MIB could not affect them, and we would know that the alt timeline Losties would live on, un affected by MIB.
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Anyway – there we go. One final thing – go back and watch that first scene from the Pilot. Just as Jack runs onto the beach. Something is very off. Almost like for a second there is nothing…then carnage. Thinking now, I wonder if after turning the donkey wheel, either the Island or Jack’s consciousness was still settling on the exact place in time where it/he was.
the only problem i see with this… is… that if Jack goes back in time, surely if MIB is neutralized, then the losties wouldn’t go through all the palava that they already went through and so in the second time around, Jack wouldn’t have to be the leader/candidate because Jacob would still be alive
Sounds a lot like the end of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King..the same thing but with minor differences that might help this time around…
The scene you mentioned where Jack first comes out of the jungle – looks right towards a quiet and peaceful beach and then looks left toward the 815 chaos – reminds me of coming to a fork in the road, where normally you’d look at both “paths” more than once contemplating which one to chose, but back then Jack was ruled by his doctor/hero/”I can fix this” instinct and really never had a choice.
But now, if Jack were to face that same choice of path, I certainly could see him “taking the road less traveled by” – meaning, looking right at the peaceful beach scene, and going that way – and going that way will have “made all the difference”.
I really enjoyed reading this. GREAT write. I think you may very well be on to something. I can’t agree with you more that the story will end how it began. Isn’t that how all great stories end??
P.S. Scrollocke, your picture made me laugh.
helentink – yes I did think of that. Judging from what was said by MIB/Jacob, these timelines keep repeating. They change a bit, but usually the same thing happens. In MIB’s case, people are corrupted etc etc. In this scenario, MIB is no more, so things unfold slightly differently.
ScrollLocke – Really like the idea of choosing a fork in the road. This will be the first time Jack walked away.
Thanks to all for kind words.
so Jack will look at a crashed plane and dying people and go “f-that” and walk away?? sorry, I think that would suck…
Wanting to step up and help because that is the right thing to do is what makes a hero. Remember when Jack did say F it and decided to just let something happen on its own? He refused to operate on baby Ben, and he looked like a total scum bag. Im totally with Jacobsdoublewide here…..if he decides that this time around he doesnt get involved and turns his back on the people he knows are dying and suffering and in need of leadership to hold them together…….then that would be a crappy ass ending.
To both JacobsDoubleWide and greatforsaken – I’m trying to remember whether Jack’s involvement actually helped that many people. Would the Losties be better off or worse off if Jack wasn’t involved. Hmmm… not sure about that.
Anyway, I think the point would be that Jack had finally taken on the Jacob role. Jacob hasn’t got involved particularly, amd I’m sure that he is an allegory for God. Despite all the bad things going on, why wouldn’t Jacob/God get directly involved. It is because he wants the people to sort things out for themselves. And if Jack takes on the Jacob role it would prove to MIB that people can be inherently good.
(I know I’m repeating myself but…) I agree that the Pilot scene where Jack wakes in the jungle is key.
When Jack wakes up it is silent, yet he gets up, finds the bottle of booze in his pocket, and breaks into a full on run toward the beach (how’d he know which way to go?). And if it was you…would you be running or would you be moving slowly and carefully trying to figure things out? It remains quiet until he emerges on the beach and sees the wreckage – then the noise begins.
Also – if you watch the Lost Mobisode “So It Begins” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTOm_8ojwm0) you will see what happened just before Jack woke up with what I believe to be the Real Christian (not MIB) and how he helps Vincent to find Jack in the jungle.
Jack is certainly important. But not because he is Jacob’s substitute, but because he is the one who unifies all the other losties. Without him things would be a mess.
I think that the one which will eventually finish MIB is in fact no one else then John Lock from the alternative timeline.
The “LOOP end” idea would be just plain silly in my opinion since it would invalidate everything that has happened in the show. Nothing would had a real propose and Jacob’s and MIB’s game would be a eternal 0x0 thus making the show pointless.
I think a lot of what we are seeing this series mirrors what we have seen in previous series, so I think the writers are definitely alluding to the cyclical nature of time. Jacob commented ‘..everything that happens before that is progress’. To me that means that you have to relive the past to change things. MIB’s suggestion is that humans always take the same path, but I think this might be where Jack proves MIB wrong.
The writers have said that once it ends, there will be no room left for any future storytelling.
If there is an island, there would still be a story, I think. So using your logic, I think the island would have to be destroyed.
But is the cork still needed if MiB is killed, or made powerless? Is he ALL of the wine in the bottle, or would there still be evil that the island would be needed to guard against?
I while ago, I posted that the Island is sunk with MIB trapped within, Desmond turns the donkey wheel and escapes and Jack is transported to another time on the Island. So I guess that still covers everything. Jack ends up at the time of the flight 815 crash, but walks away knowing that MIB is no more, and the losties don’t need him to save them.