It's been over a month since the series ended. I'm still in withdrawal mode :(
It was an amazing series in terms of music and mythology and WTF moments and plot twists. The problem is that a lot of plotlines don't make sense. Head over to the Lostpedia forum
and you'll see the arguments are still raging on. Overall I'd have to give the series 8/10. Series 6 really let it down and the lack of answers to several mysteries left me irritated, but it was still an amazing experience over the last 6 years!
For those wondering what actually happened, this is my very long explanation for the events of the show:
The island contains at least 3 large pockets of electromagnetic energy which have exotic and mystical qualities. In the past, a group of ancient humans found the Island, somehow realised its potential, and tried to release the energy by digging a hole in the cave where the largest EM pocket was. This was catastrophic, and nearly destroyed the island until the breach in the Source Cave was sealed with a stone cork. Enough of the energy slowly leaked out as the Light, which mixed with the island waters and gave the island its magical powers.
At some point, one of these ancients was merged with the power of the island to become its first Protector. The Protector gains certain gifts - they stop ageing, and can alter people's destinies to bring them to the island, or ensure they never reach the island. They can also enforce certain rules that are binding upon people's fate, and have the gift of foresight. All of these abilities have undefined limits.
The first Protector we saw was Mother, who may possibly have also been a Smoke Monster, or had control of one. As she tired of her duties, a ship was wrecked on the island (possibly brought to the island by Mother on purpose). Mother rescued one survivor, a pregnant woman named Claudia. After Claudia gave birth to twins (Jacob and MIB) she was murdered by Mother, who raised the boys as her own. She instigated her own Island Rules to ensure the 2 men could not harm each other. She moulded them to be Candidates as her replacement, but Claudia's ghost spoke to MIB, who was special and had an affinity for the island, and convinced him to go find the other shipwreck survivors. MIB abandoned Mother, but Jacob stayed behind.
MIB used his insight into the island and the cleverness of claudia's people to find the EM pockets on the island, but was unable to find the Source cave since Mother had somehow hidden it from view. He somehow learnt to mix the Light and Water together using a wheel, which he planned to use to teleport off the island. Mother found out, panicked, destroying his device and wiping out his village. She realised MIB would never replace her so had to settle for her 2nd choice, Jacob, who was forced to succeed her. MIB then murdered Mother, who seemed grateful, as if she wanted to die. Jacob was enraged, and tried to harm his brother in revenge by casting him into the Source cave, even though Mother had warned him this was a fate worse than death. Since MIB could not be killed directly by Jacob, his soul was instead transformed in the Smoke Monster, leaving his body behind. The Monster, in addition to being a terrible destructive force, can appear as any dead person, gaining their knowledge and memories, and can scan the thoughts of the living. It also seems to have certain powers over the dead, in some cases resurrecting them, and is linked to a corrupting Sickness that causes irrational behaviour.
Jacob then spent centuries keeping the Monster bound to the island and protecting the Source cave, belieiving that if it was damaged, all life on Earth would die, and that if the Monster escaped the island, it would destroy humanity. The monster continued to believe humans were essentially evil, and was enraged by its prison. Jacob tried to convince the monster was wrong, by bringing others to the island. One group was related to the ancient Egyptians, and built the Temple and Statue, completed the Wheel mechanism, and possibly worshipped the Monster. They either destroyed themselves or were wiped out by the Monster. Jacob brought others, including the Black Rock, but everyone was killed. It was only when a slave, Richard Alpert, joined his side that Jacob had any success, despite the Monster's attempt to use Richard as a tool to kill Jacob. Richard was rendered immortal, and began to construct a society of Others who would prove Jacob was right about humanity.
Jacob realised the Monster would one day figure out a way to kill him, so began to look for his own Candidates. He did not approve of how Mother chose him, so he used the LightHouse to find people who were flawed, and lonely and directionless. He occasionally left the island to touch them so their destinies were altered to bring them to the island; Jacob's touch also prevented his Candidates from committing suicide, and prevented the Monster from being able to directly kill them. One by one they all died by circumstance or by the machinations of the Monster.
Meanwhile, the US army found the island in the 1950s and were prevented from testing a nuclear weapon by the Others. The Dharma Initiative discovered a smaller EM energy pocket in the USA, and constructed the Lamp Post facility to use it to find other EM pockets, leading them to the island. They sent a large team there to investigate, coming into conflict with the Others. They dug into the ground and damaged another EM pocket, which could have destroyed the island. This damage altered the island's energies, making it impossible to conceive and bear children on the island. Dharma was able to build a Hatch to safely release the EM energy in small doses.
By 1989 or 1992, Jacob tired of the Dharma Initiative putting the island at risk, and had them wiped out. Ben Linus and Ethan Rom defected from Dharma to join the Others. Not long after, a French expedition found the island, but was mostly wiped out or Infected with madness by the Monster. The survivor, Danielle Rousseau, gave birth to a daughter, Alex, who was kidnapped by Ben. Since the Others could not reproduce on the island, they were forced to supplement their numbers by kidnapping children or recruiting adults from the rest of the world. Their leader, Charles Widmore, was expelled from leadership of the Others by Ben, for breaking the rules by having children off the island and consorting with non islanders to begin his empire. Widmore became obsessed with returning to the island one day and getting rid of Ben.
Desmond Hume, a man in love with Widmore's daughter Penny, was influenced to land on the island. He replaced the last remaining Dharma member, and began pressing the button in the Hatch which controlled the EM leak from the damage the Dharma had done. In 2004 he neglected his task, just in time to drag down Flight 815. Many of the survivors were Candidates for replacing Jacob. The Monster began to investigate the survivors and formed a plan.
One candidate in particular, John Locke, formed a special bond with the island. Tricked by the Monster into thinking the Hatch was a sham, he tried to break its mechanism, putting the island at risk of detonating. Desmond was forced to take a huge risk and trigger a self destruct, imploding the pocket and absorbing the EM energies. This triggered a series of time flashes, where he drifted into his own past and attempted to prevent his arrival on the island, until prevented by a woman named Eloise Hawking, who wanted to ensure Desmond's timeline remained intact.
The detonation of the Hatch alerted both Penelope and Charles Widmore to the current location of the island. Charles Widmore sent a team on a Freighter to kill everyone on the island and secure it for himself. Many of the Losties attempted to make contact with the Freighter team until they realised the danger they were in, and ended up allying with the Others against them. In the end, the freighter was destroyed, and only a handful of Losties escaped the island and made it back to civilisation. They then lied about their experiences to prevent Widmore or others from further attempts to locate the island or put their friends left behind at risk.
To save the island, Locke attempted to make contact with Jacob. He and Ben were tricked into meeting the Smoke Monster, instead, who had assumed the shape of the deceased Christian Shephard, claiming to speak on Jacob's behalf. The Monster had already claimed Claire who had died in an attack from the Freighter team. The Monster told Locke to move the island using the Wheel he himself had designed. However, Ben turned the wheel first, moving the island, teleporting himself to Tunisia, and causing the Losties to be sent out of synch with time. Neither Claire nor the Others were affected by this.
The time travelling Losties jumped into several time periods. One was 1954, where Locke met Richard Alpert and then vanished, misleading RIchard into believing Locke was predestined to be a special leader of the Others. Another was 2007, where Richard was again mislead into telling Locke he needed to bring the escaped Losties back to the island, and himself needing to die. Finally, in the distant past, the Monster told Locke to turn the wheel again. This caused the time travellers to settle down in one time period - 1974, when Dharma was on the island and in conflict with the Others. Locke was sent to Tunisia in 2007.
Locke was assisted by Charles Widmore in trying get the Losties who had escaped to return to the island, but failed. In despair, he attempted to commit suicide, further motivated by the fact that he thought he had to die to serve the island. Since Candidates cannot commit suicide, fate brought Ben Linus to him in time to save him. However, once Locke let slip some vital information, Ben murdered Locke, no longer needing him.
Ben then used Locke's suicide and other techniques into getting the survivors back together. Jack Shephard's life had fallen apart for several reasons - learning that Claire, left behind on the island, was his half sister; failing to bring up Claire's son Aaron with Kate; believing he had seen his father's ghost; dependency on drugs. Kate had been taking care of Claire's son Aaron, but was threatened by Ben with exposure that she had lied in her court trial and would have Aaron taken away. She realised she needed to go find Claire and bring her back to her son. Hurley was in despair, his gift to see the dead manifesting in full and driving him insane, until a visiting Jacob told him it was a gift not a curse and that he needed to help his friends. Jacob also visited Sayid, potentially saving sayid's life while allowing Sayid's wife to die. Sayid was tricked by Ben into murdering many of Widmore's people but then refused to go to the island. Jacob then went to an old ally, Ilana, and told her she needed to make sure all the remaining Candidates went back to the island and were protected. She ensured Sayid was taken back. Sun went back to find out if her husband Jin was in fact still alive.
Thanks to the information Ben took from Locke before murdering him, they all went to visit Eloise Widmore, who told them the only way back to the island was to replicate Flight 815 using proxies. They attempted to do this, but their attempt was not precise enough. As the island grabbed at the plane to bring it down, Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid were sent to 1977 while the rest of the plane was left in 2007.
The time travellers encountered their friends living in Dharma. Sayid attempted to alter history by murdering a teenage Ben, but only wounded him. When Ben was taken to the Others for healing in the Temple, it altered his character, removed his memories of the time travelers, and cemented his relationship with the Others, ensuring history went as it was supposed to. One of the Losties, Daniel Faraday son of Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking, and an expert in time travel, decided he too would alter history. By using a nuclear bomb left by the US army in the 1950s, he would neutralise the EM energy on the island damaged by Dharma. This would remove the need for the Hatch, meaning Desmond would never cause Flight 815 to crash on the island, negating the entire series of events. He stormed in the Others' camp, demanding to get to the bomb, but was shot by his own mother, Eloise. As he died, he realised his mother had orchestrated his arrival on the island in 2004, knowing full well he would die in the past.
The Eloise of 1977 was alarmed to be told she had murdered her future son, and attempted to help the Losties carry out their plan to change history. In fact, all they did was ensure history went as it always had to. Dharma had already dug into the island's EM pocket, triggering a disastrous Incident. By detonating the nuclear bomb, the Losties ensured the energy was temporarily neutralised. This gave Dharma enough time to construct the Hatch which would then safely control the damaged energies from 1977 until 2004 when Desmond detonated the failsafe. Eloise left the Others, and inherited the journal of her son, using its information and knowledge of the future to ensure the time loop was preserved. In this way the island was kept safe. In 2004 she ensured her son went to the island on the Freighter, so that he would be sent to 1974. By 2007 she had no further knowledge of events and had completed her duty to the island, even though it meant she had sacrificed the life of her son. If she had not, the Losties would not have detonated the bomb, and the Incident would likely have destroyed the island and the world. The bomb also sent the Losties forward in time to 2007.
On the island in 2007, the Monster assumed the shape of John Locke, tricking people into thinking his corpse had been brought back to life. He tricked Ben and Richard into bringing him to Jacob, and incited ben into hating Jacob enough to kill him. Jacob and the Monster were playing their game for the soul of humanity even then, but Jacob failed yet again as Ben murdered him, circumventing Mother's Rules that the Monster could not directly harm Jacob.
The Monster's identity was exposed by Ilana, so it went off to recruit followers. A dying Sayid was recognised as a Candidate by the Others at the Temple who attempted to use the Temple's healing waters to save him. WIth the death of Jacob, the Monster had corrupted the Temple, and resurrected Sayid in a corrupt and Sickened state. Sayid was influenced by the Monster into murdering the Protector of the Temple, allowing the Monster to massacre the Others. He left alive the few who had joined his side, along with the corrupted Claire and Sayid. Eventually Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sun and Sawyer joined with him in attempting to leave the island. Charles Widmore came to the island and did everything he could to frustrate the Monster. He put explosives on the Ajira plane, and kidnapped Jin to use his knowledge from Dharma to find the EM pockets on the island. He also brought Desmond, wanting to use him to manipulate the EM energy. The Monster used subterfuge to eliminate Sun and Jin and wiped out Widmore's team. Widmore revealed he had been contacted by Jacob and convinced into abandoning his own schemes to save the island, but was then murdered by Ben to avenge the murder of Ben's adopted daughter, Alex Rousseau.
Even after his death, Jacob's rules remained in place. The Monster could not harm the candidates directly, nor could it leave the island if any candidates were alive. With sayid dead, claire abandoning him and the remaining Others scattered, the Monster turned to Ben to aid him in finding Desmond and using him to destroy the island. Ben agreed, but was in fact only playing along long enough until he could figure out how to outmaneuvre the indestructible and cunning Monster.
Jacob was able to resurrect himself using his own ashes long enough to talk to his remaining four candidates. He asked them to choose willingly to replace him, unlike the way Mother imposed the job on him. Jack, changed by his experiences and feeling guilt over the wreck of his life, and the deaths of Locke and Juliet, agreed to do the work. He became the new Protector, and Jacob disappeared forever.
Jack and the Monster confronted each other and agreed to go together to the Source Cave with Desmond. Desmond removed the stone Cork, undoing the source and triggering the island to fall apart. At that point, the power of the Island was undone. The Rules keeping the Monster bound to the island fell apart, but the Monster was rendered mortal again. Jack and Kate succeeded in killing the Monster in its mortal form, ending its threat forever. Ben and Hurley agreed to help Jack save the island as the rest of them went to the plane. Kate convinced Claire into coming home to Aaron. Kate would be in trouble for breaking the law in leaving the US, and Claire would have to reveal she had not died 3 years ago, as would Sawyer. Richard presumably used the leftover power and money of the Others to create a life for himself off island. Miles presumably went back to his old life.
Jack went into the Source cave and helped Desmond escape, and then put the stone Cork back, sealing the breach and restoring the Light emanating from the EM source. This saved the island, but lethal exposure to the EM energy and the wounds suffered from fighting the Monster resulted in Jack's death. Before dying, Jack chose Hurley to be the new Protector. Hurley asked Ben to act as his advisor in protecting the island. With no Monster to worry about, Hurley was able to use the island in a very different way to Jacob, to help people. He used the island's influence to allow Desmond to go home to his wife and child.
Over time, each of the remaining characters died. As they all died, they entered a construct they formed with their minds, a false mirror of their previous lives, where they tried to imagine what their lives might have been like under better circumstances without the influence of the island. Some were happier, some were not. Eventually they all found each other and remembered their past lives. As a group they overcame the grief and hurts of their lives, and then moved on into whatever comes after death.
