I remember May 23rd, 2010, late evening, the waning moments of the six-year sojourn of what was the finale episode of ABC's Lost series flickering away. Christian Sheppard gathered the castaways in the church, their special place to find each other, and guided them into the light right before a tearful and joyous reunion of the castaways that mattered most to Jack. Damn it all to Hell, they were all in Purgatory. My Lost theory of Virtual reality with a dash of alien intervention was shattered. Or was it?
Just what was the Grassy Knoll Institutes Lost theory…. For six years it was…..
Although it appeared the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 were on a tropical island, they were being deceived. There was no island. The survivors were in a virtual reality laboratory. All the castaways were interconnected to one another sharing each others thoughts, memories, and feelings. While in this virtual reality laboratory, a battery of physical and mental experiments were performed on them. Who was running these experiments? As Juliet stated, the Aliens of course.
That evening I fired off my Lost Series Finale Theory, begrudgingly accepting that my theory was not only flawed, but down right incorrect. Until some months later when a new wrinkle of my Lost theory would come to light.
You see, although I recorded the series finale, I had put off viewing it until just last night. (Anger can do that sometimes) And there it was, the Holy Grail, my missing link, looking me square in the face. After watching the entire show from beginning to end from my DVR, the very last scene before the screen went dark made me ask this question.
Why did ABC Lost show the wreckage of flight 815 during the credits? With no survivors! Nor a single shred of evidence that there ever were any survivors. Just wreckage. No foot prints. No makeshift huts. No clothing. No tools. No bodies. No people. Nothing. (The network claims that these scenes were placed to decompress the audience from such an emotional roller coaster that was the finale before the local news came on.) (However, the Grassy Knoll Institute has an alternate explanation)
That is when it occurred to me that my virtual reality theory was correct after all. Wait for it readers... Perhaps these fleeting images signified that no one survived the plane crash and the entire series never happened. Or... The reason there are no bodies or any sign of survivors is because the castaways are still in the VR chamber.
You see, in reality, the castaways were never on the island, never got on flight 815, never crashed. Instead, they were secretly ushered into a VR lab where unspeakable experiments were performed on them. The castaways were put through the paces time and time again until a favorable outcome was achieved. Perhaps Jack and his crew finally got it right this time, Jack giving in to the island mystique, creating the end game, the church scene.
Remember the season five finale, when Jacob and the Man in black were talking on the beach. It was the VR experiment they were discussing. How no matter what they did, no matter what obstacles placed in the castaways path, the result was always the same. They were both waiting for a unique outcome, the church scene.
MIB: You’re still trying to prove me wrong.
Jacob: You are wrong!
MIB: They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.
Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, it’s just progress.
If you can remember, I stated that the VR experiment would reset itself after an unfavorable outcome. Hence, Miles, Ben, and Desmond, remembered fragments of past scenario's giving them the ability to predict the future. This also easily explains the time travel scenario of the castaways on the island living in the 50's, 70's, and present time. These were merely new variables and parameters of the experiment.
In essence my dear readers, the Lost castaways did not crash, did not get on the plane, did not die, nor went to heaven. Instead, they were reset to begin yet another battery of tests. Perhaps we will get lucky enough to see these new tests come to light, in say, a 2011-2012 Lost movie or mini series expanding on what happened right after the church scene in the finale.
I feel better now....
LURKING, STILL LOST ON THE GRASSY KNOLL