LOST

This is the first season where I will actually be able to watch LOST as it's happening, just as other people are watching it for the first time. In the past, something has always come up where I was unable to catch the beginning of the season. Most of those reasons involved untimely moves. A TiVo does you no good when it's packed away in a box awaiting relocation. However, Netflix and their DVDs was a true savior, and I was able to catch up with everyone else (albeit it took me awhile).

So here I am, watching the "catch up" episode on ABC. It's pretty much a recap of what has happened thus far, and a refresher course on some of the mysteries that still remain to solved. I have my own theories about what's going on. I suppose it's only natural for us to try to make sense of the unknown based on the evidence we are presented, even if that evidence is a bit scattered.

When I first started watching the show, I thought it was simply a case of a jet crashing on an island that time forgot. How else could you explain the weird creatures they encountered? But, with the finding of "the hatch," that drastically changed my view of what was occurring. Obviously there had been some type of intelligent being that had been on the island before. How else could all of that have been created?

And so the story progressed, and just when I thought I had an inkling of what might be going on, something always got thrown into the mix that blew my theory out of the water. Are they alive? Are they dead? Are they in purgatory? Why can't women have children without the vaccination? How do you explain the fact that the plane was supposedly found under the ocean with all onboard perished?

It's a bit much to try to make sense of.

My theory has rested on the possibility that the plane crossed into an other dimension. Perhaps a wormhole or something transported the plane into a world that is not unlike our own, yet there are major differences. Maybe the "others" were pilgrims who were recruited to try to build a new world capable of life. Perhaps that's why it was so important for Juliet to do her work on the island--to create life where none previously existed. To create a new beginning... in more ways than one.

I'm still unable to come to terms with the sightings of those who have perished--ghosts? reincarnates? memories that somehow become materialized? Whatever the case, that's one of the main unanswered questions about the show that still bothers me.

So how will it end? Well, we already know from last season that they are somehow rescued--they return to our world. It's sad to see what's become of Jack's life and to watch as he desperately tries to get back to "the island." My theory is that the series finale--the last show--will be the missing link that ties the past with the future. It will show exactly what happens when the plane crashes. The first few seasons showed the present--the survivors living on the island--interspersed with images and stories of their past. With the seasonal finale of last season, it seems as though that paradigm has changed. Instead of showing the past and working up the present, perhaps the remaining shows will switch to the present and future.

It's all conjecture, really. I'm not writing the show. I'm merely an entranced viewer who is eagerly awaiting to see how this tale unfolds. My only hope is that when it all ends, I will feel as though I have received a good story and not be left with more questions than answers.