LOST Ending

If you are not a fan of LOST, you might as well exit now. Really, this post will be of no interest to you. It will bore you. You won't get it.

However, if you stick around long enough, you might get *something* from the post.

The other night I had a very complex and beautiful dream, and it was structured as the End of LOST:

There is a battle going on between the remaining Oceanic Flight 815 passengers and the Others. It is dark, and you can hear gunfire and people screaming in the distance. Jack, Kate and Sawyer are huddled together in the jungle just outside the Others' community of houses. Ben is inside one of the houses, and Jack needs to get to him and finally learn the truth about the Island. He asks Kate and Sawyer to cover him as he makes his way to Ben. They exchange knowing looks, as if this will be the last time they see one another.

As Jack gets closer to the house, it begins to get brighter outside, and he is a bit confused because dawn shouldn't break for a few more hours. He hears gunfire erupt behind him, and makes a mad dash toward Ben's house.

When he gets inside, Ben is in the kitchen with his back to Jack, pouring himself some milk. There are cookies on the kitchen counter. He doesn't turn around as he says, "Help yourself to a cookie, Jack." Jack just stares at Ben and says nothing. Ben turns around, and with a sarcastic tone he asks, "Milk?"

"You know why I am here Ben."

"Yes, yes, Jack, I know why you are here. But I don't think you truly understand the difficult decision you are about to face."

"Help me understand it, then. What is the Island? The time has come for you to tell me." Jack gestures to the gun in his hand.

"Oh, threaten me all you want, it won't do any good. You can't harm me any more than I can harm you... and certainly anything you did to me would be nothing compared to what they have done."

"Who... Jacob? The Man in Black?"

Ben nods. "Okay Jack. I will tell you everything. But when I am finished, you will go. That isn't optional." Jack looks puzzled and frustrated, so Ben continues.

"You are dead. All the Oceanic Flight 815 passengers are dead. Your plane landed at the bottom of the ocean, but your souls landed here. You know the 'heaven' you learned about in Sunday school? Well, they didn't get it quite right. None of us did." He stares at a bookshelf full of spiritual and religious texts. "Everyone thought they had a clue." Jack just listens, and Ben goes on.

"You see, Jack, the afterlife is a choice, just like the choices you made in life prior to your death. Just like the choice you made not to eat a cookie. Just like the all the choices you've made here on the Island, thinking they mattered. Jacob and the Man in Black represent the good and evil in all of us - and the choices we make. They represent faith and skepticism, benevolence and passionate desire. They are the rulers, and we are their pawns."

"So why does it feel like I am still alive?"

"Because that is what the afterlife feels like for people who choose it. There is an eternal struggle between good and evil, faith and reason - and Jacob and the Man in Black have been battling since the beginning of time. So long ago that no one knows how it began - that is the only thing we got right about religion. That no one knows how it all started. Anyway, Jacob believes that humans will choose an afterlife for the purest of reasons - love. To spend eternity with the ones you love, and to live a peaceful, compassionate life full of altruism and joy. The Man in Black, however, argues that the only reason a person would choose an afterlife is for selfish reasons - greed, fear, hunger, sexual desire..." He trails off and takes a bite of his cookie. Mumbling through his chewing, he says, "You have a choice, Jack."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you can choose not to have an afterlife, and then you simply die. You let go. But the sacrifice is that you dissolve into nothingness and knowingly leave behind all the people you ever cared about. You will be done, and everything will go dark, and you will cease to exist. If you choose the afterlife, however, you can stay with your loved ones forever. You will eventually meet your other family members and friends here if they choose the afterlife too, and you will hear their stories and continue on with them. But, for this to happen, you also have to accept the terms of the Island life. Jacob and the Man in Black are at war with one another, and their dispute causes the souls here to get caught up in their 'tests'. For all eternity, there will be no peace while they continue their experiment to see who is right about why humans make the choices they do. They fill the Island with mysterious animals and sounds and trick the souls into situations that will determine their nature by the decisions they make. Kill or be killed. Heal or comfort or torture and maim... there will still be pain and suffering. Lots of it."

"So the only way to escape the Island, is to let go... and choose to let the end be the end."

"You got it." Ben smiled his snarky smile. "Many of your pals out there will never believe that they are even dead. You can't convince them."

"So what is your role in all of this?" Jack asked.

"Well, obviously I have my own reasons for staying here... I am not ready to go yet. And Jacob and the Man in Black... let's just say that they like to choose a 'go between' to administer their tests for the inhabitants here. I was a candidate, and then I got the job. Now, it seems, they are looking for other candidates. That is how most of you got here. Their experiment gets a little tricky out there in the real world. Sometimes the Rules can be bent. But you are here now, that is all that matters. The problem is, Jack... now you know the truth. What are you going to do? Jacob and the Man in Black won't let you disturb the other souls. You heard all those voices in the wind? Those are souls who learned the truth and the truth drove them mad. Ever heard of Lost Souls, Jack? Well, the Island is full of them. You'd be asking too much of them."

"So this is it?"

"Yes, Jack, this is your shining moment."

Jack turns and looks out the window. It is daylight now.

He walks outside. His intention is known. It just rained, and there is still mist in the air. A huge rainbow streaks across the sky. As he stares at the sky, the light gets brighter and brighter... and then...

nothing.