Lost (here there be spoilers)

I am really into the show Lost.  I think its wonderful to have a show around that is this well-written and one that creates a mysterious and convoluted universe and then assumes you are intelligent enough to roll with it, and in turn doesn't insult that intelligence by ignoring rules and precedents that it set even way back in the first season.  (yes I'm looking directly at you, Heroes...may you rot forever with Ali Larter's giant teeth)

For those of you still watching the show you know that its the last season and that answers are coming.  We've actually been told that answers will be in an episode, except when that episode is over (Sundown) you were left wondering if maybe those were the "answers", then perhaps we've been asking the wrong questions.  Well I believe I was, and I think I've got some stuff figured out.

I would normally post this in the Lost thread on the boards but this is going to be long and those spoiler tag things never work right.  Ok, here go:

At the beginning of The Incident we see 2 men on a beach.  One is wearing a white shirt, one is wearing a black shirt.  Both are wearing gray pants.  The man in black ultimately asks the man in white if he has any idea how much he wants to kill him.  The man in white answers that he does.  The man in black tells him that some day he will find a loophole.

Hm.  Odd, why wouldn't he just kill the man in white outright?

Towards the end of season 4 we run into Michael on the freighter.  In Michael's flashback we learn (through Tom, the Other) that Michael could not kill himself no matter what.  Why not?  The island wouldn't let him...even though he was off the island.

In season 5 we saw Locke (the real one) attempt to kill himself only to be saved by Ben.  Of course then Ben (being Ben) killed Locke himself a few minutes later.  But Locke could not kill himself either. 

This past episode we saw Richard and Jack play chicken with dynamite.  Richard asked Jack to light the fuse because...Richard was not able to kill himself, he needed someone else to do it.  Jack lit the fuse and the stayed there knowing full well that the dynamite would not go off since he was the one who lit it and he was staying with it.

Dogen told Sayid that inside everyone there is a scale that goes between light and dark.  Black and white.  Big theme in this show.  Fake Locke took the white stone off the scale in the candidate's cave and threw it away.

The man in the black shirt could not kill the man in the white shirt, because they are both the same person.  They are both Jacob.  Each man represents an aspect of Jacob, the light side and the dark side.  The man in black needed a loophole to kill the man in white.  He tricked Ben into doing it.  Thus he did not kill himself, he had someone else do it.

So what is going on with the flash sideways stories?  I think what we are seeing is the scale inside each of those people.  They are struggling against their biggest obstacles in life, their demons if you will, and the outcome decides the side they are on.  Let's look at what we've seen:

Ben: allowed Alex to be killed in reality to keep his power, which he then found out he never really had anyway.  In the alternate universe (AU) he put Alex first.  He found redemption at the end in reality.  Also note how Locke in the AU tried to push Ben to make a play for power while the Locke in reality tried to push Ben to make a play for power on the island by killing Ilana and becoming the ruler of the island.  Ben is now White.

Sayid has spent 5+ seasons claiming he is "not that man anymore", and yet he is able to whip out the Chuck Norris on a moments notice.  In the AU Sayid had the chance to not kill Keamy and still make things right for his brother.  He chose to kill Keamy.  In the island reality Sayid killed Dogen even though he could have just left the temple.  Sayid is now black.

Jack had father issues and never believed himself to be capable of being a good father himself.  In the AU Jack had a strained relationship with a teen son.  He was in a position where he could have given up on his relationship with the boy, alienated him forever.  But instead Jack came through and repaired that relationship.  He had it in him all along, he just had to face his own failings in his relationship with his dad to do it.  Jack is now white.  And interestingly enough, the man of science is now very much the man of faith.

Ok, those are (to me anyway) 3 clear-cut instances.  Now the murky stuff, and I will offer at least something resembling an explanation.  In short, I haven't really figured these parts out yet:

Claire and Kate.  In the island reality Claire is "claimed/infected".  She was going to give her baby up for adoption to a couple in LA but wound up on the island.  Aaron was her son and yet she was able to just walk away from him seemingly at the guidance of her (and Jack's) father, which we are pretty sure was the man in black taking his form.  So in reality she was unable to face up to parenthood.  In the AU she had them postpone her labor even though at first it seemed she would lose the baby if she didn't deliver right away. She said she wasn't ready.  Plus she helped Kate.  Claire is black.  I think.

Kate has never been able to stay in one place.  I don't think the fact she killed someone is relevant, I think the fact that she believes she didn't do anything wrong by doing so is.  So she is constantly on the run and not willing to accept responsibility for her actions.  In the AU she was unwilling to accept responsibility for her actions and bolted from the marshall.  She ultimately returned Claire's things but in the meantime dragged Claire to the dark side as Claire covered for her with the police.  Kate is black.  I think.

And now the big one (to me)...John Locke.  Locke is dead, so why do we get an AU for him?  Thats whats been bugging me.  I am guessing that we were simply shown that John Locke, the man of faith, is no more.  He doesn't believe in miracles, he doesn't believe in destiny in the AU.  He has accepted his handicap and is moving on.  Sorry, thats the best I can come up with for him.

Ok, so what we are seeing in these flash sideways segments is the recruiting procedure on the present-day (well, 2007) island.  We've been told a number of times that fake Locke is "recruiting".  If I am correct...and that is a big IF with this show...then I am really curious to see Sawyer's AU.

I mentioned in the thread on the board that I think Sawyer's whole life has been a long con on himself.  He's been trying to convince himself that he is not a good person when he actually is.  He went willingly with Locke on the island even though he knew that wasn't really Locke and even though Richard came by to warn him.  Remember the boy who told Fake Locke that he couldn't kill Sawyer because those were the rules?  I'm guessing that since Sawyer is a candidate to replace Jacob...who is really Fake Locke, remember...then Jacob is not allowed to kill his potential replacements, even though he may be able to.  He gives them choices, puts thoughts into their heads, and lets them do the rest.

I think we will know for sure once we see Sawyer's AU. 

And now this brings us to Jin.  All we saw of  him was when he was at the airport and still being a douche to Sun and also trying to sneak undeclared money past customs.  And then we saw him in Sayid's segment beaten and bound at Keamy's place.  I'm guessing Jin is going to be black.  I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that Jin and Sun will NOT reunite.  They are done because I think Sun will be white.

So there you have it.  What any of this means beyond what I came up with I don't know.  Well I have an idea but its kind of abstract and this blog is long enough anyway.  And of course I am very possibly wrong and just wasted a lot of time coming up with this, but thats ok...this is a fun show.  And I also know that no matter how clever I think I am, someone probably posted all of this on the Lost wiki a month ago lol.  But thats ok too, because like I said...I'm enjoying this.