Lost: Were They All Dead the Whole Time?

Many people seem to have misread the final episode of Lost and have come to the conclusion that Jack was actually dead "the whole time" and that the island and everything that happened on the island wasn't actually real but instead some sort of "purgatory" state.

This is not the case! They were not dead the whole time. Everything that happened on the island was "real." Everything that happened in the first five seasons of the series was "real." It is only the "flash sideways" alternate reality of the sixth season that was not real. And it's only in this world that Jack and the rest of the characters were dead.

Although it's not made 100% clear, it is implied that this alternate "flash sideways" post life reality was created by "the incident" (the nuclear explosion) at the end of the fifth season. This created a world where they never went to the island in the first place. And yet we see that even in this world without the island experience these characters were still able to find each other.

Which brings me to the real message of the finale episode to me. This show was not really about the island itself as much as it was about the characters. It was not on the island that these characters were "lost" it was in their lives. It was on the island where these characters found each other and finding each other was true destiny.

The post-life reality of the sideways world allowed these characters to find each other again and to remember how important their time on the island together really was to them. This was the most important part of their lives (as Jack's father Christian says to Jack) and the people they met there were the most important people in their lives.

I am excited to watch season six again with the knowledge of what the sideways reality really is.

And I also believe that the entire series should be rewarding to watch again knowing what the final conclusion is. I think it's a good thing that the series didn't reveal a concrete answer for exactly what was going on in every way (as far as the island goes in particular.) They have definitely left some of it up to the imagination of the viewer. I suppose it depends on how much of an imagination you have whether you find that to be a good thing or a bad.