Who is the Man in the Lost Coffin?

Out of the vast amount of Lost mysteries, one of the most pressing questions came from last season's finale. A major part of Jack Shephard's flash forward was his suicidal despair after reading an obituary in the paper. Whoever this dead person was, it furthered Jack's crushing guilt about leaving the island. But this person was so unknown or unpopular that Jack was the only person who came to the funeral and wept over the coffin. Since then, the Lost fans have puzzled over who the dead person was, since his or her's death will obviously be a very key part of the future. They may not need to ponder for long, since the Lost producers promised that we will find out who was in the coffin by the end of the season.

Until then, here are the most popular suspects among the living Lost characters- as well as the Lost figure who I believe to be the real dead person.

John Locke
A popular theory for Lost fans is that Jack was so stricken by the obituary because it announced the death of a former enemy. Locke fits that bill, since he was Jack's greatest foe among the survivors. Locke warned against trusting the people from the freighter this season, while Jack wanted to get rescued anyway. Obviously Jack left, but it is just as obvious that he now knows he was wrong to do it. The death of Jack's arch-rival, who he now knows was right to warn him, could have made Jack feel guilty enough to want to kill himself.
Lost fans studied the obituary that Jack read long and hard. It said that the body of "John Lantham" was found in New York, that the death was a suicide, and that he left behind a teenaged son. Locke doesn't have a son, but he shares the first name of this alias. If Locke was somehow forced off the island, it would stand to figure that he would commit suicide over it, depending if he was paralyzed again.

However, since Locke is so committed to staying on the island, it would take an extreme leap of faith to think that he would leave it someday. Even if the unknown enemies of Lost got to Locke, he would likely choose to die fighting on the island instead of being taken prisoner. Besides, Jack has hated Locke with such a passion, it almost defies belief that he would be this saddened over his death.

Ben Linus
The case for Ben is almost the exact same case for Locke. Ben also warned against rescue, was hated intensely by Jack, and was probably right all along to try and stop him. But unlike with Locke, we now know that Ben somehow leaves the island in the future. In addition, he is ordering Sayid to kill his enemies around the world. It is no stretch to imagine that this mission could get Ben killed in the future. And since few people outside of the island probably knows that he exists, its no wonder that no one attends his funeral. If its Ben, then its no wonder that Jack wouldn't call him a friend, even after his death. Like with Locke, the death of Ben and the realization that he was right all along could have fueled Jack's immense guilt.

However, the obituary says that the death was a suicide. It is hard to believe that Ben would kill himself and ever give up like that, unless his death was only made to look like a suicide. If he is fighting people that are more evil than he is, it stands to reason that they could kill Ben and make it look like he killed himself.

Still, Ben is probably too important to be killed off now, since there's so much that still needs to be explained about him. Killing him off at this point would leave too many questions about him, unless they cram them all into a big Ben flashback episode. Ben will likely die before Lost ends, but it should not come this relatively early in the story.

Michael
Michael betrayed the survivors by killing two of them and leaving Jack, Kate and Sawyer to be captured by the Others. Michael did this to get Walt back, but he crossed a massive line by doing so. When he returns later this season, Jack will have mixed feelings about seeing him again, especially if he is Ben's spy on the freighter as many Lost fans believe. If Michael has a huge part to play again, it might have something to do with how the Oceanic 6 leave the island and abandon everyone else. That reminder might trigger Jack's tremendous sadness, and it would explain why Jack said that the man in the coffin wasn't a friend. Michael was Jack's friend in the early days of Lost, but that ship sailed long ago.

According to the obituary, the body of "John Lantham" was found in New York, and he left behind a teenaged son. Michael lived in New York before the crash and he obviously has a teenaged son in Walt. Michael has a lot to feel guilty for, so he could have killed himself to end the pain.

However, this evidence seems a bit too obvious in favor of Michael. As Lost fans know, the show never does the obvious thing. Also, why would Lost bring Michael back only to kill him off for good this quickly?

Although these three characters are the popular suspects, I believe it is a different Lost character altogether. In the end, it may yet be....

Sayid Jarrah

In the final scene of "The Economist", the big shock is that Sayid is not only one of the Oceanic 6, but that he is killing people for Ben. That scene also offers two bigger clues. Ben says that the people they are hunting did something horrible the last time Sayid "thought with his heart instead of his gun." And because of that error, Ben later used it to recruit Sayid into killing for him.

Sometime in the future, Sayid will make some kind of big mistake which will result in disaster. There's a good chance that this mistake will be a part of how and why the Oceanic 6 left the island, and why others have been left behind. The only reason Sayid would "sell his soul" to Ben would be to make up for that mistake, because doing so will "protect his friends." As a result, Sayid is on the front lines of trying to fix things well before Jack realizes he was wrong to leave.

It is possible that whatever mistake Sayid makes in the future, it could have been big enough to turn Jack and the other survivors against him. It is also possible that they turned on him even further if, or when, they found out that Sayid joined forces with Ben. At that early point in the future, Jack would be convinced that they should not go back to the island or do anything for those left behind. He would also likely believe that Sayid had turned evil for associating with Ben. This would further ensure that Jack would no longer think of Sayid as a friend in the future. But by the time of Jack's flash forward, he may have realized that Sayid was right to do all this, even if it meant working for Ben. If all these circumstances are true, that could very well be the trigger of Jack's extreme guilt

In addition, a recent comment by Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse fuels this theory. The two said that by the end of the season, one member of the Oceanic Six will die. It is obvious that they cannot kill Jack or Kate, plus they would risk a fan revolt if Hurley died. Among the four Oceanic 6 members we now know of, Sayid is the most likely to die. But that may change depending on who the final two Oceanic 6 members are, and what their role in the future is. If the victim is not one of those two unknown people, then it is more likely that Sayid will die. As such an important character, his revelation as the man in the coffin would be a huge way to go out. And they could say that Sayid died in a flash forward, yet still keep him around for a while in the present before then.

However, the biggest hole in the theory comes from the obituary. Sayid did not have a teen-aged son that we know of. So unless he met up with Walt in the future, it is hard to see why a teen-aged boy would be near him when he died. And unless working for Ben and killing their enemies really took a huge toll on Sayid, it is unlikely that he would kill himself before he got to save his friends.

Sources

TV Fix- "A sneak peek at the future of Lost" www.yourtv.com.au/news/index.cfm

Lost Wiki- The Obituary lost.wetpaint.com/page/The+Obituary