“Lost:” How will it end?

(Here be spoilers…)

I have been a fan of “Lost” since the very, very beginning (promos during “Monday Night Football” that made me say, “Hey, it’s that guy from ‘The English Patient’ – I’m so there!”). And, though I enjoy reading episode recaps and gabbing about the show with other fans, I’ve never really been big on dissecting the show for hidden metaphysical meaning. I’d much rather just take it as it comes. I’ve found that the “ooh, what does THAT mean???” stuff really left me detached from the characters in a way I didn’t like. (For instance, last night was the first time I’ve cried at a “Lost” episode since the raft sailed away in Season 1.)

It’s not really fun for me to try and predict what will happen next. If I’m wrong, then I’m either disappointed or on the record for believing something that turns out to be wrong. And if I’m right, it’s like finding your Christmas presents hidden in the closet in July. You’re robbed of the chance to experience the story as it happens. (Like Christian Shephard being Claire’s father, something fans predicted roughly half a century before the show confirmed it. Yawn.)

So this post is not about trying to score one on the “Lost” writers, whom I’m confident will end the series later this month in the most satisfying, perfect fashion. It’s just an idea I had…

(Once again, here be spoilers. Seriously. And you should probably also stop reading if you don’t watch “Lost,” because this next part will make zero sense.)

Okay, so after last night’s episode we can put to rest any speculation that the Man in Black/Smokey/Fake Locke is NOT the good guy, and that Jacob might actually have good reasons for manipulating the “candidates” as he has throughout their lives. And the deaths of Jin, Sun and Sayid (*sniff*) would tend to suggest that the Sideways world, where all three are alive and sort-of well, isn’t the place where the castaways end up.

Here’s what I think: the Sideways world is a MiB/Smokey concoction. At some point in the last episodes, MiB will give The Candidate (my money’s on Jack, but it could easily be Sawyer or Hurley) a choice. He’ll reveal the Sideways world, and he’ll say something like this: This is what your life would be like if Jacob had never intervened. This is what everyone’s lives would be like. Most are happier than they were in real pre-crash life. More importantly, the people you care about – the Kwons, Sayid, Libby, Charlotte, Faraday, etc. – are alive.

The choice is this: Let me (MiB/Smokey) go, and this will all be real. You won’t have any memory of the crash, etc., and you’ll all live happily ever after – not just you, but your friends, too. Whoever the candidate turns out to be, he’ll have to make this choice. The temptation will be overwhelming.

And I predict that he’ll tell MiB to go to hell (possibly literally). As a result, everything reboots to the point where Juliet smashed Jughead, circa 1977. The survivors of “the incident” are still on the island, but allowed to leave (along with many probably very freaked out Dharma Initiative folks). They return to California and start over.

Remember when returning-to-island Jack had to go get a pair of his father’s shoes from his grandfather, who looked to be in his 60s? Maybe the grandfather was really Jack…? At Jack’s current age, plus roughly 35 years of back-in-real-world time, starting in the late 70s, that would put Alleged Grandpa at the right age in 2007, when Jack went to fetch the shoes.

Okay, that makes barely any sense. But – though, as I said, I trust the “Lost” writers completely – I’m for pretty much any ending that doesn’t involve Jack and Sawyer turning into the next Jacob/MiB.

(Although……………..SEQUEL!)