I’m not a Lost-o-phile, and I rarely think too much about what shows I see on TV, but it annoys me that even *I*, a person who needs weekly recaps for the simplest shows, can understand that everyone didn’t die in the very beginning of the show, and the ending of the series didn’t mean the whole show was a waste of time…while some people seem to think that the show was a waste of time because they’re all dead from the very beginning.
Granted, it’s a tough show to follow, lots of characters, lots of exposition, and not everything is answered, but come ON, it’s not that hard.
BTW there’s spoilers below, obviously, so if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t read this yet.
It seems some people think everyone was dead from the plane crash. This is wrong. Everything that happened on the island, happened. Everyone who died, died. This is explained by Jack’s father, to Jack, in the church.
The alternate timeline is simply where they meet up after the flight lands. In an alternate reality. The alternate ‘reality’ is purgatory, or a type of afterlife, whatever you’d like to believe it is.
So, no, the main characters didn’t die in the plane crash, the ones that died during the series DID die during the series.
Why were some characters from the original survivor group (Mr. Eko for example) not in the church? He didn’t want to do the show any more. A theory on Walt is that he’s one of the island’s whisperers now, but who knows. There are a lot of characters not fully explained away, but then there’s a lot that isn’t explained.
They weren’t all dead.
edit: here’s a forum posting from someone claiming to work for the production company that made ‘Lost’, with insights into what the reasoning behind various themes and plots, etc. Even if the guy is lying it’s an interesting read, if you’re that emotionally invested in the show to care about having an opinion whether it was terrible or great.
Let me be frank! 