Questions About Lost

I believe that part of the problem with the ending of Lost being so controversial is that there were relevant issues that were never addressed by the writers.  Although time-travel is known to be impossible in this world, it is a major topic in the world of Sci-Fi and a favorite of many, story-wise.  It’s just such a wonderful concept that creates so many imaginative possibilities.  But it is Sci-Fi and does require some semblance of explanation.  A good example of this would be the wonderful movie trilogy, Back to the Future.  Time-travel was presented in the form of a not-so-mad scientist and a tricked-out DeLorean automobile and it was easy for us to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.  When Lost initiated time-travel, it was believable in the beginning and quite well done. 

One of my biggest problems with some of this is that too much of it was explained away with the concept that an over-abundance of electro-magnetic energy caused everything.  There were some truly magical and mystical events in Lost that can’t really be explained by electro-magnetic energy.  The writers implied that it was more than that, but didn’t really elaborate, which might be fine if it made logical sense, but it didn’t.  There are rules in literary interpretations of concepts of such things as time-travel and alternate reality scenarios, and even magic, which is pretty wide open, but it’s got to be believable, at least in a pseudo-logical way – pseudo-logic being that we can assume some impossible theories as long as they don’t contradict each other and make at least some sense in their progression.  We don’t need to understand the science behind it – because there really is none – it just has to make sense within the accepted parameters.  Bearing all this in mind, I have some questions which I don’t have answers to, and I don’t believe anyone else does either.  Perhaps I’m wrong, so if you do, please enlighten.

1. At the end of season five there was a nuclear explosion on the Island of undetermined megatons from an old warhead called Jughead.  This occurred in 1977 – the year to which some of the castaways had been time-traveled.  The result of the explosion was never fully explained, and we are left to speculate its effects on the Island. 

Jughead was detonated by some of the castaways in an effort to negate the event which caused Oceanic Flight 815 to crash in the first place, but it was unsuccessful due to the fact that “They still built the Hatch.” This statement was uttered by Kate upon the discovery of their inspection of the ruins of said Hatch, it seemed different than their first encounter with the ruins they experienced in season two.  This brings up many interesting questions about that nuclear detonation and how it affected the Island and the people on it at the time.

One concept that we know from past stories of time-travel is that once the problem has been rectified, the effect is instantaneous – although it is not always portrayed as such for dramatic reasons, which is acceptable.

So, the working theory here is that if the bomb works as suggested, they were all saved from the effects of the blast, because history has been changed and they are instantaneously removed from danger and sent to where ever it is that they now belong.  But in this case, history was not changed, and they should have been consumed by the blast.  Some might argue that the progression of that history was changed, but I don’t believe that’s valid.  As one of our most esteemed scholars once said, “A difference which makes no difference, is no difference.”

Another thing in this same line is that the Island was shown sunk to the bottom of the sea after the explosion and yet our heroes were still on the Island, having only been returned to the present.  This begs the question:  Where were they really after the blast?  They were obviously not underwater, but high and dry, so where were they?