Haha, you f*ckin’ nailed it Dezzie.

Suddenly a picket line outside of ABC Studios in Burbank is…. CANON!!!

You are right sir, you HAVE changed my mind. That’s a binding contract if I’ve ever heard one….

Oh yeah, how come you haven’t written for this site lately? I marvel at your insight. Can’t wait to read whatever garbage those key-punching digits puke out next….

As for me, I’ll continue CLAIMING. That’s all I do actually. Make wild claims…. Oh yeah, and fooling myself…. I do that rather well… Much like this other poster I was reading today who, funny story… ran off a list of more than a DOZEN things he/she seems to KNOW about the island, yet they still were fooling themselves into thinking they still need to KNOW what the island IS, EXACTLY… and that any one else would be DAFT to not be as ENLIGHTENED as they are….

I kid… but I don’t. If, when all is said and done, Damon has crafted a universe that can be plugged into what we know about our world already, what some people believe about our world, then that gives it resonance. I understand this, I really do. It’s easier for some people to believe a place like this may exist, somewhere… or at sometime.

Maybe I just have more faith in Damon’s creative imagination satisfying my curiosities than I should. He has continued to intrigue us and go places creatively with this story that even the most ardent, dedicated theorists have managed to overlook. Although, many times he has lied to us (“there is no time-travel”) so perhaps in the end it will be purgatory or a sno globe or some bollocks like that. I just don’t see it happening that way. Damon has said it himself, they are constantly aware of the knowledge we have attained. As I sit here typing, they are paying multiple employees to read everything I am typing. And to their detriment I believe they have made some changes to the trajectory of the story out of spite, in order to keep us off balance.

But sometimes those changes are a masterstroke. Many people believed the series would end with Jack waking up in the jungle, the camera focusing on his expanding aperture iris. Nope, they cut that one off at the knees by DOING it before the endgame even started (in ’316′)

I’m not sure if I believe this notion that they have the series finale already drafted more or less, that it sits in a lockbox in Greg Nations’ office and only a small group of people have even laid eyes on it. It certainly does make them seem deft, doesn’t it? But what I do believe is that whatever is up there in Damon’s head, it will be original, something we haven’t seen. It’s not going to be the ending to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And whatever it is about the finale that makes it unique, I believe they have had THAT in mind since the beginning. I believe that has long been their ‘ace-in-the-hole.’

Mostly I believe this because of what’s lurking behind their eyes when the speak, this little glint of “I know something special you don’t know.”

Who knows, maybe I’m mistaken… maybe it will be Dr. Chang “The island is a stack of turtles extending into infinity….”

Obviously certain questions deserve answers…

For instance, we waited 3 years to find out how John Locke was paralyzed. I remember at the time being wowed by that episode because it was probably the last BIG mystery regarding the pasts of the original Losties.

But as for “What is the island, exactly?” That is over the line. I’m only saying if ANYONE is expecting an authoritative voice to boom, “The Island is….” then get off the bus, this ride is not for you.

I am not saying that we won’t be hosted to a whole season’s worth of entertainment chock full of more evidence to form our opinions from, because I am very confident we will.

I would be disappointed if we did not see a part of the narrative taking place during the time of the Black Rock or before. I would be disappointed if the natives relationship to the others was not addressed. Are they one in the same? Has the island always been fought over? Is anyone truly a NATIVE of the island? What is the connection between egyptian culture and the island? Those are all questions that have been set up to be answered. What is the island, exactly? I don’t agree we were ever promised that answer.

Furthermore, I would be disappointed if any of the elements foreshadowed in the previous 5 seasons were not tended to. Desmond is special, Locke has a connection to the island, Jack will realize his true path and fulfill his destiny, etc…

You can’t expect more than we’ve been promised.

Have you noticed that every time you write about this show you’re actually writing about yourself? Your whole post is not about the show at all but how its end is going to satisfy YOU. Maybe watching the show on television by yourself has given you the impression that its being written FOR YOU but its not. There are people out there with opinions different than yours and for some reason I can’t even fathom you seem to not be able to come to grips with that. You write in one post on here that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that this is a blog where we are allowed to have different views on Lost. Excellent, we agree on something. Then you come on here and essentially state that everyone with an opinion different from yours is simply a moron that doesn’t know what they want? Unbelievable.

I can’t remember people rioting when Pulp Fiction came out and Tarantino deliberately left “What’s in the briefcase?” a question unanswered. You know why? Because sometimes in film, literature and television things are best left unexplained. CERTAIN MYSTERIES, not all mind you, will lose the quality that made them so cool in first place. If we found out that in Pulp Fiction there was a solid gold statue of the Madonna carved out of a larger brick of gold during the Late Gothic period in the brief case wouldn’t that be sort of a let down? Even if you think that’s a decent explanation could you see that others, probably lots of others, would think that’s an entirely lame answer and that lame answer would ruin the entire rest of the movie for you which is about the CHARACTERS and not the briefcase they’re risking their lives for?

I think this is what Lindelof is getting at, that fans having a conversation like “What do you think is in the briefcase?” is a much better ‘answer’ than whatever the answer might be. Now obviously this is an inexact science. If you’re going to play this game you can’t leave too much unexplained because there’s a delicate line of expectation. You have to remember that he didn’t say “we’re not going to explain anything” and he also didn’t say “we’re going to explain most everything”. Nobody knows how this is going to play out so for now I think we need to stop wildly speculating about what is or what is not going to be explained simply because we have no idea.

It’s one thing to have doubts about the show but it’s another thing to be decided, based on nothing I might add, that the end of this show is going to be terrible if it doesn’t cater to YOUR expectations. Not everyone shares the same opinion, look at the comments here. Some people desperately need to know EVERYTHING about the Island. Some people are comfortable just knowing that the Island is a place somewhere in the pacific where the laws of the real world don’t seem to matter and that amazing/inexplicable things happen. As fans who have stuck with this show through the hard times of “is lost a repeat tonight? does anyone know?” and Nikki and Paolo we have earned the right to be cautious about how this is going to end and raise questions about the endgame of the show. At the same time I think the writers have earned the right to ask for our trust in this matter and I think we should give it to them.

he simply stated he won’t take it into midichlorian territory. he said there was a line he did not want to cross. doesn’t mean he will absolutely leave us hanging. i can totally respect that, and he hasn’t disappointed me yet. i’m a man of faith when it comes to the writers of this show.

if any show has ever had the chance at flawless, it’s lost…and it’s they’re game to lose.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=172448

saying that he understood it that “the island is a character.” So by that interpretation, regardless that Damon labels the island as merely a setting, it can also be perceived as a character and so “you’re going to see that role play out, and their fates will all be resolved by the end of the series” could very much be a clever way to tell us we’ll all be ok.

So where’s the line drawn that they just don’t cross anymore? If they leave ALL of the island up in the air…that might be too much mystery for some fans.
The joy of the show so far is that they’ve connected such a complicated scheme together so elegantly thus far…I don’t want to see them stop a bit too soon is all.

Of course you want to know, but you are worried that the statements above form Damon will negate any answer forthcoming. So, you are convincing yourselves that it’s not important, that it won’t matter a wit, that you will be satisfied with what ever bone they throw you.

Come on, I don’t think so, No more than Carlton Cuse stood in a picket line, during the writers strike, with a large sign that read “Don’t you want to know what the Island is?”

Yes I do, and I am holding the producers and writers to that question, since that question indicated that we would know, in the future. The writers have treated the Island like a character, giving it a purpose, powers and personality.

The Island won’t let people die, the Island protects certain people from aging, sickness, it heals certain people. Hidden among the Island are ancient structures, evidently suggesting some sort of Egyptian origins (or the Island was the origin of the Egyptian culture). The Island cannot be found by normal means, it moves through time and space. The Island causes people to move through time and space, and move through predefined “portals,” such as Tunisia.

Really, you don’t want to know what the Island is? Then how come we are interested in the backstories of the characters? Why do we care if Kate loves Jack or Jack loves Kate or Sawyer loves himself? How come you want to know who/what Jacob is?

I want to know what the Island is, and I will not be happy if the producers and writers wrap up this series without answering that question, at least in some way.

Still though, you mean you DON’T want Richard to look into the camera and tell you that he’s precisely 31,549,473 hours old and that the Island is Eden before getting his head blown off by Libby whose wearing an “I used to be in the mental institution but then I started working for the In the Shadow of the Statue people” shirt? You’d be crazy not to want that, you’d have all the answers spelled out for you…

good god…

We are obviously all obsessed with what the island is… OBSESSSED!!! But to ask for it to be spelled out for us like we are drooly-mouthed toddlers is like asking Ben to gas us all via the Tempest!

That can’t be what you truly want, and if it is, I have nothing but pity for you and your way of life…

The island will be to each of us, exactly as you say: page after painstaking page of theories… We will be left to contemplate it for the rest of our days. It will be whatever we want it to be. That is the beauty of it all.

It’s people like you that thru continuous whining on your blogosoapboxes and demanding for spoon-fed ANSWERS, have rendered the storytelling muddled, the dialogue stilted, the character watered down and now every move suddenly seems so full of EFFORT, when once it was effortless. Just relax and enjoy the ride. And we’ll all talk about it when it’s over….

But you can never KNOW anything can you? History is riddled with flashpoints when the body of knowledge we clutched like straws, as if they were concrete pillars, was torn down by men who were wise enough to know they knew NOTHING. We are constantly being challenged, constantly rewriting history, constantly evolving our perception of EVERYTHING… And at some point we may KNOW a great deal more about this universe we spin around in, but it will never be enough, will it? We will never know everything….

And you, WLN, will never KNOW what the island is, exactly…

Neither will the rest of us. We’ll only THINK we know. And that’s the most marvelous part of storytelling, and definitely the most marvelous part of Lindelof’s Lost.

Leave that to some ghostwriting geezer after the fact that ABC pays to write the meta-non-fictional ‘History of the Island’ book that all of us nerds will gladly pay $39.95 for in hardcover.

You cannot attempt to explain every mechanism that drives the sciency elements within the narrative without forfeiting the story in the process…

Damon hit it smack on the conk, MIDICHLORIANS…. absolute bollocks! is that the answer you really wanna hear? Do you want a pH level taken from the streams and a geological sample from the black rock beneath the surface?

Here is my question to you… Would any answer to the question “What is the island, exactly?” satisfy you?

If the answer is yes, there are likely a million other viewers who would rain sh-t out their poop chute upon witnessing your satisfying answer to that question. A million other viewers would tear it limb from limb… Websites would be launched… Books written… little Damon Lindelof’s burning in their gardens in effigy.

Damon seems to know it doesn’t have to be that way…

Evolution has blessed us with an IMAGINATION.

And if filmmaking has taught us anything it is this: No explanation spelled out, spoon fed, or captured in HD detail and delivered to the audience can measure up to the image already developing inside the viewer’s imagination. We are more afraid of what we cannot see, what we cannot know. Likewise we are more enchanted. We are further moved. And if that is not the first official rule of storytelling, it very well should be.

You see, if certain loose threads are left unraveled at the end, it is up to US to piece together the puzzle. Draw our own conclusions. We can revisit the same material a hundred times and interpret it a hundred different ways. What is the force? it is whatever you want it to be… It is whatever you make of it.

All I can say is you might as well give up now, because if that’s the only reason you’re along for the ride… you’re only going to be sorely disappointed.

We are obviously going to learn about the history of the island, but I doubt they are going to definitively say that the island is a gigantic turtle full of energy that can travel through time and space.