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Your ‘Lost’ theories

Purgatory, a battle between good and evil and more

but we want to know what you think is going on in the show. Here are just a sample of your responses:

It gives me the feeling that it is all planned, paid for, by one person. Which one, I don't know yet. The rest just happened to be on the plane. I have become very addicted. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something else happens to change your mind. Who sent up the flare when they were trying to get the transceiver to work? The black rock — not mentioned again. Rousseau, is she that crazed? No one seems that interested to go back and find her. Leaves you hanging. I love it.—Marion, North Carolina

This is sort of “It’s a Wonderful Life” on a wider scale. The characters are all on the island to work through their issues and in the final episode they will all awaken on the plane in L.A.—Fausto Marquez, Johnston, R.I.

I think the island is not there at all. Some force (insert your phobia here) has taken their thoughts and manifested them into this scenario. Whatever you seem fixed on, whatever you put the most energy into thinking about, is translated from thought to matter. The (your phobia here) have done this because they think that's what the people desire to see and experience if they put that much effort into imagining it. These (phobia) are trying to understand human beliefs and behavior and pacify the survivors by giving them what they believe they want. This whole island is built underground or in a superhuge sound stage/ airplane hanger and all the people are actually in suspended animation. They interact only at the pleasure of the island's operators. The baby is needed to ensure that the people accept it's loss and move on with the experiment. —Susan Hallburn, Julian, Calif.

Skullduggery is afoot! The island is a old government testing site. A previous group of scientists visited (in order to ensure it was safe) only to find out the radiation had mutated the animals on the island. It also created an infectious disease that caused the French woman to kill her crew. Ethan is the French woman's son Alex who is immune from it but still a creep. Alex wants the baby for experimentation and it could potentially grow into some sort of devilish creature ala “The Omen.” Then of course...maybe they awake and its all a bad dream. Who knows? I know one thing...I'll be watching!—Matthew W. Wilson, Walled Lake, Mich.

They have enter a Warp hole in the earth (kind of like an experiment that went bad) where all of your problems are confronted.—Eric, Riverview, Fla.

The one thing that keeps reoccurring is how Walt can make things happen. Michael catches him looking at a picture of a polar bear in a Spanish comic book and not much later the castaways face a polar bear. It is also interesting that we have not yet seen Michael and Walt's backstory. Locke also seems to have this ability to have the island give them what they most want. For example, Locke can walk and gets his walkabout, Walt his polar bear and backgammon wins, Charlie gets his guitar after he gives up the drugs. Perhaps Locke and Walt are cast in the role of providers on the island. I alternate between believing that the island is a Purgatory or that there is something more sinister like a parallel universe.—Dawn, Erie, Penn.

It's a modern “Lord of the Flies” complete with fantastical events, and modern-day adult and world issues. In this microcosm, we see the world playing itself out, represented by different characters, and the “monster” representing our fear of the unknown, and the presence of a looming threat that could destroy us all.—Sarah Emanuel, Frederick, Md.

“It's a dream” is too cheap to be the answer. But I agree with Sayid, nobody's that lucky. I think it is a scientific experiment which is revealing how people recreate society when as a group they are isolated and confronted with unknown perils. The monsters are probably what's left from a genetic engineering project gone bad, and the strangers have their own agenda which doesn't include returning to civilization. Some ruthless corporation is probably behind the whole experiment, and will be exposed and taken down in the final episode. Will the survivors all decide to be rescued if they get the chance? That's the question that will keep us watching.—Barb, Newark N.Y.

I believe they are all dead, but they don't realize it.—Edna, Maryland

I think they're all in purgatory and as they "die" on the island they are taken to the afterlife. I believe, however, that each person is making things happen on the island. Their collective wants are causing things to occur on the island. I think the island also harbors their greatest fears.—Kristi B., Sherman, Texas

My favorite theory is that Locke is the only one who died in the crash and everyone one else is stuck between life and death in a sort of purgatory. Locke is the only character who is no longer “lost.” On the island, he has become the Colonel. I think it is Locke's role to help them find whatever it is they need to move on and whether that is to the afterlife or back to reality, only time (and the writers) will tell.—Angela, Syracuse, N.Y.

It is difficult to explain, but I think the black rock is the key and holds a kind of magic Locke referred to. It granted his wish of walking and having an adventure. Jack probably had some kind of wish that his father wasn't dead. Kate was innocent of whatever her past held and now she is free (well, free if you don't count the plane crash on a weird island). The Korean couple seem to be getting back to their loving beginnings. Claire's deal is that ever since the psychic put all that information in her head, strange things are happening and manifesting themselves into a wish fulfillment thing. The psychic's warnings have become her dreams and somehow because of the power of this strange island — the dream becomes truly real and is truly happening. As for this Ethan, well, he's really somehow Alex — the French woman's child — I am not sure about the rest of the story. There are other characters whom I could talk about, but I think you get the idea. Unfortunately, with every innocent wish fulfillment or dream come true or wonderful happening, there is always someone whose wishes turn deadly or the person becomes crazy and bad, bad things begin to happen. —Bianca Ferguson, Oklahoma City

If the plane was a thousand miles off course leaving Australia, it's reasonable that they crashed on an island with a curious climate and subsequent vegetation and animal life due to its proximity to the South Pole. A secret tropical island hidden behind distant ice walls of Antarctica comes to mind. Furthermore, it is at least hypothesized that there are areas of magnetic field disturbance over certain parts of the globe, providing a reason for more than one plan crash in a Bermuda Triangle-like area.

These two nuggets of truth can spawn many storylines including: UFOs, drawn to the magnetic properties of the area (maybe keeping them off radar); dinosaurs shielded from extinction by some confluence of Antarctic geography, ocean currents, land bridge to the South Pole where Santa lives, etc. Certainly, a hidden tropical island in an Antarctic climate would be of interest to anyone who found it, leading to government conspiracies, weapons development (biological, maybe).

Well, these have been my thoughts while watching the show. I’m also bored at work.—Rothstein, New York

It could be all of their fears combined on some spiritual plane to get them to realize their potential.—Marie Souder, Dallas, Texas

The island was originally used as the landing ground for a modern day Noah's Ark during the ’40s or ’50s Nuclear Armament (the polar bears, skeletons) and the descendents from the original ship (Ethan) kidnapped Claire to get her child and will then try to kill the rest of the castaways. —Craig Burger, Boston, Mass.

I think this island is/was used to scientific experiments of some kind, possibly carried out in secret. I think it may have something to do with Nazi scientific experiments. This is because in the episode “House of the Rising Sun” when they move into the cave and find the bodies, Jack states that they are approximately 50 to 60 years old. Perhaps this was a Japanese island where the Japanese worked with Nazis creating mutated animals and/or people. Maybe that's what the “creature” is and why polar bears are there. —Christopher Hernandez, Lodi, N.J.

Perhaps a kind of limbo between the physical and spiritual worlds...a place to sort things out, a place of introspection, a place to make peace with one's self and former life. —Carole White, Carson, Calif.

The island gives you what you need (Locke). My theory is this is similar to the old movie “Forbidden Planet” and there is some sort of device that manifests the subconscious. The monster is somebody's “monsters of the Id.”—gpb

It's all a novel written by the mysterious “Ethan” who was given up for adoption by the mother who named him Alex.—M. Hendrix, Cincinnati

I think they are either in hell and all are dead or they are somewhere magical like the Bermuda Triangle. Ethan, who was not on the passenger list, wants Claire's baby sort of like a “Rosemary's Baby” premise! He is evil, definitely. I love this show!—Brenda, Houston

This island appears to me to be second chance island. Each of the survivors have a chance to redeem themselves from being “losers.” Could they just be in limbo until their destiny is decided? That’s what I think. And after they finally get it right/wrong they are either allowed to die or live on.—J. Williams, Chicago, Ill.

It's a reality TV show, but the survivors don't know that. There are hidden cameras everywhere (hence the electric cable Sayid found) and when the world audience “votes off” someone they're killed. Charlie was almost voted off but some last-minute votes brought him back. Danielle and Ethan are ringers who were planted on the island to keep things interesting.—C.G., Tonawanda, N.Y.

I think that Claire is pregnant with the anti-Christ and the other young boy on the island is the second coming of Christ. They were placed on the island to keep them from throwing society as a whole into calamity in the future, entrusted to the survivors, who all seem to be at some sort of moral crisis during the time of the crash.—Ashley, Alexandria, Va.

My opinion is that they did not survive the crash and that they are stuck in some kind of Purgatory.—Tammy, Detroit

My theory: 10 “new hire' Hollywood writers were locked in a room for six weeks, fed bread and water, and told they would be given a $100,000 each to come up with something other than the same old schlock we've seen over the past 20 years.

But then... I could be wrong. It might have only been $50,000 bonuses each.—Mary Walker, Wailuku, Hawaii