They maay also be engaging in a bit of theodicy with the “flash sideways.” While the crash may have killed a lot of people and “wrecked” the lives of the survivors, the flash sideways may be suggesting that life would have been worse had they not crashed.

This show stopped being interesting about two seasons ago (yet for some reason I couldn’t stop watching), but this final season has redeemed it. It’s great to see Hollywood explore the themes of evil, justice, and redemption, even if we don’t agree with their conclusions.

It’s worrying that they are setting up Jacob as the good-guy, the God-like figure. Given that Jacob has killed a lot of people by crashing planes and boats to show that man is capable of not being bad, I wonder if a ‘God is not great’ type idea might work itself out.

There’s still a possibility of some kind of dualism (as loved by Hollywood), with the references that have been made.

I do like the last paragraph – it’s very likely that that might be the sort of thing that they are aiming at (and in the same time going “spiritual good, religion bad”, as mentioned by Amy above). Kind of reminds me of McLaren’s idea of Yaweh/Jesus vs Theos – it is the zeigeist (though its Marcion’s views as well, way back in the 200s), so it’s probably going to be the case.

Notice the difference in Jacob’s responses to when Ben Linus tried to kill him versus when Richard Alpert tried–he fought off Richard but didn’t resist Ben.

Could they be setting Jacob up to be the god-character that is put to death at the hands of evil men in order to ultimately overcome evil (the man in black)?

It will be interesting to see if Ben is redeemed through the murder of Jacob and is ultimately responsible for the downfall of the man in black.

I don’t think at all he’s doing it in the name of justice. This is the problem. I think they’ve separated justice from judgment in order to convey the idea that judgment is a bad thing.

I think that ultimately the idea will be: spirituality good, religion bad.

Albert, do not resist! No matter how it ends up now, it was still all worth it.

I’ve personally resisted the temptation to start LOST, though, because I knew I would have to see it through to the end.

Beyond the split between grace and justice, another theme of the show is Free Will vs Determinism. Though Jacob is sometimes seen as messing around with free will (he’s been watching the Candidates a long time, he brought them to the island because they were Predestined, etc.) I’m not convinced which of the two represents each side.

Didn’t Jacob say last week that he wants to prove to The Man in Black that people can change moral courses of their own free will without outside manipulation or help?

It’s possible they might find a way to pull their ideas together, but it’s hard to see how they can do that at this point.

*sigh*