Lost Ended Yesterday
Ben murdered Jacob. Juliet set off the nuke in 1977. These two events are irrevocably connected.
The big question of season 5 was (to me at least) “Why did the Oceanic Six need to return to Craphole Island? What was their destiny?” Certainly there were personal reasons: Jack was a drug-addled mess without his precious island to keep him feeling useful, Kate would always be “on the run” (metaphorically), Sun needed Jin, etc. But when that flash of light brought Hurley, Jack, Kate, and Sayid back to 1977 - something happened. There was more than personal reasons bringing them back. Destiny was calling. But wasn’t it awfully coincidental that they were brought back to 1977, mere days before the legendary “Incident?”
They were brought back because Ben was going to kill Jacob, even if he didn’t know it yet. They were brought back in order to blow up Jughead and prevent “The Incident” from occurring. To change the past, and hence the future. Because then 815 would never crash. John Locke would never die. Jack would never answer the freighter’s call. Ben would never kill Jacob.
Ben killing Jacob would have been the end of LOST as we know it. The final triumph of evil over good. Ben - playing the Job figure - had been tested by the two warring Island Gods, Jacob and Not-Jacob. He had everything he loved and which gave him faith stripped away from him. Would his faith remain after, as Job’s did? No. Not-Jacob’s theory that all men are corrupted and sinful at heart was correct. Given the choice between remaining servile or biting back at his god, Ben chose to bite.
Imagine: God is dead. Man killed him. The balance is gone, only darkness remaining (to think the Lost writers have consistently kept up the backgammon “light vs. dark” metaphor!). Satan rules over all Creation. This sort of world could not be allowed to exist. So a chosen few were plucked from Ajira 316 and their actions stopped the unthinkable from occurring.
The big question now is…what’s next?
Oceanic 815 never crashed on Craphole Island.
It landed in LA. But does that mean the last five seasons were a giant waste of time, essentially negated by a nearly-dead Juliet and one little thermonuclear weapon? No. Remember Daniel Faraday’s odd little experiments sending consciousnesses through time and space? When that nuke went off - combined with the super pocket of electromagnetism - everyone at the Swan Site had their consciousnesses hurtled across time and existence…to the moment when the crash WOULD have occurred. Jack wakes up from his drunken stupor on the flight, shocked to find himself alive and in his suit. Hurley too. Jin too. Sayid is now bulletless. Sun doesn’t remember a thing, only that she is going to America with a man she may no longer love. John Locke is still that angry, sad, paralyzed man with no hope and no idea of the life he could have led if that plane had crashed. Charlie and Boone and Shannon and Eko and Libby and Ana-Lucia and Michael are still alive.
But…the war is brewing. Not-Jacob will find a way to finish Jacob, with or without the Oceanic 815ers. That means they, to quote Jack, “HAVE TO GO BAAAAAACK!” to Craphole Island. Sawyer is still on-board - his beloved Juliet is there. They have to stop Not-Jacob, using their extensive Island/Time knowledge to the best of their advantage.
Just a theory.
