What About the Children? The Bomb? Get Answers to Your Lingering Lost Questions

Possible answers to the show's "unanswered" mysteries

If a passionate response--and the inability to "let go"--is a strong indicator of good television, Lost just might go down as the best series of all time. (Spoiler alert: Check back for more on that later today.)

Even after I wrote my Idiot's Guide to Lost (written by an idiot--it's me, not you!), I know some of you fans are still searching for more answers to Sunday's mind-shattering finale. Why couldn't the Smoke Monster leave the island? Where were the other children at the church? What about the bomb--did it go off?

So here are some more possible answers to your final burning questions, and the one thing you should take away from Lost…

Please note: The questions below were all entered via the comments section on my Idiot's Guide to Lost which you should read if you haven't yet in order for these answers below to make more sense.

Julia: Aaron was important to all of them. I get why he was there, and since he was part of Claire's alt creation, he would of course be a baby, since that's the only way she knew him. But why not toddler Ji-Yeong? After all, Sun knew her and wouldn't she and Jin wait for their only child?
Because Ji-Yeong was the devil's spawn and didn't get to go to heaven. Mwahahaha. I kid. I believe that the final church scene--in which Jack crossed over to the Light--was shown from Jack's perspective. So Jack saw the characters who were important in his own life, as he knew them. Aaron was there as a baby because that's how he was when they all bonded together on the island. Jack never met Ji Yeong, nor Desmond and Penny's son Charlie, so those two children were not there in the church.

Taryder: The one thing I don't get is Jack's son David in the Sideways world. Did he really exist?
Sadly, no. And Christian Shephard pointed this out to Jack at the very end. As I said in the Idiot's Guide to Lost, I believe that in the Sideways world, all of the characters faced and overcame their major life regrets in order to "let go" and move on. The most devastating issue of Jack's life was feeling like his father was never proud of him, that he was never good enough. And Jack was able to let go of  these issues by becoming a proud, loving father and breaking that cycle of bad parenting. "David" help Jack let go.

Ep: What happened to the people that got away at the end on the plane? Everyone else died or stayed on island. How can they be on their way back and if they make it back will they live normal lives? But they are already dead and meeting up at the church at the end and all going off together into the light?
As Jack's father Christian said, "There is no now here." So yes, Kate, Claire, Sawyer, Miles and Lapidus all got off the island on that plane and went back to their "normal lives" and lived for a while (perhaps a long time), and then died at some point. They met up with Jack in their afterlife--after they had died. This is why Kate says she missed Jack in a way that makes it seems as though it has been many years, and why Hurley and Ben hint that they had years together on the island as the "number one" and "number two" after everyone left. 

Stella: I really liked it and the show answered most of my important questions except for a few. Why and how was Jacob able to leave the island and why not let Smokey go? Smokey was the threat. And is Ben new the protector? Is that why he didn't go into the church?
My best sources can't answer the Smokey thing, but my guess is that Smokey couldn't leave the island because he became the embodiment of the evil that could not be let out in the world. (The island was the "cork" and the Smoke Monster was the "wine" in Jacob's analogy to Richard Alpert...Remember that?) As for Ben, I think he didn't go into the church because he was still repenting his past evils (needing forgiveness from Locke, which he got, but also Alex and Rousseau) and because of that, he was not yet read to move on…That's also why Michael wasn't there. He was still stuck repenting his very bad deeds.

BFD: Ooh. So lots of people died in this world just so that you can see loved ones in the afterlife? So worth losing your life over. Not. I'm sorry, but so what if I can't see people in an afterlife? That's not the end of the world (pun intended!).
I think the idea is that it would be the end of the world. The "light" is not just about you seeing the ones you love after you die. Widmore told Desmond that if the island or light are destroyed, "everyone you love will simply cease to exist."  And we know from Allison Janney's character that there's a little bit of the Light of the island inside every man, hinting that it is the very life force of the world. Calling it "heaven" was a simplified construct, and I apologize for not being able to explain this part better. It's something I'm still working out for myself.

Marty: I do have a MAJOR question for you...What in the world happened at the end of season 5? I thought that the explosion of the bomb and a simultaneous time flash split the two worlds. Now that I know that's not the case...What in the blue blazes happened? Did the bomb never go off, even though Juliet said, "It worked?" Very confused on that point...
Another commenter, Jeff, had a great explanation I agree with: "The bomb never detonated. The white flash at the end of that episode was simply them returning to the future. If it had detonated, the Island would have been a crater, even 30 years later. Juliet said, 'It worked,' but she was wrong. She was dead, and reporting back from Sideways World/Purgatory/The Waiting Room."

[Note: I amended this paragraph after reading your comments below...You're right!] So basically, when Juliet was dying on the island, she flashed to the Sideways world and saw herself meeting up with Sawyer and offering to "go dutch" on coffee. The rest of the dialogue from the hospital waiting room mirrored her death scene as she died in Sawyer's arms on the island. When she said "It worked," she was referring to the vending machine, but we were lead to believe she meant the bomb. The bomb did not "work." It did not reset time. It did not change the course of Oceanic 815 or the lives of the passengers on it. What happened, happened and nothing was redone. (By the way, I think "what in the blue blazes" is my new favorite phrase, Marty, so thanks!)

Final Thoughts of Lost Finale Week: I know many of you, like me, loved the finale, and thought it was some of the most compelling and beautiful television of all time. And some of you who initially felt unsatisfied have since started to comprehend it (by talking to friends, or reading things like this), and love it, too.

That said, if you still feel disappointed, that's OK! But please don't give up. The answers and acceptance you're looking for might be there if you give it more thought. Either today or at some point down the road.

I personally adore what I see as the ultimate message of Lost:

The most important thing in your life is staying connected with the ones you love. And if you live "together," you won't die alone, and you can move forward without regret.

You fans and casual viewers who wanted more concrete answers have every right to feel as you do. I just hope you'll still take a moment to let that final message sink in. 'Cause it's pretty damn beautiful.

As we close out Lost finale week, I'd love to know your thoughts.