Lost Season 6: Sideways Thinking

The episode, entitled ?Happily Ever After,? left us with the impression that the Desmonds of both worlds are now determined to enlighten the castaways of both worlds to the fact that they have doppelgangers across the quantum sea. In my recap, I suggested that season 6 is building toward a mass metempsychosis ? a transmigration of souls or an exodus of consciousness from one world to the other by all or some of the characters. I also said this: ?I think [Desmond's] job is to pull a John Locke/Jeremy Bentham and offer Watch Lost Online each castaway a chance to cross over into the Sideways world. I do think that?s the direction of movement ? Island to Sideways.?

Now, I?ve written a lot of things in my time that have inspired readers to roll their eyes or curse my name or even demand my resignation from reporting and commenting on Lost. But this speculation/theory ? that the Island castaways will move into Sideways world ? has apparently set a new standard for Just How Stupid Can Doc Jensen Be? sentiment. Nobody seems to like or support this suggestion. Even the kind members of my weekly Lost discussion group ? a delightful band of thoughtful peeps that I know through church; we call ourselves ?Get Lost!? ? told me to?well, ?Get lost!? when I brought up the idea during our meeting this week. After getting savaged by their derision, I limped home and opened my email and was waylaid by so many emails accusing me of intellectual malpractice. Among your reasons and objections:

1. Island devotion. The Island is a character in its own right. We?re invested in that setting and the larger world it inhabits and we want to see Lost remain loyal to this iconic locale. Fans will feel disappointed to see characters choosing the Sideways world over the Island world.

2. Sideways suspicion. Many of you believe that the Sideways world is some kind of corrupt reality and even an illusion and is therefore a trap to be escaped or a temptation to be resisted by the Island castaways. Dan from Ottawa provided this elaboration: ?The Sideways world is an evil construct. It is a world constructed by the MIB. It is not real. Doc, you mentioned that you thought this world sprung up from nothing and that it is in flux. Maybe that?s because the MIB is trying to fine-tune the prison he is setting up. Maybe he?s [working with Widmore and Eloise to] lure/con the candidates into believing that this Sideways world is a better existence, when in reality, it is empty and devoid of real meaning.? In other words: Sideways = The Matrix.

Hey, Doc! Would Island characters ? especially Desmond and anyone with an off-Island family ? really choose to abandon their loved ones?

3. Character redemption. Fleeing into the Sideways world would feel like running away from the Island world. The castaways need to stay on the Island or return to their Island world homes to complete and fulfill their individual redemption projects, which includes taking responsibility for their lives and world and reconciling with those they?ve hurt, forgiving those who have hurt them, and reuniting with loved ones.

4. I got it backwards. There will be a spiritual migration, but it will flow from Sideways world to Island world. Those who hold this view cite Sideways Daniel?s suspicion that the Sideways world isn?t the world they?re supposed to be living in.

And then there are these points raised by Chris Romer, who believes that Island characters ? especially Desmond and anyone with an off-Island family ? would never choose to abandon loved ones for the Sideways world. Moreover, he?s outraged by my limp understanding of the birds and the bees.

Chris writes: ?Nooooo! Do you really think Island Desmond would choose the Sideways world and leave behind his son, Charlie, and the three wonderful years he?s had with Penny in the Island world? And please don?t tell me he can simply have another Charlie with Penny in the Sideways world because reproduction doesn?t work that way. It would be literally impossible to duplicate the same fertilization process and produce exactly the same child. By the way: that?s essentially the same situation with Jin and Sun. Would they step over to the Sideways world and say bye-bye to Ji Yeon? Are the children of the island world so expendable? And what about the five years we?ve spent with these characters, watching the up and down progress of their long road to redemption? Is that all thrown away ? along with little Charlie and Ji Yeon ? simply for a free pass to a new life in the Sideways world? I sincerely hope not.

?And finally, you wrote: ?I think the combining of lives and minds and histories could create whole new people, reboots of individual timelines.? Sorry, Jeff, but have you been drinking the Dharma beer again? Seriously, though, it seems obvious to me that rather than a ?combining of lives? the opposite will happen ? the losing of lives. One of these worlds has to go. And by ?go,? I mean defeated and destroyed so the other may survive. I think that?s actually what ?the war that is coming? has been about all along: the Island world and the Sideways world fighting for survival. And each Lost character will have their own personal reasons for choosing sides. I believe that Desmond, Jin, and Sun will fight for the Island world, simply for the sake of their children.?

Doc J presents his objections to your objections

In the face of your overwhelming objections, I have no choice but to hang my head in shame?and then raise it high again and stick my tongue at you like a petulant 4-year-old child who refuses to eat his veggies! I refuse to surrender my position! My objections to your objections begin with the fact that I reject the Matrix comparison simply because it?s too Matrixy and I?d be surprised if Lost would resolve its story by all but swiping another story?s conceit. Also, saying that the Sideways world is ?an illusion? feels a little too ?Bobby Ewing in the shower/it?s all a dream? to me. The producers have adamantly insisted over the years that any kind of ?It?s all in someone?s head? theory of the Island is as bogus as Purgatory theory. While it would be impishly subversive to now play that card with the Sideways world, I think it would also be something of a creative cop-out, too. I can think of some ways in which I could intellectually support a Sideways = Illusion conclusion. For example, I do think a lot of Lost is about coming to grips with mortality and finitude. I would find it interesting if we were to learn that the Sideways world is about nourishing that theme ? a fantastical example of human beings foolishly trying to escape their natural fate. It would also remind me of the David Lynch films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, in which characters try to escape guilt and heartbreak by fleeing into alternate worlds that may or may not be ?real.?

Here?s another objection I have to Sideways = Corrupt/Fake theories. The only way that I could support a One World Must Die! scenario is if one of the worlds truly is an illusion whose only ?real? elements are the few characters we know. Otherwise, if the Sideways world is flawed but no less ?real,? then wanting it destroyed for the sake of the happiness/fulfillment of a few dozen people feels pretty immoral to me. I don?t want the blood of an entire planet on my hands!

It just makes more sense to me that most of the Island world castaways would want to migrate to the Sideways world instead of staying in the Island world. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Claire, Hurley, Miles, and Ben all have better lives in the Sideways world than they do in the Island world. I don?t think it?s about being selfish and narcissistic and using the multiverse as a cosmic vending machine to get the life you want. My interpretation of Daniel Faraday/Widmore?s explanation for the Sideways is that it?s the castaways affected by his decision that are flawed, not the material reality of the Sideways universe itself. The Sideways world characters and their Island world alter egos are profoundly incomplete. In order to become fully realized people, they need to be recombined. I agree, the Sideways world does feel like some slightly phony ?happily ever after? land, albeit one where bad things can happen (see: Jin and Sun). But I feel it can be made more real if the Sideways characters were imbued with the minds and experiences of the Island world characters. It feels to me like the directional flow modeled by  Lost Season 6  fantasy lit touchstones like the Chronicles of Narnia and The Wizard of Oz. The Sideways world is the ?ordinary world.? The Island world is the magical ?otherworld.? The adventures and lessons learned in the otherworld are meant to improve life and living in the ordinary world. Lost has tweaked and played with the formula, for sure, but I think the conventional rules still hold. I also think Lost is challenging our conception of what we define as ?the world? and ?home.? For the Island castaways, ?world? and ?home? are defined by communities of people. As I see it, the castaway migration to the Sideways world isn?t about individual escape; it?s about collective survival and flourishing. Besides, have you ever noticed that when the castaways get to the Island, they always end up fragmenting and breaking apart? If Jack?s ?live together, die alone? idealism is true, then the Sideways world seems to be the place where that ideal can be lived out.