I just bought Seasons 1-5 and watched the last few episodes, so I'm kind of (lol) Lost myself I've only seen a few intermittent episodes from the whole series so I'm basically playing catch up, now i just have to find some time to watch Seasons 1-5.
As much as this may suck, I would stop watching the new ones right now. There are only three (last one will most likely be two hours long, so one could say four) episodes left. If you get the answers now, the overall impact will be lost. No pun intended.
Look at it this way, every episode will be new to you. Try to avoid Hollywood media shows like ET, Access Hollywood, The Insider, all that crap, etc. You wouldn’t want to be spoiled by accidently hearing the ending.
Go back and watch them in order from season one. You’ll love many of the single episodes and the season finale cliffhangers are always great, especially season one, season three and season five. It is undoubtedly the best way to go. Believe me.
I was hoping for an up to date, I know the basics, just trying to understand the whole island/dharma mystery so far I gather there are two major guys fighting for control of the island which is basically a time machine (??) and they are able to keep sending themselves back in time to gain eternal life since each time they go back their life is trying to catch up to their present time (so they do not age)
Many questions that you have haven’t yet been answered.
For example, what is the island? The island has great power. It healed Locke’s paralysis, Jin’s infertility, and Rose’s cancer. It also has dark matter (anti-matter) in certain spots underground. This was something that the Dharma Initiative became aware of and was very eager to study.
Under the island, there is a giant metal wheel. When turned, this wheel literally moves the island to another spot on the globe. It is used as a defense mechanism to protect the island from being found. Also, the person who turns the wheel gets transported to Tunisia, Africa. The reason seems to be that a portal through space and time is created and Tunisia is always the exit point. Even the people who came back this way didn’t know why it was the return point.
So what can we say?
Clearly this is no normal island. Speculation has run from it being Eden, possibly Atlantis, and even to an artificial construct like say… an alien spaceship.
However, it now seems to point more toward religion and less toward the secular, the scientific.
The island is not a time machine.
Dharma was thought to be a big part of the story, but it really isn’t. The Dharma Initiative was an idea by two doctoral candidates, Gerald and Karen DeGroot at the University of Michigan. The plan was for a "large-scale communal research compound", where scientists could research meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, and electromagnetism. It has never been explained how the DI became aware of the existence of the island.
When the crash survivors discover the Dharma hatches, they realize they are not the first to visit the island. Once they discover Danielle, and once they meet up with the Others, their suspicions are confirmed.
But the Others are not Dharma. The Others are different people brought to the island from years, decades, and yes, in the case of Richard, centuries past. The Dharma people are all gone. I don’t want to say what happened to them because it will spoil it for you.
As to the two guys, they are not fighting for the island. A few season back, the leader of the Others claimed that he took his orders from a mysterious leader named Jacob. Jacob seems to be the guardian, the protector of the island. He may take human form, but I don’t believe him to be human. His nemesis is The Man in Black. This is what he is called. He has no specific name. He appears to be an evil being who is trapped/being held on the island against his will. It appears that he may be Satan himself and that it is/was this Jacob’s job to hold him there so that he can’t get out into the world and wreak havoc upon man.
It is known now that over the centuries (and I do mean centuries), Jacob has brought people to the island. It seems that he and this being disagree on the value of human beings. The Man in Black believes man is naturally evil and that it is in his very nature to sin. Jacob attempts to prove him wrong by bringing people to the island, giving them a clean slate, and then believing that they can learn, grow, evolve and come to completely understand the difference between right and wrong.
One of the people he brought to the island was Richard. He did this back in the late 1800s.
No joke. Richard works for Jacob as a liaison between Jacob and the people brought to the island. In exchange for his service, Richard was made immortal.
Jacob feels that if he has to explain to people the differences between right and wrong, good and evil, compassion and greed, etc. al., the people in question never really learn anything. It is akin to a parent telling a small child not to do something without any explanation as to why they shouldn't. If a person is to learn the difference, then they must come to do so themselves otherwise there is no understanding, no growth, and no enlightenment.
The Man is Black believes that mankind is simply an utter waste of time. He only wants to be free. He will use (and kill) people to achieve this goal.
So this has nothing to do with two men trying to gain eternal life. It appears to be a straight up battle between good and evil with mankind in between. Jacob may or may not be an angel. At the moment, I would say this is unclear. However, the Man in Black appears at the very least to be some powerful evil entity, angel, or possibly even Satan himself. Again, this is not yet known. The true premise of the story now appears to be destroying this evil being, or continuing to trap him/it on this island, an island that has been holding him for possibly thousands of years.
