Austin Improv

Ceej and I just decided to open a thread specifically for LOST Possible Endings That Probably Won't Happen. I find that, when enough new data has been revealed over the course of some episodes, I start to imagine a different possible conclusion that I hadn't thought of before.

I remember when I first started watching LOST four years ago, my first assumption about the series conclusion was that it would end when they all got off the island. Since then, they've been off the island and back, and now they're on the island and off of it at the same time. (Another thing I love about LOST is that it's so layered and complex, the content of that last sentence can be questioned, corrected, or argued against).

Anyhow, if today you had to guess how LOST will end, what would be your guess?

*Or Will They?

Remember that the Season 4 premiere is called The Beginning of the End? There's something kind of circular about that title. Also, we've seen Oceanic 815 fly over and over again by now, usually from different perspectives. It could be that the crash is the nexus event of a circular time loop. One way to end the series would be to reach a climactic point at which it reboots to the beginning of the series. It would probably be stale and uninteresting to conclude with the plane crash or Jack's eye opening on the island, but there might have been a very relevant event happening very far away from the crash, about which we still know nothing at this point, but would make sense when we watch it in the final moment of the series finale. However the writers would tackle an endless time loop, that's an original ending for a TV show, as far as I know. Series have ended where it was all a dream, where it was all the imagination of some kid, where the Earth was destroyed, where the main characters were all stuck in jail together forever, and where the ending is open and nobody ever knows what ultimately happens, but I've never seen a series end at the end-beginning of a never-ending loop.
So, that's just one idea. Hopefully, this thread will feature many others.

The show ends with Hurley locked up in some place prattling off into the radiowaves ethos the numbers
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42....

...and somehow this is where the loop of the narrative begins....at the ending.

"The End of the End"

"The End of the Beginning"

"the End of the Beginning of the End"

We discover that Vincent is the main character of the series, in a karmic reincarnation kind of way.

Someone will have to choose which reality is going to be the truth. The other will be destroyed.

This means one reality benefits Jacob and the other reality benefits the smoke monster.

everything's fixed, everyone's happy
jack turns to the camera and says
"I'm glad we're not *lost*"

The screen fades to black...

We then cut to a small hut on a tropical island at night.

Skipper: Gilligan, would you stop writing in that damn journal and come to bed? It's late.

Gilligan: But Skipper, I'm just writing about people like us. They're stuck on an island and all sorts of crazy things happen to them.

Skipper: What?

Gilligan: When we get off the island, I'm gonna pitch this to the TV networks.

Skipper: That's stupid, Gilligan. Who the heck would ever want to watch a TV show about folks stranded on a deserted island.

Both men slowly look at each other, then at the camera.

Cut to black, roll credits.


OR:


The Island fades out into a blur.

Cut to a child's room where an Autistic boy is playing with his Playmobile figures. In the background sits a broken plane, a plastic polar bear, and several figures which look just like the main characters of the show.

The child's mother comes in.

"Come on Jimmy, we'll be late for the movie. You can play with your toys later."

Jimmy stands and leaves with his mother. They turn the light off, but the closet light is still on, and it sheds one thin illuminating light which lands on a familiar looking plastic island.

fade to black.