How Could Desmond See Both Spiritual Planes in “The End”?

There has been a lot of discussion about Desmond in the aftermath of Lost's finale.  Desmond is the only character who seemed to  be able to cross planes, having an awareness of and in the sideways world before he died.  Desmond has always been referred to as “special.” His consciousness has been known to move through time, and Desmond has a unique resistance to the Island's powerful energies. 

Widmore brought a drugged Desmond back to the island, calling him a failsafe.  He subjected Desmond to an electromagnetic experiment, which seemingly resulted in Desmond's consciousness traveling to the flash-sideways plane.  Soon after, Desmond's flash-sideways consciousness “became aware.”

Later, in the light cave, Desmond acknowledged to Jack that he wasn't afraid because he knew there was this whole other world.  He told Jack he expected to travel there when he pulled the Egyptian Plug.    If the sideways world is the plane of existence to which we pass after death, how was Desmond aware of it while still on the Island?

What is The Flash Sideways?

One of the biggest areas of post-finale discussion involves the Flash Sideways.  Let me say first and foremost that the flash sideways are primarily a literary technique.  The Show Runners wanted the final season to mirror the first season in many ways.  They had already employed the flash-back and flash-forward techniques; they did not want to reuse either one.  So the writers conceived of the flash-sideways, a way to show a different time frame in a new and creative way.  Whether they succeeded in that or not remains up for debate.  I am not sure if they had it planned out from the start, or whether they thought it would take on a life of its own and start to write itself, as many great storylines seem to do.  Nevertheless, they ended it with an explanation that can make sense in the overall storyline.

I must say, I was initially disappointed with the ending to the flash-sideways.  Early on in the finale, I commented that it took until the last episode of the season for me to become engaged with the flash-sideways.  Then, as the credits rolled, I said I LOVED the finale up to about the last fifteen minutes.  However, as I chatted, read, and discussed, the ending started growing on me.

Ideally, this explanation would occur later in my chronology, once I've had a chance to express my take on “Across the Sea.”  However, being that this is one of the questions that's being repeated over and over in comments sections throughout the Lost Community, I thought I'd tackle it right sooner, rather than later.

First of all, the Flash Sideways was not “real”, but the events on the Island were.  Neither was it purgatory, a purely Christian concept.  The stained glass window in the church made it clear that this was a place that defied a single religious belief.  Rather, it was a place that represented  spirituality transcending religion.  In a nutshell, the sideways time represented the spirituality awakened in Jack Shepherd during his brief tenure as “Protector,” his ultimate reward and redemption.

5 Minute Assessment of Lost

I have frequented a site called DarkUfo throughout the last few years.  DarkUfo was recently voted the #2 Lost Site on the web.  After spending several hours chatting with other Lostheads, I posted this quick assessment of the show:

The island is a metaphor for that supernatural, unexplainable part of living that man just can't stop trying to understand. Dharma was a metaphor for man's quest to explain everything through science; Radzinsky went mad when he finally realized that there were some things science would never be able to explain. The Island is that spiritual part in all of us, something Jack had lost touch with. Volunteering to replace Jacob represented Jack's reaffirmation of his spiritual side and his realization that sometimes it took more than mere medicine to fix things. That is the answer. The sideways was a metaphor for the "no man is an island" philosophy, and a statement on the necessity of community to help us through the trauma. It was Jack's idea of what a "happy life" would look like for them all if there were no island and 815 had never crashed. Hurley's act of letting folks leave the island represented believing that science and spirituality can coexist in a modern world.

The answers were there, as much as they could be. You just have to look for them.

  I also posted this thought:

After spending like 3 hours in chat after the ep ended, I get it and I loved it. The island was real. Everything that happened there was real. When Jack assumed the role of protector (for all of that 10 min or so), he changed the game. The ALT is what he "wished" for everybody in that moment he reignited the light. That's why they needed him to "wake up" so that they could move on, and why they all looked like Jack remembered them in the ALT. It was NOT purgatory--it was Jack's idea of what their happy lives would look like had 815 never crashed. There's a lot more to it, of course, but I'm getting into theory length rather than comment length, so I'll stop here. I'm sure I'll get it even better after a full rewatch or 2.

 I'm repeating these comments here to whet your appetite for what is still to come.