What we thought was a alternate timeline in Season 6 turned out to be the afterlife, sometime after all the characters had died in reality.

It was also thought that the S6 alternate timeline was caused by the exploding bomb at the end of S5. But no ... the bomb brought the characters back from 1977 to the present.

Nothing changed: flight 815 still crashed, they were still on the island, etc.

Which got me thinking: what was the point of S5 after all? Or more specifically, the time travel and island moving? It seems to me that the story could have progressed from the end of S4 (the freighter blows up, various Losties go back home; other Losties stuck on the island) to the start of S6 (various Losties return to the island, Jacob dies) without any of that time travel storyline at all. It seems to be a narrative detour whose only point was to introduce a red herring (the alternative timeline that wasn't).

The point was that it was fun and cool and interesting. They got to introduce lots of weird concepts that make the show what it is. Locke's compass caught in the endless time loop for example.

If you want plot points there are plenty, the main one being that John Locke needed to die. In order for that to happen he needed to leave the Island, something he wouldn't do under normal circumstances. Because of the time flashes and the dangers they posted to the people still on the Island, Locke was willing to make the sacrifice to bring everyone back.

The season also allowed for significant character connections. Daniel and Charlotte. Sawyer and Juliet. Pierre Chang and Miles. Some plot points were mythologically relevant--we find out who Charles Widmore was, his relationship to Eloise Hawking, her relationship to Faraday, and what the mysterious Dharma Initiative was actually like.

I assume you're talking about the roughly 1/3 of the season that took place in the past and not the off-island or the Ajira flight/Flocke stuff. The DHARMA plotline showed us how the Losties effectively brought down their own plane by causing the Incident (some will argue that we don't know that; I think this was what we were supposed to get from it). It was also key to Smokey's loophole.

It was misdirection. S5 set up S6's long con. It introduced the notion of time travel and whether or not one can change the past, so when Juliette detonated Jughead next to the EM pocket, we would tend to think that the FS in S6 was the result of that, rather than what was revealed in the finale.

Uuhhh.. did you miss all of the events that they carried out in the past that greatly affected everything about their future? That was kind of the whole point of the time travel, that they themselves set all of these events into motion -- and the O6 had to come back because they needed to do things in the past or else the 'future' would have fallen apart (of course, 'whatever happened, happened' -- but there was always a lingering doubt...).

It was

1) Telling the Dharma Initiatives story interactively rather than some flashback

2) Showing that our own losties had played an important part in the islands past leading up to them coming and making things the way they are (

(ie Ben was a sweet kid until they interfered and made him the way he is)

I find it amusing everyone is having trouble answering this question. There really hasn't been a satisfying reply yet if you ask me.

The incident would have happened regardless of the bomb going off. Remember that it all started to go awry BEFORE they dropped the bomb. This was why Juliet died. So it wasn't that.

You could argue Sayid shooting Ben was the biggest thing that happened, but that doesn't really constitute an entire season devoted to this.

For me the time travel was the biggest blotch on the series and this was the closest the show ever came to jumping the shark imo. I'm just thankful they kind of ignored all of that in the final season as they probably realised there was little use for it. The flash forwards and the events happening after Ajira returned to the island were the only redeemable points of the season.

If you ask me it was just a cheap way to tell basic points about the island backstory (like showing the statue fully built, other island inhabitants, and killing off most of the original survivors with fire arrows) rather than having anything meaningful to add.

But maybe that's just the cynic in me. Perhaps on repeated viewings (the only season I didn't want to rewatch) I'll change my mind. Sorry but I'm with the OP on this.

I'd take it even a step further and say what was the point of seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5?

They could have easily went from season 1 to season 6 and not missed a beat.

Season 1 finale reveals Locke actually died in the crash and was just a manifestation of the smoke monster. Locke opens the hatch, offers Charlie his drugs back if he goes in and kills the man who's in there, which happens to be Jacob. Begin season 6. 1 season of flashbacks, 1 season of what looks like different flashbacks but is actually purgatory.

Jacob wouldn't even have to be Mark Pellegrino. He could have been Henry Ian Cusick and been named Desmond. That way Jacks flashback meeting with him would have been the "touch" moment.

Jacob's Nemesis was behind the time travel and it was most definitely important because it implanted Locke as the faux leader of the Others which Nemesis needed to kill Jacob. All the other stuff that happened was neat and fun, but introducing John Locke to Richard Alpert in 1954 was crucial.

Jacob's Nemesis was behind the time travel and it was most definitely important because it implanted Locke as the faux leader of the Others which Nemesis needed to kill Jacob. All the other stuff that happened was neat and fun, but introducing John Locke to Richard Alpert in 1954 was crucial.

Not really. I mean Richard Alpert wasn't even introduced until season 3 and wasn't a crucial character at all. He meant nothing to the overall plot. He could easily have not been introduced at all and nothing would have changed. In fact it may have been better to not introduce him, that way they wouldn't have had to come up with Jacobs magical touch of agelessness. I can't think of a single thing that Alpert did that was vital to the story in any way.

I'd say season 5 is easily the weakest season of Lost. Plot holes like the outrigger shooting, lackluster time spent with the dharma initiative, B movie villain radzinsky, Locke's anticlimactic death, and more. I think it comes down to the time travel element - it was bad enough when it was just Desmond in season 4.

Seasons 1, 2, 3, 6 were just fantastic but 4 and 5 have an overall feeling of pointlessness, I believe it's due to the oceanic 6 storyline.

I'd say S5 is the reason Mrs. Hawking was so shocked to see Desmond buying the ring back in S3. S5 is the reason she seems so all-knowing, no? I think TPTB definitely had this aspenct of the story planned; the TT was not some gimmick they thought up last minute to help lead into (read: misdirect) S6.

Even though I liked the ending of Lost alot, I do kinda miss the whole alt-time line thing. Wish that bomb had gone off.

Locke's anticlimactic death, and more.

You have to be kidding right? Locke about to commit suicide Ben talks him out of it only to strangle him out of the blue... That's anything but anti-climatic. And in a dark seedy hotel room to boot.

Season 1 finale reveals Locke actually died in the crash and was just a manifestation of the smoke monster.

How do you figure? If that were the case, then why would Locke need to come back to the Island after leaving to bring the Oceanic 6 back. His whole thing was getting off the Island. Locke got off the Island. If he were Smokie already, why would he need to come back?

How do you figure? If that were the case, then why would Locke need to come back to the Island after leaving to bring the Oceanic 6 back. His whole thing was getting off the Island. Locke got off the Island. If he were Smokie already, why would he need to come back?

You need to go back and reread the post. I was explaining how really seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5 were completely pointless and they could have very easily skipped from season 1 to 6 and hardly missed a beat.

Honestly I wish they skipped 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and just had the first season and ended it with "What's in the hatch?". That would have made a better series finale than stupid nonsense purgatory and wasted 5 less years of our time.

You need to go back and reread the post. I was explaining how really seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5 were completely pointless and they could have very easily skipped from season 1 to 6 and hardly missed a beat.

Honestly I wish they skipped 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and just had the first season and ended it with "What's in the hatch?". That would have made a better series finale than stupid nonsense purgatory and wasted 5 less years of our time.

Well, if that's the case, i wish i could wave a magic branch from the island and somehow give people their wasted time back. It's just unfortunate that people are so hung up on unanswered mysteries that they failed to see a brilliantly written show.

I think three seasons max, or two seasons with an extra four finale. They could have easily done that and not brought up a lot of questions with no answers. It would have been a tighter (and different) show.
But I liked season five. I found it interesing to see Dharma lifem and a lot of things happened. Even though less is more and they didn't go that route I still will always love Lost.

I think "the point" of Season 5 was to show us who/what Dharma was. They used the gimmick of time travel to let us do it. But it's also interwoven with character drama resulting in the "point" of the end of S5 which was that they were all trying to get a "do-over". As we learned by the end of S6, there are no do-overs but I think it's very human to try, if it's possible, to get one.

I think "the point" of Season 5 was to show us who/what Dharma was. They used the gimmick of time travel to let us do it. But it's also interwoven with character drama resulting in the "point" of the end of S5 which was that they were all trying to get a "do-over". As we learned by the end of S6, there are no do-overs but I think it's very human to try, if it's possible, to get one.

But they didn't tell us much of anything about Dharma in season 5, and what little they did tell us--Miles is Chang's kid! Dharma has their own in-house torturer!--didn't matter to anything in season 6. Even the Incident doesn't really tell us anything new; we'd known since season 2 that there had been some Incident, probably electromagnetic, at the Swan site. Which is about all we know now.

I agree - we really didn't get to see what Dharma was really about. We just got to know the people behind some names we'd heard earlier....like Radzinsky or Chang, etc. It would have been nice to throw more mythology in that season. But then, they were also bringing the O5 back in integrating them into the group and trying to show what happened to Locke to make him kill himself, how Ben got to be evol and illustrating the whatever happened happened concept. A lot to cram in. Even if they'd just had a scene for the new recruits to be indoctrinated into what Dharma is/was (maybe watching one of those crappy movies) that would have been nice.

What we thought was a alternate timeline in Season 6 turned out to be the afterlife, sometime after all the characters had died in reality.

It was also thought that the S6 alternate timeline was caused by the exploding bomb at the end of S5. But no ... the bomb brought the characters back from 1977 to the present.

Nothing changed: flight 815 still crashed, they were still on the island, etc.

Which got me thinking: what was the point of S5 after all? Or more specifically, the time travel and island moving? It seems to me that the story could have progressed from the end of S4 (the freighter blows up, various Losties go back home; other Losties stuck on the island) to the start of S6 (various Losties return to the island, Jacob dies) without any of that time travel storyline at all. It seems to be a narrative detour whose only point was to introduce a red herring (the alternative timeline that wasn't).

It's called the 'set up'. The writers presented us with a mystery that led a lot of fans here to truly believe they had the Lost story figured out when indeed they had not. The Incident had been talked about since S2 & as the creators have stated, the ending was known from the beginning of the show. The finale cannot work unless it is 'set up'. We were set up to think one thing & then hit with the surprise ending.