Doc Jensen's Final Theory of LOST

With less than three weeks to go before the Groundhog Day premiere of Lost's final season, EW.com's Jeff "Doc" Jensen has been a busy boy this week.

In a Q&A with GQ magazine, Doc reveals his Final Theory of Lost:

In an upcoming Doc Jensen column at EW.com, I'll explain all of this—my Final Theory of Lost—in more detail. But regardless of my crazy guestimations, consider that seasons and individual episodes of Lost are often built around these themes: Rescue missions; parent-child reconciliation; parents who will go to reckless lengths to save their kids. I suspect the End Game will be built around those themes, too.

And here's how he thinks it will all end:

I think the final scene of Lost will be a redux of the Jacob/Man In Black conversation on the beach scene from last season's finale—instead this time, it'll be John Locke in Jacob's place. As for his adversary, he'll be wearing a new identity—that of Benjamin Linus. It ends with this: Fake Ben: Do you know badly I want to kill you right now? And then Locke looks at him with a knowing glint—and they laugh.

Washington Post, Doc Jensen Chat about the show

Check out this chat with the Washington Post reviewers, Jen and Liz, and guest Doc Jensen of Entertainment Weekly.

Lots of theories, guesses and fun. Spoiler free except for the mention of a few characters who are returning.

A sampling:

Reston, Va.: Liz, Jen, you know I love you, but my geek-brain is exploding over the fact that Doc Jensen is sitting in on our little chat! I'm wondering what his position is on the Ben, Good or Evil, debate.

Jeff Jensen: All this depends on what was meant when by Richard's statement that if he saved Young Ben, the kid's innocence would be lost and that he'd become one of them. My theory? In being saved, Ben basically lost his free will and became a pawn of The Island's will, an extension of it. Ben is basically then exempt from good and evil; his fate is controlled by a greater intelligence/agency. The question is: Is That greater intelligence/agency good or evil? (Assuming I am correct.)

Jen Chaney: And this supports my theory that Ben deserves a little of our sympathy. Thank you, Jeff Jensen!

A little prep work for viewing 5.06, entitled "316"

I wouldn't exactly call it homework, but this essay by Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly provides a bit of insight into what we'll be seeing tonight.

The C.S. Lewis connection continues with parallels being drawn between Lost and The Chronicles of Narnia. Check out this excerpt from the sequel to Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian.

''I felt just the same,'' said Edmund in a breathless voice. ''As if I were being dragged along. A most frightful pulling — ugh! It's beginning again!... All catch hands and keep together! This is magic — I can tell by the feeling. Quick!''

Here's more from the article:

From the book The Magician's Nephew:

In this mythology-revealing installment, the book's child heroes find a pair of matching magical yellow rings in an ancient box from Atlantis. The kids think that the rings give them the power to transport themselves to Narnia — and they do. But the story reveals that the rings belong to Narnia, and because they do, they want to return there.
LINK TO LOST: Thematically, the off-Island castaways are like the rings, wanting/needing to be returned. In ''This Place Is Death,'' Sun received a gold band — Jin's wedding ring — which inspired/compelled her to return to the Island.

THE LAMP-POST
From the books
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew (SPOILER ALERT!) One of the most iconic landmarks in Lewis' Narnia saga, the lamp-post is an eternally lit street light located in the enchanted woods of the Lantern Wastes. After Lucy pushes her way through the wardrobe closet that leads into the Lantern Wastes, the lamp-post is the first marker she encounters. It literally lights her way into Narnia.
LINK TO LOST: As you will learn tonight — unless you've already had this spoiled for you in the teaser clip ABC has posted online — ''The Lamp-Post'' is the name of an off-Island Dharma station that the weird science enclave used to find the Island. It is certainly located in an unlikely place — you know it better as the computer lab underneath Ms. Hawking's church.

What's in a name?

What does a name mean on Lost? We've analyzed and even over analyzed the meaning of character's names.

(See picture at right: C.S. Lewis = Charlotte Staples Lewis.)

From Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly:

In Lost, names mean something. So when the season premiere included a fleeting scene involving a new character who made a point of identifying himself, I began searching the Web for ''Dan Norton'' in hopes of unearthing a connection to Lost. But after a few weeks, the best I could do was find a comic artist named Dan Norton who has such a wide array of credits, one of them was bound to have something in common with a time-travel TV show with a blood-seeking lawyer. (Vampire By Night, perhaps?) I wasn't satisfied, so I kept digging, and just when I was about to quit, I stumbled upon a 1952 academic tome called Classical Myths in English Literature, co-authored by...Dan S. Norton. More than that, my Google search took me to one page in particular, and I was electrified by a sense of Eureka! discovery. It was like stumbling across a hidden hatch in the middle of the jungle and finding my purpose inside.

14 Enduring Mysteries of Lost

Here are 14 enduring mysteries of Lost, as detertermined by Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly.

He poses 14 mysteries and ponders whether we will learn the answers to any during the fifth season.

From the smoke monster to that four-toed statue to why do pregnant women die to what's the deal with Aaron, Jensen reminds us of what's out there and what we know.

And, what do those damn numbers mean anyway?

What mystery are you most curious about? How will it be resolved? How should it be resolved? Will it be resolved?

What did Jensen leave out that you're dying to know?