'Lost': How It Ends (Maybe)

SEASON 4
Father-leader Ben gambled with his daughter's life to save both her and his people from the Freighter mercs — and Lost. The (presumed) ghost of Jack's father, Christian Shephard, tasked Locke with moving the Island in order to keep it safe from Charles Widmore. Christian appeared again at the end of the season to confer something akin to absolution upon redemption-seeking Michael, who sacrificed his life in hopes of helping his old castaway friends off the Island. The season concluded with father-figure Jack getting some of the castaways (including pregnant Sun and Baby Aaron) off the Island via helicopter, thus fulfilling a version of Desmond's prophecy. (Admittedly, my parental rescue mission reading is most strained with this season.)

SEASON 5
It's revealed that Eloise Hawking raised her son Daniel Faraday to become a physics genius in order to brainstorm a way to save himself from his predestined fate of being murdered in the past by her own hand. (Have we ever properly applauded the twisted genius of that story line?) Newly maternalized Kate vowed to return to the Island on behalf of Claire's mom and Claire's child in order to rescue Claire. New castaway father-leader Sawyer tried to save Young Ben's life by bringing him to the Others. Father-leader Jack pushed his most audacious/reckless castaway rescue plan ever: blowing up Jughead to blow up the past. And finally, it was revealed that Jacob, the Island's divine paterfamilias, had visited several castaways at key moments of their life to impart fatherly wisdom, blessing, or comfort to them, as well as given them a conspicuous touch — a touch which may end up saving them from their doomed destiny.

You know, it suddenly hits me: Does Jacob's touch = ''The Creation of Man'' portion of the Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, in which God the Father grants the spark of life to his first created human, Adam?

Michelangelo was said to have been inspired by the Christian hymn ''Vein Creator Spirits,'' which, according to Wiklpedia ''asks the 'finger of the paternal right hand' (digitus paternae dexterae) to give the faithful speech, love, and strength.'' In various ways, isn't that what Jacob gave each of the castaways when he touched them? To Sawyer, he gave a pen: speech. To Jin and Sun, he issued a blessing at their wedding: love. To Locke, he encouraged and comforted him in his greatest crisis: strength. Anyway, I digress. What was I supposed to be talking about? Oh, yes...

NEXT PAGE: Doc Jensen's ''final theory'': the Conclusion