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You will notice I have once again NOT done what everyone wants me to do; that is, explain Lost's parallel world structure by applying Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels to Lost. After all, don't the producers love Stephen King? Haven't they been on record as saying how much they love The Dark Tower? The answer to those questions is yes. But did you know that the Master of Horror has something in common with the Master of Christian Fantasy? Did you know that Lewis also wrote a story called The Dark Tower? It's true! It was published in 1977 — the same year that George Lucas released Star Wars (another Lost influence), and the same year the castaways blew up Jughead. It's true! And you want to know what it's about? If you guessed ''parallel worlds,'' you'd be absolutely right!

Lewis' The Dark Tower begins with a conversation about time travel. The characters conclude that the past can't be changed. They then find a device called a ''chronoscope'' that allows them to peer into the past or future — or so they think. Looking into the chronoscope, they witness a past or future world (they can't tell which, so they just call it ''Othertime'') in which a devilish character leads people astray, clouding their minds and turning them into virtual zombies. Then a character makes a discovery: The chronoscope isn't a device that allows peeks into other times — it allows them to peek into parallel worlds. He then makes another discovery: His double in Othertime is a bad guy. To prevent him from doing bad things, he crosses over...and accidentally switches minds with his bad doppelganger. And so, while the Good Guy tries to save the day in Othertime, his evil doppelganger wreaks havoc in ''the real world'' and the Good Guy's ''real world'' friends try to stop him.

How does it end? Wish I knew. I haven't read the book, just what Wikipedia summarized. Yeah, I'm a lame scholar, but you know what? It doesn't matter anyway: C.S. Lewis technically never finished the story. The Dark Tower only exists as a fragment of a novel, an unfinished work — a Lost story. Also interesting: Lewis' story was designed to connect to his own series of Space Trilogy novels via shared characters and themes. Part of me is in love with the idea that those Stephen King-loving, Star Wars-grooving writers of Lost are basically taking the raw material of Lewis' Dark Tower and building something new out of it. At the very least, I find myself wondering if Jack made the same mistake in ''Lighthouse'' that the characters in The Dark Tower made about the chronoscope: those mirrors inside the Lighthouse didn't peek into the past — they peeked into the Sideways World.

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The end. About time, huh? Well, don't go back to work just yet! There are two more very important things to know. (1) Yes, I was serious, this is my last Doc Jensen column...to post on Tuesdays. Gotcha! Beginning next week, Doc Jensen will post on Friday. I'll explain why very soon. Trust me, though: This will be for the best, for everyone. (2) We have a new episode of Totally Lost for you right here, right now — and don't worry, this ain't moving; we'll continue to post new videos each Tuesday. Give it a click; fun stuff awaits. And make sure you come back tomorrow for my recap of tonight's episode. Twitter? So do I! @ewdocjensen.

Namaste!

Doc Jensen