I was one of many who gave up watching Lost every week, due to the frustration of getting bombarded with character flashbacks and long stretches between reruns. I didn’t care about their lives before they boarded that doomed flight. Instead, I wanted to know how they were going to get off that island.

In Season One, they showed a scene where Jack saw the ghost of his father (who had died before the crash) near the beach. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered aloud if all those people had died in the crash. Locke’s sudden ability to walk after being paralyzed also raised our eyebrows. After months of watching, we were no closer to the answer as to whether these people were dead and living in purgatory or if they were survivors trying to survive fantastic events.

Back in November, one of my former colleagues and I discussed the show, when he brought up the purgatory theory. It makes sense, when you think about it. Why does the plot focus on stolen kidneys, illicit affairs and murder when seemingly real danger lurks at every corner?

What doesn’t quite make sense is why they would all congregate on a beautiful island instead of haunting their own stomping grounds to work out their problems. Perhaps the writers created this backdrop, based on the old adage, “Not everything is rosy in Paradise.”