I am pretty sure in the same podcast they said that if Rose and Bernard were to die, we would probably see it - or it at least would be acknowledged - on-camera since they are significant (if not “major”) characters.
Here’s the ending of the last show:
All of the remaining living characters sit down around a large table.
“OK, we’ve all been through a lot. Let’s take some time to compare notes so we all understand exactly what’s been going on. Who wants to start?”
“I will! OK, I joined Dharma when they began their studies to determine if the island’s energy source was actually just a buried…”
Commercial break
“…no, no, no, because the polar bear was actually a reincarnated Walt, remember?”
All: “OOoohhhh! Right!”
“It all makes perfect sense now. And to think we had such a hard time figuring it all out! We should have done this YEARS ago!”
All: Laughter
“Who wants cocoa?!”
L O S T
The end.
My useless ideas -
Richard, Christian and now Locke are all dead and chosen by the island to be resurrected. In this condition all three do not age. That characteristic is only apparent for Richard because he died many years ago and has been shown in different time periods. Christian’s refusal to physically help Locke was somehow a necessary symbolic gesture. The chosen resurrected have physical strength as evident by Richard’s ability to carry the dead man back to camp in the episode where Sawyer and company entered the camp and Christian’s ability to pluck a picture frame off a wall.
Upon the jets arrival Locke’s subconscious was the key to who went back in time and who didn’t. Ben didn’t because Locke didn’t set out to bring him back. Sun didn’t because Locke promised Jin not to “bring her back”. Locke’s desire to bring back the people that he meant to bring back was used by the island to put the people where they belonged in this puzzle, in the past.
I think that the island doesn’t care about people having a simultaneous existence. There has been no evidence that it has a bias against multiple people. In fact Sawyer’s witness of Claire giving birth lends some evidence to the argument that its OK.
Well, the rabbits demonstrated that, too. Just don’t let them touch because SOMETHING bad will happen.
-Joe
Another possible ending: Locke kneels on an outcropping of exposed rock, gently lays his hand on the stone, closes his eyes… says… “It calls itself a Horta… PAIN! PAIN!”
A bunch of people from a different era who were going to kill you if not for you lying about who you were and who you know will all be killed in a horrible purge that you can’t tell them about because some rambling beardo says it wouldn’t do any good? That all tends to put some distance between folks, no?
And besides, they DO seem to care and show at least some loyalty to the Dharma people. Sawyer is genuinely empathic about Horace’s relationship pain, for instance.
Why would Locke not want to bring himself back?
Not sure why you posed this question to me. Locke’s whole life was focused on the island so he most certainly wanted to be back there. His attempted suicide appeared to be caused by his belief that he couldn’t assemble the o6 and return them (and himself) to the island.
If you are asking why he didn’t want to go back to the same time as the others, I don’t think that he cared. Or he was focused on returning to the time when he was the leader.
But it seems to me that he just wanted to get to the island. He showed a willingness to accept any fate that the island might hand him upon his arrival.
No – because Sawyer saw Kate and Claire when Claire was giving birth – and that was still during season 1. Before Sawyer got sent to Other-traz. And even before Sawyer tried to head out with Michael and Co. on the raft. I’d say that prior Sawyer just happened to be elsewhere on the island during the Clair-gives-birth incident.