I read the article at modest speed absorbing (the kids?) P.O.V. but I
think the story had many more purposely closed time loops and many
more deliberately open loops than the article writer (show intern) gives
the direction-production team credit for.
A lot of those characters in season 1-2-3 knew the time loops were going
to occur; because they already knew the Losties from a *hardened* already
happened past when/where they were in the Dharma Initiative.
He also minimizes The Island as a conscious entity in its own right with
absolute up or down veto power over the players choices Ala' your (Josin's)
take as "the setting" as the key breathing fore-shadower and concluding element-being.
On Quantum Physics & Consciousness
The Island remains as an instantaneous transfer point between the Small Infinite
of absolute simultaneous cause and effect(All Time) and the outward Large Infinity(NoTime).
Both inward and outward borders plus/and the theoretical mid-point (The Islands: Current-Time Space Coordinates)
are where events radiate outward into the totality of creation creating a unified finalized moment "*that was*".
The two tape machines in The Swan were symbolic for 'all that was: finalized' vs 'all that might be... Yet to occur'
I think the intern-article writer stumbles in his view of sideways world in the particulars
of the awakened Losties and whether they move on. That's an open ended question; they could
stay in sideways world and be the default rulers of cause and effect by simple possession
of advanced knowledge of the workings of the sideways realm.
Knowing Ben he would stay where the action is. :-)
The article though good and well thought out opinion accidentally negates
the complexity of the time-loop physics involved and someone like Ben having
to consciously deal with someone he knows is headed backwards in time to try to
murder him. That's a tough emotional load to carry even if you know you survive the event.
The last bias I noticed was believing The Dharma Initiatives desire to "instruct" the center
point of the universe on how to conduct itself with platitudes and slogans was a indication
of "good" instead of absolute stupidity on The Islands nature as a highly advanced intelligence
administrating a vast thermal arrow of time allowing 7 billion clouds of awareness to experience
the sensory apparatus we know as "Life". Ben's action were almost a mercy killing of D. I. Staff.
I think in the end the series stands as a brilliant antithesis of "SPHERE," a movie that was
quite well done and covered the same themes in a shorter less complex format.
If the intern who wrote the article understood the production teams motives
he would know that the lead United States Government's lead researcher into Quantum
Consciousness was Ingo Swann:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingo_Swann
The Swan hatch where all the key function and malfunction plot points took place
being named in his honor. A decent man: but like many who have opened the Pandora's Box
into space, time, mind, and their relevant quantum activation processes(aka Sorcery) : he was woefully
unprepared for the answers he found and like the Dharma Initiative, many U.S.Government
security and defense agency research sponsors were shocked at the casulty rate among their researchers.
A lot of broken minds and washed out players who could not disconnect from a sense of "to much meaning."
It is, in short, very similar to what the character Elois kept saying; "The universe has a way of course correcting."
The Island represented the core or heart of the universe as a mind form; that governs groups of younger minds.
It was always the star of the show and the object of obsession by all the magor players; whether to get away from it,
serve it, survive it, simply accept it, etc. etc. etc.
Good insight from the intern but the read between the lines consumer can see many layers and templates.
The simplest example being the suns position of dominance over all the other symbols below on the church window.
Between LOST and SUPERNATURAL it was a good year for television and I think the physics of Lost will stand
the test of time and the religious accouterments don't impede the underlying story they enhance it by showing
how many ways civilization has tried to study the smallest to the largest and sometimes had a hefty measure of
success. In the end: The Island IS The Island. That's the part that I thought was cool about the closing scene.
We know the wreckage washes away and the story continues on forever just like the physics
of eternal chaotic inflation and the rising of an infinite number of new highly complex universe built on the old ones
untraceable forwards and backwards in the sensory perception of time, but slightly fathomable in geometric terms.
I am Grateful to have read such a wide an array of opinions here. You guys rock!!