It would not be surprising if the Lost series ended with the opening lines of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets:
 Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Eliot’s theme of time in the Quartets has been variously studied. Moreover, his artistic sensitivity did not preclude plagarism from other artists.  A good study of the Quartets will reveal other themes present in Lost. Such as perspective that could give the idea of death in pregnancy:
 In my beginning is my end. …
In my end is my beginning.
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. …….Â
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them……
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
The writers of Lost are sophisticated enough to know Eliot, and yet, they might not. Nevertheless, it is clear that the show does not portray time, as we experience time, consiously, and mostly linearly. Rather time on Lost is recursive, cyclical, and intertwined.
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Don
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