Why are people so confused about the ending? Gotta be people just trolling at this point.

There are those who interpret LOST ala Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: That the entire show is Jack's dying dream. There are characters in the series shown holding that particular book in more than one scene if I remember correctly. They will also argue that this is further evidenced by things like polar bears appearing on the island after someone on the plane is shown reading a comic book with a polar bear featured on the page.

I don't subscribe to that interpretation, but that's one argument presented. I prefer the Bardo Thodol reading where everything we see actually occurred -- but in the spiritual realm that exists (according to BT) in the stages between one life and the next.

I'm not sure how the people with the dream interpretation can square the quote you provided, perhaps someone reading this board will offer a defense.

For those who take the story at face value -- that there is a magical island where these things "really happened," I guess it's as reasonable as any other explanation. After all, it's a work of fiction and in such a world once rules are established and followed anything is possible according to those rules (like when a closet can lead to a magical land as in the Chronicles of Narnia). It then follows there can be such-and-such an island where bomb explosions don't kill people and taking a plane over an island and surviving the crash can get you kicked into a past timeline. Etc.

At the end of the day we all get to decide for ourselves how best to enjoy the show.

There are also those who understood the ending, HATED IT, and those that disagree just assume that the people that hated it didn't understand it

Yeah, all the people who misinterpret the ending as saying that the whole thing was the afterlife mystify me. It seems clear as day to me that only the sidewise universe was the afterlife.

I hated the ending, but I wasn't confused by it at all. Also, Lindelof has attempted to disabuse many of their theories, but I get the feeling some prefer their own answers to those of the showrunner.

1. Re-read the first three lines of your quoted dialogue.

2. Re-watch the epilogue, particularly the question "How can an island move?" which is deliberately not answered.

3. The series ended with that infamous final shot of the wrecked plane on the beach. The showrunners claim that ABC did that behind their back as some sort of segue. It's hard to believe that the showrunners -- who had so much control over the show that THEY negotiated a previously unheard of end date for the series -- were left in the dark by ABC.

And let's not even mention the numerous hints/suggestions throughout the series that it was some sort of otherworldly experience.

Unable to resolve the many enduring minor mysteries and the biggest one -- what exactly was the island and where did it come from -- the writers wrote a deliberately ambiguous ending that allowed them lots of wiggle room to go either way in the end.

Do I believe it was all an afterlife experience? I don't care personally. Whichever way you roll with it, the series crashed and burned hard enough that every attempt by ABC and the showrunners to generate enough interest for a follow-up series in the decade since has been met with *crickets* by the larger entertainment media and ex-fans.

It's not that no one understood...it was that it was completely stupid...

It's not confusing, it's just bad.