Yes, I think purgatory, the Island being purgatory I mean, was the original idea. But then that started to be the big internet theory and they wanted to be more clever than that so they denied it then in the end they fell back on that the island wasn't purgatory but the alt timeline was.

I think the conversation between Hurley and Ben (who I guessed stayed in purgatory) made it clear the island was real, what with them saying "you were a good 1, you were a good 2", they stayed on the island for I assume a long time doing their Jacob shit and then died and went to the alt timeline. Sames with Kate (who did look good) saying something about how she'd missed Jack for a long time, cause presumably she died later than Jack.

I don't think it was the worst ending ever. I think basically they wrote themselves into a corner and just had to do something.

I mean they basically didn't answer shit and what was answered was kind of idiotic. Maybe they shouldn't have tried to answer anything if they had such shit answers.

Also did season 2-5 really matter at all? In the grand scheme of things?

Why did they even bother with Jacob and Smokey, I'm not sure that was really the point of the story.

The show just seems like it went totally nuts in the season 5 finale and completely and totally changed, all of a sudden Jacob and Smokey were everywhere and we got this absurd backstory about them.