I am probably going to upset some people with this statement but here goes: Only one of the timelines we are seeing, Original Timeline (OT) and Flash-Sideways Timeline (FST) is real. The creators, as I've read on LP and believe, simply are showing via the FST what would have happened had the Losties changed their history in regards to the plane crash. I don't think the writers in any way meant for us to believe that they are both happening. This would mean there is no need for the timelines to converge, no course corrections between timelines...no trying to figure out differences between the two because they ARE different and only one is real.
- There was an incident which changed events so that the Oceanic 815 flight doesn't crash
- We get to see what happens as a result of this, and we see that changing the future changes the past
- We also get to see what would happen if the plane did still crash and the OT continued
- The Losties still on the island and the Un-Lost are not existing in a parallel universe or timeline. The writers are merely showing us the two different scenarios and in the end will have to reveal what really DID happen.
- By that time we will have had the unique experience of seeing a potential future, and past, of people we have come to know and care about. It will be bittersweet because there will be gains and losses for them whichever outcome turns out to be real.
I know most people watching will want the OT to be real, because how boring for these people to have led such a dull, ordinary, existence in the FST. Which begs the question of all of us, how much pain, how many disasters, how much sacrifice would we prefer over an existence where we can change events to avoid at least some of that? Would we choose to crash on an island if someone told us it would be mystical, magical, full of struggles but we would learn incredible lessons? Or would we choose to avoid the crash and take whatever else fate had in store for us? Maybe a child we didn't know we'd have had? You can't have both, choose one. Would you accept whatever happens? And then there's Jacob/MIB. If you live in a world where free will vs. destiny, fate vs. chance, exists (OT) then you will have entities like Jacob and MIB to deal with symbolically at least. If you live in a world where you can change your destiny i.e. disrupt a plane crash (FST)...then you have the power and responsibility, not some other power like Jacob/MIB.
- Which would you choose?