TIME

"Land ho!" yells Magnus Hanso from the deck of the Black Rock. The poop deck, that is. "Richard, my trustworthy first mate, what shall we name this island?"

"How about Captain Richard Alpert's awesome island?" replies Richard Alpert as he stabs Magnus Hanso. "You'll never get away with this, Alpert."

"Oh but I already have. I am your captain now!"

Suddenly the Black Rock begins to shake and come alive. Chains grab Richard Alpert and the ship launches into the air. Landing on the island. Everyone is dead except Richard.

"Why did this happen to me?" Richard questions his life and tries to escape the chains to no avail. Just as he has run out of strength, Vincent the dog runs out of the jungle.

"The dog. Go get help, boy. Go get him."

"Bark bark bark." Vincent runs off into the jungle leaving Richard alone for an extended period of time. Hours? Days? Years? Who knows?

Richard has a beard now from being tied up for so long. "Time is my enemy and I must tame it." He hears someone in the jungle. "Hello? Are you him?" "Aye, brotha." Says Desmond Hume as he emerges from the jungle. "I hear you've got a little problem with time, brotha."

"Yes, can you help me?"

"Aye."

Desmond explains everything. "Jacob is actually Father Time. A physical manifestation of the concept of linear time. We must destroy him once and for all to free ourselfs from this cage of temporal entropy."

"But Jacob is already dead. How can we destroy him any more than that?"

"Jacob is only dead in this reality. We must destroy him on a quantum level."

Desmond, Richard, and Vincent then spend 6 more seasons jumping into different parallel universes. It's awesome.