[The Rick]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

The Island wasn't purgatory, the Flash Sideways was. The people who died in the story, died in the story. Those who didn't went on to live lives of different duration in stories not shown. For example, Hurley and Ben went on to protect the island for a period as the show stated [you WERE a great #1, and you WERE a great #2]. Eventually, all of them passed on, and it came to Desmond to round them up in purgatory/sideways, and get them to realize that they'd lived another life and move on to 'elsewhere' on the other side of the church doors.

What's kind of disappointing, though, is that all of those epiphanies, all those happy reunions, were for spectral remains, not people on the verge of a reunited life, rather an reunited afterlife. Who knows if in this world if they ever saw each other again.

Hence Desmond's signature line:

"I'll see you in another life, brother"