My thoughts on the LOST finale (and point)

Ok, I've read some variation of this quote several times today (SPOILERS if you have not seen it yet. It's online, go watch and then come back):

"The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were dead all along, temporarily suspended in time, caught in this world before going onto the next."

Uh uh! That's totally not what I got. I got that their time on the island was real. Some of them died there, some of them made it out alive. (BTW, how did Desmond get home?) But eventually, as Jack's ridiculously named father points out, "we all die".

So I got that this "sideways" reality was simply the heavenly waiting room, where they could all gather together IN THEIR OWN TIME. When they reached critical mass - i.e. when Jack was ready, as their leader - they could go. If they were ready (i.e. not AnnaLucia or a few others).

Hugo and Ben's last words to each other reference time spent working together AFTER the island story ends. Desmond and Penny pre-island did not split amicably, would they have been so lovey-dovey in the afterlife?

No. I think that "sideways" was just "some time later" - it was a place they all made because those years on the island were the most important years of their LIVES. LIVES. Not post-lives. Since time means nothing, it doesn't matter WHEN sideways happens. It just happens when it should.

(See, I have no trouble with time travel/threads/alternate realities. It's illogical plots that make me crazy.)

Oh, and PU-LEASE! That stained-glass window behind Jack and Christian during their little chat. Overkill much?

So, while it was nice to see all the happy couples reunited in the afterlife, the biggest gaping hole remains:

What the heck was the Island?????

Anyone???

(Oh, Jimmy Kimmel's alternate endings were funny!)