When I finished watching "316" one question jumped out at me like a white rabbit coming out of his hole and saying "Hey you, c'mon in". Two of the most major reveals this season, for me, have been the revelation that humans could move to different times and the shocking reveal of 316 where the O6 (or part thereof) end up in Dharma time.
.esaelp ,stlebtaes ruoy netsaF
The question is: WHEN, in island time, did 815 crash? What year was it, on-island, that first day? Furthermore, WHEN have they been during seasons 1-4? Did any of the flashes that happened during those first 4 seasons (like the purple flash from the failsafe key turn) involve a time jump? Elloise stated the island moves. Does it also move in time when it moves?
The "when's" in the Lost storyline may be critical to understanding the show better as we head forward. It's now a given that time travel is a part of the whole. But how big a part?
We saw Jack see his dad walking around in S1 and saw Locke ask Jack (White Rabbit), when Jack thinks it's an hallucination, "What if it's real. What if everything that's happened here happened for a reason?"
Maybe it IS real and maybe there is a reason. Maybe the reason is there are people (Others, 815ers, original hostiles) trying to fix something or create something other than what was (is). They discover the time travel properties of the island, learn to control it somehow, and become timewalkers. They are dealing with a random, impulsive group of humans (on and off island), a random and impulsive island, and, of course, things like an ancient smoke monster. Oh, yeah. and FATE, the fickle. They're doing the best they can to keep the record in its track and, possibly, on the same record player. Or, they're trying to change tracks or move the needle to a completely different record.
What if every "ghost" we see is actually a timewalker. I find it easier, for the time being, to accept much of the high strangeness of Lost if i put in in the context of time travel and timewalkers. This time travel ranges from small things (Ray just happened to have those shoes handy), to larger (Christian, who happened to head to Australia and wander off leaving his wallet and shoes behind at precisely the right moment where, if Jack does come after him, he'll end up on the island) to profound (Ben always having a plan and not being able to kill Widmore). Remember how Ben looked at Keamy when when Keamy held the pistol to his forehead? It was a look that said he knew Keamy wasn't going to pull the trigger.
In other words, what Jack saw in those first episodes WAS his father. His father was very much alive and knew Jack would crash there at moment X in time (after all, he arranged it) and pre-arranged his time travel, prior to his death, to be there when Jack did arrive.
Head spinning yet? Hold on to something solid.
This idea gets a little stretched when Ana Lucia or Charlie "appear" to Hurley. But don't worry. I can weasel it in there somehow. We only know when they died, sorta (Island time thing again). We don't know if any rules can or will be "broken" leading to them becoming time walkers before they died due to some extreme, compass-time-loop-like warpage of time and mind. Remember Froggurt? He died in 1954 yet he was on a plane nearing the island in 2004.
The timewalkers probably have their hands tied by "the rules" (or arbitrarily accept the rules so as to not upset things further). So the best they can do is urge the storyline/timeline forward without direct intervention such as touching someone in their "normal" timeline or meeting one's self in the past/future. This is indicated by events such as Christian not helping Locke up and Locke not going to see himself at the hatch. And don't forget the time travelling bunny problem (My guess is they anhillate each other in a sudden burst of energy if they touch much like matter encountering anti-matter.) That might be a rule that extends beyond the simple problem of future bunny meeting present bunny. It might prevent future or past Christian from touching Jack or FDW turning Locke.
Rules can be broken. We know of at least one (Ben's Daughter). Maybe that was the first rule break and it triggered a cascade of rule breaking that led to, or caused this situation in the first place. Maybe the point on which things turned is Keamy pulling the trigger and not Ben turning the FDW.
Time may also be a fickle bitch. Imagine if Jack left himself a message from Dharma time and put it in the bag holding the two stones (Adam and Eve) and the message said "Jack Shepherd--Believe in John Locke. Signed --He who put white tennis shoes on a dead body." or something that would change Jack's feeling about the island early on thereby changing what happened the first time 815 crashed. . . unless, the "WHEN did 815 crash" enters into this whacky formula.
Now, is your head spinning?
This opens quite a can of worms like WHEN the Portuguese sailors caught a signal. What year was that to Penny, what year was the island in, and what year was that to Desmond and the O6? And who can travel in time, to when can they travel, and where is their starting point? Not to mention the primary thought that springs to mind as I try to absorb this--why are they time travelling? what are they correcting? What CAN they correct? And what is their goal? I suppose that last question may be hovering around the core of the Lost fable.
From here, my mind wanders all over the place. "The island's not finished with you" concept (Desmond, Michael, et. al.) might be the islands influence on maintaing "the rules" off island leading to such ideas as when Des first met Jack, Des was timewalking then. don't forget that Michael was "released" by (a timewalking?) Christian.
I also think that flight 316 didn't crash, per 815 crash (that'd leave 2009 technology scattered all over Dharma time island which might break the rules). What might have happened is it simply flew over the island's area of influence which immediately started affecting the O6 (who shouldn't have left) as it had the left-behinds, jolting them into the time period in which they should reside-the time period the left-behinds occupy--Dharma time, snatching them from the plane and putting them exactly where they're supposed to be.
This may mean Ben didn't make it to the island. At least not the in same WHEN the O3 arrived. If he is there, we've got the time travelling bunny thing all over again. I guess we'll see.
That said, if the island has power to resurrect the recently deceased and the power to allow the dead to walk the land of common men, then the whole time travel thing kinda goes right out the window, changing from a core element of the show to an also-ran. Theory by When is When
.esaelp ,stlebtaes ruoy netsaF
The question is: WHEN, in island time, did 815 crash? What year was it, on-island, that first day? Furthermore, WHEN have they been during seasons 1-4? Did any of the flashes that happened during those first 4 seasons (like the purple flash from the failsafe key turn) involve a time jump? Elloise stated the island moves. Does it also move in time when it moves?
The "when's" in the Lost storyline may be critical to understanding the show better as we head forward. It's now a given that time travel is a part of the whole. But how big a part?
We saw Jack see his dad walking around in S1 and saw Locke ask Jack (White Rabbit), when Jack thinks it's an hallucination, "What if it's real. What if everything that's happened here happened for a reason?"
Maybe it IS real and maybe there is a reason. Maybe the reason is there are people (Others, 815ers, original hostiles) trying to fix something or create something other than what was (is). They discover the time travel properties of the island, learn to control it somehow, and become timewalkers. They are dealing with a random, impulsive group of humans (on and off island), a random and impulsive island, and, of course, things like an ancient smoke monster. Oh, yeah. and FATE, the fickle. They're doing the best they can to keep the record in its track and, possibly, on the same record player. Or, they're trying to change tracks or move the needle to a completely different record.
What if every "ghost" we see is actually a timewalker. I find it easier, for the time being, to accept much of the high strangeness of Lost if i put in in the context of time travel and timewalkers. This time travel ranges from small things (Ray just happened to have those shoes handy), to larger (Christian, who happened to head to Australia and wander off leaving his wallet and shoes behind at precisely the right moment where, if Jack does come after him, he'll end up on the island) to profound (Ben always having a plan and not being able to kill Widmore). Remember how Ben looked at Keamy when when Keamy held the pistol to his forehead? It was a look that said he knew Keamy wasn't going to pull the trigger.
In other words, what Jack saw in those first episodes WAS his father. His father was very much alive and knew Jack would crash there at moment X in time (after all, he arranged it) and pre-arranged his time travel, prior to his death, to be there when Jack did arrive.
Head spinning yet? Hold on to something solid.
This idea gets a little stretched when Ana Lucia or Charlie "appear" to Hurley. But don't worry. I can weasel it in there somehow. We only know when they died, sorta (Island time thing again). We don't know if any rules can or will be "broken" leading to them becoming time walkers before they died due to some extreme, compass-time-loop-like warpage of time and mind. Remember Froggurt? He died in 1954 yet he was on a plane nearing the island in 2004.
The timewalkers probably have their hands tied by "the rules" (or arbitrarily accept the rules so as to not upset things further). So the best they can do is urge the storyline/timeline forward without direct intervention such as touching someone in their "normal" timeline or meeting one's self in the past/future. This is indicated by events such as Christian not helping Locke up and Locke not going to see himself at the hatch. And don't forget the time travelling bunny problem (My guess is they anhillate each other in a sudden burst of energy if they touch much like matter encountering anti-matter.) That might be a rule that extends beyond the simple problem of future bunny meeting present bunny. It might prevent future or past Christian from touching Jack or FDW turning Locke.
Rules can be broken. We know of at least one (Ben's Daughter). Maybe that was the first rule break and it triggered a cascade of rule breaking that led to, or caused this situation in the first place. Maybe the point on which things turned is Keamy pulling the trigger and not Ben turning the FDW.
Time may also be a fickle bitch. Imagine if Jack left himself a message from Dharma time and put it in the bag holding the two stones (Adam and Eve) and the message said "Jack Shepherd--Believe in John Locke. Signed --He who put white tennis shoes on a dead body." or something that would change Jack's feeling about the island early on thereby changing what happened the first time 815 crashed. . . unless, the "WHEN did 815 crash" enters into this whacky formula.
Now, is your head spinning?
This opens quite a can of worms like WHEN the Portuguese sailors caught a signal. What year was that to Penny, what year was the island in, and what year was that to Desmond and the O6? And who can travel in time, to when can they travel, and where is their starting point? Not to mention the primary thought that springs to mind as I try to absorb this--why are they time travelling? what are they correcting? What CAN they correct? And what is their goal? I suppose that last question may be hovering around the core of the Lost fable.
From here, my mind wanders all over the place. "The island's not finished with you" concept (Desmond, Michael, et. al.) might be the islands influence on maintaing "the rules" off island leading to such ideas as when Des first met Jack, Des was timewalking then. don't forget that Michael was "released" by (a timewalking?) Christian.
I also think that flight 316 didn't crash, per 815 crash (that'd leave 2009 technology scattered all over Dharma time island which might break the rules). What might have happened is it simply flew over the island's area of influence which immediately started affecting the O6 (who shouldn't have left) as it had the left-behinds, jolting them into the time period in which they should reside-the time period the left-behinds occupy--Dharma time, snatching them from the plane and putting them exactly where they're supposed to be.
This may mean Ben didn't make it to the island. At least not the in same WHEN the O3 arrived. If he is there, we've got the time travelling bunny thing all over again. I guess we'll see.
That said, if the island has power to resurrect the recently deceased and the power to allow the dead to walk the land of common men, then the whole time travel thing kinda goes right out the window, changing from a core element of the show to an also-ran. Theory by When is When
