LOST Theories - DarkUFO

This is a little idea I've been working on since before the premiere of Season 6, but now that the ALT timeline was shown to be a "flash sideways" I think many people will be even more accepting of the concept of ALT all along that I've been talking about for over a year on this forum. Without a doubt the WHH v ALT debate has just taken an interesting turn in season 6 with the inclusion of the ALT timeline we saw in LA X, but that's not to say this is the first ALT centric episode of Lost.

Of course, this ties back into what we saw with Desmond and Faraday in The Constant, but also Minkowski and how his death marks a literal and figurative change in the way we were supposed to think about timeline effects and the impact of events stemming from the island... particularly concerning Desmond.

If you're not familiar with my prior arguments, consider this a pre-requisite for this theory:

http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2010/01/alt-all-along-has-driven-lost-forward.html

So...

Through Desmond we have seen how the past can be changed due to his uniqueness. We have seen Faraday insert a new memory into desmonds memory from outside the swan hatch and we saw it ripple out for Desmond instantly across space and time. But what we havent overtly seen are the ripple effects from Desmond meddling in the past (ie The Constant). The writers left hints for us throughout the show, but ultimately they disguised any definitive answers concerning ALT in a brilliantly written script. Before season 6, we had to look deeply into the way the show was written, use a lot of creativity, and go out on some limbs when we would contemplate how ALT works its way into the story. I know some of us always felt it was there, and the motives of everyone in power showed that ALT is what everyone was either after or protecting. We'll surely see more on that this season.

But now we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALT is indeed possible from the island, and that the ripple effects from acting on the past can be catastrophic. What I'm going to try to convince you of is that the writers left us hints of ALT in the plot of the show, and in many ways the mysteries of Lost can be explained by ALT timelines commingling with the events on the island, not to be simply explained by 'island magic' as it once was.

Reminds me of "the beast" from Lord of the Flies in a way... explanations abound.

Anyways....

In season 4's The Constant, what did Daniel Faraday say to Frank Lapidus before he departed the island with Desmond and Sayid in the chopper en route to the freighter? He said to stay on bearing 305 or else there would be "side effects".

At the time, every one of us would agree that "side effects" meant something funky would happen with the islands electromagnetic properties and you might experience temporal displacement like Minkowski, and once the displacement set in you most likely were marked for death at that point. But it would have been caused by a "side effect" you see, not just dumb luck.

What I'm saying is that what was labeled a side effect in season 4 is connected to what's currently being labeled as a "flash sideways".... and regardless of the language it leads to more ALT goodness and the ripple effects brought about from a changed timeline.

We saw this with Desmond, Minkowski, and Faraday's rat named Eloise -- either you die from not having a Constant due to the changed reality or you change the course of events and root back down to a timeline if you're unique like Desmond.

Desmond is unique because he is unstuck in time, meaning if new events are inserted into his past his present consciousness resets with the new information in tact. Minkowski and the rat could not do that, therefore they died.

Yes, we all saw Minkowski die from temporal displacement, but the exact reasons he died have been a mystery to most people and his death was chalked up to a plot device that showed ultimately what could happen to Desmond unless he found his constant. In short, I think there is more to the story here.

Firstly, the name Minkowski has some baggage that comes with it... as in Minkowski Space-Time... which in lay terms is a very classic and one dimensional conception of space and time. I think the reason the freighter communications director was named Minkowski is because we as an audience are supposed to also throw out the concept of Minkowski space-time with his demise. Its literary symbolism in its essence.... Minkowski / Einstein concepts of time travel die with Minkowski on that freighter at the doorstep to the island. Translation? Throw out all classical timeline scenarios when you're dealing with the island.

Second, how exactly did Minkowski contract this temporal placement to begin with? He tried to go to the island with his partner Brandon in the ships tender... but then Brandon started "acting crazy". All we really know about Brandon though is he ended up dying and Minkowski came down with temporal displacement. But there's more here.... because not everyone who heads off bearing or heads to the island get this condition. For example in the chopper that went off bearing, Lapidus and Sayid didnt experience it, only unique Desmond did.

So the question is what might have caused this time flashing for Minkowski and is there a 'side effect' issue happening with him as well?

As Minkowski was manning the radio room, he was under strict orders from Charles Widmore never to answer incoming calls. But then he revealed to Desmond that the reason was because there were calls coming in from Penny Widmore. Could the reason he started having these flashes be because he answered the phone and talked to Penny? She did say she knew about the island... and the freighter was sitting right on the edge of the radius of the island...

What does it matter you're probably wondering? Minkowski dies, so what!

My point is this... if the island is a nexus for ALT timelines then couldn't those phone calls have been coming from the ALT timeline Desmond was about to create in the events we were about to watch unfold in The Constant?

Think about it, Desmond goes to the past, transfers NEW information to Faraday, we watch his rat die due to paradoxical hemorrhage due to a changed timeline.... then Desmond comes back to the freighter with new information he never had before with his consciousness reseting as he dials Penny's new number and makes contact with his Constant -- rooting him back to the timeline he started from.

You see -- the reason Minkowski died is because he was flashing in between two different timelines due to the island and his consciousness was confused as to which one it needed to root to.... thats why you need a Constant and thats the real lesson of this episode... not that WHH but ALT is possible and the only way to go between the two realities and survive is to be unique like Desmond.

The case can be made that Minkowski interacted with an ALT reality when he picked up the phone and talked to Penny, and thats why he contracted temporal displacement. Meanwhile Desmond changed the past, generated an ALT timeline from those interactions, and therefore changed the future, and that's why Minkowski dies.

But this interaction in The Constant could also explain why Faraday regains his memory when he goes to the island -- and Ive talked about this a lot over the past months about how ALT timelines being accessed on the island is what explains the apparent healing that people like Faraday and Locke experience when they come to the island.

For Faraday, the new series of events Desmond creates in 1996 for Faraday saves future Faradays memory... in the sense that Faraday doesn't have to keep testing his experiment over and over and over. In other words the reason why Faradays brain gets healed when he comes to the island is because Desmond saved it in 1996 by giving him the right formula of 2.342 @ 11 Hertz ahead of when he was 'supposed to' find it. Desmond gives him a shortcut across time saving Faradays brain, and as soon as Faraday comes to the island that ALT reality is accessed. How or why the island is a nexus for these realities I'm not sure, but I'm convinced that is the case based on what we've seen in the show.

As it relates to Locke -- I always had trouble explaining before the S6 premier how he was able to be healed by ALT... but now I think we've seen the framework for the explanation laid out in LA X. "Nothing is irreversible"

We see Locke and Jack exchange pleasantries after the flight -- Locke basically says a persons body is just an empty vessel for ones consciousness (talking about the missing corpse of Christian) and then Jack gives Locke his business card and basically says "I'm going to make you walk again".... oh and by the way Locke's knives made famous in season 1 also went missing on the flight along with Jacks dad's body.

Do you see the writing on the wall here? This ALT or flash sideways reality is going to be converged with the other reality we've been watching on Lost... and this gives a new meaning to the book Jacob was reading before he jolted Locke back to life -- "All that rises must converge"

Say what you want about the Omega Point connection -- but these two realities converging on the island is most likely going to happen and thats how Locke walking around in Season 1 is explained.

My only fear with this whole thing is that the finale to season 6 in that case just brings us right back to Season 1 in a figure 8 type of loop... cool and fitting i suppose but ultimately I will be a little let down that the resolution of the show is one in the same as the beginning.


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In any case -- I truly believe we have been prepped as an audience for ALT ever since Desmond turned that failsafe key and his uniqueness has been on full display. I think the fact that he was glimpsed next to Jack on the plane makes the connection for even the most stubborn WHH fans that Desmonds glimpses and flashes are not just a "funky memory" but they are tied to ALT in a big big way as I've been saying for years.

I look forward to seeing the season come to a close, and I think we'll be seeing alot more of this ALT and the connection it makes to the other reality on the island.

Cheers

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