Mario and Groundhog's day = answers to LOST by kane

Mario and Groundhog's day = answers to LOST

2 Part Theory, read to the end.

Part 1 - Desmond turned the failsafe key - and he flashed to the ALT, or 'Alternate reality"

Part 2- Mario and Bill Murry..."It only ends once, the rest is just progress"

Season 6 has focused on flashes just like every other season. We have seen flashes back, forward, off island, sideways, and now this season flashes to the "ALT" as we call it, speculated to be alternate reality. This is not an alternate timeline, it's an alternate dimension or reality running on a parallel timeline to the on island reality. Much like the "many worlds theory".

One of the burning questions has been what exactly went down when Desmond turned the failsafe key in Season 3 the episode "Flashes before your eyes". Notice the title contains "flashes". I believe we see Desmond flash to the ALT. After he turns the key, he awakes on the floor of his studio. Desmond does NOT flash back in time, because the Desmond we see does not remember just turning the key on the island seconds before. This Desmond is in the ALT we have seen in season 6. Every one of the characters ALT flashes this season has shown them in a situation where a light bulb goes off. A confused Deja Vu look comes over their face. We as the audience think for a second that the character we are seeing remembers the reality on island, but then seconds late the thought is gone. Everything goes back to normal. We see this happen in Flashes before your eyes....

Desmond sees Penny. For a few seconds he reacts just like we would expect "on island reality" Desmond to respond if he was reunited with Penny. After displaying the confused look, he smiles and they go on like business as usual.
She tells him if he doesn't get her dad's approval, it's not THE END OF THE WORLD. These words trigger the deja vu of pushing the button in the hatch to "save the world. Then he snaps back out of it.

The microwave beep is the same sound he heard in the hatch.. deja vu... back to normal..

Delivery man has a package for suite 815... 815 gives him deja vu... back to normal.

Even more proof is when he is watching the soccer match. He remembers how it ends, but it's actually the way it ended in another reality. As the game unfolds, we see it starts to unfold the way it did before, but it ends slightly different.

Finally Desmond sees Charlie playing the guitar in the street. This is the tip of the iceberg. Desmond then remembers all the details of the hatch, the island, and even Charlie's name. He "remembers" this happening before is what he says to Charlie. He remembered in a different ALT that Widmore kicked him out, he saw Charlie, then it began to rain. As he says that, the rain falls. This is exactly why its an ALT, and not a different timeline. This reality is following the same timeline, as it rains at the same time, but other events are different.

Desmond is not back in time, he's not flashing consciousness', he's most likely unconscious on the island after he turns the key. But somehow, the ALT Desmond and the Island Desmond realities partially cross, so each has memory and knowledge of the other.

Now here is where it gets more interesting. Desmond did indeed travel to an alternate reality, but not the same ALT we are seeing in season 6. The island must be a portal to the alt, and it doesn't stop there. After seeing the mirror that Jack smashed, I'm starting to think that the island is a portal or connection to an infinite number of ALT's. Again, like the many worlds theory, there could be infinite alt's. One ALT could be 99.9999999% the same as another, but just one thing different. Goes along with Jacob telling MIB that it only ends once, "the rest is just progress". All of these infinite number of ALTS are following the same timeline, but timeline only ends once. The tweaking Jacob does in each of these timelines could improve every time, and each one is progress made. Maybe it took 5,000 different ALT's to get all the factors to work successfully in getting everyone to the island.

Think of the movie Groundhog's day. Each day goes by, and progress is made, then everything resets except for him. Bill Murray realizes he can master playing the piano making progress each time he relives the same day. Once his reliving the same day "ends", it's over. But his progress was made.

Even better analogy.... Mario 1 for Nintendo. You are playing the game, you are Jacob. Mario is Mario, a regular guy like Jack, Desmond, Sawyer, Ben, etc.... When you start playing Mario for the first time, you probably fell down the hole after 30 seconds and died. That Mario, in that world or ALT...died. Over. You are like Jacob remember, so you have another Mario that starts over at the beginning of level one. The Mario character in the game is experiencing the level and the game for the first time, but you aren't. You are not going to fall in that hole again. You jump it and move on.

Maybe your Mario dies 3 or 4 times, but finally you will beat level one. You have an infinite number of attempts. You can play all the time, take a break for a week and try again. Eventually you have beat level 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, and here you are trying to master level 8, the last level, the ending. Keep in mind it only ends once. At this point in your experience with the game, you really know your stuff. If you had to start from Level one again, you speed through the levels faster than you can imagine. You probably could beat certain levels with your eyes closed. But the Mario Character who is speeding through these levels is experiencing everything for the first time, it's you or Jacob who is pushing Mario in the right direction.

Desmond for some reason is a special little Mario. He remembers the previous attempts. Why? Hopefully we find out. Maybe it is because he turned the key? The rest of the marios, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Ben, etc... they show glimpses in the ALT of remembering, and having deja vu, but never quite crack like Desmond does.

I'll tell you what. If I was Mario, and I was speeding through this never before seen land before, and it seemed like everything was happening for a reason... I would probably have faith that everything was happening for a reason, just like our Buddy John Locke did.