Aohora Redux by aohora

Hey Y'all!

I posted this theory WAY back in November--I'm sure it echoes a few other theories that have been posted since then. Also, I am aware that the producers have debunked one of my ideas, but only about 5%, which I can live with.
The point is, I'm working on something else (BIG KATE Easter Egg!!), and it won't make sense unless this is up here first. I'm following this with a theory about Walt, which also relates to the next bit I'm working on (NO!! It's NOT about the baby!).


November 2, 2007

Okay, I have to admit that my idea for the “theory of everything” started with the hint at the ABC website about the “Casimir effect”* on the island and the bunny problem (2 15s that have to be kept away from each other.
I think that the island has this power: its electromagnetic field has created Casimir Effect, or a vacuum between time and space. Not to get all Star Trekkie on you, but it has pulled this place into a quantum string that crosses onto/into other timelines. Basically, it can pull people and things out of time. When Dharma, or whoever started to try to apply this, a rupture was created, which left “them” stuck. Now “they” are trying to fix the rupture, get out of the vacuum and reset time back by influencing a series of events toward a particular endgame before anyone else has a chance to get on the island and try to either use the power or shut it down for good before “they” have a chance to fix things. Once that endgame is achieved successfully, then time will be reset, and everything that has happened on the island since the “incident” will be put back in order, reversing any ill effects.
The reason I think that “they” are working the system to bring everyone on the plane, to manipulate Desmond into zapping it, etc, are the recurring “coincidences” that make sure that events and people are in place before Flight 815 takes off. I think “they” are able to jump around in time and space, and the whispered voices our pals hear in the jungle are echoes through time that bounce around when “they” move around. It’s why “they” are able to jump in, snatch someone and then disappear (and why the “others” can be bludgeoned to death when they try).
I keep using “they” because I haven’t quite figured out who all of “them” are. Surely the lady who talks Desmond out of marrying Penelope is one. Desmond is pulled out of time after the hatch implodes and relives part of his past, but with a twist. The lady explains to him that he is supposed to be on the island and press the button, or “they” will “all die.” Her picture is on the desk of the priest who first recruits Desmond and then lets him go just in time to meet Penelope.
This also works with Kelvin, who first encourages Sayid to torture his commander in Iraq, and, as he lets him go, gives him the suggestion that he will “meet a man one day” and now he “will know how to make him talk.” Kelvin is instrumental in getting Desmond off on the right foot in the hatch, paints the map on the wall for Locke, and feeds Desmond everything he needs to know to keep pressing the button until the plane arrives. Kelvin is clearly working out of time (if my theory holds), and his actions are specifically targeted to produce an end result.
Edmond is an obvious case (for me), but trickier are other possible cases of people who are placed in time to produce an endgame of events. Locke’s dad, for example, is key to both Sawyer’s and Locke’s life experience and arrival on the island. Jack’s dad, too, makes me wonder. It is more than imperative that Jack arrive on the island with a daddy complex (like Kate, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Claire, Walt, Locke, and who knows who else!) and a desperate need to prove himself worthy. The psychic who sends Claire on the plane with claims of his true ability also sends Eko on the same plane with claims of his dishonesty, lying about any psychic ability. Hurley’s imaginary friend, Dave, the federal marshal who is chasing Kate, the girl who changes Sayid’s heart, the bookie who sends Sawyer to kill the wrong guy, all are possible characters out of time. It is impossible for me to prove by what is available now, but I would not be surprised if more key characters are pa! rt of “them” trying to reset the rift. The question then becomes, not what is the “island” trying to communicate with our survivors, but what do these characters need to experience in order for them to follow a certain path, a path that is necessary to “fix” the “incident?”
Jacob is a more clear example. He has complete control of Ben (we think), from allowing and curing his cancer and surgical damage to having him lie to and kill his own people. I’m not sure if Ben knows how much a part of the endgame he is, but it’s pretty clear that he is working an angle to form events. Jacob is stuck in something like a phase shift, the vacuum created by the Casimir Effect. He can only communicate with certain kinds of people, ones who are receptive (or have similar phase energy). His asking Locke for help can mean one of two things. John is still necessary for the final endgame, OR Ben has gone off the reservation (a question for the next season, I guess). [Personally, I’d really like to think of Ben as a Judas Iscariot—doomed to play the bad guy to the bitter end but all for the greater good in a bigger story. I guess we’ll see!]
Think of all the people who can see the dead (or missing) on the island: Jack (when his father leads him to clean water), Ben (when his mother leads him to the others), Shannon (when Walt leads her to her death), Locke (when Walt gets him motivated to climb out of the death pit to finish his “work,” and when Boone shows him he needs to rescue Eko). Kate, Claire, Charlie and Sawyer are almost receptive: their messages get muddled in dreams and hallucinatory interpretations. These are all people who have been carefully manipulated and cultivated for their “job” in the plan.
The most important key player by far, even more so than Ben (I’m guessing) is Desmond, whose entire adult life seems to have been manipulated. Desmond, along with Locke and Walt, seems to have an understanding of the “fate” of the island, even if he cannot verbalize it. He is pivotal to restoring communication with the outside world by keeping Charlie alive until the right moment. He has “daddy issues” (with Penny’s dad), and after “sacrificing” himself to turn the kill switch, he has been included on the big plan. He is now an agent of “them,” helping set the pieces (people and events) in place even while following his own quest for reunification with Penny.
The kicker for me, and what started my whole theory, is in the flash forward of season 3’s finale, when Jack is about to throw himself off a bridge. He says “forgive me,” and if one listens closely, one can hear that word echo a bit. [Our castaways, when they hear the whispers, hear echoes of pivotal moments (“there will be a reckoning” for Sawyer, “Let it go” for Jack) that have shifted them to this place and time with past experiences that prepare them to follow this path.] Only when this happens, does a car accident prevent Jack from killing himself.
Cool observation: I think the woman and the boy in the car accident are Juliet’s sister and nephew. The boy is 8 in the flash forward, which, if the time stays consistent in this version of the future, means that Julian, who was 2 in 2004 when FLT 815 crashed, will be 8 in 2010, when the series finales, placing the flash forwards in real time. Nice touch.
Getting back to Jack: he explains to Kate (in a nice reveal where we go “ooh! We’re in the future!!) the “wrongness” he feels—they “weren’t supposed to leave the island,” he says. This is the exact opposite of Locke’s opening moments when he realizes that finally he has finally clicked into place, a nice validation for his life thus far. Jack, along with most of the survivors, will have to work out a way to “get back” and restore the time line, maybe by going back to one moment in time, when Jack hands over the walkie to Ben, perhaps, and disrupting events enough to produce a different outcome and finish the endgame.
If my theory is even partially correct, it would explain a few things. For example, why time has no meaning to the “others.” Ben waited YEARS to kill off the Dharma people. They also do not age: witness hotguy and probable Spanish sailor, Richard. It could explain why there are people to “watch.” Perhaps they are the control for the timeline. Also, why is it so important for the others to do their “work?” They have to NOT get involved, not divulge too much information. It would also explain why they are so willing to die and kill, both their own and our survivors. And why won’t Mikhail die? Could he be still necessary for plans to proceed? Or is he one of “them.” It is in his trunk that the tailies find the second film piece (along with his glass eye).
The final thought for me, and the biggest question I want answered, is this: who are the man and woman that Jack and Kate find in the caves early in season 1? Jack takes the bag with the two marbles in it—where does it go? If time shift/problems have to be reset, then these two people, who have been dead over 50 years by Jack’s estimation, could be 2 of our survivors—even Jack and Kate themselves (wouldn’t that be COOL if they had discovered their own bodies?) who have gone back, sacrificing themselves, to save everyone else.
Timing is everything: the number signal starts 16 years from present island time to bring Danielle (with Alex) onto the island. Juliet and Desmond arrive on the island the same year. Clearly, only time will tell if my theory is worth anything. However, isn’t it fun to think about it? Rewatch a few seasons and see what you think.
The only questions I have left are: how are Alex and Aaron important? Why is Walt so powerful? Is Danielle one of “them” or not? What is the infection? I think the smoke/monster/security system is screening people to see where they fit in the plan, but who knows?
Go for it guys! I’m totally jazzed to watch the story unfold!!

Second Previous Theory: How Walt is "Special"

I posted this one, I think, several weeks ago (a few weeks before season 4 started).

I have been digesting the Mobisodes/Missing Pieces, and I have a theory about which involves Walt.

A significant number of the extra scenes created for the official website center around Walt, and I think that he is the key to the endgame that will be least accessible to us until the very last season.

The Missing Piece that triggered my thinking was when Juliet and Ben are discussing Walt's behavior in what looks like an interrogation facility with alarms blaring. After briefly discussing how "dangerous" Walt is and how afraid the others are of him, Juilet leads Ben through a door to a set of stairs outside Walt's holding cell. The window has been boarded up, but on the ground underneath it are several dead birds.

This reminded me of when Walt's mother first got sick. Walt was reading a book about birds as his mother and stepfather were ignoring him. After being ignored for a while, Walt speaks more and more loudly until a bird, the very bird he is discussing, smacks into a window behind him. It is then that Walt's mother becomes ill, and, we find out later, she dies pretty quickly thereafter.

Basically, I think Walt's abilities are the same as Jacob's. That is, I believe that whatever the "others” are looking for in our survivors (why Jacob only puts some survivors on his "list") relates to why Walt is so important for Jacob to keep around. I also think these abilities are related to why some of our survivors are able to see manifestations or experience dream states and some are not.

The only metaphor I could think of is very oversimplified. I’ve seen other posting about this, but I reference them only to pull things together into one theory.

Think of the island as a radio signal transmitter. I know that there are many different ideas about what the island actually is or actually can do, but I’m sticking with this one to explain an endgame theory. When Rose visited the healer in Australia, he noted that there were different places on the earth that had a kind of energy. Some people, like him, could channel or use this energy. In his case, he could use the energy to heal. I think of our island in that way. The energy is like a signal, originating from the island itself. I think of Jacob as having the ability to tap into and use that energy or signal.

Patchy told Kate that she was not physically capable of understanding (that’s why she wasn’t on the list). Ben told John that he was special because of his connection to the island, and the others were very impressed with John because of this connection. Richard told a very young Ben that his ability to see and talk to the apparition of his mother (the island) made him very special. Why?

I think Jacob is looking for people who have the physical ability (due to brain development, psychic energy, genetic predisposition, whatever) to tune into his radio signal. That is, their brains are set to Jacob’s “station.” The people that our survivors see are not real, and they are not the smoke “monster” changing shape, but they are projections of this signal from Jacob’s mind to theirs. The images are filtered through the receiver’s brain, and therefore their memory or experiences. This is why they see people they know or have seen before.

This also explains the variation between what our survivors can “see.” Claire and Charlie can only see dreams, and these are jumbled and surreal half messages that lend themselves to delusional interpretations by others. There were clear messages in both Claire and Charlie’s dreams that became muddled with their memories and anxieties. Jack can see the physical form of his father, but can’t speak to him or hear him speak. Sawyer and Kate can sense a subtext in the animals around them, but are unable to see or hear anything. However, Mr. Eko can see, converse and recognize the image he sees as not what it seems. Even Boone, when given what we presume is a psychotropic by Locke, can see and experience a full on hallucination which I believe is from a signal by Jacob.

The fact that a few survivors can share the same visions (Shannon and Sayid see Walt together) only means that they both have the ability to receive the signal, nothing more. Shannon’s vision of Walt soaking wet (the first two times she sees him) makes sense because, in her mind, the only way he can be in front of her is if he came off the boat and out of the ocean.

Returning to Walt: I think that Walt has the same ability (to generate a signal) that Jacob has. In fact, I think he might be much more powerful than Jacob because I think he could do it before he got on the island. I think when Walt sends out a signal, it screws up the birds around him, and that’s why they zero in on him and smack to their deaths on the closest window to him. I think that Walt, while he was held by the others, was practicing the signal to get word back to our survivors. He chose Shannon because she had Vincent, and might be most likely to be receptive. Every time he did it (Juliet’s words), a bird would come crashing to its death.

This power that Walt has might be what is scaring the crap out of the others—the same way that Ben seems to be terrified of Jacob.

The questions remain: Why is Jacob being held in that shack? Why is he so interested in bringing Walt into the fold? Why did Ben send Walt off with Micheal? Was he rebelling like he did when he shot Locke? And when Locke saw Walt, was it Walt’s signal or Jacob’s? (Personally, I think it was Walt because he knew after touching Locke what he and Boone were up to with the hatch.)

The other questions center around who is working the system and to what end? Clearly, of all the humans on the island, Desmond is the most receptive. “They” were able to integrate an entirely new experience directly into/from his memory to explain to him what he needed to do. And he still receives flashes of the future that are leading the entire group on to the next stage of the game. Is Jacob one of “them”? Are the people on the boat related to “them” or Jacob or Dharma or what?!

Either way, I think the stakes just went up quite a bit both for our survivors and for the producers of the show. The next two weeks are just going to DRAG by!!

And the “monster?” I don’t think it changes shape at all. I think it can screen your memory (we saw that with Eko), but there’s no evidence that it can take the shape of anything but smoke, and there’s plenty of evidence that the people our survivors see are Jacob’s (or “them”) getting a message through filtered by the receiver’s mind.

Theory by aohora