Before Eggtown and the promos for The Constant, I would never have considered the word MEMORY as one of the most important clues in Lost, even though it's an aspect of Lost that is addressed in every single episode of the series. After watching what appeared to be Daniel having trouble remembering the last card that was face down on the table, I started to wonder how the experiment could possibly relate to the properties of the island, and how certain things, like memory, could be affected by something like time travel. After that, the mysteries of the island basically started to solve themselves.
MEMORY AND TIME TRAVEL
In every episode there's a flashback, and the flashbacks are composed of (for the most part) linear memories. These have been in Lost since the very beginning, and have provided massive amounts of insight into the characters. But is that all they're for? I don't think so. If you throw the element of time travel into the mix of the flashback formula, you start to realize... is the past set in stone? Not at all. Maybe these flashbacks we've been seeing are setting the stage for a return to these events, in another, different, yet similar flashback. Not a different future, but a different PAST, where the events unfold differently due to the influence of a time traveller.
As we saw in his very brief flashback, we get a sense that Faraday is a very intuitive person -- he understands immediately that seeing the plane on the bottom of the ocean means bad news. He also shows his intuitive qualities on the island with the rocket experiment as well as the card experiment. But what is he trying to figure out with these experiments? I think he's trying to figure out why reality as he knows it is changing all around him, and why he's starting to remember his own past differently.
Here's how I think it's working - Daniel is receiving memories that are new to him, but at the same time they are old, long term memories, and he's starting to understand that this is why he had a really bad feeling about it all. Faraday recognizes that these memories are new to him even though they feel old, and he's trying to figure out what's causing it before he starts to change into a very different person (our experiences define us, do they not?). What would cause something like this to happen? Something changing his past. Basically, his past is being altered by a time traveller, and because his past is being rewritten, reality on the island keeps shifting timelines VERY slightly (This is why he couldn't guess the last card).
(If you haven't seen the promo for the next episode, you probably won't want to continue reading this)
The preview for "The Constant" shows a short clip where Desmond goes back in time, confronts Faraday in the past (a physicist professor at the time), and from the looks of it, changes the path of Daniel's life from that point on. Considering he's yelling and throwing Dan into a chalkboard, it does not look like it would affect him in a good way, and probably causes some unwanted struggles in his life. Once Faraday remembers this encounter with Desmond, he's going to start to act very differently.
So if Desmond messes with Dan's life in the past, what happens to the Dan on the island? The memories and experiences that he had after Desmond messed with his life will start randomly showing up in his head, and reality will basically switch paths, or course correct. The Faraday on the island will change greatly, and as things continue to change in the past from this "branching point" where Desmond screwed with his life, more and more things on the island will start to change because of how that one event set off another snowballing chain of events.
COURSE CORRECTION
A confusing aspect of this is... well, how do we know that Faraday would still end up on the island as a rescuer if his life was so drastically changed? Wouldn't he never show up on the island? That's probably true. That is, unless John Locke is right, and that "every one of us has been brought here for a reason". The island is fate for every single person that we've seen on it. It's inescapable. It's where they were meant to end up so they could play their role in the correct way of "saving the world". Some of them have minor parts and some of them have major parts, but they all have a role in the play and certain things that they're supposed to do at certain times. So basically, the island course corrects itself whenever it REALLY needs to, in order to allow the play to continue, uninterrupted.
THE ISLAND, THE NUMBERS, AND DHARMA
The island is the anti-paradox of time travel. It corrects all the paradoxes in time travel so the past can be meddled with and 'course correction' becomes possible. It allows certain gifted individuals (like Desmond, Ms. Hawking, and even Brother Campbell who was the reason that Desmond met Penny) to go back and alter history in order to change the future, without the changes being made in the past affecting the person's own physical mass/composition as a human being, if they are indeed on the island in the future (that would be messy). Given the abilities of the island, the main Dharma goal was probably to change the past to ensure the future they desired, and they knew they could use the unique electromagnetic properties of the island to achieve this. I'm guessing Dharma really screwed up when they tried to alter a timeline and it resulted in the 'incident' -- reality as they knew it on the island starting changing so drastically that they had to go into damage control an! d prevent the past from changing too much. How do they do that? A reset button. The computer, the button, the numbers.
If it doesn't work correctly, they hit the reset button and go back to the "home" point on the timeline, the one that relates to the numbers. (The numbers could represent the location of the island in 4 dimensions, + the speed and direction of the island on a timeline) Well, ever since the failsafe, they can't reset. Whatever changes being made to history now, they're becoming permanent, and everything is going to change for good.
THE FUTURE OF FLASHBACKS
What I really like about this idea... it allows the traditional flashback formula to be used again but with so much more effect. Consider this... Desmond goes back, changes time for one person, and in someone else's flashback, we realize the aftermath of this course correction changed the course of their life as well. Basically, if this were to be true, everything we've ever known in the show could change from this point on, but since we've already seen how the past worked before the changes, we'll have the ability to see just how different the events play out the second time around
JACOB AND THE SMOKE MONSTER
Jacob's cabin = The Magic Box. It's capable of (or Jacob is capable of) creating a duplication of a person or animal that once existed, and the blueprints for the duplication come directly from memories of people living on the island. That's why Ben told Locke he brought his father there. That's why I think Hurley saw Mikhail in Jacob's cabin (Hurley was wanting to get revenge against the man who killed Charlie, and Jacob was trying to give him that opportunity. Hurley wouldn't even have to know that it was Mikhail who killed him -- Jacob knew, and tried to use it, unsuccessfully, to gain an audience with Hurley). I also think Jacob masked himself as Christian Shephard for a reason -- so Hurley will eventually tell Jack that he saw his father, ALIVE on the island, giving him yet another reason to want to go back.
As for Jacob, he's transcended time and space and acts as the brain of the island. He is the island's consciousness given a name. He's like a course correction program. The one who knows exactly how everything HAS to play out in order to "save the world". Without Jacob, or someone with the same capabilities he has, humanity is doomed. Since Jacob isn't restricted by time and space, he can probably jump in and out of time whenever he pleases, and is likely capable of seeing how the past needs to be fixed in order to change the future. This also makes it possible that Ms. Hawking/Brother Campbell was just Jacob in disguise, jumping through time and masking himself once again.
So, who protects Jacob? The smoke monster. As Danielle said, it is a security system. It read Eko's memories, then it reported to Jacob. It determined that Eko was the prime candidate to make it so Locke wouldn't push the button, so the monster came back, gave Eko a vision, and led them to the Pearl station. When it read Locke in Walkabout, it flashed a bright light because it determind that Locke was crucial for the endgame. Same with Juliet. The monster is sort of like Jacob's dog, kind of like the dog painting in Jacob's cabin...
BEN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH JACOB
Ben, being special like he is, is able to see and speak to Jacob, a being that is really only a constant visitor to our plane of existence. So why does Jacob need Ben? Because Ben is (for the most part), loyal to Jacob, and executes his will accordingly. If Jacob didn't have Ben and only had the smoke monster, Jacob wouldn't be able to manipulate events as well, and as we all know, Ben is a master of manipulation. Ben is a necessary evil until Locke finally starts to understand the scope of what needs to be done on the island. As for how Jacob uses Ben - Jacob must travel through time, gather the information he needs about the outcome he wants, and then inform Ben about what needs to happen to obtain the outcome. This way, Ben know's exactly what to say to keep people in check, and him and Jacob are always one step ahead of everyone. When Ben isn't physically capable of doing the manipulation, the smoke monster is used for intimidation, or Jacob just appears as another perso! n from their past.
Theory by manfromtallahassee815
MEMORY AND TIME TRAVEL
In every episode there's a flashback, and the flashbacks are composed of (for the most part) linear memories. These have been in Lost since the very beginning, and have provided massive amounts of insight into the characters. But is that all they're for? I don't think so. If you throw the element of time travel into the mix of the flashback formula, you start to realize... is the past set in stone? Not at all. Maybe these flashbacks we've been seeing are setting the stage for a return to these events, in another, different, yet similar flashback. Not a different future, but a different PAST, where the events unfold differently due to the influence of a time traveller.
As we saw in his very brief flashback, we get a sense that Faraday is a very intuitive person -- he understands immediately that seeing the plane on the bottom of the ocean means bad news. He also shows his intuitive qualities on the island with the rocket experiment as well as the card experiment. But what is he trying to figure out with these experiments? I think he's trying to figure out why reality as he knows it is changing all around him, and why he's starting to remember his own past differently.
Here's how I think it's working - Daniel is receiving memories that are new to him, but at the same time they are old, long term memories, and he's starting to understand that this is why he had a really bad feeling about it all. Faraday recognizes that these memories are new to him even though they feel old, and he's trying to figure out what's causing it before he starts to change into a very different person (our experiences define us, do they not?). What would cause something like this to happen? Something changing his past. Basically, his past is being altered by a time traveller, and because his past is being rewritten, reality on the island keeps shifting timelines VERY slightly (This is why he couldn't guess the last card).
(If you haven't seen the promo for the next episode, you probably won't want to continue reading this)
The preview for "The Constant" shows a short clip where Desmond goes back in time, confronts Faraday in the past (a physicist professor at the time), and from the looks of it, changes the path of Daniel's life from that point on. Considering he's yelling and throwing Dan into a chalkboard, it does not look like it would affect him in a good way, and probably causes some unwanted struggles in his life. Once Faraday remembers this encounter with Desmond, he's going to start to act very differently.
So if Desmond messes with Dan's life in the past, what happens to the Dan on the island? The memories and experiences that he had after Desmond messed with his life will start randomly showing up in his head, and reality will basically switch paths, or course correct. The Faraday on the island will change greatly, and as things continue to change in the past from this "branching point" where Desmond screwed with his life, more and more things on the island will start to change because of how that one event set off another snowballing chain of events.
COURSE CORRECTION
A confusing aspect of this is... well, how do we know that Faraday would still end up on the island as a rescuer if his life was so drastically changed? Wouldn't he never show up on the island? That's probably true. That is, unless John Locke is right, and that "every one of us has been brought here for a reason". The island is fate for every single person that we've seen on it. It's inescapable. It's where they were meant to end up so they could play their role in the correct way of "saving the world". Some of them have minor parts and some of them have major parts, but they all have a role in the play and certain things that they're supposed to do at certain times. So basically, the island course corrects itself whenever it REALLY needs to, in order to allow the play to continue, uninterrupted.
THE ISLAND, THE NUMBERS, AND DHARMA
The island is the anti-paradox of time travel. It corrects all the paradoxes in time travel so the past can be meddled with and 'course correction' becomes possible. It allows certain gifted individuals (like Desmond, Ms. Hawking, and even Brother Campbell who was the reason that Desmond met Penny) to go back and alter history in order to change the future, without the changes being made in the past affecting the person's own physical mass/composition as a human being, if they are indeed on the island in the future (that would be messy). Given the abilities of the island, the main Dharma goal was probably to change the past to ensure the future they desired, and they knew they could use the unique electromagnetic properties of the island to achieve this. I'm guessing Dharma really screwed up when they tried to alter a timeline and it resulted in the 'incident' -- reality as they knew it on the island starting changing so drastically that they had to go into damage control an! d prevent the past from changing too much. How do they do that? A reset button. The computer, the button, the numbers.
If it doesn't work correctly, they hit the reset button and go back to the "home" point on the timeline, the one that relates to the numbers. (The numbers could represent the location of the island in 4 dimensions, + the speed and direction of the island on a timeline) Well, ever since the failsafe, they can't reset. Whatever changes being made to history now, they're becoming permanent, and everything is going to change for good.
THE FUTURE OF FLASHBACKS
What I really like about this idea... it allows the traditional flashback formula to be used again but with so much more effect. Consider this... Desmond goes back, changes time for one person, and in someone else's flashback, we realize the aftermath of this course correction changed the course of their life as well. Basically, if this were to be true, everything we've ever known in the show could change from this point on, but since we've already seen how the past worked before the changes, we'll have the ability to see just how different the events play out the second time around
JACOB AND THE SMOKE MONSTER
Jacob's cabin = The Magic Box. It's capable of (or Jacob is capable of) creating a duplication of a person or animal that once existed, and the blueprints for the duplication come directly from memories of people living on the island. That's why Ben told Locke he brought his father there. That's why I think Hurley saw Mikhail in Jacob's cabin (Hurley was wanting to get revenge against the man who killed Charlie, and Jacob was trying to give him that opportunity. Hurley wouldn't even have to know that it was Mikhail who killed him -- Jacob knew, and tried to use it, unsuccessfully, to gain an audience with Hurley). I also think Jacob masked himself as Christian Shephard for a reason -- so Hurley will eventually tell Jack that he saw his father, ALIVE on the island, giving him yet another reason to want to go back.
As for Jacob, he's transcended time and space and acts as the brain of the island. He is the island's consciousness given a name. He's like a course correction program. The one who knows exactly how everything HAS to play out in order to "save the world". Without Jacob, or someone with the same capabilities he has, humanity is doomed. Since Jacob isn't restricted by time and space, he can probably jump in and out of time whenever he pleases, and is likely capable of seeing how the past needs to be fixed in order to change the future. This also makes it possible that Ms. Hawking/Brother Campbell was just Jacob in disguise, jumping through time and masking himself once again.
So, who protects Jacob? The smoke monster. As Danielle said, it is a security system. It read Eko's memories, then it reported to Jacob. It determined that Eko was the prime candidate to make it so Locke wouldn't push the button, so the monster came back, gave Eko a vision, and led them to the Pearl station. When it read Locke in Walkabout, it flashed a bright light because it determind that Locke was crucial for the endgame. Same with Juliet. The monster is sort of like Jacob's dog, kind of like the dog painting in Jacob's cabin...
BEN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH JACOB
Ben, being special like he is, is able to see and speak to Jacob, a being that is really only a constant visitor to our plane of existence. So why does Jacob need Ben? Because Ben is (for the most part), loyal to Jacob, and executes his will accordingly. If Jacob didn't have Ben and only had the smoke monster, Jacob wouldn't be able to manipulate events as well, and as we all know, Ben is a master of manipulation. Ben is a necessary evil until Locke finally starts to understand the scope of what needs to be done on the island. As for how Jacob uses Ben - Jacob must travel through time, gather the information he needs about the outcome he wants, and then inform Ben about what needs to happen to obtain the outcome. This way, Ben know's exactly what to say to keep people in check, and him and Jacob are always one step ahead of everyone. When Ben isn't physically capable of doing the manipulation, the smoke monster is used for intimidation, or Jacob just appears as another perso! n from their past.
Theory by manfromtallahassee815
