First and foremost I want to make a couple points that hopefully we can all agree on.
1.) Desmond's consciousness has traveled both forward and backwards, first after turning the key (backwards), and second after going off the island (forward).
2.) Nothing we have seen in flash forwards can be changed by anything that has or will happen during the jumps through time. The important part of this statement (made by Carlton and Damon in the latest podcast) being "things we have seen". For example we know that Jack and Kate have made it off the island, at no point will something happen and suddenly this isn't true. Which is good because the moment I see Michael J. Fox appear and then disappear in a photo with Locke I might lose my mind.
3.) Changes made in the past or the future *can* change the outcome of certain events. While the events will eventually happen (if we are to believe the crazy old lady) they can be postponed or have their circumstances changed. See the 24 times Charlie should have died for confirmation on this.
4.) With #3 agreed upon one has to assume that Desmond has been having trips to the future for quite some time after the fail safe key was turned. These short trips were enough to see how Charlie would die and then come back and react to them. So the knowledge gained from these trips is returned to the subject when they return to the "present".
Excellent, hopefully everyone is still with me. If anyone didn't make the trip please raise your hand and we'll be back shortly to pick you up.
Imagine the possibilities if that ability had been tapped, the power to see into the future (assuming that whoever found this didn't know that the future simply can't be changed) would be a very valuable asset indeed. Something like that would be searched after by anyone and everyone if they knew it existed and with enough money that person or group could amass quite the search team. *cough* Widmore *cough*
Here's where we take a turn into theory land so please hold tight. The concept of time has been present in Lost for as long as the show has been running. The writers have already debunked the idea of multiple timelines, and alternate universes where one decision causes a rift in time and thus another universe which I believe is helpful to determine where things are going. If we listen to the writers then we know there is one single timeline, and if we agree on point #4 then if someone is to travel forward in time, when they return they have the knowledge of future events.
What if the story of Lost started years and years ago on the island. At some point this "ability" or whatever we are calling it was found and someone jumped ahead and saw something horrible... say the end of the world, or a nuclear war, or the end of civilization as we know it. What if that person or group of people have been making changes, slight changes, in order to try and delay or ultimately stop whatever it is from happening. If that's the case then what we are seeing is the last iteration of this course correction.
Let me use some numbers here to illustrate my point. Let's say the end result is X. In order for X to happen at some point in the linear story (since we know only one timeline is possible) C needs to happen. Someone alters the events in event C but in order to do that something before that needs to happen we'll call that event B. However something else needs to happen in order for event B to take place, which I guess we'll call event A. Now if we keep going we're going to get into some serious dependencies on what needs to happen in order to stop X from happening.
If we use everything that's happened so far on the island as one of our events then quite a lot has to be done in the past in order to set things up perfectly. First off all of our beloved passengers of Oceanic flight 815 need to be on the plane, and in order to get them there thousands of things need to happen. Jack's dad needs to die, Hurley needs to win the lottery, Locke has to become paralyzed and be unable to make the walkabout, Claire has to get pregnant and try to adopt. All of these things must happen to get all the ducks to line up in a row. With the ability to see how things turn out in the future all of these things can essentially be controlled. It's just a trial and error approach until everything goes as planned. Claire needs to get on the plane, fine have someone tell her about the adoption in LA have someone course correct her life so that she ends up there. Hurley needs to win the lottery, rig it... you know the numbers, you know what he picks. Jac! k needs to end up in Australia, have someone kill his father... hell while you're at it use someone that is already involved.
If you think about it the odds of everything happening just the way they did are billions to 1. People had to be sitting in the right seat, had to be the right people, had to die at certain times, had to not die in others. All in order to accomplish whatever it is they are trying to either stop this end event or delay it as long as possible.
Perhaps we're watching the story backwards because when it ends something big is going to either happen or be averted. That's the reason for the flashbacks, to show what happened in order to get them to the island and eventually you need a point A.
Theory by Matt
1.) Desmond's consciousness has traveled both forward and backwards, first after turning the key (backwards), and second after going off the island (forward).
2.) Nothing we have seen in flash forwards can be changed by anything that has or will happen during the jumps through time. The important part of this statement (made by Carlton and Damon in the latest podcast) being "things we have seen". For example we know that Jack and Kate have made it off the island, at no point will something happen and suddenly this isn't true. Which is good because the moment I see Michael J. Fox appear and then disappear in a photo with Locke I might lose my mind.
3.) Changes made in the past or the future *can* change the outcome of certain events. While the events will eventually happen (if we are to believe the crazy old lady) they can be postponed or have their circumstances changed. See the 24 times Charlie should have died for confirmation on this.
4.) With #3 agreed upon one has to assume that Desmond has been having trips to the future for quite some time after the fail safe key was turned. These short trips were enough to see how Charlie would die and then come back and react to them. So the knowledge gained from these trips is returned to the subject when they return to the "present".
Excellent, hopefully everyone is still with me. If anyone didn't make the trip please raise your hand and we'll be back shortly to pick you up.
Imagine the possibilities if that ability had been tapped, the power to see into the future (assuming that whoever found this didn't know that the future simply can't be changed) would be a very valuable asset indeed. Something like that would be searched after by anyone and everyone if they knew it existed and with enough money that person or group could amass quite the search team. *cough* Widmore *cough*
Here's where we take a turn into theory land so please hold tight. The concept of time has been present in Lost for as long as the show has been running. The writers have already debunked the idea of multiple timelines, and alternate universes where one decision causes a rift in time and thus another universe which I believe is helpful to determine where things are going. If we listen to the writers then we know there is one single timeline, and if we agree on point #4 then if someone is to travel forward in time, when they return they have the knowledge of future events.
What if the story of Lost started years and years ago on the island. At some point this "ability" or whatever we are calling it was found and someone jumped ahead and saw something horrible... say the end of the world, or a nuclear war, or the end of civilization as we know it. What if that person or group of people have been making changes, slight changes, in order to try and delay or ultimately stop whatever it is from happening. If that's the case then what we are seeing is the last iteration of this course correction.
Let me use some numbers here to illustrate my point. Let's say the end result is X. In order for X to happen at some point in the linear story (since we know only one timeline is possible) C needs to happen. Someone alters the events in event C but in order to do that something before that needs to happen we'll call that event B. However something else needs to happen in order for event B to take place, which I guess we'll call event A. Now if we keep going we're going to get into some serious dependencies on what needs to happen in order to stop X from happening.
If we use everything that's happened so far on the island as one of our events then quite a lot has to be done in the past in order to set things up perfectly. First off all of our beloved passengers of Oceanic flight 815 need to be on the plane, and in order to get them there thousands of things need to happen. Jack's dad needs to die, Hurley needs to win the lottery, Locke has to become paralyzed and be unable to make the walkabout, Claire has to get pregnant and try to adopt. All of these things must happen to get all the ducks to line up in a row. With the ability to see how things turn out in the future all of these things can essentially be controlled. It's just a trial and error approach until everything goes as planned. Claire needs to get on the plane, fine have someone tell her about the adoption in LA have someone course correct her life so that she ends up there. Hurley needs to win the lottery, rig it... you know the numbers, you know what he picks. Jac! k needs to end up in Australia, have someone kill his father... hell while you're at it use someone that is already involved.
If you think about it the odds of everything happening just the way they did are billions to 1. People had to be sitting in the right seat, had to be the right people, had to die at certain times, had to not die in others. All in order to accomplish whatever it is they are trying to either stop this end event or delay it as long as possible.
Perhaps we're watching the story backwards because when it ends something big is going to either happen or be averted. That's the reason for the flashbacks, to show what happened in order to get them to the island and eventually you need a point A.
Theory by Matt
