LOST: In the Beginning and In the End
The pieces are coming together now. This is a theory that I have been thinking about since season 3 reached "The Man behind the curtain." It encompasses a few different elements of other suggested theories, but I do not claim for a second that any of this is the definitive answer. It’s an enjoyable read, and hopefully will provoke some interesting responses. And by the luck of the Gods if I am even remotely close to the big revelations, then I believe that as long-winded as my theory looks, I reckon it could be adequately told over the next two and a half years. Remember I’ve made imaginary connections with parts of this, but its not too far fetched. Enjoy!
The battle between
Science and Faith
-
A False God and The Course Correction of Fate
-
Man against Man
-
Welcome to the Jungle
In the beginning…
The Black Rock ship was carrying metal materials back from Africa aboard with the slaves who had mined it. During a storm, something happened. The Black Rock crashed upon an undiscovered, yet ancient island, perhaps drawn to it by the magnetic forces at the centre of the island. With a hole ripped in the ship’s hull and no means to get home, the ship’s Captain (Hanso) and his crew settled on the land. Within the first few weeks it was clear that this island was no ordinary place. The slaves were sick and dying from smallpox, as were some of the crew, yet somehow here in this place, their illness’ were cured. There was a “supernatural” force of some kind that inhabited the land that was so powerful and omnipotent the settlers began to worship it, haven actually mistaken it for their God, and the island as the heavenly paradise promised to them in the Bible. Ascension grew amongst the settlers and Captain Hanso was overthrown as their “leader” and replaced by the! force soon to be named or christened as Jacob. Their God.
They began to erect a statue in its (his) name, building a temple(?) to worship in as a sign of their devout and unwavering faith. However, soon the force/Jacob began to act cruelly towards the settlers. They began to experience terrible nightmares and relive past events of their previous life’s misdeeds. This caused insanity among some and wickedness among others. Either they faced up to their past wrongs and found redemption in doing so or they would suffer the consequences of the mysterious force’s/Jacob‘s wrath. People’s true colours were revealed to one another through this “test” of their faith and commitment. The men who realised they had evil in their hearts took the dynamite from the Black Rock and blew up the statue in protest of Jacob’s actions towards them. These Faithless ones turned on the Believers and a war ensued. Jacob promised sanctuary to the Believers for their unremitting faith and belief in his power and showed them a place where nothing ! could hurt them after “The Purge.” Shortly after they retreated to safety, the volcano at the centre of the island (eventually turned into Othersville by Dharma) erupted and wiped out the non-believers as punishment in a “Noah’s Ark”-like purge of the unclean souls. The bad people amongst the settlers had been vanquished and Jacob’s followers were now the only human beings left on the island. These people would eventually be known as “The Others” and/or “The Hostiles,” perhaps promised or given the gift of eternal youth as a reward for their devotion. They were told that children could not be born there. That this place could not give new life, only heal the wounds of the life that already existed. There could be only one generation of disciples and this was the price of immortality. Jacob also prophesised to his people of a great leader to one day arrive on their shores. A man who would be a prophet and disciple of Jacob without question. Who they would! know by two distinctive signs; 1) he would be a walking mirac! le of na ture. 2) he would kill his sinning Father as a sacrifice for the island. This man was prophesised to go on to save the island from future aggressors looking to harness and exploit the island’s power for the selfish benefits of man and present Jacob’s “love” to the world. Jacob never told his followers that the island was really his “prison” and his ultimate goal was to escape.
However, a small few of the Non-Believers or the faithless ones survived the volcano‘s “Purge” and escaped the island on a raft they had constructed over time in secret led by the Black Rock’s ex-Captain, Hanso. They took the Black Rock’s log book and set sail the day of the eruption. They found land shortly after and swore never to tell of the others they left behind, nor of Jacob, or indeed of the island. But none of these men could shake this powerful feeling deep within themselves. The catch to living in and experiencing a paradise was that once you were there you could never leave. And if you did, a piece of your soul would remain locked within it, ensuring that you could never lead a happy nor fulfilling life in the outside world. For the force of Jacob’s power, will and “love” was too strong.
Fast forward hundreds of years later….
Meet Charles Widmore, the billionaire Industrialist and all around nasty piece of work. His friend, and fellow Industrialist, Alvar Hanso told him stories of his great ancestor and his tales of how they escaped the island with no name. Tales of a paradise controlled by a God-like entity named Jacob that tried to destroy them. Together, Widmore and Hanso combined forces to seek out this legend and decipher the reality from myth. They invested millions into forming a research initiative with many different goals. However, Widmore had his own motives for co-funding The Dharma Initiative and remained a silent partner giving Alvar the top billing and all the attention. Alvar’s mistake was hiring the DeGroots to headline the research. Although they were two young and brilliant minds they were also essentially a couple of idealist hippies who manipulated the project into a quest for devising world peace through science. In the late sixties, or perhaps even earlier, the island was! found again with the help of the Black Rock log handed down through Hanso family generations. This time, the people/Dharma arrived with the intention of unlocking the science behind the mysteries of this supposed paradise.
Jacob sensed the island was about to be raped by man and technology, and he could not stand the mechanics of the 16th century never mind the electronics and psychics of the 20th. The Dharma Group quickly discovered the hostile nature of the natives/Jacob’s followers on the island and proceeded to protect themselves by building a sonic barrier fence around their barracks. They spent many years fighting the hostiles for control and dominance of the island yet found no luck in winning this never ending war. The appearance of black smoke monsters were reported, and it was rumoured that they could shape shift into animals, objects, trees, even people. But not just any people, people from their past. The monster was a centurion guard of Jacob’s who guarded and protected the gates of the temple and the island itself. Whether or not the monster is apart of Jacob, or simply powerful entities he created is unclear, but they were effective in deconstructing and torturing the Dharma! folk by presenting their pasts to them, much like the Black Rock survivors experienced hundreds of years ago. It was testing them to see if they were worthy of Jacob’s “love.” He ordered that lists should be made of the worthy members of the Initiative and be taken. Then along comes little Benjamin Linus and his good-for-nothing father Roger. Recruited by the DeGroots’ close friends the Goodspeed’s, Roger went to work as a runner/janitor while Ben grew up, disconnected from and alienated by his surroundings. That is when Jacob’s centurion (the monster) appeared to him in the form of his Mother. Jacob and his followers mistook this child for their prophet. He was a miracle child that should have died with his Mother while she was in labour, yet here he was, the miracle saviour that had been waiting hundreds of years for. But there was a second prophecy for him to fulfil - to kill his Father as a test of devotion to Jacob and the island. And it would require a li! ttle encouragement and a great deal of patience on his part. H! e was ta ken to Jacob’s cabin to meet him for the first time a few days after meeting Richard Alpert in the jungle. Jacob was to make Ben their leader in later years as he foresaw what was to come: the last battle for the island and the fate of the world.
Sometime during Ben’s duplicitous young adulthood working in Dharma stations as a workman like his Father while he was also spying for The Others, the DeGroots were killed (how and why is unknown), and in honouring their wishes were laid to rest in the caves with two symbolic yin & yang stones beside each of them (hippy logic I guess). Not long after their deaths, The Swan Station encountered a problem. The Others sabotaged the station and inadvertently caused “The Incident” in a desperate bid to prevent the scientists discovery of where the electromagnetism was originating from. It is Jacob’s source of power. He feeds off the island’s energy in order to exist on this plane of reality and in our time and space. But The Incident caused him to become trapped between these planes of reality after the electromagnetism dispersed across the island. This is why he needed a prophet, in order to carry on his bidding and eventually release him from this electromagnetic p! rison he had found himself trapped within. The side effects of the release of this energy from the incident caused many to get sick and die from radiation leakage. The sickness perhaps mentioned by Rousseau.
A year or so later, after the death of his wife Annie who died during her pregnancy, the time had come for Ben to lead the new “Purge.” This time they would use man’s technology against them. Ben gave instructions to Jacob’s followers to storm The Tempest station and release the deadly gases, killing every single living person on the island who did not have a gas mask at the ready. Ben fulfilled the prophecy of killing his Father and took his place as The Others’ Prophet. Jacob had won again and Dharma on the island was no more. However, Ben’s insider knowledge alerted him to the knowledge that inevitably more scientists would come to replace the old, that more people would always come unless they prepared themselves accordingly. He began to recruit people on the outside world who could be trusted, after thoroughly researching their backgrounds. Religious people, scientific people, but above all else GOOD people. People like Tom, Mikhail, Bea Klugh, Isabell, plus! many others were brought to the island to help and dedicate their lives to preserving the island as a sanctuary and paradise. Mikhail was stationed in The Flame and tasked with feeding continual disinformation back to Dharma headquarters I.e. Hanso and Widmore. The Others continued with this façade for years, pretending that Dharma was still alive and well, and continuing the research. They would get regular food and supply drops from company choppers, they would be in regular communication with the mainland and giving detailed reports on how operations had been going. Ben was the new face that Hanso and Widmore had grown accustomed to seeing and conversing with, completely ignorant to the reality of the situation. Around a year after the purge on the island a research vessel was a few miles off its coast. The vessel carried a heavily pregnant Rousseau onboard with a curious crew investigating a mysterious broadcast signal that they mistook for a distress call. They ran a! ground due to the still present, dispersed magnetic reach and ! pull at the core of the island. As her crew fell ill to a sickness (possibly The Constant’s concept of time disorientation and delirium but most likely a case of residual radiation ever present from the incident) she ended their misery by shooting them all, even her husband. The reason she did not get sick was because she was carrying a baby inside of her and Fate’s destiny for Rousseau and her child was very different than Rousseau had planned for. Ben immediately seized the opportunity to take the child after it had been delivered. (in his mind this child was a replacement for the one he never had.) The Others left Rousseau to her own devices, even though she tried for many years to find Alex, The Others were too well hidden. Indeed until 2004 she had never even glimpsed them, merely heard the whispers. The whispers however, are either Jacob’s presence or the centurion monsters roaming the landscape projecting voices from people‘s pasts.
But everything was about to change, and not just on the island. The world was wrong. It was not the way it should have been. And it all started with the incident. After it occurred and the electromagnetic charges had dispersed, it caused such a tumultuous reaction that it affected the very fabric of time itself (hence Jacob’s invisible incarceration). Fate is an omnipotent force that could never really be explained other than the fact it needed to start course correcting the universe because the island’s effects were so huge on the world, people were alive where they shouldn’t have been and events occurred that were never supposed to have happened. So Fate began to intertwine the destinies of hundreds of people, centring it all around the trajectory of one man; Desmond Hume. It is no coincidence that he was in love with Widmore’s daughter, and that fate forced their first meeting at the monastery so Desmond could begin his new, course corrected path - to the island. ! After the Dharma purge, Radzinsky and Kelvin Inman were left in the hatch to push the button. Radzinsky eventually killed himself after the purge as he realised that they would have to push the button forever until they died, because no one was coming to relieve them now that the hostiles were in full control of the island. If fate had not course corrected Desmond’s path to the island, Kelvin would have eventually killed himself too, and the world would have been finished. Desmond is unbeknownst to his newly affirmed destiny, but his whole life has been leading to one single moment and it all happened for one single reason: so he would fail to push the button on September 22nd 2004 because fate’s course correcting needed him to unwittingly crash flight 815 on its way back from Sydney, Austrailia. Why? Because the lives of the people on that plane were the lives directly affected by the fragmenting of time after the incident.
Shannon should have been in that car crash with her Father. Eko should have been on the plane that crashed on the island, not his brother Yemi. Ana-Lucia was originally destined to die at the hands of the man she ended up executing instead. Sawyer was supposed to kill the right man, the real Sawyer years ago, before he had the chance to push his son out of a window. Locke was never supposed to be in a wheelchair. It goes for all of them. They were all effected by the incident. All of these lives needed to be changed, or as Ms. Hawking calls it “course corrected.” And it turns out Jacob’s prophecy was right about a walking miracle, they just got the wrong man. Locke is the true prophet, not Ben, and this makes Ben very nervous. Charlie’s destiny is also an interesting one. He was originally supposed to die at the hands of Ethan, hanging from that tree, yet Jack did not give up on reviving him, the memory of his Dad telling him to give up on a patient spurring him on t! o not make the same mistake again. He successfully brings Charlie back, only Charlie living again was never supposed to be. Charlie should have died in that moment because Ethan was never supposed to have been shot and killed by him later. Course correction again begins to work its magic. When Hurley traipses off to find Rousseau to investigate the numbers significance (they are simply a mathematical algorithm that symbolize the idea of fate and predestination) he walks across a bridge and even with his weight, it fails to break. But when Charlie crosses, a hell of a lot lighter than Hugo, it snaps in two. This was the first sign that he was destined to die.
Meanwhile, Ben continues to plot his plan of action. Since he has made himself the only one who may visit Jacob’s cabin (and because he is believed to be the prophet The Others do not question him) he has been twisting the words of Jacob to suit his own motives and to meet his own ends. His obsession with his Mother’s death and the similarities with Annie’s death has led him to recruit Juliet to invest more time than Jacob requested in the birth issue. Jacob does not like the rules of the island broken, children cannot be born to the island. It is the natural order of things. Which is what makes Aaron’s birth such a huge anomaly. Like Shannon, Claire should have died in that car crash that put her Mother in a coma, but because of the rip in time caused by the incident she ended up surviving, only to later on get pregnant and give birth to a baby boy on the island. This is a life where life should not be. How does fate course correct this? I believe it will be through! Jacob. If Jacob is freed from his “prison” (potentially by Locke) than I would imagine he demands that Aaron is to be sacrificed at the temple to correct this breaking of his island laws, and fate has its course correction handled. But that it still to be seen.
As for Walt’s mysterious abilities, it was merely his channelling of Jacob’s essence, still ever present on the island (such as the whispers). Jacob felt this boy’s power and demanded that Ben seize him to investigate further, setting off a chain of events that would also help course correct many mistakes. Mikhail uses The Flame station’s computer to communicate with The Swan, pretending to be Walt to desperate father Michael, so The Others can get him to come to them and help explain Walt’s history, as he is too young for them to have a file on. Michael is fooled and proceeds to fall for their trap. We all know what happens upon his return. During the 815ers first month on the island, Widmore back in London hears of Flight 815’s crash and is told it was near the co-ordinates of the island. Perhaps Ben (also not wanting the island to be discovered) informs Widmore that indeed the losties are living on the beach. Widmore immediately orders a cover-up and invests m! illions into staging fake wreckage at the bottom of the ocean so no one would ask too many questions.
Meanwhile on the outside world, Hanso had died during Ben’s rise to power. His money was donated to further the research, giving Dharma/The Others unlimited funding hence Ben‘s hefty chequebook. His belongings (such as the Black Rock log book) went on auction in later years after much legal red tape was cut through concerning the fact he had no living relatives and no last will and testament. The log was later bought by Widmore who had discovered that since the incident, the island had been rendered invisible to outside sources, which made him very nervous, but false progress reports from Mikhail and Ben’s elaborately puppeteer’d façade was convincing enough. Until Locke defied fate and Jacob’s expectations by losing his faith in pushing the button thanks to Ben/Henry Gale’s malicious sabotage of his confidence after the Lockdown in season 2. This caused Desmond to ultimately turn the fail-safe key which alerted Widmore to the island having been compromised, whi! le his daughter Penny finally discovered where Desmond may actually be after all this time (Ms. Hawking said that he is not meant to spend the rest of his life with Penny, because the fail-safe implosion was not supposed to happen). Then Locke entered 77 on the Flame’s computer alerting the Dharma remnants on the outside to the fact the hostiles have staged an incursion on the facility, thereby capturing the communications equipment. Widmore prepares a team to seek out the island and eliminate the entire populace. He hires a reconnaissance team through middle man Abaddon, and fills the rest of the ship with mercenaries. Ben, wise to this plan, sends Tom to New York to convince a suicidal Michael into helping stop this invasion. Which brings up to the present timeline.
Jacob is an entity who is so ancient it may possibly believe itself to be a real God. He has certainly been watching events unfold since the beginning in some form or another. His centurion monster has already infiltrated the losties from day one. Be sure that one of the characters will inevitably find the corpse of a decomposing dog in the jungle at some point and discover that Vincent is indeed and always has been a manifestation of the centurion smoke monster, keeping tabs on and leading the survivors down certain paths - Shannon to Boone’s grave, Hurley to the Dharma van, Charlie to the stash of heroin etc. Jacob’s power lies in the temptation and redemption of others, but his “Help me” to Locke was not simply a cry for help, but his desire to get off the island. Locke has always been easily manipulated and Jacob must know this. Think about what the consequences would be if a powerful, ancient force did cross the barrier between the island bubble and into our wor! ld? How does fate course correct the potential end of mankind?
Phew… that’s it I’m spent. Whether any of this is true I don’t know, but I hope its an enjoyable read all the same over the season 4 hiatus. Any comments, go for it, I look forward to hearing thoughts on this.
Theory by Louis Ackerman
The pieces are coming together now. This is a theory that I have been thinking about since season 3 reached "The Man behind the curtain." It encompasses a few different elements of other suggested theories, but I do not claim for a second that any of this is the definitive answer. It’s an enjoyable read, and hopefully will provoke some interesting responses. And by the luck of the Gods if I am even remotely close to the big revelations, then I believe that as long-winded as my theory looks, I reckon it could be adequately told over the next two and a half years. Remember I’ve made imaginary connections with parts of this, but its not too far fetched. Enjoy!
The battle between
Science and Faith
-
A False God and The Course Correction of Fate
-
Man against Man
-
Welcome to the Jungle
In the beginning…
The Black Rock ship was carrying metal materials back from Africa aboard with the slaves who had mined it. During a storm, something happened. The Black Rock crashed upon an undiscovered, yet ancient island, perhaps drawn to it by the magnetic forces at the centre of the island. With a hole ripped in the ship’s hull and no means to get home, the ship’s Captain (Hanso) and his crew settled on the land. Within the first few weeks it was clear that this island was no ordinary place. The slaves were sick and dying from smallpox, as were some of the crew, yet somehow here in this place, their illness’ were cured. There was a “supernatural” force of some kind that inhabited the land that was so powerful and omnipotent the settlers began to worship it, haven actually mistaken it for their God, and the island as the heavenly paradise promised to them in the Bible. Ascension grew amongst the settlers and Captain Hanso was overthrown as their “leader” and replaced by the! force soon to be named or christened as Jacob. Their God.
They began to erect a statue in its (his) name, building a temple(?) to worship in as a sign of their devout and unwavering faith. However, soon the force/Jacob began to act cruelly towards the settlers. They began to experience terrible nightmares and relive past events of their previous life’s misdeeds. This caused insanity among some and wickedness among others. Either they faced up to their past wrongs and found redemption in doing so or they would suffer the consequences of the mysterious force’s/Jacob‘s wrath. People’s true colours were revealed to one another through this “test” of their faith and commitment. The men who realised they had evil in their hearts took the dynamite from the Black Rock and blew up the statue in protest of Jacob’s actions towards them. These Faithless ones turned on the Believers and a war ensued. Jacob promised sanctuary to the Believers for their unremitting faith and belief in his power and showed them a place where nothing ! could hurt them after “The Purge.” Shortly after they retreated to safety, the volcano at the centre of the island (eventually turned into Othersville by Dharma) erupted and wiped out the non-believers as punishment in a “Noah’s Ark”-like purge of the unclean souls. The bad people amongst the settlers had been vanquished and Jacob’s followers were now the only human beings left on the island. These people would eventually be known as “The Others” and/or “The Hostiles,” perhaps promised or given the gift of eternal youth as a reward for their devotion. They were told that children could not be born there. That this place could not give new life, only heal the wounds of the life that already existed. There could be only one generation of disciples and this was the price of immortality. Jacob also prophesised to his people of a great leader to one day arrive on their shores. A man who would be a prophet and disciple of Jacob without question. Who they would! know by two distinctive signs; 1) he would be a walking mirac! le of na ture. 2) he would kill his sinning Father as a sacrifice for the island. This man was prophesised to go on to save the island from future aggressors looking to harness and exploit the island’s power for the selfish benefits of man and present Jacob’s “love” to the world. Jacob never told his followers that the island was really his “prison” and his ultimate goal was to escape.
However, a small few of the Non-Believers or the faithless ones survived the volcano‘s “Purge” and escaped the island on a raft they had constructed over time in secret led by the Black Rock’s ex-Captain, Hanso. They took the Black Rock’s log book and set sail the day of the eruption. They found land shortly after and swore never to tell of the others they left behind, nor of Jacob, or indeed of the island. But none of these men could shake this powerful feeling deep within themselves. The catch to living in and experiencing a paradise was that once you were there you could never leave. And if you did, a piece of your soul would remain locked within it, ensuring that you could never lead a happy nor fulfilling life in the outside world. For the force of Jacob’s power, will and “love” was too strong.
Fast forward hundreds of years later….
Meet Charles Widmore, the billionaire Industrialist and all around nasty piece of work. His friend, and fellow Industrialist, Alvar Hanso told him stories of his great ancestor and his tales of how they escaped the island with no name. Tales of a paradise controlled by a God-like entity named Jacob that tried to destroy them. Together, Widmore and Hanso combined forces to seek out this legend and decipher the reality from myth. They invested millions into forming a research initiative with many different goals. However, Widmore had his own motives for co-funding The Dharma Initiative and remained a silent partner giving Alvar the top billing and all the attention. Alvar’s mistake was hiring the DeGroots to headline the research. Although they were two young and brilliant minds they were also essentially a couple of idealist hippies who manipulated the project into a quest for devising world peace through science. In the late sixties, or perhaps even earlier, the island was! found again with the help of the Black Rock log handed down through Hanso family generations. This time, the people/Dharma arrived with the intention of unlocking the science behind the mysteries of this supposed paradise.
Jacob sensed the island was about to be raped by man and technology, and he could not stand the mechanics of the 16th century never mind the electronics and psychics of the 20th. The Dharma Group quickly discovered the hostile nature of the natives/Jacob’s followers on the island and proceeded to protect themselves by building a sonic barrier fence around their barracks. They spent many years fighting the hostiles for control and dominance of the island yet found no luck in winning this never ending war. The appearance of black smoke monsters were reported, and it was rumoured that they could shape shift into animals, objects, trees, even people. But not just any people, people from their past. The monster was a centurion guard of Jacob’s who guarded and protected the gates of the temple and the island itself. Whether or not the monster is apart of Jacob, or simply powerful entities he created is unclear, but they were effective in deconstructing and torturing the Dharma! folk by presenting their pasts to them, much like the Black Rock survivors experienced hundreds of years ago. It was testing them to see if they were worthy of Jacob’s “love.” He ordered that lists should be made of the worthy members of the Initiative and be taken. Then along comes little Benjamin Linus and his good-for-nothing father Roger. Recruited by the DeGroots’ close friends the Goodspeed’s, Roger went to work as a runner/janitor while Ben grew up, disconnected from and alienated by his surroundings. That is when Jacob’s centurion (the monster) appeared to him in the form of his Mother. Jacob and his followers mistook this child for their prophet. He was a miracle child that should have died with his Mother while she was in labour, yet here he was, the miracle saviour that had been waiting hundreds of years for. But there was a second prophecy for him to fulfil - to kill his Father as a test of devotion to Jacob and the island. And it would require a li! ttle encouragement and a great deal of patience on his part. H! e was ta ken to Jacob’s cabin to meet him for the first time a few days after meeting Richard Alpert in the jungle. Jacob was to make Ben their leader in later years as he foresaw what was to come: the last battle for the island and the fate of the world.
Sometime during Ben’s duplicitous young adulthood working in Dharma stations as a workman like his Father while he was also spying for The Others, the DeGroots were killed (how and why is unknown), and in honouring their wishes were laid to rest in the caves with two symbolic yin & yang stones beside each of them (hippy logic I guess). Not long after their deaths, The Swan Station encountered a problem. The Others sabotaged the station and inadvertently caused “The Incident” in a desperate bid to prevent the scientists discovery of where the electromagnetism was originating from. It is Jacob’s source of power. He feeds off the island’s energy in order to exist on this plane of reality and in our time and space. But The Incident caused him to become trapped between these planes of reality after the electromagnetism dispersed across the island. This is why he needed a prophet, in order to carry on his bidding and eventually release him from this electromagnetic p! rison he had found himself trapped within. The side effects of the release of this energy from the incident caused many to get sick and die from radiation leakage. The sickness perhaps mentioned by Rousseau.
A year or so later, after the death of his wife Annie who died during her pregnancy, the time had come for Ben to lead the new “Purge.” This time they would use man’s technology against them. Ben gave instructions to Jacob’s followers to storm The Tempest station and release the deadly gases, killing every single living person on the island who did not have a gas mask at the ready. Ben fulfilled the prophecy of killing his Father and took his place as The Others’ Prophet. Jacob had won again and Dharma on the island was no more. However, Ben’s insider knowledge alerted him to the knowledge that inevitably more scientists would come to replace the old, that more people would always come unless they prepared themselves accordingly. He began to recruit people on the outside world who could be trusted, after thoroughly researching their backgrounds. Religious people, scientific people, but above all else GOOD people. People like Tom, Mikhail, Bea Klugh, Isabell, plus! many others were brought to the island to help and dedicate their lives to preserving the island as a sanctuary and paradise. Mikhail was stationed in The Flame and tasked with feeding continual disinformation back to Dharma headquarters I.e. Hanso and Widmore. The Others continued with this façade for years, pretending that Dharma was still alive and well, and continuing the research. They would get regular food and supply drops from company choppers, they would be in regular communication with the mainland and giving detailed reports on how operations had been going. Ben was the new face that Hanso and Widmore had grown accustomed to seeing and conversing with, completely ignorant to the reality of the situation. Around a year after the purge on the island a research vessel was a few miles off its coast. The vessel carried a heavily pregnant Rousseau onboard with a curious crew investigating a mysterious broadcast signal that they mistook for a distress call. They ran a! ground due to the still present, dispersed magnetic reach and ! pull at the core of the island. As her crew fell ill to a sickness (possibly The Constant’s concept of time disorientation and delirium but most likely a case of residual radiation ever present from the incident) she ended their misery by shooting them all, even her husband. The reason she did not get sick was because she was carrying a baby inside of her and Fate’s destiny for Rousseau and her child was very different than Rousseau had planned for. Ben immediately seized the opportunity to take the child after it had been delivered. (in his mind this child was a replacement for the one he never had.) The Others left Rousseau to her own devices, even though she tried for many years to find Alex, The Others were too well hidden. Indeed until 2004 she had never even glimpsed them, merely heard the whispers. The whispers however, are either Jacob’s presence or the centurion monsters roaming the landscape projecting voices from people‘s pasts.
But everything was about to change, and not just on the island. The world was wrong. It was not the way it should have been. And it all started with the incident. After it occurred and the electromagnetic charges had dispersed, it caused such a tumultuous reaction that it affected the very fabric of time itself (hence Jacob’s invisible incarceration). Fate is an omnipotent force that could never really be explained other than the fact it needed to start course correcting the universe because the island’s effects were so huge on the world, people were alive where they shouldn’t have been and events occurred that were never supposed to have happened. So Fate began to intertwine the destinies of hundreds of people, centring it all around the trajectory of one man; Desmond Hume. It is no coincidence that he was in love with Widmore’s daughter, and that fate forced their first meeting at the monastery so Desmond could begin his new, course corrected path - to the island. ! After the Dharma purge, Radzinsky and Kelvin Inman were left in the hatch to push the button. Radzinsky eventually killed himself after the purge as he realised that they would have to push the button forever until they died, because no one was coming to relieve them now that the hostiles were in full control of the island. If fate had not course corrected Desmond’s path to the island, Kelvin would have eventually killed himself too, and the world would have been finished. Desmond is unbeknownst to his newly affirmed destiny, but his whole life has been leading to one single moment and it all happened for one single reason: so he would fail to push the button on September 22nd 2004 because fate’s course correcting needed him to unwittingly crash flight 815 on its way back from Sydney, Austrailia. Why? Because the lives of the people on that plane were the lives directly affected by the fragmenting of time after the incident.
Shannon should have been in that car crash with her Father. Eko should have been on the plane that crashed on the island, not his brother Yemi. Ana-Lucia was originally destined to die at the hands of the man she ended up executing instead. Sawyer was supposed to kill the right man, the real Sawyer years ago, before he had the chance to push his son out of a window. Locke was never supposed to be in a wheelchair. It goes for all of them. They were all effected by the incident. All of these lives needed to be changed, or as Ms. Hawking calls it “course corrected.” And it turns out Jacob’s prophecy was right about a walking miracle, they just got the wrong man. Locke is the true prophet, not Ben, and this makes Ben very nervous. Charlie’s destiny is also an interesting one. He was originally supposed to die at the hands of Ethan, hanging from that tree, yet Jack did not give up on reviving him, the memory of his Dad telling him to give up on a patient spurring him on t! o not make the same mistake again. He successfully brings Charlie back, only Charlie living again was never supposed to be. Charlie should have died in that moment because Ethan was never supposed to have been shot and killed by him later. Course correction again begins to work its magic. When Hurley traipses off to find Rousseau to investigate the numbers significance (they are simply a mathematical algorithm that symbolize the idea of fate and predestination) he walks across a bridge and even with his weight, it fails to break. But when Charlie crosses, a hell of a lot lighter than Hugo, it snaps in two. This was the first sign that he was destined to die.
Meanwhile, Ben continues to plot his plan of action. Since he has made himself the only one who may visit Jacob’s cabin (and because he is believed to be the prophet The Others do not question him) he has been twisting the words of Jacob to suit his own motives and to meet his own ends. His obsession with his Mother’s death and the similarities with Annie’s death has led him to recruit Juliet to invest more time than Jacob requested in the birth issue. Jacob does not like the rules of the island broken, children cannot be born to the island. It is the natural order of things. Which is what makes Aaron’s birth such a huge anomaly. Like Shannon, Claire should have died in that car crash that put her Mother in a coma, but because of the rip in time caused by the incident she ended up surviving, only to later on get pregnant and give birth to a baby boy on the island. This is a life where life should not be. How does fate course correct this? I believe it will be through! Jacob. If Jacob is freed from his “prison” (potentially by Locke) than I would imagine he demands that Aaron is to be sacrificed at the temple to correct this breaking of his island laws, and fate has its course correction handled. But that it still to be seen.
As for Walt’s mysterious abilities, it was merely his channelling of Jacob’s essence, still ever present on the island (such as the whispers). Jacob felt this boy’s power and demanded that Ben seize him to investigate further, setting off a chain of events that would also help course correct many mistakes. Mikhail uses The Flame station’s computer to communicate with The Swan, pretending to be Walt to desperate father Michael, so The Others can get him to come to them and help explain Walt’s history, as he is too young for them to have a file on. Michael is fooled and proceeds to fall for their trap. We all know what happens upon his return. During the 815ers first month on the island, Widmore back in London hears of Flight 815’s crash and is told it was near the co-ordinates of the island. Perhaps Ben (also not wanting the island to be discovered) informs Widmore that indeed the losties are living on the beach. Widmore immediately orders a cover-up and invests m! illions into staging fake wreckage at the bottom of the ocean so no one would ask too many questions.
Meanwhile on the outside world, Hanso had died during Ben’s rise to power. His money was donated to further the research, giving Dharma/The Others unlimited funding hence Ben‘s hefty chequebook. His belongings (such as the Black Rock log book) went on auction in later years after much legal red tape was cut through concerning the fact he had no living relatives and no last will and testament. The log was later bought by Widmore who had discovered that since the incident, the island had been rendered invisible to outside sources, which made him very nervous, but false progress reports from Mikhail and Ben’s elaborately puppeteer’d façade was convincing enough. Until Locke defied fate and Jacob’s expectations by losing his faith in pushing the button thanks to Ben/Henry Gale’s malicious sabotage of his confidence after the Lockdown in season 2. This caused Desmond to ultimately turn the fail-safe key which alerted Widmore to the island having been compromised, whi! le his daughter Penny finally discovered where Desmond may actually be after all this time (Ms. Hawking said that he is not meant to spend the rest of his life with Penny, because the fail-safe implosion was not supposed to happen). Then Locke entered 77 on the Flame’s computer alerting the Dharma remnants on the outside to the fact the hostiles have staged an incursion on the facility, thereby capturing the communications equipment. Widmore prepares a team to seek out the island and eliminate the entire populace. He hires a reconnaissance team through middle man Abaddon, and fills the rest of the ship with mercenaries. Ben, wise to this plan, sends Tom to New York to convince a suicidal Michael into helping stop this invasion. Which brings up to the present timeline.
Jacob is an entity who is so ancient it may possibly believe itself to be a real God. He has certainly been watching events unfold since the beginning in some form or another. His centurion monster has already infiltrated the losties from day one. Be sure that one of the characters will inevitably find the corpse of a decomposing dog in the jungle at some point and discover that Vincent is indeed and always has been a manifestation of the centurion smoke monster, keeping tabs on and leading the survivors down certain paths - Shannon to Boone’s grave, Hurley to the Dharma van, Charlie to the stash of heroin etc. Jacob’s power lies in the temptation and redemption of others, but his “Help me” to Locke was not simply a cry for help, but his desire to get off the island. Locke has always been easily manipulated and Jacob must know this. Think about what the consequences would be if a powerful, ancient force did cross the barrier between the island bubble and into our wor! ld? How does fate course correct the potential end of mankind?
Phew… that’s it I’m spent. Whether any of this is true I don’t know, but I hope its an enjoyable read all the same over the season 4 hiatus. Any comments, go for it, I look forward to hearing thoughts on this.
Theory by Louis Ackerman
