Theory “Feels like a hundred years ago that we came out here together.”
----Jack Shephard, Season 4, Episode 1.
This quote, I believe, is the key to one of the primary mysteries of the addiction known as “Lost.” And before you try to dispute that you’re addicted, I’d like to point out that you took the time to find this website and navigate to the Theories page. So there.
As we await the Season 4 finale in less than two days, one thing is mutually agreed upon: the island, and/or its inhabitants somehow travel through time and the island can be “moved.” The most obvious questions are whether the island moves in time AND space or just time or just space?
“'Cause we're dead... all of us. All the Oceanic Six--we're all dead. We never got off that island.”
----Hurley, Season 4, Episode 10
The Oceanic Six did get off the island, sort of. They physically made it off, by following the appropriate heading provided by Faraday. So did Lapidus, Miles, Charlotte and Faraday (more on them below). The heading provided by Faraday is somehow the entrance to and from the island, at least before it’s moved again. What we don’t realize, however, is that the island currently is 100 years in the future [another thing the fans mutually agree upon: the writers don’t write ANYTHING (like Jack’s line quoted at the beginning of this theory), without some sort of hidden meaning].
Hugo has been 100 years into the future, and believes they never left the island, so back in 2004 or 2005 when his flash-forwards occur, they are already dead (because 100 years in the future, their 2004/2005 selves would be dead). For me, that’s a tough concept to get down on paper (and I’m not sure I’ve done a very good job of it), so imagine how tough it is for someone to whom it is happening. Hugo has been to 2100, so when he gets back as a member of the O6, he already knows he’s dead because he’s left that present for the future. Whoa, that is heavy! (Shout out to Dr. Emmitt Brown and Marty McFly.)
Oceanic Flight 815 had to pass through the same heading to end up on the island (it looked like it crashed, but I’m not convinced that it wasn’t placed on the island to look like a crash). How did this happen? How did all of these inter-connected people end up on the island? It’s unrealistic to think that everyone on board Flight 815 was destined to go to the island. That’s why we are only privy to some flashbacks and not others. But if you look at the Losties “family tree” several (but certainly not all) of the key Losties (this excludes Desmond) are clearly connected to either Jack/Christian or Locke. Jack’s connections include Claire, Aaron, Ana Lucia (traveled with Christian to Sydney), Kate (in the future, she’s connected to Jack and Christian’s grandson Aaron – as I discuss below, time is not linear, so Kate is connected, but in the future), Sun and Jin (her father is connected to Widmore who is connected to the Hanso Foundation, where I suspe! ct Christian also worked). Locke’s connections include Sawyer (via Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper), Sayid (his love Nadia had a home inspection performed by Locke), Hurley (owned the box company that employed Locke), and Charlie (who saved Nadia from getting mugged in London). This is definitely not foolproof or all encompassing since there are some seemingly unconnected characters (Michael and Walt, for example).
But back to the essential question: how did this happen? My theory: Widmore had someone (flight attendant Cindy?) veer the plane off-course, so that the plane would eventually end up on the right heading to make it to the island. Far-fetched, right? Well it’s not any more outrageous than a polar bear on a tropical island or a smoke monster that eats people when it’s summoned by a guy (Ben) who goes into a secret room inside another secret room to summon it!
“You’re not supposed to do this.”
----Locke (to Jack in reference to calling the freighter), Season 3 Finale
“You don't want to be a hero, you don't try and save everyone because when you fail. . . you just don't have what it takes...”
----Christian Shephard, to young Jack Shephard
I believe (and this has already been theorized in a theory I read somewhere so I don’t profess to take credit for it) that the Losties are ensnared in some sort of time loop. As a result, they have crashed on the island many, many times. But this time, Jack fights his destiny and tries to be the hero; he tries to save everyone. And we’ve seen that Christian is right – Jack can’t cope with failure. Why is Christian right? Because he’s already seen Jack fail on the island – over and over again.
How does Locke know Jack is not supposed to call the freighter folk? Because he, too, has lived through this before, as evidenced by Richard’s question to 5-year old Locke: “Which of these items belonged to you?” Time is clearly not linear as we believe it to be. Richard is clearly bouncing around in time with the help of the island.
“You remember birthdays, don’t you Richard?”
----Ben Linus to Richard Alpert
Richard clearly does not age. Is it possible that people do not age on the island? Not exactly. Ben obviously grew up from being a boy. Do people age until they reach age 18 and then stop? Is this why the Others want the children and babies? Is there hope for perpetuating the society through new people on the island or do the Others hope that this time around it will be different? Another mystery to which we await an answer.
“Because I was supposed to be flying Oceanic 815 that day.”
----Frank Lapidus, upon calling Oceanic Airlines to indicate the crash wreckage found was not real.
Frank thinks he was supposed to fly the plane; Daniel sobs when he sees news coverage of the wreckage onscreen; Charlotte finds remains of a polar bear in Tunisia with a Dharma collar and Miles, well, Miles is an enigma. I think we saw flash forwards for all four of them; not flashbacks as it seemed. Work with me on this – first and foremost, EVERY episode in Season 4 has been a flash forward, i.e., post-island.
Second, the reaction of Faraday and the revelation (through the pop-up repeat episode) that the unseen woman in that scene was a caregiver indicates that Daniel wasn’t stable. But he was stable (weird for sure, but stable) in “The Constant” which leads me to believe this scene occurred after he visited the island, but occurs in the time chronology before he visited the island. To further explain, for example, Daniel visits the island in 2004, after the wreckage of 815 has been found (proven by Naomi’s “you’re all dead” statement to the Losties that find her). So when we see Daniel as a total mess, that happens after he returned from the island (future) to the date the wreckage was found (the new present). Is it because he has no constant? Now that he knows Desmond exists in the future, the next time loop around, will he be a mess, or will he be okay because he’s found his constant? It’s still a flash-forward because it happens after Daniel’s visit t! o the island.
Third, Charlotte could not have known about the Dharma Initiative before agreeing to join the freighter folk, but for some reason, she goes to Tunisia to find the polar bear at the dig site. She also believes that they haven’t found the real wreckage of Flight 815.
So what do I think? I think that what we’re seeing is each of these people somehow affected by the crash because in the future, they visit the island and know its secrets. So their present (2004) selves know something about the island, but they don’t know what they know or how they know it. This is consistent with Richard’s “what belonged to you” question posed to John Locke. They may also have been brainwashed when sent back in time.
“Dark City”
Dark City was a movie about a city where people’s lives were changed overnight – a banker one day became a homeless man or a plumber or a killer the next day and so on. The “city” was manipulated daily by aliens seeking to understand human behavior through their reactions to different situations. Ultimately, someone discovers that all of the humans are being manipulated and that ultimately, the city they are in is actually a ship traveling through space. Could it be that “Lost” is somehow modeled after “Dark City?” The difference between “Dark City” and “Lost” is that “Lost” has an element of time in addition to space. It’s a little Matrix-esque, but “Dark City” predates “Lost.” Check it out.
Conclusion
This is far from a unifying theory (of which the producers said there is none). What this theory does is try to explain some of the total mind F**K that is “Lost.” This theory leaves a lot of unexplained phenomena (polar bear on the island, Jack’s dead dad and Locke’s ability to walk just to name a few), but that’s because in devising this theory, I’ve attempted only to solve a small piece of what is clearly a very expansive puzzle.
Theory by Fuhrmanator
----Jack Shephard, Season 4, Episode 1.
This quote, I believe, is the key to one of the primary mysteries of the addiction known as “Lost.” And before you try to dispute that you’re addicted, I’d like to point out that you took the time to find this website and navigate to the Theories page. So there.
As we await the Season 4 finale in less than two days, one thing is mutually agreed upon: the island, and/or its inhabitants somehow travel through time and the island can be “moved.” The most obvious questions are whether the island moves in time AND space or just time or just space?
“'Cause we're dead... all of us. All the Oceanic Six--we're all dead. We never got off that island.”
----Hurley, Season 4, Episode 10
The Oceanic Six did get off the island, sort of. They physically made it off, by following the appropriate heading provided by Faraday. So did Lapidus, Miles, Charlotte and Faraday (more on them below). The heading provided by Faraday is somehow the entrance to and from the island, at least before it’s moved again. What we don’t realize, however, is that the island currently is 100 years in the future [another thing the fans mutually agree upon: the writers don’t write ANYTHING (like Jack’s line quoted at the beginning of this theory), without some sort of hidden meaning].
Hugo has been 100 years into the future, and believes they never left the island, so back in 2004 or 2005 when his flash-forwards occur, they are already dead (because 100 years in the future, their 2004/2005 selves would be dead). For me, that’s a tough concept to get down on paper (and I’m not sure I’ve done a very good job of it), so imagine how tough it is for someone to whom it is happening. Hugo has been to 2100, so when he gets back as a member of the O6, he already knows he’s dead because he’s left that present for the future. Whoa, that is heavy! (Shout out to Dr. Emmitt Brown and Marty McFly.)
Oceanic Flight 815 had to pass through the same heading to end up on the island (it looked like it crashed, but I’m not convinced that it wasn’t placed on the island to look like a crash). How did this happen? How did all of these inter-connected people end up on the island? It’s unrealistic to think that everyone on board Flight 815 was destined to go to the island. That’s why we are only privy to some flashbacks and not others. But if you look at the Losties “family tree” several (but certainly not all) of the key Losties (this excludes Desmond) are clearly connected to either Jack/Christian or Locke. Jack’s connections include Claire, Aaron, Ana Lucia (traveled with Christian to Sydney), Kate (in the future, she’s connected to Jack and Christian’s grandson Aaron – as I discuss below, time is not linear, so Kate is connected, but in the future), Sun and Jin (her father is connected to Widmore who is connected to the Hanso Foundation, where I suspe! ct Christian also worked). Locke’s connections include Sawyer (via Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper), Sayid (his love Nadia had a home inspection performed by Locke), Hurley (owned the box company that employed Locke), and Charlie (who saved Nadia from getting mugged in London). This is definitely not foolproof or all encompassing since there are some seemingly unconnected characters (Michael and Walt, for example).
But back to the essential question: how did this happen? My theory: Widmore had someone (flight attendant Cindy?) veer the plane off-course, so that the plane would eventually end up on the right heading to make it to the island. Far-fetched, right? Well it’s not any more outrageous than a polar bear on a tropical island or a smoke monster that eats people when it’s summoned by a guy (Ben) who goes into a secret room inside another secret room to summon it!
“You’re not supposed to do this.”
----Locke (to Jack in reference to calling the freighter), Season 3 Finale
“You don't want to be a hero, you don't try and save everyone because when you fail. . . you just don't have what it takes...”
----Christian Shephard, to young Jack Shephard
I believe (and this has already been theorized in a theory I read somewhere so I don’t profess to take credit for it) that the Losties are ensnared in some sort of time loop. As a result, they have crashed on the island many, many times. But this time, Jack fights his destiny and tries to be the hero; he tries to save everyone. And we’ve seen that Christian is right – Jack can’t cope with failure. Why is Christian right? Because he’s already seen Jack fail on the island – over and over again.
How does Locke know Jack is not supposed to call the freighter folk? Because he, too, has lived through this before, as evidenced by Richard’s question to 5-year old Locke: “Which of these items belonged to you?” Time is clearly not linear as we believe it to be. Richard is clearly bouncing around in time with the help of the island.
“You remember birthdays, don’t you Richard?”
----Ben Linus to Richard Alpert
Richard clearly does not age. Is it possible that people do not age on the island? Not exactly. Ben obviously grew up from being a boy. Do people age until they reach age 18 and then stop? Is this why the Others want the children and babies? Is there hope for perpetuating the society through new people on the island or do the Others hope that this time around it will be different? Another mystery to which we await an answer.
“Because I was supposed to be flying Oceanic 815 that day.”
----Frank Lapidus, upon calling Oceanic Airlines to indicate the crash wreckage found was not real.
Frank thinks he was supposed to fly the plane; Daniel sobs when he sees news coverage of the wreckage onscreen; Charlotte finds remains of a polar bear in Tunisia with a Dharma collar and Miles, well, Miles is an enigma. I think we saw flash forwards for all four of them; not flashbacks as it seemed. Work with me on this – first and foremost, EVERY episode in Season 4 has been a flash forward, i.e., post-island.
Second, the reaction of Faraday and the revelation (through the pop-up repeat episode) that the unseen woman in that scene was a caregiver indicates that Daniel wasn’t stable. But he was stable (weird for sure, but stable) in “The Constant” which leads me to believe this scene occurred after he visited the island, but occurs in the time chronology before he visited the island. To further explain, for example, Daniel visits the island in 2004, after the wreckage of 815 has been found (proven by Naomi’s “you’re all dead” statement to the Losties that find her). So when we see Daniel as a total mess, that happens after he returned from the island (future) to the date the wreckage was found (the new present). Is it because he has no constant? Now that he knows Desmond exists in the future, the next time loop around, will he be a mess, or will he be okay because he’s found his constant? It’s still a flash-forward because it happens after Daniel’s visit t! o the island.
Third, Charlotte could not have known about the Dharma Initiative before agreeing to join the freighter folk, but for some reason, she goes to Tunisia to find the polar bear at the dig site. She also believes that they haven’t found the real wreckage of Flight 815.
So what do I think? I think that what we’re seeing is each of these people somehow affected by the crash because in the future, they visit the island and know its secrets. So their present (2004) selves know something about the island, but they don’t know what they know or how they know it. This is consistent with Richard’s “what belonged to you” question posed to John Locke. They may also have been brainwashed when sent back in time.
“Dark City”
Dark City was a movie about a city where people’s lives were changed overnight – a banker one day became a homeless man or a plumber or a killer the next day and so on. The “city” was manipulated daily by aliens seeking to understand human behavior through their reactions to different situations. Ultimately, someone discovers that all of the humans are being manipulated and that ultimately, the city they are in is actually a ship traveling through space. Could it be that “Lost” is somehow modeled after “Dark City?” The difference between “Dark City” and “Lost” is that “Lost” has an element of time in addition to space. It’s a little Matrix-esque, but “Dark City” predates “Lost.” Check it out.
Conclusion
This is far from a unifying theory (of which the producers said there is none). What this theory does is try to explain some of the total mind F**K that is “Lost.” This theory leaves a lot of unexplained phenomena (polar bear on the island, Jack’s dead dad and Locke’s ability to walk just to name a few), but that’s because in devising this theory, I’ve attempted only to solve a small piece of what is clearly a very expansive puzzle.
Theory by Fuhrmanator
