I don't think Kate and Hurley should end up together (as much as I like Hurley). Therefore, I do not want there to be multiple timelines (and I do not think there are).
Q: "WAIT! What is this craziness of which you speak?!? Who is saying Kate and Hurley will end up together?"
A: Everyone who wants there to be (or thinks there are) multiple timelines is forwarding a mechanism by which such a relationship will be one (of many... actually, infinite) outcomes. Anything can happen; everything WILL happen--at least in some of the timelines.
The debate over "whatever happened, happened" continues, and it's lively, but it needs to contain some understanding of the difference between the PAST and the PRESENT. It may all seem like the past to us, since the "present" is 2007, and since it's a TV show. So, as I theorized late last night, Sayid always shot little Ben:
1. Adult Ben spent the whole episode making SURE that Sayid would be CAPABLE of shooting boy Ben.
2. Adult Ben spent the whole episode making SURE that Sayid would WANT to shoot boy Ben.
Big Ben knew that little Ben had to be shot. [Even if he was 99.99% sure that it would have to happen anyway, he couldn't take that 0.01% chance risk that he was wrong about it.]
Now: perhaps Desmond did change the past by saving Charlie which led to the 06 escaping. Desmond is special. Then it's a race to bring events back to their original course from the alternative course.
That's Desmond. The problem with the past being changeable by ANYONE who time travels (so far, "special" Desmond hasn't time traveled physically, only mentally) is that EVERYTHING they do will change the past (yeah, butterfly effect), which therefore creates INFINITE, MULTIPLE timelines; an infinite number of stories and results could, and would, occur. (Unless the producers are really lost themselves, which I do not think they are.) Then which one of the infinite stories are we really watching?
If Sayid actually could CHANGE anything by shooting young Ben, then every single thing Jack does could change the past, every single thing Kate does, too, and for everyone else... leading up to the crash of 815 (maybe/maybe now, now...paradox) and then the flashing around in time by Locke, Sawyer, etc., to get everyone right back to (say) 1977. Where the 06 return and things happen again in a different way, again, again, again. This loop would be repeated endlessly but in a different way every time.
Who would want to watch a show where everything is arbitrary, and where anything can happen? Every time they flash back in time, they could make a different decision, and an infinite number of situations at any given point (say, 1977) would all be exactly as likely.
Let me TRY to explain:
1. Whatever DID happen (past tense) has happened. Cannot be changed. PERHAPS details can be changed. But the overall ESSENTIAL things cannot be changed. If little Ben was shot, then he can't have not been shot. MAYBE the sandwich could have been made with mustard instead of without. Little things. But that's aside from the point.
2. Whatever DOES happen, cannot be changed either... it hasn't happened. It WILL be DECIDED by people's actions. This is why there is a delineation point for when "now" is. We're pretty sure we know when "now" is... some times 2007. From this point on, people's decisions can create different outcomes (than if they hadn't made those decisions).
3. The fundamental problem with changing the past is that it creates multiple timelines. The fundamental problem with multiple timelines is that this creates infinite timelines. The LOSTies flash through time an infinite number of times. Storytelling, the narrative, disappears. There ends up being infinite possible outcomes, which means EVERY possible outcome. In one, Kate is with Sawyer. In another, Kate is with Jack. In another, Kate is dead. In another, Juliet is with Jack. In another, Juliet is with Miles. Anything that COULD happen WILL happen in its own independent timeline.
Juliet with Miles? Kate with Hurley? Oldham with Sayid? Dog and cats living together in sin? Those all would HAVE to happen, in at least one timeline, IF there are multiple timelines. Because everything that COULD happen, even if there's a 0.000000000001% chance of it happening, WOULD happen, in at least one timeline.
If the past CAN be changed, it's not something that most people (including Sayid) could do, and it's not something that could happen without a number of other things aligning themselves (perhaps like when Desmond turned the key).
So, therefore, for somewhere between 99% and 100% of the characters, and somewhere between 99% and 100% of the events in the actual (pre-2007) past, whatever happened did happen, and will happen again. Desmond is the ONE potential variable to all of this that we've seen so far.Theory by Kirbyjon
Q: "WAIT! What is this craziness of which you speak?!? Who is saying Kate and Hurley will end up together?"
A: Everyone who wants there to be (or thinks there are) multiple timelines is forwarding a mechanism by which such a relationship will be one (of many... actually, infinite) outcomes. Anything can happen; everything WILL happen--at least in some of the timelines.
The debate over "whatever happened, happened" continues, and it's lively, but it needs to contain some understanding of the difference between the PAST and the PRESENT. It may all seem like the past to us, since the "present" is 2007, and since it's a TV show. So, as I theorized late last night, Sayid always shot little Ben:
1. Adult Ben spent the whole episode making SURE that Sayid would be CAPABLE of shooting boy Ben.
2. Adult Ben spent the whole episode making SURE that Sayid would WANT to shoot boy Ben.
Big Ben knew that little Ben had to be shot. [Even if he was 99.99% sure that it would have to happen anyway, he couldn't take that 0.01% chance risk that he was wrong about it.]
Now: perhaps Desmond did change the past by saving Charlie which led to the 06 escaping. Desmond is special. Then it's a race to bring events back to their original course from the alternative course.
That's Desmond. The problem with the past being changeable by ANYONE who time travels (so far, "special" Desmond hasn't time traveled physically, only mentally) is that EVERYTHING they do will change the past (yeah, butterfly effect), which therefore creates INFINITE, MULTIPLE timelines; an infinite number of stories and results could, and would, occur. (Unless the producers are really lost themselves, which I do not think they are.) Then which one of the infinite stories are we really watching?
If Sayid actually could CHANGE anything by shooting young Ben, then every single thing Jack does could change the past, every single thing Kate does, too, and for everyone else... leading up to the crash of 815 (maybe/maybe now, now...paradox) and then the flashing around in time by Locke, Sawyer, etc., to get everyone right back to (say) 1977. Where the 06 return and things happen again in a different way, again, again, again. This loop would be repeated endlessly but in a different way every time.
Who would want to watch a show where everything is arbitrary, and where anything can happen? Every time they flash back in time, they could make a different decision, and an infinite number of situations at any given point (say, 1977) would all be exactly as likely.
Let me TRY to explain:
1. Whatever DID happen (past tense) has happened. Cannot be changed. PERHAPS details can be changed. But the overall ESSENTIAL things cannot be changed. If little Ben was shot, then he can't have not been shot. MAYBE the sandwich could have been made with mustard instead of without. Little things. But that's aside from the point.
2. Whatever DOES happen, cannot be changed either... it hasn't happened. It WILL be DECIDED by people's actions. This is why there is a delineation point for when "now" is. We're pretty sure we know when "now" is... some times 2007. From this point on, people's decisions can create different outcomes (than if they hadn't made those decisions).
3. The fundamental problem with changing the past is that it creates multiple timelines. The fundamental problem with multiple timelines is that this creates infinite timelines. The LOSTies flash through time an infinite number of times. Storytelling, the narrative, disappears. There ends up being infinite possible outcomes, which means EVERY possible outcome. In one, Kate is with Sawyer. In another, Kate is with Jack. In another, Kate is dead. In another, Juliet is with Jack. In another, Juliet is with Miles. Anything that COULD happen WILL happen in its own independent timeline.
Juliet with Miles? Kate with Hurley? Oldham with Sayid? Dog and cats living together in sin? Those all would HAVE to happen, in at least one timeline, IF there are multiple timelines. Because everything that COULD happen, even if there's a 0.000000000001% chance of it happening, WOULD happen, in at least one timeline.
If the past CAN be changed, it's not something that most people (including Sayid) could do, and it's not something that could happen without a number of other things aligning themselves (perhaps like when Desmond turned the key).
So, therefore, for somewhere between 99% and 100% of the characters, and somewhere between 99% and 100% of the events in the actual (pre-2007) past, whatever happened did happen, and will happen again. Desmond is the ONE potential variable to all of this that we've seen so far.Theory by Kirbyjon
