I know this is an insane theory, so bear with me. I don't think that everything is right because it has some logic holes, but I do think it's an interesting idea and that pieces of it are spot on.
Last night's episode really intrigued me and I think that it may have begun to tie together theories about time travel that Lost has introduced over the past two seasons.
First, the show has introduced us to two different types of time travel. The first is "mind" time travel, like we saw in the constant. Desmond didn't physically travel to his past, only his consciousness did. His travel was kind of like being "unstuck in time", like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five (my favorite book by the way).
Other examples of "mind" time travel are the rat in Faraday's experiment and Theresa's "coma" - Desmond learned that Faraday performed experiments on her and since then she's been in a time-traveling coma. In other words, her mind is bouncing around her life and she rarely gains consciousness... and when she does she doesn't know where or, more importantly, when she is.
The second form of time travel is physical, like we've seen this season with the losties physically being transported back to 1977.
So, we know it is possible for the mind to travel separately in time from the body.
Now to the meat of my theory. It's been proven again and again that - during physical time travel at least - the past cannot be changed. Sayid shooting young Ben ensured the future. Faraday trying to change the future ended up getting himself killed, just like Eloise knew it would happen.
However, the one thing that is outside the rules of WHH is mind time traveling - specifically Desmond. When Faraday communicated with Desmond, Desmond was able to receive a new memory and effectively change the future. What if Desmond was able to mind time travel backwards and change the past?
Here's where my theory goes crazy. This is what I think is going to happen during the incident. Desmond communicates with the losties by somehow mind-traveling back to a past version of himself when he was on the island post-hatch failsafe and tells Jack how to change their future in 1977. What logic problem wit this is finding a reason why Desmond would change want to change the past. If Penny got killed by Ben, that would be a given. Now that both he and Penny seem to be OK, there's a problem with his motivation.
Jack - with his newly acquired knowledge - denonates the hydrogen bomb, effectively wiping out all events that cause the Losties to crash on the island.
The game-changer for the end of Season 5 is that every losty physically disappears once the bomb goes off. Quick cut to Jack gasping and opening his eyes. He's sleeping in an airplane terminal, waiting to board Oceanic 815. What happened is that every lostie mind time traveled to the physical versions of themselves right before they boarded Oceanic flight 815. They all retain the memories that they have accumulated over the past 5 seasons. Then, they all look at each other with recognition of what just happened - whoosh - end of season 5.
Season 6 will start off the island once again and it will be about the war to control the current version of the island (which had a nuclear bomb detonated on it 30 years earlier)
Here's the last chunk of my theory. The other losties - Locke and Sun - and Ben DID PHYSICALLY TIME TRAVEL on Aijra flight 310. They time traveled to the 2004 "altered" version of the island, post-bomb detonation. On this version of the island, flight 815 never crashed.
Here's the biggest hole in my theory (there are others, I know) - shouldn't Sun and Locke be in the 815 terminal as well? I think they wouldn't because they are somehow outside of the reset timeline because they are now on the island. That is why Locke was reanimated when he returned to the island - he is existing in a place outside the reset timeline so technically he never went to the island, never left it to try and bring back the lefties, and therefore he never died. I can't explain Sun and Ben though.
I know there have been theories where the end of the series involves everything being reset. Wouldn't it be interesting if everything was reset at the end of this season (because of the variable human element) and the final season is about how the characters have a second chance and reliving the next five years differently?
Last night's episode really intrigued me and I think that it may have begun to tie together theories about time travel that Lost has introduced over the past two seasons.
First, the show has introduced us to two different types of time travel. The first is "mind" time travel, like we saw in the constant. Desmond didn't physically travel to his past, only his consciousness did. His travel was kind of like being "unstuck in time", like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five (my favorite book by the way).
Other examples of "mind" time travel are the rat in Faraday's experiment and Theresa's "coma" - Desmond learned that Faraday performed experiments on her and since then she's been in a time-traveling coma. In other words, her mind is bouncing around her life and she rarely gains consciousness... and when she does she doesn't know where or, more importantly, when she is.
The second form of time travel is physical, like we've seen this season with the losties physically being transported back to 1977.
So, we know it is possible for the mind to travel separately in time from the body.
Now to the meat of my theory. It's been proven again and again that - during physical time travel at least - the past cannot be changed. Sayid shooting young Ben ensured the future. Faraday trying to change the future ended up getting himself killed, just like Eloise knew it would happen.
However, the one thing that is outside the rules of WHH is mind time traveling - specifically Desmond. When Faraday communicated with Desmond, Desmond was able to receive a new memory and effectively change the future. What if Desmond was able to mind time travel backwards and change the past?
Here's where my theory goes crazy. This is what I think is going to happen during the incident. Desmond communicates with the losties by somehow mind-traveling back to a past version of himself when he was on the island post-hatch failsafe and tells Jack how to change their future in 1977. What logic problem wit this is finding a reason why Desmond would change want to change the past. If Penny got killed by Ben, that would be a given. Now that both he and Penny seem to be OK, there's a problem with his motivation.
Jack - with his newly acquired knowledge - denonates the hydrogen bomb, effectively wiping out all events that cause the Losties to crash on the island.
The game-changer for the end of Season 5 is that every losty physically disappears once the bomb goes off. Quick cut to Jack gasping and opening his eyes. He's sleeping in an airplane terminal, waiting to board Oceanic 815. What happened is that every lostie mind time traveled to the physical versions of themselves right before they boarded Oceanic flight 815. They all retain the memories that they have accumulated over the past 5 seasons. Then, they all look at each other with recognition of what just happened - whoosh - end of season 5.
Season 6 will start off the island once again and it will be about the war to control the current version of the island (which had a nuclear bomb detonated on it 30 years earlier)
Here's the last chunk of my theory. The other losties - Locke and Sun - and Ben DID PHYSICALLY TIME TRAVEL on Aijra flight 310. They time traveled to the 2004 "altered" version of the island, post-bomb detonation. On this version of the island, flight 815 never crashed.
Here's the biggest hole in my theory (there are others, I know) - shouldn't Sun and Locke be in the 815 terminal as well? I think they wouldn't because they are somehow outside of the reset timeline because they are now on the island. That is why Locke was reanimated when he returned to the island - he is existing in a place outside the reset timeline so technically he never went to the island, never left it to try and bring back the lefties, and therefore he never died. I can't explain Sun and Ben though.
I know there have been theories where the end of the series involves everything being reset. Wouldn't it be interesting if everything was reset at the end of this season (because of the variable human element) and the final season is about how the characters have a second chance and reliving the next five years differently?
