This began as a comment to the previous theory 'Ben's Pending Fate', but it became long enough that posting it as a comment was impossible.
Basically, here is my response to anyone who thinks, with one season remaining, in a show that has exposed itself as philosophical disagreement with two seemingly immortal, and opposed beings engaged in a protracted battle of wills that flight 815 will land, with little fanfare in LAX.
I'm not sure you understand how time-travel works.
Let's hypothetically say that Faraday's plan* was enacted, the Incident that caused the Swan station to be built, then have its button failed to be pushed by Desmond never dislodged 815's flight, then nothing in the entire series would have ever happened. Jack would bury his father, Kate would be off to jail, Sawyer would go on being a dejected con-man, Hurley would probably recommit himself, Sayid would meet up with Nadia and be happy, Sun and Jin would deliver the watch, see Sunset strip, and return to their miserable lives alongside the rest of the 815 crew.
On Island -- who knows? Ellie would never kill her time travelling son, so Daniel would grow up as a Hostile and maybe grow up to be the future leader to be. Ben would never get shot by Sayid, and then never be taken by Kate and Sawyer at Juliet's behest by Richard; though it doesn't rule out that Richard would stay true to his previous word that Ben could join the Others in due time. Whether or not Amy would successfully give birth to Ethan is moot as she would have been captured by the Hostiles before we could even wonder if Juliet's mad skills could be put to use. The outcome of Dharma's presence on the Island is up for debate. I've long argued that the Purge was a necessary, albeit tragic response to the fact that Dharma created The Tempest station [What would a seemingly benevolent utopian society need with a poison gas delivery system?] on par with Richard reluctantly "following orders" and killing off the US military presence that sought to detonate Jughead.
All this is unnecessary speculation on a hypothetical alternate history of the series, because everyone FAILS TO CONSIDER THE OPTION that if the Losties had never flashed, in two separate waves to 77 then Radzinsky's vainglorious dreams of 'utilizing electromagnetism is ways the world hasn't seen' would have resulted in what happened in the episode The Incident, just without the inclusion of any of the Losties.
All's well in Dharmaville, Dr. Chang is making more instruction videos, Horace would be a bachelor, and Phil would be head of Security, then BLAMMO! Radzinsky's mad science would tap into the electromagnetic pocket, everything would get sucked into the hole and quite possibly destroy the world. Maybe the latter part is wild speculation, but if we are to believe that if the 'world is saved' by the button being pushed carries any gravitas, then the incident would have been ruinous without the Losties presence. Maybe the bright minds at the Dharma initiative could have solved the problem on their own if they weren't in the midst of a perceived insurrection, sure. But considering it took Faraday, a man defined as a unique genius three years to come up with a solution, who himself had knowledge of the future [not to mention the constant urgings of Ms. Hawking to see that he realise his potential] it seems unlikely.
*Maybe Faraday was right, maybe there was a way to change the causality loop and prevent the events of the incident from ever happening. Alerting the de Groots of the dangers of Radzinsky's monomaniacal experiments would have probably been the easiest. But I would like to remind everyone that Faraday's plan was only enacted IN THEORY. If Faraday had the social skills to convince Richard to meet his mum to get her to go through with it all, gotten the core of Jughead, and convinced Chang on good faith to let him 'prevent' the incident [again, why didn't he just play the future card and get Chang or Horace to shut the experiment down?] then his hypothesis may have wrung true. Instead, he gets shot, Sayid arrives deus ex Machina** and after being shot in the stomach informs Jack that 'he can rig it so that it explodes on impact'. Call me cynical, but despite Sayid's numerous skills, and corroborated by the events that transpired, it would seem that a man who is bleeding to deat! h, working from the scribbled instructions of an eccentric didn't rig it too well -- evinced by Juliet having literally beat it with a rock to get it to go off.
**Is this a continuity error, or is Sayid somehow everywhere? He reappears after the events in He's Our You, presumably living off everyone's radar with the knowledge that 'Faraday's instructions were very clear'. How he knew this is beyond me, but if Sayid somehow was visited by Faraday, or eaves dropped something to the extent enough to prove how Faraday's plan had a limited window of opportunity, its clear that the Losties were a fraction of time outside of that window when Jughead's core went off. It's as Miles said, common sense 101, that they were creating the very incident they were hoping to prevent. He only erred when he said doing nothing was the best course of action.
Basically, here is my response to anyone who thinks, with one season remaining, in a show that has exposed itself as philosophical disagreement with two seemingly immortal, and opposed beings engaged in a protracted battle of wills that flight 815 will land, with little fanfare in LAX.
I'm not sure you understand how time-travel works.
Let's hypothetically say that Faraday's plan* was enacted, the Incident that caused the Swan station to be built, then have its button failed to be pushed by Desmond never dislodged 815's flight, then nothing in the entire series would have ever happened. Jack would bury his father, Kate would be off to jail, Sawyer would go on being a dejected con-man, Hurley would probably recommit himself, Sayid would meet up with Nadia and be happy, Sun and Jin would deliver the watch, see Sunset strip, and return to their miserable lives alongside the rest of the 815 crew.
On Island -- who knows? Ellie would never kill her time travelling son, so Daniel would grow up as a Hostile and maybe grow up to be the future leader to be. Ben would never get shot by Sayid, and then never be taken by Kate and Sawyer at Juliet's behest by Richard; though it doesn't rule out that Richard would stay true to his previous word that Ben could join the Others in due time. Whether or not Amy would successfully give birth to Ethan is moot as she would have been captured by the Hostiles before we could even wonder if Juliet's mad skills could be put to use. The outcome of Dharma's presence on the Island is up for debate. I've long argued that the Purge was a necessary, albeit tragic response to the fact that Dharma created The Tempest station [What would a seemingly benevolent utopian society need with a poison gas delivery system?] on par with Richard reluctantly "following orders" and killing off the US military presence that sought to detonate Jughead.
All this is unnecessary speculation on a hypothetical alternate history of the series, because everyone FAILS TO CONSIDER THE OPTION that if the Losties had never flashed, in two separate waves to 77 then Radzinsky's vainglorious dreams of 'utilizing electromagnetism is ways the world hasn't seen' would have resulted in what happened in the episode The Incident, just without the inclusion of any of the Losties.
All's well in Dharmaville, Dr. Chang is making more instruction videos, Horace would be a bachelor, and Phil would be head of Security, then BLAMMO! Radzinsky's mad science would tap into the electromagnetic pocket, everything would get sucked into the hole and quite possibly destroy the world. Maybe the latter part is wild speculation, but if we are to believe that if the 'world is saved' by the button being pushed carries any gravitas, then the incident would have been ruinous without the Losties presence. Maybe the bright minds at the Dharma initiative could have solved the problem on their own if they weren't in the midst of a perceived insurrection, sure. But considering it took Faraday, a man defined as a unique genius three years to come up with a solution, who himself had knowledge of the future [not to mention the constant urgings of Ms. Hawking to see that he realise his potential] it seems unlikely.
*Maybe Faraday was right, maybe there was a way to change the causality loop and prevent the events of the incident from ever happening. Alerting the de Groots of the dangers of Radzinsky's monomaniacal experiments would have probably been the easiest. But I would like to remind everyone that Faraday's plan was only enacted IN THEORY. If Faraday had the social skills to convince Richard to meet his mum to get her to go through with it all, gotten the core of Jughead, and convinced Chang on good faith to let him 'prevent' the incident [again, why didn't he just play the future card and get Chang or Horace to shut the experiment down?] then his hypothesis may have wrung true. Instead, he gets shot, Sayid arrives deus ex Machina** and after being shot in the stomach informs Jack that 'he can rig it so that it explodes on impact'. Call me cynical, but despite Sayid's numerous skills, and corroborated by the events that transpired, it would seem that a man who is bleeding to deat! h, working from the scribbled instructions of an eccentric didn't rig it too well -- evinced by Juliet having literally beat it with a rock to get it to go off.
**Is this a continuity error, or is Sayid somehow everywhere? He reappears after the events in He's Our You, presumably living off everyone's radar with the knowledge that 'Faraday's instructions were very clear'. How he knew this is beyond me, but if Sayid somehow was visited by Faraday, or eaves dropped something to the extent enough to prove how Faraday's plan had a limited window of opportunity, its clear that the Losties were a fraction of time outside of that window when Jughead's core went off. It's as Miles said, common sense 101, that they were creating the very incident they were hoping to prevent. He only erred when he said doing nothing was the best course of action.
