“Whatever Happened, Happened” (WHH) and “Whatever Happened, didn’t Happen” (WHdH) are both true, and both wrong. The reason for the claims of WHH is based upon the preservation of a singular timeline, and for the purposes of this theory, I will be assuming Singular Timeline Theory (STT) (since multiple timeline means anything and everything can happen).
STT believes in WHH, because of the prevention of a paradox. Consider H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. The main character can’t save the love of his life because her death is what causes the creation of the time machine. If he manages to save her in the past, than he will never have a reason to create a time machine to save her, creating a paradox where he both does and does not save her. This is the fundamental law of time travel and paradoxes:
You cannot change what causes you to create the change in the first place.
This doesn’t mean that time travel cannot change anything in the past, it just can’t change what causes the time travel in the first place. We know that things can be changed in the past in Lost, and we’ve seen it happen when Elouise shoots Faraday. There had to have been an original timeline where Elouise didn’t shoot Faraday. In this timeline, Jack and the rest haven’t traveled back in time. We have a timeline where time travel hasn’t happened yet. But Dharma will still cause the incident to occur, which will lead to time travel.
Let’s suppose that the incident will eventually lead to the destruction of the world, and so certain individuals will try to stop this. It doesn’t matter if their attempts will work or not, they will still try. These key players could be anyone (perhaps Jacob, Richard, Elouise, Charles, and Ben). For the purposes of this theory, I will refer to these people as the key players. This is an important assumption of this theory: these key players will always try to stop the destruction of the universe.
Because of WHH and STT’s fundamental law against a paradox, these key players could not simply go back in time and stop the incident, since that would create a paradox. They could however do little things that make little changes to the past. For example, although Elouise never originally shoots her son in 1977, she does realize his gifts in mathematics, and so she trains him to be able to discover time travel. In doing so, it eventually changes the past, and she ends up shooting him, which changes the future, and how she tries even harder to teach him, but that now always ends in his death.
Since they are trying to save the universe, they are probably going to try everything in their power to stop this from happening. Maybe this causes Widmore to try to send someone to keep the button being pushed, so he sends Desmond.
All of this creates a constant time loop. The events of 1977 to 2007 keep playing over and over again, and each time it plays through, things change in the past which changes things in the future, which in turn changes things in the past. These loops keep happening over and over again.
This brings us to the current iteration of the time line, which is a very different timeline then the original timeline when these key players first attempted to save the universe. (Bear in mind that I am still talking about STT. These aren’t new timelines, or multiple timelines. It is the same timeline, but it is playing out differently each time). Originally, maybe Desmond never goes to the island, and so 315 never crashed. Eventually though, events of the course-corrections lead to the crash. But each time, the iteration is different. The last time the loop occurred, Jack never comes back to the island, and so he never goes back in time. But this time, other changes have lead to this change where Jack does come back, and does go back in time. This might be why Faraday believes that his mother is wrong in this being Jack’s destiny. It wasn’t before, but it is now because of constant course-corrections. I believe Faraday thinks this is true because of his journal. The! journal always contains a history of the events that happened in the previous time loop, but not the new things that have happened in the current time loop. If Jack didn’t go back in time in the last time loop, it wouldn’t be in the journal, and so Faraday would think that Jack isn’t supposed to be there.
What’s important to keep in mind about all of this is that no one remembers the original timeline. It isn’t as though Charles and Elouise are outside of all of this trying different things, and when one doesn’t work, they try something else. They are always trying to stop the inevitable, so as things change, they change along with it, and keep trying to save the universe. Things can change, and the world can be saved so long as they don’t know if what they did eventually worked. If they don’t know if what they have done worked or not, they will keep trying to save the world, so they will always be causing the 1977-2007 time loops. This means that they aren’t changing their reason for wanting to change things in the first place.
What this may mean is that in the original timeline, Desmond (or Penny) is killed by Ben, and Locke is also killed (and stays dead). Now, those things haven’t happened, and these people are alive. What is important about all of this is that before Elouise sends Jack back to the island, she doesn’t know if Locke will come back to life, and she doesn’t know that Desmond will survive, so she still sends them back. Thus, no paradox. Something happens though all the course-corrections that causes Desmond and Locke to survive.
So, this may explain why Locke is still alive. It isn’t that he was resurrected. The timeline changed, and now he didn’t die. He was resurrected at the exact moment that Jack is sent back in time to change the past, which changes the future, and so Locke doesn’t die. Again, Jack didn’t go back to save Locke, so there isn’t a paradox. That was just an after affect.
Thanks for reading this. I know it is extraordinarily long, but it is a difficult theory to explain.
STT believes in WHH, because of the prevention of a paradox. Consider H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. The main character can’t save the love of his life because her death is what causes the creation of the time machine. If he manages to save her in the past, than he will never have a reason to create a time machine to save her, creating a paradox where he both does and does not save her. This is the fundamental law of time travel and paradoxes:
You cannot change what causes you to create the change in the first place.
This doesn’t mean that time travel cannot change anything in the past, it just can’t change what causes the time travel in the first place. We know that things can be changed in the past in Lost, and we’ve seen it happen when Elouise shoots Faraday. There had to have been an original timeline where Elouise didn’t shoot Faraday. In this timeline, Jack and the rest haven’t traveled back in time. We have a timeline where time travel hasn’t happened yet. But Dharma will still cause the incident to occur, which will lead to time travel.
Let’s suppose that the incident will eventually lead to the destruction of the world, and so certain individuals will try to stop this. It doesn’t matter if their attempts will work or not, they will still try. These key players could be anyone (perhaps Jacob, Richard, Elouise, Charles, and Ben). For the purposes of this theory, I will refer to these people as the key players. This is an important assumption of this theory: these key players will always try to stop the destruction of the universe.
Because of WHH and STT’s fundamental law against a paradox, these key players could not simply go back in time and stop the incident, since that would create a paradox. They could however do little things that make little changes to the past. For example, although Elouise never originally shoots her son in 1977, she does realize his gifts in mathematics, and so she trains him to be able to discover time travel. In doing so, it eventually changes the past, and she ends up shooting him, which changes the future, and how she tries even harder to teach him, but that now always ends in his death.
Since they are trying to save the universe, they are probably going to try everything in their power to stop this from happening. Maybe this causes Widmore to try to send someone to keep the button being pushed, so he sends Desmond.
All of this creates a constant time loop. The events of 1977 to 2007 keep playing over and over again, and each time it plays through, things change in the past which changes things in the future, which in turn changes things in the past. These loops keep happening over and over again.
This brings us to the current iteration of the time line, which is a very different timeline then the original timeline when these key players first attempted to save the universe. (Bear in mind that I am still talking about STT. These aren’t new timelines, or multiple timelines. It is the same timeline, but it is playing out differently each time). Originally, maybe Desmond never goes to the island, and so 315 never crashed. Eventually though, events of the course-corrections lead to the crash. But each time, the iteration is different. The last time the loop occurred, Jack never comes back to the island, and so he never goes back in time. But this time, other changes have lead to this change where Jack does come back, and does go back in time. This might be why Faraday believes that his mother is wrong in this being Jack’s destiny. It wasn’t before, but it is now because of constant course-corrections. I believe Faraday thinks this is true because of his journal. The! journal always contains a history of the events that happened in the previous time loop, but not the new things that have happened in the current time loop. If Jack didn’t go back in time in the last time loop, it wouldn’t be in the journal, and so Faraday would think that Jack isn’t supposed to be there.
What’s important to keep in mind about all of this is that no one remembers the original timeline. It isn’t as though Charles and Elouise are outside of all of this trying different things, and when one doesn’t work, they try something else. They are always trying to stop the inevitable, so as things change, they change along with it, and keep trying to save the universe. Things can change, and the world can be saved so long as they don’t know if what they did eventually worked. If they don’t know if what they have done worked or not, they will keep trying to save the world, so they will always be causing the 1977-2007 time loops. This means that they aren’t changing their reason for wanting to change things in the first place.
What this may mean is that in the original timeline, Desmond (or Penny) is killed by Ben, and Locke is also killed (and stays dead). Now, those things haven’t happened, and these people are alive. What is important about all of this is that before Elouise sends Jack back to the island, she doesn’t know if Locke will come back to life, and she doesn’t know that Desmond will survive, so she still sends them back. Thus, no paradox. Something happens though all the course-corrections that causes Desmond and Locke to survive.
So, this may explain why Locke is still alive. It isn’t that he was resurrected. The timeline changed, and now he didn’t die. He was resurrected at the exact moment that Jack is sent back in time to change the past, which changes the future, and so Locke doesn’t die. Again, Jack didn’t go back to save Locke, so there isn’t a paradox. That was just an after affect.
Thanks for reading this. I know it is extraordinarily long, but it is a difficult theory to explain.
