First of all, allow me to start by stating that I am an admirer of the Whatever Happened, Happened logic and still hope that this is indeed the case by the season's end, however, at the moment I must say it's looking like a variable kicked WH,H's ass.
The biggest 'page turner' for me this season is the differences to The Island the O6 left and the one Sun, Locke and Ben have returned to upon 316's landing.
Starting with that very same landing, we, the viewer, were given our first discrepancy in the transmission of The Numbers from the radio tower once again. I have read the argument made on this site, that at the end of season 3, the Losties could have just switched off Rousseau's loop allowing the original broadcast of The Numbers to be transmitted again. To those who side with that theory, I'll remind you that the transmission from the tower was interfering with Naomi's phone, not the message itself. This means they would have shut down all broadcasts not just Rousseau's.
So how does the cockpit of 316 pick up The Numbers? We have 2 possible reasons for this... A: The plane has landed in a time before The Numbers have been overlapped or B: Rousseau never made a recording. Option A is impossible as we have already seen the Plane land on the Runway which was still under construction in 2004 and the abandoned Hydra Station. Leaving only Option B. Hello Change =)
The next difference we're shown is much less subtle but just as intriguing. I am of course referring to the sudden dilapidation of the Barracks as first seen by Sun and Frank. Again, I have read theory's that this may be the result of Keamy's attack on the Barracks where Claire's house is blown up. But that doesn't explain the reappearance of Dharma signs all over the place which were not there during The Others occupation. It would seem as though The Others never moved into the Barracks at all.
Enter Part One of my theory. I believe that The Island being experienced by the likes of Sun, is the version of The Island which has withstood the full or partial force of the explosion of Jughead, therefore preventing The Incident.
To the WH,H supporters - Don't shoot me! As you'll soon find, you may find yourself choosing to jump onto my ever enlarging bandwagon by the end of this theory. Bearing in mind that if you believe in WH,H, then you subsequently believe in course correction.
Now, humor me a moment and suppose I'm right and presumably The 1977 Losties carry out Faraday's efforts to avert The Incident; it would also account for the somewhat unusual change to the Smokey witnessed by Ben under the Temple Wall. Rather than it's usual presence, this time, it seems almost calmer (in smoke form) than we have seen it in 1988 and the 2000's. It's been hinted at for a while now by TPTB that Smokey and The Incident have a connection. It's also worth noting that from a selection of theory's which Darlton were given the chance to search through, they chose the most "interesting" to be one which describes Smokey as a being of benevolence until The Incident occurred, rendering the more bloodthirsty version we know and love. When i heard about that, it made me think, we saw Smokey surround Ben and project his flashbacks as a hall of memories almost; could the flashes of images shown when confronting Eko be Smokey's attempt at the same process just after its enco! unter with The Incident?. I wonder, are we seeing the Smokey that could of been?
As we've been told, preventing The Incident also prevents 815 crashing on the Island. Would that mean landing safely in LA? I remember them being off course by 1000 miles at the time of the crash, so I'm not so sure. What if 815 crashed in the ocean instead? What if Widmore never put that 'fake' 815 there? Hawking and Widmore both seem as though they want whatever happened to happen. Knowing Faraday has the potential to figure out how to alter history and seemingly enough compassion for the 815ers as to want to change the past to save them, it seems the least likely thing Widmore would do would be to tell Faraday that the Plane was from an altered timeline.
I know that TPTB have flat out denied alternate timelines, but they have done the same with other elements to the show; which low and behold, turned out to be a bluff. Also, we have been informed time and time again about course correction. The bottom line to CC, is it doesn't matter how, it just will be. So instead of considering a multitude of timelines, I'll ask that you just bare in mind that course correction is the universe cleaning up its mess.
E.g. you have two sweets, one in your left hand, one in the right. A:Eat the one in your left, and you get fatally poisoned and die the next day. B:Eat the one in your right and you choke to death there and then. C:Throw them both into the wind and a tree will fall over on top of you. There's no escaping the outcome, but look at what differences there are... A: You get a whole day worth of extra activities, B: Thats pretty much it for you, and with C: you've made a mess on your way to the other side leaving a toppled tree on the ground. Think of 815 much the same way, in one way, it offers us a handful of survivors with such riveting lives that we could make a TV show about them, or in the other, its just a hunk of metal at the bottom of ocean.
It's my belief that the universe/The Island/Jacob has gotten so good at course correction, that they're at a point where they're choosing bits they like from different options. It need our Losties, but I also believe that it needs an Incident free zone, possibly for Smokey's sake.
This is where The Second major part of my theory comes into play. The two couldn't naturally occur in one outcome, so first of all, the Losties arrived, and ever since, they have been the course correctors all along. They are meant to be getting what The Island wants next and I believe it wants the timeline we're witnessing through Locke and Co. This also makes sense of a few lines fed to us from John, He's been telling us they are there for a reason, check, in the season 3 finale, he appealed that things weren't meant to happen this way (maybe more literal than we thought), and most recently, he brought up the point that living in the Barracks doesn't seem like something The Island would want for it's inhabitants. Makes sense then that our 1977 Losties are kicking things back into shape no?
If I am right about these things, then it also sheds some light on what we believed to be ghostly visits to Hurley. Think back to what I said about the Smokey that could have been; I'm sure that this is the case with those we've seen from beyond the grave. They may be some sort of echo from the correction the Losties were always going to bring about. "I am dead... But I'm also here" - Charlie Pace.
My conclusion - Like I said at the beginning, if you believe that WH,H, then you believe in Course Correction. If you believe in CC, then you know things can play out differently to get to a point the universe wants. Time is relevant, and whatever it is that The Island's, the universe's and/or Jacob's main goal is, its gunna be someones' past. And if it happened to them, then its always gunna happen, what we're seeing is the course correction along the way!
That's about as much as I can go into at present, feel free to sigh with relief :p but I would love to hear your responses and any pieces you can add or question me on, much appreciated. If you made it all the way through this exhaustive theory, WOW haha, Thanks so much for reading!
-ProtoRen-
The biggest 'page turner' for me this season is the differences to The Island the O6 left and the one Sun, Locke and Ben have returned to upon 316's landing.
Starting with that very same landing, we, the viewer, were given our first discrepancy in the transmission of The Numbers from the radio tower once again. I have read the argument made on this site, that at the end of season 3, the Losties could have just switched off Rousseau's loop allowing the original broadcast of The Numbers to be transmitted again. To those who side with that theory, I'll remind you that the transmission from the tower was interfering with Naomi's phone, not the message itself. This means they would have shut down all broadcasts not just Rousseau's.
So how does the cockpit of 316 pick up The Numbers? We have 2 possible reasons for this... A: The plane has landed in a time before The Numbers have been overlapped or B: Rousseau never made a recording. Option A is impossible as we have already seen the Plane land on the Runway which was still under construction in 2004 and the abandoned Hydra Station. Leaving only Option B. Hello Change =)
The next difference we're shown is much less subtle but just as intriguing. I am of course referring to the sudden dilapidation of the Barracks as first seen by Sun and Frank. Again, I have read theory's that this may be the result of Keamy's attack on the Barracks where Claire's house is blown up. But that doesn't explain the reappearance of Dharma signs all over the place which were not there during The Others occupation. It would seem as though The Others never moved into the Barracks at all.
Enter Part One of my theory. I believe that The Island being experienced by the likes of Sun, is the version of The Island which has withstood the full or partial force of the explosion of Jughead, therefore preventing The Incident.
To the WH,H supporters - Don't shoot me! As you'll soon find, you may find yourself choosing to jump onto my ever enlarging bandwagon by the end of this theory. Bearing in mind that if you believe in WH,H, then you subsequently believe in course correction.
Now, humor me a moment and suppose I'm right and presumably The 1977 Losties carry out Faraday's efforts to avert The Incident; it would also account for the somewhat unusual change to the Smokey witnessed by Ben under the Temple Wall. Rather than it's usual presence, this time, it seems almost calmer (in smoke form) than we have seen it in 1988 and the 2000's. It's been hinted at for a while now by TPTB that Smokey and The Incident have a connection. It's also worth noting that from a selection of theory's which Darlton were given the chance to search through, they chose the most "interesting" to be one which describes Smokey as a being of benevolence until The Incident occurred, rendering the more bloodthirsty version we know and love. When i heard about that, it made me think, we saw Smokey surround Ben and project his flashbacks as a hall of memories almost; could the flashes of images shown when confronting Eko be Smokey's attempt at the same process just after its enco! unter with The Incident?. I wonder, are we seeing the Smokey that could of been?
As we've been told, preventing The Incident also prevents 815 crashing on the Island. Would that mean landing safely in LA? I remember them being off course by 1000 miles at the time of the crash, so I'm not so sure. What if 815 crashed in the ocean instead? What if Widmore never put that 'fake' 815 there? Hawking and Widmore both seem as though they want whatever happened to happen. Knowing Faraday has the potential to figure out how to alter history and seemingly enough compassion for the 815ers as to want to change the past to save them, it seems the least likely thing Widmore would do would be to tell Faraday that the Plane was from an altered timeline.
I know that TPTB have flat out denied alternate timelines, but they have done the same with other elements to the show; which low and behold, turned out to be a bluff. Also, we have been informed time and time again about course correction. The bottom line to CC, is it doesn't matter how, it just will be. So instead of considering a multitude of timelines, I'll ask that you just bare in mind that course correction is the universe cleaning up its mess.
E.g. you have two sweets, one in your left hand, one in the right. A:Eat the one in your left, and you get fatally poisoned and die the next day. B:Eat the one in your right and you choke to death there and then. C:Throw them both into the wind and a tree will fall over on top of you. There's no escaping the outcome, but look at what differences there are... A: You get a whole day worth of extra activities, B: Thats pretty much it for you, and with C: you've made a mess on your way to the other side leaving a toppled tree on the ground. Think of 815 much the same way, in one way, it offers us a handful of survivors with such riveting lives that we could make a TV show about them, or in the other, its just a hunk of metal at the bottom of ocean.
It's my belief that the universe/The Island/Jacob has gotten so good at course correction, that they're at a point where they're choosing bits they like from different options. It need our Losties, but I also believe that it needs an Incident free zone, possibly for Smokey's sake.
This is where The Second major part of my theory comes into play. The two couldn't naturally occur in one outcome, so first of all, the Losties arrived, and ever since, they have been the course correctors all along. They are meant to be getting what The Island wants next and I believe it wants the timeline we're witnessing through Locke and Co. This also makes sense of a few lines fed to us from John, He's been telling us they are there for a reason, check, in the season 3 finale, he appealed that things weren't meant to happen this way (maybe more literal than we thought), and most recently, he brought up the point that living in the Barracks doesn't seem like something The Island would want for it's inhabitants. Makes sense then that our 1977 Losties are kicking things back into shape no?
If I am right about these things, then it also sheds some light on what we believed to be ghostly visits to Hurley. Think back to what I said about the Smokey that could have been; I'm sure that this is the case with those we've seen from beyond the grave. They may be some sort of echo from the correction the Losties were always going to bring about. "I am dead... But I'm also here" - Charlie Pace.
My conclusion - Like I said at the beginning, if you believe that WH,H, then you believe in Course Correction. If you believe in CC, then you know things can play out differently to get to a point the universe wants. Time is relevant, and whatever it is that The Island's, the universe's and/or Jacob's main goal is, its gunna be someones' past. And if it happened to them, then its always gunna happen, what we're seeing is the course correction along the way!
That's about as much as I can go into at present, feel free to sigh with relief :p but I would love to hear your responses and any pieces you can add or question me on, much appreciated. If you made it all the way through this exhaustive theory, WOW haha, Thanks so much for reading!
-ProtoRen-
