The Dark Tower / Fringe / The Prestige / LOST connection by OCKi

(SPOILER WARNING: This theory draws references from different plot points from The Dark Tower book 2, Fringe, Heroes and The Prestige)

So.. here goes:
We know for a fact that the LOST writers are heavily influenced by Stephen King, right?

In King's book "The Dark Tower; The Drawing of the Three", The Gunslinger (the main protagonist) encounters three enchanted doors on a beach.

Each door leads to the minds of three different individuals; when he walks through a door, he can suddenly see through their eyes, while unknowingly spectating their normal lives in New York city.

(It's important to notice here, that he can leave their minds by going out the door anytime he wants!)

After spending some time inside the minds of these individuals, he eventually learns how to take control of their bodies. Gradually he controls everything, while the actual person is helpless to fight it.
They also communicate with each other via their thoughts.

(So it's kinda like Heroes this season, when Sylar controls Matt Parkman's mind while they are having actual out loud-conversations with each other.)



So.. now for the LOST connection.

Think about this.. Which Characters on the show have disappeared and/or died and reappeared by not acting as themselves?

- Christian Shephard
- Yemi
- Rousseau’s crew
- Locke
- Claire

What do these people have in common?

We know that the original bodies of Claire, Christian and Yemi disappeared. Then they have reappeared by acting strange and out of touch.

We also know that Locke and Rousseau's crew have had encounters with the smoke monster, and have been resurrected with slightly different personalities.


What if.. The Man in Black can create a ”door” into people’s mind? - just like in The Dark Tower, he can watch through their eyes - and take full control of their bodies.

So how does he gain access into people’s minds? Remember Locke's first encounter with the smokemonster back in season 1?
Locke described this happening to Eko in Season 3's episode "The cost of Living" as a "White Light".
He have also called it the "Eye of the island" and that it was beautiful!
I think that this "white light" from the smokemonster gains MIB access into Locke's mind. Far-fetched you say? I know.. But haven't Locke acted pretty out of character several times after this incident?

He sometimes knows more than he should've known (Claire's birthday present, Walt's burning of the raft, etc..)
He sometimes gets abruptly violent and cynical.. (see: when he knocked over Sayid and framed Sawyer, the hitting of Charlie, when he killed Naomi, etc..)

Maybe this is the side effect of MIB being a part of his mind.
Note that I'm saying that he's only a "part" of his mind. He's never in full control of his body yet. Smokey only planted MIB there like a seed waiting to get sprung!
How does he gain full control, then? The person he's occupying must die, because one body can only be occupied by one soul at a time! (Basic science ya know.. ;P)



Over Island history, Jacob has somehow managed to get The Man in Black captured inside the circle of ash.
BUT the MIB has still control over the smoke monster, which gathers dead bodies to him. And with the assumption that he can gain access into "empty vessels", he then gains control over them, and wanders through the circle of ash unharmed to do his uncanny deeds.





Stepping away from the Dark Tower/MIB connection for a bit, here is a little Q&A session:
Q: What is The Man in Black's motivation?
A: To find a loop hole, and to kill Jacob!
Q: But... what the frak is his perception of a loophole?
A: Here is where the Fringe part comes in;

In Fringe, "The Observers" are the mysterious people who observe time WITHOUT interfering in it. If they do, they break their code, and must course-correct it.

By the looks of it, Jacob has also been doing some observing too. He has observed the lives of other people through their childhood and adult lives. By doing so, he has found different candidates to the Island, where he is creating a miniature human society by the assumption that they can live in harmony and don't wipe themselves out. Why is he doing this? - To prove the Man in Black wrong, that's why! - it's all just a game of Chess or Backgammon between the two ancient Yin/Yang entities! The one tries to prove the other wrong, hating each other’s guts!!



The loophole MIB is looking for in this scenario - is the equivalent to CHEATING...

Yes.. The MIB are looking for if Jacob has broken the "rules of fate" during his election of candidates.


Q: How does one break "the rules of fate"?
A: By changing the timeline by interfering physically with it.
Q: Have Jacob physically interfered with the timeline?
A: Yes ..... WHEN HE RESURRECTED JOHN LOCKE AFTER HIS FATHER PUSHED HIM OUT THE WINDOW!!!
Q: Well, how does the MIB know about this then?
A: Because the smoke monster have “scanned” Locke’s memories, and MIB now knows that he should have died in that fall.
Q: What is the punishment for breaking the rules?
A: Death.



Now, the MIB plots a deep and complex plan which will ultimately end up with a confrontation with Jacob;

For this to happen, he needs to gain control over Locke’s body! (Because Locke is the loophole and Jacob needs to see that he caught him cheating upfront)
For him to gain full control over Locke’s body, Locke needs to die!

Therefore he speaks to Locke via Christian Shephard and gains his trust by tricking him into believing he’s doing errands for Jacob.



We know how this ends; Locke gets transported off the island and is killed by Ben.




Q: Why doesn't Christian just kill him in the first place?

A: Because that would be another loophole. MIB will never interfere with the timeline physically. As long as Locke have a choice (which is an ongoing theme in the LOST universe..), MIB is doing nothing wrong.
One can tell that MIB is a man of principles; He won’t even help poor wounded Locke up from the ground..





Well this is all well and done, BUT it does not answer why there are TWO different bodies of John Locke?




This brings us to the final connection.. The Prestige..

In this excellent mystery thriller by Christopher Nolan, the two main characters are great rival magicians! Halfway through the movie, Hugh Jackman's character finds a device called the Tesla Media that creates a replica doppelganger of the perpetrator several meters away. To make it seem that he simply has teleported himself from A to B, the original doppelganger have to die each time.



I believe that this happens to the person moving the Donkey wheel below the Orchid station.

Why do I believe that?




Three reasons:

1. Because of the Orchid outtakes video from comic con 2006, where presumably rabbits are cloned out of thin air,
2. Because of a deleted scene from Season 4 where Ben wakes up in the desert and spots another version of himself lying on the ground with the same Dharma coat.
3. Because Ben cries as he turns the wheel.. He KNOWS that his original self will die, and a replica will continue his life. (In other words: The Ben we see post season 4 is Ben version 2)



The same thing might have happened to Locke, whereas the original body is dead and the other copy is Locke-v2, or as we know him; Jeremy Bentham.
As both bodies gets transported into the Tunisian desert, MIB always knew this would happen, and gains control over the original dead body, which is a perfect empty "vessel" for him to take over.

He later manages to sneak himself in the Ajira flight 316 cargo hold to get back to the island.
Jeremy Bentham aka Locke-v2 is, as we know, killed off by Ben and ends up in the coffin that also gets transported to the island as a proxy to Jack's dad.



Now, this is why there are two bodies of Locke on the island. (PHEOW.. *Wipes sweat-marks from the keyboard..*)



Now for the confrontation with Jacob.. He obviously can't kill him himself because of the "rules of fate" thingy, so he uses Ben as his pawn, as he had manipulated Locke via Christian.






Final thoughts:

One can only hope that the old Locke is still in “Flocke” somehow as a helpless spectator. Will he have the power to resist MIB’s strong hold over him?

Well, this concludes my theory.

I don't know if this makes any sense to you, but it sure does for me now as I'm writing it. My English isn't my native language, so you'll have to excuse some of the clumsy use of words!
Hope you had fun reading it, though! =)



Thanks for reading, and Namaste..