The purpose of an alt timeline by Mark

There’s a lot of huffing and puffing going on in the comments sections at the moment regarding the purpose of an alt time line and how it has any relevance to our original time line so here’s my thoughts on the matter.

Firstly Darlton has stated clearly that we should “trust them” when it comes to the beginning of season 6. To me this suggests that they realise that at first the idea of an alt timeline will cause the sort of confusion and mildly angry responses that we have been hearing so far. However, it also indicates that they will have a satisfactory explanation that will be revealed in due course, we just have to be patient.

Now with that in mind I have no doubt that if they are going to show us an alt timeline it will have a critical relevance to the plot of the show and won’t just serve as a gimmick to bring back some old faces. The question is what will that be??

A while back, just after the season 5 finale, I posted a theory (annoyingly I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it!!) that explained what I thought might happen after the Incident. The long and short of it was that on attempting to detonate Jughead Jack etc would mind skip back to various times on island that we have previously seen and would have the opportunity change a few details along the way. Meanwhile there bodies would remain lifeless in the temple until the eventually mind skipped back to them in 2007/2008 ready to reunite with Sun.

I still think that the main theme of this theory stands but instead of them mind skipping to previous times in our time line they are going to mind skip to an alt timeline where 815 never crashes. Somehow this experience will prove to them the importance of them being on the island and when the time is right they will mind skip back to their original timeline bodies that will be waiting for them in the temple. Now they are ready and motivated for the coming war…..

Reasons to support that they mind skip rather than physically moving from one time line to the next is that from what we have seen mind skipping can happen without skipper needing to be anywhere specific in order to skip back. This would make it a lot easier for them to return to the original time line without the need for another lengthy “WE HAVE TO GO BACK” mission….it would just happen in a flash!

Also I still think Richards comment to Sun “I saw them all die” is a massive clue. Bare in mind he has seen Locke time flash on several occasions so had he witnessed Jack etc time flash when the incident happened he would know or at least regard that as a possibility and not assume them dead. This to me means that he must have seen there “dead” bodies for him to think them dead. I think he “saw them die” but on Jacobs orders moved their bodies to the temple, maybe even putting their bodies in Egyptian style sarcophagi still assuming them dead.

I think the reason we haven’t seen the Temple yet is because the big reveal there will be that Jack, Kate, Sawyer etc’s bodies have been there since the very first episode waiting for their minds to skip back to them!

So to summarize, our heroes will mind skip from the incident to an alt timeline where they will learn the importance of them being on the island. This being the sole purpose of showing us/them an alt timeline. Once they have learnt this they will mind skip back to their bodies in the original time line just in time to take part in the coming “war”. THEY’RE COMING!

Hope you enjoyed this rehash of my theory. I’ll look forward to hearing your opinions.