The flashes of Kate and Clare by SpLodGe

First of all I want to say that all of the stories have been told before but Lost is like a combination of them all. If you were to have a list of all the theories on this site you would probably find reference to all the stories ever written. I once said that watching Lost was like trying to read a Make Your Own Adventure book if you’d lost the instructions.

The scene in “What Kate Does” when Kate and Clare seem to have déjà vu or some affinity with each other and also Clare knows to call her baby Aaron, I think that they have just had "flashes" to another time, like Desmond did. They have seen, unconsciously or not, a glimpse of another time where they know each other and something of their possible future. Based on my other theories to date and following what we saw of Desmond, I supposed that these flashes were to the future of the same timeline they are in. Maybe it is not and the reason Kate felt an affinity for Clare was that they are flashing to the PRIME timeline instead. This is something I’ve seen mentioned by others on this site and so I wish to theorise about it.

I was theorising that this SIDEWAYS timeline is actually the first and original timeline before any changes to the timeline were made and that series 1-5 was the reset. It could be, however, that there have been many timelines that we are missing and we are looking at a story similar to Terminator style of time travel. In this idea there are only as many timeline as their have been resets and the consequences of changes made to the past by conscious time travel. Where one time travel trip to the past in essence replaces the last. This would be unlike the many worlds scenario where all possibilities from every decision exist. New timelines would only be created if someone went back in time and changed something either on purpose or by accident. Best evidence for this, is scene where Desmond saves Charlie’s life several times. Each time he saved him was a different timeline and was edited together to look like one timeline. Almost like it was a sequence from the film (dare I! say it) Ground Hog Day.

The island can traverse through them all however and therefore no one is more or less important than the next. This is also why the Losties can be on the island and at the same time, a complete double of them is at the bottom of the Ocean. Widmore faked nothing. The O6 got off the island and went home to the wrong timeline. This was not a timeline which they left where their plane crashed on the island. This is a timeline where their plane crashed into the ocean. One where Clare and her Mum didn’t have a car crash and her Mum is alive and well.

Now I don’t think that this SIDEWAYS timeline can be the first timeline either because Clare and Kate would only have déjà vu or flashes to the future if they’d been to the island in a past iteration or will go to the island in their future. Unless the exotic matter has ruptured the space time continuum and has ramifications in any and all timelines. If there have been several iterations of the timeline then depending on what has been changed - sometimes the Losties crash on the island, sometimes they land on the island (if Frank is there to save the day ), sometimes they crash and their plane is at the bottom of the Ocean. Like we all know though, the island can be moved and has the ability to randomly jump in and out of these different timelines. Could it be every 108 minutes? Hmm

My theory is that the people who are exposed to electromagnetism (the exotic matter on the island) have their consciousnesses thrown back in time to get a do-over. It’s sort of like time is being reset to an indeterminate time in the past. We saw this happen to Desmond but I think it also happened to everyone else on the island. After the sky turned purple on the island the Losties pasts could have been changed. They were all having flashes to the future like Desmond but not to them same extent. Most of them would assume that any weird visions they have are just their imagination or dreams. The sensation is not very strong for them. Remember Rose said she had déjà vu when she came to the island; Kate had dreams of Clare; Locke’s insight into the future... I believe Desmond was more aware than the rest of them because of his proximity to the failsafe incident. He was having flashes to the future hence why he decided to buy that ring and why Hawking needed to stop him. L! ocke also had flashes, he could predict the rain and his dream/vision of the Beechcraft crashing which came true. At the time we thought it was just a dream until he was physically flashing through time and did see the Beechcraft crashing on the island.

After Desmond turned the failsafe key, all those people on the island were reset to an earlier point in time. The same happened at the incident but the first time the Losties were not there and it was just Dharma (and perhaps the Others) who were reset. When they drilled into the electromagnetism everyone on the island had their consciousnesses time travel back in time. Let’s say the same number of years Des went back in time, 8 years. Then within those 8 years the people who were on the island start getting flashes to their future on the island and use that knowledge to further their studies. Dharma’s timetable is brought forward and now there’s an expalination for the differences in dates of certain events which have caused so many discussions in Lost forums. So when Dharma come to the island for their second iteration, they will be ready with a failsafe device, ready to harness the properties of the exotic matter and use it for time travel experiements. They also wi! ll change the original purpose of the Swan.

Most of us can agree that there is some sort of loop going on in Lost. A time loop, or an iteration of the timeline being repeated in some way. BEN “You do remember birthdays don’t you, Richard?” could just have been a comment relating to the fact the Richard is very old or maybe not. The distress signal made by Rousseau, Iteration 17294530. At first it would just have been the Others and Dharma being reset but once our Losties arrive they too join into the reset. Each reset getting more and more complicated with the changes made by more and more people and the butterfly affect which ensues.

The timeline was changing and developing before our very eyes. Our Losties were always having these flashes throughout seasons 1-5 because what we’ve watched so far was not the first time the story has been told. There have been many iterations that we’ve not seen but I believe that we have watched some scenes which were stolen from another iteration. A cleverly edited selection of timelines made to look like one continuous timeline and that's why some events on the island don't add up. Sayid was not a torturer but Inman changed his past so that he would become so. Sayid has a flashback to the restaurant he worked and he was brought in to confess to torturing Sami's wife Amira. In one timeline he doesn't confess but after a flash-forward to outside the Flame, I believe Sayid changed his destiny and did confess.

Since the story of Lost has not been presented to us in an order which allows us to fathom what is going on - I will sound like Monika when I say this - if we had watched the incident and then series 1-5 it would make more sense.