Island is the Constant by megara

So the original Losties (the ones on flight 815) experienced some kind of time travel last season right? That is until Locke turned the wheel again, "correcting" the time displacement but leaving Sawyer and Co stuck in the 1970s in DharmaVille.

But... what if they weren't really time travelling, but they were reality-travelling. Sort of like Sliders who travel to different realities. In one alternate reality, the Oceanic flight really crashed in the island. In another, it lands safely at LAX - this is what we consider the flash-sideways right now. And the "flash-backs" and the "flash-forwards" might not be what they are either. They might be really alternate realities and we were just fooled into thinking that it was the past of the Losties that were being shown.

It's sort of like the Unreliable Narrator. Basically, what we see - we believe in. Although if you think about it, it all depends on what the creators or storyteller wants us to see or know. For all we know they all could be lying about what happened. Or that events shown in the flashbacks doesn't necessarily mean it all happened on one same timeline/reality.

But in every alternate reality, there are similarities. Variables change but there is always ALWAYS a Constant. The Candidate that FLocke (Fake Locke) is talking about is the Candidate for Constant. For the Losties, the Constant was Jacob. They were all touched or visited by him at some point in their lives. But the thing I wonder about is when we talk about Constants - we immediately think Desmond, right? So maybe Desmond - special according to Daniel Faraday - is supposed to be the Constant.

About the Island. I think maybe the Island is a black hole or a portal for alternate realities. It is the Constant thing amongst all the realities. Somewhere in the Island there is a place where you can travel to different realities like Jacob and how he was able to go to the Losties pre-island at different times and not look old. Maybe this is why Richard looks like he never ages too. Maybe he is really living his life, aging naturally, but because he jumps through alternate realities and time, it seems like he never ages.

The Island being a reality portal may also explain the Polar Bear and the disappearing rabbit. They were just displaced from another time and place.

Back to the Candidate... I think if Desmond doesn't end up being the next Jacob or the Constant, it would most probably be Jack - if he isn't in the current flash-sideways already. I guess we'll have to wait if he begins to touch all the characters or something like Jacob did.

FLocke wants to return home, probably back to his own reality or timeline. Him turning into a black smoke, I have no explanation except for a wild theory that in some alternate universe, people have supernatural abilities. Black Smoke = Black Hole? Or is he an anomaly in the system? The ghost in the machine? Someone or something that does not want to be a part of the Constant but wants to become a variable - free from the machinations of Jacob?

"It only ends once. Everything else that happens is just progress." - Jacob

I still can't quite understand this statement. Maybe Jacob is saying that all those alternate realities are progress, because each one is different - a little better than the other one. But ultimately, INEVITABLY, all alternate realities end the same. Like a chess game or that backgammon thing Locke and Walt used to play. You can play the game different ways, but it always ends with one winning and one losing. Like good will always triumph evil? FLocke or the MIB (Man in Black) or Esau must want to kill Jacob because he rebelled against the ending. He wanted to win against the Inevitable. "Don't tell me what I can or cannot do!" is just like rejecting destiny. So it's like Free Will (MIB/Flocke) versus Destiny (Jacob). Who do you place your bets on? Who will win?

How Will It End?

My theory based on this is that we will see episodes with a whole timeline. A straight episode - without flash backwards, forwards, and sideways. Just a story. A story of Jack's reality, for example, that compiled all the flash backs we've seen thus far but not ending with him on the island. A reality that is made by choices, not involving Jacob - he didn't touch him. The show ends in Uncertainty because the future and the end is Unwritten.

Man, this is already long. Clap clap for you if you've read through my crazy rambling this long. Post your thoughts, eh brutha?