Progress: Thoughts of how all this ties up for each Candidate (part 2 of the theory "An old friend") by System1988

I just love Locke- centric episodes. Yes, I admit it, I am an answer junkie, and man did I get my fix with this one! When the cave scene came up I was like, wow wait a second, let me pause that, let me get some pressure pills (the whole bottle just to be sure) and then resume watching!

For all of you who gave my previous theory a big 4 star thank you so much! There are so many awesome people like Vozzek who have made the hiatus so worth the while and the wait with their works! I am just a small peddle among boulders. Still I was somewhat right with my last theory “An old friend of mine”.

Unfortunately this is going to be a BIG theory so for those of you who are bored of me already let me give you something to hold on to. As I promised I will continue my theorizing about what is going to happen with all our favorite Losties but first I need to recap the awesome episode “The Substitute”. There is no point of proceeding with this theory if I am not to fix my previous one according to the new amazing stuff we learned from the episode in question.

So… Flocke did have a simpler plan than I theorized after all. Well no matter, this is LOST, people are supposed to theorize like hell so I will stick with the only thing I believe was worth of my last theory: Flocke took over Locke for 2 reasons: 1st he was the perfect candidate, MIB’s way of saying “screw you and your plan, I even took your best candidate and turned him into doing my work!” to Jacob and secondly he was the perfect Trojan horse to get close enough to Jacob for a killing stroke.

This is a game that plays in 2 levels, one practical and one philosophical. MIB’s plan with Locke is a proof of this. He used Locke to “practically” get close to Jacob in order to kill him and “philosophically” used his best man to prove him that not even his top candidate, his best chance of finding a man who so desperately wanted to protect the island can fail. MIB throwing the white stone away in the “Substitute” was also a proof of the duality in the show. “Just an inside joke” said MIB. True.

So…. 2 levels? What the hell?

Proof of the first level (practical level) are the actual carvings we saw in the cave (man I was totally freaked out), It’s clear as day that Jacob wants someone to continue his work. He practically wants someone to be the island’s future protector. The second level (philosophical) of the show’s main theme can be viewed in Locke’s words during the Pilot:

“2 sides. One is light, and one is dark”

I know how many of you must hate me for introducing yet for a billionth time a phrase that every other theory in this site seems to have done as well. Do not get angry with me though this is how you start with the little stuff and proceed to the most important stuff.

The black/white rocks, the statue, the Temple, Smokey’s underground hideout, all that creates the mythology of the show can be considered as its 2nd level of viewing it. The philosophical level that is.

The action scenes, time travelling, the dead rising, all this is the practical level of the show. The level that mot viewers see and stupidly appreciate 

Well no matter! We folks in Darkufo are smarter than this, right? Because we can see the duality of the show. You already know where I am going with this right?

To study the path each character will take is a difficult task. But I will do it nonetheless and I will use my theory of the 2-world viewing of the show reach that goal.

First a little history!


Flashbacks

For half the show the producers presented us with the lives of the Losties before their coming to the island. They all had a somewhat sad story and they all seemed to be haunted by their previous backgrounds to the level were paranoia (Hurley’s case) seem to manifest before their eyes (Dave).

The flashbacks were awesome. They showed us why people on the island did what they did. Jack did not want to become a leader because of his father’s way of raising him. Sawyer was a dick because that’s how he managed to survive in tough situations like crashing on an island. Kate avoided emotional connections due to her life as a fugitive. Who to trust if your face is on the newspaper each week? Hurley was obsessed with the numbers and food, 2 things that ruined his mental stability in and out of the island. Sayid was forced to go Lord of the Flies due to his war and torturing people experiences.
And so on and so forth…

The flashbacks gave the show a deeper meaning, the philosophy of each character, his way of viewing what free will is and how should be applied on a place that anything can happen. The flashbacks are the backbone of the show, and the ones who cannot deal with this fact have never truly seen LOST, they have just watched it. You who really love the show know what I mean.

Flashforwards

Then comes season 4. We get a huge evolution of the plot that now splits into 2 worlds. A world after the island and a world after the final chance to leave the island. So cool! The plot now thickens as we watch 2 possible “realities”. Life without the island and life with staying with on island for good. We know of course how that turns out for everyone.

Off- island we see what life would be for the Losties if they have never came to the island. DO NOT get upset now I know I am dragging this but think this: Do you honestly think that Jack would not become a junkie after his divorce? Do you honestly think that Sun would not go energetic-take-over-dad-company once she was shown what it did to her and Jin’s lifes? Do you honestly think that Hurley would not stay in Santa Rosa medical facility after returning from discovering nothing in Australia? Do you honestly think that Sayid would not become some sort of hired mercenary, the only thing he will ever know how to do so good, even if Nadia was alive?

Yes me neither. The O6 lifes were shown to us as a possible reality. A reality where no one has made any progress (as in Jacob’s way progress) with his life. Come to think of it, most of the O6 were actual Jacob candidates, no wonder each of their lifes sucked more than the last.

The flashforwards was a way of the producers saying to us “watch what happens if these people were not on the island like ever!”

Time Travel

Did you think I was going to leave this out? NO way! 3 years passed for the O6, thus 3 years must pass for the Losties who never came to the island. The 2 group story took 2 seasons to unfold. One season for each group. Fair enough.

So why time travel? Well you can imagine why I suppose. The island tries to “fix” it’s ability to move through time and space automatically but cannot do it because many Jacob candidates are missing. Therefore the island needs to go back to a time where it already had a good and alive candidate to protect it: Jacob. That time can be any time due t Jacob’s apparent immortality. So anytime between Statue-standing and the O6 leaving is a good time to stick around for.

Then why the 70’s? Why that special “song on the record player”? Is it because of Locke’s timing to turn the FDW? I would like to say NO. According to Faraday the island’s time travelling mechanism is pretty random as it is pretty precise.

What I am trying to say is that both levels of viewing the show merge together in this case to create 1 possible outcome: The Candidates need to be protected “practically” from Smokey and they need to make a “philosophical- Jacob-progress” with their lifes. The perfect time is the Dharma 70’s. A good “practical” sonic fence to keep Smokey out is around. A nice “practical” treaty with the Others has been made. Minimum “practical” risks for the Losties, a good time to take a big time- out of all the craziness, settle down and “philosophically advance”.

Sawyer has grown at last, that’s the most obvious. Juliet’s cool and mature; she made a man out of him at last! Sawyer does not even think about going to the mainland, take advantage of the time travel situation and kill Antony Cooper to change things. Talk about progress! Jin had time to accepting that he may never see his wife again, thus he stops being so obsessive and controlling. He settles down, accepts his new life, and learns English. Bernard and Rose are getting a vacation in a beach house near the beach.

The O6 however have a tough time. They should have never left. If they had the 3 years on the island like Sawyer, things would have been so much easier and different.

Still all this, the flashbacks, the flashforwards, the time travel are all ways of the producers to prepare us for the main course.


Flashsides (or as I like to call them: Flash- lifes)

My favorite top of the mountain!! Oh my god I was SO relieved to see the Losties back on 815. I was worried a bit but I was right after all!

So, given what I have said so far you can imagine by now that the Jughead stunt did nothing truly remarkable. It just split reality. So what? No point of freaking out, we all know pretty much what we can expect!

We have seen reality “break” with flashbacks, flashforwards and time- travel. The difference is that all these ways of watching the show are now merged together!

The ALT is practically a huge flashback with a just a hint of a flashforward (Kate still gets to play an important role in Aaron’s life) an even less hint of time travelling progress (Sawyer is not such a dick after all) and a big, big, big ways of saying: Hey! Do we not know like, know one another from somewhere?

Let’s look at this objectively and compare season 1,2 and 3 flashbacks with season 6 flash-sides. Anything seeming similar, apart from the same way of dressing and flight number? Well of course!

Easter eggs like season 1 Hurley’s financial manager saying to his boss that he owns the box company Locke’s working for becomes actual scene where Locke and Hurley actually meet. I cannot put my finger on it but I cannot picture season 1 Hurley, a guy who is haunted by the numbers bad luck taking time off to check the company himself. No sir. He has way bigger problems; he does not even care about how his money is spent in season 1.

Season 6 Hurley though did not play the same numbers or at least with the island sunk the numbers have no power of pushing Hurley to it after all.

So their lifes on the island did make a BIG change after all. They made the reality they are in much more coherent. Their connections are far stronger and obvious. I mean the deal with Jack and Locke in the lost and found or Kate giving Claire a ride? Come on!

So they would all meet eventually. The real question is would they have met back in season 1 if the 815 did “originally” land? I would like to think no. Jack would never meet Locke. His father’s body was on the plane. No meeting at the lost and found.

This season is going to be the best because it would be almost entertaining to see how they will all meet and recognize each other. It will be also cool to see characters like Boone and Charlie die via “the universe has unfortunately a way of course-correcting”. Can destiny be changed? We have yet to see that. It looks like a promising YES though. Charlie passes round 1 by surviving. I sure hope he won’t die in prison from crazy, big, hairy guys who might want to take “advantage” of him. He is pretty short and weak bodily. He would not last a day in jail, lol!

The flashsides are the way of the producers of saying “let’s now see what would happen if they all never came to the island but have experienced it already nonetheless”




Summary

Ok so we have this pattern: For the characters:

1) Flashbacks sucked
2) Flashforwards sucked
3) Time travel sucked for a bit then turned out to be fine
4) Flash lifes do not suck much so far


Now that I covered the history part (I said this is a Big theory) I can go on speculating what to expect from this last season.

On island we will see what will happen if they were all together again, and putting an end to the island by sinking it. Sawyer is a good candidate; he really hates “this damn rock” just like, and because of, Juliet.

The rules are going to be revealed just like the definitive meaning of the numbers. I cannot help thinking that the numbers and the rules are strongly connected (maybe the rules apply to numbered candidates but not for the rest? Maybe in ALT where Jacob’s touch –if it ever happened- did nothing to the candidates who are all doomed to die?) but I guess we will see how this plays out. One thing is for sure, this season will tell us the repercussions of a life without the island. I think they are all going to die because they know each other. A scene with Sawyer killing Jack or Sayid in ALT would not surprise me, as a scene with Ben killing Locke for not changing the coffee machine filter lol!

But seriously, I think that them knowing each other, even at unconscious level is possibly their doom. I think the ALT is where we will see them all die. They cannot live without the island as the island cannot live without them. A sunken island in the premiere tells me a lot.

But, let’s say that they are NOT supposed to die in the ALT, no island, no Jacob, no candidates getting crossed out, what then? What is the purpose of the ALT? Is that another way of the producers saying “Lets now watch them taking Aijira flight 316 in 3 years to go to the island willingly”?

Not a very good scenario. I think that if the island is sunk they are too “sunk”. Them dying seems more probable to me than them trying to find it. It is sunk, forever gone and they do not seem too much on the edge like they were on all previous seasons, thus wanting to somehow find it. Also we have the infamous Richard line in season 5 “I watched them all die”. Did he? And when or where? Jughead sent them to the present, it did not kill them. Maybe they die in ALT as I previously stated? Still so many questions….

Now let’s take the characters by turn.


Jack- Main Reality

A changed man, still trying to figure how he is going to fulfill his destiny on the island, Jack is ready for answers. He already demands them. He will eventually learn stuff, even if it kills him (which it almost did via taking-the-poison-pill). I am so afraid of our beloved spinal surgeon. He making it to the finale alive in the Main reality seems a bit difficult. Still he is a candidate and a good-not-crossed-out yet. Plus he seems to be the main protagonist after all. Locke did not last.
Jack will get answers and we will be happy to get them as well. Let’s cross our fingers for him.


Jack- ALT

ALT Jack has actually more chances to make it out alive with his ass. He has made interesting progress. His “nothing is irreversible” line means that his attempt to fix the “hot chick he kissed” ‘s father must have happened as well as saving his future wife from a life tied to a wheel chair. He is definitely more energetic and optimistic. He is good, even with his father’s body missing. He will handle it. Season 1 Jack would not have done so well. My money is with him surviving the ALT. To make a wild guess, he may be the only one surviving the ALT.


Hurley- Main Reality

Hurley’s actions in Main Reality have now a touch of his actions in ALT. And by that I mean he has tremendous confidence. Taking a leadership role and saving Sayid was awesome.
Hurley will play a significant role in all this, he may even outlast Jack. Taking a wild guess I would say that he would become the new Richard. His communion with dead Jacob is a good sign.

Hurley- ALT

ALT Hurley is definitely a changed man. He already helped Locke, he will help others to. He has the financial power to do it and he is strong willed. He might even help Sun financially so she can destroy her father who ruined her life. Hugo is a huge game changer now that he has both money and good luck. Plus he is a cool and awesome guy and that did not change in ALT. He is going to do some awesome stuff, just you wait. Plus, a scenario of Hurley dying is pretty much not an option. I am not saying that Hurley is for sure to get to the finish line but he IS lucky in both realities if you think about it. He is not the survival type like Sayid or Sawyer but still he stands, and without even any another go-Sayid-tricks at all!

Kate- Main Reality/ALT

Kate is not long for this world. It’s a shame to speculate so but I think that she will be the first to go in both ALT and on-island. She was always hard-headed and relentlessly unpredictable, and that’s a killer- factor in both realities. I am not going to even spend another separate paragraph for her being doomed. In one reality she has the sheriff on her ass and in the other she is not even a candidate, or if she is she is nowhere on Jacob’s wall. I cannot see her surviving the series. Her death however will be a huge factor and will change everything, at least for Jack and Sawyer in both realities, remember my words. Her only hope in ALT is either Sawyer or Jack. If she is to live she will have to make a final “decision” between the two. Take the rich spinal surgeon, a fake identity and a new life undercover, or go with the conman and have a lot of “Tampa jobs?” Kate has done both. She was actually married to a guy and she was under cover but it did not wor! k out and she did have a relationship with a douche bag who robbed bangs. This did work for her either but it was not a real love or life, just an excuse for her to connect with her sinful past. It will be interesting to see make this choice if she indeed makes it out alive long enough to do so.

Sun and Jin- Main Reality

Our favorite Korean couple is destined to reunite and, if I had to guess, this will take place near the finale. It may also be their “finale” as well. It’s not hard to imagine them dying 1 episode after or in the same episode their reunion happens. After all Rousseau and Alex died after they were reunited and I was so pissed to see that happening! Could Jin and Sun they be the Adam and Eve skeletons? I would like to think so.

Sun and Jin- ALT

I think that the couple in ALT has the exact same problems like it did back in season 1. I cannot put my finger on it but either Hurley or Sawyer will help them out with the Mr. Paik situation. Maybe Hurley will buy Paik’s company and destroy him without even meeting Jin and Sun. Hurley after all is a good guy and he would not stand doing business with a dick like Paik. Sawyer on the other hand could con Paik which would result to his final fall. We will see how this plays off. I for once am actually interested in seeing a Jin/Sun centric episode!

Sayid- Main reality

What you see is what you get. An Iraqi torturer who shoots kids has another go. But he pays a price for it. Just like Clousseau he is now infected. To make a guess I would have to say that Sayid is not long for the Main Reality. A guy who is infected will not last long inside the Temple, a place crawling with Jacob- believers. He either escapes or Dogen puts him on the ground one way or the other. He cannot risk being under siege from both the inside by infected Sayid and the outside by Smokey.
Sayid has to make a choice. Either he escapes and joins forces with MIB or he is shot down by MIB’S enemies. Really tough situation and he has to make a choice really, really fast. Dogen does not strike me as the type of guy who likes to sit and watch how things will play out. He will soon take action.

Sayid- ALT
ALT Sayid is the most hard to speculate on at this point. We have yet to see a centric episode of him in ALT. If I had to guess I would say that judging form his background he will get to trouble. A peaceful, long life with Nadia was never an option for him so far, I do not think it’s a possibility even now.
Shannon is also nowhere to be found. She is in Sidney getting laid by the Australian Robocop we saw her with in Season 1. It’s hard to imagine her meeting Sayid in ALT and miraculously change his life for the better. As far as Shannon is concerned, I think that her path is to die as always and I can see that happening during a really bad fight between her and the Robocop boyfriend of hers. He really has a mean punch.
So Sayid is destined to get into trouble and I think that is what is going to kill him in ALT. Still we have a lot of season 6 ahead of us, maybe I will be proven wrong. In my country we have a saying: “A mean dog never dies”. Sayid is a “mean dog”, thus his chances of survival in ALT and the Main Reality are 50/50.

Sawyer- Main Reality

Last but not least we have our infamous conman who I must say he has become a better man after all. He refrains from killing Jack, and he comes to realize that all the misery he has been through was because of his own screwed up behavior. It took him years of being shot in the shoulder, getting lethal fever, losing his parents, killing an innocent man and doing stupid stuff all the time to finally get there but its better late than never!
I can see Sawyer surviving most of the show, but not all of it. I think we are going to see him die one way or the other. And we are going to see a final fight between him and Jack. Who survives is up to destiny. My money is on Jack. Sawyer did make one last foolish thing of taking sides with Flocke. He will pay the price unless he changes his mind. But a final face-off with Jack seems inevitable to me. These 2 were always meant to stand on the opposite sides of the river.
If I had to guess I would say that Sawyer will play an important role in taking out MIB. Still I can be wrong. But putting a gun to MIB’s face is a good start, even without pulling the trigger.

Sawyer- ALT

ALT Sawyer is a head-scratcher. We have yet to see a centric episode of him and his overall behavior is really tough to predict. We can safely say that he is still a devious mastermind and knows his way around crime. We can also say with certainty that he has not taken his true revenge on his parent’s killer (Cooper is alive and well and he has a nice relationship with Locke in alt, the photos in Locke’s office and his initiative to invite Cooper to his wedding with Helen can tell us that). Maybe Cooper is not even a conman in ALT. Maybe Sawyer is a conman but his rage against Cooper does not exist. He does seem more calm and he does not seem like a man who shot an innocent guy a few days ago.
Thus it’s safe to say that Sawyer is somewhat different. He may actually be something entirely different in ALT, like a detective or a police officer, he has a talent for security, 70’s Dharma is a proof. That can explain his sudden interest in Hurley’s money. He speaks out of experience but experience coming from a totally different way of life, a life fighting conmen not being one of them. Makes sense and keeps up with the overall “Jacob’s progress” speech. Sawyer being a detective or a cop (or even a dirty cop) seems a possible scenario. A dirty cop would have no problem letting an escaped fugitive just walk away (and by that I mean letting Kate go even after seeing her cuffs)
If I had to make a guess I would say ALT Sawyer has a lot more chances seeing the end of the series than Main Reality Sawyer.


TO SUM THIS UP

Season 6 will be awesome, and when I mean awesome I mean like seeing 17 LOST finales awesome. At least this is how I feel. We are going to learn about the rules, the Numbers, the infection, the Others, Richard, Jacob/MIB and as it seem so far, a lot other small plot details. It’s enough for me.
But the most important question that will be answered is how and why all of our beloved losties connected with each other are. This is the main question in LOST and I think that by answering that, the producers will create an “answering chain reaction” that will answer smaller questions that we have, you will see. We will be like “OH! So this explains why “X’s” being there/doing that or the “Z” situation happening/not happening.” One answer, THE answer, why and how they are all connected will answer more than we can hope for, I am sure of it.

Thanks for reading me!