Jughead was the Failsafe, Significance of the Incident, and the Numbers (you'll like this one :) ) by Illinidesi06

Hey all,

After watching last night's epic ending to Lost and being able to look back at and reflect on the show's past events, and reading about all the confusion out there with respect to the "alt" and what happened at the incident. This is my personal explanation of events surrounding the incident, numbers and the alt (which is not the alt, but in fact purgatory/limbo), and while you may not agree with it, I think its a solid theory with a lot of backing that may help many people.. well I'll come out and say it.. "let go" :p

Key points:
- There was never an "alt" caused by Jughead, what we saw was purgatory/limbo, a place where the Losties could find each other and come to terms with their lives before moving on
- Jughead did NOT blow up in the 1970's
- Jughead was the failsafe, and was detonated by Desmond in Season 2
- Desmond did not time jump or flash-sideways during Widmore's experiment, he had a near-death experience


The Incident:

Whatever happened, happened! Jack, Kate and the gang ALWAYS tried to detonate Jughead in hopes that it would negate the release of electromagnetism, resulting in the Hatch never being built. Little did they know that while they thought they were changing the course of history by dropping Jughead down that well, they were in fact doing what they always did. Juliet never detonated Jughead, and the release of electromagnetism caused the Dharma Initiative to create the Hatch. But here's the kicker.. they used Jughead as the failsafe, as a back-up in the situation that the button wasn't pushed, and it was too late to control the release of electromagnetism.. how did they know to do this?! Pierre Chang knew what Faraday predicted Jughead could do, so he had it installed as the failsafe. Jughead blew up when Desmond turned the failsafe key, and as we saw by the empty pit where the Hatch used to be, Faraday was right, it worked, the pocket was destroyed. As a result, Desmond was given the ability to within strong electromagnetic forces, and survive. This is where the importance of the incident comes into play.. Desmond didn't flash-sideways during Widmore's experiment, as there was no flash-sideways, he had a NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, which allowed him to see into the purgatory/limbo/afterlife they created, and subsequently allowed his "purgatory" self, where he's already dead, to realize that he had already lived, a life that involved the island and all the Losties. An ability that ultimately helps all the Losties find their loved ones and see what they died for, in order to move on. If the Losties never dropped jughead down that well, then Desmond never would have turned the failsafe key, never gotten the ability to withstand the EM, and wouldn't have been able to help destroy the smoke monster by pulling the island plug, as well as help the Losties in purgatory move on!! Juliet experienced something similar to Desmond after the release of EM during the incident, which allowed her to see into purgatory/limbo/afterlife as well :) .. this is why the incident and jughead were so important!!

The numbers:
Simply put, each of the numbers adding up to 108 corresponded to the people who were key to the incident.. Locke (died prior to, but brought them all back), Jack, Hurley, Jin, Sayid & Sawyer.. these were the hatch numbers, the all important numbers that supposedly haunted Hurley all his life.. but it was the people these numbers corresponded to that aided in the incident, placed the bomb, which turned into the failsafe, which was turned by Desmond giving him the ability to bring them together in the afterlife.. Hurley's cursed numbers weren't a curse at all.. when all these CANDIDATES worked together, when the numbers were added up, it resulted in Desmond's abilities, which helped save the island, and their souls.. cool, huh?!

Sorry this was a little winded, but hopefully it helps make sense of the incident, jughead, and the numbers.. let me know what you think! :)

SRD