The Little Mysteries by Eddie Marques

A lot of recent theories have put many loose ends of the show into perspective, but I'd like to elaborate on a few that I feel were overlooked. My only criticism for the series is that that D&C didn't give themselves enough episodes develop a few of the minor story lines that they set up. The first three seasons outweigh the last three. Daniel, Ilana, and Charlotte were among the characters that had to compromise their stories due to lack of time. In the end these details don't matter, so now the creators want us to imagine and figure out on our own, which still keeps the series fresh, but I digress...

I will begin at the beginning, this is also a pretty long post, but it's worth it!

The light from the source = TIME

CANDIDATES/LIGHTHOUSE/SPECIAL

After Jacob hired Richard and discovered MIB wanted to kill him, Jacob was probably in the early stages of figuring out how to defeat his brother and Richard and the Others was a game changer. Jacob constructed the lighthouse in order for the island to put a face on who was special. Those who are special can become a candidate. They also have a significant amount of light from the source inside of them, alluding to what Mother said in "Across the Sea". Some are naturally special, others are because they were born on the island. Everyone has this light inside of them, but candidates just have more of it. That's why men have tried to take it.

The light from the island reflects off the mirrors in the lighthouse showing the lives of those who have the very same light inside them. This is what allows the observer to watch it like a television. From the lighthouse, Jacob chooses those he sees best fit for the role of being a candidate. The only difference between being a candidate and being special is Jacob's interest in you. His touch gives you protection from MIB because a rule is created. Being a candidate is basically a label for the MIB as a target. If you're special then MIB still can't kill you because of the light inside of you.

Richard was most likely special, and the island brought him there. Jacob didn't know who he was because he didn't build the lighthouse yet. He transfered some of his light (time), into Richard, making him special. As soon as Jacob passed the torch to Jack, Richard became mortal, because Jacob's light went away for good, and out of Richard. It's a good thing he was still immortal when Smokie knocked him out of Dharmaville. Desmond and Walt are exceptionally special because the amount of light inside them, although they were not candidates. MIB could also take the form of Walt, who is the only living person that MIB could do this too, so the Others had to get there hands on him. MIB however could not turn into Desmond because everyone level of light (or electromagnetism) is different, but I bet that Walt could've done the same thing Desmond did in the heart of the island. Miles is also naturally special, but is not fit for being a candidate. His name was clearly crossed off the list in the caves. I'm going to guess the scene where Bram abducts Miles in the van was his test for candidacy, and he failed, but he was still special. Ben's name was also crossed off. He was indeed special because he saw his mother from the source, like MIB. It's important to note that we see two versions of Ben's mother, much like we see two versions of Isabella on the island. In both instances, one appearance is from the source, and the other is MIB impersonating them. Ben's mother at the window was from the source because MIB could not get passed the sonar fences. MIB later impersonated his mother because he was on the other side of the fence. Ben was also unfit for being a candidate likely due to his time as leader, much like Widmore. The tumor on his spine is the proof of the island wanting him out.

On a side note, the island took Jack's appendix because the island knew Jack would get stabbed there by MIB, and the island needed Jack to put the plug back in the source in order to save the island. Much like Locke and being shot by Ben where his kidney used to be. Boy the island sure is selfish!

TIME TRAVEL

When the wheel is turned by someone who's special (Ben, Locke) and you're special and have the light inside you, then you time travel. When the polar bears turned the wheel, the island just moved on the axis is follows in the pacific. Everyone on 815 were some of the last candidate/special people to arrive, others that weren't were lucky and survived the crash. This is why all the remaining survivors like Rose and Bernard moved with the losties. They had the light inside them as well, but were not candidates. Richard didn't time travel because he doesn't naturally have the light inside of him, it's borrowed from Jacob. Sun either was never a candidate to begin with, or because she had a baby her light was transfered into Ji Yeon, making her unable to time travel. Claire also had Aaron, who now has Claire's light. Although it could be that she was infected, which brings me to the next part...

INFECTION

I believe that the infection only happens to those who are special because the amount of light they have. When Sayid died, his light went away and was replaced with what I can only say would look like the black smoke instead of the light from the source. MIB gave Sayid more time, but it's borrowed from MIB. This probably happened to Claire in the barracks when she blew up in the house. The sonar fences were down and the Smoke Monster probably came into Dharmaville along with Keamy and company. He appeared to her as Christian and gave her more time. I'm pretty sure MIB can be invisible as we've seen in a few cases of him, well, disappearing out of thin air. When MIB was killed, or perhaps even when the island's cork was removed, the infection went away, because the infection goes along with MIB corrupting the light from the source. So when Claire left the island, she left without the influence of MIB. Most of Rousseau's team were candidates, so he had to lead them to the temple with bait (Montand). Montand's arm was ripped off because he was being held onto by candidates, MIB didn't take his arm, but they did. He probably died quickly and MIB took Montand's form, or at least borrowed his voice and lead the rest of the team into the temple were they somehow got infected. Who knows how long Rousseau had to wait for them. Two months later she killed them and MIB got what he wanted. Rousseau was a candidate, but she had Alex, so she was no longer a candidate anymore.

OUTRIGGER

Most people that are brought to the island are special, so the island naturally pulls them there no matter what! Yemi's drug plane, Rousseau's team, and the Black Rock are amongst the few. The time flashes are what brought most of the things we've seen on the island there. The Black Rock journal in the Lost special edition answers the question of who was in the outrigger shooting at Team Locke. A search group from the Black Rock went to go explore the island, I imagine it was much like the freighter and people started getting cabin fever. Those on the outrigger were special and were on the bubble of the perimeter of the island. They experienced the time flash and were briefly in 2007 and for some reason were shooting at Team Locke. They eventually made it back but I believe all but one survived, someone will have to double check that one, I haven't bought the complete series yet.

WIDMORE/ELOISE

Sometime after the incident, Eloise came to believe whatever happened, happened, more than likely due to the jughead plan not working and cause and infertility issue. She was probably in denial and wanted to stay on the island and raise Daniel there, this is what Widmore wanted as well. With the time loop existing, Jacob and the island needed Eloise to leave, so I'm sure Jacob visited her and convinced her to go. That and the help of the notebook, Eloise got her omniscient knowledge of what was going to happen. Widmore and Eloise made a deal with Dharma to get Eloise off the island in exchange for Ben and healing him. Ben would then work undercover for the Others. Widmore left the island with Eloise on the submarine to go the mainland. Widmore acquired his fortune and Eloise settled at the Lamp Post as a part of there deal. While Charles exploited the island and Dharma for personal gain. I'm sure Eloise was the one giving Widmore information that she had to about the island. Eventually Widmore returned to the island and claimed the throne, being the one married to Eloise. Like everything else, when the 80s hit, everything went bad.

DHARMA/PURGE/OTHERS

Dharma began losing funding, perhaps Widmore had something to do with hijacking the Dharma Initiative. The pregnancy test Sun had, had Widmore's name on it. Keamy and the freighter folk also knew a lot about the DI, as well as that mysterious ZOE. We haven't seen much of Widmore's time as leader, but it seems like the tension between the DI and Others wasn't that big of an issue, mainly because the DI was operating on fumes. The radio tower was already abandoned in 1988.
Dharma Initiative was well aware of Jacob and his influence. I'm sure Ben probably organized coups on both sides of Dharma and the Others. I believe many of the others in Ben's regime were apart of the DI before finally defecting to the Others. If you remember, Amy Goodspeed's first husband, Paul, had the ankh, which is a connection to Jacob and the statue, and Amy held onto it. I believe after a certain amount of time Amy eventually defected to the Others with Ethan due to her religious belief and she had faith in the island. Horace was a man of science, so the two likely split and Horace stayed along with Radzinsky and Roger. I believe that Annie was suppose to have fathered Ben's child, but due to the pregnancy issues, she died. Widmore was well aware of this and kept it from Ben. Ben found out about this and decided finally remove Widmore. Tom Friendly worked at the Hyrdra station, "It took the polar bears 2 hours to figure it out". Goodwin and Harper worked at the Tempest, due to the chemical burn he had and most likely turned on the toxic gas that killed the DI. Mikhail was probably recruited along with Kelvin, but defected as well considering how much he praised Jacob. He lost his eye in the purge somehow and used a glass eye that he later discarded because it looked stupid. It looks like the Arrow was blown up or something . Wish we could've seen it when it was operational. The Purge was only a result of cleaning house of Widmore's doings. Once those Others operating on both sides figured out Widmore was in cahoots with the DI, he was exiled and removed as leader. Roger probably started acting like a jerk to Ben again and showed no sympathy when Annie died, bringing up parallels to how Roger's wife died the same way. This was the tipping point for Ben and he would be able to kill two birds with one swift genocide. We never actually see the fate of Chang, but it's suggested he died in the Purge. I always thought he might've defected to the Others, maybe that's what Dogen was originally suppose to be!

DOGEN/NON CANDIDATES

Note that Dogen said he's been on the island for 15 years. Jacob approached him in 1992, the same year of the purge. Dogen was special as well, and Jacob's touch allowed Dogen to protect the temple and those inside it. Dogen's light also allowed for the ash or mineral to work. When Jacob died, the natural protection of the temple went away, which is why upon hearing of Jacob's death, the ash was put around the temple. Dogen was in charge of everything temple related. The lists that Jacob gave the Others were to take NON candidates who were not protected from MIB and had no significant role in game that was going on, like Cindy, Zack and Emma. Ana Lucia and EKo ultimately had no larger role on the island and weren't candidates, both of them were almost taken by the others, to become Others, but instead they resisted. The reason why the main characters weren't on Jacob's list is because Jacob was several lists, Others, Candidates, and Bodyguards (Ilana, Bram, Dogen). Dogen was the only other aware of Jacob's plan because Jacob only slowly started to reveal his plan, and Richard was already affected by MIBs time loop. Dogen was also aware of the afterlife from the source, which is why he didn't just kill Sayid. He knew that if he killed Sayid out of convenience then he would lose his son in the afterlife, just like before. The baseball falling was his reminder. Dogen was also self aware when he met Jack in the sideways and moved on with his son. Mikhail and Keamy were terrible human beings and died in the afterlife, they are not allowed to move on and probably not even stuck on the island. There essence is completely gone, Dogen was well aware of these consequences. Richard was kept in the dark because Jacob need to use him much like MIB was using him. Jacob knew of his demise, and Richard NEEDED to be conned in order for Jacob to release himself from protector.


HENRY GALE

Widmore used the race around the world to send Desmond to the island and also find it before the intended time he had to in 2004 to send the freighter. Henry Gale worked for Widmore and got caught in a time flash because he was keeping track of Desmond, but also participating in the race. From the note he wrote to his wife, it sounded like more of an exploration rather than a recon mission.

JACOB'S TIME TRAVEL/SOURCE

Jacob is 110% light. He can go to any place and any point in time he wants to and he can take certain things with him if they're from the current timeline. If Jacob wanted to he would will himself off the island to the year 2000 in LA, he has his own set of rules to where he can't affect certain events, but influence them. Like when he touched the candidates. When Richard visited Locke as a baby in 1956, he probably just held onto Jacob and he willed them to the mainland. I'm sure after the occupation of the DI, Richard started using the sub. Tom also said that some of the Others are allowed to leave the island. I believe the ones allowed to leave are the Candidates, Tom was indeed a candidate. Ben could've known about the lighthouse and the candidates list, but didn't know there significance, even his last name was on the list. He never said that he didn't know about the candidates list. He probably kept it very secret, so the Others who were candidates wouldn't find out that they are candidates. Ben would've had to have remembered Sawyer being La Fleur since he was on the island for three years. I take it his obsession with Juliet comes from her tending to his wound as a child. A opportunity that I feel was sadly missed and made the whole "you're mind" thing make a little more sense. Candidates are allowed to leave because the island will inevitably bring them back even if they don't want to. Jacob also knew how to manipulate the source, much like MIB does when he impersonate dead people, which is why Jacob kept appearing as a child and there was all that light around him. Jacob's ash allowed him to have more time, so at some point in the future Jacob made Jack the new man in charge of the island, much like when MIB made Richard tell Locke he had to die. Jacob knew pretty much how everything was going to play out, with the exception of a few details, like Sayid getting infected. He just had a "didn't see that coming" look on his face when he was staring at the spring.

SIDEWAYS AWARENESS/MANIFESTATIONS

In the sideways world, Christian was totally playing the long con on Jack by pretending to be dead. When Jack saw "Christian" off island, this wasn't the smoke monster, even though the smoke alarm was going off, i believe this was intentionally mislead. They were rather blowing smoke in our direction. The appearance of Christian, Charlie, and Ana Lucia off island are from the source. The same Charlie we see talking to Hurley at Santa Rosa is the same Charlie we see talking to Desmond at the bar in the sideways. Ana Lucia talking to Hurley is sometime after she "woke up" in the sideways. The appearances on the island from the source are likely, Claudia, the first appearance of Ben's mom, Libby on the freighter, Michael, and Christian on the freighter welcoming Michael to "go" and join the whispers. Along with Dogen, Eloise was self aware and decided to stay and live the life she never had, as well as Miles and Ben, who spend time with the people they didn't get to spend time with because of a sacrifice they had to make for the island. I find it interesting that Desmond, Hurley and Ben were the first few that "woke up" considering that they were on the island last. It seems as if Rose and Bernard have already woken up. Rose refers to Hurley as being her boss. With Hurley's new friendly island regime, I'm sure he spent time with Rose and Bernard helping people that arrived on the island.

*SIGH* That was a lot, hope this stirred up some ideas in your heads, let me know what you guys think. I know there's a lot more ground to be covered, so let's elaborate!