LOSTBLOG: "The Variable"
One of the most popular theories about how "Lost" will end says the last scene will be Jack Shephard waking up in the jungle, staring into the face of Vincent the Dog. The time-loop comes full circle, and we end up right back where we started.
But until tonight, it never occurred to me that the plane crash could be avoided completely.
That's what Daniel Faraday suggested to Jack and Kate moments before he was shot dead by his own mother. Of course, as is par for the course on "Lost," no one bothered to ask Daniel the obvious question: If the plane crash never happens, then what becomes of the Losties in their present, which is now 1977? Will time "course-correct" and erase them from existence, Marty McFly-style? Will there be a dimensional split resulting in two sets of Losties? Will detonating Jughead obliterate them all? Will the space-time continuum be irreparably harmed? And let us not forget our friends who are on the island in 2007; what happens to them?
The answer to these questions might lie within the pages of Faraday's journal. But no matter what happens, we know that people do, in fact, escape the island before either the incident occurs at the Swan site or Jughead blows -- which means they leave within four hours of tonight's closing scene. Young Miles Straume and his mother and young Charlotte Lewis and her mother both make it. (How great was Faraday's encounter with Charlotte? Her first words to Daniel -- "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner" -- were also her last words to him before she died.)
But Daniel Faraday was pretty much the only person on "Lost" who ever thought he could change the past. And no matter how brilliant he was, he could not deduce that his mother (and father, who we now know is Charles Widmore) orchestrated his trip to the island simply so she could shoot him dead. Back in Season 3, Eloise told Desmond that the past could not be changed, and insisted that "every single one of us is dead" if he had never turned that fail-safe key under the Swan station.
And now, two years later, that line of dialogue takes on entirely new meaning. "Every single one of us" may not simply refer to the Losties, the Others, and whoever else has ever set foot on the island. It may refer to all of existence. The paradox that would result from Jughead destroying the island might, in the world of "Lost," not just rip the space-time continuum, but completely end it.
If that's the case, and Eloise and Widmore know this, then they have been the good guys all along -- they're saving the universe. But what does that say about Benjamin Linus? I'm afraid I don't have a theory about that yet.
And none of this helps me with the other huge question hanging over us: Why did Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid zap back to 1977, while Ben, Sun, Locke, Frank and everyone else on Ajira 316 stayed in their timeline?
And here's yet another question: Why did Eloise refer to the still-breathing Desmond as "a casualty"? Is my prediction going to come true?
What a tremendous hour of television we've just seen. Two weeks from now, we just might have answers to some of these questions, along with a whole new set of questions that won't be answered until January 2010. Why do I have a feeling that this year's finale will make that wait seem longer than ever?
I stopped watching this drivel after the second or third season. The constant commercials every 7 minutes and endless plot twists made it too much to bare. I didnt realize it was still on until I saw this article. Personally, if anyone is still caught up in the idiocrasy that is "Lost" then your own life must be realy lacking or you lack sound judgment (like the writers as mentioned before). My theory from the beginning is that they all died in the plane crash, and our hence "lost".
This Saturday, September 12, in Anaheim, CA, LOST cast members are going to be making a public appearance at Disney's D23 Convention; additionally some really fantastic pieces of LOST history are going to be on display- including Kate’s toy plane, Hurley’s winning lottery ticket, Locke’s hunting knife, Sawyer’s letter and many other surprises! These items will be on view Thursday September 10 through Sunday, September 13, the entire weekend of D23, and will be up for auction after the series finale in May of 2010.
Look for the guys in the Dharma suits! Get the full story at profilesinhistory.com !
Click here to read a great theory about Season 6 from a user over at darkufo.blogspot.com.
The gist of it: The lists of names that The Others work from, including the one Bea Klugh gives to Michael in Season 2, are written by the Losties themselves while hiding in the temple, post-Incident. Wrap your head around that one.
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...Where will they go from here? If this were the end of the series, I could see them either detonating the bomb and maybe leaving what happens a mystery, or instead having the Losties choose not to detonate the bomb, because without the crash they never would have met. Etc. etc.
But there is another whole season left! I think y'all are right in thinking that efforts to stop "The Incident" actually cause it. And I think Dr. Chang will die trying to stop it.
I think the show has been consistently preposterous from the beginning, and that is why it is AWESOME!! And I'm sure we will see at some point how Ben was returned to the Dharma initiative. The show has been so solid this year that I have near-total confidence that Damon and Carlton will deliver a satisfying final season.
This is getting a bit ridiculous. Seems that the "Lost" writers are even out thinking themselves. A show that wasn't supposed to last past a few seasons, is now forcing writers to explore every single ridiculous idea and run with them. Time Travel? Are we going to see a young Ben being groomed to take over "the others" and how he set up a more civilized society on the island? Where is John Locke and his quest for harmony? Where are the remaining people who didn't make it off the island? The writers can stall awhile because they can spend endless hours supposedly tying up loose ends, that should have never been introduced in the first place. Most ridiculous scene yet, was the gun fight before they jumped in the jeep.
After investing so much time, I feel have to continue to watch this show until the end, but like the Sopranos it's not because I WANT TO it's because I FEEL I HAVE TO.
They are much more focused now that they know how and when the show will end. It's always been a complex show, and it's getting more so. But that's the beauty of it. And they're hardly running with every ridiculous idea -- name one from last night.
1. That Daniel was Whitmore's son
2. That Desmond was a necessary casualty
3. That Daniel can stop the whole existence and BASIS of the show by detonating a hydrogen bomb on the island. Which of course, would blow up the island, and how is he going to detonate it? Is Bruce Willis going to make a guest appearance and do it by hand???
The show is spinning out of control with way too many plot lines, characters, and not enough substance to tie them together. So you have 2 camps in 1977 facing off, John Locke and his cult, and Benjamin Linas....Who by the way, they never showed how the others raised him and took care of him to make him the man he is in 1977.
We have more to find out about Ben. I'm guessing we might find out more about his time with the Others and leading up to the Purge.
and re: #3, no way can daniel stop everything from happening, that was my point. in trying to stop the Incident from happening, they're going to cause it.
It's also not the least bit ridiculous that daniel is widmore's son... that was in the cards all along; i suspected it as soon as we found out young ellie was his mother.
I think the next two episodes will prove just how ridiculous Daniel's idea was.
thatgirl is on the right track when she says that detonating Jughead will lead to the plane crash anyway. Maybe Daniel had to die because then -- and only then -- would his journal wind up in Jack's hands, which would lead to the same series of events that always happened. Who's to say that Jack and pals didn't try -- and fail -- to detonate Jughead all along?
And how is it ridiculous that Widmore is Faraday's father? It seems like a surprise to us, because we're finding this out 20 episodes after we met him, but Faraday was presumably written by Lindelof and Cuse to be Widmore's son this whole time.
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that faraday could have -- or jack and kate et al can -- make it so the incident never happened. they can't. because that would mean they never got to the island in the first place to fix it.
lost may be playing with time-travel, but i don't think they're going to rip a hole in the space-time continuum. a much more plausible prediction is that in trying to stop "the incident," they will instead cause it.