Desmond was Right

random theories

wjmaggos — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:39:57 +0000

MIB and Jacob were both exposed to large doses of electromagnetism, and both experienced flashes like Desmond does. All this confusion over who can kill who comes from the future that they have seen, and perhaps the future seen by others as well. MIB has seen Kate die in the future, thus she cannot be the one who replaces Jacob. In addition, MIB and Jacob are each other’s constants.

The numbers come from the lighthouse dial. Each number is a degree on the dial, and due to the weird pseudo-science nature of the island, the mirrors display the lives of that person. This type of viewing supplements the flashes I mentioned above. All the other number stuff is somehow related or complete coincidence.

Widmore simply wants the island all to himself, and is willing to kill anyone in his way. Killing MIB requires Desmond to do something deep in the island where the electromagnetism is too strong for anyone else to travel to. Perhaps it is the location of MIB’s original body.

The sideways is just one of an infinite number of ALT universes. LOST is combining this idea in physics with determinism, twisting it to say that there is only one timeline that truly feels right (the original one), and you can’t change it. All the discussion about course correction and Desmond saving Charlie never actually affected this timeline, he was simply seeing other ALT universes and acting in this one, like he was always destined to. The gun was always destined to fail everytime Michael tried to shoot himself.

ok, check this. why should the human mind evolve to make sense out of our physical world? what if it mostly succeeded at this task, but failed in one critical way. it made up cause-and-effect and consciousness when they really do not exist. the physical world just is, at this moment and the one before and the one after. just like the human brain gives us depth by combining the visual input from two eyes, it gives us consciousness and cause-and-effect since the sensory overload is too much to process all at once.

ok, time for bed. 4 out of 5 coherent paragraphs is enough for tonight.

The Big Picture

wjmaggos — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 06:13:50 +0000

Ultimately, the show is about human reaction to fate. There is no creator that decides this fate, and people living thru this fate nearly always feel like they have a choice. Locke represents the mistaken belief in some creator of fate, and Jack is the refusal to accept fate at any level. Desmond is the alternative, by his refusal to accept the argument made at the Lighthouse that he must go back to the island, and his decision to go live a good life with Penny. Desmond’s response will be shown to be the most rational and fulfilling by the end of the show.

The season 5 finale was a microcosm of the whole show, with Rose & Bernard fulfilling the role of Desmond. In that episode, we are basically splitting time equally between two stories.

One, we are led to believe, is about Locke finally discovering his grand purpose. All this belief, destiny, guidance from the island, being special stuff that we’ve been led to think about Locke is coming to fruition. And then it turns out to be completely false, as he is already dead.

In the other story, Jack thinks he can fix everything. That’s who the guy has been for the entire show, and now it’s his ultimate opportunity. The story follows his effort to erase the entire plane crash, and who knows what else. He will fail also, as whatever happens, happened.

So the episode’s two main story arcs demonstrate human ways of dealing with fate that ultimately fail. And yet, there is also the return one-off of Rose & Bernard, who tell our Losties just to “live in the moment” and enjoy life and the people you are with. The show will end up demonstrating that despite all this craziness on the island, the show is really about the people like Damon & Carlton said, and folks like Desmond and Rose & Bernard will be shown to be the wisest of all.

All the mysteries of the island are there to serve this larger human story and existential question. But all these mysteries stem from the strange physics of the island due to the energy deep below. Nothing in the show is supernatural, but those kinds of thoughts always arise when we fail to possess the scientific understanding of the natural world. And the show intentionally plays off of that part of human nature to keep us guessing. MIB/Smokey is like Dr Manhattan from the Watchmen except stuck on the island, Jacob & Richard don’t age for the same reason Sawyer and the other time travelers don’t age when they time travel, Jacob used religion to keep the Others in his service but it was all a lie, premonitions & flashes are due to the human mind not being completely wedded to the linear notion of time, there is no course correction but simply mistaken premonitions, and pregnancies fail on the island after 1977 because time is no longer moving at a normal rate and women/men and their reproductive organs/fetuses no longer age at the same rate.

The Curious Case of Richard Alpert (& Jacob)

wjmaggos — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:11:17 +0000

Ok, they are not getting younger, but somehow, they both haven’t aged in at least 100 years. My guess is that it is a similar effect to how some of the Losties travel through time.

When Sawyer and company appear to jump through time, what is actually happening is that time is just moving extremely fast forward or backwards around them. It is like a camera’s film being overexposed, as in the shutter being held open too long and the film turns white. That is why the sky turns white, for us and the time-traveling Losties, our eyes are getting overexposed.

Well, if this is happening and the time-traveling Losties are experiencing time at an accelerated rate, why don’t they age? While my only explanation for that is that they are in some kind of bubble when it happens, why can’t that be the same explanation for Richard and Jacob? They are in the same sort of bubble, where living with time moving normally around them for 100+ years doesn’t age them either. While I have no idea why most of the Losties are connected in the same bubble but Sun is not, my bet is that there is a pseudo-science explanation. But Jacob has convinced Richard that the effect is supernatural and that he, Jacob, is responsible for it. Thus Richard views Jacob as a god.

The Sickness

wjmaggos — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:12:45 +0000

It seems like nobody knew that the smoke monster could take the form of the dead. Even Alpert didn’t suspect the Locke wasn’t really Locke. So my guess is that when someone acted really out of the ordinary, they had to explain it somehow. Rouseau’s husband is the best example. He wasn’t sick, he was already dead and she was confronting the smoke monster. And besides, how could there be a real sickness when the island cures cancer and lets Locke walk?

The Final Season

wjmaggos — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:01:07 +0000

My prediction is that the 6th and final season of LOST will focus on the Others, both in the past and post-Jacob. It will be an opportunity to find out that everyone who skips thru time was actually born on the island (like I’ve said earlier). The 3 different names of Marvin Candle will be shown to be 3 different time-traveling versions of the man. We will learn that you cannot change the past, and a big emotional development will be learning to deal with that. Alpert is from the Black Rock boat.

The Smoke Monster

wjmaggos — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:50:31 +0000

Jacob’s adversary is the smoke monster. It took the form of Locke, and Locke is really dead. Just like Miles, it needs a dead body to read the memories. And the monster is able to use that to take the dead’s personality too. The monster is like Dr Manhattan in the Watchmen, formerly a human but turned into something that can take any form it wants, with a somewhat still human mind. For the monster, this was caused by the energy and some event on the island, but it could have been in the future and transported the new being (monster) into the past. But for some reason, it is bound to the island and has been for many, many years. And it was jealous of Jacob for being able to leave.

In Season 6, the monster will take the form of Claire as it did after she died in the house explosion that we think Sawyer saved her from. It may take the form of Juliet also.

John Locke Is Dead.

Gil — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:18:35 +0000

John Locke, T-1000

The Locke we see is just Smokey running around, just like Alex was the monster incarnate. The box that they are lugging on the beach contains Locke’s actual body which we will probably see later this season. It was marked AA823, AA probably meaning Ajira Airlines, and/or it is from the cargo and not a “drop” like the Losties found in earlier seasons.

This explains why we have seen Christian Shephard, Mr Eko’s brother, and other “walking dead”. Smokey is sort of like the souls of the islands inhabitants. I think someone mentioned something about nothing staying buried for long in like season two or three (possibly during the Paolo/Nicki times).

I Don’t Know Why Sun is in 2007

wjmaggos — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:27:02 +0000

yeah, i got nothin

Explaining Time on LOST

wjmaggos — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:45:18 +0000

Time on the island moves at a variable speed compared to the outside world, sometimes slower and sometimes faster. People adjust automatically to both, so the days seem to pass at a normal rate. But when you get kicked to the real world by turning the wheel, 4 days on the island may be equivalent to months off island.

The island isnt flashing to different time periods, but instead, certain groups of people time jump together while those outside the jumpers dont even notice the flash. Im not sure why certain people are tied together, but when Ajira comes to the island, the Oceanic 5 catch up to Sawyer & friends in 1977. And if you travel thru the proper heading between the island and outside, time maintains relative to groups of individuals.

There is another way to time travel that we havent seen yet, and its probably related to the Temple and is what Alpert uses and where Ben is going since he is currently stuck in 2007.

Random Recent Thoughts

wjmaggos — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:59:00 +0000

Everybody is in the same time period on the island, DHARMA time.

The flash, that caused the Oceanic 5 & Locke to disappear and move, was caused by DHARMA. Just like Oceanic 815 had to be flying over the island during Desmond’s fuckup, so did Ajira 316 have to be flying over during something similar, maybe the Incident (1985?).

Widmore becomes leader of the Others just after we meet him in 1954, he is the leader till Ben tricks him into pushing the wheel in 1985, and Ben executes the purge in 1992. Since then, Alpert has been formulating a way to remove Ben and install Locke. (Lost Mythos Podcast put this together.)