The O6 and Ben are going “back” to the island
This idea came to me while responding to Saucyrossy’s theory on Island’s Constants.
I apologize for the rambling, but I’m still working out a lot of the ideas here. Let’s think about what we know for certain and what we might know.
First we know that the island has traveled backwards in time. We know this from seeing Yemi’s plane crash and the reappearance of the Swan station (pre-implosion).
We don’t know if one or more of the other time jumps the island has endured has moved it forward past the moment that the O6 left.
We do however know that Locke was able to move past that moment since he appeared to each of the O6 before his death in 2008.
We know that there is another way off of the island since Locke was able to leave.
We don’t know if the means off the island is via the donkey wheel. Unless Locke has a means of setting the time period he needs to travel to it would seem unlikely that he’d use the donkey wheel. (Since Locke’s reason for leaving was to talk the O6 into returning he would need to be able to insure that he ends up in a time that they are still alive.)
It appears that the island changed locations as well as time periods. This is implied by Yemi’s plane crashing on the island – a plane with a range of roughly 1,000 miles.
As much as people may hate the idea, the island is definitely in a time loop. We know this again because of Yemi’s plane. Locke encountered the plane prior to Ben turning the wheel, yet his turning the wheel appears to have caused the plane to crash there.
We know that at least one of the remaining survivors (Dan) has the ability to travel back in time to a period that precedes the DI’s ability to manipulate time. He was present at the building of the Orchid station that allows them to time travel. Whether the means to travel to this time was via the Orchid station or by another means we don’t know. Seeing some of the other survivors there might help to answer that question but he certainly appeared to “belong” there and there’s the 2 hour period where he was missing from the rest of the survivors when they went to the beach.
As Dan explained the current situation, either the island or the remaining survivors (or both) have become ‘dislodged’ from time. He used the analogy of a needle skipping on a record. As Saucyrossy points out in the theory linked above, it seems as if the island needs all of the survivors back for some reason. Remember that Locke practically pleaded with Jack not to leave – all the while repeating the statement that they aren’t ‘supposed’ to leave. Yet they did . I believe that without them all present on the island, the island itself can’t continue moving forward in time. Instead the island is bumping backwards in time each time it approaches the time period in which the O6 left. The remaining survivors are also being bounced around along with the island.
If this is the case it certainly changes the meaning when the O6 say they need to get ‘back’ to the island. Let’s assume for a moment that the island isn’t allowed to move forward physically because of the missing survivors and instead is “skipping”. This would mean that at some point along the time line Jack and the rest didn’t leave and doing so now has created one of the situations Mrs. Hawking referred too as needing a course correction. Since the O6 are off the island and are still moving forward in time (currently living in 2008) yet the island can’t advance past 2004 it puts them in a difficult situation. They need to return to a place that doesn’t exist in their time. The answer would seem to be then that the O6 must go back to a time when the island is there.
Let’s also assume for a moment that there is another means to go back in time. We’ve seen Desmond’s ability to move back and forth in time off the island and certainly Richard Alpert appears to have this ability as does Mrs. Hawking. My suspicion is that she is working with Ben for this very purpose – thus the 70 hour window she mentioned in ‘The Lie’. So if she is able to get the O6 back in time, what time point would make the most sense? If it were my job to get back to the island I’d be going to the one place I know for certain will get me there – flight 815 out of Sydney. They know for sure that if they’re on that flight they’ll end up on the island again. This obviously opens up all sorts of issues and ugly paradoxes about dealing with the ‘original’ O6 members who are on the flight but I’ll save that for another theory. (In a nutshell I think it may help to explain Jacob’s lists and the people who are ‘taken’ in the first several nights on the island but as I said I’ll save that.)
Before they board that flight I think they will undertake one other task. What if it’s the O6 who staged the fake crash site and not Widmore? That would explain a lot actually. If Ben and the O6 staged the crash and they are responsible for pulling the strings to make sure everyone who should be on the flight is – it simplifies things and begins to make more sense to me.
Most of us have assumed that Widmore had some way of knowing about the crash before it happened and undertook the extravagant task of creating the fake site. But there are a few problems with that idea. One of issues that has been bothering me is that the freighter Captain shows Sayid and Desmond the black box from the fake plane. It was stated in a TV report shown in ‘The Lie’ that the FAA was examining that black box. This means that even getting access to it so soon after the crash would have been a large undertaking. Why would he go to the effort of obtaining it if he knows it’s fake? What would be the point? And why put it on the freighter? What are they going to use a fake black box for? Also for him to stage the crash means that he would need to know where NOT to put the plane. That means he would need to have a some idea of where the island is located in order to avoid accidentally inviting dozens of recovery vessels off the coast of the real island.
Now consider that it’s the O6 and Ben who fake the site. Ben knows the location of the island in 2004 since he allows Richard, Tom etc. to travel to and from the island. He knows where to put a decoy that will ensure that the island isn’t accidentally located. Ben certainly has the means to pull off the fake crash site. Meanwhile Jack and Kate and the rest of the O6 can begin to put the pieces into place to make sure that some of the others (i.e. Sawyer, Anna Lucia, Claire, Eko etc.) are on the flight. There were a lot of strange circumstances surrounding many of the survivors means of boarding that flight and I believe it very possible that the O6 are at least in part responsible for the conditions that led to them being there.
Jukin, I really like your thought process on some of the issues at hand.
In particular, I love the idea that it could have been the ’06’ who staged the fake plane crash.
It makes perfectly good sense, that ‘the island’ has physically moved, via Yemi’s plane. Nice catch on that one!
Wow ! That’s a lot to digest in one sitting.
My knee-jerk reaction would be to disagree about Chas. Widmore not being the force behind the crash… It would, however explain how Tom has a complete dossier on how it was done to show Michael in New York.
Can you elaborate on why specific people would be on Jacob’s list for recovery? Also, if you watch Hurley’s numbers run to get on the flight you have to wonder how this could be some manipulation…
Notice the island is not just skipping back. The beachcraft crashes. John encounters Ethan. Skip FOREWARD. Now the beachcraft is covering the Pearl hatch. John encounters Richard. Skip BACKWARDS, Now the Beachcraft is back on the ledge. Skip further BACK and so on…
I do love the part about how the island is moving from place to place as well as through time. Yemi’s plane having a limited range has always bothered me. How could it find its way into the middle of the Pacific. It is not equipped with spare fuel tanks inside… But if the island MOVED closer to the continent of Africa…
If you are right about the island waiting for the 06 to get back in order to do a time course correction (and I am betting you are) then that is going to be one MAJOR course correction!
Dabs- Thanks much! I just read your theory on Foucault’s Pendulum and in my opinion, it’s definately looking in the right direction! Excellent work!
Andre7- I don’t want to say too much about Jacob’s list simply because I’m still working out that theory. Basically I’m thinking that there are several other people who have been to the island and are now looking for a way to return (Libby being one of them) who find their way to flight 815. Those who have “returned” to the island have to be separated from those who are making their first trip. These are the people who are to be taken and appear on Jacob’s list.
As for Hurley at the airport, I’m not following you. He wasn’t one of the people who were manipulated into boarding that flight. I’m talking about people who wouldn’t had been there if specific events didn’t happen – Eko was given a passport by a man in the confessional and then suddenly assigned to travel to LA on Church business. Sawyer was arrested and told he would avoid jail if he left on the next flight out (815). Claire was given the ticket by Richard Malkin as a means of placing the baby for adoption in LA…. there are a lot of people who were placed on that flight in some way. That’s the manipulation I’m talking about.
Lastly the idea of the island skipping backwards was in reference to the date Dec. 31, 2004 – the date the O6 left. The time jumps the island has experienced seem to all be prior to that date (although they do move forward they have yet to move forward beyond 12/31/04).
When Alpert visited Locke it was at an unspecified time in the future. There’s no way of knowing how far into the future that was – only that it was a point where the O6 were back home.
“As much as people may hate the idea, the island is definitely in a time loop. We know this again because of Yemi
“When Alpert visited Locke it was at an unspecified time in the future. There
I like your theory and how it expanded on mine.
However I don’t think it makes sense for the O 6 to go back all the way to the beginning and fake the one plane and cause the other to really crash.
To me it’s more about the present than it is about the past.
Like you said and I did, the O 6 are in the present, once Ben moved the wheel he made it so the Island could never go past that point, it is in a loop never able to move past that point.
So about how Locke got off, it was stated by Alpert that for Locke to leave the time loop he would have to die.
It makes sense mainly because if he dies then he is no longer apart of the time loop, he can move out of it. Now the confusing part. How can Locke die on the island, get off then be able to talk to Jack and meet with him and tell him that after they left bad things happened?
That I am still going to think some more about but I suspect we will have our answers soon.
Saucyrossy, I don’t think the O6 caused the plane crash. That event appears to have been answered several seasons ago. Desmond was late getting back to that hatch following his fight with Kelvin that ended in Kelvin’s death. My thought is simply that they go back in time and stage the fake crash before boarding the flight again – possibly in disguise and certainly using fake passports and identities.
As for Locke needing to die, I think it makes more sense that he dies as a result of leaving the island during the loop – although I don’t think his death is necessarily a physical requirement. When Richard tells him “you’ll have to die” it could also mean that the impact of knowing he dies is the catalyst that convinces Jack & some of the others to want to return to the island.
Jukin, I think you have provided the right information to substantiate your theory.
I’d love to know what your thoughts are on Jacob’s list! That is one mystery that has been killing me from the beginning.
Please throw us a bone! lol
If we go with the theory that the 06 are getting back on the island by boarding flight 815 again ,wouldn’t that mean this probably won’t happen until the final season or near end? It seems too long of a wait.
I really like this idea but am having trouble seeing it through and what exactly it will mean.
How exactly will the o6 get back to that time to board the flight again.
I like to think that ben knows the outcome of it all and has been able to travel in time off and on or from the island. I didn’t believe he would stand by while his daughter was shot unless he already knows she is alive in the future, but now the rules have been changed because she was apparently killed.
Also the room where he is with mrs hawkings…is that on or off the island. Could it be the place he told alex to go becasue it was the only safe place on the island….The Temple? could this be where he travels from? I know this is also an out there theory, but hey…just thinking out loud
lostfan- very interesting to bring up the possibility that Ben and Hawking’s meeting didn’t necessarilly have to be off the island. Is there nothing in that scene that would relate to the real world?