The Chicken and the Egg: You say Potato, I say Potato.
In the vein of these age old aphorisms, which do you think was from a more ancient period in time: The Well, or the Non-Well (I use Non-Well to refer to the time period directly after John descends the well: where the castaways are standing around solid earth with the rope stuck in it). It could go one of two ways.
1. The Well is from a more distant time. This means it was built by the “ancients” (temple folk, hieroglyphs) and then later (for whatever reason) dismantled and filled in. Or, along the same lines, built by the Dharma and then filled in. ( I think its more likely the first)
2. The “Non-Well) is from a more distant time. This would mean that for however long (an instant, from that point forward, etc) the castaways were standing very possibly in a time period even before the ancients (assuming they built the well): and, at the very least before Dharma.
I’m more inclined to go with the first. Which leads me to wonder why the ancients filled it in?
I’m just freestyling here. These ancients. I do not think we’ve seen them before. I think they are a long dead people. Killed, perhaps, in a volcano eruption. Killed, perhaps, as a result of their dealings with time.
There is speculation Richard is one of them. His mysticism certainly leads me to believe this may be the case. He is old. He knows Jacob. He has a certain communion with the island. One may argue that his ignorance of Time Travel would preclude him from this role. I view it from a different light, which I hope will open up further discussion.
The word that keeps arising this season is resseurection (whether by the anagram on the van, Jeremy Benthem, or more revealingly, the translation for the hieroglyph in the Frozen Donkey Wheel–http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hieroglyphs– (P.S–curse that son of a bitch who coined that term, forever dooming me to refer to the wheel by such a ridiculous moniker)
As viewers, we have become focused on Time Travel. We are, after all, the fourth wall and thus privy to information not shared with the characters. So though it is clear to us that time travel is a large part of what is happening, was this clear to those who built/discovered the “exotic matter?” Perhaps they saw the matter as a force to achieve resurrection. Of what? Dead leaders? The island itself, perhaps? This remains to be seen.
In the conversation John has with Richard in “Jughead,” he talks about events that have yet to happen. He speaks from a futurist perspective. He does not use the R word, nor make mention of exotic matter or a Donkey Wheel (basically because he had no idea of these things at that time) Had he done so, he may have gotten a different reaction from Richard. So while this is not proof that Richard is absolutely an Ancient, it suggests that perhaps Richard’s apparent ignorance of Time Travel is not actually ignorance, but rather a case of semantic misunderstanding: the whole “you say time travel, I say resurrection debate.”
Why hadn’t the Losties stumbled on the well earlier? How did Charlotte know about it?
They never found the Temple either, they didn’t really explore the island unless they had to i.e food, water, the radio tower and the black rock.
Charlotte knew about the well as she grew up on the island or was born there.
I agree with dave; all of Charlotte’s memories came back to her right before she died, so she knew where everything was, and knew to warn Jin.
Isn’t the well where the Orchid is going to be? or am i completely wrong here?
The well was where the Orchid was going to be, based on what was implied in the show. I do not think you are wrong in that.
So the well was likely there before the station, and the solid earth before the well?
Makes sense to me…
shanimal44, Really nice theory. Very nicely written and presented as well.
This also was something I’d given thought to as well.
Charlotte remembering the well, is definitely from her childhood on ‘the island’, during the DI days.
When the flash occurs, we do not see the well, and we also do not see the ruins of the temple.
What we do see, is the entire area, overgrown with foliage and no well.
This indicates to me, that it was in the past, before Dharma, but not so far in the past, that it goes back to ancient times.
If that were the case, we would see the temple in better conditions than we do.
Only the outer wall of the temple remained.
Good stuff bringing up Charlotte. slipped my mind. Though I’m not 100 percent convinced she saw the well herself, and it could very well be Faraday or another castaway gave her the information, just as Dan told her to get off the island.
Dabia. When you refer to temple are you talking about the Temple Jin saw? Or the wall outside the well? Because I think these are two different things.
i personally think the “non-well” came first. Then the well (possibly made by the hostiles), then Dharma came in and build the orchid around/over it. Don’t know why i think that, i guess i just figure that Dharma came along and found the well, maybe didn’t do much with it for awhile, giving random dharma members like little charlotte time to discover and play around with it.
By the way shanimal44, i checked out your blog and must say you have an amazing wit in your stories, good on ya. and i hope you enjoyed Victoria, thats where i’m at! 🙂
This is my view.
Well was there at the time of Dharma/Charolete, hence her knowing to “look for the well” the time period the losties jump to, is post well, pre orchid. There would at least be remnants of it, no?
This is the interesting part. As far as I know, we have not seen anyone in the actual future. Tell me if Im wrong on that.
When they jump to the point after they leave Charolette, Juliet comments about how luck they are to arrive at that time..then they jump again.
But with those words by Juliet and the scene of the Orchid, it seems two things are off.
1)The orchid seemed not really in construction, but deconstructed or older and half destroyed or at least uncared for, leading me to believe that it was possibly the future.
2) Juliet knowing what the orchid is, and if Im right and they did travel to the future, why they were lucky.
If it was the future, how would Juilet understand that they are lucky to be in that time?
Overanalyzing again maybe, just seems off.