Fail Safe Key
Ok guys even for me, this one is a stretch but when I came up with the idea I wasn’t exactly sober.
In the first episode of season5 Daniel says “you can’t change the past, no matter what you do, it will find a way to fix itself, can’t change the past”
Daniel tells Sawyer it is pointless to knock on the hatch back door “it didn’t happen, so it can’t happen”
But then he has this idea, flips through his little book full of science stuff and DI information (he obviously studied the DI before he came to the island, he even says so) and decides to knock on the door himself because he knows Desmond, and apparently knows that Desmond is special!
Daniel is our resident lostie physicist so we pretty much have to take him at his word. He knew what time to meet Chang, what day to arrive on the island etc… HE KNEW WHEN THE INCIDENT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!
This is why he came back, he said that THE HYDROGEN BOMB COULD NEGATE THE ENERGY and therefore the button never made/needed and the plane wouldn’t crash.
A lot of people on this site have stated that they think Juliet was the major variable, that she changed her mind to help Jack, ended up at the bottom of the hole and started hitting the bomb with a rock.
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My theory as follows –
In another timeline Juliet did not help Jack (keep in mind we have yet to see how they get out of ’77) but however the events play out, the bomb still sits at the bottom of the hole and the DI digging causes the incident.
What if that bomb becomes the fail safe? I mean why else does the hatch have blast doors? They sealed off the entire swan site with cement and left a spot with a key that can NEGATE ALL OF THE ENERGY AS A LAST RESORT.
The key could be the detonator. When Desmond turned the key, the sky turned purple, everyone heard a loud noise and Desmond went somewhere.
What if he went to alternate reality/timeline. The Eloise he meets, the man with the red sneakers, all kind of a down the rabbit hole/wizard of oz type of thing. He has a chance to marry Penny and be happy but he doesnt take it, he throws the ring away which causes the timelines to merge and he is back on the island in 2004. Anyone ever notice that it seems like their are different versions of the Penny & Desmond marina pic?
Maybe when Desmond turned the key, the energy was not as exposed as when Juliet smacks the bomb. What if the same way the fail safe sent Desmond somewhere will send our losties somewhere as well – To an ALTERNATE TIMELINE/REALITY where they have some memories of the island but are not sure if its real. They will run into eachother and eventually figure out that they belong somewhere else, at this point the timelines/realities will merge and we will be back in action!
*I know Desmond’s flash was purple and the second time it was white – sorry!
*I know Locke was in the hatch when Desmond turned the key – All of the DI was around when the bomb went off and Radzinsky still builds the swan, paints the blast door map. Chang still makes the swan orientation film that Radzinsky edits. They obviously don’t flash. Only the important people do!!!!
Rip it apart!
It had already been suggested that the experience that Desmond had would affect the losties in 77 in the same way because the sounds that are emitted are precisely the same, they’re not an explosing sound they’re a flash sound. However you do bring an interesting element in that by having this experience, Desmond was ‘given a chance’ and he didn’t take it; I think this is brilliant. In fact if the same thing happens to the losties, they might land at LAX and somehow be given a chance, however at this point I don’t know what that would mean!
Joshcgs, I absolutely love your theory and the way you have related it to actual occurrences in Lost.
The different pictures of Penny and Desmond also make sense to me, as do all of your other references.
My only other thought is, if some of the past events that we have seen may have been the result of a ‘loop’. Now that ‘the incident’ has occurred, this is what may direct the time lines to eventually merge, as Jj23 described in AES’ theory about alternate time lines.
PS: Brilliant explanation on that Jj23!
I am uncertain as to how this will all play out, in terms of the time lines merging, though. S6 should shed some further light on that.
Top Notch!
YES!
some of it im a bit hazy on, but the part you say about them meeting each other and being weird and thinking about what they are doing is what i think will happen at the beggining of the Final Season.
Hopefully after this blast its Kate that ends up running around naked…
But seriously, this theory is pretty plausible. I think it might actually send the different people back to different points in their lives, not everyone in the same moment. But with the first episode being named LA X, maybe they all do land safely in LA with scattered memories of the island and what’s happened previously. Then the two things stand out to me are that if it does happen that way, are they once again going to have to find a way back to the island? And did Jacob mean “they are coming”……after they all go thru a chance to make a life altering decision? Im not sure. I was really hoping the whiteness at the end of the finale was the same kind of flash as when they were skipping through time. (donkey wheel uses the same energy as the swan site) But I think the Carlton/Cuse mentioned that the Dharma Losties wont meet up with the 2007 Losties for like 4-5 episodes. So im lost as to whats going to happen with them for the first few episodes. And the anticipation is driving me loco!
I think you could have hit the nail on its head with this theory. I love it.
I never noticed the difference between the two pictures, but I looked it up and indeed, they differ very much!
Well after the hatch implosion, There were 3 people in the hatch at the time. Locke, Ecko, and Desmond. Desmond as we know was able to see the future after that, and was able to manipulate small variables, but it would eventually correct itself. (The multiple saving of Charlie’s life for instance.) However, even though it corrected itself by eventually Charlie dieing, Charlie was able to get a message via his hand to ultimately alter events. I think that if it becomes manipulated enough it runs out of control to where the universe cannot correct itself but will continue to try.
What if this weird energy a long time ago caused something like this to happen to someone somewhere and the whole story/situation the 815’ners are in are a result of the universe trying to correct itself.
Also, I’m not so sure that Desmond was in an alternate reality so to speak like this theory suggests, but your theory does bring up a good point. Since Desmond could see the future after the hatch implosion, you can bet that everyone who was near the hatch will be back in Season 6 Episode 1 discovering that they can see the future much like Desmond. Then we get to sit back and enjoy how the writers let it play out, as there are too many variables to discover their correct course of action for the show.
Speaking of unknown variables. We have no idea the radius of the explosion that the nuke caused. If it was just local it would have sent maybe those in the immediate area. But if it was big enough for the whole island, then it could have sent everyone back, including Ben, and Rose, and Richard, and everyone on the island. We’ll have yet to see. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited. Let’s hope that President Obama’s Address to the nation doesn’t interrupt LOST on Feb 2nd.
Another thing I forgot to mention.
I think that the writers showed us the scene where Desmond actually asked for the ring because before the original incident, before the 815 guys crashed, before the timeline was screwed up, Desmond lived a happy life with Penny.
In showing the scene where he was going to take the ring, however, It was Desmond trying to live his correct timeline again, but something was still amiss (Keep in mind the universe trying to correct itself.). Eloise as an older lady was in the ring shop because her timeline is still jacked for her and others, she told him, your not supposed to take the ring. Thus disrupting the timeline for desmond again.
Also the photo of them being happy was taken if you remember on the marina by a photo business guy seeing a happy couple just before Desmond realized he had to go back and broke up with Penny moments after the photo was taken.
My theory is, if Desmond was that if Desmond was the only one who was affected, he would have fixed it by turning the key, but since he isn’t, things came back to interfere with his normal timeline.
very good theory, it makes sense and im a non-believer of alt. timelines so to make me believe this is good then it must ACTUALLY be good!
With the photographs though, i think i read on lost wiki that it was just a continuity error.. unless theres another different photograph..?
I have always wondered the reason for a fail safe in the swan. it just seems odd that somebody needs to push a button every 108 minutes when at any time the fail safe key could have just been used. why wasn’t the fail safe turned right at the beginning to prevent all the hassle of setting up a button and then scaremongering people into pressing it?
Obviously the turning of the fail safe key was a far more important event than we have been led to believe. Locke who was there at the time has said almost nothing, neither did Charlie or Eko. Desmond just appeared naked with his mind now working at another level but why?!?! This part of the story hasn’t really been explained either.
Maybe turning the fail safe was the lesser of two evils – if the button remained unpushed and the fail safe key not turned, some sort of mega catastrophe may have happened.
(sorry for going off at a bit of a tangent!)
I love this theory.
If they do decide to do an Alternate Reality of sorts next season then this is the perfect way to do it.
It’s already been done with Desmond, so why not?
Regarding Des and Penny’s photo, not only are there slight differences but there seems to be 2 copies (Desmond had one and Penny had hers framed next to her bed). From what I remember, they only had 1 copy printed.
Although I’ve just realised that to have slight differences in the photos means there must be at least 2 versions, so it kind of makes my last point a bit redundant.
Sorry 😉
The idea of the bomb as the failsafe was written quite awhile ago by Highbrow who hasn’t been on this site much lately. I can’t remember his whole theory but I am going to go back and find it.
I love this theory…
less then 11 days people…
TawaretsAnkh,
For Dan’s “If it didn’t happen, it can’t happen” theory, how did Jin/Roussou’s group(sp), Locke/Ethan, and Locke/Richard (1950’s) happen?