Why Jughead Caused the Flash-Sideways
This is just a quick theory on how and why the jughead detonation (or not being detonated) “caused” the flash-sideways we are seeing (let me know what you think):
What we are seeing now are 2 scenarios playing out:
1) Jughead was detonated (Island Time Loop)
2) Jughead was not detonated (Flash-Sideways)
Island Time Loop (chronological in Lost Time):
1) Losties Crash
2) Losties travel back in time
3) Losties detonate Jughead which neutralizes EM energy
4) Swan is built to keep EM energy at bay
5) Desmond comes to Island and doesn’t push button
6) Losties Crash – Repeat
Now, by detonating Jughead they created a timeline where Jughead never was detonated:
Flash-Sideways (chronological in real time):
1) Jughead not detonated and Radzinsky’s hole is not neutralized and slowly sucks entire Island underwater
2) Ben/Roger leave Island, Pierre Chang/Miles leave Island together, Jacob doesn’t touch Losties
2) Swan station not built (Desmond doesn’t go to Island)
3) Losties don’t crash
4) Losties don’t travel in time
5) Losties don’t detonate Jughead
6) Losties don’t join Dharma
7) Sayid does not shoot Ben
On a side note, part of me feels that the Flash-Sideways is the Real World that is being protected by the actions taken on the Island. This is why Widmore murders people from Ajira and says he didn’t “kill” them because they are really still alive in the real timeline (the flash sideways). This is also why Jacob doesn’t worry about what happens to people because they are still living their real lives in the “flash sideways”. The smoke monster is trying to jump from the Island to the real timeline (flash sideways) which will destroy “real life” for everyone. This can also explain why people can travel through time and talk to the dead, etc on The Island or even off the Island in Island Time – this is not the “real world”, the flash sideways is the real world where things like this can’t happen. And this doesn’t diminish what we have seen of their Island Time Lives because these lives have an effect on the Flash Sideways Lives of the people so it all matters overall.
Thanks for reading. Fire away…
Very interesting theory, one I actually wouldn’t be annoyed at if it comes true lol. However I feel they might have focussed more on the flashsideways if it was in fact the real timeline and made it seem more plausible – at the moment it feels very pretend, like it shouldn’t really be there. And how would MIB getting off the Island in the original timeline equate to him getting into the flashsideways/real world? Would he just appear in a puff of smoke? But still, interesting thoughts. We shall see…
If the flashsideways/ALT = the bomb did not go off so Dharma got the f* off the island before it sank…how is it that MAIN timeline Sun, Frank, and Ben came across Dharmaville in it’s 77′ abandoned state (recruitment banner still hanging up)? In other words…..If the bomb not going off/ALT causes the island to sink – how can there be evidence of the ALT (island sinks before 9/22/2004) on the island in the MAIN 2007? I’m confused.
Maybe the unpredictable result of 815 not being completely recreated via 316 – was that they ALL landed back on the island in the ALT scenario (Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid in the ALT 77′, Sun, Frank, Ben in ALT sometime before 9/22/2004) … before the island sinks which will be caused by something we obviously haven’t seen yet.
I was with you until this part: 7) Sayid does not shoot Ben
Sayid shot Ben BEFORE The Incident. Everything that happened before The Incident happened in both timelines.
There is evidence for Sun and Frank to find because in the Island Time Line Jughead went off and the swan was built and everything we have seen happen has happened.
It’s in the Flash Sideways (real time) that the Island sank shortly after 1977 changing the lives of everyone involved.
@Trinity. Nope, everything that involved Losties on the Island never happended in the Flash Sideways timeline, how could it? They were never there!
But they had to be there to cause the Alt Timeline.
If they weren’t there then no Alt Timeline would’ve been created.
but they couldn’t have been there because the plane never crashed. I know, it’s weird, but that’s the way it is. Apparently blowing up a nuclear bomb on a weird island with EM energy can do some crazy stuff
The two scenarios you have explained so well is also what I was thinking. There is a chicken and egg paradox because jughead must be detonated for 815 to crash, but 815 must crash for the losties to go back in time and detonate jughead. The only way to resolve such a paradox is for two separate timelines to exist.
I think all of the stuff you explain in the last paragraph is great. I hadn’t thought of any of that. I especially like what you said about Widmore ‘not killing’ the Ajira passengers.
There is one thing I don’t understand though. You say that people can do things like talk to the dead both on-island and off-island because it is still all Island Time, not flash-sideways time. So if the smoke monster leaves the island, won’t he continue to be in Island Time, not flash-sideways time? What does he have to do to get to flash-sideways time?
Now the big question is what happened to smokey in the created timeline? is he trapped underwater? We all know he has a weakness for water. And how would he travel from one timeline to another? I’m pretty sure that the airplane wont take him there. I’d really love to see the story take the turn that you mentioned, however. Then again, Darlton said we wouldn’t understand the significance of the alt timeline until the last episode. Maybe this is the losties way of “defeating” him?
Those are great questions. I guess I’m saying that Smokie’s goal is to not just get off the Island but get out of Island Time into the “real world” which according to my theory would be the Flash Sideways. He is not planning to leave by the plane, he is planning to kill all the candidates so there will be no more Jacobs and then he thinks he can be free.
According to Widmore/Jacob, if Smokie becomes free then that will destroy the “real world/flash-sideways”. I’m not sure where Smokie will go then, but maybe it will reset time or he thinks he can go back in time and reinhabit his old body or something. Or maybe he will destroy everything except for Scores and he will spend eternity getting lap dances and watered-down red bull vodkas.
As far as what happened to Jacob/Smokie when the Island was sucked under during the incident (that was not stopped by Jughead), this is an awesome question! I have no idea! I guess that’s why I can’t wait to watch
I really like many of your thoughts here doublewide…
Im a pretty firm believer that the island was sunk with the detonation.
Being a firm change and loop advocate, I agree with just about everything you say except for the ‘real world’ stuff…although I dont fully cross it out while trying to keep an open mind.
Last year I said pretty much the exact same thing about the loop of the island, and had plenty of debates. I think the flash sideways was a way to compromise a change with a WHH…
Although I feel that this is true, I think that we will see either WHH or change be decided the victor in the end…and if you are right and the FSW is the real world, then one way or another there was a change…
These are some great thoughts. On your comments about Smokies goals, I always pictured the FSW as more of a creation by him to enable escape.
Water would most likely be able to kill him because of the electromagnetic properties. If its true that he cannot cross water, which who the hell knows if it is, then if the island sinks with him on it…well…death seems to make the most sense.
That’s true, but I’m not sure where everyone gets the idea that the smoke monster can’t travel over water. We’ve all just been told that he can’t change from Locke’s form for some reason and that in turn takes away his ability to fly, I guess.
@A.E.S-I’ve also felt that the detonation sent the island underwater, but how did the losties get transported from that timeline back into the one we’ve been watching for 5 seasons. It definitely has to do with the electromagnetism, but lost being lost everything has been extremely vague
Thanks for the comments.
The reason I think it wasn’t the detonation that caused the Island to sink is because of WHH. The detonation always happened and this gave DHARMA time to build the Swan and then so on…
The Island is underwater in the FSW because the Losties weren’t on the Island to detonate Jughead so the hole kept spreading and sucking (not meant to be gross) and eventually sucked the Island under.
There must be a reason that someone hasn’t just “killed” smokie and why they trap him. Maybe the world needs evil but only in small doses from a distance and a world without evil would be just as bad as a world with it…who knows, now I’m waxing philosophical…
Nice theory! I do believe the explosion caused the ALT as well.
My version of how the island sank is similar but slightly different I think.
Regarding the sinking of the island: I’m in the camp that time travel is only possible via the consistent histories theory, meaning if you go back in time, whatever you do there already exists in the future. So if I went back in time and buried a chest of gold, it would be there all along (like if the Losties had gone straight to the Other’s houses after they crashed and found the picture of themselves in 1970s Dharma even though they hadn’t time traveled yet. WHH).
Based on this theory, since the island is not sunk (in the reality we are familiar with), then the explosion did not cause the sinking in this reality.
However – when the H-bomb went off, the electromagnetism it released was faster than the explosion itself (speed of light vs however fast an H-bomb explosion is), so when the ALT was “created” or “turned on” by that event, the explosion occurred in that reality (ALT) and sunk the island there (in the ALT) – basically because the H-bomb energy had to go somewhere via the laws of physics….
hmmm not sure if that makes sense, but its how i’ve been looking at it so far.
anyhow i really like the theory you’ve written here, and it has me thinking….
I really like that idea of the bomb energy jumping to the alt as well. good explanation