September Theory Contest
I believe that the pilot was killed and the others were not harmed for the following combination of reasons:
1. The smoke monster (Man In Black) was seeking people that he could destroy. The opportunity arose with smokey approaching the plane and the individuals inside making themselves known and thus directly exposed to the danger. The pilot became a target when he became visible to the smoke monster, which made its move. The motivation of the smoke monster is part of the “game” between him and Jacob – Jacob’s “guests” are here to prevent smokey from leaving the island, so smoky destorys those that he can, and instills fear and dread in those that he cannot harm via the “rules”.
2. Kate and Jack are not attacked because they cannot be attacked via the “rules” – they are both candidates and thus can only be harmed by accidental death of killing themselves (a plot that smokey ultimately unfolds with the submarine plan).
3. Charlie is not attacked because – IF he is not a candidate, which I will assume here – it is not “his time to die”. One thing to recall is that at the point that the plane crashes, Kate and Jack have already been to the island in terms of a true timeline (they were there in Dharma time – forming future events which include the crash).
Because “whatever happened, happened”, Jack and Kate (and Hugo and others) are destined to go back in time. I think it is reasonable to assume that Charlie is a link to this destined timeline – he has freewill, but he also has a destiny (actually is called predeterminism when someone has freewill but also an ultimate destiny) with the candidates that helps “course correct” them on their journeys. His relationship with them helps forge each of their predetermined paths into the past.
Another way to think of Charlie’s destiny is his impact on Hugo during his life; Hugo, in my opinion, was “fated” to become the island’s keeper. Charlie’s life and death help Hugo become the person he must – the eventual Guardian of the Island. In this way, Charlie was “destined” to guide Hugo on his path, and thus Charlie could not die until it he had fulfilled this destiny.
What is the proof of this?
Charlie’s bond to a predetermined destiny was made clear when his “time to die” had come; this is driven home by Desmond’s attempts to save him which ultimately fail (because they have to).
Not to elaborate too much more, but to clarify the predeterminism that I am referring to: think of a book with a beginning and an end. Charlie can write the book however he wants, but the ending never changes – and along the way, there are likely a few paragraphs that also must appear. Thus he has free will, but also must eventually conform to course correcting and to his ending – the ending of the book. Not everyone in Lost had a “Destiny”, but I believe Charlie did, which was why he was spared in the Pilot – because his life afterwards and eventual death were meaningful to the Fate of the island, and thus the Fate of the world.
Glad to be writing about Lost, Time Travel, Fate and Freewill again!
ClairesPB! like it..
Pace was 195 in the cave (scratched off). That said, you’re point 3 could be an answer to another question I’ve been popping around.
“The Numbers” 4, 8, 15, 15, 23, 42 – they STILL had special significance – even before 815’s crash … as if the island itself was calling those special 6/7 to resolve Jacob/MIB’s cyclical conflict.
Maybe all the numbered outside those 6/7 weren’t an exhaustive list of candidates, but a list where candidates were included amongst hundreds of others who could not be killed until they were crossed off the list because of their part (destiny) in the final resolution.
Hey – so you’re sayin’ Charile IS Lost (e.g. the writers had an ending that could not change and along the way there were things that could not change … )
@ Bobt – thanks. I haven’t read the other theories yet (did not want to influence my own), will check those out soon and comment!
@waycurious – yes, I think that the Numbers still had special signficance. And your point about Charlie = Lost is a fantastic analogy! The beginning and ending of Lost were predetermined, and there were certain events that HAD to happen along the way (course correction), but everything else was free will….
I’m with penelopedean, I think there should be a spin-off. I kid and not. Now onto the business at hand.
I’m of the similar belief wrt predetermined life lines including the free will component. ‘What happened, Happened’, ‘The Constant’, “It always ends the same” and so on; These opened ended statements/epi titles /lines lend themselves to a vague overview of the series’ ideas and events. Intentional or not, guidance is made available and can be applied for much of the material covered throughout. An accumulation of info leads to a derived ratio of answered to unanswered questions is much larger than you would think, I think. The balance is left to interpretation and applied to furthering any theory as expected.
Having said that, as with much of Lost itself, there is a phenomenon that apprears to resemble a pseudo mathematic/scientific model. Ok maybe not that pseudo! For example; if you do something 10000 times whether you are talented or not or fast or not or the like, it is said you will ‘perfect’ whatever it is. Or if you discuss a whole lot of topics you’re bound to hit one that facinates the person(s) you are talking to. In our context and wrt the story, the undetermined will become the determined which will become the predetermined. But who’s to know, it all seems so random, or should we say predeterminedly random.
This broad swipe at presentation and content describes I hope, a large portion of the story and I hope Admin posts another theory debate close to this idea. It would be fun to discuss. Or should I say I’d personally find it facinatiing!
wow, it’s been ghost town around here lately, needed to check in..
@wolfx- love your comment man, if we could vote on comments I’d vote on your last one “the undetermined will become the determined which will become the predetermined” classic
Thanks Bob, if you spent as much time as I have and continue to do wrt exposure to EMR, you would be a little crazy too ha..ha.
C…P…B…hello.
Im not going to compliment you yet…oh its coming, but not yet…lets go over my thoughts…
1) Perfect answer… He knows the pilot is of no use, and kills to add points to the score, scratches to the wall if you will. As much as its a game, MIB knows that the more he kills, the better his odds are.
2)Perfect again…said it in my own theory.
3)I cannot express how much I agree with everything at this point. This is about the best way to explain my view now that its all over…better even than I have explained
it myself.
As much as I loved to argue over the idea of changing the past on the site, your explanation really couldnt be put into better words.
Its not really fair at this point, I skimmed the theories before writing my own to see if everything was on the same track or separate, and I purposely neglected yours a little more due your wider viewpoints, but all in all…I would say that you have this hands down. You hit everything needed to sell this theory (havent read comments yet) and I feel that it would actually be ridiculous if you do not win. (No offense to anyone, this is just extremely well written)
Very nice to be reading your thoughts again.
Im not used to losing before its over, or have even fully read the other theories, but it would be a mistake in my opinion to not vote for this one.
Nice job CPB…
I was tied between voting for CPB’s and AES’s theory…AES, I believe you just helped me make my decision, thanks 🙂
Kidding kidding..still going to be tough