A Loss of Cabin Pressure…bzzbiudh…static…(Oct/Nov Contest)

“Thank you for flying Oceanic…We hope you enjoy the ride…”
“We cannot express the importance of you understanding how important airline safety is to hgdjhs…”
“jdbsjhb”… static “kjdsjgc”… static
“If you would please fasten your seatbelts, and position your seats to their full upright positions…”
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Man outside the cabin: “Knock knock”
Man inside the cabin: “Who’s there?”
Man outside the cabin: “Anyone you want me to be…”
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From Lostpedia…”According to Locke’s dream in “Cabin Fever”, Horace died 12 years before 2004, in 1992. Other evidence supports this date for the Purge. Kelvin Inman, who served in the Gulf War (1990-1991), joined the Initiative, presumably before the Purge. (“Live Together, Die Alone”) When Danielle arrived in 1988, the Others had apparently not yet moved to the Barracks. ”

We know that the ring of ash surrounding something, in this case the cabin, is used to keep the monster at bay, whether in or out. We also know that Dogan was at least one of the people who was capable of creating the ash (or poison, as I believe it is the same as what was in the pill he tried to make Lennon try to make, Jack try to make…Sayid take). I assume that since Ilana and Bram came on the “316”, and were in possession of the ash…other ‘Others’ had the knowledge of it as well…making it nearly impossible to learn who actually surrounded the cabin with the eventual “broken ash ring”. But we will give it a go anyway…

In the Losties time frame, meaning excluding the monsters appearances in “Across the Sea”, when is the earliest we have actually seen the monster?

I believe we see the monster in the early 70s posing as Ben’s mother (considering the fact that they were on opposite sides of the fence), but due to the fact that Richard Alpert makes a comment about “fences keeping other things out, but not us”, referring to ‘us’ as the others, makes the thought that the monster was very much around in Lafleur and earlier extremely likely. (actually, I think Bens scene with “Mom” comes before “Lafleur” on the timeline)

Basically, we know the monster was a concern and known to the Dharma Initiative before the Losties travelled through time.
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“jhsgckusd” …static… “hjsgcjh”
“Everything is not as it seems folks, no worries when flying Ocejkbdsn…idcixkjnc”….static
“Be sure to visit our sister company, Ajirwiuhdi…hgdcs”…static…
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Like Jacob, I think MIBs view is not limited by the normal universal space/time rules… I think he knew of things in the future the same way Jacob did. Im not going to get into the old “there are no coincidences on Lost”…but Jacobs final candidates are the same people who travel back in time…
Meaning Jacob and MIB saw outside the metaphorical box.
The game for the Island Brothers began officially not upon Richards arrival, but upon the Losties travelling in time. Richard simply took Jacobs place behind the game board…getting helpful hints from the rule maker himself when necessary.

Its not so much the cabins inhabitant that is the true mystery…its who built the cabin that tells the tale.
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“Please keep your seatbelts fastened…we may hit a little turbulance along the way…but we should all be used to that by now…jdhbcjds”…static…
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I believe the cabin is built sometime after Ethan’s birth, because in Locke’s dream Horace tells Locke he is building the cabin for his wife and son. Before you assume that the monster was simply lying to and manipulating Locke…understand that I am aware of this.

The monster was very much lying and manipulating…but I think as many good stories are…it is also based on fact. Because when John woke up and went to where the Dharma Initiative were “laid to rest”, he found the map in Horace’s pocket.

What MIB does best is use not only emotions as weapons against its victims while posing as the deceased, it also uses the knowledge of the dead as well.
As John Locke, his spoken knowledge to Ben about being in the hatch together was something that helped him keep Ben on his side long enough to get him to kill Jacob for him.

I know, they knew each other, so that doesn’t count…so here’s another example more along the lines of what happens with Horace and (a very gullible) John Locke…
Christian had no emotional ties to John, but in the wheel chamber, his words about “my son” were enough to convince Locke (and Jack) that it was indeed Christian Shepard, and Johns following of his instructions seemed more logical knowing(believing) that Christian was indeed Jacks father.
MIBs resources run deep…
Maybe him getting off the island wouldnt be so bad…yep…I could definitely see Smokey as a politician…
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“Please wrap the band around the back of your head and place the mask over your nose and moujhcbjh”…static…
“Remember to breathe, it will be ok…we are experiencing a loss in cabin pressure at the momenjbdj”…static…
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I believe that MIB found Horace out in the woods a short time after Amy has Ethan. Going on the logic of MIB using emotions AND knowledge to trick someone into doing his deeds, he most likely assumed the form of Paul, Amys ex who was killed by the Others in “LaFleur”.
Just as he appeared as Christian to get Jack to the water/cave, John in the wheel chamber, and whoever else. MIB was doing nothing but setting in stone the circumstances he knew had to take place to make his dream come true…leaving that god-forsaken island.

I am left to assume from this that Ethan being abducted by the Others came possibly at some time before the purge…maybe at the cabin that Horace built in the woods for him and his family.
Like many of the other small things that happen in the past, certain things, no matter how miniscule, had to take place, and MIB knew that it could never happen without Ethan being an Other.
Ethan HAD to shoot John in the leg. Ethan had to help get Juliet to the island. Ethan HAD to infiltrate the Losties camp. And most importantly…Ethan HAD to be the others surgeon until…another one “fell out of the sky”…then his work was done.
Has to make you wonder if he was ever told “You can go now” by an invisible dead person right before he died…maybe his father told him.

We know Horace dies in the purge between 1988 and 1992, and Ben takes Alex in this time as well. Considering that Danielle had the baby seven months after arriving, it would have been 1989 when Ben took Alex…and leaving us with a three year period (1989-1992) when Horace could have actually built the cabin, and making this theory relevant…at least in terms of who built the cabin, why he built the cabin, and why MIB wanted him to build the cabin…all over little Ethan Rom.
But there is more to it in the long run…
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“We may have been wrong about a few things. We need you to prepare for the worst ladies and gentlemen. Oceanic apologizes for the situation…and again..tjsad”…static…
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This leads us to the last mystery of the cabin…WHY was the ash ring there?
My original thought was to imprison MIB in the cabin. Makes sense right? How do you stop a monster from running amok…put it in a cage…but due to the history we know of the ash, it has ONLY been used in keeping the monster out…logical, vs my imagination…lets try both…

The most logical choice would be to keep the monster out right? (wink at Emzi) Which makes sense because the ONLY time we see the ring of ash is to keep the monster out…never for imprisonment.

So why would jacob want to keep the monster out of the cabin?
Because the monster is Jacobs brother…and Jacob understands how he thinks, and more importantly how he plays his game.

MIB NEEDS to have a person alone to truly convince them of who he is. He needs to get a person in a situation where they are not thinking about anything else…where he can put pressure on without interference from Jacob or his “candidates/protectors”. The cabin was the perfect place to apply the pressure.
When the words “Help me” were spoken to John, he never for a second assumed that the voice came from anywhere outside the cabin…and even though he questioned him, he KNEW it was not Ben.

The cabin is where I believe MIB spoke to Ben long ago(maybe what Ben meant by “I thought I was summoning the monster, when I realized it was summoning me”), possibly again as his mother and how Ben was able to find it originally. This helps with another mystery…

MIB moves the cabin with each person he seduces and manipulates in his romance of achieving his dream of a brick house and a picket fence “Across the Sea”.
This is why nobody can find it UNTIL IT IS THEIR TURN to have MIBs pressure applied inside of his cabin. But we know this…even if we don’t want to admit it yet…

We know MIB was Christian Shepard. He said it, Claire said it, Jack knows it…and even the writers have spoken up and said that MIB was indeed Christian on the island.
That is why I say its not the inhabitant now that matters, its the person who built the cabin that is the key.
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“Hold on folks, we seem to be stabilizing pressure…”…”Oceanic wants you to hjbcjhds”…static…
“What was that flash?”
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That is why I lean more towards the ash imprisoning MIB…

We know that sometime before the purge/Rousseau having Alex taken, the cabin is built. And somewhere after that, but before September 23 2004, MIB is imprisoned. Roughly 1988 at the earliest…and 1992 at the latest…based on island events that we are aware of.

We know that the monster was on the island roaming in 2004 when the losties crashed. We also see someone else that same day…that should not be there as he is…Christian Shepard.
The monster was free, therefor the ash ring was broken.

So lets go back to poor Mr. Goodspeed and his lovely family.
I think there is a possibility that Ethan was not just taken, but saved by none other than Mrs. Goodspeed, or Amy…or Amelia…the Other that was in Juliets house before the bookclub meeting the day of the 815 crash. (See ANY of my “Amy…” theories as a reference for my reasoning behind believing Amy is Amelia)

I believe that Horace, Amy, and young Ethan were in the cabin that Paul, Amy’s dead exhusband/lover/spouse/(MIB) told Horace to build.
I believe that MIB appeared at the cabin as Paul, and told them Ethan had to go to the Others, to which they believed him and did so in an effort to save Ethans life…which they did…because Ethan HAD to live to do the things that he did.

Horace then took Amy and Ethan to the “Others”, and told them what was happening.
The Others forcibly take Amy with them against her will, even though Horace knows it will save her life as well…maybe even at Horaces request. They gave Horace the Ash and told him to go to the cabin, explaining its ability and what his friend giving him advice really is. Horace makes his way back to the cabin, and surrounds it with the ash trapping MIB inside.

Then, Horace goes back to Dharmaville AWARE of the news about the purge that is coming, but can rest peacefully knowing that his wife and son are safe…so he finds a nice seat on a bench alone…and waits peacefully for the inevitable.
The others, knowing now that the DI leader is all but out of commission…intelligently strike at the perfect time…

As easy as the purge was, it takes the Others quite a while to make Amy come around and realize that she and Horace did what is best for their son. She plays the game, but also remembers seeing her dead husband, and knowing Horace’s fate…makes her way back to the cabin after gaining the Others trust a few years later…but Amy didn’t realize that she, like Ben was actually being summoned by someone.

Having NO trouble finding the cabin, Amy arrives and speaks to the Man in Black…who looks again like Paul, or maybe even Horace.
He tells her that they can be a family again…tells her that they can live together on the island forever…
He tells her she can have whatever she wants most in the world…all she has to do is one thing for him…break the ash ring so he is able to leave.

This all leads to Ilana and Bram arriving at the cabin. Their words before the cabin was torched were possibly misinterpreted by us all at the time. I dont believe that she would be looking for Jacob there, because he is at the staue, and gave her instructions during his off island visit when she was wounded. Ilana, if anyone, knew where to find Jacob. They had Johns body and were trying to show the face of the enemy to everyone, and trying to kill or possibly even trap MIB…

“He is not here”…meaning MIB…
“Someone else has been using it”…meaning whoever he was at the time…Christian, Paul, Horace….

Ilana ordered the cabin to be burned because she knew what MIB used it for…maybe she was even tricked there herself. I actually think that it may be possible that the cabin itself was the key or energy source for MIB changing forms. Remember…her answer to why MIB wont change forms was “because he can’t anymore”, not because Jacob was dead…that was simply an assumption.
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“Well folks, I don’t think you’ll be needing those masks…there is a bigger problem now…”
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Whether you’re in the cabin on an Oceanic flight, or the cabin in the woods of the Lost Island, chances are you will experience a false sense of security…a drastic change in cabin pressure…and then it will crash and burn around you…
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“Thank you all for flying Oceanic…this is your pilot, A.E.S. speaking…Have a nice day…”