Pre Season 5 Write-up Part 2

Season Five Preview, Part Two. Still 100% spoiler free.

Since my Time Loop Theory seemingly is losing some steam, I tried to take a macro view of the series as a whole, and try to put together some kind of overall Lost synopsis. Basically, what is an underlying basis for the whole series. Obviously, much of last season dealt with flashforwards and Oceanic 6’s escape from Lost island. So, I delved a bit past the obvious. What else was very evident. The answer is time travel.

The concept of time travel was touched on a few times in the first few seasons, from Charlie’s question “Where are we?” and Hurley speculating about when are we when listening to his radio to a retro feel of the Others barracks and the Swan hatch. Of course, the backmasking message during Karl’s brainwashing scene featured the message “Only fools are enslaved by space and time.” We see literary references to the Slaughterhouse Five and scientific references to Stephen Hawkings and other hints to time/space travel.

Let’s recall some of the time traveling or space traveling during Season 4. Of course, we get the brilliant episode The Constant featuring Desmond’s mind traveling back and forth 8 years at a time. In that same episode, Daniel shows his time traveling mouse knowing the maze before he ever teaches it to the test subject. Ben confirms the existence of time traveling bunnies in the Orchid, much like the film by Dr Halliwax/Candle, who hints at the very same thing just before the tape rewinds. Ben turns the frozen donkey wheel, and appears in the desert of Tunisia seemingly out of thin air. A polar bear is discovered in the desert by Charlotte, with the Dharma logo.

Then we have tangible, physical evidence with time on the island. Daniel does his rocket experiment, and the prop appears 32 minutes later than expected. The freighter’s doctor is murdered and washes up on shore 2 days earlier. Traveling to or close to the island can trigger the mind time traveling that causes member’s of the freighter to lose their minds, as if a force field is protecting the island. We see Desmond and Daniel suffer some side effects from the exposure to electromagnetism that causes both to have issues with keeping their grasp on reality and the present time. Richard never ages. Charlotte was born on the island. So much is happening here, but why?

Simply put, the island is a living being. It’s alive. And the reason it is difficult to find is that it also is capable of time traveling. Like Ben said, moving the island produces unpredictable results. And when somebody time travels during this show, what commonality do they share? They need a constant, something that keeps the being tethered to reality in between the two locations. So, what if the island needed the passengers of Oceanic 815 as it’s constant? The island has influence on the outside world and course correcting, as we saw with Desmond not marrying Penny or Michael not able to kill himself. We saw that Hurley was the one that can find Jacob’s cabin, so maybe Hurley was not to leave the island, but he did. We are lead to believe that bad things happened on the island when the Oceanic 6 left. Why? Because the island lost it’s constant or constants, including Hurley and Aaron who is Christian’s grandson.

So what can we expect this season? Still not reading spoilers, but how interesting would it be to see the island travel back to the past. We get to see dead characters alive again like Rousseau, Charlie, Mr Eko, Ana Lucia, Goodwin, Tom, etc. Or go back further, and see Desmond pushing numbers, or Mr Ekos brother’s plane crashing into the jungle, or Dharma on the island, or the Black Rock ship crashing, or where Richard and the natives came from. What of Daniel and his passengers on the life raft. What if they time jump to a different time than Sawyer and Juliet on the island and they jump to a different time than Ben and the Others. If the island goes to the future, the possibilities are limitless as well.

The smoke monster is a tool of the island in course correcting. When Alex got shot, the smoke monster appeared to attack Keamy’s men, as a matter of course correcting and not following the rule. Mrs. Hawkings telling Desmond that he can’t marry Penny. Michael returning on the freighter. Mr Eko being killed because he would follow the islands master plan. The pilot dying in the first episode because Frank was supposed to be the pilot. Jack getting sick because he led Keamey and his men to the island. Rousseau’s crew mates caught a sickness upon reaching the island.
As far as my time loop theory, well, it still has some life. If the island keeps being moved back in time, that would give people like Ben a knowledge of what was to come because they just lived through it. The events repeat themselves. And that is why Ben was freaked out when Alex died. It never happened before.

Looking forward to Wednesday.