Because You Left/Theories

Main Article

Theories about Because You Left

Main Discussion

Theories may be removed if ...

Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Pierre Chang's baby

• The red headed baby being raised by Dr. Pierre Chang in the beginning is Charlotte. She has stated that she is trying to get back to where she was born. Chang and his wife are raising her because her mother died during childbirth. Her illness is a result of her getting close to herself in the past.
  • The baby is most certainly a boy (Miles, maybe?). In the Comic-Con '08 video, Pierre Change says in reference to the crying baby, "Take him outside, please."
    • At the beginning they reference several blue items; the record label, razor, toothbrush. The writers / directors are telling us it is a boy without actually saying it.

Chang's baby

A picture of Ji Yeon, compare nationalities with Chang's baby

Close-up of Chang's baby

• Asian, male, maybe 30's...Miles?
  • I's say it's Miles.
  • If the child is in fact Miles, it would explain his psychic ability. Pierre was on the island when he and his wife had a child giving the baby some abilities and making him special just as Aaron is. We know that when there was a problem with the Orchid Station Pierre was the first person that the workers came and got, if this has happened several times in the past his sexual organs could be "contaminated" making it possible that a "psychic" baby could be his.
• The baby boy will grow up to be one of the DHARMA members that were killed in the purge.
• It is worth pointing out that some people here think a baby can grow up to be Miles, and yet on the same board others claim Faraday worked for Dharma in the past. If a baby has time to grow up to be a full grown adult, then Faraday would have been an old man. I agree that this could potentially be Miles, but only if the Faraday we witness working for Dharma is due to a time skip (which is what I happen to believe).
• Upon re-watching the episode, the baby is certainly American. Red hair, wide eyes, white skin; it is positively not Asian, and therefore not Miles. If the baby is ANY of the characters we've already seen, its most likely Charlotte, but that seems unlikely due to the likelihood that its a boy.
  • Red hair, really? I agree it's not jet black hair, but I can't agree it's red - not even in the red family.
• I kind of wonder if it's a boy or if the producers are pulling a fast one and it is a girl (Charlotte) - there are no distinctive colours anywhere really that determine boy/girl. Also I'm a parent of two boys and I've never put my baby down in just his diaper to sleep for the night, even in the summer; that just seems like to me that the producers had the baby basically naked on purpose so you couldn't necessarily tell. I say whether the fact that it's a girl or guy is still up in the air; babies that young don't have long hair yet, and the babies features look soft enough that it could be a girl. My best friend just had a baby last week, and I would have been convinced it was a boy unless I already knew it was a girl. It's not exactly easy to tell on first glance.
• Just noticed this re watching the episode - at the beginning, how does Marvin Candle have an Asian wife and is Asian himself and have a Caucasian baby? I'm wondering if he raised Annie, Ben's little friend, or possibly Charlotte?
  • His baby is very clearly Asian.
  • Chang's baby is more than likely a boy since he asks Lara (presumably his wife off-camara) to take "him," a crying baby, outside in the Dharma booth video.

Faraday in the Orchid

• Faraday causes "the incident" that babies are no longer allowed to be born on the island and the one that is always referred to because he somehow released all of the energy in the room with the wheel. When he does this he travels to the future and loses his memory; this is why we see him with a caretaker when we are first introduced to him on the show.
  • Except that in this case, wouldn't Ben experience the same effects, as he actually entered the room where the wheel is?
  • Also it is unlikely that a construction worker would then become a Professor is Quantum Physics. More likely that his memory loss is caused by the experiments while at Oxford.
  • In The Constant, Faraday puts on an anti-radiation vest before experimenting and Desmond asks if he ought to wear one on his head. He has memory loss because Des was right as usual!
• During one of the Islands "skips" through time, the group will find themselves back in the time of the DHARMA Initiative. Faraday is attempting to stop the island from skipping by disguising himself as a worker in order to get closer to the wheel and it's energy, possibly attempting to turn it back and perhaps causing "the Incident".
  • His haircut fits in with how we see him 'now', not when he had a professor-esque hippie haircut.
  • This might be out of left field, but Sawyer's line about wanting his shirt might also lend a hint as to it being a Faraday flash forward. Sawyer's line in this episode is pretty weird, and if it's not a reference to Daniel's clothes changing, I'm not sure why they would have it in there. (Just so happens to also fit in with the Sawyer-with-no-shirt-on gimmick this episode, so that too.)
  • It doesn't seem like the time skips are long enough for Daniel to be able to infiltrate Dharma without causing suspicion. It does seem like this is the most likely explanation though, since his facial hair and hair cut are consistent with his look when the time skipping started. Is it possible that the more time skips, the longer the time between skips gets.
  • Daniel seems the most likely of anyone to figure out how to control the time skips, at least a little. Perhaps that's what he's doing there in the first place: trying to fix time.
  • According to the rules that Daniel says to Saywer he cant just go barging in a infiltrating DI unless he has already met Chang and all the other people working at the Orchid. Unless he was lying to Saywer and it was coincidence that Desmond didn't come outside.
    • It wasnt a coincidence. It's part of the History. Desmond told Faraday "you've been banging on my door for the past 20 mins". So he heard Sawyer's banging, but they were not fated to meet, as Faraday is the only person qualified to explain/instruct things to Desmond in such a way that he has a hope of deciphering it later in the future.
      • You're on to something. When Daniel bumps into Chang at the bottom of the Orchid, he hides his face as if he knows Chang would recognize him. This tells me that they might have a previous relationship, indicating he is in fact infiltrating Dharma from the future.
        • Based on the Com/Con 08 video, Daniel is filming Chang. It is unknown if this happened before or after the Orchid drilling scene, but it may indicate that they knew each other already.
      • It's also just as possible that he was afraid Chang -wouldn't- recognize him, in other words, that Chang would know he wasn't supposed to be there, whether or not he actually knew him as a person. Isn't that what anyone would do, sneaking into a place dressed as a worker and coming across the head honcho? I know I would instinctively hide my face. I thought at the time that it was a visual indication to the audience that he wasn't just a Dharma worker who discovered the wheel, that he was a "future" (present?) Daniel infiltrating the past for a purpose.
        • Both Chang recognizing and not recognizing are possible given the evidence. However, since Daniel doesn't seem to care whether or not the foreman (assuming that's his position) sees his face leads me to believe the foreman knew him. The foreman was not at all surprised to see him. I would think that he would know each of the workers on his site, it's not like there are thousands of Dharma workers at the Orchid site.
      • Daniel may have misled the rest of the group so that he could deliver his message to Desmond. Sawyer may well have been able to interact Desmond, just as Sawyer is able to interact with the soldiers, and the flaming arrows are able to "interact" with Frogurt.
      • The two examples given there aren't quite the same as Sawyer meeting Desmond, however. We don't know if, were Sawyer and the soldiers to meet in future, they would recognise each other or not, but if Daniel is to be believed, they would. The fact that Sawyer and Desmond have met in the future and neither recognise each other means they haven't met and they can't meet, making it very unlikely for Daniel to be misleading the group.
• This is a flash-forward. The island sends them back to the time of the Orchid construction and Faraday is curious like always and sneaks in.
  • Daniel is telling he truth and can meet desmond as he met him at the university in the 'past(the constant)' but because that part hasn't happened to desmond yet he does not recognise him.
  • Exactly what the discuss above.
• Maybe the 2 hours that Faraday was gone while contacting Desmond was enough time for him to get to the Orchid as well.
  • impossible, this is a completely different time, the orchid is just being build. When Faraday goes for two hours happens 20 years after that
    • Faraday comes back to the beach 2 hours late but the Swan is only 15 minutes away from the beach. It is possible that during this time Faraday visited the Orchid dressed up like a construction worker (the first scene of Because You Left). The time frame seems right since while talking to Desmond another time shift occurs and later the survivors are attacked by Dharma staff. This might also explain the accident in the Orchid; the construction worker was close to the Frozen wheel drilling holes when the last time shift occurred and it's possible that the wheel somehow releases energy every time a shift occurs. Perhaps this is the main reason that Chang seems so frighten inside the Orchid; he probably realized that the island is on the move.
• Maybe he actually was present when the Orchid was being built and that's how he knows so much about DI. He was working on time travel long before he arrived on the island, maybe it wasn't his first trip there or first trip through time?

The Image of the Wheel

The image of the chamber

The workers show Chang an image of what is behind the wall. A chamber with the wheel. How was this image obtained?

• The image is a view from above, so either the shot was taken from above, or it was a side view like a cross-section, similar to an ultrasound showing a baby in a womb.

The frozen wheel

• • The workers tell Dr Candle that they "imaged the wall". This shot was taken from the side with sonar so the part at the bottom where it is narrower was closest to the wall. This would put it on the opposite side from where the Vault in the Orchid was that Ben blew open to get to the wheel. Dr. Candle said if they drilled even "one more CM into the wall they could release the energy so the "time shifiting matter" is directly on the otherside of the wall. Since they were still building the Orchid they just moved to another spot to construct the vault from a safe distance
• The numbers along the sides of the image represent distance, giving a scale of sorts. Having see the Wheel in There's No Place Like Home, and judging Ben's height at a bit under 6', the Wheel would seem to be approx 8' across (makes sense - an eight spoked wheel being 8 feet wide). Comparing the size of the Wheel to the numbers in the image, it would seem these numbers are metric metres (8' is about 2.4m). It also indicates the the Wheel is 14m away from wherever the image was shot.
  • The use of metric would indicate a more European flavour to DHARMA, though scientists have long used metric.
    • Scientists have used metric for a long time, but English Units are still more common in American construction than metric, and certainly would have been more common during Dharma's active years.
      • SI (Système International [d'Unit[eacute]s] (International System [of Units]) was developed in 1960 and was based on the older metric system. The US never officially adopted SI. However, this being an international efford, it would make sense that they would use a system common to all. Also, it is not a construction instrument that produced this image, but a scientific one.
  • Doesn't the picture clearly say, "feet" at the bottom? Meaning the wheel on the image is a lot smaller than the one we have seen. Production error?
• If the image is taken from above, then it would be from something like ground-penetrating radar. Even today, that technology would not produce such an image. Therefore, this image was take from the side.
  • Is this time period around the late 70's? Would ultrasound, sonar-graphic or side-scan radar equipment exist that could do this?
  • If this image was taken from the side, then the detection equipment would need to be on the same lateral level as the wheel (as we have see the wheel lays horizontally). But we saw that Ben had to climb down a ladder, then kick through an ice window, and climb down again to reach the FDW. So if the image is from the side, then there could be a level under the one we have seen so far in the Orchid Station.
    • It appears the Orchid Station is in the construction phase, and there were many other rooms off the corridor in the station, so that is possible.
    • Chang is making orientation films for DHARMA Stations, yet this one is not finished yet? Or is being expanded. Either way, this seems to indicate the flashback is in the early days of establishing DHARMA on the Island.
      • • Also indicates how senior Chang is, that he is the one they bring to deal with this Orchid Station issue.
        • The fact that the wheel was there pre-Dharma indicates that a previous civilisation was intelligent enough to not only tunnel through/create an impenetrable wall, but also harness the raw power of time using only a wheel. This may evidence that perhaps it WASN'T a previous civilisation...

Desmond and Faraday

• Faraday contacted Desmond through the front door of the hatch. While this did not happen in Desmond's original timeline, Faraday must be aware (as he tells Desmond so) that Desmond is special. Turning the key and exploding the Swan gave Desmond the power to make a new string in time. When Faraday contacts Desmond, Desmond remembers the contact in his sleep that day, because his past has been altered, and the update has trickled through to his consciousness (somewhat like the time-shifting properties of the movie "Frequency," which happens to star the actress who plays Juliet)
  • We didn't see it in Desmond's original time line because at that time, this meeting had not taken place ... until now. The reason Desmond does not recognize Faraday is because Desmond (according to his own timeline) had not met Faraday yet. That Desmond is pre-crash Desmond, and he doesn't meet Faraday until post-crash when he starts time-jumping. Faraday knows Desmond, because Desmond time-jumped to Faraday's past and they met there.
    • I kept thinking "in the future, the past has occurred" throughout this whole sequence. Strangely, it sort of explains the logic here.
  • Further, because Desmond is Faraday's constant, there is a linear connection between the two characters' time lines regardless of how each individual is subjectively experiencing time/time travel. Even though Faraday is jumping around backwards and forward through time while Desmond is three years into Faraday's subjective future from when the Island moved, they have an absolutely linear connection in their individual personal time lines. That is why Desmond "dreams" about this change in reality immediately after Faraday tampers with the time line (from the perspective of the viewer of the show).
    • Though it is possible that Desmond merely forgot about the meeting with Faraday. It was at least three or four years before his "dream," and lasted only a minute or so. Also, Faraday disappeared into thin air after confusing Desmond. It's possible Desmond dismissed the entire encounter and then only remembered it after his dream.
    • It is possible that an event involving two people, even one in "the past" doesn't actually register with any person involved as "having happened" until it happens in both person's timelines. Therefore since it hadn't happened yet in Faraday's timeline until now, Desmond wouldn't register this memory until now.
• Faraday is only able to talk to Desmond because he is also a "special". This would explain why Sawyer failed to get Desmond to come outside, but Faraday was immediately successful.
  • There seems to be a lot of focus on Faraday "succeeding" to get Desmond out, but surely by the time Sawyer started knocking, Desmond then decided to react, had to put on his hazard suit, locate and check his gun etc, Sawyer would have been gone and Faraday would have been there? This could well be "fate" and the universe making sure things happen correctly, but I'm sure it happened entirely naturally.
  • Faraday lied about changing the past in an effort to convince the rest of the group to not try, because if they did it could possibly create a time paradox and cause "bad things" to happen. Additionally, Faraday contacted Desmond at The Swan because he felt that this would not create a time paradox.
• Just before Faraday jumped while talking to Desmond, he told Desmond to go find his mother. It is possible that Faraday's mother is Ms. Hawking.
  • While it seemed insignificant at the time, Faraday was cut off just as he was about to say his mother's name. Both of them have a lot to do with time travel.
  • He wouldn't have needed to say her name if they shared the same surname, he was going to say it because she would be otherwise very hard to find.
• In the episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes," Ms. Hawking has to persuade Desmond against buying the ring for Penny and changing his past. If Faraday's explanation that you cannot change the time line is correct, then this is evidence that Desmond is "uniquely special" in regards to time. If Desmond were subject to the same rules as everyone else, there is no reason for Ms. Hawking to explain the futility of his actions ... it would become readily apparent on its own.
  • She persuades Desmond to not buy the ring because he can not change his past (or change the future).
  • Desmond being the "key" to saving everyone (as implied by Ms. Hawking in that episode) actually would fit to the theory of her being Faraday's mother. Like so: Faraday tells Desmond to look for his mom (Hawking)-> Desmond does so-> Hawking/Ben/Locke etc figures out whats going on and hatches a plan to save the world from a Time Collapse or something.. and so forth. Ergo, If Desmond married Penny, he wouldnt be at the Orchid, Desmond wouldnt know who to talk to at that point, no one's going to warn Hawking at all, End of the Universe ensues. At some point in the future they realized this, and sent Hawkings BACK in time to ensure Desmond ultimately ends up taking the Island job.
• Also, when Faraday knocks on the hatch door, Desmond answers wearing his protective clothes. It should therefore mean that Kelvin is still alive as Desmond discovered that the protective clothing was pointless the day he killed Kelvin (the day the plane crashed). So where was Kelvin when all this was going on?
  • Kelvin spent a lot of time fixing Desmond's boat. That may explain why Desmond is wearing the suit (he still believes Kelvin that it is needed) and why it took him a while to open the door (he had to get into the suit).
  • With that, Desmond would have noticed that Faraday was not wearing a suit either, and that should have made him question whether wearing the suit was a good idea or not to begin with.
  • Desmond seeing Daniel not wearing a suit and realizing it was not necessary would completely change the time line, as I'm sure Desmond would confront Kelvin about it. We don't get that indication the a time line was changed at all, just that a message was sent to Desmond in his sleep, three years after the O6 are rescued.
    • Unless, of course, Desmond was "special" in some way, a person for whom the rules do not apply.
• Desmond asked Daniel if he was "him" (his replacement), so this should be after Kelvin is gone.
  • Negative. Desmond was always waiting for a replacement, there is nothing to say Kelvin is dead at this point at all. Confronted by an unfamiliar man, Desmond straight away assumes this is the replacement Kelvin mentioned.
  • Why the yellow suit? Obvious plot device used to add momentary suspense for viewers wondering if it was Desmond or Kelvin.
  • Desmond could possibly be wearing the suit to con whoever is outside into becoming his partner/replacement, much like Kelvin did when he found Desmond on the island. Live Together, Die Alone
  • Just because Desmond asked Daniel if he was "Him" does not necessarily place this event after he kills Kelvin, we can assume that Desmond was aware of the possibility of replacements since Kelvin asked him that very same question when he shipwrecked. Additionally, the suit could be more than a simple plot device for suspense, this can let us know that the event happened after Desmond reached the Island but before 815 crashed, which IIRC is the day that Desmond notices the tear in Kelvin's suit.
• The castaways that were all left behind believe that Desmond died when the freighter exploded, yet Faraday still tells Desmond what to do once he's rescued. This either implies that Faraday somehow knows that the Oceanic Six and/or Desmond made it safely off the Island, or it's a major continuity error.
  • Or he's just doing the only thing he can think of and hopes that Desmond is still alive to make it work.
    • Actually, Daniel says "If the helicopter SOMEHOW made it off the island, IF you got home", so he is not sure if Desmond is alive.
• Faraday tells Desmond to see his mother, she might be Ms. Hawking.
• Also consider that while Faraday insists that you cannot change the past and only talks to Desmond because he thinks he is special, he is not trying to change the past but the 'present' (viewer time). He perhaps suspects that the message will get to Desmond in the present because he is his constant (notice that he consulted his notes before knocking on the door?).
  • Faraday wanted Desmond to go to Oxford as SOON as he left the island, but the memory took 5/6 years to get to him, so it got to him far too late.

Infiltration through time skipping

• The opening scene is not a traditional flashback, but instead a non-traditional flash forward. As the Island skips, the Left Behinds will encounter the DHARMA Initiative. Daniel will use his knowledge of the DI to gain a job working on the Orchid. This is also when Daniel helps Chang record and send the message we saw at Comic Con '08.
  • It is both flashback and flash forward, depending on point of view. It is a flashback of Chang, but it is a flash forward of current-day Faraday.
  • The flashes are too close together for Faraday to "get a job." He simply sneaks in and gets past everyone, because Faraday (in the past) is an actual worker at DI - he's the one behind the camera. So it would be easy for current-day Faraday to sneak in.
    • You're the first person I've seen to note a younger Faraday behind the camera, working for the DI. I saw this immediately, and my room mates/friends all disagree with me. I'll try to get a screen shot comparison up tonight.
    • The flashes aren't necessarily too close together to "get a job", as they seem to get further and further apart. The first few occurred fairly close to each other, but after the last one a considerable amount of time passed, and we haven't seen another since then.
  • Faraday made the rules clear to Sawyer, you cant meet someone during a skip that you haven't already met at that time in the past/future.
    • He didn't actually say that you can't meet anyone you haven't already, he just said you can't change the timeline. If the opening scene truly is a time skip, Faraday could easily disguise himself and walk into the Orchid, as everyone would simply think he was another worker.
      • The two are mutually exclusive. By meeting someone you haven't already, you are changing the timeline. Even if the universe "corrects itself", the timeline is still changed.
  • If you truly can't change the course of history, Faraday is probably in the Orchid to gather info on the wheel/energy. Sawyer and crew are probably just outside, having knocked out a generic DI drone and swapped out his clothes. Faraday keeps a low profile hoping no one realizes that he doesn't belong. His worried look when talking to the foreman is in part due to the fact that he's initially afraid that he's been discovered.
    • He can likely use his doodad to focus on the field and get the EXACT 'when' they are in.
  • Was it a worried look or a conflicted look, since this might be time-traveling Daniel?
    • Faraday might have looked worried because he was about to set off the Incident by doing what Chang just said, just drilling one inch further. Perhaps the Incident was always triggered by Faraday in order to restore the losties to their timeline and prevent them from dying.

The Others not moving through time

• They do not travel through time because they have already established their constant, unlike Locke who still has to get use to this property of the island.
  • If this is true, why did Richard Alpert tell Locke that he would not recognize Locke the next time they see each other and that Locke had to give him the compass in order for him to know. If Richard and The Others don't travel in time, wouldn't Richard always recognize Locke.
  • He means Locke wont recognize him. This visit took place already in season 4 when Locke was a small boy. He did not give Alpert the compass.
    • I thought Richard said "I won't recognize you" so give me this compass.
    • Yes. If Locke tells Richard "I am John Locke" and gives him the compass, then Alpert will recognize him as the boy he wanted to recruit.
    • OH! That is good! It's an indication that the compass is what John should have taken, and now he's taken everything that "belonged" to him and is ready to be on the island.
      • You are one of the many people to say that Locke did not take the compass in Cabin Fever. HE DID. He took the Compass, the sample of soil or earth or whatever that was, and the knife. What he did NOT take was the Book of Laws.
    • While this is a good theory, and even if not entirely accurate, that event in Locke's childhood is still probably somehow related to this. Other possibilities that may or may not have something to do with the significance of the compass are that the Others are not skipping through the time, just Locke (and company), so when Richard sees Locke sometime before actually meeting him (thus not recognizing him), when Locke presents him with his own compass that is still currently in his possession, it will indicate to him that Locke is a time traveller. Additionally, based on the fact that Locke asked the question with a seemingly obvious answer of "What does it do?" and Richard replied with the obvious answer that it points north, this may also be significant because the compass in Locke's possession will point in a different direction than Richard's because he is jumping through time from a different location on Earth than where Richard is.
  • But Locke as a child didn't have the compass. Alpert brought it in to him to choose. So little boy Locke pulls it out of his pocket and gives it to Alpert?? If that's so then what we saw didn't happen, which goes against the "course correction" theme. The question is about the Others not moving through time and if Alpert won't recognize Locke at some point goes against the theory that the Others "stay put" so to speak and don't travel like Locke/Survivors/ET AL do.
    • Richard is not referring to the encounter with young Locke when he mentions the "next time". He is talking in terms of Locke's perspective, and obviously, Locke does not revert back into a young child. It is an indication that in one of the next time-jumps, Locke (and company) will jump back to an earlier time where Richard meets adult Locke for the first time, therefore will not recognize him. Richard has obviously not kept tabs on Locke, since when he met with young Locke, he thought Locke was not the one he was looking for.
  • Err, no. There are different time periods of The Others, times before Locke came to the island and times after. Which is why Ethan didn't recognize Locke. So the Others aren't moving through time, and at some point Locke will see Richard in a time period before Locke originally came to the island, and Richard won't recognize him because the last time he saw him, Locke was a teenager.
  • From this point in the past onwards, however, Richard Alpert may realise that John Locke is to be the future leader of The Others, which is why he pushed Locke to succeed Ben towards the end of series 4, as he knew it would eventually work out that way.
• Then Faraday should stop moving through time, because Desmond was his constant.
  • Desmond's time jumping was due to the implosion of the Swan and not moving the island - therefore the same set of "rules" may not apply.
    • Furthermore, Desmond jumped not only in time, but also in location - Faraday et al. do not change location when time shifts.
    • When Daniel speaks to Desmond during the jump, the only thing that makes Desmond "special" is because Desmond isn't the one jumping. For him, he is in his present day, Daniel is the time traveller. So while Daniel and the others will continue to be jumping through time, Desmond won't be, because for him, he is still in the present. So since he is still in the present, he's the only one able to do something about it.
    • George Minkowski's travel (both in time and location) was related to not following the correct path to and from the island - which again, may have a different effect on people than moving the island does.
  • There are TWO types of time travel occurring here, and it is important to keep them separate. Desmond is moving through his own time line, to places he has already been. Not once has Desmond ever travelled somewhere new due to this. Locke and Co. are travelling to different time periods, but NOT to where they were at the time. We know the plane crash that Locke witnessed took place within their lifetime, but before they arrived at the island. Locke essentially existed in two places at the same time when he saw the plane crash, as somewhere in the real world he was going about his pre-island life. Desmond, as far as we know, has never been in two places at once.
• Perhaps they don't appear to move because they are "one" with the Island. That is, everyone else is separate and therefore moveable, the Others, a.k.a. the natives, are somehow intrinsically connected with the island's time stream.
• Jacob is the Others' constant.
  • Constants don't seem to apply to this type of time travel. If that was the case, then Faraday wouldn't have jumped time after speaking to Desmond.
  • Constants only apply when consciousness travels... not the physical body as they are now.
• Perhaps the Others were born on the island, which gives them special properties
  • Ben explicitly states that he is "one of the last people to have been born on the island." Although it turns out to be untrue that he was born on the island, there is no reason to assume he lied about the rest.
  • That would mean Charlotte wouldn't move either, and Cindy, the flight attendant who joined the Others, would move.
    • Which is precisely why Charlotte is the only one being effected by headaches, nosebleeds, and who knows what else next. Because she was born on the island and is an "original inhabitant" she shouldn't be jumping through time like the other Others. However, because she was with Daniel and the bunch when the island moved, she is now "along for the ride" as Daniel said, even though technically she shouldn't be.
      • Furthermore, on a seemingly unrelated note, this may be Ben's ulterior motive in trying to get the Oceanic 6 to return to the island. While he can't return to the island himself, the 6 were outside of the "radius" at the time, and can return to the island. So the only way Ben can go back to the island is if he goes back with them, and is "along for the ride".
    • Charlotte's proper history has not as yet been established. She may have merely visited the island and not be an "other"
• Only people that are still alive move through time, the other just stick to their "normal" time line
  • Yes, the others are made up of individuals who have died. They can only be "led" by the living, e.g. Ben and Locke. They also do not age, as seen by Richard.
  • It seems unlikely that the others are dead, as they can leave the island and talk with everyday people (such as Alpert speaking with Locke's mother).
• People do not move through time who have already established that portion of their time line on the Island. Ie: you can't move through time to a point you have already been to. If it is impossible to change time, then it is also impossible to see yourself in time, as that inextricably changes it. Alpert & Co. existed elsewhere on the island during the first jump, but Locke did not (this was before the plane crashed after all, so he had not arrived yet). Alpert & the others were simply back to whatever they were originally doing in the time line (since it can't be changed), while Locke is free to roam about like other crash survivors since he was not there yet. This also explains why Juliet is jumping through time, as she had not gotten to the island yet (she was a fairly recent addition to the others).
  • Perhaps Juliet is not jumping because she'd been 'marked'. Her mark also looks similar to the pendulum graphic Mrs. Hawking is playing with at the end of "The Lie"; there may be a connection.
  • According to the above, Faraday should not be jumping, because he is the one filming Chang.
    • You are assuming you are seeing the events in the order they actually happened, which is never the case on Lost. Faraday could be filming Chang because during a future time skip he is there, yet originally he was not on the island at this time. Remember how old Faraday is and then think to how old he would be if he was filming Chang at the actual time Dharma was on the island. He would have been much younger. So we know that 'now' Faraday is involved with Dharma, not 'then' Faraday.
    • The filming was prior to anyone living within the arrow station (presumably) so it is possibly Faraday was on the island for the filming, and not there for the time they are jumping too, allowing him to jump.
  • Faraday may have filmed Chang during his own time travel and not in his initial time line
  • Faraday did not film Chang... the cameraman is not Faraday. See pic under The Lie/Theories - The Cameraman's Identity
  • Juliet is not actually an other, but rather someone brought from off island to help them. The rules that apply to them probably do not apply to her. For example, she probably ages.
• We only know that Richard Alpert is not moving through time, with no evidence as to what is happening with the remaining "Others." We already know that Alpert has special abilities (not ageing), and with "Marvin Candle"'s reference to an "indigenous" population, it may be safe to assume that he is part of that population. The other "Others" (dead or alive: i.e.: Mr. Friendly, etc.) may not be indigenous, but may have been brought to the Island. Also - The "constant" that people keep bringing up only applied to Desmond because his consciousness was travelling through time which required a "constant" (something from his past and present) to stabilize it. The losties are physically travelling through time (so far as we know), meaning that a "constant" is not needed. Charlotte's nosebleed issue doesn't seem to be the same as Desmond's (i.e.: she is not blacking out/experiencing time loss), and could be related to the fact that it has been suggested she was born on the Island; so, as she moves backwards in time, she is in danger of "colliding" with herself in time.  :)
  • We can assume the others are not moving with the survivors because a group of them - Alpert included - vanished when Locke first "jumped."
  • Alpert does not have anti-ageing properties. He can somehow control his time-jumping and we are simply seeing him at his current age jumping to past times.
• Moving in space and time would explain how Ben ends up in Tunisia and Charlotte finding evidence of Dharma and the polar bears.
  • Ben Arrived in Tunisia because he turned the wheel. He had the exact same jacket and wound when he was dumped there as when he was turning the wheel. The Polar Bears are found in Tunisia because they were previously used to turn the wheel. It is cold down there and extremely heavy, so it required a large arctic animal.
• They do not travel in time because of their location at the time of the wheel-turning: The Temple ("BEN: It's a sanctuary. It may be the last safe place on this island.").
  • However, Ben is hanging with a bunch of Others, including Alpert, when he first skips, and the Others do not move with him. As they are all out in the open, it doesn't seem they were at the Temple. Location therefore appears to be irrelevant.
    • Locke is hanging with a bunch of Others, not Ben
• The Others could be moving through time just like everyone else. This would explain Richard's message about not remembering Locke next time and stating that he was there at that place and time because Locke told him to (either in the future, or past, or Locke's next jump.) Also Ethan does not appear to recognize Locke, if Others weren't moved in time Ethan would be dead or would have already met Locke in the future.
  • Ethan did not remember Locke, because the time frame of the scene, given by the crashing smugglers plane puts it well before 815 crashed. Similarly, The next time Locke meets Alpert it will be prior to the crash and he won't remember him either. Possibly, the next meeting is also when Locke tells Alpert where to find him, explaining why Alpert recognises him prior to the 815 crash in this scene.
    • In the prior time line when Locke meets Alpert, he is near death from the gunshot, tells/convinces Alpert where he needs to be to save him, the point of reference Locke gives is in 4-D space being the smuggler plane crash (Time & Place). When Alpert meets up with him, he treats his wound and gives him the Compass, possibly to avoid some kind of time loop paradox by changing the parameters of their next meeting in the past?
    • The fact that Alpert won't recognise Locke can also clue us in to two possible explanations about Alpert, and whether or not he ages: Since we know Alpert meets Locke at least 2 times in his youth, we can either assume a) Their next meeting will be set in a time prior to Locke's birth, or prior to Alpert being made aware of the birth of a potentially special individual. (Ageless) or b) The Alpert seen in the nursery and at Locke's Grandmothers house is on-island post 815 Alpert travelling in time to meet & test Locke. (Possibly Ageing normally, but still could be an Ageless time traveller)
• One word: LIST. None of the remaining Losties on the island were on Jacobs list, not even Locke (according to Mikael Bakunin). The same goes for Juliet, though she once was one of the Others, they outcasted and marked her (remember: being marked was equivalent to the death sentence). The only weak point of this theory are the three freighter-people, but given their troubled past (Miles), their questionable condition within the continuum of time and space itself (Faraday) and their bitchy attitude (Charlotte), one can figure that they wouldn't really qualify for being on that list either.
• The Others have information, including Ben, that has yet to be revealed that gives them a certain measure of control on the Island. The information could be knowledge held by the ancient race that inhabited the Island who made the hieroglyphs that was somehow passed on or discovered by the Others. The glyphs seem to be in the most secret of places on the Island (Ben's secret door, the Frozen Wheel, the Hatch timer)and it is definitely possible that they knew or even helped to create some of the Islands greatest secrets, and now, the Others might have figured out some of those secrets.

Rousseau's Crew

• The sickness previously discussed is their continuous time travelling and not being able to adapt to this and establish a constant. They then became sick and delirious and passed on. We see this happening to Charlotte now, and she is need of a constant to prevent from dying.
  • When Hurley, Ben and Locke were going to the orchid Ben said the crackers were 16 years old, which suggests that is the last time the island was moved, which goes along with Rousseau giving birth to Alex and the sickness of the crew.
    • Ben got the crackers because he needed to get to the mirror. If he had not needed to signal the others he would have not needed to open the box with the mirror and the crackers. He would have just gone to the Ochid
    • Why does the crackers being 15 (not 16) years old suggest that is the last time the island moved?

Counter Evidence:

• Charlotte knows that Faraday knows quite a bit about time travel and would most likely ask him what to do after her first couple "time jumps."
  • The entire Island is time-jumping.
    • No, the island is not, they are. If the island is a constant, and the people who aren't affected by the time jump stay in the constant time line, just the people from the crash/freighter/juliet are moving around. My thought is that the island physically moved when Ben turned the wheel, and now because of that is unstable, and those who were not on this island for a long enough period (Richard and those people) are not affected by it, but those who are new to the island are affected by this teetering time effect that is going on.
    • But then what happened to Cindy and the two kids.
  • When Desmond and Minkowski's time jumps and nosebleeds were occuring, they were also pausing/falling down/passing out in present time during jumps to the past. This is most certainly not what is happening with Charlotte, since her time jumps are not only echoed by the rest of the group, but physical and not just mental, like Desmonds were. Her nosebleed is a result of the fact that during time jumps, she has come into too close of contact with herself at a younger age. None of the other survivers/Juliet/freighter people have this issue to worry about, which is why Charlotte is the only one bleeding.

Why does Richard tell Locke that he has to die?

• It seems like only people who have died can come to people off the island and talk to them. When John dies he becomes like Charlie, Claire, Tom, Ana Lucia, etc. and can make contact with people who have left the island.
  • Only Hurley sees the dead people consistantly and they do not stay around. Charlie and Anna clearly can't stay at a hotel, order room service, or have a date like Tom did.
  • There has been no evidence that Claire is dead or that Tom has appeared after his death. When he was seen recruiting Michael that was before his death since the freighter was just off shore with Michael when Sawyer shot him.
    • There definitely is evidence that Claire is dead. Her barrack was hit directly by a rocket during the mercenary attack, and she subsequently left Aaron alone in the middle of the jungle and went to join certainly-dead Christian. If she's alive, something really, really weird is going on.
      • Sawyer found her, and to my recollection she was not dead at that point. She wandered off into the woods in the middle of the night when she was with Sawyer and Miles.
        • She could have been dead when Sawyer found her and he was just dealing with an apparition. She mentioned Charlie, which might just indicate that she was disoriented, or she could see him now that she is no longer alive.
          • Since when are apparitions solid? He picked her up and carried her around, she was corporeal and could be physically interacted with. She was not dead.
            • Or, she could have been alive when Sawyer carried her, but died of something else (internal injuries?) later on in the night.
              • Claire isn't dead. Desmond said his future flashes from Season 3 showed Claire and Aaron being rescued by a helicopter, as long as Charlie drowned, which he did. Therefore, since that happened, Claire is alive on the island and will be rescued eventually.
  • I don't believe this point is valid. The Others do evidently move back and forth between the mainland and the island; Richard Alpert and Ethan Rom recruited Juliet Burke, for instance, and Ben is seen to have a stash of passports.
• Maybe he knows the oceanic 6 wont be convinced unless they see Locke kill himself. Only that will finally convince them how serious he is about going back.
  • Except that the Oceanic 6 aren't convinced Locke did kill himself... they think he was murdered. Either way, his death seems to have shocked Jack, at least, into taking him seriously.
    • All they say is that Bentham is dead, I don't think they know how or why.
• John "has to die" because it is his destiny to become Jacob. When he returns to the island, dead in his coffin, he will awake in the same manner Christian Shepherd has on the island.

• John will not "become Jacob". If he does, why would he tell himself "help me"?

• Maybe he's not dead and has instead taken the venom of the same spider that Nikki and Paulo took
  • The effects of the Medusa spider are not that long-lasting. We see Nikki and Paulo begin to recover just as they are being buried, which was the same day they were bitten.
    • Except that the odds are good that Locke's body has been embalmed. This process usually occurs before the funeral services are held, and as it involves draining the corpse's blood, among other processes, embalming is an effective means of making sure someone is really dead and not just paralysed by Medusa spiders.
    • He is also about to be frozen in a meat locker, that should kill him, unless some crazy island magic keeps him preserved that way.
• Because Richard has been to the future and knows that the key factor to the O6's return is Locke's death. So he knows that one way or another the only factor that will truly motivate the O6 is seeing Locke dead.
• Locke left the island by turning the donkey wheel and the only way to return to the Island after doing that is to have your dead body brought back and resurrected on the island. If the island is shifting in time randomly then the donkey wheel may be the only safe way to leave the island.
  • Then how does Ben intend to get to the island, if he's going with the O6?

• This is a little out there - but: Locke has always had a "messiah" mystique around him in the show. A messiah, religiously, dies to absorb the evils/sins of others. Locke's death has done that for the O6: ie: Jack: now off pills, working to getting back to Island, Kate: has her lie exposed, Hurley: realizing he isn't crazy, and is working to get back to Island, Sun: will, seemingly, be working with Ben (possible good guy) after apparently associating with Widmore (possible bad guy), Sayid: has stopped killing for Ben (good thing..?) and will be, with the others, attempting to get back to Island. Again, I am assuming that all 6 will, eventually, be working to get back to the Island. The main theory is that Locke, by dying, will erase the ills that have befallen the O6 after leaving the Island, and will spur them to return.
• Locke needs to go retrieve the O6 and bring them back to the island to stop it from time skipping. But in leaving the island as a time traveler in a past time, and returning to the constant time of the "present day" off the island, he isn't able to go back to the island, because now that he is in the present day if he tries to go back to the island, it won't work, because since the island is still in a time already past, he is still technically on the island, and thus, can't be in two places at once (this is different from being alive at the same time off the island and on the island, because they are still at different points in time. If Locke returns to the island after leaving it, he begins to occupy the same point in time, which he can't do....unless he is dead, because then he would just be a "shell" and not be occupying the same point in time as the still living version of him already there). Plus leaving the island as a time traveler may be what causes him to die. As Charlotte is experiencing side effects that grow increasingly worse after each jump most likely due to the fact she was born on the island and is a "native", she shouldn't be jumping through time with the Losties, but remain constant like the other "original inhabitants" (Richard and company). She gets stuck skipping through time due to being with Daniel and the losties and is "along for the ride". Locke on the other hand, in leaving island during a time skip, causes the same effects to happen to him, just the opposite way. He should still be on the island skipping, but in going back to the present day and remaining in a "constant" time, with each skip the island makes without him on it, his condition worsens, and evetually he dies because of it.

The Compass

Cabin Fever - the compass is one of many items offered to Locke

Because You Left - Locke holds the compass handed to him by Richard

Cabin Fever - The compass from Cabin Fever

• The compass given to John Locke by Richard Alpert was the same object in which a young John Locke was supposed to select in order to prove to Richard that he was the chosen one.
  • The compass is only the first of the objects from the test that Richard Alpert gave to young Locke; as Locke continues on his journey through time on the Island, Alpert will bestow the rest of the "correct" objects from that test to Locke.
    • When Richard interviewed the young Locke, he was upset that Locke picked up the knife. Locke has lived with the knife so far - now Richard, in giving him the compass, is saying "this is a point of change".
      • A compass is about direction but also discovery. It is used on the path to a location, not once you get to that location.
        • Young Locke would have been correct to choose the compass. He only chose the knife because Locke, young and old, has an affinity for knives. So, like a child, he simply chose the object he liked best, not the one he should have known was his in another life/time. This refusal to accept his past/future destiny is shown later in Cabin Fever when teenage Locke refuses the science camp.
          • Young Locke only picked one item, and it was the knife. He pulls a few items from the group including the sand, compass, and knife. After doing so, he ultimately chooses the knife - the only item he chooses.
            • You need to watch the episode again. He clearly selects the compass, then the sand, and then the knife is the LAST item he chooses, not the ONLY one.
            • Yes, Locke was asked to choose more than just one item. Richard asks him which of the items "belong" to him, "belong" meaning plural. If he were meant to choose just one, Richard would have used "belongs."
  • The Cabin Fever scene will be shown again and John will select the compass. Richard will give John another clue.
    • Locke already selected the compass in Cabin Fever. What he did not select (which Richard seemed to want him to select) was the Book of Laws.
  • The compass from Via Domus was supposed to point "the way home," not North as Richard stated.
    • Richard was humorously stating the obvious in order to get Locke to ask "the right questions".
    • or North is Locke's "way home"
    • Way back Sayid pointed out that the compass he had did not point to north as it was supposed to. Perhaps the way north faces points the correct course off the island, which Daniel is currently trying to figure out.
      • But the Hatch was still around then and the electromagnetic pull of the station was distorting the compass bearing. Since the implosion compasses have worked just fine or at least have not been mentioned as innaccurate.
• Clearly this is the same compass as in Cabin Fever.
• Actually, if you look at the screenshot from Cabin Fever, you notice many differences between the two compasses!
• Alpert gave Locke the compass in proximity to the drug plane. In season 1, Locke was following an old compass, possibly the same compass, when he and Boone found the drug plane.
• The compass has French indications (O for ouest, west). This could indicate that perhaps Alpert has some ties to Rousseau or her team.
• Note that Richard told John that the next time they met, he "wouldn't recognize him" - not that he wouldn't know him, and there is a distinct difference. Many have wondered how Richard knew to visit baby John Locke in the hospital shortly after his birth. It could be that past Richard met future John, and thus knew that he was special and knew to look for him as a child. This would also explain why Richard said to John in Cabin Fever "No John, which of these belongs to you already?"

The disaster for Dharma

• I'm convinced at this point that the "Incident" that happened for Dharma that was referenced in previous seasons was the breaching of the donkey-wheel chamber. Since obviously this chamber was breached based on the Orchid station and judging by Pierre Chang's dialogue that it would be very bad, this has to be it. The question I have at this point is that when we saw Faraday there at the beginning of the episode did this happen while he was skipping through time or was he actually working for Dharma when he was younger? With the beard it's hard to place how old Faraday is at any certain point. My guess based on his memory loss and his caretaker earlier in previous seasons is that he worked for Dharma, he was the one that breached the chamber since he was studying space/time, and caused the bad accident and ended up losing his memory because of it. Probably why he is so dependent on his book and knew of the Orchid station before; he was actually there and may have even caused it.
  • Perhaps in the future Faraday travels back to this point because it is a critical time for what is to happen that we haven't learned yet.
  • It is doubtful that Faraday is old enough to have actually worked for Dharma in the past. Dharma was on the island some 20 years back, and assuming Faraday was all of 18 working for Dharma, that would mean he is pushing 40 now. There was definitely not a 20 year difference between Dharma Faraday and now Faraday. This means that Daniel will end up working for Dharma in one of the future time skips.
  • The "Incident" was probably a failure to push the button. The Swan station and the button existed to stabilize some of the negatively charged matter in the chamber that had escaped during construction of The Orchid. When Locke doesn't push the button the matter is discharged and would have sent the Island into time-jumps like when Ben turned the wheel. This didn't happen because Desmond turned the fail-safe key. The Swan Station and the button are no longer factors any more because the mater it was protecting has already been discharged, which was separate from that in the donkey wheel chamber.
    • The incident could not be a failure to push the button. Dr Cheng refers to the incident in the Swan orientation film and states that the button has to be pressed because of it. In other words, having to press the button is the effect of the incident, not the other way around.
      • Plus Cheng is wearing a swan jacket in the arrow video take and that would probably suggest that the station has already been made.
      • He just states that they can't afford another incident. When Desmond missed the 108 minutes and pushed the button while the hieroglyphs were flipping he was still able to stabilize everything. Something similar could have happened with Dharma and Cheng was simply stressing that they can't afford to let it happen again.
• Or maybe he will end up shifting back to Dharma times in a few episodes and disguising himself.
• Faraday will have to be the one who turns the Donkey Wheel. He is special so the time travel effects cant hurt him.

Skipping through time

• One of the concepts I'm struggling with is the fact that the island disappeared and appeared to skip through time, however it appears that anyone other than the Others is having their consciousness skip through time. So did both the island move and anyone other than the others also get dislodged (like Desmond before)? Why are the Others immune? Assuming the bodies of Sawyer, Juliet, Faraday, etc are in "true time," is that the when/where of the island?
  • Skipping though time doesn't really even seem to explain the island's disappearance, as it would still be mostly there at any given time. Unless it went back to before/after there ever was an island, but that doesn't seem to make sense. Did the geographical location change or not? Maybe time travel sickness is a side effect of moving though 'crazy space time stuff' with the island? The same way Desmond got sick when he was near the hatch anomaly when it blew up.
    • If the island moved in space, the skipping of time would be a side effect of this since moving an object instantaneously (at or above the speed of light) will cause the object to move backward in time relative to some observers.
    • In the linear time line, the island also somehow moves around (physically). This is supported by the changing headings given in order to leave the island at different points in time, the impossibility of finding the island, the adjacent island that is nowhere to be found and also by Faraday saying that he can't determine a heading until he finds out "when" they are. Thus moving the island in time moves it physically.
  • What if the island itself is unstuck in time and is now moving to all the places it has been before? Perhaps that is why the island is not in one fixed location, because it is constantly changing to where it used to be.
    • So would it be the reason that Ms.Hawking said Ben and Locke and Oceanic 6 have to go back within 70 hours once she found the exact location of the Island, as after that the island would "jump" to another unknown place or time?
• Perhaps the Island moved forward, to the exact same spot but three years into the future from the perspective of the Islander. But as it reaches that point it skips through the Island's history. Everyone travels back in time, with the people who were on the Island before (the Others) having the consciousness that they had at that time in the past, to avoid paradoxes and such of their future knowledge.
  • This would explain why the island physically vanished from the view of the O6 and those in the helicopter. The island went approximately 3 years into the future, and is now skipping like a record. In order to elaborate upon Faraday's record analogy, the island is a record, and by turning the wheel, Ben moved the needle onto the next song. The O6 are looking for the people on the first song, but they are further forward. Now that they are on the next song, so to speak, the record is now skipping. Those not "one with the island" i.e. the Losties, the Freighter people, and Juliet (since she was Marked) are now on top of the record unstuck in time.
• Because the are skipping through time on the island like they are, they are the voices that everyone is always hearing on island
  • This would explain why the others seem to be able to appear and disappear out of nowhere (like Harper did when she was delivering a message to Juliet). If the others can control their time travel, there may be a small overlap of sound between the time that they leave and the time that they arrive.
• The island is still in the process of moving. It disappeared and is now skipping around in time before it will settle again, in a new place and/or time. Mrs. Hawking is calculating how long they have before it settles again. Once it settles it will be too late for anyone to return.
  • This would explain the sense of urgency in her words to Ben. It could be that the island will eventually settle, or will just continue to skip around. Either case would be worthy of the "God help us all" line. The key is that it's urgent for them to reach the island while it's skipping, since whatever happens after that is not a good thing.
• The island itself is not moving, or at least not with the survivors. If it were, the beach camp would still be there, the hatch would still be imploded, etc. The people aren't changing with each jump (i.e. getting younger or older), but the island is. There are separate processes happening.
• In the past, the producers have been asked if this was a real island (as opposed to purgatory). They seemed to answer in a way that indicated it is "viewed" by the Losties as an island, but they might also have meant this "thing" is not a physical real island - that it is a place in time with certain properties, and the collective belief of the crash survivors makes it seem like an island. But if the Island is formed by belief, this may explain Ben's "magic box" talk, and how when he needs something, he has it at hand.
  • So with the O6 off-Island, the Island is unbalanced and will keep skipping.
• If you think about it, the island has to be physical moving to other locations. If it wasn't then Ben/Charles/Penny/Desmond would actually know the location of the island; this doesn't seem to be the case. If Ben was able to leave and come back to a specific location, then moving the island has to be physical since he would know where it was if it hadn't had moved.
• Here's a thought about Locke's interaction with Ethan. It's assumed that Ethan is a sort of confidant of Ben's, as he is sent out multiple times to do work directly for him on the island. What if, after the quick conversation with Locke (where Locke told him that Ben had made him their new leader) Ethan relayed his experience to Ben, who would then later, when 815 crashes, try everything he could to keep them, and thus Locke, from usurping Ben's power on the island. This could also be why we see the clip of Ben in the Orchid, apologizing to Locke for making his life so miserable. Ben has come to realize that he really can't fight destiny. Ah, which could also be the reason he said: "Destiny, John, is a fickle bitch."

Objects

• Objects disappear (or rather have not yet appeared).
  • Faraday said that there is no camp because it has not been built yet.
  • The Zodiac boat on which he has just arrived is present.
  • Juliet explained that whatever they had in their possession, like clothing, stayed with them.
  • No one "had" the Zodiac in the second and third flashes.
  • Therefore, only the first flash (the start of the skipping) caused loss of objects.
• The Island moves in space, not time. It has been been located in other places in the past. The crashed Beechcraft indicated this some time ago. Such a plane has a range measured in the hundreds of miles, not the more than 10,000 miles between West Africa and the Island in 2004. Once the Island changes location, some residents (Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, et al.) become dislodged in time. Daniel knows the Island has had different locations in the past; he wants to "take a bearing" after they time travel with his sextant, an instrument used to determine latitude. Locke will probably discover this fact very soon as well; he has conveniently been given an instrument that "points north".
  • A compass has no practical use in determining latitude...
• What does this mean for the events following the initial discharge at the end of Season 2, in Live Together, Die Alone? That is obviously when the Island showed up on Penny's radar station, yet none of the other affects of 'moving through time' seem to have happened then. It would seem that whatever protected the Others this time around protected everybody that time.

Constant

• Since everyone on the island is experiencing the time travelling, everyone will eventually need to find their own constant. This is the reason why Locke said, "bad things" were happening on the island and the only way to prevent it is to have the oceanic 6 to come back.
• A Constant is needed for people to remember things about their life. As far as we know, Sawyer and Juliet are well aware of where and who they are and how they got there.
• As I stated above - the "constant" was needed for Desmond because only his consciousness was travelling through time. He needed something from his past and his present to stabilize it. The Losties are physically travelling through time, so far as we know.
  • Does not explain Charlotte.
  • She could be experiencing effects due to the fact that it is suggested she was born on the Island - perhaps this is an effect of moving backwards and possibly "colliding" with herself in time.
  • In a part of Back To The Future 2, the characters of Jennifer, Marty, and Doc Brown go to the future. They see Marty’s life in the future, where he is married to Jennifer and has kids. Jennifer, whilst she is just walking around in front of the house, the future version of herself suddenly opens the door. They stare at each other, and then both women to pass out from shock. The same thing might happen to Charlotte, she will have a run-in with her past self, freak out, and then pass out. Maybe Faraday can help her though it all and be her constant...

Kate and the Lawyers

• The client who hired the lawyers is Charles Widmore, who is trying to expose the Oceanic 6.
  • However, Sun says she thinks that they want this to remain covered up.
  • Widmore knows whats what. He doesn't have to "try" anything. He knows whats going on. He faked the crash for the sole purpose of no one knowing about where they were.
• Sun is the client.
  • Something about Sun's demeanour and body language during her meeting with Kate suggested to me that she is lying to her. Perhaps Widmore did hire the lawyers to manipulate Kate in some way, and Sun got in touch with Kate because she has a role in the con as well. Then again, maybe Sun is secretly a double-agent, in reality working for Ben and manipulating Widmore.
    • I don't think it was Sun for the same reason I don't think sun really wants to kill Ben. How could she know Keamy had a heart monitor and that Ben killed Keamy? It happened when they were in the chopper and then flew away...unless Locke/Bentham told her in a visit...
• The client is Ben, who was trying to scare Kate into going back.
  • The client is Ben trying to get Kate to run to Jack for help, or Jack himself. The camera focusing on the photo of Jack and Aaron is a clue.
    • The client is almost certainly Ben. Ben said he had a "few ideas" to convince Kate to go back, and what better way than threatening the perfect existence she has off island with Aaron. As Sun said, if the maternity issue was the main goal, the client would have gone public, its clearly an ulterior motive, which Ben is quite the master of. She'll go back to the island willingly to protect Aaron, which goes along perfectly with Ben's mastery of making someone do something and having them think it was their idea.
• The client is Aaron from the future who, being special, suspects Kate is not his real mother.
  • There would be far more easier ways for a future Aaron to figure out who was his mother, rather than travelling to an arbitrary time when he was three and forcing a paternity suit upon his alleged mother. This idea just seems ridiculous.
    • Thanks for your useful contribution, but no need to pun :)
• The client is Aaron's grandmother - Claire's mother.
  • But, as sun said, if maternity was the real goal for hiring lawyers, Claire's mom would be public about it. This is someone being sneaky, i.e. Sun, charles or Ben.
• Charles Widmore is Dan Norton's client. The man whom Dan introduced to Kate as his associate was Aaron's father, Thomas. Compare these screencaps of the actor, Keir O'Donnell, as he appeared on Kate's stoop in Because You Left click here for photo, and in the feature film After Sex click here for photo. Thomas' paintings are displayed in Charles' homes in Flashes Before Your Eyes and The Shape of Things to Come, proving a connection between the men. Charles has moved Thomas into play in an attempt to thwart Ben's mission to return the Oceanic Six to The Island.
• When Ben goes to the butcher, he asks if 2 men have checked in. The "lawyers" and court order may be fake. It is unusual to serve a warrent like that out of the blue (courts usually want both parties involved infront of them) and without a police escort seems very odd. It seems more like an attempt to dislodge Kate from her comfortable life and get her moving again leaving only the Island as safe haven. Classic Ben.
  • It's not a warrant. It's a court order. And I agree that it is highly unusual for the plaintiff's attorney to act as the process server.
• The client is Sun who is trying to get to Jack through Kate. Sun knows that Kate will ask for Jack's help, perhaps she has a plan for him. Notice how she asks "how's Jack?" after telling Kate that she is not blaming HER.
  • I was thinking it was Jack as well, but she said to her father there were two people she held responsible, and her father was one of them. Now we see that her "common interest" with Widmore is to kill Ben. Seems odd if she is on a vengance streak to get Jack and her father that she would take on a side-project and go get tangled up with Widmore to kill Ben. But I admit the "how's Jack" jumped out of that scene.

Charlotte's Nosebleed

• Charlotte is getting a nosebleed only when the Island goes back in time to the DHARMA period and the nosebleed is occuring because she's too close to her past self, possibly as an infant.
• Everyone has time sickness but are travelling together somehow. It will only be so long till someone else starts bleeding. Alternately, Charlotte has less "constant-ness" with the island since she hasn't been around any landmarks/people there for very long, so she is sick/more sick/sick first. She was never at the hatch before it blew up. But what about Miles?
  • Miles will have more "constant-ness" if he is born on the Island and lived for quite a long time in childhood?
    • Could Miles be Pierre Chang's son?!
• Horace Goodspeed had a nosebleed when Locke saw him in a dream building the cabin in "Cabin Fever". Horace said he was dead. Charlotte has jumped to a time when her present self has already died.
  • The nosebleed was showing how his body was when he died. He got the nosebleed from the gas that Ben released in the DHARMA bus
    • The gas released in the van only killed Roger (Workman) - Ben's Father. The remaining Others, including Horace, were killed in the village.
      • The gas that Charlotte and Faraday were trying to defuse, the gas that was released previously by Ben, was what killed all of the Dharma Initiative... Possibly the same gas that was in the can Ben used to kill his dad. None of the DI folks in the barracks seemed like they were slaughtered in an aggressive way. EVERYONE who lived had gas masks on, so the gas was used. Ben just used the canned gas to make a point to his father that "yeah, I am killing you now."
  • However, nosebleeds seem to signal death in many characters. Horace and the other Dharma workers were not the only ones to suffer nosebleeds as they died.
  • Didn't Minkowski have a nosebleed on the freighter right before he died? It seems like nosebleeds are a symptom of time-travel-related sickness, implying the person will die soon.
  • The rat Eloise had it too and Faraday said it was something to do with her brain and not having a constant.
• The strain/confusion that they experience when they become unstuck in time causes them to have a Haemmorage and die.. thats what happened to Minkowski. The nose bleed is a sign of that. She is unstuck....
  • But isnt everyone else also unstuck? I hope they have lots of Dharma kleenix.
• The problem with going along with the idea that her nosebleeds have some connection to being unstuck, is that in Minkowski's, Desmond's, and the even the mouse's case, their mind was moving back and forth in time. In that sense, when they move back and forth, they go back to where they were at that time. Desmond found himself back in the army a few years back, and then back on the boat. And when he moved through time, it just appeared to Sayid that he passed out. It's different now. The unstuck are just physically moving through time, now, but remain in the same position when there's a time shift. In essence, they are all aware of the change and they have people around them to confirm their beliefs. It's almost as if they are each other's constants.
• Charlotte's nosebleed is related to the fact that she was born on the island and is in danger of colliding with herself in the past. Note that she says "I haven't had one of these since I was little." This is due to the fact that during the time jumps, she is in close contact with herself as a little girl. So, both of them have nosebleeds.

Charlotte's Memory

• Charlotte not being able to remember her mother's maiden name is caused by the same thing that was causing Daniel's memory problems mentioned briefly in Season 4. Presumably, this is a side effect of time travel, something that Daniel has apparently done a lot of.
  • Probably Daniel does not have memory problem, he just started to lose the consciousness in time and he got confused with where and when he "is" after lots of time travel.
    • How does this explain the memory loss Daniel clearly experienced (and subsequently commented on) with the deck of cards in "Eggtown"?
• Charlotte doesn't remember her mother's maiden name because the time they skipped to little Charlotte wouldn't have know that information. She was too young to concern herself with that. So although she remembers what is going on right now, she is reverting to some memories or lack of memories of that time period.

Juliet and the Hatch

• After the losties jumped back to before the hatch blew up, Juliet seemed to know exactly where The Hatch was. However, as far as we know, Juliet could not have known where it was, as she did not know about it until after it had blown up. This would imply that she had been to the hatch before the plane crashed, which would mean there was a meeting between her and Desmond neither of them has said anything about.
  • Of course she knows about the Hatch because she's aware of where all the Dharma stations are - everyone in Ben's camp is completely aware of what the DI were doing and where their stations are.
  • When they time-jump back to before the hatch blew up, they are already there. Furthermore, she, nor anyone else, is losing their memories, so since she knows where the hatch is she can easily find it now, regardless of when they time-jump to. Their bodies and memories remain in current-time, they do not revert to the time period they jump to.
  • Not necessarily, we know Ben knew about The Pearl and The Flame (and took Juliet to both). It is safe to assume that Ben knew what was going on in The Swan and got that info to Juliet.
    • It's still odd she would be able to just walk over and immediately find it under a bunch of overgrown and dirt if she hadn't been there at least once before. During the time Desmond was there, it would seem as though it had been forgotten by the others, or at least not visited, yet she knew it's exact location even though it was buried.
      • They were just looking at where the hatch was. Of course she knows where it is supposed to be. The big hole is covered.
  • Couldn't she have just visited it off-camera during the time she spent at the camp? I think this is a bit picky. Im sure they also had lots of maps showing its location.
    • This is very picky indeed. Not only were they just standing in front of the hatch, but it's entirely possible she was taken there during some time we didn't get to see. I mean, we've never seen anybody go to the bathroom either, but we know they do...
  • Juliet knew about the hatch before it blew up. She and Ben where in the Pearl watching Jack in the Swan while Paulo was in the Pearl bathroom hiding the diamonds.

Who can stop the island from moving in time?

• Locke-because he is the chosen one.
• Richard-because he seems to know everything about the island.
  • Richard isnt the only one not moving. All the hostiles are staying in the same timeline. Ethan told Richard about where he saw Locke when he was pointing the gun at him, and the memory remained with Richard and he knew where to find Locke when he jumped back.
    • Unlikely, given that Richard told Locke that he [Locke] told him [Richard] where he [Locke] would be. Locke replies "No I didn't," and Richard says "Well...you will, John."
• Ben-because he has to bring back the O6.
• The O6-returning to the island will stop this process.
  • I like this line of thinking. Perhaps the time-jumping is the island's way of recognizing that some people who should have been on the island (the O6) are gone, and time-jumping is the island's way of looking for them. That could be why Ben and Locke claim that the O6 should not have left, because they knew this would be the result after turning the wheel.
    • The island isn't "looking for them" per se, the island and its original inhabitants (Richard and company) moved to the new location and all is probably well. It's the remaining losties/freighties/Juliet that are skipping through time at the island's previous location. The reason they are skipping through time is because they all (them AND the O6) needed to be there to move forward like the Others did. So the reason the Others aren't skipping through time is because they were already an established part of the island. However the reason the losties/freighties/Juliet are skipping through isn't because they aren't original inhabitants, its just because they (them and the O6) weren't together at that moment, preventing them from moving with the island and instead, skipping through time like a broken record simply because they couldn't move forward with the island. Now why it is necessary for all of them, O6 included, to be together, is still a bit of mystery. Perhaps the island bonded them all together somehow, or maybe its just because they had established themselves together on the island as a settlement, thus becoming one group in the island's eyes.
  • The O6 are the Island's constants.
• Desmond-because Faraday thinks he can save them somehow.
• Whoever succeeds in preforming some critical task in the past.
• Mrs. Hawkings because she is the wizard behind everything!
• It's not up to any one person. Richard knows what must be done, but isn't the one that can do it. Ben knows what to do, but needs the cooperation of the O6 to do it. Desmond can also assist somehow because he had the "memory" of Daniel (as a time traveler) telling him to go see his mom at Oxford...although what she is supposed to do about it is still up in the air. And apparently, John must die too for some reason.

Save the Island - Conflicting Directions?

To Save the Island, you must; a. According to Jacob, Locke is told he must move the Island. Ben knows what that means, as so makes it happen. b. According to Richard, Locke is told he must bring the O6 back.

• • But, hang on. On the way to the Orchid, Ben is handcuffed to the helicopter, so he knows there is a group of Losties trying to leave in the chopper. Perhaps he doubts they will escape the radius of the shift event. Or that they would not reach the freighter before it went up. He would assume the freighter would explode when he killed Keamy. So he might have thought the chopper escape was useless and they would fly back to the Island with no choice once the freighter sank. Before he moved the FDW.
    • If Ben KNEW that the only way to save the island was to make sure the O6 were back on the island, wouldn't he make sure they came back before he turned the wheel? He was in no immediate rush to turn the wheel at that point (all the freighter guys were dead). He could have easily held the O6 captive, or had one of his Other buddies make sure they helicopter was safely back on the island before turning the wheel.
  • Also, we have Desmond, Michael and Jin trying to dis-arm the bomb of the freighter, managing to delay it with super-cold nitrogen. It is delayed long enough for Desmond to get onto the chopper, and for Jin to almost make it. When the nitrogen runs out, Dr Shepard appears to Michael and tells him he can go now. Does this indicate the Island (represented by Shepard) held off the explosion on purpose, for the chopper to escape?
    • The O6 never should have made it to the frieghter because it should have blown up earlier. Des/Michael/Jin inadvertantly ruin that plan by delaying the explosion. As a result, the O6 reach outside the radius and escape. Ben, not having planned for the O6's escape, thought he would never get back to the island, but upon finding out about the O6, now realize that they will be his answer for getting back, as the island wants them back.
  • So did the Island let the O6 go, or not?
    • We now know that Desmond is special - does the Island need him alive? Was the only reason the O6 got away was that Desmond could return to the real world?
      • I buy this theory as Desmond is needed in the outside world for the role he might have in saving the 'shifting' Losties with the help of Faraday's mother
• So now Richard says the O6 must come back. To bring back balance?
  • Yes, they never should have left. But saving the island from the outside world was the first priority. If O6 had stayed put this never would have happened.
• Also, the dead people and off-island visions are giving conflicting directions to the O6. Christian Shepherd and Charlie are saying to go back, while Claire is telling Kate to not bring Aaron back.
  • When did Christian say to go back? The only dialogue he had Something Nice Back Home was "JACK."
    • He never did. Locke came out of the cabin and told everyone what Christian had said. Are we even sure Christian speaks for Jacob?
  • But we still don't know what exactly is going on with Claire. She may be dead, but seems to more likely be in some sort of in-between stage. So in this case it wouldn't be strange for the people who we know are dead (Charlie, Christian) to be saying something different than she is.
  • Claire did not mention Aaron to Kate; she said, "Don't bring him back."
    • Definitely - the him could just as easily be referencing someone besides Aaron, like Bentham/Locke. It would, like the basis of the show so far, depend on your frame of reference.
      • Could be, but I can't see how Kate could possibly interpret the "him" be mean anything but "Aaron" in the context it was said. Especially since Kate has established "my son" as the subject of the conversation, and reference to a "him" would go back to Aaron. It makes no sense for Claire to respond to Kate's "don't you touch my son!" with "Don't bring Ben (or Widmore or anyone else) back!"
      • Or Claire's "him" could be reference to Ben or Widmore, as is seems Sun has allied herself with Widmore.
      • Since the O6 and Locke have to go back to save the island, it is unlikely she means either of Locke or Aaron. It seems more likely she means Ben or Widmore since they have both been exiled.
        • We don't know that Locke and the O6 have to go back to save the island, just that they have to go back 1) to save the others left behind, and 2) to help Ben get back to the island (it's his hidden agenda).
          • Richard told Locke that (in order to save the island) Locke needed to get all the people who left, to come back. There is little ambiguity in his statement.
          • Yet Ben seems concerned only with gathering the Oceanic Six. Presumably Walt, Desmond and Frank, who also left, need to return. Following the same vein, if Locke's body must come back, Michael and Jin do too- but there is the problem that they appeared to have died, leaving no remains.
            • Not so, Michael still had "work to do", but after doing his bidding on the freighter, he was free to "go", as Christian Shepherd told him. Jin is not as clear, but from what we've seen, he is not in any sort of debt to the island, and if indeed he is dead, then the island almost certainly "let" him die. As for Desmond and Walt, it does seem as if they'll need to go back as well.