Greatest Hits/Theories

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Theories about Greatest Hits

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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.

Charlie's swimming abilities

• Charlie appears to be able to swim, and there's no reason to believe he couldn't swim in "White Rabbit". He was lying as not to ruin his stash of heroin in the sea water.
  • Unlikely motive, since he is submerged in seawater in the episode "Walkabout" while fishing with Hurley for Shannon.
• Charlie's actual words were "I don't swim", not "I can't swim". This implies that he knows how to swim, but doesn't like to for some reason.

Desmond's flash

• Desmond's vision of Charlie drowning in The Looking Glass and of Claire being rescued is an event that takes place much later in the future.

• Charlie didn't die in this episode and Claire and Aaron was not rescued, but Desmond's premonition will still come true (by the next episode or even two seasons from now.)

• Charlie hasn't yet gotten to the switch; since Desmond's flashes show snapshots from a sequence of events in rapid succession (not not flowing in one scene), he did not see the moon pool nor the armed women; he just saw Charlie going down, the switch, and Charlie drowning.
• Desmond's wording when he's telling Charlie about his flashes is kind of strange. For one, why did he mention that the hatch was full of equipment, but not flooded? It would seem like one of the first things when describing a room, since it's so unusual. Therefore in Desmond's flash it was not flooded. Desmond and Charlie arrive to talk to Jack, Juliet and Sayid after they mention it was flooded, so Charlie has no way of knowing that it is, and Desmond sees no contradiction. We just assume he drowns because it's flooded, but it is the flipping of the switch that floods it. Desmond's broken narrative of "...you flip the switch. Then you drown" is a very strange way of putting it, like there's something missing between the two parts. So, even though the station's not flooded, Charlie's flipping the switch either causes the Looking Glass to flood, or maybe even the women there to drown him.
• The switch does not have to necessarily cause the Looking Glass to flood. Charlie could drown trying to swim back up to the surface.

• Charlie drowns as the 2 women of the Looking Glass purposely flood it trying to prevent him from flipping the switch.

• Flipping the switch is what disables the interference, not flooding the Looking Glass.

• In his vision, Desmond didn't actually see Charlie drowning, but he does see him dead. He simply saw him floating dead in the water and assumed he had drowned. He will still die but in a different way, ending up floating dead in the water, living up to Desmond's vision.

• Desmond will again attempt to thwart the vision, and Charlie will not die.

• Desmond's vision is of Charlie drowning, but as often happens in this type of TV drama, he will be resuscitated. In the coming next week we see Desmond diving into the water to find Charlie. Desmond will reach Charlie, save him from the Others, after which Charlie flips the switch, they dive into the water, Charlie drowns, only to be dragged out by Desmond and given CPR, saving his life at the last minute.

• Desmond flashes are flawed/incomplete, and is simply mistaken in this instance.

• His flashes are visual- not necessarily containing any intrinsic knowledge of the future. In other words, he saw what looked like Charlie drowning, but his vision was incomplete and he is able to rescue him.
• The scene showing Charlie singing before helping Nadia is very similar to that in "Flashes Before Your Eyes", in which Desmond meets Charlie, however Desmond is not seen in the flashback. His vision of Charlie drowning in the flooded hatch will also prove to be incorrect.

• These events are likely the same: Desmond's vision in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" where he meets Charlie, and Charlie's flashback in "Greatest Hits" where he saves Nadia. However, Desmond did not actually meet Charlie -- he only imagined it. The events in his hatch-implosion-induced flashback did not really occur. This is why we do not see Desmond in Charlie's flashback.
• Desmond's claim that things have to happen exactly as he sees them in his flashes is incorrect. Charlie did not die on the trek through the jungle, even though Desmond saw it in his flash, yet they still found the parachute and Naomi.

• Charlie was clearly there in Desmond's flash of bringing the parachutist down from the tree.

But Naomi may not have been the person in the parachute in Desmond's original flash.

• It's still doubtful that the parachutist would have turned out to be Penny had Charlie been killed; when Desmond in the past has stepped in to alter the flash in order to save Charlie, it keeps something natural from happening (i.e. a drowing, electrocution that would have occured where Charlie in the wrong place)--not something supernatural to occur (which would be the case if the identity of a body were to change mid-air).

• Desmond could be lying.

• The viewers didn't get to see Desmond's vision. It took him a considerable amount of time to tell Charlie. He was creating the story about Claire and Aaron on a helicopter because it was plausible and presuasive. He needed Charlie to go to the Looking Glass for reasons as yet to be revealed.

• • This holds true to the principle that we can only accept something as fact if we witness it ourselves (as opposed to just taking a character's word for it). We were not shown Desmond's flashback. There is a reason for this.

• It's unlikely that he's lying as we have actually witnessed the flashes he's had in the past and been honest about.

The Looking Glass

• The Looking Glass Station is the location of the underwater beacon (designed to guide submarines to the Island) that Mikhail refers to in "Enter 77". The station's name is a reference to Lewis Carroll's book, so named because following the beacon is the only safe way onto the Island. When, in "The Man from Tallahassee", Ben tells Locke the underwater beacon was destroyed and submarines can leave but will never be able to return without the beacon, he is referring to Looking Glass Station and does not attempt to have the beacon repaired because he believes the station is flooded.
• One of the women in Looking Glass Station is Annie. Annie still has a strong relationship with Ben and Ben lied about the station being flooded in order to protect her, a Dharma worker, from being killed by the Hostiles during the purge. Greta and Bonnie are pseudonyms.
  • They look so young to have Ben's age.
• The Looking Glass is a doorway between times or universes. The sub brings people from the Looking Glass, to the Island. That is why we've never actually seen the trip a person has to make, we've only seen them getting off the submarine.
• The two women at the station (Bonnie and Greta) are remnants from the original DHARMA project. The hostiles were not able to kill all the DHARMA workers, only the ones at specific stations (like the barracks). DHARMA workers at the Looking Glass survived the purge and are continuing their mission.
  • Kelvin and Radzinsky were also both left alone in The Swan.
  • Except Ben knows about the Looking Glass. According to Juliet, he is using the station to jam all transmission except those made by the Others.
    • Ben and Juliet know about the Pearl, therefore know about Swan (as did Mikhail), so, the women can be from DHARMA.
• The Looking Glass has a submarine entrance; the Others made use of that entrance to get their people on board to jam transmissions.
  • However, now that the sub is destroyed, the folks on the Looking Glass have no idea what's going on, depending on the last time the sub visited the station.
• There was what looked like a bunch of scuba tanks right behind one of the two women. They use scuba gear to reach the surface.
• Bonnie and Greta are part of the rescue team sent in with Naomi.
• Mikhail, shown inside The Looking Glass, took the sub there, the sub that Locke did not explode due to a deal they made in "Enter 77", which we'll find out about in "Through the Looking Glass, Part 1".
• Greta and Bonnie are the two girls in Charlie's bed in Helsinki.
  • The girls in Charlie's bed were both blonde; Greta is brunette, although hair color is easily changed. Still, it's unlikely as they don't look anything like the groupies, and that event in the flashback only occured a few years prior.

Ben

• Ben decides to abduct the pregnant women from the beach a day early because he has deduced that they are aware of the abduction plans.
  • Ben knows the minicassette recorder, which he had shown to Locke, has gone missing.
  • He also knows that Locke was out of sight for a day or two.
  • He suspects that Locke was unable or unwilling to kill his own father, and that he would have enlisted the aid of one of the Others from the beach. Thus, Ben can speculate that the tape recorder (and the messages on it) have been made available to the targets of the abduction plan.
  • With all of this in mind, Ben thinks he may have a chance to surprise the people on the beach if he moves up the timing of the attack.
  • Ben is visibly bothered by Jacob’s communication with Locke. He is not acting rationally by dramatically altering the plan, but acting out of fear or anger or both.
  • The arrival of Naomi, and her radio phone, has Ben worried that people from the outside world will reach the Island. This would have all sorts of bad implications for him.
    • He also lied to all his people when he said that Jacob told him to go a day early.
      • Although we do not know his return path from Locke's shooting to the camp - he went back to consult with Jacob further about the plan.
    • Ben moved up the day as part of a plan either to further Jacob's wish to be "helped" or to foil it.
• Ben's strategic grip on island events is slipping.
• The introduction of time travel being plausible through the Looking Glass Station gives weight to the theory that Ben is trying to find a cure for what is killing the pregnant women late in their second trimester in order to travel back through time and cure his mother. This is supported by seeing his mother on the Island in "The Man Behind the Curtain" and his insistence that Juliet continue her work till her job is done in "One of Us".
• Naomi told Ben. Naomi is increasingly not making sense. She was briefed with the same files that the Others have. Perhaps she is connected to Penelope, but perhaps Penelope is connected through her dad to the Others. Her sat phone can signal The Looking Glass.
  • Time passes differently on the Island than off it, and more than 90 days has passed.
  • Charlie's purpose in going to Sydney was to try and put the band back together. His 'death' combined with that desire and the free publicity from the crash provided a spark to get such an album made. It was a 'Best of' so no new material or recording was strictly neccessary.

Juliet and Jack

• One or both is double crossing the Losties. The original plan was to mark the tents the following night, when the Others were supposed to come. However, once they find out that the Others are coming a day early, they still mark the tents. Doing this is a clear signal to the Others that the "Losties" know that they are coming. There is no reason for Jack and Juliet to do this unless one or both of them is working with the Others.
  • It was a writing gaffe. It didn't register at the time, but this does seem to be an inconsistency.
  • It wasn't made clear that Juliet was to wait until the Others were coming to mark the tents. The Others often mark tents this way several days before a raid. Otherwise, someone who noticed the spy marking tents right before a raid would notice those were the same tents raided.
  • The real plan is to get the pregnant women away from the more powerful Lostaways, who would be most likely to impede their abduction attempt. The marks actually tell the Others who will take them which tents to avoid.
  • This implies that Ben gave Juliet incorrect instructions on the tape, which is unlikely.
• Jack is in league with the Others and is leading all of them (except the three shooters and Charlie and Desmond) straight into a trap willingly, which is why he's appeared so (strangely) emotionally overwrought.
  • However, it does not seem to have been manipulation on Jack's part when Sayid convinces him to take the other losties to the tower; it's a quick exchange, and Jack doesn't seem to be playing Sayid, who is levelheaded in his decision.
  • The area that Ben "confronts" Jack in the preview for the finale looks awfully like the area in this episode where Jack leads them to demonstrate the dynamite. Juliet believes that she is double-crossing Ben, but Jack is actually double-crossing Juliet FOR Ben.
  • The dynamite will fail and Jack knows it. Normally, explosives are not set off by gunfire although people who watch Hollywood movies think otherwise. However, this dynamite is very unstable so maybe that's the writers' excuse for why it will work.
    • Unlikely. This implies that there is a second source of dynamite (which is faulty) somewhere on the Island.
    • The dynamite is actually not that which Danielle got from the Black Rock. Jack told her about witnessing Arzt blow himself up, and convinced her to use newer dynamite (taken from the Barracks or elsewhere and possibly provided by Ben), such as what was at The Flame with Mikhail, which Locke used to blow up the submarine. If you look at the dynamite Juliet and Jack are handling, it doesn't look as crusty and corroded as tthe unstable dynamite Arzt handled at the Black Rock months ago.

Karl and Alex

• Karl knows something about Ben that Alex doesn't; she asks him if Ben is really is her father.
  • It's possible that they both know something, but Alex seems to ask Karl as if he knows something that she does not.
  • Question likely was rhetorical, based on Sayid's comment to Alex that she looked like her mother in "The Man from Tallahassee". Alex is now calling into question her own parentage.
  • Karl could be slightly older than Alex; he says he was born on the island, and perhaps Alex has been told that she was born elsewhere and brought to the island as a baby. Thus, she thinks that Karl would have heard from the adults more than she about that time in their history.

Bernard and Rose

• Bernard is staying behind as one of the shooters to foil Jack's plan. Rose and Bernard have agreed that they don't want to leave the Island for fear her cancer will return, so Bernard is going to make sure to ruin any rescue attempts.
• Bernard is the 'redshirt' of the three shooters. He is the most expendable of the three left behind on the shooting mission.
  • However, an entire episode focused on the couple's story, and more from Bernard's perspective. This episode featured all the "main" characters left; this seems to exempt him from redshirt status (there are plenty of those already), although that doesn't mean that he'll survive the clash (considering Eko, Ana-Lucia, etc.)