Libby Smith/Theories

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Theories about Libby Smith

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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.

Why was she involved with Desmond, Hurley, and then the crash?

Theory 1: She works for Charles Widmore

For the general theory of Widmore's involvement with Flight 815 see here.

Evidence:

• Who else would know about the kind of boats that could be used in Widmore's race, and afford to give one a way, as well as has a strange interest in Desmond? So far, the only character who could make this extremely unlikely coincidence possible is Widmore, who we know has an interest in both Desmond and the Island.
  • Extremely unlikely coincidences are rife through the show.
• The fact that she radically changes her hair color suggests that she might be concealing her identity. When she meets Desmond she has red hair, Hurley - brown, and on Flight 815: blond.
• Her medical knowledge (shown when she first arrived with the other survivors) may have been the result not of medical school, but rather that she prepared in advance with first aide training because she knew she was headed to the island.
• Also the fact that she starts dating Hurley, never mentioning that she had seen him before, seems like she has some reason for being around him. Hurley himself mentioned how improbable their relationship was given his physique. Maybe she had an ulterior motive. But clearly, given that she helped talk him down from suicide, she was interested in his wellbeing.
  • She feels a connection to him because they were both at Santa Rosa, so she knows what he's going through.
• Might not have been in the mental hospital for Hurley, but rather Leonard.(if she is working for Widmore and knows about Leonard, the numbers and the island.)

Counter-evidence:

• She may have just been in the institution for legitimate reasons.
  • In the brief scene of her at Santa Rosa, she seems fairly "mental".
• Many many many character coincidences appear in Lost. (Boone-Sawyer, Anna Lucia-Christian Sheppard, Jack-Desmond, the list goes on), there is nothing at all to suggest that Libby meeting Desmond wasn't another character coincidence.
• Widmore wouldn't know that 815 was going to crash.

• Widmore would have known 815 was going to crash because he knew the survivors who were jumping through time and used his resources to find the flight that they were all on.

• Given that most of the people on the plane died when it crashed it is an unproductive way to get to the island.
  • And yet when they all want to get back to the island 3 years after leaving they get on a plane intending to crash.
• Why would Widmore want her on the island?

• A clinical psychologist with a direct tie to Desmond would be a valuable asset to have on the island because she would have a few cards to play, such as the Penny card.

• Widmore would have gone on the plane himself

Theory 2: She is the daughter of Charles Widmore

Evidence:

• The child that contributed to Widmore's banishment from the island is Libby. We know that Daniel is Ellie and Widmore's child. Penny despises her father. Libby's actions have supported Widmore's agendas:
  • Libby's appearances to Michael were designed to disrupt his mission on the Kahana in support of Widmore.
  • She was at Santa Rosa at the same time as Hurley, potentially to try and obtain the numbers, but upon failing, was tailing Hurley to Australia and back.
  • She gave Desmond the boat that eventually wrecked on the island, getting him out of Penny's life for a long time.
  • Could possibly be the other way around - Libby is the child born on the island and Penny is the child who lived her life on the mainland with her father, not knowing about the island.
• The mention of a Widmore offspring that was not approved by the Others is also the first discussion of an as yet unseen character in some time that would be the right age match for Libby.
• She was one of only five Tailies not kidnapped or killed by the Others. This adhered to the rules established between Ben and Widmore.
• Her death at the hands of Michael, a diversion that Ben planned, could actually be the first murder of a child that "broke the rules" and started the cycle of violence that involved Alex and Penny.
  • If she was Widmore's or any Other's offspring then killing her would be a violation of any truce between Dharma and Others whether planned or not.
• As we have seen, there are loopholes that make it possible to avoid breaking the rules, by getting someone else to do the dirty work(Ben killing Jacob)
• Libby is the child that Ben and The Others disaproved of.

Counter-Evidence:

• We do not know who Penny's mother was and cannot rule her out as the child that the Others disapproved of.

Theory 3: Everything she said was true

• She was telling the truth about almost everything. She was an American psychologist working in Australia, married to her husband who died. After, she had a nervous breakdown in L.A.. She did not come to Australia for Hurley. She is not an Other. She is not a pathological liar. She is not a fiendish manipulator. If she recognizes Hurley from Santa Rosa she refuses to mention it because she is ashamed of being in a mental hospital.

Evidence:

• She seemed to be taking medicine at Santa Rosa.
  • She seemed very distraught and depressed, like most other patients at Santa Rosa.
• Nothing at all to suggest she was lying.
• She had feelings for Hurley because they both share a connection of being mentally unstable.

Counter-evidence:

• Who gives a boat to a stranger?
  • A person with a history of depression and/or mental illness?
  • A romantic altruist?
  • A person who had been told to?
• She had to be lying about Hurley stepping on her foot, she was in the tail section, he was in the middle...he would of never passed her.
  • Unless he had gone to the rear of the plane to use the restroom or ask something of the flight attendants.
  • taken from transcript: LIBBY: Yes, you did. And it was hard. I know that because I remember you were the last one on the flight, and you were all sweaty, and you had headphones on -- and crunch. You stepped on my foot....so it was right when he got on the plane that she is referring too.
    • Libby was originally seated in the middle of the plane because in a deleted scene she tells Claire that she is wearing her shirt. If Libby had her luggage in the tail section Claire couldn't be wearing her shirt. Libby probably wanted to sit in the back of the plane.
  • She is lying to give Hurley an explaination as to why he recognizes her so that he won't remember her at Santa Rosa.

Theory 4: She works for Benjamin Linus / John Locke / Jacob / Ms. Hawking, etc.

• What if there were some people sent to fly on Oceanic 815 in order to subtly manipulate events? There's a lot up in the air at this point....
• There is indeed. It seemed that Cindy (the flight attendant) assimilated a little too quickly and easily into the "Others". She was also responsible for giving Jack a juice-like drink (remember Juliet's juice?) right before the crash.
  • She gave him vodka. In any case, the juice Juliet drank was a sedative, Jack clearly wasn't sedated...
    • He could have been. He said he blacked out and the next thing he knew he was waking up in the jungle.
• It is possible she was manipulated into boarding flight 815 by the Others.

Theory 5: She's part of the 'Shadow group'

• This is one way they could allude to her story through an Ilana flashback.

Background

Mental Patient?

Libby as patient on Santa Rosa Hospital

• Libby was supposed to use the boat to get to the Island. When she gave the boat to Desmond she slowly spiraled into depression and psychosis, much like Jack. At this time she started seeing things, much like others who have left the Island. As a result, she was commited to Santa Rosa.
• Became obsessed with Hurley at the hospital and been following him ever since.
• Libby was in the mental institution, as a result of depression following her husband's death (and meeting Desmond), and took a liking to Hurley because she thought he was talking to her husband "Dave" in the afterlife.
• It is not actually Libby in the mental institution, but a twin sister. This may explain why her hair color is different. This may also be the reason why Libby becomes a psychologist in the first place if her sister has mental issues. This theory also plays into the many themes of duality on the show.
  • The nurse who gives her the pills calls her by name. It's definitely Libby, not a twin.

Clinical Psychologist?

• Libby is not a clinical psychologist. No Clinical Psychologist would call what was happening to Hurley (on the cliff after Dave jumps) a "panic attack." A panic attack does not mean standing around looking nervous; panic attack symptoms include hyperventilating, chest pain, sweating, and overall serious anxiety.
  • True, the symptoms of a real panic attack are distressing to say the least; but perhaps some artistic license should be granted. If they were to portray Hurley in the midst of an accurately depicted panic attack, any reasonable exchange of dialog couldn't occur. All in all, the symptoms were intentionally played down for dramatic effect.
  • Any real clinical psychologist could not have described a hallunication as a panic attack. The two things are very very far removed.
  • Possibly evidence she lied about her profession - possibly a production error.
• Libby may have needed to choose a profession at random, so, with her experience in a mental hospital, chose a clinical psychologist because that's a job she knew pretty well

Her Husband, David

• A character we haven't met.
• She was genuinely in love with him, and genuinely emotionally distraught at his death, leading her to give her boat away "for love" and causing a spell in Santa Rosa Mental Institute.
  • There's no David. David it's like Hurley's Dave, or IT'S Hurley's Dave. Her medicines were Hurley's medicines too.

Miscellaneous

• Libby is a "bad" person. The Others kidnapped all the "good" people from the Tailies camp, but did not kidnap Ana Lucia, Eko, Libby or Bernard. It is obvious why Ana Lucia and Eko were bad people, but Libby and Bernard are still unclear.
  • Not necessarily true. Both raids on the tailies resulted in casualties for The Others (Eko kills 2 the first night, Ana Lucia kills one the 12th) Then on the trek back to the beach Cindy is taken even though she wasn't on the list of 9. It's possible they just didn't get around to Bernard or Libby yet.
    • Maybe Libby did a bad thing (a crime) and took an Insanity Plea?
• Libby is the Elizabeth mentioned in the whispers.