Michael Dawson/Theories

Main Article

Theories about Michael Dawson

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.

General Theories

• Michael is the first one of the Oceanic Six.
  • Michael wouldn't be counted among the six. He and Walt would be in hiding presumably and left before the others. Thus 8 really escaped the island.

• Michael is the man in the coffin in Jack's future flash. This is why the funeral was in a black neighborhood and it is also why Kate was indifferent about attending.

• The construction company he worked for was a Widmore company.

• May not actually be the biological father of Walt, as hinted by Ms. Klugh, who did take a blood sample from Michael when he arrived at their camp.

• The person Michael talked to was someone at DHARMA HQ or a computerized message that comes up every two-three years and checks to see if the occupants of the Swan had the initiative's "Integrity" in mind.
  • This brings up the question of how they knew that it was Michael in the swan and that they were holding Walt prisoner.
    • The Person on the other end could have been Mikhail Bakunin who we know had Information about the Survivors, it could have also been a Mindf*ck on Michael.

• Has the same supernatural powers as Walt.

• He may have contracted the contagion or the sickness from the Island, as noticed in the first part of the 2nd season finale (approx 29min in). He is supposed to be collecting firewood and Jack finds him sweating, and with a rather odd rash on his arm. He admits to not feeling well. It could be his guilt of betrayal or it could also be his onset of symptoms, as it is said to have hit Danielle Rousseau's crew 2 months after they landed, and this point in the timeline for the Flight 815 victims is 2 months. If Aaron actually contracted it earlier, a strange rash was one of his symptoms.

• Michael will not appear on the island for the remainder of the series, and his role as a regular will be through off-island appearances and the flash-forwards of other characters.

• Michael, reference to the angel, "At the time of the Apocalypse, he will rescue everyone whose name is written in the book" This could be Michael's 'redemptive' storyline: when the Losties are in great danger or trouble he will show up.

Leaving the Island Theories

• Michael is Ben's "Man On The Boat". The heading 325 sent him directly to the Freighter...possibly.
• Will not find rescue, will return to the Island like Desmond.
  • The heading 325 was to rendezvous with the submarine, not a direct exit out of the snowglobe. The submarine then carried Michael/Walt to the outside world. If a surface ship could come and go from the snowglobe, why go to all the bother and expense of using a submarine to ferry people and supplies to the island? The others set Michael/Walt off in the small boat for two reasons, 1) To show Jack/Kate/Sawyer that they kept their promises by seemly letting Micheal/Walt escape the island and 2) to keep the existence of the submarine a secret from J/K/S.

• If Michael made it to civilization, Michael will never tell anyone for fear they would mount a rescue and find the survivors who could reveal he was a murder and turn around and testify against him! The Others probably realized this so there was not even a need to tell him to keep anything secret as it was so obvious. With a boat Michael could even have doubled back to the beach and rescued a few people but he just planned to leave and NEVER look back.
  • If found by Naomi's boat, who Ben and The Others don't want Jack to contact or to come to the island, Michael would even have also lied to them and pleaded just to be taken to civilization not wanting to reveal anything of the island, the survivors, or his murderous deal.
  • If he did tell anyone or try to get the survivors rescued he would immediately go into hiding as a fugitive, again for fear of prosecution as a murder when they were found or to hide from DHARMA who may want to gain some insight into the island since the revolt or to hide Walt from DHARMA.
  • Walt or guilt may cause him to go public and accept that he may eventually be prosecuted and convicted of murder at the cost of saving the survivors.
  • How could they possibly explain the boat to anyone that they run into.

• The Others might have contacted the outside world letting them know where Michael and Walt would be after they escaped the snowglobe. So Michael and Walt might be rescued at the expense of the capture of Kate, Sawyer, and Jack; the deaths of Ana-Lucia and Libby, and the freedom of Ben.
• Walt was never on the boat Michael sails out in. He just appears to be there like mentioned by mrs. Klugh and shown to Shannon and Sayid. He suddenly disappears when they get away from the Island.
• Ben lied:
  • He was sent by the Others to the second island, where he and Walt are still captive. If this happened, Ben would have sneakily kept to the words of his promise to Michael... a classic "deal with the devil" plot device.
  • Michael has been stuck on the Orchid during season 3, either to press buttons or experiments by the Others.
  • The reason the Others are not afraid that he will tell the outside world is because they guided Michael toward DHARMA HQ or toward people who will take him to the HQ so they can further study Walt.

• Michael is returning because when Ben told him he'd "Find Rescue" he ran into Naomi's boat and thought it was a good thing. He and Walt have been held captive on there and they gave information to Naomi and that's how she was able to get a picture of Desmond and Penny and why she knows what's going on. She got the sat phone to Jack, because Michael told them that's who she should go to, because he's in charge.

• Michael and Walt will arrive back in the real world and will create a task force to go save their friends back on the Island. Naomi works for him, he was the man Jack spoke to on the Sat phone.

• Will meet Penelope after the escape. Either they will try to rescue the other survivors together; or, Penelope will cross paths with Michael's boat and will force Michael to show them where Desmond is at gunpoint, leading him and Walt back to the Island.

• Michael is the one who had organized a rescue team to search for the Island and the Losties. When he and Walt escaped the island, they made contact with Penny, who had been searching for Desmond for a while.

• "Rescue" might be a different group of Others, or possibly the native inhabitants of the Island. Just like Eko remarked to John "People are saved in different ways", people are also rescued in different ways and rescue is a form of/synonym for salvation.

• Naomi states that Flight 815 was found, and all passengers confirmed dead. This indicates that Michael and Walt have, for all intents and purposes, "vanished," at least for the time being. They've clearly departed the island, but have obviously not been recovered by the "real" world.
  • This is not necessarily true. In Jack's flash-forward, no one seems to know that he was ever involved in a plane crash. The same thing could have happened to Michael and Walt upon their return to the real world
    • In the flash forward the guy behind Jack in line at the pharmacy did seem to know what Jack had been through. He said he recognized him and we were supposed to think it was from the news about him saving Mrs. Arlen but he was really referring to Jack surviving the crash. The man was about to elaborate on that when Jack cut him off. The writers had to play it that way otherwise we would have known then that it was a flash forward.
  • This may also not be true. In the flash-forward Jack does mention to Kate that he uses his Golden Passes that were given to the both of them, presumably from Oceanic Airlines, indicating they (Oceanic Airlines) must have known that Jack and Kate were in fact on one of their planes in a crash. Perhaps Oceanic Airlines asked Jack and Kate to keep the crash a secret or they simply chose to never be in any publicity about the crash.
    • However, when Jack is in the pharmacy attempting to retrieve more pills, the man behind him says that he saw Jack on TV and tells the pharmacist to give Jack "whatever he wants". It doesn't make sense to give "whatever he wants" to a man who saved a kid and his mom from a burning car. But it does make sense to give anything to a man who saved the world on an island in the Pacific.
      • Also in hurleys flash forward it is revealed that everyone knows who the people who survived the crash is and they are known as the "Oceanic 6."
  • Naomi might have been lying about finding their flight as to confuse them and make a takeover easier.
• michael could have sent the people on the boat who worked for Penny a radio signal.
• Michael could have told someone who was apart of the maxwell group where he was after a GPS signal was established
• Michael is Ben's "man on the boat". Ben let him leave the island specifically for this reason.
  • Doesn't make any sense. Why would Michael do that? Plus, you're saying Ben sent Michael on that boat over a month ahead of time for him to spy on the freighter people and report back to Ben, just to be rescued? And how would Michael acquire all the information on the Freighter people, by stealing Naomi's folders, or interviewing them? It's illogical.
    • All he would really need is for Michael to get their names and some background details and hand them over to Mikhail prior to his death. Mikhail would come back with detailed dossiers much like he did with the 815 survivors. Mikhail was still alive by the time Naomi and company were in the area.
    • Ben is a master manipulator, and has a track record for not following up on his promises. Juliet's stay on the island was supposed to last for only six months, but Ben told her she was to stay as long as her work took. Although Ben assured Michael that rescue awaited him if he followed the co-ordinates given, he might have later on called upon him to infiltrate the Freighter and it's crew, simply extending the treat of revealling his murderous actions. Michael's willingness to murder Ana-Lucia to get back his son is evidence of his desperation, so it wouldn't be too much of a shock if upon further threat, continued to do Ben's bidding.
• Michael was recruited into the Others AFTER he and Walt returned to the real world. His (off island) contact explained why they are the good guys and Michael chose to join them willingly. He wants to do penance for the murders.