The Island

Multiple Realities
(Covers information from Both Timelines)

Danielle Rousseau's map of the Island (English version)

The Island immediately after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 ("A Tale of Two Cities")

For the smaller island off the coast of the Island, see Hydra Island.

For the orchestral piece, see "The Island" (composition).

For specific locations on the Island, see Locations.

The Island is the principal location for the events of Lost. The Island is often treated as if it is a character, with its own desires and designs. The Island displays unusual "powers" that can apparently function beyond its geographical territory, into the outside world. The Island is notoriously difficult to find and can move by turning the frozen wheel. The Island appears to have been in the mid-Atlantic ("Namaste") and the South Pacific for at least a portion of its history, but due to it being moved, its current location is unknown. According to Jacob, the Island serves as a cork preventing evil to escape into the real world.

Location

More info: Membata, Maps, The Numbers#Natural occurrences, Island in Google Maps, Island-Tunisia Oppositism

Lamp Post marker showing the post-moving location of the Island ("316")

The Island appears to have no fixed location, as it is always moving. The present location of the Island is unknown.

The DHARMA Initiative found the Island via the Lamp Post, a station they occupied beneath a church in Los Angeles. The Lamp Post was constructed over a "unique pocket of electromagnetic energy" that connects to similar pockets all over the world, one of which is associated with the Island. Figuring that the Island was always moving, the DHARMA Initiative built a pendulum and created a series of equations to accurately predict where the Island would be, in time. Eloise Hawking explained that the Island is accessible through "windows" that open at different locations for limited periods of time. She found a particular "window" for the Oceanic Six to get back to the Island, and had them take Ajira Flight 316 to access it. ("316")

The pilot of Oceanic Flight 815, Seth Norris said the plane had lost radio contact before the crash and had changed course towards Fiji. He estimated they were 1000 miles off course by the time they crashed. ("Pilot, Part 1") Desmond believed the Island was one week east of Fiji, traveling at nine knots. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1") This fits with Rousseau's statement that she was three days out of Tahiti when she wrecked on the Island. ("Solitary")

The Oceanic Six were rescued by Penelope's boat Searcher, from which they sailed to the Island of Sumba to stage their reappearance to the world. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2") This places the Island's original location, at least within the established timeline of the show, within the South Pacific.

Individuals trying to find the Island, such as the team aboard Charles Widmore's boat, the Kahana, found it difficult to find the Island, even with a set of coordinates. While Naomi Dorrit did manage to find the Island in her helicopter, it took a satellite phone's GPS system for the freighter team to lock on to the Island's position. Moreover, it is known that the DHARMA Initiative had to use a sonar beacon in a station they called the Looking Glass to guide submarines to the Island. Other issues surrounding the Island's location include how a small plane which launched from Nigeria could have traveled all the way to the Pacific Ocean before it crashed (assuming that is indeed where the Island is).

Moving the Island

The Island moves. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")

Ben turned the frozen wheel located in a secret chamber underneath the Orchid station, which caused the Island to move. Soon after the wheel was turned, a loud noise and bright light (similar to the "discharge") were experienced throughout the local area, both on and off the Island. This disturbance happened immediately before the Island disappeared from the ocean. The Island, along with its smaller, companion island, known as Hydra Island, vanished from the space they occupied, leaving a vacuum in the ocean that was quickly filled in by seawater. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")

After moving the Island, during a suprise visit to Charles Widmore's penthouse suite Ben promised him that he would never find the Island. Widmore replies with "that island is mine and it will be again". ("The Shape of Things to Come")

Skipping through time

After the Island was moved by Ben, the remaining survivors from Flight 815, Juliet, and the new arrivals from the freighter began moving erratically through time. The effect would begin with a ringing or buzzing noise that would build in intensity until the entire Island would be engulfed in white light during which the time flash would take place, moving them into the past or future. ("Because You Left") At the direction of a mysterious Christian Shephard, the time flashes ended after John Locke realigned the frozen wheel. The time-shifting survivors were deposited in 1974. ("This Place Is Death")  ("LaFleur")

Flash-sideways timeline

The Island submerged underwater, along with the broken Statue of Taweret. ("LA X, Part 1")

In the flash-sideways timeline, the Island is revealed to be underwater on the ocean floor. Several locations on the Island such as the Barracks, the sonar fence and the remnants of the Statue of Taweret are seen, all covered in ocean plant life and coral. ("LA X, Part 1") It is not clear in this timeline when the Island sank, although the presence of the various DHARMA Initiative structures indicates it occurred well after their arrival on the Island. ("LA X, Part 1") As revealed in "Dr. Linus", both Roger and Ben discuss leaving the Island although do not seem to be aware that the Island sank. Since Pierre Chang's appearance in "Everybody Loves Hugo", it appears unlikely the Island's submergence occurred immediately after the detonation of the Jughead.

History

Early history

The giant statue. ("LaFleur")

Little is known of the early history of the Island. There are the remains of a four-toed statue, a Temple, a well leading to a secret cavern, along with other ruins. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")  ("Stranger in a Strange Land")  ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2") These all suggest that a significant culture was present on the Island at some undetermined point in the past.

Hieroglyphs are engraved in several places around the Island, such as the frozen wheel room, the Temple and Ben's secret door under his home at the barracks. ("The Shape of Things to Come")  ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")  ("This Place Is Death")

Ben's secret door

The first known visitors to the Island are the sailors of the Black Rock. They arrived on the Island in 1867, when she left Portsmouth, England. ("Ab Aeterno") The crew consisted of Magnus Hanso, 40 crew-members, and a number of slaves, including Richard Alpert, bought in places such as Tenerife. The blast door map says that the remains of the ship's owner, Magnus Hanso, are somewhere on the Island, presumably near the Black Rock.

Jacob and The Man in Black have seemingly inhabited the island for some time before the Black Rock arrived. Jacob told Richard that there were many who came before him, but they had all died; insinuating that there have been many visitors to the island before 1867.

The remains of two people known as Adam and Eve were found in a cave. Jack's time-of-death estimate placed them at some point in the 1950s or 1960s; however, the producers have hinted that the presence of Adam and Eve is related to the time-traveling aspect of the show.

United States Army

The Island was one of several in the South Pacific designated for nuclear tests by the United States Army in the 1950s. However, the initial scouting party of eighteen soldiers of an Army battalion, was isolated and eventually killed by the Hostiles under Richard Alpert. Before this defeat, the scouting party did manage to transport a hydrogen bomb, named "Jughead," to the Island. Per Daniel Faraday's instructions, the bomb should have been encased in concrete and buried somewhere on the Island to keep it from detonating. ("Jughead") But nevertheless, the Others stored it unsealed in a subterranean chamber, connected with a tunnel system. ("Follow the Leader")

DHARMA Initiative

The Purge ("The Man Behind the Curtain")

A large new period of human activity began in the early 1970s under the leadership of the DHARMA Initiative, who found the Island via their Lamp Post station in Los Angeles. The DHARMA Initiative had gathered proof of the Island's existence and, assuming correctly that the Island was always moving, used the Lamp Post to accurately predict where the Island would be.

Construction projects occurred across the Island, including a series of isolated science stations. They also built a community-style living facility known as the Barracks. Tunnels were dug, along with a limited number of road projects. The Island was also equipped with a communications network.

During this time, Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking were leading the Others. Benjamin Linus, a former DHARMA member, aided them in what would become known as the Purge, which resulted in the deaths of nearly all members of the DHARMA Initiative. Later, Charles was banished from the Island for poor conduct and Ben became the leader of the Others.

Island castaways

The tail section sinks. ("The Other 48 Days")

• A French science team, attracted by radio signals from the Island, arrived around 1988. While several members of the team survived the shipwreck, only Danielle Rousseau and, possibly, Montand survived after a mysterious sickness, which apparently caused her team to act as though they were not themselves. ("This Place Is Death") After killing everyone in her team to protect herself from becoming "sick", Danielle took up residence on the Island for more than 16 years until she was killed in December 2004.
• Some time during 2001 Desmond Hume got stranded on the Island while racing across the Pacific on his sailboat "Elizabeth". He got into a storm, was knocked unconscious, and rescued by DHARMA Initiative member Kelvin Inman. Sometime later Desmond accidently killed Kelvin while trying to leave the island on the same boat he(Desmond) came in, leaving Desmond alone in the Swan Station. On December 31, 2004, after over three years on the Island, Desmond was rescued along with the Oceanic Six.
• Henry Gale's balloon crashed on the Island sometime around July 2004. Henry Gale survived the crash long enough to write a note to his wife Jennifer. He died (or was killed) sometime in the following months after his crash.
• A drug smugglers' plane crashed on the Island sometime between the late 1990s and early 2000s. There were no survivors.
• On September 22, 2004, Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on the Island during an electromagnetic event precipitated by Desmond Hume's failure to push the button in the Swan station on the Island. At least 70 passengers survived the crash.
• On December 17, 2004, Naomi Dorrit parachuted onto the Island after her helicopter went down. A few days later, the Kahana's science team and mercenary team came to the Island. Naomi and the mercenaries were eventually killed. The three-member science team remained stranded on the Island after the Kahana exploded, while pilot Frank Lapidus escaped with the Oceanic Six. ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3")
• In early 2008, Ajira Airways Flight 316 passed through a "window" to the Island about ten hours into its scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Guam, and was landed on the Hydra Island by its pilot, Frank Lapidus. At least a dozen passengers, including Lapidus, Sun-Hwa Kwon, Ben Linus, Caesar, and Ilana were stranded there, while Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, Hugo Reyes and Sayid Jarrah were teleported to the year 1977 before the plane went down. ("316")  ("Namaste")

Flora and fauna

Boar. ("Outlaws")

DHARMA's polar bears. ("Orientation")

Among the Island's vegetation are Banyan trees and fruit-bearing mango, papaya, and guava plants. There are also bananas, passion fruit, coconuts and some star fruit. ("Hearts and Minds")

Native animals encountered by the survivors include wild chicken, bees, tree frogs, and spiders. From the sea, various types of fish, shellfish, and sea urchin have been found. The Island is also in the path of tagged migratory seagulls. The Island has a number of animal species not native to the South Seas, including boars, Mikhail's cat Nadia, and a domesticated dove. The Others also kept cattle at the Flame, and at least two horses have been seen: one ridden by Bea Klugh, and a mysterious black horse seen by Kate and Sawyer.

The DHARMA Initiative brought certain non-native animals, such as polar bears, sharks, rabbits, and dolphins, to Hydra Island and modified them to an unknown degree. During the Purge, the polar bears escaped and made their way to the main island and beyond. ("Confirmed Dead")

Geography

A view of the Island from the Hydra Island. ("Every Man for Himself")

According to the scale of Danielle Rousseau's maps, the island is 60 km (40 mi) north to south, and about 45 km (30 mi) east to west. The diameter of the Island has been shown to be a several-days' walk, as demonstrated by the Tailies traveling to join the midsection survivors, by Kate and Sawyer's return from the Hydra Island, and by Kate, Locke, Sayid and Rousseau's journey to The Flame and then to the Barracks. ("The Other 48 Days")  ("I Do")

Kelvin crossing the cove. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 2")

The Island has many different geographical zones. There is a very distinctive coastline comprised mostly of beach sand. Some of the beach is rocky and hard to navigate, such as the cove where Kelvin kept the Elizabeth ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1"), and a rocky peninsula that the Tailies went around rather than over to save time ("Abandoned"). A cape was mentioned by Locke ("The Little Prince"). There also appear to be steep cliff faces that drop off into the sea, such as where Dave is seen jumping away from Hurley. ("Dave") It hides the cliffside cave. ("The Substitute")

Jungle and forest seem to make up most of the interior of the Island. Although they run together, there are distinct differences between them: the forest appears to be more sparse, with smaller trees; while the jungle appears to be more dense, with more hanging vines over-head. Within the jungle area is also the dark territory, a dangerous area where the Monster seems to roam.

Sayid observing the cliff. ("The Whole Truth")

In the hills is a plateau called the Mesa where Hurley's golf course is located. Hurley rode the DHARMA van on the Mesa. ("Enter 77") The caves are also located near the Mesa. There is also a cliff next to some mountains that can be seen when Sayid, Charlie, and Ana Lucia were searching for Henry Gale's balloon. ("The Whole Truth"). Also, Jack was rescued by Locke from falling off a cliff. ("White Rabbit")

There are mountains throughout the Island, including at least one volcano in the South. There are two main ridges, both stretching from North to South. The valley between the mountain ridges contains rivers, streams, and waterfalls. Part of it is known as the North Valley. There is also a lake located next to the sonar fence.

Open fields are common on the Island, such as where Shannon translated the distress signal and where Hurley and Charlie drove the DHARMA van. ("Pilot, Part 2")  ("Tricia Tanaka Is Dead") They seem to be mostly on hill-sides and on the Mesa. The Pascal Flats are shown on Ben's map. ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 1"). Not much is known of this area other than it is south of the Barracks and the Pearl, and southwest of the radio tower.

Volcanic activity

Olivia Goodspeed explains the Island's volcanic activity. ("The Man Behind the Curtain")

There is at least one volcano on the Island. Olivia mentions to her class how the Island had volcanic reactions occurring "a long time ago", suggesting it was dormant or extinct. ("The Man Behind the Curtain") Furthermore, the word "crater" is seen on Rousseau's map.

There are several clues to the Island being volcanic. The general topography of the Island is typical of a volcanic island, such as the apparent lava-formed coastlines. The powdery substance surrounding Jacob's cabin also looked similar to volcanic ash. The sign Bernard was making in "S.O.S." consisted of volcanic rocks. Moreover, The Barracks appear to sit in a crater-like formation, possibly a caldera or volcanic crater. ("A Tale of Two Cities") Locke and Charlie also discovered a lava tube being used as a den by one or more polar bears. Finally, Jack and Sayid surmised that the Swan's power source was geothermal. While volcanic activity is not required for geothermal power, it makes the process much easier. Overall, the Island's presumed location in the South Pacific seems to correspond with the notion of it being volcanic, as it is an area falling along the "Ring of Fire," so named because of a high frequency of seismic and volcanic occurrences.

On the DVD commentary track for "The Man Behind the Curtain", Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse point out an Easter egg when Olivia demonstrates the volcano model in her classroom. The producers stated that the volcano on the Island will be "less important than Annie, but still seismic"

Mysterious properties

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Aside from the unusual history, population, and locations, the Island also exhibits some unusual properties of its own.

Locke realizes he's no longer paralyzed. ("Walkabout")

Healing and life-extension properties

The Island, or some unknown force or thing on the Island, appears to have healing powers that cure at least some inhabitants of long-term ailments, expedite recovery from mild to moderate wounds, and extend lifespans. Some of the more dramatic examples of this healing power are Locke's healed legs, Rose's cured cancer, Jin's heightened sperm count, and Daniel Faraday's memory improvement. ("Walkabout")  ("S.O.S.")  ("Cabin Fever")

Navigational difficulties

Sayid explains the compass's deviation from true magnetic north. ("Hearts and Minds")

Various anomalous phenomena exist around the Island that complicate the ability to navigate around and away from the Island. The DHARMA Initiative placed a sonar beacon just off the coast of the Island, which was used to guide their submarine.

The unique magnetic properties of the Island were first encountered by the survivors when Sayid's examination of Locke's compass showed a significant local deviation in bearings. It is likely that this deviation was caused by the electromagnetic pull of the yet-to-be discovered Swan Hatch.

Locating and traveling to the Island is difficult due to an unknown phenomenon that apparently causes travelers to experience a time dilation. This has been demonstrated by Daniel's experiment, the Helicopter's lost time, and the events surrounding Ray's death. Possibly this distortion is variable in nature as no such distortion appeared to take place on Sayid's journey to the Island via the Zodiac. ("The Economist")  ("The Constant")  ("Cabin Fever")

When traveling to the Island, one must stay on a particular compass bearing, lest they travel in circles and/or experience unsettling effects. Desmond's attempt to leave the Island by sailing due West was futile, as he ended up sailing in circles and back to the Island. Upon learning of the survivors' possession of a sailboat, Juliet showed knowledge of the difficulty of leaving, commenting that "sailing in circles will keep them busy".

Following instructions from Ben to follow a bearing of 325 from the Pala Ferry pier, Michael and Walt successfully left the Island. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")  ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 1") Daniel Faraday recognized the importance of following a single bearing to leave the Island, giving strict instructions to Frank Lapidus not to deviate from a heading of 305 degrees or risk "side effects", ("The Economist")  ("The Constant") Sayid and Desmond knew to follow Daniel's instruction when returning to the Island from the Kahana. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 1")  ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")

It is theorized by Captain Gault that the Kahana's proximity to the unusual time differential effect around the Island was causing irrational behavior, including suicide, on the part of his crew. He likened this effect to a heightened case of "cabin fever". ("Ji Yeon")  ("Cabin Fever")

The unusual behavior of ocean currents and tides may play a role in navigational difficulties. Michael and Sawyer were carried back to the Island on pieces of the raft after it was destroyed by the Others. ("Adrift") The tides rose dramatically on the beach in October of 2004, and seem to have remained at the higher level ever since.

The Monster

The Monster is a form of the Man In Black, appearing as a cloud of black smoke. It appears to be highly active in the Dark Territory area of the Island. The Monster seems incredibly temperamental, at times being passive and even retreating when encountering survivors such as Eko at first. However, it can also show extreme aggression, such as turning up trees, killing humans, and dragging them away underground. The Monster makes a number of strange sounds, such as ticking noises, and often sounds mechanical. In an episode of audio commentary, Damon Lindelof said that one of Rose's lines had been cut, where (in the first time the survivors heard the monster) Rose was supposed to say "That sound is so familiar," Rose is from The Bronx, and Damon Lindelof went to New York to find a sound that would often be heard in New York, the sound he chose was a Taxi Receipt Printer, and that is the sound he gave the monster.

Apparitions

A number of the survivors report seeing strange apparitions of people or things from their past on the Island. For example, Kate saw a horse which appeared to be one which was almost run over by a car years earlier, while both Shannon and Locke have seen Walt in the jungle despite him being elsewhere. Characters have also seen apparitions of the deceased, such as Jack seeing his dead father on a number of occasions. Furthermore, these deceased characters also seem to be able to interact with the environment, such as Eko's brother Yemi who gave him a cross necklace. In this instance, the apparition of Yemi also stated to Eko that he was not really his brother.

Energy

The Orchid

There are powerful pockets of energy in certain spots on the Island. One of these energy pockets lies at the Orchid station. The power of this energy is responsible for the death of at least one DHARMA member. ("The Variable") The DHARMA Initiative harnessed this energy and used to to experiment with time travel. (Orchid Orientation video) This energy lies at the site of the frozen wheel chamber, where Ben turned the wheel. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 3")

The Swan

The pocket of energy at the Swan station is nearly 30,000 times greater than the energy at the Orchid. ("The Variable") When the DHARMA Initiative drilled into this energy, the result was catastrophic, and was the cause of the Incident. Because of this Incident, DHARMA had to concrete the area in, and developed a protocol where a button had to be pushed every 108 minutes in order to discharge the energy and keep it at bay. (Swan Orientation film)

Third Location

In "Everybody Loves Hugo", the Man in Black revealed the existence of another well on the Island. He stated that the wells were dug by an early civilization attempting to learn why their compasses behaved so strangely in these locations. The existence of the well implies the existence or previous existence of a third energy pocket on the Island. The Man in Black also hinted that there may be more.

Locations

Crash sites

The middle section crash site ("Exposé")

Over time, a number of people have crashed or been shipwrecked on the Island.

The known crashes (in chronological order) are:

• Black Rock, a ship located unusually deep in the Island's jungle
• Besixdouze, a vessel used by the French science expedition team
• Henry Gale's balloon, where Ben acquired his alias
• Desmond Hume was washed up on the island while attempting to sail solo around the world
• Drug smugglers' plane that was perched above the Pearl
• Flight 815 broke apart mid-air and landed in three locations
  • Middle section landed on the beach where the majority of the survivors have made camp
  • Tail section landed just off the coast on the other side of the Island
  • Cockpit landed in the jungle and was where the Monster was first encountered
• Flight 316 crash landed intact on the Hydra island

Survivors' locations

The various survivors on the Island have created locations in order to continue living while stranded on the seemingly deserted Island.

Jack plays golf. ("Solitary")

Some of the survivors' locations:

• Beach camp
• Graveyard
• Caves
• Golf course
• Waterfall
• Sun's garden
• Cove
• Tiger pit
• Church
• Sweat lodge

DHARMA Initiative locations

The DHARMA Initiative built a series of science facilities, referred to as "stations", across the Island. Most of these stations have been destroyed, abandoned, ceased functioning, or are in a general state of disrepair.

The Swan, a DHARMA Initiative station ("Deus Ex Machina")

The known stations are:

• The Swan (Electromagnetic research)
• The Pearl (Psychological research and/or observation)
• The Arrow (Defensive strategy development, intel gathering)
• The Staff (Medical research)
• The Flame (Communications)
• The Hydra (Zoological research)
• The Looking Glass (Signal jamming and sonar beacon)
• The Tempest (Toxic gas development)
• The Orchid (Space-time research)

The barracks, inhabited by the Others ("A Tale of Two Cities")

Other DHARMA Initiative locations:

• A capsule dump, where the Pearl station observers apparently sent their reports
• The wharf, the Island's central port
• Pala Ferry, part of the DHARMA Island transportation system
• The Barracks, a group of modern homes and buildings which served as their living quarters
• The sonar fence, which surrounds and protects the Barracks
• A radio tower, designed to broadcast signals in a continuous loop over long distances

Others' locations

The Others guard "the door". ("Three Minutes")

There are other location on the Island that were created by someone, possibly the DHARMA Initiative, but whose exact origin is unknown. A number of these have been occupied and used by the Others, similar to the stations.

Some locations used by the Others are:

• The decoy village, where the Others pretended to be primitive Island inhabitants
• "The door", a fake station entrance located at the decoy village
• A runway, on which the Others were working at the quarry
• Jacob's cabin, built by Horace Goodspeed and abandoned by Jacob
• The Others' camp, a place the Others lived at least through the 1970s
• The Others' beach camp, where Richard and his group lived in at least 2007
• The Temple, an ancient refuge and apparently the Others' headquarters
• Man in Black's camp,

Historic locations

Locke at the ruins. ("The Brig")

A few locations on the Island are still deeply shrouded in mystery. These locations were made by unknown previous inhabitants of the Island, most likely before the DHARMA Initiative's time. These locations have not been explained, but only briefly mentioned or shown:

Some notable historic locations are:

• A statue of Taweret, an enormous statue of unknown origin.
• Ruins of some old structure, visited briefly by the Others.
• The Temple, within the "dark territory" and visited by:
  • Jin and Danielle's expedition team in 1988.
  • Jack, Hurley Sayid, Miles, Sawyer, Kate and Jin in 2007.
• Wells, are scattered all over the Island.
• An underground chamber that contains the frozen wheel.
• An ancient stone doorway marked by hieroglyphs, which serves as the entrance to a long tunnel with a pool at the end that could be used to summon the Monster.
• A system of tunnels, that form part of an underground location used by the Hostiles.
• A lighthouse that Jacob used to observe his Candidates.
• A stone bench probaly located between the Black Rock and the Statue.

Birthplace

Many characters can call the island their birthplace or even home, because they were born there. These characters include (in chronological order);

• 1937: Eloise Hawking - according to the last Mysteries of the Universe, Ellie doesn't have a birth certificate, indicating that she was probably born on the Island. She left the Island under unknown circumstances possibly related to her pregnancy, and operates at the Lamp Post.
• 1971: Charlotte Lewis - Born to Jeanette Lewis and her first husband. Charlotte and her mother left the Island hours before the Incident via the submarine. She also died on the Island during the fourteenth time shift because of temporal displacement, caused by her previous life on the Island as a child.
• Between 1977 and 1978: Daniel Faraday - possibly born on island to Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore.
• 1977: Miles Straume - born to Pierre and Lara Chang in the Barracks' delivery room during the time of the DHARMA Initiative. Miles and his mother left the island hours before The Incident via the submarine. He's experienced nosebleeds during the time shifts, caused by his previous life on the Island as a child.
• 1977: Ethan Rom - born to Horace Goodspeed and Amy (surname unknown, possibly Rom) in the Barracks' delivery room during the time of the DHARMA Initiative. Ethan allied himself with the Hostiles since the Purge. He also died on the Island in 2004, after a vengeful Charlie shot him.
• 1989: Alex Linus/Rousseau - born to Robert (surname unknown) and Danielle Rousseau. Danielle gave birth on the island alone in January of the same year, after murdering Robert and Lacombe. Ben kidnapped the child and raised her as his own on the island ever since, to Widmore's chagrin. She also died on the Island in 2004, after being shot by Keamy.
• 2004: Aaron Littleton - born to Thomas (surname unknown) and Claire Littleton. Claire gave birth on their forty-first day on the island whilst in the jungle. Kate delivered the baby whilst time-travelling Sawyer, watched silently. Aaron was rescued, but his mother abandoned him on their last day on the island and chose to stay behind for unknown reasons.

Ben claimed twice that he was born on the Island ("The Glass Ballerina")  ("The Man Behind the Curtain") but in fact he arrived a child in 1973. ("The Man Behind the Curtain")

Trivia

Locke stares down the Monster. ("Walkabout")

Personification

The Island is routinely personified by those who have been there, especially by the Others and Locke. It is often described as if it has motivations, abilities, and a conscience.

Some examples of this personification are:

• Locke told Jack that the Island brought all the survivors to it. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• After his first encounter with the Monster, Locke stated, "I looked into the eye of this Island, and what I saw... was beautiful." ("White Rabbit")
• Ben told Locke that the Island is very selective regarding whom it chooses to heal. He added, "I can't wait to show you what this island can do." ("The Brig") The Island chose not to heal/prevent Ben's tumor and Jack's appendicitis.
• Tom told Michael off the Island that the Island wouldn't let him commit suicide because Michael still had "work to do". ("Meet Kevin Johnson")
• Eloise tells Desmond that "the island isn't done with you yet". ("316")

Island's name

The only official name given by the writers to the Island so far is "The Eyeland". This is also the name of a song on the official soundtrack.

The "Rape Caves"

The survivors have various different nicknames for the Island and some of its geographical features:

• "Heart of Darkness" - Jack - A reference to the novel by Joseph Conrad
• "Craphole Island" - Shannon ("Raised by Another")
• "The Magical Forest" - Sawyer
• "Monkey Island" - Sawyer
• "Mount Vesuvius" - Sawyer
• "Mystery Frickin' Island" - Shannon
• "Death" - Charlotte ("This Place Is Death")
• "This rock" - Sawyer ("Recon")
• "Hell" - Anthony Cooper, The Man in Black, Richard Alpert ("The Brig") ("Ab Aeterno")
• "The Cork" - Jacob ("Ab Aeterno")
• "God Forsaken Rock" - Man in Black ("Everybody Loves Hugo")

Misc.

• According to special features on the Season 1 DVD, the events described in "Whatever the Case May Be", concerning the Island tide changes, were planned by the directors. They wanted to "write-off" the fuselage set, as they had to transport, assemble, and disassemble the entire thing every time they had to shoot a scene that required it.
• The Island is a tropical island. The Tropics of Cancer (north of the equator) and Capricorn (south of the equator) are both appoximately 23 degrees from the equator.

Unanswered questions

Unanswered questions
Do not answer the questions here. Keep the questions open-ended and neutral: do not suggest an answer. More details...

For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: The Island/Theories

General

• Does the Island have a name?
• How does the Island move?
• How is the Island hidden from the rest of the world?
• What is the cause and nature of the time dilation effects around the Island?
• Why is it necessary to travel through certain bearings to get to and from the Island?
• What is the source of the Island's healing properties?
• Why are there problems with pregnancies on the island after 1977?
• Does the Island manipulate/exert control over events in the outside world?
• Who were the original inhabitants of the Island?

Recent events

• Why did the Island heal Locke's legs and Rose's cancer?
  • Why did the Island not heal Ben's tumor, young Ben's gunshot wound and Jack's appendix?

Flash-sideways timeline

• Why is the Island underwater?
  • Is the Island rendered completely useless in terms of "keeping the darkness in"?
    • If so, how will the unshackled malevolence affect the lives of the people in the FST?

See also

• Sri Lanka Video - First part of video contains direct information about the Island
• Portal:Locations
• Map - Disambiguation page for various maps regarding the Island
• Flight path of Oceanic 815
• Island in Google Maps