The Little Prince/Theories

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Theories about The Little Prince

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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.

People shooting at Sawyer's party

See an explanation in The other Others article page.

• The people in the second boat are:
  • Others. From their perspective, their boat has been stolen.
  • Ilana and her followers.
    • They have armed themselves with guns at the beach camp on Hydra Island and will take the boats out and go to the main island. When they see another canoe in the water, they believe it is Ben and Locke who've shot Caesar earlier and they open fire.
    • They see Locke in the outrigger and they think it is Un-Locke.
  • Themselves: They're coming from the past and one of them will killed.
• Agree with above. It is themselves. I zoomed in on the clearest shots of the second outrigger and it's hard to tell but the man in the front is bald (like Locke) and the man in the back has the same hair as Sawyer, also the amount of people in the boat appears to be the same.
• The person who was shot in the outrigger, will be themselves.
• It was Claire (see 2004-2007). In S6 Ep5 ("Lighthouse") Jin picked up a paddle while he was in Claire's 'hut' and she mentioned already being shot.
  • The Ajira flight has only recently crashed, meaning Claire would still be suffering from the bullet wound.
    • If, in that episode, the suffering is not visible, it could be a blooper/error, although, this does not account for who are the other persons.
• The people in the other boat are select members of the group who have just arrived on the beach: to whit Ilana, Ben, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Miles & Frank.
• The people in the other boat are members of Widmore's team that arrived on the sub, returning to eliminate the beach camp they saw earlier through the periscope.
• Any of the above mistaking a time-travelling John Locke for the Man in Black in the form of Locke.
• The people in the other boat are Richard, Ben, and Miles, on their way to Hydra Island to destroy the plane after acquiring weapons at the Dharma barracks. Richard or Ben likely fires on the other boat trying to kill the time-traveling Locke, in an effort to change what happened and deny MiB his loophole.
• It could be that the MiB, having failed to kill or stop the remaining candidates, tries to kill the group in the past so that he can stop himself from getting hurt.
  • MiB himself cannot kill any of the candidates, according to the rules regarding candidates.

Who is trying to capture Sayid?

• Sayid is being shot at by people who want to prevent him from going back to the island.
  • They want to make sure he doesn't go back and shoot Ben. When Ben is shot, he is taken to the Temple, and this may be the cause of all of the events that lead to Jacob's death.
  • Therefore, the people who may be trying to capture Sayid are from Ilyana's team, who are there to prevent the death of Jacob.

Episode Title

“	Damon Lindelof: Is it called The Little Prince after the Saint-Exupéry book of the same name? Carlton Cuse: I would think that would be a fair guess, absolutely. Damon Lindelof: Right, for those people who are curious as to that title they should pick up that book.	”
—Carlton Cuse / Damon Lindelof, Official Lost Podcast transcript/February 5th, 2009

• In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella The Little Prince, the narrator, upon meeting the title character, is asked to draw a sheep. After many unsuccessful attempts, the narrator draws a box and states that "This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside."(Magic Box)
• In the story, the narrator visits six other asteroids, which is each inhabited by an adult. The King, The Conceited Man, The Drunkard/Tippler, The Businessman, The Lamplighter and The Geographer. These different persons' identities share some similarities to characters in LOST.
• The expedition's vessel was named Bésixdouze;" that translates from French to B612, the name of the Prince's asteroid in "The Little Prince."
• De Saint-Exupéry was an aviator who survived one plane crash in the desert in North Africa and disappeared at sea years later in another.
• Some other references in the book to consider:
  • After the Little Prince dies, his body disappears.
  • De Saint-Exupéry illustrated the book and drew the Little Prince as a young, blond-haired boy.
  • The book starts with the narrator having survived a plane crash.
  • The Little Prince left his asteroid to learn more about the universe, but ultimately all he wants to do is get back to his asteroid.

The Sickness

• The sickness could also be a more abstract thing than just time traveling sickness. It could just be the way the island 'culled the herd' back in the days that Danielle's team was on the island. Obviously, the story has had use for Danielle in the present (which effectively means the island 'needed' her), but nobody else on the crew. The island got rid of them because they weren't necessary, and it did so in a way that would mould Danielle into the type of person it needed her to be to do what it needed her to do.
• If the sickness is time travel, then that would explain why the Others (minus Juliet) don't suffer from it: they've been vaccinated. Perhaps Juliet just happened to miss out on that?
  • The Others are not engaged in time travel. If Richard explained to Locke, he and the Others did not go anywhere (when?) Locke did. Juliet was marked, then deserted; she was never in tune with the Island because she wanted to go home.
• The nose bleeds could be affecting only the people who have been to the island before. Charlotte has it, and Miles too. This would mean that Juliet has also been to the island before.
  • This may not be true as Sawyer also experienced a nose bleed and there is no evidence to suggest he has been on the island before the crash of Oceanic 815.
    • It isn't about previous visits to the island but length of time spent on the island. Miles was there as a baby for at least three months, and Juliet had been there for three years. Charlotte was there about six years, which is why it affected her the most and ultimately killed her.

Not-so-random Time Shifts

• Henry Gale's balloon, Danielle's ship, The Black Rock, Desmond's sailboat, and perhaps other craft along the timeline crashed on the island as a result of the time shift, just like the smuggler's plane.
  • These events will be experienced first hand by the time traveling Losties in the future of the show.
• The Island, if in fact it is conscious, is remembering its most significant events hits: Locke and the others in his party are along for the ride.
• The jumps do not necessarily occur at the instant of the event; the Island goes to the next point and waits. It may do things, such as broadcast a radio signal with six seemingly unrelated numbers.
• It also appears that since Ben moved the island, the island may "shift" in time to prevent a paradox or to course correct. For instance, the people on the canoe were well within range to kill one of the Losties on the other boat, and likely would have done so without the island shift. Perhaps Sawyer was about to talk to past Kate before the shift also, but the island wouldn't allow it.
  • This would also explain why Ethan didn't have enough time to shoot Locke and maybe why there has been a shift each time Richard Alpert starts to tell John how to leave the island. The island does not want John to leave just yet. There may still be work to do before he goes or events that Jacob/the island wants John to witness.
  • This explains Christian's consternation over Ben turning the wheel. He was not supposed to, and yet he did. The first time shift itself was a paradox. This allows Ben to return to the Island.

Who can see the flashes

Apparently, not everyone is privy to the flashes. The Survivors that are time jumping obviously experience the flashes. However, those in the past that they are interacting with (or observing) do not. Kate and Claire most assuredly would have acted differently in Season 1 had they seen the flashes right after Aaron was born. This makes me think that both Richard and Ethan merely saw Locke disappear (sans flashes).

• But Desmond (in the yellow suit) did see the flashes, presumably because he is "special". When the flash starts, he looks up to see what it is/where it's coming from.
• Perhaps those who jump through time appear to those who don't only as dreams. Example: Horace appeared to Locke in a dream; Horace's nose was bleeding which may indicate that he was jumping through time. John considers this a dream. Perhaps for Horace this encounter was quite real. We only see events from the point of view of the survivors who are 'jumping' but not from the point of view of the people in the past and future they encounter. Perhaps Richard Alpert will only recall his meeting with John as a "dream" "sent by Jacob" which prompts him to seek out and keep an eye on John as he is born and grows up.
  • Richard knew that Locke was shot (would be shot from Richard's perspective) in the period just after the first flash because Locke told him about it in 1954. They were sitting in Richard's tent.
  • The nose bleed Horace was experiencing in John's dream may just be a reference to his actual death during the Purge. He was sitting on a bench with a nose bleed due to the gas.

Brennan

• The translation of the French spoken on the research expedition's life raft reveals that Brennan was on the radar and discovered the transmission of the numbers, and thus lead them in the direction of the Island - "Robert: We never should have followed those damn numbers. Unknown: It's not my fault, Brennan was at the sonar."
  • Brennan is also mentioned in the transmission Danielle later records. A translation of one of the iterations is "It [or he] is outside. It [or he] is outside and Brennan took the keys. Please help us. They are dead. They are all dead. Help us. They are dead."
  • Brennan may have intentionally stumbled upon the numbers and lead his team there, later betraying them. The above translations, particular the one from the transmission, hint at possible sabotage.