This Place Is Death/Theories

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Theories about This Place Is Death

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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.

Ben's surprise at Desmond's comment

• In all the information Ben had about Daniel (similar to that he had about Charlotte), the identities of Daniel's parents were blank or obviously incorrect. Widmore is a good candidate, but we know too little to say he is the father.
  • Widmore wouldn't have invested so much time and so many resources in Daniel's scientific endeavors if he hadn't already confirmed Daniel was indeed his biological son. Given Widmore's reach in the outside world, he probably was able to get his hands on Daniel's DNA to verify the young man's lineage.
• Penny's location. We do not know for certain that anyone has ever told Ben that Penny picked up the Oceanic Six (plus) or that Penny and Desmond are married. If he did learn this and he really intends to kill Penny, he wants to know how far away she is from Desmond.
  • It's irrelevant whether or not Ben knows about Penny's involvement with the Oceanic Six. Regardless, Ben promised Widmore he'd find a way to kill Penny, and according to a deleted scene from Season 5, Ben did just that.
• In spite of his surprise, Ben has to prioritize. Ms. Hawking is a powerful woman; see does not talk to Ben as if she were his subordinate. She is waiting for him inside.
• His look was based on knowing that he can find Widmore's daughter, Penny, which he had not yet been able to do.

Available windows for time skips

• Ms. Hawking determined a specific time at which travel to the Island would be possible. She tasked Ben to have everyone who was supposed to travel to be at the church on time. Ben has shown up with only two of the Oceanic Six and Desmond. Ms. Hawking, however, is not put off by this fact. She says it time to get started.
• The Island moves to different wheres and whens. Getting to the wheres isn't too hard to do if you have the right resources, but there are only certain times when the Island is in a time close enough for them to get "on board'"
• The Island doesn't "move" through time. Time moves on the Island - this explains why the setting of objects on the Island changes with each skip (i.e. why the camp doesn't come too) the Island is not actually going any-when; the time that defines "the present" is constantly changing as a result of the wheel off its axis. If you want to think of it in terms of motion the travelers are stationary while time shifts around them - the Island is not "going" anywhere. I may be wrong later when we find out more about the wheel's effect on space.
• Perhaps the Island is physically nowhere because of the malfunction of the Wheel. Locke "reseating" it will return it to the "real world." While in limbo, the people present when the malfunction occurred are "adrift" in time, since the Island isn't anywhere real, but will return to the present when the Island is anchored again thanks to Locke.
• If the wheel was dislodged after Ben using it (either for him not being him the one meant to move it or for him using it without thawing it out first) means that the dislodged wheel is also traveling through time as it's clear that Locke is in a time far before the Orchid and even before the well, seeing how it is just a sealed rock chamber.
• The Island is traveling through time. However, the Island keeps its own present time and timeline going regardless of its "location" on earth's time (which could explain some of the temporal aberrations such Ray's corps washing up to the shore even before having being killed). Now, the problem of the survivors is that they became "unstuck" to the Island (unlike the Others, we may speculate) so when the Island moves through time so they do, appearing in the real "earth" date the Island is now on, i.e. shifting through the Island's own timeline.

Sickness

• Going into the declivity under the Temple causes individuals to turn into Others.
• Something happened to make the men hostile towards Danielle.
• It's possible that the monster was using the forms of her crew mates to test Rousseau (as it used Yemi's form to test Eko), and her willingness to kill them was, for whatever reason, passing the test. This seems very likely, since it would have been extremely difficult for Rousseau to survive in the smoke monster's jungle for 16 years if the monster had not already decided to let her live.
• Rousseau went crazy which results in mistrust and shooting her team mates. When Robert realizes that Rousseau is out of her mind, he tries to shoot her but his rifle fails. The facts to support this are that from what we saw before the monster can only project images of people while being unable to physically interact with other people (e.g. trying to shoot at them or being shot by them). Though we can not cross out the possibility of some kind of brainwash/mind posesion by the monster.
• Rousseau (based on her personality in the previous seasons) is a paranoid delusional who exhibits classic signs of schizophrenia, based on these past episodes. There is nothing wrong with Robert or the others in the Expedition crew, there is no "sickness;" it's all in Rousseau's head.
• Rousseau is the one who went crazy. Robert and the other men became enlightened when he went down the declivity; they saw something that made him understand why the monster has to protect the island.
• Rousseau on the other hand went crazy (who knows why) and thus didn't believe him. She thought they were all 'sick', but they weren't. She yelled to Jin "you're sick too!"
  • The only reason she called Jin sick is because he disappeared into thin air. That's not exactly something normal, so it makes sense she'd think there's something wrong with Jin too.

Ben not supposed to turn the Wheel

• Ben did it in order to face Widmore and try to solve once for all their dispute. The fact that not all the O6 were with Ms. Hawking might in fact hint at future time travel windows to the Island, and I guess Ben will not depart with them before he convinces the others and solve the 'fight' with Widmore.
• Ben was never Jacob's "choice," but he believes that he is. Turning the wheel is another attempt by Ben to be something he is not, rather than what he was...a pawn.
• When Locke sees the wheel, it seems to be loose and moving back and forth (at least much looser than when Ben pushed the wheel). Perhaps the flashes are due to the wheel being loose.
• Perhaps the Wheel was so difficult for Ben because he wasn't supposed to use it. In doing so, he caused a failure which only the actual "chosen one" could correct.

HE didn't turn the wheel, just pop it back on its axis.

• Ben turned the wheel to avoid being captured from Widmore. Since the hatch implosion the Island was visible (or has been visible enough to have Charles Widmore and Penny Widmore know its coordinates) If Ben let Locke move the Island, he'll still be on the Island, without the O6, and with an unaware Locke/Bentham in the outside world (not knowing he was supposed to bring the O6 back). He moved the Island knowing he had that mission to accomplish anyways, and also knowing that his presence in the outside world was needed for his own personal agenda (revenge on Widmore/killing Penny)
• Did Ben turn the wheel incorrectly and intentionally knock the wheel off axis so that it would need to be reset and also knowingly creating the time skipping flashes and putting everyone on the Island in peril? The danger is responsible for forcing the O6 to return to the Island, perhaps his ultimate goal.
• Ben moved the wheel to save himself. If Locke had turned the wheel, Ben would have been the first to die in the time flashes, as he had been on the Island longer than Charlotte. However, this might not necessarily be the case, as the time flashes may have never occurred if Locke had turned the wheel.

Charlotte's Parents

• See Charlotte's Parents Theories

The Frozen Wheel

• See The Frozen Wheel Theories

The Orchid Well

• From what we saw in the first scene of the premiere and the Orchid Orientation video it seems the DHARMA Initiative detected this large pocket of exotic matter ("a source of almost limitless energy") and after some fancy physics discovered that they "could use it to manipulate time". And so, even though they may have known the well was there, they probably had no idea what was down there, they knew, however, that there was this pocket of energy. And thus they built the orchid station not on top of it directly but very nearby. From what we've seen when building the Orchid they did not know about the FDW chamber below, since when the workman showed Chang the sonogram revealing the wheel it seemed to em that Chang did not know the existence of the wheel. They simply built their station near enough to harness this energy to experiment with space/time, there is no evidence that Dharma went down to the chamber and used the wheel. Though the question this raises is about Chang stating not to put metallic objects in the vault, did he know doing so would reveal the chamber below or did he just think it would break the machine.
• The well was still there when DHARMA arrived, and they just didn't notice it at first. It'd be an easy connection to overlook; they knew the Island had original inhabitants, and had no reason to think the well was anything more than a long-dry source of water. The Lost behinds definitely appeared to flash to a point before the well was ever built; it did not look like it had caved in or been filled in when Sawyer was left holding the rope, from above or below.

The well was the original Island inhabitants way to get to the FDW, Dharma simply used that energy to experiment, not use the wheel to move the Island or anything of that nature

• The well was definitely NOT meant for drinking from, it was a point of entry. this is evident from the unusual construction; the rope is very heavy, as is the pulley. the wooden support is huge, and the well itself seemed to have a platform almost that stuck out into it that Locke stood on before descending. the whole thing's design points to being used to bring people (or, heavy objects which aren't very wide) up and down, and nothing suggests it was ever a source of water.
• I think I see where you're going with this, but the wheel would represent the special time-travelling nature of the Island. A stationary wheel does not move anywhere, the Island remains and time proceeds as normal. A skipping wheel causes the Island to skip through time in a seemingly random fashion. the only advantage to the wheel being frozen would be to prevent it from moving easily.
• DHARMA might have sealed off the well to contain the energy within the Island, so the hostiles couldn't have access to it. When they did seal it however the original purpose of the well was to "vent" the Island's energy. Since this vent was shut, it would build up and the Swan station was responsible for discharging that buildup. Another reason it was contained was to be able to transfer it to the orchid station for experiments.

The French Expedition

• The team wasn't well-armed for what they were, as they only had a few civilian model hunting rifles; it's common for expeditions to pack said firearms as a precautionary measure, in spite of Sayid thinking it was unusual.
• Jin may be responsible for Montand losing his arm. Robert was holding onto Montand as the Monster was pulling him into a Cerberus Vent. But both Robert and Montand would have been dragged into the hole had Jin not grabbed Robert's legs and used the Temple as a stopper. Then the Monster got a better grip on Montand and thus, his arm was ripped off. In the long term it did not matter. As of the end of "This Place Is Death," Montand's fate is unknown.