This Place Is Death/Theories

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Theories about This Place Is Death

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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.

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.
• 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.
• 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.

Christian Shephard

• His "death" in Australia was to provide a means to ferry his body back to the Island, via Oceanic 815. Perhaps the same holds true for Locke, who we assume will be "reincarnated" upon his body's return to the Island. Until now, Christian Shepherd has been an occult character, ostensibly human but having mystical qualities. It seems obvious that Locke will return and continue to be a driving character, but not to what extent or what form his being will be manifested as. He will return as an entirely different character than we have known thus far.
• Christian IS Jacob.
• During the FDW scene, "Christian" tells Locke that the Frozen Wheel just "needs a little push". These are the same words Jacob says to Jack during the flashback from "The Incident".
• Locke is Jacob, this is why he couldn't see him in the cabin.
• Christian is representative of a force working at cross-purposes to Jacob. He (it) has assumed Jacob's role to deceive Locke (and Ben). Jacob's last words were to Locke: "Help me." Since then, all we have is Christian's word that he speaks for Jacob.
• Jacob and Christian could be the light and dark forces fighting over the island.
• Christian and Locke both landed on the Island in coffins.
• Some of the dead people in the Island come back to life as "aspects" of Jacob (Christian, Yemi, and my favorite theorized, Richard Alpert and Vincent). They retain most of their memories and personalities but now share the knowledge and purpose of Jacob and he uses them to speak and induce people to action as he sees fit as he apparently has no physical embodiment himself.
• In season three, episode "Further Instructions", Boone appears to John in his drug induced haze in the hut and says, "I’m here to help you find your way again, so you can bring the family back together." It is possible that along with Jack, Claire, Christian and Aaron, John is related to the family as well, or at least his goal appears to have always been to reunite the family. Perhaps as mentioned above, the lineage is that of Jacobs. Boone then says he wants to show him something, Locke tries to stand up but he can't. Boone says, "John you're going to need that" pointing to Locke's wheelchair which is on the ground. This is very similar to the Christian Shepard / John Locke scene in this episode.
• He is an angel: Christian Shepherd says to Locke, "I'm here to guide you the rest of the way". This is reminiscent of Biblical stories of Angels (messengers of God) appearing to give information and guidance.

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 teammates. 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.

The Monster

• When it grabbed Montand, it seemed to reach out at him with two arms on each of his legs.. which suggests the Monster has human-like features.
• Was the Monster guarding the Temple? Did Ben send the Others there knowing that the Monster would defend the area from everyone else?
• The Monster seems significantly different in this episode. It makes fewer noises and at times sounds very organic. It also goes higher than it is usually capable, as shown by the characters looking up to try to see it and Nadine's body falling from the sky. This may mean that the Monster has yet to "Malfunction" at this time period.
• It is the same noises as 2004, including the "receipt machine" sound.
• The monster absorbs something from every being it kills, and has accrued a great deal of negativity over the past 16 years.
• The effect on Danielle's crew seems to be along the lines of a 'body-snatchers' type situation; The monster can 'take over' the mind of a person once it's dragged them under the temple.
• I think the monster can take over the body of a dead person..i.e. Alex, Locke, Christian--that's why as soon as the first crew member was dragged down after having lost his arm he immediately began calling for the rest to come down. He had died and the smoke monster/esau/nemesis/whoever it might be took over his body and then the other crew members who tried to kill danielle.
• The Monster kills the team because they were not 'called' to the Island; it sees them as intruders.

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 Lostbehinds 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-traveling 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.