LOST-Theories.com

This is rather long and, being a summary, makes observations that have likely been made many times by others here already, so… please take that into account before reading.

— ProfOzone

This is rather long and, being a summary, makes observations that have likely been made many times by others here already, so… please take that into account before reading. I’m not trying to steal anyone’s thunder. :-) I’m just trying to create a post that will allow us to pose questions and address issues about season 4 as a whole. Perhaps from this some strong new theories can emerge. That’s the plan, anyway. Thanks for your time!

On the whole, it seemed to me that “Paranormal Island” and “Ben’s always a step ahead” theories were mostly confirmed.

Overwhelming theme: nobody who got off the island seems to have learned anything from the experience. So far only Kate seems better off, but she refuses to forgive her mother and has a falling out with Jack, so… that’s even doubtful.

Sayid can always spot a lie. He didn’t trust Naomi and was right not to. However, he didn’t show his characteristic skepticism for Jack’s plan to call the boat anyway. Also, unlike when Ben was pretending to be Henry Gale, Sayid can’t seem to see through Ben’s lies. Will there be a plot rationale for Sayid losing his lie detecting abilities?

Juliet’s character, who maintained such delightful ambiguity at the end of season three, seems to have had her issues tied up rather awkwardly. If we’re supposed to think Ben was so easily duped by her… and if the explanation for this is because he was in love with her… then this denouement of their relationship was rather unsatisfying.

Sawyer’s development was most uneven. At the end of season 3, the murder of Cooper put him in a dark place and suggested it would take time for him to come back to the light, if he even ever did. But during season 4, Sawyer was sometimes his old opportunistic self and other times the “new man hero Sawyer” who refused to call Hurley any nicknames (including “Hurley”) and insisted in looking after Claire. By and large it seems obvious that the whole revenge narrative for Sawyer is over and no transition is going to be made from “Sawyer” to “James”. That’s disappointing.

Season 4 officially introduces ghost into the mythos of Lost. Not that they weren’t present before, especially with the presence of Christian on the island in season one. But before there were plenty of alternative explanations… hallucinations, resurrections, a mimicking smoke monster, etc…. while now even the term “ghost” has been used by characters in the show. This isn’t to say that the show won’t attempt some scientific explanation for the apparitions or present some otherwise unconventional view of these phenomena. But either way, “ghosts” will be what these explanations are describing. One odd thing in relation to this, though… the changing picture frame in the house of the woman who had Miles rid the place of her grandson’s spirit. What the heck did THAT mean?

Desmond’s behavior throughout the season was odd. We still don’t know what his visions relating to Charlie’s death really revealed. At this point it seems very unlikely that he actually saw Claire and Aaron rescued on a chopper. Some people suggest that he saw them rescued at different times, perhaps, but just about any way to imagine this happening would have had to have been obvious in the visions Desmond had, and that means he was at least misleading in making it sound to Charlie like Aaron and Claire would board a helicopter together as a DIRECT result of Charlie’s actions. It seems to me we can only draw one of two conclusions: either Desmond lied (my choice, see my theory on the topic) or he was just wrong. Either way, you’d think Desmond would have felt awful about Charlie’s unnecessary death. And if he did, you’d think his guilt might motivate him to pay particular attention to Claire or buy Hurley’s line that going with John is the thing that would show most respect to Charlie… or something to demonstrate his concern for anyone else other than himself. But Penny seemed to be his only concern in season 4. Maybe that’s all there will be to Desmond, but if it is, that will be very disappointing. I thought the best episode in the season was “The Constant”, but otherwise I was very unsatisfied with the development (or lack thereof) of Desmond’s character.

The wreck being faked with an actual fuselage and bodies dug up from graves really strained credulity. As I’ve pointed out here before, four miles down is plenty far enough for some Widmore-owned outfit to CLAIM it found flight 815, show CGI video to the whole world and fool everyone with a small number of conspirators and no need for actual wreckage and bodies.

We still don’t know why Naomi found it necessary to venture out to the island alone initially. Nor do we know precisely why Desmond was used as the cover story. It’s obvious, though, that Widmore knew Desmond was there. I presume Widmore monitored Penny’s activities in searching for Desmond. I also presume Widmore did this because he already suspected Desmond would be on the island. This gives credence to a suggested connection between Widmore and Ms. Hawking, perhaps.

Questions of Walt’s apparent age were put to rest. Walt has aged at a normal rate and we weren’t supposed to notice Walt was significantly older when he talked to John in the pit. There is no evidence so far that Walt has traveled or will travel a significant distance in time.

Every member of the “Faraday Team” was picked for a particular purpose. We still don’t know what they are.

It’s apparent that an “electromagnetic bubble” around the island causes time distortions if particular headings are followed. These time distortions can send a person into the future or past relative to folks on either side of the bubble. Time appears to be synchronized for people outside AND inside the bubble. In other words, folks on the island and folks on the freighter existed in the same time reference. Time weirdness only applied to people passing through the bubble on the wrong heading. All of this soundly discredits theories that suggested the island existed in the past or future relative to the outside world (not that pure logic didn’t discredit many such theories). So far, travel by air on the wrong heading causes travel into the future and travel by sea on the wrong heading causes travel into the past, but it’s unknown if this pattern will hold. Also, the time increment so far has only been a factor of hours and using the “EM bubble” this way has fatal side effects, so it’s unlikely the bubble will be used in the show as a (significant) time travel device.

That said, it seems fairly obvious that Richard used the Orchid for conventional time travel, perhaps behind Ben’s back. Maybe he traveled back in time to meet young Ben the same way he traveled back in time to meet young John, thus the illusion of his “ageless” appearance. Personally, I doubt we’ll see conventional time travel operate in the show any further than this. But who knows?

In season 4, John continued to be a tool for greater powers. It wasn’t surprising that he ended up dead. Many of us predicted his death, although not necessarily his appearance in the coffin. Richard’s visit with John demonstrated that John’s refusal to be more than he is has deep roots. (It’s difficult to believe, by the way, that John wouldn’t recognize Richard from their first meeting… it was a fairly dramatic occurrence in his young life, after all. In season one, John told the story of the premature death of the “sister” we seem to meet in the Richard-meets-little-John flashback, so we know he remembers significant events from his childhood.) This was another thing I found disappointing. I would have liked to see John grow up a bit rather than go to his death with his delusions. But… we’ll see what subsequent seasons hold.

Many of things that fans failed to predict were for good reason. For example, Kate getting out of her murder charge because her mother refused to testify against her… who would have predicted that when even by the character’s own admission she should have been long dead before the trial? Most of the speculations of how Jack could leave the island without everyone else really couldn’t have taken into account the island being moved. Jack finding out about Claire from Claire’s mother wouldn’t have been predicted because… well, she was in a coma for cripes sakes, and how would they ever just happen to meet up? Claire’s mother flew clear from Australia for Christian’s wake in LA? How did she even know about it? Who would have told her or anyone she knows?

By now everyone knows about all the inconsistencies in the Oceanic 6 covers stories. For one thing, there’s no explanation for why the plane was going the wrong direction. Jack says in court that they crashed in the South Pacific, when the cover story has them crashing in the Indian Ocean. The list goes on. It’s unclear if these inconsistencies will ever be explained, but it’s hard to imagine any explanation that will also explain why reporters within the show didn’t spot these inconsistencies and ask about them in the press conference.

Overall, Michael’s story wasn’t terribly satisfying. The time-frame for his arrival back in the states, the car suicide attempt, and his agreeing to work for Ben… just didn’t jive very well for me. He being Ben’s man on the boat wasn’t even that much of a surprise.

The story for Sun and Jin wasn’t terribly satisfying either. I mean, Sun cheated on Jin because of the man he’d become, but he’d become that man because Sun had borrowed money from her father to pay off Jin’s mother. Now that’s messed up. There’s plenty of good story material there that seems to have been written away with an awkward conversation between Jin and Bernard about an oversimplified version of karma. Hopefully Jin isn’t really dead and some of this story can still be told.

It’s interesting that the apparitions folks are seeing don’t have the same agenda… or, at least, don’t appear to. Libby told Michael not to destroy the freighter, suggesting the vision of her was aligned with Widmore. Christian gave John instructions to move the island, confounding Widmore. Claire warned Kate not to take Aaron back. But Charlie insisted that Hurley go back to the island… who does THAT serve, exactly? Hmm….

Ben was obviously VERY confident that Alex wouldn’t be shot. Whatever “rules” he later talks about Widmore “changing”, he clearly was certain that they were sacrosanct. When Alex dies, for the very first time in the show we see Ben truly and thoroughly surprised by an event. But what specific rule was “changed” here? I suppose it could be something as simple as “daughters are off-limits in war”. But if that were the case then why would Ben think insisting Alex ISN’T his daughter would help the situation? Again, Ben seemed quite certain that Alex wouldn’t be killed. Which means he must have thought Widmore would have given specific orders about who should NOT be killed, and Ben must have thought those orders would protect Alex. Before Alex is shot, though, the information Ben shares about Alex reveals that she’s actually Danielle’s daughter. Well… the daughter of a disturbed French woman… but wouldn’t Widmore have known about Danielle and her expedition? Was Alex a person of importance who Widmore should have been interested in acquiring? Of course, if that were true, why didn’t the island protect her? Later Ben claims he can’t kill Widmore… is this because the island wouldn’t allow such a thing, or because killing Widmore “changes” the rules in the same way that killing Alex did (while killing Penny won’t change the rules because, presumably, she’s not “special” like Ben, Alex, and Widmore)? Or… maybe it goes back to Ben’s claim that he never kills innocent people. Perhaps he distanced himself from Alex to make her appear more innocent. Maybe we’re picking up on the weird and complex rules the show has seemed to follow all along in regard to who it’s OK to kill and not kill. “Innocent” people shouldn’t be killed. People of the kind of character who might make it onto one of Jacob’s lists shouldn’t be killed. But “bad” people are fair game. Are these the rules that Widmore “changed”? If so, not only has Ben clearly “changed” them many times also, but why would THOSE rules prevent Ben from killing Widmore? (Of course, again, the island could be protecting Widmore for some reason.)

We need to keep in mind, though, that throughout the entire show the island has been portrayed as having an agenda. More important than that, it’s often been revealed that somebody knows that agenda. In fact, the agenda of the island is so well understood that Tom can meet Michael in New York and be absolutely certain that he’ll fail in trying to kill himself. Tom KNOWS the island will prevent it. He KNOWS the island has a specific job for Michael to do. Thus, Tom KNOWS some very specific information about what the island wants. Obviously, though, he got this information from Ben. Who apparently gets HIS information from Jacob. But the point is… there’s some future thing the island is trying to accomplish. And whoever is supposed to be part of that future thing clear to the end will survive clear to the end. And… as soon as someone’s purpose has been served he or she likely will die soon after.

When Ben finally unleashes the smoke monster, several things come to mind. One of course being that the conclusion many of us had come to that Ben has some control of the monster was confirmed. The other thing is… why didn’t Ben unleash the monster before? Obviously Ben was playing games up to the point of Alex’s death… until the rules were “changed”.

Widmore suggests that Ben is responsible for his daughter’s death. “I know who you are, boy. WHAT you are. I know everything you have you took from me.” Apparently, Ben’s appropriation of what “belongs” to Widmore set certain events in motion that Widmore believes culminated in Alex’s death. “That island’s mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again,” Widmore says. What does that mean? WHAT, precisely, is Ben? Whatever Ben is, is Widmore one also? Is John? Is Hurley? What rules have been changed? Why use the word “changed” instead of “broken”? It seems as though the course of some future event was to be preserved at all costs, and now that course has been altered by the death of Alex. Perhaps the reason Ben can’t kill Widmore is because doing so would alter the course further and Ben refuses to allow that. But, again, if all of that were the case, then why did the island allow Alex to die? It can make a gun jam in New York to save Michael, but it has to wait for Ben to call out the smoke monster rather than use the monster itself to save Alex?

The mythos behind “what” Ben is… what John is… perhaps what Aaron is… might be a more central issue in the show than has been suggested so far.

Ben hints at ways that the island has abandoned him. His “dreams” went away. He got sick. He no longer knows how to find Jacob. He even mentions Alex’s blood being on his hands. But when Alex died Ben didn’t blame the island. He blamed Widmore directly. Was Alex’s death simply the last straw that told Ben once and for all that everything that was happening to him WAS proof that his time as keeper of the island was passing? As if until that point he’d been in denial? He does say that when he shot John he should have known it wouldn’t kill him, but he wasn’t thinking clearly. If the death of Alex was the moment when Ben finally had to admit to himself that his reign was over, when he said that Widmore changed the rules, did he mean that Widmore had successfully overthrown him? We do see that a man who works for Widmore (Abaddon) is responsible for planting the idea in John’s head that eventually placed him on the doomed flight from Australia. It’s become apparent that Widmore knew or intended that flight 815 would arrive on the island. Did Ben somehow figure out soon after the crash that the survivors were “sent” by Widmore, explaining his immediate combative stance toward them? Is this how Widmore “changed the rules”, by sending John? By sending John before he was ready?

Ben thinks that what’s happened to him is destiny. And yet he was surprised by some of what’s happened to him. So obviously while he accepts that the things that happened to him HAD to, he hasn’t always known what was going to happen.

Given how later Ben insists that everyone needs to get back to the island, it’s curious as to why he’d let them all leave in the first place. Except… that he knew HE’D be leaving. And apparently he knew he’d need help getting back, so… it’s likely he encouraged Kate and Jack to leave because he knew he’d run into them again and could/would enlist their help to return. That sneaky so-and-so. Will HE now take Widmore’s place as “the obsessed man” searching for the island with his own “hand-picked team” of individuals with mysterious connections to it?

Abaddon seems pretty certain he’ll run into John again. Why’s that?

We don’t know who the second person is who Sun believes is responsible for Jin’s death. Jack thinks it’s him, but it’s still open for debate, I think.

The enhanced version of the two-hour finale included added footage where, during the Oceanic 6 press conference, Jack reveals the identities of the three other people who survived the plane crash (eight people survived the initial crash not including Aaron, who was in utero). Those people were Boone (who Jack said died of massive internal injuries, which was actually true), Libby, and Charlie. I don’t know why these three people were picked for the cover story. Indeed, I don’t know why ANYONE else needed to be named as initial crash survivors. Like many other people, I assumed that bodies must have been found with the original six and that’s why anyone else other than the six even needed to be mentioned. But now it’s obvious that these three people were added to the cover story for some other reason. Perhaps it was discovered that Libby worked for Widmore (she might have been spying on Hurley the first time he was in a mental institution and her “ghost” did ask Michael not to blow up Widmore’s boat… Desmond got his boat from her and Penny might have figured out that connection) so the cover story had to communicate to him that she was dead, but if she was the ONLY one named that would make mentioning her stand out TOO much. I can imagine Jack, if tasked with selecting two other names for believability, picking Boone and Charlie to memorialize by way of the cover story. Just some thoughts. (Though Hurley might have suggested mentioning Libby in the cover story for his own reasons… who really knows…)

The man in the coffin told Jack and Kate that they needed to go back to the island. The man told Jack that going back was the only way Jack could keep Kate and Aaron safe. Later it’s revealed that the man told Jack that horrible things happened on the island after Jack left… because Jack left. On top of all this, it’s been consistently suggested over the past several episodes (and John reiterates it) that some paranormal or mystical force will compel one to return to the island if one ever leaves. And so now we have the full rationale for Jack’s obsession in the original flash forward. It’s a rationale that’s quite a bit more simple and elegant than many other people (including myself) have speculated. Of course, the key reason for those elaborate early speculations was that nobody could imagine Jack leaving people behind, much less so easily lying about it. But, again, I don’t think anyone considered at the time that the ISLAND could leave JACK. Even when John said he was going to move the island, until we actually saw it happen (and it was totally awesome, by the way) I’m not sure anyone could say for certain what that would entail.

All-and-all I felt that the finale did the most justice to Jack’s character and, in regard to him especially was very well done.

Miles knows that Charlotte was searching for the island to “find where she was born”. Is Charlotte “special”? If so, with her being older than Walt and Aaron… does this make her the next likely candidate after John as custodian of the island?

Could Miles be related to the scientist who plays Halliwax? And could this be why he wants to stay?

Dan is obviously experiencing memory loss due to time weirdness and needs Desmond, his constant, to sort it all out. The details of how all of this works in Dan, though, are still unclear.

Dan and the people on his small boat are caught off the island, but obviously not rescued by Penny. Why? What happened to them?

By the end of season 4, it’s a complete mystery what’s going on with Claire.

John was born prematurely. Ben was also. If babies on the island would deliver as prematurely, they might not die. What is the connection between all of these things?

Comments