Lost: So what's your theory?

[Steve Jordan]

Originally Posted by sumac

Well, yeah, but they said they'd been flying in the wrong direction for an hour.

Didn't remember that. I can only guess, then, that the location was one more lie told to Naomi (and presumably everyone else).

[Steve Jordan]

Last night's season opener hammered something home to me (again): The biggest problem with the people on this island, all of them, is that none of them trust anyone else enough to sit down, take a deep breath, and just talk out these issues they have! I've lost track of all the problems that could've been avoided on this island, with the simple expedient of communication.

People arrived on that island, already isolated by their own problems, and they haven't been able to break through their problems enough to reach out to others. That island has become a Tower of Babel, with no one listening to anyone else, resulting in unending chaos and tragedy (that apparently won't end even after they leave it).

I've come to the conclusion that the show's title refers to the Lost ability to connect with others. All of the other theories... I'm in hell, there's a corporate conspiracy, there's mysterious forces, there's ghosts and monsters, there's a cold war, etc, etc... are all symptoms of a lack of knowledge, understanding and trust that comes from a lack of communication.

I hope Patrick McGoohan is watching...

[power to the J]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Last night's season opener hammered something home to me (again): The biggest problem with the people on this island, all of them, is that none of them trust anyone else enough to sit down, take a deep breath, and just talk out these issues they have! I've lost track of all the problems that could've been avoided on this island, with the simple expedient of communication.

People arrived on that island, already isolated by their own problems, and they haven't been able to break through their problems enough to reach out to others. That island has become a Tower of Babel, with no one listening to anyone else, resulting in unending chaos and tragedy (that apparently won't end even after they leave it).

I've come to the conclusion that the show's title refers to the Lost ability to connect with others. All of the other theories... I'm in hell, there's a corporate conspiracy, there's mysterious forces, there's ghosts and monsters, there's a cold war, etc, etc... are all symptoms of a lack of knowledge, understanding and trust that comes from a lack of communication.

I hope Patrick McGoohan is watching...

Wow. I never thought of that, and now that you say it I think you're completely right. I'm so bad at finding stuff like this!

[Steve Jordan]

Thanks to last night's episode, we now suspect the island is somehow about 30 minutes out of sync with the outside world. If true (I emphasize that, because the payload that was fired at the island could conceivably have been fired 30 minutes after a faked radio transmission), it could be an interesting twist.

[Steve Jordan]

Okay, putting aside my allegorical uber-theory for the moment, something else has occurred to me that might explain things... a "practical" explanation for the show, if you will.

Suppose the Dharma Initiative has somehow created a force on the island that serves to draw out latent mental abilities of anyone exposed to it? That would mean that certain individuals with certain mental faculties are causing the odd happenings on the island, ala Forbidden Planet, by their own conscious or subconscious thoughts.

As I think about the things we've seen on the show, from strange "monsters," to the sick being healed and others dying, dead people walking, hallucinations, time dilation, physical objects doing strange things (like ships turning up on a peak on the island, or planes breaking up in mid-air), the island's being invisible to outsiders, etc, I can imagine any of it being conceivably influenced by some people with strange mental abilities to manipulate reality. Really a sci-fi explanation for supernatural powers.

Based on the flash-forwards, we know that whatever this effect is, it also works away from the island--Hurley's visions of Charlie, for instance, or Ben's "inability" to kill Whitmore, and vice versa. So, once you are affected, maybe it doesn't go away. (Of course, Hurley may have been a special case... he seemed to affect things for the worse before he ever went to the island.)

I'd guess the Dharma people were creating and experimenting with this effect, when Ben and the Others took over, and have been trying ever since to turn it to their purposes. One side obviously feels the other side was doing it wrong, but who knows which side is right at this point?

(Best part is, my allegorical theory and my practical theory can still co-exist here! Haw-right!)

Any thoughts?

[Teresa Edgerton]

My only thought at this point is that I hoped seeing Richard again would make his role in the whole thing somehow clearer ... and it had exactly the opposite effect. Just when you think the waters can't get any muddier, they do.

[Steve Jordan]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

My only thought at this point is that I hoped seeing Richard again would make his role in the whole thing somehow clearer ... and it had exactly the opposite effect. Just when you think the waters can't get any muddier, they do.

In our office, we refer to Richard as "the man who never ages!" Seeing him meeting Locke as a child, and Ben as a child, and knowing he's still about somewhere, makes you wonder what role he's playing in this, exactly. And maybe he's somehow long-lived or immortal, judging by his appearance. (I considered he might be a time-traveler, but he doesn't seem to be cognizant of future events.)

But what's he trying to accomplish? What was/are he, and the rest of the Others, doing on that island before Dharma anyway? Did they know about something on the island that Dharma used to create its energy force... or did Dharma take it from them (much like Ben, with the Others' help, took it back)?

[Omphalos]

OK. I finally put it all together. Ive been tossing these ideas around since the second or third episode of this season, and I now think I have it. Here it is:

THE (ALMOST) UNDELETED :: View topic - Lost: I have it all figured out

[sdoidge]

why does no one ever explain that giant three toed foot statue....it niggles at my brain

[JoanDrake]

Originally Posted by sdoidge

why does no one ever explain that giant three toed foot statue....it niggles at my brain

Its MU, the island is what's left of MU, the Pacific version of Atlantis. The three toed (was it three, I thought it was four?) statue is a MU person

And the smoke monster is from the Islander's themselves. It's like the Monster of the Id in Mysterious Planet, and the remnants of the MU are like the Krell. Some people are more in tune with it, like Locke.

Combine this with Omphalo's idea. Yes, it a teleportation device, but built by the MU not the Dharmians

[sdoidge]

ah...yes on closer inspetion there is a 4th toe...how terribly innacurate of me!

...remind me is the "other island" still in play because the Atlantis/mu theory begs at a single island type solution.

[Steve Jordan]

Originally Posted by sdoidge

...remind me is the "other island" still in play because the Atlantis/mu theory begs at a single island type solution.

In last night's ep, the "other island" didn't seem to be there anymore.

[Julian]

It's all in hugos head. This is my theory as he does see quite a few visions and people that are not there any more.