Lost 4/6/10 -- Happily Ever After

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I don't think that the flashsideways is a "simulation" or a fake life. When Daniel explained my theory to Desmond, I said to my wife, "I wonder how everyone on the forum is going to conclude that that's not what's happening this time..." I guess this "in the matrix" idea is it. But I don't buy it. There were two big clues in this episode to refute it: Daniel telegraphing basically my theory, and how Desmond's consciousness jumping worked. (Eloise's mysterious dialogue seems to fit too, but it also could be taken the other way as well, so I'm not counting it.)

However, I'm starting to think an alternative to my original theory is the (ahem) mirror image: maybe the flashsideways is the current storyline, and the thing we've been calling the current storyline is actually the flashforward. The bomb did do what it was supposed to do, and at some point, all the people in their alternative lives will undo its effects. Same idea, just reversed. In some ways this variant is more compelling than the original, particularly in the sequencing of how we saw it back in the season opener.

That Desmond's consciousness was able to be jumped between these "two timelines" seems like proof to me that they are different points along one timeline, further corroborating my theory even more than Daniel telegraphing it does. It just doesn't make clear which one comes first.

My wife and I thought that the MRI machine was going to be what jerked Desmond's consciousness back to the island -- as it would have been the same kind of thing as what sent it to the flashsideways -- but it didn't go that way. Interesting.

Amazing that they were able to get appearances by not one but two actors who have big roles on other shows, in the same episode. The scheduling must have been challenging. (Though it could have been worse. Neither of them appeared in the island scenes so they could have had their scenes done in California; and they didn't appear together.)

I had to pause to explain the significance of this to my wife (ditto for the scotch), but I think she said "what" not "whatever".

Angstrom! Did he have a number on his back?

 

So basically, you're saying that the bomb broke the universe; now they have to fix it.

 

Oh, I thought you could set it up to block images based on size. Back to admin: can someone with admin access check if there is a setting to automatically resize large images?

 

What if the bomb actually fixed the universe. And now they've got to figure out how to break it.

 

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I'm sticking with "broke it." What happened, happened, but after the bomb went off, what happened DIDN'T happen. The universe is broken. Now it needs to be repaired/reconciled.

What will be interesting is to see if in the repair process, there isn't some wiggle room for changes to be made. I suspect that might be what Jacob has been up to all along...creating the circumstances under which a better universe can be built.

 

* Only "anyone" within the U.S. -- Canadians (and any other computer not located within the States) are blocked from viewing the clips. Oh sure, we can see the website and the ads play for every computer visiting the site, but the actual specific content we are interested in is blocked.

 

I'm not sure I'm following the theories you and Hunter are talking about exactly - I think they're similar to what has been discussed before, with the concept of "repairing" the universe being injected because of Daniel's discussion with Desmond in this episode.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what we're talking about for the overall master timeline under these theories:

Theory 1 (Hunter's prime theory): (a) Seasons 1-5 of Lost occurred first(including time travel), culminating in the bomb being exploded, which in turn caused (b) the current island timeline, which will be followed by (c) the current sideways timeline. Presumably, we'll learn (and probably see) something happen at the culmination of the current island timeline to "repair" the damage caused by the bomb and cause the current sideways timeline to happen.

Theory 2: (alternative): (a) The current sideways timeline happened first, followed by (b) Seasons 1-5 of Lost (including time travel), culminating in the bomb being exploded, which in turn caused (c) the current island timeline. Presumably we'll learn (and probably see) the events that caused seasons 1-5 to follow the current sideways timeline, and something important (and hopefully entertaining) will happen at the end of the current island timeline.

Do I have those theories right?

 

I'm going with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

Not for me. I'm saying Seasons 1-5 culminated in the bomb, which caused the sideways timeline (in which stuff we know happened didn't happen, thus the universe is broken). To me, the relationship of the current island timeline to all this is not entirely clear. Hunter suggests that the current island timeline is what happens after the universe is fixed. That may well be the case, but I suspect the truth might be more complicated than that.

And I've been talking about fixing the universe being the endgame of the show since the middle of last season.

 

I don't think it is confusing. I was responding to the other post which was incorrect.

 

One thing I noticed last week was that it seemed people in the flashsideways that seemed to have "figured it out" had died in our regular timeline. I know Eloise is not dead, but I think she's an outlier in that she's significant in some way we dont' know...

Daniel
Charlie
The limo driver

All of them are dead and they seemed to have figured out something wasn't right...

 

I'm going to use a term that perhaps I just invented, but probably not: "eventline". It's distinguished from a "timeline" in that if you go back and relive a time period, those events that occur the second time you experience that time period appear *afterward* on an eventline. (Of course, that only makes sense if you can determine which of your experiences of that time period happened "first", but I'm going to assume you can in the Lost universe.)

I believe these are the eventlines for Hunter's theories:

Original: (a) Seasons 1-5 (including time travel), (b) Boom!, (c) current island timeline, (d) characters undo effects of bomb, (e) sideways timeline.

Extra Crispy: (a) Seasons 1-5 (including time travel), (b) Boom!, (c) sideways timeline, (d) characters undo effects of bomb, (e) current island timeline.

Here's the eventline for my own twisted theory:

Mashed Potatoes: (a) Sideways timeline, (b) knocked back in time somehow, (c) Seasons 1-5 (including time travel), (d) Boom!, (e) current island timeline.

Hopefully this is helpful for anyone who is trying to follow the theories, but is well, ahem, lost.

Looking forward to tonight's episode!

 

4 hours left!

 

Does that mean at some point we'll see Nikki and Paulo in the flashsideways looking smug in their superior knowledge? (Plenty of other "knowledgeable" candidates too ... Ana Lucia, Eko, Boone, etc.)

 

Not sure, but it could be...maybe they realize something is off because their "other" isn't there, thus they are off...

Shooting in the dark of course, but something I thought of...

 

This!

 

No.

 

Pretty much. Except in the original theory, they don't undo the effects of the bomb; the bomb didn't work, and they eventually do something else that finally does what the bomb was meant to do. In the extra crispy eventline, they undo the bomb.

The key point here is that the two separate "stories" we're seeing now are not parallel, not alternatives, not simultaneous, not influencing one another, etc.: they are sequential, so one of them is a flashback in the telling of the other. They don't represent a "split" and they aren't going to "merge"; one of them will turn out to be a consequence of the other. Nor do they represent a really different storytelling technique; just a new way of using a technique they've been using since the very beginning.

It's quite possible that the events in one of them that cause the other one will involve the "universe course-corrects" feature we've known since Desmond's attempts to save Charlie back in season 3, and it's pretty plain it'll involve Daniel's theories. But the only sense in which "the universe is broken" is true is the sense in which it's tautologically true (if there's more story left to be told, there must be something left to resolve; ergo, if the show hasn't ended yet, the universe must be "broken" given what was established years ago about its course-correction), which tells us nothing about what's actually going on, or what the two "timelines" represent.

Of course, I've been wrong before. And I'm already saying I think I was wrong about one point of my theory as I posited it after the season opener, the order of the two eventlines. But the sequentiality seems more likely every week to me, not less, while the "they're in the Matrix" or "these are parallel worlds interacting" ideas seem less likely, so I'm standing by the sequentiality theory. If I'm wrong... I'll have had fun on the way!