“Dude…Bail.”
Many spoilers ahead. If you have not watched all of LOST include last night’s episode, “Sundown,†you should move along. There’s nothing to see here.
Ok, so here are some thoughts I have been mulling over this morning. I was up until 5am unable to sleep (nothing to do with LOST, this was physiological) so I had time to read some other blogs — like the one I emailed about this morning — and see how they related to this “Flashbacks and Flashsides are not real!” theory.
My friend Paul Levinson wrote, “Any one of the characters could of course be lying to him or herself. Nothing even implausible about that. But interlocking flashbacks’ reciprocal coincidences, like Sayid’s and Kate’s stepfather’s, reduce the odds of people lying to themselves, as does the mere fact that so many characters are having implausible flashbacks which are lies. Unless something on the island is causing that to happen.”
If we are going to learn the nature of the island, what exactly it is, and what its function in society is, in upcoming episodes (which we are, according to the producers) it would not surprise me in the least if it is revealed that the island can manipulate the thoughts of its inhabitants. There is only one, maybe two instances of characters having direct contact with each other and remembering it pre-island. That is, Jack remembers Desmond from the stadium steps. Keep in mind Desmond is uniquely special and the rules don’t apply to him. The maybe instance was Libby and Hurley being in the institution together. He thought she looked familiar but could not place her face. Other than that, the interwoven stories of the characters rely on connections formed vestigially such as Christian and Sawyer drinking together — which would connect Jack to Sawyer — or Sayid meeting Kate’s father in Iraq — which would connect Sayid to Kate. John Locke doesn’t remember taking Richard Alpert’s test as a child, even though Richard says he’s been watching Locke for a long time, so that storyline is a bit up-in-the-air at the moment. Isn’t it a bit too coincidental that John Locke’s father turned out to be the con-man that destroyed Sawyer’s family, and that he magically appeared on the island in order to have a final confrontation with both men? Ben gave us a hint that the island contained a “magic box” just before Anthony Cooper arrived on the island. If that fucking thing exists, is it really hard to imagine an island with an energy that can alter the memories of its inhabitants to bring them together in supposed “past” events? I mean — Rose had terminal cancer cured! Michael couldn’t die off the island! He tried how many different times to kill himself? And didn’t the freighter captain try to kill him on the boat but couldn’t? That can’t be a coincidence. That’s how fucking powerful the island is. I’m starting to think that if the island hasn’t somehow fabricated the lives of the castaways that I would be really, really surprised.
Where is this going, you ask? I don’t fucking know — I’m kind of doped up in bed right now. I should try to write shorter paragraphs and maybe I’ll be able to retain the information easier. I think what I was trying to say is that maybe the flashbacks were all lies, and the sideways flashes were how these people’s lives should have played out from the start. Instead of being burdened by a crazy island pulling them towards it and forming a path directly to it, the characters are able to take correct courses of action. Jack accepts fatherdom, Locke hasn’t burned bridges with his father or Helen, etc. etc.
One simple reveal that could totally blow the alternate dimensions and flashbacks out of the water would be a something like, “the little blond kid running around the island freaking out The Man In Black is Aaron.” This would be the easiest way to shatter all form of flashes while teaching us that they are but manifestations of the castaways’ collective subconsciousness. If we were to learn that Aaron never actually left the island, and due to its weird properties he has grown up rapidly into the blond kid, any images of Aaron we’ve seen off the island, and anything involving Claire’s off island pregnancy drama, could not have really occurred. If we learn that Aaron has for some reason come back to the island from the future to play some role in the end-game…where the hell is Walt? They’re the perfect black and white combination! Walt! Aaaron! Black Hammer! White Lightning!
The other theory I’ve been thinking about involves the conversation between The Man In Black and Jacob during the season 5 finale. There’s all that talk of things always ending the same way. Jacob says it only ends once, everything else is progress. Bear with me for a second, because this is going to be a little weird. What if the flashbacks are not flashbacks but modernized, updated stories from the characters past lives? What if Jack has been always been a doctor across many, many lifetimes, and each one has somehow led to the island. What if the souls of these people have been repeatedly brought back to the island countless times to play out the same series of events? Jacob can recognize these people, find them, touch them and lead them to the island because he has already known them many times before. He keeps bringing them back either in an attempt to destroy the Man In Black or win some kind of game they have been playing for eons.
Jacob: I take it you’re here ’cause of the ship.
Gray-haired man: I am. How did they find the Island?
Jacob: You’ll have to ask ’em when they get here.
Gray-haired man: I don’t have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?
Jacob: You are wrong.
Gray-haired man: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
What if we get to see the Black Rock, and the fucking castaways are there with Richard Alpert. All slaves. All brought to the island to play out another iteration of these same events we’ve seen unfold since the pilot episode. It’s pretty far off, but think about the incredibly close relationship we are learning that the castaways have with the island. Pair that with the fact that maybe everything we know about the castaways we know because the island manifested it for us to see, and you have a recipe for some spine-chilling epiphanies. The producers have said that the flashbacks are not “imagined,” or “implanted,” but they have never discussed whether or not they are outright lies.
Of course, I think Mark said last night that if the flashbacks turn out to be lies most fans would revolt, or the network wouldn’t allow it because it’s too high concept. Did you say that Mark? Maybe it was your new cell phone. Droid had way more to contribute last night than you did. By the way, is Droid on Facebook yet? I need to invite Droid out for drinks sometime.
And with that, you’ve heard my final ramblings about the flashbacks. I’m waiting for the moment when the stories converge and we learn the meaning of the sideways flashes, so this is present on my mind when I watch most of the episodes now. Really, there aren’t many more theories one can create at this point. We’re 1/3 done with this season. They aren’t going to raise more big thematic questions at this point, so it’s fun to think about one like this, which could still be used to completely decimate our perceptions of the show and re-watch it in the future through a completely different lens. Like re-watching Twin Peaks after you find out who the killer is.
