TagLost Theories

LOST: Speculative Answers to Remaining Questions (SPOILERS!)

June 1, 2010 / Klintron

I was quite disappointed in the end of LOST. While I’m happy to leave some questions left unanswered (like “what is the island anyway?”), there were some things that were either unanswered or glazed over that detract from my enjoyment of the overall series and leave me wondering what message the series put forward. Reason vs. faith, fate vs. free will, loyalty, and the problems of secrecy were recurring themes throughout the series, and the themes seem somewhat unresolved.

The characters are of course rewarded with heaven in the end, but was this because of their faith, loyalty, etc. or was that irrelevant? Did the characters who died serving Jacob die for a just cause? Could all of this have been avoided if just a few people had been more forthcoming about what was going on on the island? I don’t know.

I do have a few speculative answers for some of the nagging questions remaining after the finale.

Lost and the Supercontext – Guest Post

May 19, 2009 / Klinton

Lost and the Supercontext
by Edward Wilson

There does seem to be different rules involved when it comes to death and the island. It reminds me of both Donnie Darko and The Invisibles. In Donnie Darko dying in the time loop allowed someone to step out of regular time as Frank the Bunny does. From this new position he is able to effect events. Similar effects are in play in The Invisibles comic series by Grant Morrison.

Many characters in Lost seem to stick around and influence events even after death. For the most part they are not shown as physically interacting with the world but guiding people’s actions and it is
implied there is manipulation of probability.

Christian Sheppard, Jack’s father, is the clearest example of afterlife hijinks. He was dead when he arrived on the island but has been influencing events ever since. He was the first mysterious apparition and lead Jack to the fresh water source. He’s never been shown physically interacting with anyone or directly effecting the environment. It is implied that Christian also has a probability
manipulation ability that was being used to Keep Michael alive until he completed his usefulness to the island.

There is also the tendency of the smoke monster to appear to people in the forms of, and with the knowledge of, people who are deceased, such as Eko’s brother or Ben’s daughter Alex. Whether these are truly examples of people existing past their death or just trickery on the part of the smoke monster needs further examples to determine.

Then there are the various deceased characters who interact with Hurley. While the show leaves us the option of believing that his just crazy I think that these apparitions are more like the various forms the smoke monster takes or Christian’s on going actions. Hurley is just more sensitive than normal, this is why he was able to see Jacob’s cabin. The island itself seems to be outside of normal time, as evidenced by the time differential involved in traveling to the boat.

This is to say nothing of John Locke’s return from the dead, which may be a completely different matter. Suffice to say Ben is a little mistaken when he says “Dead is dead.”

Perhaps anyone encountering the island imprints their awareness and form on it along the lines of a back-up drive. That the island functions as a kind of afterlife computer and the smoke monster
screens the bad souls out? An ancient egyptian virus scanner.

Last minute LOST theory: Locke is Jacob

May 13, 2009 / Klinton

The season finale is already on in some parts of the country, but thanks to the time dysfunction I have to wait a couple more hours before it starts.

Here’s a current favorite from the ever insightful Wadester23:

Has anybody directly interacted w/ themselves from another timeline? If Locke is Jacob.. google “The Circle” from ‘Land of the Lost’

Anyone have a good link for a summary of “The Circle”? I didn’t find one during my first initial quick search.

Time Loop Theory

May 7, 2009 / Klinton

lost time loop theory timeline

(Bigger illustration at site)

I came across this for the first time a while back, but was reminded of it during the Barcamp PDX LOST session. It’s sounding more and more likely.

LOST has presented us with various themes of fate vs. destiny; however, by the end of the series, we will all be back at the same universal question: Are we completely controlled by fate, or do we have the ability to change what’s already happened in the future?

The LOST series revolves around the use of a quasi-conventional time machine. All of the “mysteries” that the show presents can be explained through an understanding of how this time machine is used. While many think that a time machine is a “cheap” answer to the show, I can assure you that once LOST makes the “big reveal,” there will be much to think about and reflect upon.

I’d like the reader to note that this is an extensive theory that “stretches” many events to the point that the entire theory may not seem believable. The purpose of the theory is to take a concept of time travel and apply it to all elements of the show – in an attempt to answer almost every question that is presented by LOST. Will all the answers make complete sense? No. Is there any theory out there that is proven to be 100% true? No. With that said, it should also be noted that most of this theory is complete conjecture and I make no claim that this theory is the definitive “answer” to the show it should be read for entertainment purposes only.

In this theory, I will walk you through the linear progression of events in LOST; however, this progression is very different than the ordering of the episodes of LOST – so I will simply provide estimated timestamps for each event. This is a very long theory, and may be confusing to readers who are not well-versed in the world of LOST. Make sure you have time to at least read through the “timeline” section of this theory that is where I lay out all of the events of the show. Thanks, and enjoy reading the theory!

Time Loop Theory.

No episode tonight – smoke monster theories instead

April 22, 2009 / Klinton

Getting back to the more occult roots of this blog:

lost smoke monster egyptian

Popular Mechanics has an Egyptologist weigh in on the hieroglyphics from “Dead is Dead”

Allen agrees that the animal-headed human in the hieroglyphic Ben is fixated on is probably based on Anubis, though he says in actuality, no Egyptian scene looks like what’s shown on Lost. “I suspect that the colossus is also meant to be Anubis, too,” he says. But he points out, it’s actually more of a hybrid of Anubis and Taweret, the demon-wife of the Apep, the Egyptian’s original god of evil. (It’s said that Apep was only present at night, and therefore any evil happenings during the daytime were attributed to Taweret). “The thing on the head definitely looks like Taweret’s, but she never wears a kilt, which is clearly there in the back shot of the colossus. The colossus is probably holding two ankh-signs, like the one Anubis holds in this image, but he’s holding them like Taweret holds the two signs she holds, which are ‘protection’ signs, not ankhs.” Allen also notes that “the four toes on the statue fragment are more Taweret than Anubis, who has a human body and therefore five toes.”

Pretty interesting, no? Danny Chaoflux was actually the first person who suggested to me that the Monster might be Apep:

apep

So perhaps the Others are a Taweret & Apep
cult. This is supported by the possibility that the four toed statue is Taweret:

Taweret lost four toed statue

(Image from Lostpedia)

From the Monster theories page of Lostpedia comes an alternate theory:

In Egyptian mythology, Ammit was the personification of divine retribution for all the wrongs one had committed in life. She dwelt in the Hall of Ma’at, who was the personification of the concept of truth, balance, and order.The hearts of the dead were weighed by Anubis against a feather from Ma’at’s headdress. The hearts of those who were heavy with wrongdoing failed the test were given to Ammit for her to devour. Those whose souls were devoured were not permitted to enter Aaru, having to be restless foreverâ€”effectively dying a second time. If the heart was lighter than a feather then the soul was judged by the god of the underworld, Osiris. With the strong Egyptian undertones, especially this season, the monster could be a personification of Ammit. When the monster poses as Yemi, it asks Eko if he is sorry for the wrongdoings in his life. When Eko says no, the monster kills him. We saw in “This Place is Death” that the monster lives in the Temple with the hieroglyphics on it. This temple, which goes underground, could represent the Hall of Ma’at where souls are judged.

I have another idea: the creators of LOST might be creating its own set of Egyptian deities.

Until “Dead is Dead” I was thinking that the Dharma Initiative might have been using Egyptian hieroglyphs as a code (the way the Others use Latin). But the hieroglyphs in the temple in “Dead is Dead” seem to rule that out.

It might also be worth noting that in “Some Like it Hoth,” the lesson Jack erases from the chalk board is on Egyptian hieroglyphs.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and LOST

March 3, 2009 / Klinton

Wired: The League is interesting because of its dependence on that vast canon. Everything from pulp up through every novel that’s been written gets hologrammed.

Moore: In the first two volumes we were dealing mainly with characters from literature, because characters from literature were all that were around up until roughly the end of the 19th century. With this one, the first one set in 1910, we’re using characters from the stage as well as literature. We’re using the whole Threepenny Opera storyline. With the second one, set in 1969, we’ve got access to all of the films and television that were around then. The third part, set in the present day – 2008, 2009 – we have characters from all of the new media that have evolved over the past 30 years.

It is interesting – it is an expanding cast of characters, and I suppose we’re attempting to come up with a kind of unified field theory of culture that actually links up all of these various works, whether they’re high culture or low culture or no culture.

From: Wired interview with Alan Moore.

Interesting to me because of my theory that LOST is “every story.”

Also remember that Watchmen, written by Moore, was a huge influence on LOST.

Last minute LOST theory round-up

February 25, 2009 / Klinton

‘Lost’ is the opposite of ‘won’ Wadester23 suggests that the title LOST doesn’t mean the opposite of found, but the opposite of ‘won’ – as in the game Ben, Widmore, and possibly others are playing. Desmond might know about it via Penny now (“These people–they’re just usin’ us. They’re playing some kind of game, and we are just the pieces.” – Desmond in 316).

Ben tried to kill Penny, got beat up by Desmond (Lostpedia)

Charlie convinced Hurley to take flight 316. That’s why he has a guitar case. (Lostpedia)

Claire died in the explosion, it’s her ‘Island ghost’ self that people have been seeing since. (Lostpedia)What are your theories? Any ideas about what happened to Aaron, why Sayid was in custody, or how Lupitus has been able to fly commercial jets without being abducted and questioned by Widmore?

Thoughts on last night’s episode (316) – Gnosticism crops up again

February 19, 2009 / Klinton

In the church, Ben talks about the Biblical disciple Thomas. What he doesn’t mention is that a principal gospel of Gnostic Christianity is the Gospel of Thomas.

The “Locke as Jesus” theme is obvious, and the reference to Jack as Thomas shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Most extensive article on LOST and Gnosticism that I know of.

Theory: the Others are Cathars (Wikipedia entry on Catharism)

Previous coverage of LOST and Gnosticism on Hatch 23

LOST – overview of my current theories

January 21, 2009 / Klinton

Tonight’s the big night! In advance of tonight’s debut I thought I’d do a brief outline of what I’m thinking:

It’s every story in one

I first noticed this when trying to explain the appeal of the show. LOST is not just a survival drama – it’s also a medical drama, a crime show, a cop show, a sitcom, a sci-fi series, a Korean gangster series, and so much more. It just keeps growing in scope as to what genres it includes.

But it doesn’t stop at including all genres. Take a look through Lostpedia for a few theories about LOST being based on other stories or myths: The Tempest, Lost Continent (Atlantis, etc.), The Wizard of Oz, Gates of Hades, etc. Other possibilities include Shambhala.

Numerous literary works are referenced and many of them seem to have parallels with the series.

Then there are pop cultural sources such as Watchmen, The Stand, and, my favorite, The Prisoner.

So my theory is that LOST is an attempt to integrate as many stories as possible into one.

Time travel

I suspect time travel is responsible for most of the paranormal/supernatural phenomena that have occurred – Alpert’s apparent non-aging, the whispers, Walt appearing in places he shouldn’t be, appearances by the dead, moving the Island, etc. The “synchronicities” that occur regularly could be explained by time travels deliberately manipulating certain events.

Some things aren’t quite explained by this though – how can the whole island be physically moved while usually time travel is consciousness only? How does Walt do the bird killing thing? What the hell are numbers? How does the island heal the sick? Time travel might not be the grand unifying theory, but I’m guessing it will explain a lot.

Plenty of unanswered questions remain. Can’t wait for the debut!

LOST Theory: The Island is the Village from the Prisoner (spoilers)

January 21, 2009 / Klinton

This was a brief, badly written, post I made at Lost Theories dot com some time back. The site seems to be defunct now, so I’m posting this here:

The Prisoner was a British TV series that aired in 1967. It took place in a mysterious location called “The Village.” The location of the Village was never pinned down conclusively, it seems to have either been somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, or perhaps in England – a single gas tankâ€™s drive from London.

The Village is apparently destroyed in the last episode. During this destruction, the Rover(s) – strange egg shaped robots that act as guards of the Village – are seen melting into smoke. Is this the Smoke Monster?

The Village was administered by a group of strange, paranoid individuals doing some sort of research – usually assumed to be espionage related, but the last episode casts doubt on this. It seems they may be more interested in psychological or sociological research than espionage. They do a lot of work with brainwashing and mind control. Could this be the Dharma Initiative?

The Village administered by someone called “Number 2.” Every episode has a new Number 2. The nature and identity of “Number 1” is never made clear. Could Ben be the current Number 2, with Hanso (or someone else) being Number 1?

Since I wrote this, it’s become clear that Jacob is Number 1, and John Locke is the new Number 2.

Also: “In the ABC TV series, a group of survivors is trapped on a mysterious island. In the second season, they open a hatch that leads to a large bunker. A cache of food inside is labelled in an identical Albertus font to that used in The Prisoner.” Source: The Prisoner references in popular culture entry on Wikipedia

More Info

Watch every episode of the Prisoner online for free (US only?)

The Prisoner Wikipedia entry

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