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Contents

The Lamp Post

Significance to Narnia

  • The lamp post in Narnia was used as a marker to the location of the "real world" for the characters in the books. The Lamp Post station was used to find the location of the Island.
  • C.S. Lewis became an atheist at the age of 15 and later in life "re-converted" back to Christianity. This mirrors Jack's conversion from a "Man of Science" to a "Man of Faith" when he begins to believe in Locke.
    • C.S. was called "Jack" by his close friends and relations; he disliked his given name.
    • Similarly, Charlotte Staples Lewis was on the island as a child before leaving and finally returning back later in life.

Identity of the "clever fellow"

First, we need to think about whether the identity of the "clever fellow" is even important in the continuation of the plot or simply a "throw-away" is Ms. Hawking's briefing. Assuming that the identity is important, we have candidates:

  • Pierre Chang, Scientist, Theoretical Astrophysicist. Has math skills. Has appeared under the names Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, and Edgar Halliwax in the DHARMA Initiative orientation films, all names relating to candles which may relate to the name of the Lamp Post station.
  • Daniel Faraday, Scientist, Physicist. Studied time travel and its application. Has math skills. However he would need to travel to time outside the island for doing it.
  • Horace Goodspeed, mathematician. He was the leader of DHARMA Initiative on the island. His jumpsuit is from an "intelligence gathering" station (The Arrow). Built or at least started building what is now known as Jacob's cabin.
  • And considering that it required complex mathematical computations at the Lamp Post to find the island, him being a mathematician makes it very likely he is the "clever fellow". We also know now that he isn't just a prominent member of the DHARMA Initiative on the Island, he is the leader. And given that he makes another appearance just two episodes later and supposedly has a more significant role in the show in upcoming episodes, this also adds to the likelihood of him being the "clever fellow".

Finding the Island

  • The Listening Post is Widmore's, and developed another station to mimic the functionality of the Lamp Post. The lack of Foucault pendulum probably is explained by the advances in technology and suggests that Widmore's station is developed more recently.
  • Every now and then a group of people happens upon the island without looking for it. Say, the survivors of Oceanic Fight 815, for example, or the US Army in 1954 while conducting their nuclear weapons tests.
  • DHARMA either used the Lamp Post or another unknown way to find the island to provide the food drops, like in "Lockdown".

Reasons for returning to the Island

Hurley

  • Hurley was finally convinced to return by Charlie or the apparition of another dead survivor, who also told him the flight he needed to take back.
  • Walt came to speak to him in prison or after his release as a last minute resort from the island, Jacob, or Ms. Hawking's.
  • In The Lie, Ana Lucia said Libby says hello. This is not a throw-away comment. We shall soon see Libby visiting Hurley in jail or after his release, convincing him to return to the island.
  • Hurley is going back because he believes he can save Libby and Charlie from dying. He doesn't know that he can't change the past. He has received a message from Libby from Ana-Lucia ("Libby says Hi"), and "seen" Charlie, so he is motivated to try to help them.
  • Hurley is not alone at the airport or in first class... there are other dead characters, at least Charlie, who are accompanying him and boarded flight 316 with him and we will see them in a future flashback.
  • Hurley will, ultimately, be the Voice of Jacob. Hurley and Miles are the only two who can really speak with the dead. (Incarnations of Smokey notwithstanding) And we were told specifically, that Miles couldn't speak to anyone who had been cremated. In "The Incident" we see Jacob's body pushed into the fire, effectively cremating him. Also Jacob makes specific mention of Hurley's ability being a blessing, rather than a curse. In S6, when someone needs guidance from Jacob, it will come from Hurley. Possibly in the same way that Richard gave Jacob's instructions to Ben.

Jack

  • Jack wants to save everyone on the island.
  • Jack realized his life was ruined by leaving the island, as seen at the end of season 3. Locke's death became a reminder of the guilt Jack felt for leaving the others behind. Jack compulsively needs to fix things, returning to the island is Jack's way of "fixing" himself.
  • Jack is a true leader. His destiny is not to serve other people for the rest of his life, but to gain the courage and wisdom to become the true leader of the island. Locke's role has always been to guide Jack through this journey, to make him believe, to give him faith and keep him grounded in the real world. Jack's life off the island is mundane and boring, and full of heartbreak, lies, and failure. He has realized there is nothing left for him there, but he also is still not convinced that he is going to play the most important role in saving the island, saving his friends, and becoming the true leader.

Frank Lapidus

  • Frank was always supposed to be on the Island. He should have been the pilot of Flight 815. The Monster examined Seth Norris and, because he was the wrong pilot, killed him. He had another opportunity as the pilot of the helicopter, but left.
  • Without knowing, Frank sealed his fate on the Searcher when, is answer to Jack's question about whether he was agreeable to the decision being made by the Oceanic Six, answered, "Whatever you guys decide, I'll just roll with."
  • He recognized his destiny on Flight 316 when he nonchalantly asked, "We're not going to Guam, are we?"
  • Charon, the ferryman on the river Styx, transports the dead into Hades; Frank is Lost's Charon.
  • When Frank originally sees the underwater Flight 815 plane on TV and sees the dead pilot without his wedding ring, he is actually looking at himself.

Desmond’s reluctance and the Island's intentions

  • Like before, Desmond refuses to accept that going to the island is his destiny, and so he doesn’t go with the others, but as before, he will find himself going back alone and unwillingly.
  • Desmond has to go back most of all, because, since the rules don’t apply to him, he is the only one who can change the past/future and many lives depend on him. As before, he tries to avoid his destiny, but the island will bring him back and he will do the great thing and change the past/future.
    • He will prevent the Purge
    • He will convince Richard that Ben is not supposed to be the leader of the Others, but rather Locke.
    • He will convince young Locke to go to the Island and take his place as leader of the Others.
      • There's no concrete evidence that Desmond being 'special' allows him to change the past. he's able to change IN the past, and become aware of such changes in the 'now', but this in no way means he can go back and alter other people's pasts any more so than any body else.
  • Desmond will return to avenge the murder/attempted murder of Penny by Ben.
  • Desmond will return because of Penny's death because he has nothing else.
  • Desmond will return to escape Widmore's vengeance, who blames Penny's death on him because he didn't just stay hidden in the first place.
  • The rules don't apply to Desmond, so, we will see him already on the island without having to return back, as we saw him earlier when Daniel knocked on the Swan's door.
  • Penny is alive because Widmore's henchmen prevented Ben from killing her, then kidnapped her and Charlie for their own protection. Desmond will return to the island when he recreates the circumstances of sailing around the world trying to get her back.


Kate is Pregnant

  • Kate becomes pregnant (technically, pre-pregnant) from sleeping with Jack the night before and thus recreates Claire's pregnancy.
  • Kate is pregnant with Jack's child, Christian's grandchild. The baby is Jacob. Jacob being Christian's grandchild explains The Others' obsession with Claire's baby. They knew Christian's grandchild was important, but focused on the wrong baby.

The Island and its Movements

  • From Ms. Hawking:
    • "Well, this fellow presumed, and correctly, as it turned out, that the Island was always moving."
    • "Why do you think you were never rescued?"
  • The "always moving" statement could describe two situations
    • The Island is "under way," somehow. If the Island moves all the time, the survivors, even without being astronomers, would have noticed that the stars were different and that the angle of the sun was different from day to day.
    • The Island moves frequently but discretely, it "always" has and "always" will. After each move, it remains at its new location for some period of time, which may vary from move to move but is always long enough for both Charles Widmore and Penelope Widmore to take the trouble to mount expeditions to the Island.
  • The second option is more likely than the first. When Ms. Hawking is briefing Jack and company, she is a mathematician speaking to lay persons. She is speaking in a conversational tone and mode, not providing the precis of a scientific paper. Moving in a series of regularly (irregularly?) timed jumps fits into the definition of "always moving" and also allows for the fact that the implosion of the Swan allowed time to mount expeditions by Charles Widmore by Penelope Widmore. If either had discovered the location of a continuously moving Island on day X, the discovery would be of no value on X + 1.
  • The Island moves spatially. We know this because in the known history, the Island has been close enough to Africa for the Beechcraft to reach it and has been somewhere along the (not necessarily scheduled) flight path of Flight 815. The place where the Black Rock became stranded is almost certainly a third location the we have not yet seen.
  • The Island's natural movements are of a relatively short distance. To move the Island a longer distance, the wheel must be turned. When this is necessary, Jacob descends into the wheel chamber to perform his task. However, Jacob has been imprisoned in his cabin by the boundary formed by the gray, gritty material that was one of the six items and which Locke discovered on his way to his meeting with Jacob.
  • In passing, Christian is not Jacob. He has never claimed to be Jacob. He speaks for Jacob.
  • Pushing the button is unrelated to the Island moving; it is related to yet to be explained "Incident."
  • The island itself doesn't physically travel through time. During moves, time changes within the confines of the Island. People such as the Others are unaffected by these changes because they have an affinity to the Island; people such as the Survivors are affected because they have no such affinity. John Locke did not qualify as having an affinity because he is not intended to be an Other, in spite of Ben's assurance otherwise; he is expected to die.
  • The issue of the Island possibly traveling backward through time, "meeting" itself and self destructing is well taken. If DHARMA had moved past their "silly experiments with time-traveling bunnies," they may have been capable of causing such an event. If they were close, that may have been what triggered the Purge.
  • The island has always moved in short, periodic hops.
    • Pushing the button allowed the island to remain stationary for the DHARMA people, possibly by discharging the electromagnetic energy in the wheel chamber safely.
    • After the hatch imploded, time on the island began to 'skew' from that of the real world; the Island moving in space affects its place in time as well.
  • The whole concept is problematic. Many viewers in the past have pointed out that night seems to give way to day and day to night in unusual ways. Also it has been noted that the overly sporadic weather systems (heavy and sudden rains followed by euphoric sunlight) are unusual. These two exhibits of evidence confirm the concept that the Island moves through space and therefore encounters various storm systems and various positions in reference to the sun (night/day). However, this is massively problematic as evidence. With so many intelligent people including doctors and scientists experiencing these movements, surely they would have noticed within 100 days that something was terribly unusual: if not the position of the stars in the sky, then most certainly the survivors would notice and comment that some days the sunlight hours would only be about 3 hours and others about 12 hours with night time hours also varying between, say, 5 hours and 10 hours. The whole concept of the Island constantly moving in space from the survivors' perspective is seriously problematic.

Bearings

  • The Island's movement could very easily explain the differences in bearings that Ben gave Michael and Faraday told everyone to use. At the time Michael left the island, the bearing needed was 325. Over the course of time, etc. when the freighter folk dropped onto the island, Faraday (being a scientist and all) reconfigured that the new bearing needed would be 305. Consequently, now that the island has been off-axis, time-warping, etc. there will be a new bearing if anyone tries to come to/tries to leave the island.
  • The bearing needs to be recalculated whenever one wishes to enter or leave the Island due to its movement (assuming the island has moved since the bearing was last calculated).
  • The DHARMA initiative somehow caused the island to remain relatively 'stable' for a short while.
  • These two ideas point to the idea that the Numbers, in addition to being key in the Valenzetti Equation, are used to calculate either the position of the island, the bearing required to approach it, or both. Hence, the radio tower broadcasting the Numbers.

The other passengers of Flight 316

The other passengers of Ajira Flight 316 not related to the O6 are the people who came to shore on the canoes that the survivors find during one of the flashes while making their way to the orchid. They too, are the ones that open fire on the survivors in the canoe from the other canoe. These people are actually employees of Charles Widmore. Widmore likely got wind of the Oceanic 6's imminent return to the island and knew that the best way to get more of his people back on the island was to have them ride along with the Oceanic 6 back to the island. As for how he knew the Oceanic 6 was returning, that could be one of two possible reasons:

  • 1. Judging by the fact that Widmore had Eloise Hawking's address in his little black book, that indicates that the two have or have had some type of relationship now or in the past. If the character "Ellie" from the 1954 time period on the island is actually a young Eloise, then the two would have known each as far back as then. Currently, she may be working for/with Widmore and merely using Ben as a pawn to get the O6 back together to go back to the island.
  • 2. When Desmond came and asked for Daniel Faraday's mother's address this likely set off an alarm in Widmore's head that something was up on the island for Desmond to some reason suddenly want to know where Daniel Faraday's mother lived, considering he knew Daniel was on the island somewhere, and that his mother knew how to find the island. Knowing this, he likely just sent spies to follow the O6 around and see what they were doing. When they saw them buying plane tickets, they knew what was up, and quickly bought plane tickets of their own.
  • This is why Cesar is the only other one in 1st class (besides Sayid's escort) and why he looks so tense the whole time - he knows where he's going and, like Jack, he can't just sit back and read a book while waiting for it to happen.
  • Going by what we know about Ben wanting to kill Penny for revenge against Widmore, the fact once he sees Desmond in town, that probably indicates to him Penny is too, and then his line about "tying up some loose ends", it would seem more likely that Desmond beat him up for killing or attempting to kill Penny. However, this may not be the case afterall. More than likely, Ben would have been prepared for Desmond to retaliate and planned (he always has a plan) a way to either avoid him or subdue him first. But if one of Widmore's spies had been following him, he probably wouldn't have been expecting that and been caught off guard by the spy. When he spoke to Jack on the phone, his voice seemed to indicate he was shocked by what happened. In fact, since Widmore knew Desmond would be heading to Los Angeles with Penny, he may have even had an operative there keeping an eye on Desmond and Penny's boat in the dock just to make sure Ben didn't show up and cause any trouble.

Jack's Grandfather

  • Jack's grandfather could possibly be Jacob. Jack's father obviously has a major role on the island. It would make sense that Christian's father would have higher authority. It appears that Jack's grandfather has tried to escape the old folks' home several times and he said to Jack one day they won't be able to find him. He is trying to return to the island as well. Perhaps he needs the Losties to help him return to the island. It was no coincidence that he had Christians' shoes in his bag. If anything Jack's grandfather has been to the island before. It's a family affair.
  • On the Season 2 DVD there was a section called Lost Connections. It showed how every character was connected. There was one unidentified character named the 'Mysterious Waving Figure', this character was connected to Christian Shepherd, Jack Shepherd, and Claire Littleton. The only character that fits this that we know of is Aaron, but the picture seems to be an adult, not a baby. It could simply be a random, nondescript picture, or it could be a fuzzy picture of Jacob. If it were Jacob then that would mean he is related to Christian, Jack, and Claire and if it were Christian's father it would make perfect sense. That would explain why Jack is destined to be the leader on the island, and why Christian and Claire are allowed to hang out in the cabin.
  • Ray is not Christian's natural father but someone entrusted with the duty by Jacob.
  • Ray could also be Jack's mother's father. His last name is not revealed, and Jack's mother brought the shoes.
  • Ray's only purpose was to have and to provide to Jack something that had belonged to Christian, thereby enabling Jack to give something belonging to Christian to Locke.

Walt and Flight 316

  • The conditions under which the members of the Oceanic 6 boarded flight 316 were to recreate the ones that preceded 815. However, Aaron and Walt are missing, and thus, the process is incomplete.
  • Walt and Aaron's absence will cause another type of "side-effects" despite the O5's success in returning to the island.
  • Walt may be exempt from this trip to the island, though, because he can appear in two places at once, as was suggested by Bea Klugh in season 2, making the flight redundant for him.
  • Technically Aaron was never on flight 815 but was still inside Claire and so just an "item" if other theories prove to be correct and if Kate is pregnant with Jack's child then Jack and Kate’s child would be a substitute for Aaron

O5 saviors of the Island

  • John 3:16 Is the verse of the Bible that says God gave His son to the world to save whoever believed in Him. The flight number 316 corresponds to the verse which could mean that the passengers of 316 will save the Island.
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Theories for Season 5 episodes
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