Frozen wheel/Theories

From Lostpedia

Usage

• It is unlikely the wheel had been used after the Orchid was built since the wall inside the Vault - which has to be breached in order to reach the wheel - did not seem damaged or even restored in any way.

• There may have been or may still be another way in. While John was on the ground talking with Christian, it looked like there were carved steps and a door frame behind him.

• The hieroglyphics on the walls and doorway indicate that the area the wheel is in has been encountered/explored/exploited at some point in the ancient past.
• The wheel moves The Island, not in an up/down, or left/right direction, but by rotating it on its own axis. This rotation causes it to revert to a previous state & point in time. The rotation would also change the bearing used to gain entry to the space occupied by The Island.
• When one uses the wheel the Island is not moved through time AND space as was originally thought, Only space. If it did in fact move through time the Island would not be able to exist in two times/places at once and the Island would not continue to exist through 2009 anymore, it would only exist in the time of Dharma where the original "Losties" are now. But we know it does continue to exist in 2009 because the crash of flight 316 and it's people exist in 2009 on the Island. We know this because all the damage done to Dharmaville is still there when Sun and Frank went there, and the runway is also still built. In actuality the Island itself moves in space while the foreigners of the island (any but the hostiles/others) who are on the island at the time of the wheel movement are moved through time. This also explains how while the losties were shifting through time the people they visited for example Rousseau, who were already on the island didn't go with them, it was only them who were moving.

"Future" Appearances and Usage

Daniel is busy working at Orchid and researching how to use the wheel (in his 'off-time') to get everyone back to the present where they belong. He knows they don't 'belong' in the 1970's and that if they stay their days are numbered - they will likely be killed as the universe course corrects and this likelihood increases as the time approaches 2004 slowly but surely.

• Logic would indicate that the wheel needs to be pushed back to its original position (before Ben turned it), so Daniel will need to spin it BACK the same distance in the reverse direction. Locke did NOT perform this function as he was simply setting the wheel back on its axis.
  • theory update as of "the variable"; since daniel is dead, it is likely Eloise (with child) is the one who turns the wheel and this is how she escapes the Incident and is able to raise Daniel off-island.
    • This could also explain why Richard claims he saw the Losties who are back in time die in font of him; because they disappeared during a timeflash when the wheel was put back where it belongs. Perhaps this coincides with the exact moment the incident is happening thus making it look like they blew up.
  • Eloise will be sent to the past when she does this as a sort of "balance" - Ben was sent to the future as Island folks went to past. Locke to the present as island folks were 'set' in its present (1974 - the "present" that Ben sent them to), when Daniel turns wheel back he will go to past (off-island) and the island folks will get sent back to the 'future,' i.e. the time that Locke and Ben have returned to on Ajira. Whoever turns wheel serves as a 'balance' for the people that are being moved; the wheel-turner moves in the opposite direction in time and space to make up for the displacement of those that remain on the island.

Origins

• The wheel (like the "Monster") is incredibly advanced ancient technology from an Antediluvian civilization that was destroyed by a cataclysm. In other words, it is strong evidence that the island is ATLANTIS, which matches up perfectly as a lost (and hard to find) island where an advanced civilization with a combined knowledge of "magic," science, and humanity once thrived. It is the most logical and simplest explanation for the nature of the island's ancient culture.
• The ancient appearance of the wheel and the room it is located in suggest it may have been constructed by the islands ancient inhabitants, who also built the four toed statue.
• The wheel may actually be the Dharmacakra, a symbol representing Dharma (law) in Hinduism and the Buddha's teaching of the path to enlightenment. It is also sometimes translated as wheel of doctrine or wheel of law.
  • This would mean the wheel needs to be turned a third time.
• The frozen chamber has a rickety ladder and a gas lamp in it. These are not the sorts of things that DHARMA would have put there. Was this chamber used by the Others, or maybe by the crew of the Black Rock in the past?
• The chamber being "not that dark" is probably just a little production fudge so that viewers can see what the chamber looks like. In real life, such an underground chamber would be pitch black.
  • • • The light from the energy from behind the frozen wheel could be the reason the room is so Illuminated.
• The wheel itself was not always there. Some crewmen of the Black Rock took the steering wheel from the ship and placed it in the chamber

Leaving the Island

• When one turns the wheel, there is no literal or spiritual reason that they are forbidden from returning, they simply cannot, since they are sent to an unknown destination somewhere else on the planet, while the island is moved to another unknown point. The impact of this is that the person who turns the wheel can never know where the island is, since they move it but do not know where it moves in relation to them. There is nothing stopping Ben from getting to the island if he can manage to find it—the catch is that he cannot find it.
  • However, Ben will be helped by Richard Alpert or anyone else, who travel from the Island and helps Ben find it.
  • Ben knows that Fate will bring the Oceanic 6 back to the island, since they were never meant to leave. If Ben tags along, he can also return.

Miscellaneous

• The Frozen Wheel refers to a cycle created by the DHARMA Initiative, maintained by pushing the button every 108 minutes in the Swan-station. The Island itself is, in fact, unstuck in time from the real world due to its mysterious electromagnetic properties. Time, and the Island, has slowed to almost a complete halt. This is how Richard Alpert, and possibly others, have not aged since they arrived there on the Black Rock sometime in the 1800s. When the DHARMA Initiative arrived later on, they built the Swan-station over the electromagnetic outlet to experiment with this phenomenon. They had now 'corked up' the energy that had always flowed out from the Island, and by releasing that build-up in small discharges every 108 minutes they could now accelerate, and keep, the Island in present time (think of it like letting the air out of a balloon in small doses). When the Swan-station was destroyed by turning the fail-safe key in the season two finale, the 'cork' was destroyed as well. Had they not done this, the world (maybe even the universe) could have exploded/imploded due to the build-up not being released. Time is now crawling to a halt again, losing synch with the real world at an alarming rate. Michael left the Island right after the Discharge, which explains why there was no time difference when he got back home. When Frank, Sayid and Desmond left, the difference was bigger. Their helicopter trip took 20 minutes, but was experienced on-Island as about 2 days. Things will get even worse as time progresses. There are some things yet to be explained, as how Doc Ray was found dead on the Island before he has been shown killed on the freighter, but it could be side-effects of the bigger-than-normal discharge that occurred. It could even have propelled the Island a bit ahead of the present before it slows down again. To summarize; the donkey-wheel-like chore of repeatingly pressing the button every 108 minutes is now over, freezing the Island in time once again.
• It's only dangerous to breach the wheel chamber by electrical devices/technology. Not by manual means. When earlier peoples found it, they dug by shovels and not by drills or other electrical tools, so they didn't cause any catastrophe.
  • The Orchid builders nearly caused catastrophe when they were approaching from the side, because they were using electrical drills. They learned from this and initially gave up, but later found the tunnel that the ancient people had dug, leading into the chamber from above.
• The wheel chamber, along with Christian and Jacob, are moving through time along the same path as Locke and the rest of those left behind.
• There are FDW-like chambers all over the world. Whenever someone turns the wheel, they end up near the location of another wheel. There is one in Tunisia, (this would explain how Ben and the Polar Bear got their), one in Los Angeles near The Lamp Post, (this is how the Dharma Initiative found The Island),one in Egypt (this would explain the Hieroglyphics), one in the Arctic (The Listening Station), and possibly one at Uluru (this would be how Isaac got his powers). The Island's Frozen Wheel is the most powerful of these, for it is the only one that can cause Time Traveling and needs to be controlled (The Button). This is why Isaac said to Rose that she needed "a different type of energy"-The Island.

This Place is Death episode

• The Island was skipping through time because the wheel has slipped off its axis.
  • theory on the wheel movement: 1) The island was moved in spacetime by turning wheel clockwise; 2) wheel starts skipping/time starts skipping. 3) Locke descends to fix wheel (no turn required/performed or at least no full turn) - island stops skipping (assumed). Island now "stuck" in PAST (not really stuck since time still passes but the period of time is wrong) - around start of Dharma Initiative. 4) Someone (E. Hawking?) must descend to push wheel COUNTERclockwise and send it BACK to 2008, *Unlike most inanimate objects on the island (not being touched by a time traveler), the wheel seems to shift through time. Or perhaps, the event of time shifting temporarily knocks the wheel off its axis until the wheel self-corrects (or is realigned by an outside force) which in turn causes another time shift.
  • It is not shifting through time - it is so old that is would always appear to be there.
• The wheel exists independently of the time on the rest of the island. You could say it's been 'jumping' with the Lostbehinds if that makes it easier to understand, but essentially, the wheel is non-temporal, and more or less exists in its own timeline. it changes, it ages, frosts, defrosts, etc, but it does so within it's own timeline, so no matter when you are on the island, the wheel is always in its 'own' time.
  • The chamber is contained in a pocket dimension with immediate access at all times; the position of the wheel determines which time is accessed. The time in the pocket dimension moves perpendicular relative to time outside the pocket dimension, which explains why Locke entering the chamber in the past shows the result of what Ben had done in the future, as well as the possibility of the chamber existing prior to when it was created. The time travelers are somehow connected with the wheel, such as when the wheel locks onto a new time, the travelers are forced to travel with it.
  • The well doesn't disappear; it's just been filled in, or tumbled in on itself.
• The wheel moves the island in space. because it was taking constant uncontrolled shifts back and forth, and because space and time are inexorably linked, this was causing it to bounce around temporally as well. Now that the wheel has been stabilized, the island will stop jumping in time and space. the reason everyone needs to go back to the island, is because they never should have left, especially Ben, who should still be the leader of the others. if he had sent Locke to turn the wheel, like he was supposed to, everything would've turned out differently, and the O6 would still be on the island. because Jacob's orders got messed up, now there's a massive course-correction taking place in bringing back the O6 to ensure the stability of the timeline; but this isn't the key to stopping the time-shifts, the Wheel was.
  • The wheel and the rest of the room are very obviously still frozen. Look at the picture - There are icicles and such.

One of the green flashes, showing icicles on the walls of the chamber

• When Christian is talking to Locke, he clearly tells him to go give the wheel a little push, and Locke proceeds to yank and pull on the wheel until it finally seems to rest properly in place, I think Locke pulling on the wheel causes something else to go wrong, possibly why he wasn't able to convince all the O6 to go back. (Locke really doesn't know how to listen)
• The chamber is still there even though there's no way in after the well disappears, because the chamber wasn't dug out manually, but is the result of some kind of matter-exchange; the apparatus containing the Wheel and the empty space surrounding it was teleported there by some unknown force, and an equal amount of solid earth was exchanged to the wheel's former location.
• The island got shifted to some other location but because Ben didn't turn the wheel properly or because the people who were not supposed to leave left, it got dislodged off its axis. Thus, people (like Juliet whose origins wasn't on the island and Charlotte who left the island and returned) and things that were brought onto the island from the outside world past a certain threshold in time began randomly shifting through time.
• Locke setting the wheel back on its axis stopped the time skips, which were obviously eminating from within the chamber, in DHARMA time, which is how Daniel got into the orchid construction area and also how he told Charlotte to stay away. Jin and the rest of the survivors probably joined DHARMA to save themselves, though it is possible that there was a split in the party and some became hostiles and some DHARMA. Flight 316 flying through the window then experienced time travel not a skip which brought those that needed to be on the island to the island as they entered the wheels range.
• There is a key event in the mid 90s before juliet comes to the island that determines which people skip time with the island and which people don't. Claire was at this event.