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The Little Prince/Theories

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The Little Prince 		Main Discussion
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Contents

Chronology

Main article: The Island#Result of moving the Island

Jacob's enemy orchestrated the Time Flashes to manipulate John Locke

While at first the time periods visited seemed random. This is because we were learning about them primarily through the eyes of several different survivors. However, when focusing on John Locke's experiences only, and using current insight regarding the events of the Season 5 finale, a pattern begins to develop: John Locke's experiences during his time-traveling better serve to enhance his faith and his connection to the Island, and these experiences were a direct result of the manipulation of time traveling by an outside force; conceivably and specifically, Jacob's enemy. Let's look at John Locke's final moments on the Island:

  • "Because You Left"
    • The Beechcraft First time jump; 1990's-ish. A crucial moment in John Locke's history with the island was the discovery of this airplane and the events that transpired. Look it up. Huge impact on John to experience this crash firsthand. This would likely influence his faith that the Island is guiding him somehow. Then he is shot in the leg and left for dead. Until...
      • Meeting with Richard. And guess who else? Jacob's enemy in John's body, and Ben listening in the distance. Jacob's enemy manipulated Richard to go over there. The words that Richard used to persuade John were the words of Jacob's enemy. He was minipulating all of them. John's mission is to leave the island, retrieve the Oceanic 6 and Ben and bring them to the island for some unknown purpose. This is also where we learn that John might have to die to accomplish this. So the flaw in logic is that the man impersonating John Locke after the return to the Island on Ajira 316 would have to know that John would die, and that the success of this plan would somehow lead to the events of "The Incident" for all parities involved. He would have to know the future. However, conceivably an enemy that had the ability to time travel might know a thing or two about the future or the past.
  • "The Lie" and "Jughead"
    • The Flaming Arrows. During "The Lie" the survivors, not including John Locke, are attacked on their camp by a mysterious group or archers. After they escape, They reunite with John, after he saves them from a group of people in U.S. Army fatigues. We learn in "Jughead" that these individuals were a group of people living on the island including Charles Widmore, Eloise Hawking, and...
      • Meeting with Richard, part 2. Part 1, technically. John makes his way into camp and meets with a version of Richard who is meeting John Locke for the first time. We know that John has a history with Richard. We know that Richard visited him in the hospital the day he is born, and that it was this future/past John that suggested he do that. Richard visited him as a boy, and was always telling John how special he was on the Island. Richard has a ton of faith in John. I think that this is the direct result of this experience. My belief is that the individual who is causing the time travel is using this particular experience to manipulate Richard Alpert. He will listen to whatever John Locke says to him. John always speaks the truth, and Richard recognizes this through all of his experiences with John over the years. So when Jacob's enemy comes to town in John's body, no matter how outrageous his demands, Richard will always obey.
  • "The Little Prince"
    • The Hatch, dude. The Hatch! After another time switch, John Locke and his people are taken to a night that happened a few months prior during Season 1 of the show. The events of that night at the hatch, where John sees the light from the underground facility is one of the most important moments from John Locke's life. The moment his faith is solidified. John is calling out to God, and God answers. Of course, it's not God. It's Desmond. But that doesn't matter. For the character of John Locke, this seals the deal. He has total faith in the Island. Whatever happens, John is going to go full force. Now he knows what he has to do. He is going to follow the path set out for him by Jacob's enemy without question. He thinks he is doing what is best for the Island, for his friends, and for himself and his devotion, but he's not. We know now that it was a manipulation, and I believe that John had to come to this decision by no other means. The enemy knew that John would have to experience a string of miracles, as he always does, before he would be convinced to do his bidding.
      • Back to the Future The survivors travel through time again. Probably to now. It is a time after Ajira 316 has crashed on the island. They are persued by unknown assailants. They travel again, out of harms way. It's 1988 and Danielle and her team of Scientists are living on the island. There are a series of jumps through time before John finally makes it to the Orchid station to complete his task of leaving the Island. These time jumps do appear to be more random in nature, but the rapid pace with which they occur begin to take their toll on the individuals involved. Charlotte, Miles, and Juliet could be dying. People everywhere are lost and alone. John is the only one who can stop the turmoil. While the current events of the time periods visitied may not have any direct impact on the storyline of John Locke, the well-being of everyone on the Island is his priority as leader. They arrive at a modern version of the Orchid Station, before quickly being transported to an earlier time where they find a well that John Locke enters. While John is going down the well, the group is taken to a time before a well even existed. The result of this is John ending up at the bottom of the well with a broken leg. Very similar to what happened during "Because You Left", John is injured (in the leg), and meets with an eerie individual who instructs him further on his path. This time it is Christian Shepard. We don't fully understand yet who Christian is working for, or the how or why. He has stated in the past to John that he represents Jacob and his desires. We don't know what's going on with that. But he has the information that John needs to return to the island after he has fulfilled his mission. He also tells him how to leave. John leaves with the assistance of a big wheel.
  • "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
    • John travels to the modern day in our dimension to reunite the Oceanic 6 and return them to the Island. John is a failure in his mission and is filled with self doubt. He discovers that maybe Richard was right. We know what happens after that. John dies. This new guy takes over John's identity. For what greater purpose, we cannot know, yet. Part of that plan involves manipulating Benjamin Linus to kill Jacob, with some assistance from Richard Alpert. Things that have been set in motion for some time, but at least begining with the time traveling.

People shooting at Sawyer's party

  • The people in the second boat are:
    • Others. From their perspective, their boat has been stolen.
    • Ilana and her followers.
      • They have armed themselves with guns at the beach camp on Hydra Island and will take the boats out and go to the main island. When they see another canoe in the water, they believe it is Ben and Locke who've shot Caesar earlier and they open fire.
      • They see Locke in the outrigger and they think it is Un-Locke.
    • Themselves: They're coming from the past and one of them will killed.
  • Agree with above. It is themselves. I zoomed in on the clearest shots of the second outrigger and it's hard to tell but the man in the front is bald (like Locke) and the man in the back has the same hair as Sawyer, also the amount of people in the boat appears to be the same.
  • The person who was shot in the outrigger, will be themselves.

Who is trying to capture Sayid?

  • Sayid is being shot at by people who want to prevent him from going back to the island.
    • They want to make sure he doesn't go back and shoot Ben. When Ben is shot, he is taken to the Temple, and this may be the cause of all of the events that lead to Jacob's death.
    • Therefore, the people who may be trying to capture Sayid are from Ilyana's team, who are there to prevent the death of Jacob.


Episode Title

“

Damon Lindelof: Is it called “The Little Prince” after the Saint-Exupéry book of the same name?
Carlton Cuse: I would think that would be a fair guess, absolutely.
Damon Lindelof: Right, for those people who are curious as to that title they should pick up that book.

”

—Carlton Cuse / Damon Lindelof, Official Lost Podcast transcript/February 5th, 2009

  • In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella The Little Prince, the narrator, upon meeting the title character, is asked to draw a sheep. After many unsuccessful attempts, the narrator draws a box and states that “This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside.”(Magic Box)
  • In the story, the narrator visits six other asteroids, which is each inhabited by an adult. The King, The Conceited Man, The Drunkard/Tippler, The Businessman, The Lamplighter and The Geographer. These different persons' identities share some similarities to characters in Lost. *The expedition's vessel was named "BESIXDOUZE;" that translates from French to B612, the name of the Prince's asteroid in "The Little Prince."
  • De Saint-Exupéry was an aviator who survived one plane crash in the desert in North Africa and disappeared at sea years later in another.
  • Some other references in the book to consider:
    • After the Little Prince dies, his body disappears.
    • De Saint-Exupéry illustrated the book and drew the Little Prince as a young, blond-haired boy.
    • The book starts with the narrator having survived a plane crash.
    • The Little Prince left his asteroid to learn more about the universe, but ultimately all he wants to do is get back to his asteroid.

The Sickness

  • The sickness could also be a more abstract thing than just time traveling sickness. It could just be the way the island 'culled the herd' back in the days that Danielle's team was on the island. Obviously, the story has had use for Danielle in the present (which effectively means the island 'needed' her), but nobody else on the crew. The island got rid of them because they weren't necessary, and it did so in a way that would mold Danielle into the type of person it needed her to be to do what it needed her to do.
  • If the sickness is time travel, then that would explain why the Others (minus Juliet) don't suffer from it: they've been vaccinated. Perhaps Juliet just happened to miss out on that?
    • The Others are not engaged in time travel. If Richard explained to Locke, he and the Others did not go anywhere (when?) Locke did. Juliet was marked, then deserted; she was never in tune with the Island because she wanted to go home.
  • The nose bleeds could be affecting only the people who have been to the island before. Charlotte has it, and Miles to. This would mean that Juliette has also been to the island before.
    • This may not be true as Sawyer also experienced a nose bleed and there is no evidence to suggest he has been on the island before the crash of Oceanic 815.

Not-so-random Time Shifts

Main article: The Island#The Time Flashes
  • Henry Gale's balloon, Danielle's ship, The Black Rock, Desmond's sailboat, and perhaps other craft along the timeline crashed on the island as a result of the time shift, just like the smuggler's plane.
    • These events will be experienced first hand by the time traveling Losties in the future of the show.
  • The Island, if in fact it is conscious, is remembering its most significant events hits: Locke and the others in his party are along for the ride.
  • The jumps do not necessarily occur at the instant of the event; the Island goes to the next point and waits. It may do things, such as broadcast a radio signal with six seemingly unrelated numbers.
  • It also appears that since Ben moved the island, the island may "shift" in time to prevent a paradox or to course correct. For instance, the people on the canoe were well within range to kill one of the Losties on the other boat, and likely would have done so without the island shift. Perhaps Sawyer was about to talk to past Kate before the shift also, but the island wouldn't allow it.
    • This would also explain why Ethan didn't have enough time to shoot Locke and maybe why their has been a shift each time Richard Alpert starts to tell John how to leave the island. The island does not want John to leave just yet. There may still be work to do before he goes or events that Jacob/the island wants John to witness.
    • This explains Christians consternation over Ben turning the wheel. He was not supposed to, and yet he did. The first time shift itself was a paradox. This allows Ben to return to the Island.


Who can see the flashes

Apparently, not everyone is privy to the flashes. The Survivors that are time jumping obviously experience the flashes. However, those in the past that they are interacting with (or observing) do not. Kate and Claire most assuredly would have acted differently in Season 1 had they seen the flashes right after Aaron was born. This makes me think that both Richard and Ethan merely saw Locke disappear (sans flashes).

  • But Desmond (in the yellow suit) did see the flashes, presumably because he is "special". When the flash starts, he looks up to see what it is/where it's coming from.
  • Perhaps those who jump through time appear to those who don't only as dreams. Example: Horace appeared to Locke in a dream; Horace's nose was bleeding which may indicate that he was jumping through time. John considers this a dream. Perhaps for Horace this encounter was quite real. We only see events from the point of view of the survivors who are 'jumping' but not from the point of view of the people in the past and future they encounter. Perhaps Richard Alpert will only recall his meeting with John as a "dream" "sent by Jacob" which prompts him to seek out and keep an eye on John as he is born and grows up.
    • Richard knew that Locke was shot (would be shot from Richard's perspective) in the period just after the first flash because Locke told him about it in 1954. They were sitting in Richard's tent.
    • The nose bleed Horace was experiencing in John's dream may just be a reference to his actual death during the Purge. He was sitting on a bench with a nose bleed due to the gas.

Brennan

  • The translation of the French spoken on the research expedition's life raft reveals that Brennan was on the radar and discovered the transmission of the numbers, and thus lead them in the direction of the Island - "Robert: We never should have followed those damn numbers. Unknown: It's not my fault, Brennan was at the sonar."
    • Brennan is also mentioned in the transmission Danielle later records. A translation of one of the iterations is "It [or he] is outside. It [or he] is outside and Brennan took the keys. Please help us. They are dead. They are all dead. Help us. They are dead."
    • Brennan may have intentionally stumbled upon the numbers and lead his team there, later betraying them. The above translations, particular the one from the transmission, hint at possible sabotage.
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Theories for Season 5 episodes
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