I've updated my Season 6 checklist of predictions with information revealed in Happily Ever After:
- The timeline cannot be changed; whatever happened happened.
- Status: Questionable
- Jack's failure to change history after the Jughead bomb explodes turns Eloise Hawking into a believer of "course-correction" and the concept that it's better to try to fulfill destiny than to try to change it.
- Status: Questionable
- The detonation of Jughead temporarily negates the electromagnetic energy that has been released during the Incident, saving the Island and the rest of the world from destruction, and gives the DHARMA scientists just enough time to finish building the Swan station to implement the button protocol. Pushing the button produces the same effect as the Jughead bomb, but is much smaller and only negates 108 minutes worth of electromagnetic buildup.
- Status: Questionable
Current Standings:
- Unconfirmed: 19
- Deemed Probable: 4
- Rendered Questionable: 3
- Confirmed True: 6
- Confirmed False: 3
Remarks:
As you can see, I've added yet another new status type to my checklist: "Questionable".
Leave it to Desmond to finally make the flash-sideways timeline seem relevant... and for Daniel Faraday, er, Widmore, to throw a wrench in all my WHH-based theories! But as you probably know, this isn't the first time we've heard Daniel question his own WHH theory by suggesting a nuclear bomb can change history. But considering this is really the first in-show explanation we've had of the sideways timeline, it's enough to render my WHH-based theories questionable. But I'm not giving up just yet. I've questioned Daniel's nuke idea since The Variable, so I can certainly question him now. Just the fact that the main storyline is still taking place on the Island unchanged in 2007 suggests that the original timeline includes the time travellers existing in the past, which means that the original timeline would be the one affected by the Jughead bomb detonation. And this would mean that Daniel Widmore got the bomb part backwards, even if he's correct that the timeline that they're in is different from what it's supposed to be. Whatever, I'll probably get proven completely wrong in the next few episodes.