So... after a long time of breaking my skull and looking through my brain to answer some questions and repair some points to the controversial theory I brought up (and it's only that, a theory), I've finally been able to achieve a revisitation of it and tie up some loose ends I thought were the more memorable criticism! In no way is this what I strictly believe in, it is possibly a far fetched theory, but is one interesting to see completed.
The truth is, I've been busy beyond just this theory, hence the length required to elaborate on it. I've not touched it at all over the weekend and only yesterday was I able to write something coherent that could be transposed into blog form. As this entry is strictly a reply to comments, it is not visual as the previous post was, but you can easily reference it if need be!
What seemed to struck most was how the time skips on the island fitted in this theory. And it was my intention to leave them out as I had no explanation for it! I don't believe there is any particular way to explain these bleeps on the radar but I've come up with something to try to fill in the gaps. Some say that the jumps could be very well happen in between (A) and (B) timelines. This would suggest that the (B) timeline has always existed and we're back to the idea that whatever happened, happened. And this would be one aspect of it indeed. It's just that, up until season 5 started, we only knew what had happened in timeline (A). To the viewers, Jack, Sawyer and whoever was with them could certainly 'change' the past (or is it the future) as they were part of a cmpletely new timeline (to the viewer). The idea that this is a parallel universe or alternate reality is not apt, as my presentation does not account for different pasts prior to 1974 or different futures beyon 2007. There is only an alternate [1974-2007].
Another possibility, the one that made me furious on several occasions, is that the jumps happen in both timelines. WHAAAAA???? That's what I said right after I thought it. Actually after I woke up from passing out.
This is definitely not obvious to visualize, and I'm afraid I don't have yet a diagram to display the thought. I certainly don't mean that there are two different realities. Jumps in the past happened in the past. But jumps in the future were anchors between the two timelines. Here's the mechanics of the creation and closing of the loop:
[1]-When Ben turned the wheel, it dislodged (everyone from time) the timeline from its path. That is, instead of having a distinct line of history, it created a band of probable futures (including A and B).
[2]-When Locke turned the wheel, it settled the travelers into the B timelime, but displaced in time, therfore synching 1974 (B) with 2004 (A) - and therefore 1977 (B) with 2007 (A).
[3]-What's left to do, is disolve the band and reconstitute the single historical path, something that could be done by, say, detonating an H-bomb near a strong source of electromagnetism.
Where does that leave time skipping Locke? Every jump that he experiences happens, to our perception, in the A timeline. That is, the events we see happening are taking part as if the 'past' had not changed. So when he meets Richard, he is given a compass that he's asked to give back the next time they meet (in 1954). The origin of the compass itself is actually unkonwn so far. When Ajira breaks through the barrier and ends up in the B timeline, Not-Locke gets the (rusted) compass back from Richard and then leads the way to meet Locke again. This happens, to our perception, in the B timeline. The meeting still happens as it should (through event probability) but under different leading circumstances, unknown in the case of the A-meeting.
The document on event probability states that time can be altered only in a way that allows it to be altered. This is irrelevant in the case of the Moebius loop as they are disjoint times. But when I talk about the occurrences of time skips, these are anchors that exist both in timeline A
(which already happened) and in timeline B (which hasn't happened). If a given event needs to exist (with probability 1) in a timeline that hasn't happened, then history must unfold in a way that will make the event occur. For simplification, one could visualise the Moebius band as the range of possible histories that will contain this event.
Without going into details, it's not too hard to imagine Desmond's memory issue being explain by such, with the help of Desmond's specialness. One last loose end to tie would be the remaining event we haven't seen, that of the outrigger shootout. Consider the following: when Ajira crashed, it did so during daytime on the Hydra island, the time travelers appeared on the island in 1977 during daytime (morning). But the season ends in 2007 at nighttime (Jacob's death) and in 1977 in daytime (H-bomb). I posit that in relation to time elapsed on the show since the crash, 2007 is half a day behind. The next morning, they'll go back to the camp in outriggers and eventually chase a band of thiefs and shoot at them. Shortly after, it will be the time of the day when the bomb went off:
I know there are still kinks to be worked out but, given that this is not a grand theory that I hold dear, I don't see it necessary to update it further. Despite its interesting points, this is not theory that is likely to be prominent on the show. Hence, I don't see the point of turning it to a new "Time Loop Theory". I hope you've enjoyed it and were able to look past the few holes. With some luck, I was successful in stimulating your brain and that's all I was looking for!
NEXT: Jacob's touch.
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