Hey there you lovely long-lost Lost-lovers, and long time no see! Finally, we return to the island and just in the nick of time. The Left Behinders (LBs) are in serious trouble, the Oceanic Six (O6) are getting the band back together and Desmond is dreaming of memories that didn’t take place, but did…?LOST IS BACK!
Firstly, secret clue is up. Plenty to think about in terms of establishing what the time travel rules for the show are, yet showing us that there are unique exceptions.
It sure is great that the Oceanic Six are already starting to come back together, as we spent last season seeing their lives post-island fall apart and I couldn’t handle another with Jack’s awful beard. Poor little Jack now has a cause, so he’s happy to clean up and wear a suit Ben picked out for him (Did Ben have notes on Jack’s suit size, or…?). Sayid still has his cause, to stay alive, but he’s now swept Hurley up into it with him. Sun’s cause for Ben’s blood was laid before Widmore. Kate got a visitor, giving her serious cause for concern. And when Ben mumbled that they might never know what happened to Jack’s friends, you have to question his true cause…
Get the message?
Gah, O6 you douchebags, did you learn nothing from your harrowing four season story of survival?! Don’t be proud. Don’t kill. Don’t be self-righteous. Don’t cheat. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t conspire. Hmmm, that’s seven sins…
Well, at least we know Desmond wouldn’t be making the same mistakes and sure enough, things look like they worked out well of our Scottish brother. Living on a yacht with Penny, hiding from the world, marrying his true love – Des has done well for himself. Did you notice their wedding bands as Des was awoken from his dreamory? (I made that up, you can use it. Welcome.) Now, to the moment we’ve all been waiting for… where did the island do? More like when did the island go. Everyone who has been talking about time travel and time theory, raise your hand? Take a moment to pat yourselves on the back. I say again, make sure you’ve watched and read the secret clue.
Until we know more, here’s my take; with the possible exception of some of Daniel’s actions and Desmond’s repercussions, what we’re seeing take place already took place. Locke didn’t mess anything up by telling Ethan about his leadership position, he already had because it had already happened. What we’re seeing is the events of the Left Behinders’ experience in sequential order, rather than chronological. With this in mind, if Sawyer had to defend himself against a T-Rex and he shot it, well, it’d already happened so… ok, bad example, funny visual. Finally we see the true importance of Desmond’s ability to forsee and thwart Charlie’s death on numerous occasions – Desmond is the key.
The three time periods the LBs visited are hard to nail down, but here’s what I’m thinking.
1. The Beechcraft crash (pre- 22 Sep 04) Now we all believed this was the late ‘90s, but what if the time hiccup we just saw was the event that actually caused the Beechcraft to crash at that time, from another time? The crash had already occurred, but the island needed to wait for Locke to catch up in his own personal timeline in order for the event to occur for him. That is why each time he goes near the plane while it still hangs from the cliff, the island takes the use of his legs in the exact same spot – it wasn’t in Locke’s history to do so, rather Boone’s.(Remember him?!) Locke can’t change fate, destiny or history because course correction has taken over.
2. Richard’s Visit (post- Jan 05) This could be virtually anytime after Desmond turned the key, but the hatch has blown and Richard mentions to Locke that the O6 are home safe. I like to think this is kind of further in the future, Vincent built a lil’ hut and Karl is some serious worm chow.
3. Dan meets Des again for the first time (2001 – Sep 04) I’m leaning towards this being late Sep 04 for one simple reason – when Des first opened the door to Dan you could see the tear in his HAZMAT suit, the very same tear that would cause Des to follow Kelvin out and accidentally murder him. This is either side of the crash by a few days.
To be completely honest, the whole Dan and Des meeting for the second time before they actually ever met is doing my head in. Des visiting him in Oxford was a different thing altogether, a purely conciousness-based trip. This meeting was a corporeal one, yet never actually took place until the moment Dan knocked on the door in his personal timeline in Jan 05, in turn taking far longer to reach Desmond as a full realized memory in 2008.
I’m sure we’ll be getting hit with plenty more time-travel information this season and I can assure you I’m ready. I’ll be here for every episode as ever, digging in to come up with the craziest theories I can. I’ve been away, but I’m back for Lost!
Namaste
~ The Heroic Lost Ninja