That conversation between Miles and Hurley about time travel had to have been one of the funniest moments in the history of LOST. It was classic to see them debate the issue just as we addicts -- I mean, viewers -- do every Thursday morning after the show.
It was so funny that it felt like they were actually making fun of us out here in TV land for all of our theories about how people would cease to exist if someone changed the past. If only Hurley had suggested going on a message board to look for clues and then had to remind himself that he was in 1977 before the Internet existed.
Anyway.
Daniel Faraday had tried to explain things before using the whole record-skipping analogy, but I guess I needed Miles to help me wrap my brain around what he was talking about. So, if you are like me, and just a few episodes behind on time travel theory, this is how I picture it in my mind.
You know how the needle on a record moves around in a circle in a continuous path until it reaches the end of the album? At that point the record (just like a person's life) stops.
But the needle for the O6ers is skipping from one groove in the record to another. Instead of going around the record following the path, it is taking a line from the outside of the record toward the middle, and then sometimes hopping backward.
As Miles explained, what is happening to them now is THEIR future, even if it happened in the past. The past events affected their future, but what happened in the future on a timeline is now the past to them because it already happened. And as we all know, whatever happened, happened.
Does that make perfect sense? Or can someone offer a better explanation?
With that theory in mind, we now assume that not only did Sayid shoot the bullet into Ben that almost killed him, but Kate and Sawyer also were responsible for helping turn him into crazy, evil, cruel, heartless Ben we know today.
Even knowing what he would become, they could not live with their conscience if they let a little boy die. And so they are responsible for handing him over to Richard Alpert, who apparently has some sort of super powers that not only can heal Ben, but also rob him of his innocence.
The really amazing twist is that the only reason Kate and Sawyer had such good hearts and nagging consciences is because of their own experiences with deserting children, which took place during the three years of their lives before they went back in time. However, the current time with young Ben is their present, so the outcome is affected by all they had learned in the future (which is now their past).
We also can place some of the blame on Jack. If he would have helped save Ben, Kate and Sawyer wouldn't have had to take him to Richard in the first place. But, yes they would have, because whatever happened, happened. (I just wanted to blame Jack for something because he was really bugging me.)
Could all of this be the reason that Ben needed to bring everyone back to the island? Or is Jack correct when he speculated that the island wanted to make things happen the way they were supposed to happen?
This episode also revealed just a tiny bit more about Alpert's role. He knows Ben Linus and seems to know when he takes him from Kate and Sawyer that he will have a very special role to fill and must be saved.
Alpert carries the dying Ben to a being who is more powerful than himself, most likely Jacob (or maybe the Smoke Monster?). And he also mentions that he is not accountable to Charles (Widmore) or Ellie (who I believe grows up to be Eloise Hawking). Those two apparently are the leaders of the Others at the time Ben is brought into their camp.
I still find the whole "love story" between Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet to be rather annoying. But can I just say that I'm starting to really like Juliet? And Kate is really getting on my nerves. Good for her for 'fessing up to Cassidy, as well as Carole Littleton, but enough already with all of the sighing about how "I needed Aaron."
This week's episode is leaving such mystery and suspense for next week.
- Will we get to find out who Jacob is?
- Will Jacob remove Ben's heart and turn him into some sort of droid?
- Will we find out why Richard never gets any older?
- Will Juliet ever forgive Jack for his cruelty in not saving Ben?
- Will Sawyer fall back in love with Kate?
- Will Roger Linus try to become a better father?
- Will Daniel come back, and if he does, will he still be wearing that skinny tie?
- And can we see more of Miles in the future? He is starting to become one of my favorite characters.
** If you haven't read the Time Loop Theory yet, WOW! Click here. (But don't forget to leave your comment here first! =] )
My brain just goes on idle when I start thinking about the whole time theory thing. So I just kinda skip over all that when I don't understand it, they'll explain at some point and I'll go "ooooohhhhhh". I did like your record analogy.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally over Jack, too. He irks me.
I would love for them to give all of us message boarders/bloggers a shout-out on the show. I imagine we have poked holes in some of their storylines and maybe given them new directions to go in. Not me personally (idle)but our lost community.
Skinny tie!!! Haaa!
Love your review!! You're right, I totally had the same thought that it felt like the writers were sort of joining in with the message-board speculations... Hurley mentioning them would have taken the "meta" to an even more amazing level. :P
ReplyDeleteI thought Miles' explanation was really helpful too! I think that it's clear time is linear, but an individual's life doesn't have to be... I kind of think of it with a "replanting" metaphor -- they were living in the present but were uprooted and stuck back in the past, where their lives now continue from that point in their new surroundings. However the past is static -- what happened happened -- the "happenings" are just new to them.
I also liked how they tied together Kate's sympathy for Ben with Aaron -- though I agree with you that my opinion of her has plummeted. She kept Aaron to satisfy her insecurities, and discarded him when she realized that being a mom was a permanent state... the one redeeming factor is that she apparently went back to the island to try to find his real mom. With that said, I'm totally psyched for a Claire reappearance!! What on earth do you think that will look like??
I really liked this episode so I did a good bit of writing about it too lol... let me know what you think!!
I have an additional theory about Kate's sympathies for Ben and it has to do with her meeting Roger. When you look at Kate's upbringing, she had a dumba** father who she ended up killing. Sound familiar? Could it be that she also sympathizes with who Ben becomes as she puts the pieces together about his deadbeat dad. Maybe she is trying to appease her own guilty conscience about what she did...
ReplyDeleteActually, my hunch is that what richard meant when he said "he won't remember this" is that he won't remember what happened with Sayid... but I'm not sure. We do know that he says with the others and really is one of them until he infiltrates back with Dharma and ends up killing them all....
ReplyDeleteI think the writers have skipped through time as well, come to the future (our present), read the message boards and blog posts, then skipped back to the present (our past) and wrote the scripts to make fun of us. (Did that confuse you? Sorry!)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I could also do without the love stories. I don't like soap operas for a reason! I like that Jack is starting to believe in the power of the island. That he is coming to realize that he cannot do everything for everybody anymore. I love how both he and Sawyer dissed Kate. Poor Kate. Is that why she was flirting with Roger Linus? Ewwww....
Can't wait for next week!!!
OK...the paragraph about Kate/Sawyer abandoning kids was just genius! I LOVE it.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite part last night was seeing more of Richard Alpert. I love knowing that he has supernatural powers AND does not answer to anyone!
And I am definitely a SULIET fan!!