A reader sent in this interesting theory that Will and I thought warranted a post. I have posted the full text of the email below.
Namaste!
I have been following the Lost Blog for a couple of years now and I truly enjoy reading everyone’s comments and theories. Since it’s a popular site with hundreds of posts per episode, I mostly keep my thoughts to myself to save others the trouble of reading one more opinion that’s probably already expressed. Having said that, I would like to share how my boyfriend and I were able to patch things up in the increasingly intricate plot that Lost has been throwing at us. The theory below may have many holes, which is precisely the reason why I’d like to share - so that others can pick it apart and help us in our quest to understand what exactly is going on in the world of Lost…
Over dinner tonight, we got into a heated debate over the meaning of something Faraday revealed when we first confronted time travel: “it doesn’t matter what you do..” We tried to make sense out of how doing something differently in the past could not possibly change the course of events in the future. We think that it may be because instead of being just ‘parallel’, time also progresses in a ’spiral’ - sort of like the double-helix! To put this in a tangible context, we took Eko’s brother’s small plane that ended up killing Boone as our event of reference…
As we know from the current season, John Locke lands at the bottom of the cliff that holds the drug-laden plane. We don’t know this for sure, but when Locke sees the plane in the past, it is likely that the thought of bringing the plane down crosses his mind in order to save Boone’s life in the future. That thought gets quickly wiped off by Richard’s bullet that leaves John Locke temporarily paralyzed in the leg. So, Locke never gets to bring the plane down himself - and Boone ends up dead as we know it in 2004.
Now, suppose John Locke succeeds in bringing the plane down and Boone never dies in 2004. That would mean that John’s actions do indeed determine what happens in the future. If so, then should John Locke ever travel back to a time where the plane is still hanging atop that cliff, he will likely leave it untouched, having no recollection of that plane ever harming anyone. Then, come 2004, the plane remains at the cliff and ends up killing Boone. Hence, time progresses in a parallel fashion that spirals towards one ‘vortex.’ In other words, “it really doesn’t matter what you do”…
Cycle back to a time when the plane is at the top of the cliff and you’ll have John Locke bring it down again to save Boone’s life in the future…
Boone will die in one time spiral and survive in the next.
The same theory can likewise be applied to Ethan’s birth that Sawyer and Juliet unknowingly facilitate in the current season (in 1974). At the time they save Ethan’s would-be-mom, they have no idea who she is pregnant with… Then the baby turns out to be Ethan, who penetrates into the group of our survivors in 2004 before getting killed. If Juliet and Sawyer get a chance to go back to 1974, knowing that Ethan is the baby in his mother’s womb, they may not choose to help her out when she is harassed by ‘the others’ - meaning, Ethan is never born and our survivors never meet him in 2004. If they ever go back to 1974, however, having never come across with Ethan, they will once again rescue his mom and facilitate his birth. And so on and so forth.
That’s our theory in a nutshell. I apologize in advance if this has already been brought up, or it makes no sense, or it’s incoherent…
We look forward to having fellow Losties pick it apart.
Best,
Zeynep & Mert.
Thoughts?
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