Lost Theories

This is the third place winner in the Lost Theory Competition.
The theory was written by Lesley.

After the Dharma Project was abandoned, a secret division of the U. S. military and a pharmaceutical giant (The Widmore Corporation) took over. Hidden from view by special electromagnetic properties, the island was the perfect location to conduct the sort of tests the world would otherwise frown upon. Scientists including genetically engineered individuals (like Ben) would use the island’s specimen pool. Its inhabitants were the survivors of numerous “accidents” and leftover Dharma wildlife, nonexistent to the outside world.

Stealth technology and the island’s EMF facilitated development of a wormhole of sorts, providing a gate in to or out of the islands’ “snow globe”. Military misfits served their sentences by pushing the button in the Swan station. As experiments became more ominous a rift formed among the researchers regarding the project’s morality. Using both animals and humans to develop higher life forms began to weigh on the conscience of some, while others became zealots. The disgruntled scientists joined the island’s residents and organized to end such experiments. The group currently living on Lostcatraz actually see themselves as the saviors of humanity.

Then Oceanic flight 815 provided a variety of new subjects. The Others were obsessed with obtaining the flight’s children to secure their future. As predators, the Others travel the Losties’ island in disguise enabling them to blend with its inhabitants. Off the island they access the Internet and develop advanced biotechnology but they cannot control the island’s monster. They research and then cherry pick their prey. The “good ones” must have the ability to perceive no action to be wrong when it ensures a greater good. But those chosen must also have nothing to lose.

The island’s volcanic nature and winding underground web of tunnels serves to trap many natural gases. Where there is volcanic activity there is also carbon monoxide (“CO”). Colorless and odorless, chronic exposure to carbon monoxide and other gases enhanced precognitive attributes and, created the hallucinations both Rousseau’s people and many of the Losties experienced while traveling beyond the beach. With CO seepage inconsistent and more prevalent in the Dark Territory, the shoreline and Dharma stations limited direct exposure to the island’s gases.

The disgruntled scientists and island inhabitants are slowly dismantling some of the Dharma stations scavenging everything available to assist them in finding a way to save the children and leave the island. Abandoned hatches provide shelter and on occasion become windows to the island world. They have modified the security system, using the island’s tunnels, volcanic gases and real-time holography, to create a monster capable of “reading” and frightening outsiders. They were even successful in recruiting some survivors (like Cindy) to help them rescue some of the children.

Alex and Karl assist the rebels, feeding them information and supplies whenever possible. Now with the Swan obliterated and the wormhole compromised, Penny Widmore’s inside knowledge of the Widmore Corporation’s projects will be critical. She must enlist the assistance necessary to locate the islands and help the rebels before it is too late.

This theory is the second place winner in the Lost Theory Competition.
It was written by Pastor2churches.

Perhaps the most intriguing words of episode 2, season 3 of “Lost” tumbled humbly, almost sheepishly out of the mouth of Benjamin Linus,

“…and I’ve lived on this island all my life.”

Shock & awe.

How is it possible to make sense of that statement given what we currently know, and what connections and other clues could be deduced from that “Everlasting Gobstopper” statement from Ben?

If we take his statement as truth (never safe with “Lost”) then it is likely that Ben was raised as a child in the Dharma community. Perhaps Juliet was also raised on the Island in Dharma and she and Ben have known each other all their lives. Anyway Ben was an up and coming member of the Dharma group until, for some unknown reason, he became disenfranchised about the solution that Dharma was attempting to achieve. Ben, like Dharma, understands that the problem needs to be answered, but he has come up with what he believes to be a superior solution.

Ben tried to get Dharma to embrace his idea and was soundly rebuffed. Unswayed, Ben attempts a coup d’état, and initially fails. In the midst of that failure Ben goes from Dharma member to captive, and Juliet is one of his captors. By the way, while she was his captor she did not make soup for him!

Ben having been groomed by Dharma all his life is quite intelligent and eventually wins the support of Juliet who helps him to gain his freedom. In the process the relationship between Ben and Juliet grows into more than just friendship (consider the “Stockholm Syndrome”). As she now helps him to effect his escape she also aids him in rallying some of the other Dharma folks who trust and respect her. Together, Ben and Juliet effect a daring and successful break away from the Dharma group, move to another section of the Island and begin to form their own society. In doing so, they believe they will have the greatest opportunity to resolve the “problem” that Dharma was originally created to solve.

In time the closeness of the relationship between Ben and Juliet is wrecked and now they tolerate one another. The stress of the unanticipated entrance of the survivors of flight 815 will now cause a further fracturing of the relationship and eventually Juliet will leave Ben’s group and join allegiances with the survivors. For now we are watching how leader Ben and sub-commander Juliet deal with these “fateful” turns of events.

This is the winning theory in the Lost Theory Competition.
The theory was written by Bigmouth.

Say you had a group of people on the verge of developing psychic powers. How would you ensure their powers were used for the greater good, rather than personal gain? You couldn’t force these folks — they’re too powerful. But you might be able to convince them that some overwhelming threat existed to their lives and those of their friends and loved ones.

Enter the Numbers, which we’re told relate to the Valenzetti Equation’s prediction of the time left before humanity’s extinction. Such apocalyptic stakes are sufficiently urgent to grab the attention of the most self-interested souls. But I believe it’s all a long con — the Numbers are a noble lie meant to trick people into service of the greater good.

The victims of this con were the original Dharma participants. It’s no coincidence their assigned tasks were pointless. The Initiative’s real goal was to tap subjects’ psychic potential through exposure to the Island. The Hatches merely provided a controlled environment for this process, a cocoon where the metamorphosis into moths could take place.

That brings me to the noble lie. The notion dates all the way back to Plato’s Republic, which describes a utopian society organized around a carefully crafted myth about the need to separate members by birth into various classes. The lie is meant to maintain social stability by offering a divine justification for the class system — only a privileged few know the truth.

In Dharma’s case, the Numbers’ apocalyptic fib accomplished two ends. First, it convinced some of the most talented scientific minds to drop everything for life on a remote Island. Second, it offered potent incentive for “special” subjects to use their powers for the greater good. Only a handful in charge (maybe just Hanso and the DeGroots) were privy to the truth.

In their hubris, the perpetrators of this noble hoax presumed they could keep it secret. They apparently failed to consider that (surprise, surprise) secrets are hard to keep from psychics. The Dharma subjects tattled to those scientists who weren’t in the know, and together they staged a revolt that culminated in Hanso’s expulsion from the Island (the AH/MDG Incident).

Following this revolt, some returned to the real world, while Others remained behind to build a Baconian New Atlantis. But without the noble lie to constrain them, people started using their powers in selfish ways. Jack’s and Locke’s daddies, both of whom were former Dharma participants, illustrate this problem created by demystification of the Numbers.

Christian became chief of complicated surgery at St. Sebastian but his talents made him callous — he took to operating drunk. Cooper fell even further, using his special abilities to become a confidence man. Similar problems may have arisen on the Island, prompting the Others to become more authoritarian. That’s why they’re so concerned with discerning “good” people.

Without the Numbers to constrain them, moral character is all that stands against the rising tide of anarchy.

Opinion of The Judges

Cecilia - I thought this was a cool theory that explained Lost in a creative, original way. It had a twist that made sense, and still tied together story elements well. It had a philosophical slant that even had a touch of Orwellian cynicism.

Andreas - While I’m not so sure that Lost is all about psychic powers, the idea of a hoax designed to make people do what you want is very interesting. There is a similar hoax in Damon Lindelof’s favorite graphic novel Watchmen, so I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of your theory are spot on.

As advertised by ABC, John Locke found a secret message in last night’s Lost episode “I Do”. The message he found was “Lift up your eyes and look north, John 3:05″ written by Mr.Eko on his stick.

What does this secret message mean? Let’s take a look.

The obvious explanation would probably be to check John 3:05 in the Bible:

“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”

That doesn’t really connect to “Lift up your eyes…” does it? The only thing I can make of it is that “water” might be a hint to where the Hydra station is. The quote seems more similar to Genesis 13:14:

The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west”

None of the passages from the Bible seems to explain Mr.Eko’s cryptic message so here is my theory:

The message is actually directed directly to Locke and should be interpreted like this - “John Locke, lift up your eyes and look north”. If John is supposed to look north, that is probably where he will find Jack, Kate and Sawyer. 3:05 is probably a compass bearing or some form of coordinates, but it could just as well have no importance.

It is interesting to note that Michael and Walt were told to go towards bearing 325 where they would find help. Is bearing 305 where Jack, Kate and Sawyer are being kept?

I would also believe that the message could be to look north on the blast door map, but to my knowledge, we don’t know where north is on the blast door map. The question is if it’s possible to know where north is on the island at all. In season one Sayid got rid of his compass because it didn’t work on the island due to the magnetic disturbance. With the electromagnetic anomaly possibly being destroyed though, maybe compasses are working again…

How do you interpret the cryptic message on Eko’s stick?

I received a really interesting theory from Stephanie this morning:

I think that Sawyer is a perfect match for Ben’s blood type, Jack needs to do the operation, and Kate is there just to make sure the men do what they are supposed to! It is an insurance policy if you will!

I really, really like this idea. If the reason behind the kidnapping of Jack, Kate and Sawyer really was for Jack to save Ben’s life by operating him, this would explain why Kate and Sawyer were also taken.

It would also explain what The Others really did to Sawyer when they told him that they had given him a pacemaker - they were examining his blood type or checking his organs to make sure that they were good enough.

This could also play into the “missing organs” theme which appeared several times in the Lost Experience.

What are your thoughts on why Jack, Kate and Sawyer were taken?

Remember when we first met Danielle Rousseau in the Lost season 1 episode “Solitary”? We all thought that she was crazy, but what if we were wrong…

Rousseau: “We were part of a science team…
Our vessel was three days out of Tahiti, but our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm.. the sounds.. The ship slammed into rocks. Ran aground. The hull breached beyond repair.. so, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter… temporary. Nearly two months we survived here. Two months before…

Sayid: “Your distress signal, the message I heard - you said “it killed them all”.

Rousseau: “We were coming back from the black rock. It was them, they were the carriers!”

Sayid: “Who were the carriers?”

Rousseau: “The others”

Sayid: “What others? What is the black rock? Have you seen other people on this island?”

Rousseau: “No, but I hear them. Out there in the jungle. They whisper.”

I think Rousseau knew exactly what she was talking about.

When referring to “the others” being carriers, I think we can assume that there is some form of deadly virus or disease on the island (the sickness) but when we heard Rousseau say this, we didn’t know about The Others, so the question is, are Ben’s Others the carriers of a deadly virus or are the others Rousseau is referring to other “Others”?

This is a bit of a stretch, but…
Danielle says that she was part of a science team, but we’ve always assumed that her team had nothing to do with Dharma or those we know as “The Others”. What if Rousseau was a Dharma scientist? If she was, how does that affect our view of her?

The sickness

Later in the same episode Rousseau continues to talk about the sickness:

Rousseau: “It took them, one after the other. I had no choice, they where already lost.”

Sayid: “You killed them”

Rousseau: “What would have happened if we where rescued? I couldn’t let that happen.”

The question remains - what is the sickness and does it even exist?
Rousseau sure seems convinced that the sickness is a real and very scary thing.

On the other hand, the word “Quarantine” was printed on the inside of the hatch doors and Desmond and Kelvin injected themselves with a vaccine, but since that appeared to be a hoax that Kelvin pulled off to steal Desmond’s boat it’s impossible to know for sure.

It is worth noting that Kelvin had Hazmat gear which he wore outside the hatch. If the sickness is a hoax, why would Dharma keep Hazmat suits? My guess is that the suits where used for protection against the electromagnetic anomaly in the Swan station.

The virus

Another idea which depends on how Lost is tied together with the Lost Experience is that the sickness could be Mittelwerk’s virus which is designed to kill 30% of the world’s population. However, considering time differences I’m not sure about this. Maybe the sickness was the base for the virus…

And now for something completely different

As a last note, there was a somewhat unrelated but still interesting thing said in “Solitary”. When Sayid asks Rousseau about her transmission she answers:

“It is broadcast from somewhere else, but they control it now.”

If “they” are The Others, how can they be in control of the transmitter now but not have been so when Rousseau changed the transmission into her call for distress? Does this mean that The Others came to the island after Rousseau or that they didn’t know about the transmitter?

The most interesting thing in “Further Instructions” besides Locke’s visions and his return to the hunter role was Desmond’s new “power”.

When Hurley tells Desmond that Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been captured, Desmond answers:

Don’t worry, Locke’s gonna go after them. He said so in his speech.

Like us, Hurley has no idea what Desmond is talking about and Desmond excuses himself, explaining that he is “just a bit shook up”.

Later we find out that Desmond somehow actually knew what he was talking about. In a dramatic speech at the very end of the episode Locke proclaims:

“I’m gonna find our friends. I don’t know how yet, but I will. We’re gonna find them. All of them. And then we’re gonna bring them home.”

So how could Desmond know what Locke would say in the future? It seems like he has been given the gift of precognition which is explained like this on Wikipedia - “Believers in precognition say it allows a “percipient” to perceive information about future places or events before they happen”.

I have no idea how Desmond’s precognition works, but I think I know how he got his new powers. Note how Hurley asks Desmond if he will become The Hulk now. I don’t think he will become the Hulk but I think this was a clue.

In The Hulk, Dr. Bruce Banner was hit by gamma radiation which altered his genes and turned him into The Hulk.

Gamma radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation so it wouldn’t surprise me if Desmond has received a high amount of gamma radiation through the destruction of the electromagnetic anomaly in the Swan station.

It is also interesting that Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof is writing the comic book “Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk”.

What are your thoughts?

While discussing this summer’s “Lost Experience” alternate reality game, some have suggested that the meaning of “Hurley’s numbers” has not yet been explained. I feel that the story behind the numbers has been explained quite well, but since some don’t think so, here is my summary/theory.

As Alvar Hanso explains in the Hanso Exposed video, the numbers have their origin in the secret Valenzetti Equation. An equation which predicts the exact number of years and months until the end of the world. Enzo Valenzetti gave numerical values to the core environmental and human factors in his equation. Those numerical values where 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.

Valenzetti’s equation and the doom it predicted was ignored by the United Nations, but there was one man who wouldn’t ignore it - Alvar Hanso. He started The Dharma Initiative, a scientific project on a remote island, with the goal of changing the outcome of the equation by changing one or more of the core factors (each Dharma station/hatch probably represents one of the numbers/factors).

In the video Hanso also explains that a radio transmitter had been erected on the island. The transmitter was intended to only broadcast the core numerical values of the Valenzetti Equation (the numbers). He then starts explaining what will happen when the Dharma scientists manage to change the value of any numerical factor, but in the middle of explaining it, the video gets scrambled and we are unable to hear what should be done. It is my belief that when they are able to change the value of one of the factors, the transmission should be changed to reflect the new result of the equation and by doing so telling the Hanso Foundation that a solution to save the world from destruction has been found.

According to Sam Toomey’s widow, the transmission was heard by Leonard Simms and Sam Toomey while monitoring long wave radio transmissions at a military listening post in the South Pacific. Sam later used the numbers to win $50,000 at a fair. From that moment he was “cursed” with bad luck until he finally committed suicide. Leonard became a patient at the Santa Rosa Mental Institute, presumably because of the numbers. It was there he met Hurley, who used them to play and win the lottery.

From the moment that he won the lottery, Hurley became convinced that the numbers had given him bad luck. He ended up on Oceanic Flight 815 which crashed on the island, where Hurley later spotted the numbers inscribed on the hatch.

The numbers where probably inscribed on all of the stations on the island because the purpose of the various Dharma stations was to change one of the core factors of the Valenzetti Equation. Without knowing it, Hurley had ended up in the place where the numbers started their journey to him.

Was it fate or coincidence? Maybe both.

Are the numbers cursed? This is a tough question, but personally I don’t believe they are. The fact that bad things happen to Hurley and Sam Toomey probably has nothing to do with the numbers. While it sounds strange, the string of bad events is probably nothing but coincidences.

There is probably no reason behind the numbers appearing on the shirts of a female soccer team either. Just like Lost shows that there are connections between people who don’t know each other, I believe that the same numbers can show up in different places without really being related.

It should be noted that this theory relies on that the story from the Lost Experience exists in the same storytelling universe as Lost, but that is a different subject which I will discuss in a later post.

In last week’s show, when Adam criticizes Juliet’s choice of books (Carrie, which he says Ben, who is also book club host, would not have liked), Juliet says:

“And here I was thinking there was such thing as free will.”

This is just one of MANY references to the idea of free will and how it plays a part in the lives of those in LOST:

So, what does all this mean for what DHARMA and the Others are studying? What are they trying to get out of their imprisonment of these specific individuals on their “list” that they haven’t been able to find otherwise?

This article reveals parts of Alan Moore’s “The Watchmen”

Since Lost co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof has said “The Watchmen is the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced”, I decided to take a closer look at Alan Moore’s masterpiece, The Watchmen, and I found many similarities between the popular graphic novel and Lost.

In particular, I found many similarities with the recently released Hanso Exposed video featuring non other than Alvar Hanso.

The story of the Dharma Initiative

As we learn in the Hanso Exposed video, the story behind Dharma starts like this:
The United States and The Soviet Union had almost fulfilled the promise of mutual assured destruction through nuclear war, but after the Cuban missile crisis, both nations decided to find a solution.

The solution was the Valenzetti Equation which predicted the exact number of years and months until humanity would extinguish itself. Enzo Valenzetti gave numerical values to the core environmental and human factors in his equation. Those numerical values where 4 8 15 16 23 42.

In The Watchmen, a character named Adrian Veidt forms a theory that war and environmental damage will lead to humanity’s destruction in the mid-1990s. This is how he describes the situation:

Both sides realized the suicidal implications of nuclear conflict, yet couldn’t stop racing towards it lest their opponents should overtake them. Afraid of their weapons, afraid of losing them, afraid to blink or turn their backs…

Meanwhile, expensive arsenals meant less cash to spend on their old, their sick and homeless; on their children’s educations. As stockpiles grew, as computers reduced human involvement, the spectre of accidental apocalypse staled ever closer.

Simply given the mathematics of the situation, sooner or later conflict would be inevitable!

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