"...but ACTUALLY, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint..."
February 29 is not a real day, so I am playing hooky from work.
I didn't post about Lost last night, because unlike previous weeks where my reaction was simple (some variation of "JESUS FUCK, OMGWTF JUST HAPPENED"), I actually left last night's episode going... "WAIT A SECOND HERE, I NEED TO THINK ABOUT THIS IN A PROPER MANNER BEFORE I DO ANYTHING."
So this morning, after consuming some eggs and Spooks (AHHHHHH ANOTHER TIME I WILL DISCUSS THIS), I have done just that. Warning: behind the cut is epic. Like, epic-ly epic.
First of all, let's at least get it out of the way: OMGWTF JUST HAPPENED.
I totally love eolivet's observation that Desmond's "visions" are actually pieces of the future slipping into Desmond's brain. In this episode, him sliding back to the 1996 wasn't the first time his brain had done this.
SO HERE I GO, READY TO TAKE A CRACK AT THIS BABY. Fuck me, I love time travel. Just ask taylorkate and baggers.
Things we know to be true (at least in the context that the writer's aren't just going to go "AHA BUT NOT REALLY"): Time and other things are wonky on the island. Prior to the hatch blowing up, Desmond was basically an average dude who crashed his boat and then took a job at a literal button-pusher. Everyone was told that pushing the button every 108 minutes "saves the world." Locke thought it was bullshit, and when they didn't press the button, the hatch blew up pretty massive. After that whole thing happened, the island became "visible" and also Desmond stopped being a normal dude because he could travel in time now/see the future.
Okay. Here goes.
The short version: JACOB IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF A BLACK HOLE.
The long version:
Desmond's consciousness is slipping back and further between the past and the future - or rather, it slips into the past, gets stuck, and then comes back to the future incomplete (hence, the amnesia/thinking it's 1996 when he and Sayid are on the boat). Because a normal person's brain is not designed for these shenanigans, the end result is exploding - literally. A brain aneurysm. The only way to STOP this aneurysm is to jog the memory of your own memory - a "constant," something true in both times, so the brain go be all "riiiiiiiiiiiiight, right, right, I am realigned as to the series of events we are living in." It's kind of like driving down a paved road, suddenly diverting off it into a field going perpendicular to your original route, and then someone standing on the road with a big flag that says "NOT SO MUCH."
Well. The same thing happened to the island.
For some reason, the island is - I don't know, a black hole or something. Dead space. A massive piece of electromagnetic energy that does - something. And because it's all special/different/whatever, it's also dangerous to normal space-time. It can't exist in tandem with how time flows with any amount of cooperation. It's an anomaly. It's this untethered, floating blob of wibbly wobbly timey-whimey stuff that could basically consume all normal space-time if you let it. (I'm totally thinking of that disgusting red jelly from Ghostbusters II, BY THE WAY. IT'S LIKE THAT.)
That's where the button comes in.
Because the island's timeline and the normal timeline aren't in sync (BECAUSE IT'S A BLACK HOLE), the world could suffer the same fate as Desmond if we're not careful - epic brain aneurysm of the planet. Therefore, just like Desmond's brain, the island needs a constant to keep itself in check - the button, every 108 minutes. Every 108 minutes, someone on the island is responding for thwapping it on the head and going, "LOOK, ALL RIGHT, REMEMBER THIS." If you don't press the button after the allotted 108 minutes, the reminder isn't there, and the island and reality are irrevocably out of sync and a reaction occurs - the radiation wave that took down Oceanic 815, for instance.
The Dharma Initiative? has been studying this for years now. They originally discovered the crude method of button-pushing fixed the problem, but since that solution is fundamentally flawed because it requires people and you can't always rely on people, the aim of the Dharma Initiative is a permanent non-people answer. Fix the black hole once and for all so the earth doesn't have a massive brain aneurysm and explode. The polar bears? test subjects, like Faraday's rat. I never said the Dharma Initiative was nice.
I also think what Dharma says about the Others (or rather, the OTHER Others) is true - they are "the original inhabitants of the island." I'm honestly not sure if maybe they lived there whenever the black hole thing STARTED, or if they were Dharma (or someone else)'s first test subjects for a solution. But their existence has been fundamentally altered by exposure to the black hole - they don't age (Richard), they can't die (Russian Eye Patch Dude). But that's the thing - you have to be exposed to it to be immortal, because all the Dharma people that Ben gassed are dead and decayed in a ditch, thus proving that it only brings certain people back to life.
The black hole is sentient. If you've ever read Solaris (READ IT, NOT SEEN IT; THOSE MOVIES WERE - UGH that's another rant for another time), you know the picture I'm conjuring - a massive, non-form sentient blob that has the ability to take any form/vessel/shape it wishes. (In the book, it manifests itself as people, in order to mimic the scientists studying it - if they pick instruments as their keenest information-gather, then the ocean-blob says, "I will do the same, and I choose being a person so I can ask questions/interact.") Yes, the black hole is Jacob. Just like the ocean-blob, Jacob can take human form if he wants to, real or imagined. He can be the black smoke, if he wants. Jacob thought the corpse of Jack's dad was an inviting offer.
[Crap, now I want to read Solaris again. I think it might be my favorite novel of all time; even more than anything Hemingway. It's as much a story as it is a study of how one person catalogs new information and tries to fit new things into a set schema of facts. What do you do when you encounter something that is by definition wholly different from anything you know or can conceive of? The answer is - you never truly understand it, and you never truly are able to replicate it because you are forever influenced by your own subjectivity. We never, ever understand anything, we just THINK we do. Which is hilarious, because when the whole point of the book is that you can never replicate anything exactly... THEY GO AND MAKE IT INTO A MOVIE. THEREBY PROVING THE POINT OF THE NOVEL. BUT ANYWAY, I AM TANGENT-ING]
I think Jacob is fascinated by Locke, for some reason. Like God to Job, he's testing him - for some reason, maybe to find his successor because he's dying like the Caretaker in Star Trek: Voyager? I don't know (see also: the epic proportions of NERD in this post). Jacob says, "Okay, I am going to give you your legs back so you can start down a path of enlightenment or something." Jacob tested the pilot first (logical choice, from his perspective, since the pilot was flying the plane that offered him some new potential subjects); that didn't work. Jacob also tested Eko, but felt he was too lame or something so he killed him as well. But Locke and Jacob, they just click and it's now all about making sure that Locke is worthy of whatever Jacob's prize is.
(Random observation: It's interesting that show canon tells us there are three primary "trackers" in the group - Kate, Sayid, and Locke. Locke "gets" the island, but is also admittedly the worst tracker of the three. Metaphor?)
Here's what I think is going to happen: the flash forwards? "Possible" future. Just like Desmond is able to manipulate his past to artificially create a constant for himself, the Oceanic 6 are spiralling away from the island in the future in a reckless way - "this isn't how it's supposed to be!" - but will be able to be reigned in. It's not the right future, so they have the opportunity to go back and fix it. The past is the past, but the future is up for discussion.
To review:
- The island is a black hole of time and reality.
- The black hole's name is Jacob.
- Pushing the button helps tether the island to reality.
- They stopped pushing the button.
- The world is probably going to end if they don't fix that.
- Locke is Jacob's new favorite.
- Ben is upset, because he (and Jacob) thought that he was.
- The last shot of the series is going to be the beginning of it: the plane crash. Something is going to happen where the only way to right everything is to complete a chain of events (one that has to repeat ad nauseum, a la the button-pushing).
SO THAT'S MY THEORY. Y/N?
edit: Now with further elaboration in comments.
I also have a theory about the alternative universes in Doctor Who that sounds a lot like this.
In conclusion, I love running out of normal things like milk and cheddar cheese, because eggs scrambled with heavy cream and expensive mozzarella is like 200% delicious-er.
edit: I like my layout again. My post looks PRETTY in it! (Is that weird to note?) Also: creepily appropriate poetry choice for this subject, wouldn't you say? o.O
edit 2: LOLLERSKATES @ my work Lost colleague. He just sent me a frantic "WHERE ARE YOU, MUST DISCUSS YESTERDAY" email.
I didn't post about Lost last night, because unlike previous weeks where my reaction was simple (some variation of "JESUS FUCK, OMGWTF JUST HAPPENED"), I actually left last night's episode going... "WAIT A SECOND HERE, I NEED TO THINK ABOUT THIS IN A PROPER MANNER BEFORE I DO ANYTHING."
So this morning, after consuming some eggs and Spooks (AHHHHHH ANOTHER TIME I WILL DISCUSS THIS), I have done just that. Warning: behind the cut is epic. Like, epic-ly epic.
First of all, let's at least get it out of the way: OMGWTF JUST HAPPENED.
I totally love eolivet's observation that Desmond's "visions" are actually pieces of the future slipping into Desmond's brain. In this episode, him sliding back to the 1996 wasn't the first time his brain had done this.
SO HERE I GO, READY TO TAKE A CRACK AT THIS BABY. Fuck me, I love time travel. Just ask taylorkate and baggers.
Things we know to be true (at least in the context that the writer's aren't just going to go "AHA BUT NOT REALLY"): Time and other things are wonky on the island. Prior to the hatch blowing up, Desmond was basically an average dude who crashed his boat and then took a job at a literal button-pusher. Everyone was told that pushing the button every 108 minutes "saves the world." Locke thought it was bullshit, and when they didn't press the button, the hatch blew up pretty massive. After that whole thing happened, the island became "visible" and also Desmond stopped being a normal dude because he could travel in time now/see the future.
Okay. Here goes.
The short version: JACOB IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF A BLACK HOLE.
The long version:
Desmond's consciousness is slipping back and further between the past and the future - or rather, it slips into the past, gets stuck, and then comes back to the future incomplete (hence, the amnesia/thinking it's 1996 when he and Sayid are on the boat). Because a normal person's brain is not designed for these shenanigans, the end result is exploding - literally. A brain aneurysm. The only way to STOP this aneurysm is to jog the memory of your own memory - a "constant," something true in both times, so the brain go be all "riiiiiiiiiiiiight, right, right, I am realigned as to the series of events we are living in." It's kind of like driving down a paved road, suddenly diverting off it into a field going perpendicular to your original route, and then someone standing on the road with a big flag that says "NOT SO MUCH."
Well. The same thing happened to the island.
For some reason, the island is - I don't know, a black hole or something. Dead space. A massive piece of electromagnetic energy that does - something. And because it's all special/different/whatever, it's also dangerous to normal space-time. It can't exist in tandem with how time flows with any amount of cooperation. It's an anomaly. It's this untethered, floating blob of wibbly wobbly timey-whimey stuff that could basically consume all normal space-time if you let it. (I'm totally thinking of that disgusting red jelly from Ghostbusters II, BY THE WAY. IT'S LIKE THAT.)
That's where the button comes in.
Because the island's timeline and the normal timeline aren't in sync (BECAUSE IT'S A BLACK HOLE), the world could suffer the same fate as Desmond if we're not careful - epic brain aneurysm of the planet. Therefore, just like Desmond's brain, the island needs a constant to keep itself in check - the button, every 108 minutes. Every 108 minutes, someone on the island is responding for thwapping it on the head and going, "LOOK, ALL RIGHT, REMEMBER THIS." If you don't press the button after the allotted 108 minutes, the reminder isn't there, and the island and reality are irrevocably out of sync and a reaction occurs - the radiation wave that took down Oceanic 815, for instance.
The Dharma Initiative? has been studying this for years now. They originally discovered the crude method of button-pushing fixed the problem, but since that solution is fundamentally flawed because it requires people and you can't always rely on people, the aim of the Dharma Initiative is a permanent non-people answer. Fix the black hole once and for all so the earth doesn't have a massive brain aneurysm and explode. The polar bears? test subjects, like Faraday's rat. I never said the Dharma Initiative was nice.
I also think what Dharma says about the Others (or rather, the OTHER Others) is true - they are "the original inhabitants of the island." I'm honestly not sure if maybe they lived there whenever the black hole thing STARTED, or if they were Dharma (or someone else)'s first test subjects for a solution. But their existence has been fundamentally altered by exposure to the black hole - they don't age (Richard), they can't die (Russian Eye Patch Dude). But that's the thing - you have to be exposed to it to be immortal, because all the Dharma people that Ben gassed are dead and decayed in a ditch, thus proving that it only brings certain people back to life.
The black hole is sentient. If you've ever read Solaris (READ IT, NOT SEEN IT; THOSE MOVIES WERE - UGH that's another rant for another time), you know the picture I'm conjuring - a massive, non-form sentient blob that has the ability to take any form/vessel/shape it wishes. (In the book, it manifests itself as people, in order to mimic the scientists studying it - if they pick instruments as their keenest information-gather, then the ocean-blob says, "I will do the same, and I choose being a person so I can ask questions/interact.") Yes, the black hole is Jacob. Just like the ocean-blob, Jacob can take human form if he wants to, real or imagined. He can be the black smoke, if he wants. Jacob thought the corpse of Jack's dad was an inviting offer.
[Crap, now I want to read Solaris again. I think it might be my favorite novel of all time; even more than anything Hemingway. It's as much a story as it is a study of how one person catalogs new information and tries to fit new things into a set schema of facts. What do you do when you encounter something that is by definition wholly different from anything you know or can conceive of? The answer is - you never truly understand it, and you never truly are able to replicate it because you are forever influenced by your own subjectivity. We never, ever understand anything, we just THINK we do. Which is hilarious, because when the whole point of the book is that you can never replicate anything exactly... THEY GO AND MAKE IT INTO A MOVIE. THEREBY PROVING THE POINT OF THE NOVEL. BUT ANYWAY, I AM TANGENT-ING]
I think Jacob is fascinated by Locke, for some reason. Like God to Job, he's testing him - for some reason, maybe to find his successor because he's dying like the Caretaker in Star Trek: Voyager? I don't know (see also: the epic proportions of NERD in this post). Jacob says, "Okay, I am going to give you your legs back so you can start down a path of enlightenment or something." Jacob tested the pilot first (logical choice, from his perspective, since the pilot was flying the plane that offered him some new potential subjects); that didn't work. Jacob also tested Eko, but felt he was too lame or something so he killed him as well. But Locke and Jacob, they just click and it's now all about making sure that Locke is worthy of whatever Jacob's prize is.
(Random observation: It's interesting that show canon tells us there are three primary "trackers" in the group - Kate, Sayid, and Locke. Locke "gets" the island, but is also admittedly the worst tracker of the three. Metaphor?)
Here's what I think is going to happen: the flash forwards? "Possible" future. Just like Desmond is able to manipulate his past to artificially create a constant for himself, the Oceanic 6 are spiralling away from the island in the future in a reckless way - "this isn't how it's supposed to be!" - but will be able to be reigned in. It's not the right future, so they have the opportunity to go back and fix it. The past is the past, but the future is up for discussion.
To review:
- The island is a black hole of time and reality.
- The black hole's name is Jacob.
- Pushing the button helps tether the island to reality.
- They stopped pushing the button.
- The world is probably going to end if they don't fix that.
- Locke is Jacob's new favorite.
- Ben is upset, because he (and Jacob) thought that he was.
- The last shot of the series is going to be the beginning of it: the plane crash. Something is going to happen where the only way to right everything is to complete a chain of events (one that has to repeat ad nauseum, a la the button-pushing).
SO THAT'S MY THEORY. Y/N?
edit: Now with further elaboration in comments.
I also have a theory about the alternative universes in Doctor Who that sounds a lot like this.
In conclusion, I love running out of normal things like milk and cheddar cheese, because eggs scrambled with heavy cream and expensive mozzarella is like 200% delicious-er.
edit: I like my layout again. My post looks PRETTY in it! (Is that weird to note?) Also: creepily appropriate poetry choice for this subject, wouldn't you say? o.O
edit 2: LOLLERSKATES @ my work Lost colleague. He just sent me a frantic "WHERE ARE YOU, MUST DISCUSS YESTERDAY" email.