LOST

So "LOST" came back last night, and in true fashion, left me completely baffled as to what's going on.

One thing that I know for sure: time travel IS possible on the island. That much I know. We were shown 3 different time periods at least in just the opening moments of the show. We were shown "the past" (like in the 70s) when Dr. Marvin Candle was recording a Dharma Initiative video for the time travel station on the island. We were shown "the present" on the island, where we see Sawyer, Juliet, Locke, and several other characters. Then we were shown "the future" off of the island, where we currently have Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Aaron, and Sun.

So in the opening moments we were shown past, present, and future...as far as the island itself is concerned. To those off of the island, we were shown present, recent past, and distant (relative) past.

Seeing as the show is concerned MOST with what happens ON the island and not OFF of the island, I think it's safe to say that we were shown past, present, and future all at the beginning of the show yesterday. At least, for purposes of the discussions that I will have on this blog about LOST, that is how we will view it.

A few things that were apparent in the first few minutes of the episode yesterday. Daniel Faraday (masterfully played by Jeremy Davies) isn't exactly what we think that he is. Faraday was clearly shown in the past on the island during the time of Dharma AND during the present where we know him now. That wouldn't seem so odd, except for the fact that he is relatively young in the present...and he was the same age in the past. This would lead us to believe that for everything that Faraday has claimed, he KNOWS that time travel exists...and not only does he KNOW that time travel exists, he has in fact done it...however, he might not know that he has done it, as Daniel seems to show some interesting signs of memory loss.

Daniel explains to us at one point in the episode that time is like a thread. You can go forward and backward on it, however, you can never make it go off in a different direction. This is basically his way of telling them that they can not change the past, or alter the future, by doing things differently when they travel to a different time. He mentions this when Sawyer suggests that they head to the beach to warn the others not to go out on the helicopter to the freighter. Daniel is adamant that they not do that, because it wouldn't do anything to alter the ultimate path of time.

This mirrors something that was said to Desmond earlier in the series in the episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (one of my favorite episodes, by the way). In that episode, Desmond was trying to buy a ring to propose to Penny when a strange woman at the jewelry store, apparently named Ms. Hawking, tells him that he can't buy the ring. She tells him that he won't marry Penny. She tells him that he'll break her heart and enter the race. She tells him he'll end up on the island pushing the button for years before finally turning the failsafe key. Of course, when Desmond is hearing this he doesn't know it, but we have all watched the show and KNOW that these things of course come true. Ms. Hawking explains to Desmond how she knows this thing by pointing out a rather strangely dressed man. A few minutes later a loud crash is heard, and Desmond notices that the man she pointed out has been killed. He asked her why she didn't do anything to save him, and she tells Desmond that if she had the man would have been hit by a taxi the next day, and if she warned him of that he would have broken his neck in the shower. She tells him that the universe has a way of "course correcting," in other words, a way of making things that are supposed to happen actually happen, regardless of what is done to alter or stop those things. This falls in line with what Daniel has said about time being a thread...the thread only goes one place, and there is no way to change that.

Oddly enough, in the future, we see Ben Linus talking to a very familiar character at the end of the episodes...wouldn't you know it, it is in fact Ms. Hawking. She ends the episode by telling Ben that he has 70 hours to get the Oceanic Six back onto the island. Ben asks what happens if he can't, and Ms. Hawking replies "Then God help us all."

Now, after putting this all down into the blog, I think I might have just hit on what the writers were very blatantly putting out there...that I of course missed the first time. The Oceanic Six were never supposed to leave the island. The thread of time doesn't have them leaving the island, and because they have, the universe is starting the process of course correcting to make sure that these Six end up back on the island. The phrase of "God help us all" could be referring to what will happen in the real world if the universe ends up course correcting to get these Six back onto the island.

Basically, the Oceanic Six need to go back to the island to make the island go back to normal in the space-time continuum. And if the island doesn't go back to normal on it's own, then the universe will do whatever is necessary to make sure that the thread of time stays intact...

The only thing that I can't really figure into this whole equation is WHAT exactly Ben Linus did at the end of Season 4 when he "moved" the island. It would appear that whatever HE did is what started these events...so why exactly the Oceanic Six returning would stop that is a bit of a mystery to me. Unless Ben only did that BECAUSE of the fact that he knew that they would be leaving. I guess that's just something that will be explained later on in the series...