Season 6, Episodes 1-5

I know we are only a few weeks into the final season and clearly there is much more to come. With this being the final season, we are getting answers every single week. Sometimes we get real significance and sometimes we get tiny clues. At first I was a little surprised that there continues to be so much mystery even with some major answers revealed, but I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the brilliance of the Lost writers. Of course they’re going to make you think about it before they wrap it up! That being said, let’s go through some of the things we know for sure (or at least what we’re meant to believe) and see if we can come to any solid conclusions or theories of what is to come.

So we know that numbers have corresponding people attached to them, people who are listed not only on a wall that Jacob wrote on, but also on the lighthouse compass or wheel that Hurley brought Jack to. When your number is being pointed at in the lighthouse, the mirror shows where said person lives so that they can be watched. So now we sort of understand some of the significance of Hurley’s numbers:

4 – Locke

8 – Reyes

15 – Ford

16 – Jarrah 

23 – Shepherd

42 – Kwon

But we still have no idea why they surface in various other places, most prominently on the hatch wall and inside the hatch as the set of numbers that needed to be entered every 108 minutes.

Might these numbers and corresponding names also have something to do with the compass bearing that one must follow for coming and going to the island? Maybe knowing who number 305 is would help shed light on that. Could it be Hume? Jacob indicated that the point of Hurley’s journey to the lighthouse was to force Jack to see the imagery that he ended up seeing, but he also asked Hurley to turn the wheel to 108. We know that 108 is the sum of the infamous ‘numbers’ and was also the amount of minutes that the hatch computer resets to after the button was pushed. Of course 108 was also the amount of days that the 815 survivors were on the island before the Oceanic 6 went home. So clearly this number is important, but the name corresponding with 108 is someone named Wallace. Whoever Wallace is, I am guessing that he is important, but not necessarily the person that Jacob wants to find the island. Also, I am sure I need not even mention to the hard-core losties of the connection between the lighthouse being the place where Hurley was sent to help someone find the island, and the DHARMA lamppost station (which Hawking told us is the only place where the island can be found from the mainland) is a logo of a lighthouse. 

Locke monster told Sawyer that the people written on the wall (and we now know on the lighthouse wheel) were potential candidates to take over Jacob’s role as protector of the island. If this is true, does that mean all names that are crossed out are dead? (like Locke’s name) Or can potential candidates be crossed off for other reasons?

Also, if any of this is true, what will determine the new protector? Is it the last man standing? Which brings me to my next point…what if it’s not a man? The others mentioned in season 3 that Jack was not on Jacob’s list. If this is in fact Jacob’s list, many (including myself) believed that the ‘Shephard’ name refers to Jack’s father, Christian. This theory was basically solidified for me when Jack saw his old house in the mirror in the lighthouse. Jack even said that he ‘hasn’t lived there for many years’ indicating that whoever is watching Shephard probably wasn’t trying to keep an eye on Jack as he has not lived there for a long time. That being said, by the time Jack sees the lighthouse, Christian has been dead (and on the island) for 3 years – leading me to the theory that perhaps the ‘Shephard’ indicated on the cave wall and Lighthouse wheel is actually Jack’s mother. Perhaps this is the mysterious person that Jacob was asking Hurley to help find the island.

Taking all this into account and assuming Locke Monster was telling the truth about the meaning of the names being potential candidates, is he also telling the truth about it not making a difference? And wanting to go home? So far it seems like he was a real man at some point, but then somehow became entrapped on the island bound by the mysterious rules. He may in fact want to go home (whatever that may mean) but it seems like the impending war that we keep hearing about has to happen first, hence why Locke Monster is ‘recruiting’, according to Ilana. Last we saw Locke Monster, Sawyer agreed to go with him because he too wanted to go home or leave the island. We now see that Locke Monster is ‘with’ Claire, and in more ways than one. Not only is he now geographically in the same place, but Claire told Jin that she was ‘not alone’ when Jin asked her about where she had been and what she was doing on the island for the past 3 years. This implies that Locke Monster was protecting her and on her side presumably right after she died and was claimed. She also mentions that both ‘her friend’ (whom we now know is Smoke Locke) and her father (whom we know is Christian) told her that ‘the others’ have her baby. We remember that Claire was seen in the cabin along side Christian, who I assumed to have been Smokey at that time, and Claire said ‘I’m with him.’ That line in conjunction with what Claire said about not being alone in the most recent episode seems like it would solidify the theory that despite Smokey being stuck as Locke now, he was able to change forms at will before Jacob died. Appearing at certain times as Christian, Yemi, Alex, Boone and possibly Walt, all in an effort to manipulate and lead people in a certain direction. The reasons behind this theory seemed simple. I mean, how many entities on this island can just shift shapes? I guess that might remain to be seen, but it all seemed so perfect for it to have all been Smokey every time. One can definitely make the argument that the appearance of dead people were showing up so that they can influence, manipulate and move players into position (and you can even argue that these entities were moving pieces with Smokey’s interests in mind). But since Claire referred to her father and her friend as seemingly different people or entities, it really becomes even more confusing and sort of dispels the theory that it was Smokey each time we’ve seen a ‘ghost’. But on the other hand, Claire may remember seeing and talking to her father before she was completely overtaken by infection, not to mention she probably had never realized that her father was dead, therefore she wouldn’t have found it any weirder than just coincidence that Christian was alive on the island.

Though, while that theory may still somewhat be a possibility, I am definitely beginning to think that there is another explanation for the appearance of Christian, Yemi, Alex, etc. after they’re dead. Why? Because there’s a small blonde kid that seems to appear and disappear to Smoke Locke in a similar fashion to these other ‘ghost’ people and Smoke Locke seems surprised that Sawyer can see him, but I’ll touch on that in just a minute.

So knowing what we know, it certainly seems like Locke Monster’s army is shaping up to be Claire, (which now allows us to assume that eventually Sayid will be a part of the Smoke team as well) and Sawyer (if he continues to go along with it) Now, Claire being with Smoke Locke also begs some other interesting questions. We know from Dogen that Claire was ‘infected’ and overtaken by darkness. He is claiming that the same thing is happening to Sayid. Sayid, we know was pronounced dead and then came back to life as this supposed ‘infected’ being. Which safely leads me to believe that my assumptions from the last 2 seasons are correct in that Claire is in fact dead. As mentioned in my last post, I think she may have died when the freighter people blew up her house in season 4, and was then quickly ‘claimed’ by this ‘infection’ which we now know has much (if not everything) to do with the Smoke Monster. So the question is: Is the Smoke Monster building an army of only dead people? If so, does Sawyer have to die? Is Sawyer already dead and claimed? After all, Sawyer saw the young blonde child in the jungle much to Smoke Locke’s surprise. Or maybe Sawyer is alive and he is the one that the young blonde child is referring to when he tells Smoke Locke that he ‘can’t kill him’ – Maybe Smokey can’t kill with the intent to recruit? Or maybe Sawyer is just much more important than any of us imagined. After all, Dogen really wanted him to stay at the temple. 

Other thoughts: I don’t think Jack’s son’s mother is Sarah. I believe the mother may be Libby as there is a connection there with the son being named David, and Libby’s dead husband being named David as well. Seeing as how this is an alternate universe, one never knows if Libby and David even met and were married in the first place. I am not ruling out the chance that it is someone other than Libby, but right now I am assuming we have met them before. But even if the marriage went bad, its curious as to why Jack has had no involvement in his son’s life until recently. And why wasn’t David’s mother at his recital? Is she still alive? Either way it sounds sort of similar to Michael’s situation with Walt before getting on Oceanic 815.

One thing that seems to be certain about the alternate timeline is that everything that happens is somehow similar to the events that took place in the original timeline and on the island. Island people are ‘randomly’ meeting each other left and right in the alternate timeline and there will definitely be more to come. Of course, not everything has or will happen in exactly the same way. It’s like the game is panning out slightly different, but the players are the same and most likely, the game will end the same as well. So having had this realization, it got me thinking about what may be to come. Here are a few potential storylines that may unfold in the alternate timeline:

• Kate winds up with or taking care of Aaron again – maybe Kate is hiding from the law with Claire – maybe Claire gets wrongfully accused for Kate’s crime and goes to jail, once again losing her baby and perhaps meeting up with Charlie in jail since her relationship with Charlie was so prevalent when they were on the island.
• Locke’s spine and paralysis is fixed by Jack. This allows him to once again walk and he will regain faith, as he currently seems as though he is not a man of faith in the alternate timeline. Perhaps that faith will be short-lived though because if Helen died in the original timeline, I think there’s a good chance she’ll die in the alternate one.
• That being said about Helen’s possible fate, I think there is also a decent chance that other Lostees that died on the island will also die in the alternate timeline, just in different ways. i.e. Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Charlie, Arzt, etc.
• Seems like Locke is close with his father, yet he’s still paralyzed. Safe to assume his father didn’t do it to him, so then how did it happen? Well, I have a sneaky suspicion that it might have been the Man in Black that crippled Locke in the alternate timeline. We are seeing all kinds of island inhabitants appearing in the alternate timeline, so why not the Man in Black? (a.k.a. the Smoke Monster before he became the Smoke)
• Perhaps we’ll see Michael Dawson involved with Sun and Jin’s story. Will Sun develop a relationship with Michael when Jin is detained or in jail? Maybe Michael will be a security guard or police officer that will assist in the Kwon investigation at the airport.
• Even though we haven’t seen Charles Widmore this season, it feels to me like he is on the side of Smokey – based on the fact that he was willing to do anything he could to get Locke back to the island, and told Locke that if he didn’t go back, the wrong side was going to win the upcoming war.
• Just for the heck of it, I forgot to mention this in my last post so I figure I’ll add it here since I think it’s at the very least, worth mentioning. Desmond told Charlie that he had to die in order to secure rescue for everyone else, but especially Claire and her baby. Desmonds flashes of the future have thus far been proven to pan out accurately except for the vision that convinced Charlie to allow himself to die. Desmond said that he saw Claire and Aaron getting on a chopper and leaving the island. I know Aaron left in a chopper, but Claire obviously did not. Is this a case of Desmond’s visions being foggy? Did Desmond lie to Charlie about his vision because he knew he had to die anyway, but perhaps for some other reason? Or what I consider one of the more exciting possibilities is that Claire and Aaron are yet to get on a helicopter together. Maybe they will need to for some reason and when they do, Desmond will be there to see it happen.