Temporal Motion

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Vince
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Temporal Motion

Post by Vince »

OK, I'll kick this one off.

Is it the Losties or The Island itself that is/are skipping through time? I don't think it really matters for anyone on-Island, but it would for anyone off-Island. For example, if The Island is skipping through time and The Six returned they would be on The Island of a different ers (ie. era of DHARMA or those who built The Statue, rather than the era of The Others led by Ben).

Will there be skipping to the future? How does the temporal motion on The Island relate to its geographical motion? In theory the temporal shift shouldn't directly affect The Island's geographical location. So where did it move to and why?

Over the first four seasons, what circumstances/clues/mysteries were the result of actions-yet-to-be-seen on the part of our Losties skipping through time (or The Island skipping around them)? Adam and Eve would seem likely to be one example. Could they be Charlotte & Daniel? Sawyer & Juliet? Rose & Bernard?

It was AWESOME seeing the drug plane crash and Locke being present for it. I was hoping Locke would find and talk to Yemi. Oh well. It does indicate the amazing potential of this new story-telling device.

David3
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by David3 »

I believe it just the people traveling through time and not the island itself. If the island was traveling through time, why would that effect things such as the beach camp and Swan Station. If the entire island were traveling through time, it would seem that the beach camp would still be there, the Swan would still be blown up, they'd just be in a different year and really have no idea anything changed.

But with the people being the time travelers, they are able to travel to previous or future times on the island and see events that have already happened or that will happen. That begs the question, why didn't the others time travel too. Richard says "we didn't go anywhere, you did." My guess is that the time traveling is only taking place for those who were NOT original island inhabitants. Being born on the island isn't enough, we see that because Charlotte is traveling (although, maybe her nosebleeds have to do with being born on the island). Being an other isn't enough because Juliet spent 3 1/2 years with, yet she is still traveling.

Time traveling people isn't enough, though. Time traveling people alone doesn't make an island disappear.

So, I believe two events have happened:

The non-indiginous inhabitants of the island are bouncing back and forth between the past and future.
The island has either moved to a new physical location or the entry point to the island has been changed.

Vince
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by Vince »

The drug plane indicates The Island was in a Nigerian locale circa (?). When were the events of Eko, Yemi, and the plane? 2003? The time that Eko posed as a priest could not have been equivalent to the time it took for the bodies from the plane to decompose as we found them in 2004. "Now, I'm not an expert on human decomposition, even though I know it says it on my business card." This indicates that The Island moved to near Nigeria. Then: a)the plane took an approach bearing which sent it back 5(?) years; b)The Island, as well as geographically, moved through time (ie. 1998 Island showed up in 2003); c)after landing on The Island (2003) the plane was shifted back in time (1998); or d)production error :)

At a later time it would have to move to the South Pacific.

Am I talkin’ totally crazy, here?
Last edited by Vince on Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

David3
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by David3 »

Lostpedia's timeline places the beechcraft crash in the late 1990s.

Vince
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by Vince »

There's now 3 kinds of time travel:

1)Take the wrong bearing coming to The Island and go forward in time (the payload rocket or the DHARMA palette drops).

2)Consciousness time travel ala Desmond, Minkowski, Eloise, etc.

3)On-Island Record-Needle-Skipping-Time-Travel (note the correlation to Dr. Candle's Willie Nelson record skipping at the beginning of the premiere)

Stephen
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by Stephen »

Great episode.

There were tons of returning guest stars in this episode, along with some new ones.

Candle
Frogurt
Ethan
Widmore
Penny
Ana Lucia
Hurley's dad
Hurley's mom
Hawking

I was really surprised to see Frogurt having so many lines, but then he turned out to be a redshirt.

David3
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by David3 »

On the Official Lost Podcast, Carlton asks Damon if it's the island or the people moving. Damon responds that it's a little bit of both. He basically states that the island physically moves and the people are time traveling. At first that didn't make since to me, but after thinking about it, I think I have it.

Here's my theory:

The island has moved to different physical locations before. For this theory, we'll use five possible locations. I'll call them A, B, C, D, and E.

Location A - Wherever it was at when the Black Rock crashed on the island.
Location B - Wherever it was at when Danielle and her team landed there.
Location C - Somewhere near Africa. Drug planes crashes there.
Location D - Somewhere near Fiji. Oceanic 815 crashes there.
Location E - Wherever it is now.

When the people on the island travel through time, they also travel physically to where the island was on that date. When they time travel the first time, while the island, Alpert and the others have moved to Location E in present time, the losties, freighter folk, and Juliet go to sometime in the late 1990s when the island is at Location C. The beach camp hasn't been built yet and Locke witnesses the crash of the beechcraft.

The next move in time, I believe they go some point in the future and therefore the island is in location E. We know its the future because Richard tells Locke that the people on the helicopter didn't blow up on the freighter and that they are already back home.

The next move in time is between 2001 and 2004 at island Location D. We know this because Desmond is in the Swan. The fact that Desmond comes out in the yellow suit tells us two things. One that its before the Oceanic 815, which in turn tells us that Kelvin is still there too. Since Kelvin doesn’t answer the door, I’ll assume that he is out on one of his trips to fix Desmond’s boat. I think Dan lies to Sawyer about being able to talk to Desmond.

The guessing the final move we see is sometime way before Dharma was on the island. I’m basing this on Richard saying to Locke that the next time he sees him he won’t recognize him. Richard has been popping in and out of Locke’s entire life, so if Richard doesn’t recognize him, I’m guessing the island time if now prior to Locke being born. Maybe in the 1940s.

Here’s the bombshell part of the theory. At the end of “The Lie” we see British soldiers capture Sawyer and Juliet before Locke rescues them. I wouldn’t be surprised if we meet more of these soldiers on the island including a young British soldier named...Charles Widmore.

Justin
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by Justin »

There's an official podcast? Wow.

David3
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by David3 »

Justin wrote:There's an official podcast? Wow.
It's 3 minutes long.

Justin
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by Justin »

I found that out when I "listened" to it. I retract my "wow" and replace it with a "hrumph".

David3
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by David3 »

In my above theory I stated that I thought the island has moved many times over the years. I wanted to make two additional points.

1. I don't think time traveling is always a side effect of the island moving.

2. Someone asked me how they are moving the island multiple times if you have to blow a hole in the pod thingy just to get to the wheel. My explanation for that is the island can move manually or automatically. Throughout it's history I believe the island may have moved on its own several times and the wheel is a way of manually moving it.

CorpsesAndChaos
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by CorpsesAndChaos »

this whole time traveling situation has me pretty iffy with the show. its hard to tell if its used specifically as a writing mechanism or what since it seems nearly impossible to explain how only a few people actually travel through time while others do not. and how objects can travel through this. its interesting but it just seems like some over contrived mental masturbation storytelling device.

a) how the hell does an active Volcano move around in space? "who cares?" how does an island move that is planted to ocean floor? they storytelling device might subvert "space-time" but how does it subvert geological time and geological structure without being completely bogus?
b) how do you install a wheel near that Exotic Matter and what is the wheel actually turning to create the energy release?
c) wouldnt the island have invasive species on it if its moving around? (that could be the explanation of the polar bears if not brought by DHARMA but why not others?)

good call on Widmore being there as a british soldier or leader in a later "jump".
i dont know, my reality is the "nowever" so this whole story is hokey. its starting to take on back to the future elements.

does this mean the people left on the island were now never on the plane? or is the island and the exotic matter just an biological/geological archive of events it went through and this time travel crap is just a dimensional blip outside of the "NOW" while the rest of the "NOW" is in place? as if, the island took a slight course outside of the linear "string" moving "forward" and will find its way back to the main string when the rest of the oceanic people get to the island?

Stephen
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by Stephen »

Maybe Ethan shot the smuggler who was hanging from the tree, the one whose gun Locke took. I seem to recall Locke telling from the decay of the clothes that the man had been shot with a rifle.

David3
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Re: Temporal Motion

Post by David3 »

I'm sure they'll use the time traveling as a plot device to show many of the historical mysteries of the island such as the Black Rock, 4-toed statue, Dharma Initiative, Widmore on the island, Danielle's team, etc.

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