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Think you know everything going on in Lost? Can you name everyone's constant? Can you connect all the minute details over the last four seasons to explain what the smoke monster is? If so can you tell me? USA Today has given the chance for Lost fans to submit their own plot theories to later be graded (A through F) by executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof.
And the producers' responses so far reveal some important hints about the show's secrets.
It's Alive:
The Island is alive and Jacob is the brain. The island can control its own matter and create apparitions (like the smoke monster). Also three rich and powerful "Kings" are involved in some power play against each other over the island: Hanso/Dharma, Widmore and Paik. Widmore was Ben's superior in the past but has been overthrown recently. There will be a throwdown between Hanso, Widmore and Paik.
Lindelof: B+, Cuse: B
They both agree the the island is "probably" alive, kind of a gimme. But Lindelof tells this fan that after last weeks episode, "they might be losing a King." And Cuse encourages the fan to tweak the theory a bit, which after watching Ben go toe-to-toe in an angry staredown with Widmore, I kind of like the three-man Risk game. Besides, it coincides nicely with the actual playing of Risk that foreshadows it in the latest episode.
Blame The Dog:
Are Walt's dog Vincent and the smoke monster one and the same? The fan based this assumption on the fact that Walt is special, therefor his dog should be as well. Vincent can make loud "dinosaur" noises. Also Vincent stares at the other survivors before the first attack and knows English when told to, "go find Jack." Also there are a lot of dog references throughout the show.
Lindelof: C, Cuse: A
Cuse admits that they had discussed doing a dog flashback in Season 1. Lindelof makes jokes, explains nothing which makes me believe they haven't actually decided what to do with Vincent, but Cuse wants to go in that direction.
Time Travel, It's A Disease:
Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun and Sayid are the only people that can leave the island because they were not near the Swan Station when it imploded. Therefore they are the only survivors from Oceanic 815 that can leave without dying. The people close to the station are all infected with a time travel disease and must take the Dharma shots along with finding their constants when they time travel (Desmond did both). Baby Aaron is safe because he was injected at birth.
Lindelof: A, Cuse: B+
Cuse practically agrees with the fan and says that there is indeed a sickness involved with the island. Lindelof even says, good catch with the sickness, but the Oceanic 6 aren't the only ones who can leave.
Dharma is Everywhere And Planned It All:
Dharma is actively trying to get someone back on the island to finish their work with the Valenzetti Equation. Ms. Hawking is a part of that plan, the fan explains that, "Her visions include a complicated pattern of people that are required to be on the island in order for a set series of events to occur for Dharma to return to the island. With the help of others, including Christian Shephard, Richard Malkin, Nadia and Libby, the group ensures that specific people are on the plane in order for the series of events to occur." So everything that has happened (Desmond causing the plane to crash etc.) has to happen in order for Dharma to get control again.
Lindelof: A, Cuse: A
Both Cuse and Lindelof agreed with most of this theory: everything happened for a reason and was predestined by Dharma. Cuse and Lindelof wouldn't even really comment because it was very, very accurate, not 100% but close.
Baby Aaron Is Old Man Jacob:
Baby Aaron grows up but is always entangled in the islands presence, even off the island. He eventually gets involved in some secret military/science program that (of course) goes horribly wrong. Aaron is then trapped in another time or dimension. From there he can manipulate space and time but can not get out and becomes old man Jacob on the island. So this whole thing is a desperate effort from Jacob over many years to change the course of events that led him to his time prison.
Lindelof: A, Cuse: A
Cuse says the space-time idea is pretty spot on but the facts are a little blurry, Lindelof agrees. Maybe Jacob isn't stuck in time but can play with time? Still the idea that Jacob and Aaron are the same seems to make some sense. [USA Today]
Comments
The Valenzetti Equation
WTF? I should just give up 'cuz I've never even heard of that.
I have been telling everyone that the coolest thing ever would be if they all woke up at the end of the last episode and it was just a dream.
I think America's ready for that old chestnut again.
@moff: I don't watch Lost.
@moff: That's been hashed to death.
@moff:
It was all an autistic kid with a snowglobe.
@moff: It's too bad Suzanne Pleshette passed away, otherwise we could really do this right.
(I actually really like all of the above theories, except the Vincent one; Old Man Aaron is crazy fun!)
@mattclary: REALLY???
@92BuickLeSabre: Yes! In regard to the Pleshette, I mean.
OK, I give up. The Lost producers win. I won't watch the show anymore.
@Seth L: I can only assume you've seen The Grid.
You must read Lost: A Theory on Time Travel.
@moff:
Quit being silly.
It's the holographic 4-d version of what happens on a Risk board.
@extracrispy: The Valenzetti Equation is an incredibly complex (fictional) mathematical formula that predicts the exact date and time that humanity goes extinct. The Dharma Initiative is trying to use the island's strange properties, to alter the variables in the equation, to stave off human extinction.
The number sequence that kept popping up in the first few seasons are the key values in the Valenzetti Equation that Dharma must change, to keep the human race alive.
It's part of the bigger picture, that the producers spent waaaaaaaaaaay too much time setting up, and waaaaaaaayyyy too little time explaining ... since everything that happens on the whole fucking show basically hangs off of the Valenzetti Equation, you'd think they might want to make that slightly clear?
@munkles:
No.
Parts of the show seem to be ripped off from "The Prisoner".
1. They're mysteriously brought to the island.
#6 was drugged & brought there.
2. They can't get off the island, something keeps bringing them back.
The Rovers kept #6 & anyone else from leaving The Village.
3. All the food & supplies have the Dharma logo & name on them, just as the food & supplies in The Village was marked "Village Foods" & had the big wheel logo on it.
There are certainly other similarities.
@munkles:
But since the Valenzetti Equation is an "off island" idea and nobody on the island, except perhaps Ben, knows anything about it, it makes sense that the numbers wouldn't get a whole lot of explanation by the characters.
@extracrispy:
If you want to know more about the equation and its relevance to the Island check out the lostpedia article about it at [en.lostpedia.com]
@Greasy Thumb Guzik: And the Dharma part was ripped off from that show with Greg.
Please don't give the producers any ideas; I want to see if they can figure it out for themselves.
@munkles: Thanks for the explanation. What the heck episode was all that from? I swear I've never missed an episode!
It's nice to know that the producers are exactly as confused as the viewers. This is why I stopped watching this after season one...
@Plague:
Oh, you tediously boring asshole, prove otherwise or shut the fuck up.
@Airport_Whiskey:
They could introduce the concept any number of ways.
@extracrispy:
I think it was more set up as a viral campaign
I think the island might have a machine on it, maybe of alien origin, that acts as a thought machine just like the one on Forbidden Planet (one of my favs). I think Ben knows how to use it.
The ISLAND is the fifth Cylon!
What?
It's all the dream of the autistic kid from Saint Elsewhere.
MUST
STOP
READING
LOST
SPOILERS
...
AAaaaaagh!! I can't! I just can't stop...
it's almost as if the writters are just making up random plot points to keep the audience strung out on an ever increasing number of cliff-hangers and unanswered questions and that they have now done so for so long a period that they must poll the audience for suggestions just to get their bareings on where the plot actually is. with this information they might be able to come up with an ending that satisfies a portion of the audience and avoid being damned to invent random plot points in perpetuity.
@tetracycloide:
It's almost as if the writers have just realized they have made the show too damn convulted, and are polling to see just how much has sunk into the heads of the audience.
Does this strongly imply to anyone else that the producers don't actually know what's going on in the show, so they're trying to get the fans to pull a rabbit out of a hat for them?
-Kle.
@munkles: Here's the video that they made to back what you said up:
+ Watch video
It's the Magic Eightball method of script writing... "Not now, check back later".
This makes me wish I watched Lost so I could participate.
Also, they should do this for Battlestar Galactica.
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