Lost: Why it’s NOT a time loop…
By fred | January 30, 2008
Ahh… Lost, its mysteries, and our theories. Our billions of theories. A little while back, I too used to have theories about the show, and what the Hell was going on there. But quite frankly, I don’t anymore. I don’t, because after my latest theory got proven wrong I was simply unable to find one that would entirely please me.
I never stopped trying, thinking about the show and the how’s and why’s, about what could possibly explain things. And, sure, I still have, on some points, my beliefs of what may or may not be going on, what may or may not be causing whatever is happening, but I don’t have an overall theory, because every time I tried to think of one, it either got proven wrong, or didn’t work, or very simply wasn’t good enough.
But instead of trying to explain what’s happening on the show, instead of once again going over the last season(s) and wondering about the future, I want to do something a little different. The future is near, it’s getting closer every day and there will be plenty to say once we’ll be there, I’m sure.
But today, I want to talk about one of those theory that I’ve had, and that I’m sure billions of you have had as well, and I want to talk about why it’s not good for Lost.
We all know that there’s something quite fishy on the Island regarding time. It’s only one of the many things that are quite odd on that place, but it is without a doubt an important one. And when you think about it and try to come up with some kind of explanation, or a theory, you’re pretty much doomed to end up at one point or another with some kind of a “time travel” approach. More precisely, you probably envisioned the possibility of a time loop situation.
I have thought about it as well, it seems unavoidable, and there are probably as many variants of this time loop and how it would work than there are viewers of the show. The time loop could explain lots of things. It could explain why when we see one scene from the past a second time, it’s somehow different. It’s the same scene, yes, but yet somehow it’s different. Same place, same location, same people, but something has changed.
Just like when Charlie was playing some songs right before it started to pour : one time he was facing the street, and the other time he was not. Even his clothes were similar, but not actually the same. Yes, Desmond was acting very differently that time, quite obviously he was “reliving” his past while having conscience that this was, somehow, the past. And he remembered it, all of it, even what was going to happen, what - at that moment - was still the future.
A time loop explains this all very well. I’m sure many believes that everyone is stuck on a damned time loop, that there is some major event at some point that resets everything, and it all starts over. Some will think that the show will end with that mysterious event, that the very last shot of the very last episode of the show will be no other than Jack’s opening eyes, on the beach, the day Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on the Island.
That the show will end with Jack, Locke and everyone realizing that they “screwed up”, that they did not do the work they were supposed to do, that they failed to accomplish their destiny, and so they were given another chance, one more, to do things differently and break the loop.
Others could argue that we would witness such an event during the next seasons, and that we would go over the whole storyline twice or thrice before it ends. This is highly unlikely as it would give too much away I would think, and would make things much less good - if not boring. Lost hasn’t been constructed that way, and it couldn’t work like that, I don’t think so. Plus, Walt’s too old now anyway.
To the author:
Interesting article. However, I think the producers have exhausted almost every possible explanation of the show.
If the show was about purgatory, it would be cheap. If the show was about a giant experiment, then there would be too many inconsistencies. But, if the show was about time travel, you could instantly make 100’s of connections about why things happened on the show.
The Matrix analogy, while interesting, doesn’t work. The 3rd installation of the trilogy was crap, and not just because it was about a time loop. By the time the time loop came into play, the viewer already didn’t care about what was happening to the characters in the movie. Thus, it could be a time loop or not - the movie would still be crap.
Lost, on the other hand, offers so much to think about - that no matter what the outcome, there will be things to reflect on.
The show is most definitely about time travel. Check out my theory - hopefully I can get you back on the time travel bandwagon.
http://www.timelooptheory.com
-Jason
Thanks for your comment.
Yeah, the third Matrix was crap, I mostly used it to show the “twist” of the time loop (no actual time travel).
I went and read you theory, that’s a very nice one you got there, for sure, and I do like that the time loop isn’t used in its most usual form. I have to admit, though, that I’m not entirely pleased with it. Or don’t fully get how it would work. For instance, if the Island is “stuck” into a loop of 108 minutes, which aims to protect its people, the Others, from the outside world (DHARMA), then how could they ever leave and return ? How could they go get Juliet, for instance, in late 2001 while the Island is on its time loop, in 2000 ?
Plus, you say that there is an “automatic” course correcting, if someone was dead he’ll somehow die again, to “fix” things. But how can any of the death on the Island be explained then, since it would be in a past where all the Losties, Shannon, Boon, Libby, Eko, all of them had to be alive ?
Also, in your theory Ben has to see Desmond turning the key - and destroying the time machine - has a tragedy, which then led to Jack making the call, DHARMA finding the Island, the beginning of the end. Ben wanted the buttons to be pushed, always, because it meant the Island stayed secure. But what led to Desmond turning the key was that Locke doubt his faith for a moment and refused to push the buttons, and that was caused directly by Ben ! Wouldn’t that be a huge contradiction in his actions ??
But it is true that there is most definitely something, whatever it actually is, going on with time on the Island. It may has to do with time travel, but even then time travel doesn’t have to mean loop…
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Sorry Fred, but this seems like a bizarre and unnecessary article. There’s absolutely no evidence to warrant this as a plausible theory. An evil character being secretive (shocker!) and minuscule differences between scenes means very little. Hell, the producers have clearly stated that they’re avoiding the much more mundane idea of alternate timelines. You think they’d entertain a time loop premise, ala groundhog day, for the whole show? I don’t think a time loop theory warrants discussion, little less disproving.
I suggest a follow-up article where you disprove that it’s a spaghetti monster messing with the castaways! ;)
hmm… a spaghetti monster you say, yeah why not? :P
But regarding the time loop theory, I think many people are buying into this theory actually, thinking that there is some kind of a time loop going on, that Ben, and now maybe Widmore as well, already know about the future, know what will happen, because they’re already live it. Something a little like Desmond felt after he turned the safe key and got to “re-lived” parts of his life.
And know after The Shape Of Things To Come I’m sure even more people are going to find this theory attractive…
I still don’t like it, and hope there’s no such thing going on, but I don’t think you can say that “there’s absolutely no evidence to warrant this as a plausible theory“. There are no definite evidence, and that’s why it’s only a theory, not a (proven) fact, but there are clues. Or things that could be interpreted as such…