Reincarnation or resurrection?
Consciousness jumping demonstrates, at least within the confines of the Lost-verse and this may be applicable only on the island that the mind and body can separate although this separation may only be possible for short durations without permanent damage or death. What this allows for is reincarnation of some sort. What if the body dies? Shouldn’t the consciousness continue? Where would someone’s consciousness go, into another body perhaps? Could you trap it? If you could tray it, why would someone be motivated to do so? This brings up some interesting ideas about Jacob.
The concept of reincarnation was there all along.
When Aaron was born, Boone died. Boone’s death was brought up again in the Little Prince as was the birth of Aaron. The writers may be trying to die the concept of birth and rebirth….reincarnation. I don’t think Boone and Aaron is the same person but I believe the concept of the cycle of birth and rebirth was being highlighted again in the Little Prince for a reason. Reincarnation also fits into the entire theme of Dharma and Buddhism as well as the idea of time looping.
I also think we ought to reexamine the items test given to Locke by Alpert. We all assume he failed but that conclusion was based on the assumption that Richard was coming from the future to the past and that at least one of the items would be owned by Locke in the future. Now we can safely say after the events in the episode Jughead that this assumption was incorrect. Richard likely believed that the correct choice was the compass and his angry reaction was based on this presumption but he was wrong.
But I don’t think we should leave that scene for good. Watch it again; Locke places the vial and compass away from the other items. Why would he do that? It is meant for us, the audience. And it is no coincidence that the camera lingers on the Book of Laws, from young Locke’s perspective I might add, for a moment.
Another question I think is very important is why Locke chose the Knife. The easiest simplest answer is the one I hear a lot, Locke’s character liked knives so naturally he choose the knife. This answer is too simple. The knife is old, even for the fifties. What does that mean? Is this an example of Reincarnation? Are we going to see this again. Have we already seen the next Dali Locke? It is perfectly possible that considering how time is not exactly linear. Has someone been trying to prevent this? When we see what happens to Locke’s body after he is brought back to the island things will become clearer.
Again, very enjoyable read!

Faraday’s comments to Ellie in 1954 re: “We’re from the fuuuuuture” seems to be the event that really starts this whole nonsense. That’s the earliest indication of time travel. Did Faraday KNOW what he was doing?? As has been said up above, Ellie (Eloise), Widmore, Richard, then had 50 years to hone their knowledge of the Island with this critical fact. I really love that it looks like the FDW isn’t just a throwaway one time use element now that we know Locke is heading back there in 1988. Could the FDW become as iconic as the crash of 815? How many times will we revisit it? It’s been surmised that both Locke and Widmore may have pushed the wheel at some point.

Sonya, I’m still not sure the Oceanic 6 HAD to leave. I’ve thought about everything after their departure as a course correction. Their removal caused a major disturbance in the space-time continuum hence lots of stuff has to happen to bring them back and to bring balance to the Island. There seems to be some indication that if you leave the Island before your work is done, both the Island and your own mind are not “whole.” The Island keeps part of you. As a result, you are drawn back to it. And actually, that may be an element that caused the 815 crash. There were so many people on that flight who had connections to the Island that it was an inevitability. Especially true if you subscribe to the docarzt theory of the 815 crash we saw being the second time through the timeline. Then ALL the survivors had been on the Island before. In the end, I can’t help but think that most, if not all, of the 815 survivors are supposed to stay on the Island. Forever. And by doing so, they’ll save the rest of us who are hanging out in the real world.

The cabin scene with Locke enters and receives instructions (we do not hear this conversation) from Christian cannot be taken as instruction from Jacob. There has been a shake up in cabin ownership. Thus, when Locke tells Ben that “he wants us to move the island” Ben assumes Jacob. Again, the nondisclosure of information, and misdirection.

I am watching this season with my NOT-playing-by-the-rules eyes and ears. I agree that Desmond and/or Daniel is the key. Daniel even says “here’s the key” or “I’m the key” and Desmond physically turned one.

I can’t help but wonder to what end this game is being played. Capture the island, turn the FDW and THE END. There are just too many people with knowledge of this island for it to remain a secret from the world. So, does it really exist? I may have to flash away from reality theories an into the ‘virtual world’ theory constructs, or, failing that, check into Santa Rosa.

Enjoy your comments every episode.

Also, quite to the contrary, all the people doing the time-jumping absolutely had to be there or the time-jumping wouldn’t have happened as we know it did thanks to the past. The timeline we’re in can’t exist without it.

And forget about Constants. They only apply to consciousness-based time-tripping. Bodily time-travel is a whole different beastie. If all you needed was something you cared about in both time-periods while traveling bodily through time, none of the current time travelers would be having any symptoms except for possibly Miles (’cause he’s kind of a flinty, sarky bastard…and we love him for it! ). Dan & Charlotte do care about one another, as do Sawyer & Juliet (even if just as friends). Locke’s constant could just as easily be the Island itself. But the evidence says it doesn’t work that way. No…I think the nosebleeds are both exactly what Dan thinks they are—a symptom of bodily time-travel, aggravated by Island exposure—and a goad by “course-correction” to do what they need to do during their time-trips in order to make them stop (like Locke leaving the Island on his mission as Jeremy Bentham), lest they die.

Des & Dan at the Hatch was all about the fact that Desmond is a temporal wild-card. Dan knew that non-Desmond-related changes can’t be made, but Desmond-enabled changes can. Could Sawyer have talked to Des instead of Dan talking to Des? I say “yes!” But I also think that Dan very intentionally persuaded Sawyer to leave before Des answered given that he knew roughly how long it would take Des to get all suited up and get to the door, and he had to implant his message for Des to go see ol’ mum.

This was very clearly a change in the timeline, just as Des’ actions in “Flashes Before Your Eyes” were a change…just not enough of one to significantly alter his timeline by not dumping Penny, joining the Army, going to the Island, etc.

The O6, on the other hand, had to leave and return. Case in point: zombie-Christian telling Locke that Aaron was “where he needed to be” upon Locke questioning Aaron’s separation from Claire in “Cabin Fever.” How could that be if Aaron’s time with “mommy” Kate off-Island wasn’t supposed to happen?

We do know the time-skipping had to happen since it’s what started everything, so that certainly means the wheel had to get turned. We don’t know that Ben necessarily knew it was going to be himself doing the turning until Locke came out of Jacob’s cabin with the message the the Island had to be moved but not instructions on how to do so.

I think it’s strongly implied that at least a few cognoscenti knew about the crash of Oceanic 815 thanks to future-knowledge, and given the evidence of a second Ajira Airways plane-crash gathered by Locke, Juliet et al, foreknowledge of that event will also probably be passed along during a future time-skip.

So yeah, when does the future-knowledge run out? That’s the question. And once it’s answered, you’re quite right that that’s going to finally be the “present” of the series beyond which events are at least unknown to all participants and possibly also changeable thanks to Desmond’s (and possibly Walt’s) influence.

As far as Ben and the O6, he might very well not have been aware of their implications until consulting with the Delphi Oracle of time, Hawking, off-Island. Some secrets are probably jealously guarded specifically from others with foreknowledge in order to gain an upper hand in the endgame.

Hell, who knows what Richard kept from Ben, given that he had at least a couple of decades to mull future knowledge before Ben ever came onto the scene? His feeding Locke info about Cooper in S.3 seems every bit as much about manipulating Ben as it is manipulating Locke. That Ben is giving the appearance of less-than-omniscience now certainly didn’t go unnoticed by either of us (though Ben’s improvising is better than most people’s well-laid plans… ).

That Hawking and Widmore were playing “timecop” with Desmond at the very least is now completely established. That characters like Locke (by Abaddon), Jin (by Paik), Claire (by the psychic), Hurley (by rather extreme “course-correction”), and others were manipulated into being on that particular plane is so strongly implied as to be virtually certain.

Finally, that more information is passed along than we’ve seen so far by means of bodily or consciousness-based time-travel is also known based on instances like Alpert’s convenient appearance to Locke in the jungle with a med-kit and compass, and Hawking’s foreknowledge of Desmond’s original timeline. Not all of that information had to come from the Lostaways, though. We know for a fact that Faraday succeeded in causing consciousness-travel as early as 1996, thanks to Desmond.

Re: a fully-predictable universe given sufficient data, that thought gets explored more in Asimov’s brilliant short story, “The Last Question.”

Regarding psychohistory: I’ve always had my own theory that the entire universe is entirely predictable, if you were able to exist outside of it with enough computing ability, and knew enough about the beginning of the universe. Basically, every subatomic particle, at some level, has entirely 100% predictable behavior. Nothing is truly random. If you could map out all of these subatomic particles and their various paths predicted, you could know exactly what every single one of them would do until the end of time. And from there, the rest is easy.