Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there are those of you who are sick to death of hearing people talk about their own theories on Lost,
and then there are those of you who get a kick out of it. And yet
again, there are some who seem to be sending their every waking hour on
it. After watching this past week's episode of the show, as we saw the
story of Sun and Jin's meeting, an idea regarding the whole show
occurred to me, and I think I'm onto something.Every episode (at least I think every episode) has centered around one or several characters' back story. These are essentially memories that each of the characters have before their time on the island. But who's to say they are real memories?
Keep in mind how many strange coincidences we've seen in this show. Sawyer in the police station when Boone was there, Jack knowing Desmond, Hurley and the numbers. I'm sure I'm missing a lot more, and there's no doubt more coming. And then there are all of the numbers references -- they're everywhere! And they are all somehow in all of these peoples' lives, one way or another.
My theory -- and this is most likely not a new one -- is that the memories these people have are false ones. The plane never crashed, it was just placed there that way. Everyone remembers the plane crashing, but it never really did. Hurley never won the lottery. Jack never met Desmond at the stadium. Kate never ran from the law. While many believe that these people are in an otherworldly place, a place that is mystical and in some ways impossible, it's actually the lives they believe they had that are false and unreal.
And what of the numbers present everywhere? They're a mistake. It's a anomaly left over in whatever method used to implant the false memories in these people. Sort of like the unicorn in Blade Runner, I guess.
In case you haven't seen it yet, it's been confirmed that the Dharma symbol can be seen on a piece of the plane, way back at the beginning of season one. I think that's something that also lends credence to this theory, if you ask me. Is there a flaw in my thinking on this?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-23-2005 @ 1:54PM
Lex Friedman said...
It's a fascinating theory that I'm seeing pick up some momentum online in various places. The same woman both read Hurley's lotto numbers on TV and had run-ins with Sawyer; Jack made a choice to save Sarah and thus let Shannon's father die; Jin had Hurley's lotto win on the TV news in the background, etc.
I like it.
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10-23-2005 @ 4:35PM
sblmnl said...
I think our theories are compatible. Mine is that some of these people signed up for an alternate (virtual) reality experience, and others are sims. Their real memories have been temporarily disabled, and have been replaced with faux experiences that bestow certain personality traits on the "players". The numbers may be connected to a fail-safe mechanism that allows participants to bail out if the experience becomes too intense.
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10-23-2005 @ 5:23PM
Patrick Wynne said...
Sorry, but there's no way that's a Dharma Initiative logo on the plane wreckage.
I mean, just compare the two!
Plane: http://www.tvsquad.com/images/2005/10/dharma_on_plane.png
Dharma Initiative: http://thedharmainitiative.org/
The design on the plane has concentric hexagonal (maybe; we can't see the whole thing) rings while the DI logo is a hexagon with broken lines inside it restricted within "slices" of the hexagon. Apart from the overall hexagonalish design, they're nothing alike.
Sheesh, I enjoy finding the connections as much as the next viewer, but some people are just going WAY overboard.
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10-23-2005 @ 6:45PM
C.K. Sample, III said...
So you're saying it's just like what God did with the Dinosaurs. Putting their bones in the earth and making them seem really really old to trick us into thinking that the earth is really really old.
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10-24-2005 @ 3:03AM
LordPaul said...
#3 - I think it's similar enough to be a theory at least. The production designers could have changed the design from the first season, it happens.
#4 - That's also a film called Identity, with John Cussack & Ray Liotta, good story, shame you gave it away ;)
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10-24-2005 @ 3:31PM
Skippy said...
No too unlike the movie Dark City (see it now, it's good), except that aliens were involved, but the memory implants are a similar idea.
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10-24-2005 @ 4:56PM
rico said...
Also covered in a very fine film called "Dark City", which dealt with an alien race kidnapping a city's worth of humans, then altering their memories every night, specifically to see how their behavior changed the following morning. They wanted to figure out what made humans "human", and by fundamentally changing their personalities and personal histories, were able to see in the human psyche. Really good movie.
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10-24-2005 @ 7:11PM
Rai Singh said...
Very interesting theory. I read a Dennis Lehane book about 2 years back called Shutter Island. It was about an ex-cop that believed he was investigating the disappearance of a patient on a island that treated the criminally insane. It turns out in the book, that he is the patient and the entire staff (on the island) is in on an elaborate plan to rehabilitate him in a last ditch effort before he's lobotomized/executed. Even his closest friend/partner works for the institution. It's a decent book. A lot of parallels.
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10-24-2005 @ 9:31PM
John Cain said...
Have you considered another famous science fiction movie... The Matrix? I have also read somewhere that one of the creators said (in effect) don't necessarily believe that this story is set in 2004/05. It could be set way in the future and this is some sort of virtual reality.
Could be a therapy that once they deal with their issues (like Boone), they die or exit the therapy.
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10-25-2005 @ 2:43PM
Skippy said...
Hey Patrick, I agree that the logos don't seem to be quite exact, but look at this shot from the Dharma orientation video. http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1384/symbol8vc.jpg
It looks like the Oceanic logo on the bookshelf. Sure, maybe that's a stretch too, but you never know. Time will tell I guess! :-)
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10-25-2005 @ 3:33PM
TheDude said...
There was also, "Total Recall" if you all have forgotten....The Governator, Sharon Stone...
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11-03-2005 @ 6:12PM
ErricZ said...
If you have seen other pics of the place, you can tell it is a Dharma logo -- possibly one we just haven't been introduced. I wouldn't be so quick to write it off just yet.
Reply
11-06-2005 @ 3:45PM
BubbaCoop said...
Even The Village is a reasonable comparison. Especially when you consider there may be a few people on the island who really know the truth.
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11-06-2005 @ 5:33PM
Zaffudo said...
The only thing I don't like about the memories being implanted is the fact that certain people on the island have some pretty specific and useful skills.
I mean, where does Jack's medical expertise come from? Knowledge and experience are two drastically different things. Just giving someone the medical knowledge of a doctor doesn't give them the ability to be one.
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11-23-2005 @ 7:59AM
sarah gilbert said...
Zaffudo, I don't think the skills are incompatible with this theory; after all, it could be that (for instance) a doctor signed up for this experience - his life just wasn't quite as interesting as Jack's ;)
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11-28-2005 @ 1:03PM
BOZZZ said...
#7 i have read many posts about people saying it might not be 2004/2005 on the island and its probly in the future because they never said the date...in season 1 when kate is reading the letter sawyer had on him she realized it was him who wrote the letter becauce of the stamp....it was from the bicentenial 1976 and she said sawyer could have only been 8 or 9...that would make him about 37-38 on the island....if it was 10years in the future from now like most had been saying it would mean he is close to 50
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