Your Voice: The Lost Tower
Submitted by Gary Anderson
"The Man in Black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed."
So begins Stephen King’s magnum opus "The Dark Tower" which encompasses seven books, beginning with The Gunslinger (1982) through The Dark Tower (2004).
Now JJ Abrams has already professed to want to do the adaptation of The Dark Tower when/if it ever gets to that point. Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff have optioned the rights to the series from King for 19 dollars, 19 being a symbolic number in the series of books.
Now considering that all three of the big guns in charge of Lost are such huge fans of The Dark Tower series, would it be that big of a stretch to say that there could be similarities in the two? Perhaps inspirations taken from there, influences so to speak?
HUGE SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE DARK TOWER SERIES IN ITS COMPLETE ENTIRETY. I WILL BE SPOILING THE ENDING TO THE SEVENTH BOOK FOR THIS THEORY, SO PLEASE DO NOT READ ON IF YOU ARE NOT FINISHED READING THE SERIES.
Now that that’s out of the way….
For those who have read the series, you know that the entire journey of Roland turns out to be a loop, pretty much. The Gunslinger gets to the Tower, walks up the steps, goes through the door, and then it jumps to….well, I’ll quote Wikipedia here:
Roland climbing to the top of the Dark Tower. He encounters various rooms with siguls or signs of his past life. When he reaches the top of the Tower, he finds a door marked "Roland" and to his horror, he realizes he has reached the Tower countless times before. He is sucked through the door only to be teleported back in time to the Mohaine desert, ending the series where it began in the first line of book one: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." There is a slight twist, however; the memory of reaching the Tower quickly fades, yet Roland now possesses the Horn of Eld that he had foolishly lost long ago during the battle of Jericho Hill. This subtle but significant change from the previous timeline further enforces the implication that this cycle of Roland’s journey will present him the opportunity to make different decisions and possibly break the cycle and find salvation.
Now, with that knowledge in hand, let’s look at some instances of this perhaps coming true on Lost.
Recently people have been talking about how the producers have said that there’s a clue to everything way back in the pilot episode. So everyone’s been wondering what that could be. Well, the folks over at DarkUFO have posted a screencap that very well could show that thing.
http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/2008/05/episode-101-pilot-object-with-jack.html
Now as the page talks about, Ben had this collapsible baton in his pocket that he used to disable and dispatch of the two Arab gentlemen, after he had teleported (perhaps) into the Tunisian desert. Then in the past episode, the first part of the finale, he passed that baton to Locke and said "hold onto this for me".
Could that Baton be the key to a BIG mystery? It’s true that the character of Ben was probably not thought of during the first episode of the series. We all know by now that Ben was never meant to be this far reaching, but there’s a good chance that the creators intended for this plotline to develop, whether it was with Ben, Mr. Friendly, or someone else. There would always have been someone that would be showing up in that desert, and passing the baton onto Locke. Perhaps somehow Jack comes into possession of it, and when the series of Lost ends, Jack is back on the island, with no memory of the fact that he’s already been through this once. Except this time he has the baton by his side.
This could be the key that clues him in to the fact that he’s messed up somewhere throughout the series (at least specifically pertaining to the island) and he needs to fix it. Otherwise he’ll be doomed to travel the same loop forever.
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This was taken right off of Doc Artz blog. I hope they are more original than this.
Comment by Mick — May 19, 2008 @ 8:53 am
what do you mean “taken right off of Doc Arzt’s blog”?
I posted this over on the Darkufo’s new forums under my other username, but didn’t see this posted on Arzt’s site.
I know a few have brought up the Baton thing in recent days, but I haven’t seen anyone bring up the Dark Tower loop aspect.
Not to say I’m the first to think of this, but just saying…
Comment by Gary — May 19, 2008 @ 9:23 am
This is very intriguing. After ‘Cabin Fever’, I’m leaning more and more towards the possibility that Locke and Ben are brothers, well atleast half-brothers. You would have to think this is the road Cuselof is going down, and has been since they decided to turn Emerson’s originally planned background ‘other’ into Lost’s main antagonist. I’m not saying that this theory is completely in the bag, but if you were a betting man, you’d have to take a shot. If you are an avid fan, you will know by watching the show that all the clues pertaining to this theory are there, so I won’t waste valuable time by going through them all, but I’m definately jumping on the Ben passing on the baton to Locke theory band wagon. The only thing that’s making me um and ah about this is… If this is the case, why is Ben still carrying the baton in the Tunisian desert in 2005? Time will tell. Oh, and Joker, not that I want to sound like a stuck-up jerk, but seriously, if you’re too lazy to use correct spelling and grammer, then don’t bother posting comments in the first place. Honestly dude, I could barely understand what the hell you were going on about.
Comment by Dan — May 19, 2008 @ 12:57 pm
It makes sense and does relate to the writters quote that there is a mjor hint in the pilot episode.
This is very plausable and the more you think about it the more it makes sense. If you use this theory and apply it to the story to date it explains alot.
The Dark Tower stories were always implicated in this and maybe king is in on the whole thing?
Don’t go comparing screenshots and say “that’s not the same baton” Lost has never been consistant in between shots let alone 4 seasons. So the size of it means nothing really. What does matter is that there is something similar in episode 1.
Then again this could just be another of Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloffs red herrings which i’m sure they enjoy to do to take our eyes off the ball.
I’m just gonna wait and see what happens over the next 2 years as it’s nigh on impossible to predict this weird stuff.
Comment by Burial — May 19, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
Don, I brought this up weeks ago as my prediction for how the series would end.
Comment by dolce — May 19, 2008 @ 7:08 pm
Sorry. Imeant Gary, I brought this up weeks ago as my prediction ( and I do not claim this as 100% certain, because you can’t ever be with this show- just a thought I threw out there) for the end of the series. You did, however go into greater detail. Mine was short and aimed at those who wre familiar to T.D.T. VII. It’s great to hear/read that someone else is thinking along these lines. For a show or story that you love so much, where you are torn between wanting to know how it ends ( with the possibility of being let down ) and never wanting it to end, it’s the endless ending.
Comment by dolce — May 19, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
Dude, Dan– I hate to be a stickler for spelling, but if you are going to criticize others… It’s grammar spelled with an a, not an e. Therefore, lets resolve to not pass judgement because we’re not in English class people.
Comment by Red — May 19, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
amazingly yesterday, without ever reading your theory gary I came to the same realization that The Dark tower and the show Lost have striking similarities(in both the use of flashback is implemented to tell the backstory of the characters, in both there is constant traveling between space and time, in both there is an importance of numbers and as you said J.J. Abrams is both the creator of the show lost and a huge fan of the dark tower series who has planned on making the movies.). in fact i sent an email to the editors of this site to give them my theory
heres the exact email i sent:
“I’m really terrible at writing my own theories so bear with me haha. The name’s Omri by the way.
Today my little brother showed me something very interesting.. It was three screenshots of One of the very first moment of the Lost pilot, one of the very first moments of the recent episode “The Shape of things to come”, and one of the last episode. In all three screencaps there is an object that you can see repeatedly. In “the shape of things to come” its Ben using a certain baton-like object to beat down the two men who found him, in the last episode Ben gives the baton-like object to Locke, and if you watch the very first scene of the pilot you can actually see the very same baton-like object right next to jack’s head. One thing that interests me about this is that in the last two scenes they both seem to have something to do with time/space travel (ben had apparently just traveled through time and space when he awoke in the desert, and Ben gave the baton to locke right before locke was suppose to move the island… also presumably through time and/or space). Thinking like this it would make sense to think that this baton is of great importance to time/space travel. One can think that it is possible the pilot episode where jack awakens in the forest is actually another example of this. It is possible that the Jack we see was not even on the plane, it might just be Jack again returning to the island because he has a goal he has yet to complete, which might be to save everyone from the island.
I felt there was a huge problem with this theory when i first thought of it. First and foremost it seems like Jack would remember if he had just gone through time, however i then came to an epiphany of sorts. We have all seen that the writers of Lost love Stephen King. Well i have honestly only read one series by Stephen King and it just so happens to be my favorite fantasy series of all-time (trumping The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter). I’m talking about the Dark Tower Series (and as many of you know J. J. Abrams is planning to make The Dark Tower movies). In the books the main character is a gunslinger named Roland who has been searching for The Dark Tower. The dark tower is a huge tower that can be seen from any point in the world, but first and foremost it is meant to symbolize his singular ambition. In Roland’s there is no obstacle, there is absolutely nothing that could stop him from reaching that tower because he believes it will lead to his retribution and a certain sense of closure he’s constantly been looking for. Well eventually he finally reaches the dark tower, he finally opens its doors and he finally feels as if his life’s work was complete. however once he gets into the tower, he comes to a terrible realization. Before he can stop what is inevitably going to happen, the tower literally forces him back in time and space right back to the very first moment of the very first book of the series. The series spanning 30+ years of writing by Stephen king, thousands and thousands of pages, millions and millions of words, begins and ends with the exact same sentence… “The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.” The moment Roland was returned to moment of the first book he completely forgot everything and presumably did the exact same things he did throughout the series for what may be the hundredth time if he could have realized that.
What makes me believe Jack is going through the same thing is a few things. First of all there’s always been a question of why Jack’s eyes were so dilated the moment he awoke in the island, and also why was he so far from the plane when it seemed everyone else was right next to the plane after the crash. The other thing is like Roland, Jack is a man who constantly seems to have one singular goal on the island. He NEEDS to save everyone. Everytime someone dies before he can do this, it obviously almost destroys him and as we have seen he apparently was only able to save himself and 5 others so far. My belief is that he keeps cycling back to the moment when the plane crashes because until he saves everyone and keeps everyone alive he wont be able to stop the vicious cycle.
Im quite sure i didn’t explain this as well as i could have. But lets just say i wont be surprised if the very last scene of lost will be exactly like the very first scene. If it is i hope y’all will travel back in time and read this.”
Comment by Omri — May 19, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
I’ve often thought for the last couple of years that the show could be headed that way. If it ends this way, then who is Jacob? And if they do something like this, hopefully what we are watching is the last iteration of the loop.
Comment by Larry — May 20, 2008 @ 7:46 am
That would explain Jack in the Bamboo. Jack makes it back to the island.
Comment by djEvil1 — May 20, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Jack could be Jacob.
If we’re tossing around Jack as gaining the ability to travel time and space who’s to say that he doesn’t become a much bigger part of the island’s mythology and history? If that baton is the big clue–which I’m obviously buying into–then who knows what its limits are? Jack could be there to both protect the island and save ‘his people’ (the losties). Also, it’s my humble opinion that I know it’s a stretch but consider who speaks on his behalf in the cabin: his father and his sister.
Plus, Jack could TOTALLY be short for Jacob.
Yup, this theory is bulletproof.
Comment by Slackosis — May 21, 2008 @ 9:04 am
Sorry Dolce, the Dark Tower was brought up the 1st year of the series, and the timeloop aspect was brought up 2 years ago with some detail.
So, instead of, “I thought of this first”, just realize there is a lot of parallel thinking going on amongst a lot of well read people…that is to say, nothing is new under the sun.
Comment by Aliasrox — May 22, 2008 @ 5:39 am
ummm, i would not consider having read anything written by Stephen King as being “well read”.
hehehhe
Comment by hamilton — May 22, 2008 @ 6:57 am
Jack was not suppose to live beyond the first few eppies so how was this pre planned. I’m not saying the show won’t end as it began,but…There have been alot of movies,books,etc. made about there being a special Utopia place somewhere and IMO this is the premise of LOST adapted to appeal to all nationalities,races and religions and of course to enlighten and appeal to the young
Comment by Shangri La — May 27, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
i love this show!
Comment by Somebody New — May 29, 2008 @ 9:15 pm
Shangri La,
I haven’t checked this for awhile, but figured I would address something.
You said “Jack wasn’t supposed to live beyond the first few episodes”, While it’s true that in the initial planning Jack was to die and Kate would be the leader, by the time they got to filming it, they had already decided that Jack should live. I believe it was said in a commentary or something that the higherups had read the script and insisted that Jack live.
Comment by Gary — August 14, 2008 @ 3:20 pm