The Tail Section

Your Voice: The Everything Theory, Part 1

Lost Theories — June 5, 2008 at 9:33 am by Matt

Submitted by Jalocke

Okay, before I begin, I want to make a disclaimer.  I fully acknowledge that I have stolen and ripped off many of the ideas I am putting forth here, but what I am attempting to do is put it all together with my own ideas.  On the top of my head I can definitely say I stole from Losty’s wonderful post that can be found here.  I am sure there are others, but that’s the only one I can remember as being definitely not my original idea.


Okay, now onto my actual post where I will attempt to put together a lot of the story lines in a way that I think is really super cool, and I would be extremely happy if it turns out this way.

To begin, let us look at the scene in the recent episode “Cabin Fever.”  In this episode we learned that a young John Locke was visited by our good friend Richard Alpert.  Here Richard gave him a quick test where he was asked to pick from several items including a compass, a knife, a book of laws, a vial of what looked like sand, a baseball glove, a comic book, and maybe something else.  John picked the compass, the vial, and the knife.  When John picked the knife, Richard angrily got up and told John he wasn’t ready yet.

I am making the assumption here that Richard wanted Locke to pick the book of laws, and that this test was designed as a way to determine potential leaders of the island.  By not picking the book of laws Richard decided that Locke was not yet ready to be trained.  However, I do not think that John chose incorrectly.  I would say that John chose the item which did “belong” to him.  I’ll come back to this point later.

In the finale we learned that the only way to move the island is by turning the wheel beneath the Orchid station, and that whoever does this will be banished from the island forever.  If we go back to the episode “The Beginning of the End,” we should remember the all-important discussion between Benjamin Linus and Charles Widmore.  Here we learned that these two characters most likely cannot kill each other, that they follow some sort of rules, and that Widmore, at one point, controlled the island.  Now fast-forward to the finale.  In one discussion between Sun and Widmore, Sun implied that Charles had been to the island before.  I will also come back to this point later.

Now as we all have known, and as I have harped upon ridiculously, this show has always been about the duality of existence.  This has represented itself in the themes of black and white, male and female, free-will and predeterminism, science and faith.  From the beginning of the show, two men have stepped forward as heroes for either side.  Jack Shephard has represented the aspect of Science, and John Locke has represented the aspect of Faith.  But have these two been the only men in the history of this show who have championed those ideals?  I would argue no.

But first, a little history that I have come up with:  According to my thoughts, the island originated as a Garden of Eden like place.  It could be analogized that this place was the fabled Avalon or even the Lost Island of Atlantis.  Throughout history it has appeared and shaped events in its own mysterious ways.  Men and women lived on this island in peace and happiness.  At one point they constructed statues and monuments to famous peoples (Why they have four toes? I really couldn’t tell ya.)  And on this island there were two leaders, so to speak.  One was the political leader, the man of science, who organized and led the island’s people, and one was the spiritual leader, the man of faith or the hunter, who led the island’s people in a more holy way.  For generations this is how things were done, and the people who were chosen for these roles were chosen in very specific ways.  The political leaders were chosen according to family lines and the spiritual leaders were chosen reincarnates of the previous leader.  However, at one point a conflict arose between the two leaders.  What that conflict was I couldn’t tell you, but it was a big one, and it tore the inhabitants of this island in half.  During this conflict the man of faith decided that the island needed to be moved, and the cycle needed to be restarted if the island was to be saved.  However, he was not concerned about losing power as the next spiritual leader would merely be a reincarnated version of him.  However, the political leader was furious; he was being forced to be removed from power.  With his close followers, the man of science attacked the man of faith in the chamber containing the wheel.  However, while the man of science and the man of faith were in the chamber, the man of faith managed to turn the wheel, before his death, and the man of science and man of faith were both teleported off the island and banished forever due to the laws of the island.  The rest of the island’s inhabitants were now lost.

Without any political leader — due to the family line of the man of science being destroyed — and without any spiritual leader — due to the imbalance in the nature of the island — the island’s inhabitants fell into chaos. Power struggles ensued and they eventually killed themselves off.  These unbalanced souls were not allowed to leave the island and pass on into death as the cosmic balance was out of sync.  These souls bonded with the island and manifested themselves in two ways.  One way was as Jacob.  The other was as the smoke monster.  Jacob was the more calculating of the two, who tries to manipulate events in such a way to bring balance to the island, and the smoke monster is the vengeful souls, still seeking revenge on any inhabitant of the island who is not perceived as totally pure.

However, the man of science did not just disappear.  This man had found a way to live forever.  Perhaps it was through his connection to the island and his need to get back, or perhaps it was something else.  He eventually came to be known as Charles Widmore.  Charles Widmore was the man of science who would do anything to get back to the island and regain his power.  The man of faith who did not care about his own power but merely wanted to bring balance back to the island, was a ancestor of the Hanso line.  Hanso did not become immortal as it was never important to him.  His soul was balanced and he understood that in a way he would come again to attempt to bring balance.  One day, several centuries ago, Magnus Hanso, a descendent of the original Hanso, stumbled across the island on his slave ship.  This new series of inhabitants fell prey to the imbalance of the island.  Some were killed by the smoke monster, and others were killed by their own conflicts.  Magnus Hanso himself tried to take control, and, with a twist of irony, became political leader.  However, without a spiritual leader, the island was still without peace.  Eventually he was killed, and his soul became part of the island.  Some of the slaves and survivors managed to escape from the island, while others decided to stay behind.  These survivors brought back with them the diary of Magnus Hanso, who had written down how he had found the island and all of the secrets he had learned.  One of the survivors, Richard Alpert, took control of the remaining castaways and led them in their decision to stay with the island.  Richard developed a close contact with Jacob, who told him to wait in hiding until their leader would arrive.

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of the theory, where Jalocke discusses what role the Losties play in the epic history of the island.

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