One other problem...



Otherwise an interesting theory.

One other problem... Where did they send Michael and Walt? Would they now be the only SUCCESSFUL part of the experiment?

Another problem:

Besides, how could they have put Desmond on the island by crashing his sailboat and now be surprised that the losties have a sailboat? Wouldn't they have just gotten rid of it or took it in the first place. My question is that their village seems to be quite a distance from any shoreline so how do they travel to and from the shoreline to get to their raggedy boat that they use to pretend with?

She went through the door to the room she was in. She never opened the "water door" jack opened (which was out in the hallway and had a huge turning-wheel handle).

I don't really see that as a problem:

Well, so far all we know is that they got put on a boat (if I recall correctly), but other than that we don't know anything. So it doesn't really contradict my theory.

Ah...

As Big Boy Laroux said that it just went into another room, and also did not notice it mentioned but I assumed right away thatthey were underwater when Jack tried to sample the dripping water and spit it out. A dead giveaway that it was saltwater and hence it must have been a leak.

Fist of all... if Kate is not your type, then you are... in fact... gay.... period.

But...

Desmond had a conversation with jack (in the season 2 finale I believe) where he said they he remembered meeting him in the arena, and that he was running and hurt his ankle etc. So it matched up perfectly with what we saw in Jack's flash back.

Might Carl be one of the abducted tailies?

Can we please not spoilerize random speculation not based on any outside, reliable spoiler material? Thanks.

Why not? Better to be safe, than sorry. I avoid spoilers like the plague and some plausible theories may turn out to be true so I say spoiler tag 'em just in case.

A random guess that turns out to be right isn't a "spoiler" by any means. People are going to get in the habit of reading spoiled "guesses" and then they're going to be upset when someone slides a real spoiler in there. Spoilers should use the spoiled tag and guesses should just be mentioned before the guess.

Nicely put.

Just watched it last night (I refused to watch on TV with commercials, so I download the Bit Torrent) and what a great start. Can't wait for the next one.

[How is it that the French lady has been on the island for 16 years but hasn't discovered the village?]

Out of curiosity, what was there to suggest that she doesn't, or that it matters either way? Is it because she didn't tell the survivors about it? Were people expecting her to be keeping vigil outside of town at the beginning of the episode?

I think it is an unsound theory that is contradicted by a lot of things. Here's just one:



To address some other things I saw above (some or all of which have since been clarified by others):

1) The Stephen King book was Carrie. Some had different editions and covers etc., but they were all Carrie.

2) Ben did not say "good one" when the plane crashed. He said "Goodwin," which is the name of the guy he sent to find the tail.

3) It was indeed Ethan who was fixing the plumbing.

I found this on a random blog I wandered on to. I don't remember how I got there, or where it was, but they were talking about the season premiere of Lost. They also posted this pic and said it was pic number 33 at ABC's site. When I went there, there was a different picture 33.

I think there was some talk about that "picture 33" before in this thread. The conclusion was deleted scene related to hallucinations caused by the drug as warned by Juliette.

As to who it was, well I'd guess just a previous patient of Jack's or possibly one of the abducted Tailies even though he would have no way of personifying her.

What if he were asking him to bring back a list of the survivors? He didn't ask him to get names. He just said to bring back a list. That doesn't mean he doesn't already know who they are.

So are we spoilerizing theories or not? I'll leave it below, but if someone objects, I'll default to spoilerizing and marking it as a theory.

I think their memories are designed to drive them to do something specific for a greater purpose. What that is I don't know yet. I could make up reasons for why they would have their memories implanted, but there's nothing I could prove yet from what they've shown.

But let's forget about WHY they would do it just for a moment. I don't think they've given us enough to figure that out. I don't think it's too difficult to come up with a plausible scenario, but it's not important to explain what's going on so far on the island.

Let's just say their memories ARE implanted, and that they WERE once members of the Others themselves at one point (or at least have had significant contact with them before whether as friend or enemy). That explains quite a bit of the weird stuff that's going on. It CAN explain how Locke got his legs back (he was never paralyzed to begin with), it can explain why there's no body in Jack's father's coffin, it can explain why some of them are seeing things and/or hearing things, it can explain why their memories all seem to have common elements, etc.

And MOST of all, it can explain the Others behavior towards them. They treat the Survivors as if they already know everything about them. You would think that the Others would have a lot more questions about the Losties. And yet, the occasional question that IS asked (such as Juliette asking Jack what he did or where he was flying) seemed designed to test him to see how much of his implanted memory was intact, NOT because she didn't know the answer. Jack figured out that she is a doctor as well. It could be that they already know each other. He just doesn't remember. Yet.

That shot didn't appear in the episode. So it's either from a deleted scene, or from a future episode. Jack is still in the room, after all.

It would explain that, but then it introduces the conundrum of why they would implant that memory into Locke when he can walk. If the plane hadn't crashed, he would presumably have noticed his ability to walk in California. Was he supposed to beleive that a miracle happened on the flight for no apparent reason?

It also doesn't explain Rose either. If she was supposed to feel like she's cured, why would the implant a memory that specifically has a miracle worker failing to cure her. It'd make more sense for the memory to have been a cure.

Also, the island has shown to have curative effects on them since the crash. So the island explains Locke and Rose's "miracles," while the implanted memories theory doesn't explain the island's effects.

It really doesn't explain that though. Why would they have a coffin but no body? That'd cause issues when the plane lands, especially since Jack would be expecting a body. Why go through all the trouble of implanting the memory of a dead dad needing transport and fail to provide a body, when it'd be much easier to just not implant that type of memory?

I don't see why it would explain this.

It could explain this. For those who feel that the connections in the backstories are a bit contrived, the theory that they were contrived within the show would be appealing. However, a lot of the crossings go on unnoticed by the actual characters. For example, I don't think Kate even noticed Sayid on the TV at her dad's recruitment office. Nor did Jin notice Hugo on the TV when he beat that one man.

They know a lot about them now. The things they know can be explained by the possible connection they have to the outside world, as well as standard surveillance. Ethan and Goodwin both reported back, and there's good reason to assume that the Others have watched the Losties from afar as well. There was nothing the knew about Jack that couldn't be explained by methods other than memory insertion.

Who says they don't? All we've seen so far is the initial questioning of one character over the course of maybe one day.

That's just speculation on her motives. It could be just as likely she was testing to see whether Jack was willing to provide truthful answers, based on asking questions she already knew the answer to. she could gage her progress based on what and when Jack lied or told the truth, she could even start recognizing mannerisms that Jack has when telling either. If she started off with just asking what they didn't know, then she'd have no background on Jack's behaviour to go on.

And that's the biggest problem. If the Losties had been sent out with a greater purpose, it was done so in a very obtuse and possibly counter-productive way. First off, almost all of them had some sort of contacts in the US, which would play out odd if their past life and family and friends weren't there to meet them. Some of them would have credentials that'd need verifying. The Marshal that had Kate in custody would have to be able to prove he's an actual Marshall when he lands. Hell, the plane would have to verify itself before it could land. Libby, Shannon, and Boone were all supposed to be rich, which would be much harder to pull off than if they were poorer. Kate's "purpose" was apparently to rot in prison, or at least stand trial, which would've been hard if she had no actual record. Similar matters would've occured with Ana-Lucia, depending on whether or not charges were brought up.

Oh, and Eko. Why would he have an implanted memory of his brother and a plane that matches up exactly to a plane and corpse found on the island when he wasn't meant to ever be on the island, and when the plane by all appearances had never been investigated by the Others. And the implanted still doesn't explain why the plane only had maps of the Congo.

The gigantic holes in logic and plot the implanted memory theory creates are big enough to crash a plane though, and overwhelm the few issues the theory explains, especially considering that those issues can be explained in other ways.