<p>November 2, 2007 </p><p>Okay, I have to admit that my idea for the “theory of everything” started with the hint at the ABC website about the “Casimir effect”* on the island and the bunny problem (2 15s that have to be kept away from each other.<br /> I think that the island has this power: its electromagnetic field has created Casimir Effect, or a vacuum between time and space. Not to get all Star Trekkie on you, but it has pulled this place into a quantum string that crosses onto/into other time lines. Basically, it can pull people and things out of time. When Dharma, or whoever started to try to apply this, a rupture was created, which left “them” stuck. Now “they” are trying to fix the rupture, get out of the vacuum and reset time back by influencing a series of events toward a particular endgame before anyone else has a chance to get on the island and try to either use the power or shut it down for good before “they” have a chance to fix things. Once that endgame is achieved successfully, then time will be reset, and everything that has happened on the island since the “incident” will be put back in order, reversing any ill effects.<br /> The reason I think that “they” are working the system to bring everyone on the plane, to manipulate Desmond into zapping it, etc, are the recurring “coincidences” that make sure that events and people are in place before Flight 815 takes off. I think “they” are able to jump around in time and space, and the whispered voices our pals hear in the jungle are echoes through time that bounce around when “they” move around. It’s why “they” are able to jump in, snatch someone and then disappear (and why the “others” can be bludgeoned to death when they try).<br /> I keep using “they” because I haven’t quite figured out who all of “them” are. Surely the lady who talks Desmond out of marrying Penelope is one. Desmond is pulled out of time after the hatch implodes and relives part of his past, but with a twist. The lady explains to him that he is supposed to be on the island and press the button, or “they” will “all die.” Her picture is on the desk of the priest who first recruits Desmond and then lets him go just in time to meet Penelope. <br /> This also works with Edmond, who first encourages Sayid to torture his commander in Iraq, and, as he lets him go, gives him the suggestion that he will “meet a man one day” and now he “will know how to make him talk.” Edmond is instrumental in getting Desmond off on the right foot in the hatch, paints the map on the wall for Locke, and feeds Desmond everything he needs to know to keep pressing the button until the plane arrives. Edmond is clearly working out of time (if my theory holds), and his actions are specifically targeted to produce an end result. <br /> Edmond is an obvious case (for me), but trickier are other possible cases of people who are placed in time to produce an endgame of events. Locke’s dad, for example, is key to both Sawyer’s and Locke’s life experience and arrival on the island. Jack’s dad, too, makes me wonder. It is more than imperative that Jack arrive on the island with a daddy complex (like Kate, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Claire, Walt, Locke, and who knows who else!) and a desperate need to prove himself worthy. The psychic who sends Claire on the plane with claims of his true ability also sends Eko on the same plane with claims of his dishonesty, lying about any psychic ability. Hurley’s imaginary friend, Dave, the federal marshal who is chasing Kate, the girl who changes Sayid’s heart, the bookie who sends Sawyer to kill the wrong guy, all are possible characters out of time. It is impossible for me to prove by what is available now, but I would not be surprised if more key characters are part of “them” trying to reset the rift. The question then becomes, not what is the “island” trying to communicate with our survivors, but what do these characters need to experience in order for them to follow a certain path, a path that is necessary to “fix” the “incident?”<br /> Jacob is a more clear example. He has complete control of Ben (we think), from allowing and curing his cancer and surgerical damage to having him lie to and kill his own people. I’m not sure if Ben knows how much a part of the endgame he is, but it’s pretty clear that he is working an angle to form events. Jacob is stuck in something like a phase shift, the vacuum created by the Casimir Effect. He can only communicate with certain kinds of people, ones who are receptive (or have similar phase energy). His asking Locke for help can mean one of two things. John is still necessary for the final endgame, OR Ben has gone off the reservation (a question for the next season, I guess). [Personally, I’d really like to think of Ben as a Judas Iscariot—doomed to play the bad guy to the bitter end but all for the greater good in a bigger story. I guess we’ll see!]<br />Think of all the people who can see the dead (or missing) on the island: Jack (when his father leads him to clean water), Ben (when his mother leads him to the others), Shannon (when Walt leads her to her death), Locke (when Walt gets him motivated to climb out of the death pit to finish his “work,” and when Boone shows him he needs to rescue Eko). Kate, Claire, Charlie and Sawyer are almost receptive: their messages get muddled in dreams and hallucinatory interpretations. These are all people who have been carefully manipulated and cultivated for their “job” in the plan.<br /> The most important key player by far, even more so than Ben (I’m guessing) is Desmond, whose entire adult life seems to have been manipulated. Desmond, along with Locke and Walt, seems to have an understanding of the “fate” of the island, even if he cannot verbalize it. He is pivotal to restoring communication with the outside world by keeping Charlie alive until the right moment. He has “daddy issues” (with Penny’s dad), and after “sacrificing” himself to turn the kill switch, he has been included on the big plan. He is now an agent of “them,” helping set the pieces (people and events) in place even while following his own quest for reunification with Penny.<br />The kicker for me, and what started my whole theory, is in the flash forward of season 3’s finale, when Jack is about to throw himself off a bridge. He says “forgive me,” and if one listens closely, one can hear that word echo a bit. [Our castaways, when they hear the whispers, hear echoes of pivotal moments (“there will be a reckoning” for Sawyer, “Let it go” for Jack) that have shifted them to this place and time with past experiences that prepare them to follow this path.] Only when this happens, does a car accident prevent Jack from killing himself. <br /> Cool observation: I think the woman and the boy in the car accident are Juliet’s sister and nephew. The boy is 8 in the flash forward, which, if the time stays consistent in this version of the future, means that Julian, who was 2 in 2004 when FLT 815 crashed, will be 8 in 2010, when the series finales, placing the flash forwards in real time. Nice touch.<br /> Getting back to Jack: he explains to Kate (in a nice reveal where we go “ooh! We’re in the future!!) the “wrongness” he fe