At the first commercial break of the episode, @michaelmuhney and I had this very intense discussion.

Me: I have a question for you, dude?
Muhney: Yeah?
Me: Whaaat… the… f&%k?!

Jeeze! Talk about a scrambler special. That episode was in-SANE. I don’t even know where to begin this sucker. Smokey McLockerfellow? Parallel universes and a bit of gloating? The crew of the black rock, Richard in chains… and a bit of gloating? Sawyer, Juliet, the kiss… and a bit of crying?

How about we start with the part that’s easiest to wrap our brains around:

Parallel Universes. Aww come on, you know that’s why you read this blog. (I’m talking to you, @kelseroo)

Okay, we’re on Level 6 of this video game, so I’m just gonna launch into this puppy. Exactly like they did in the episode. No spoon feeding. We have our wings now, we can totally fly through this brain teaser. We can. Here’s how I think the timeline(s) go(es)…

Last season we had two time periods… one in 1977 and one in 2007. There was speculation as to whether they were different timelines completely… as in, they would never match up… that our 1977 crew would somehow figure out a way to change the course of history and prevent the plane from ever crashing.

But Faraday told us several times (and Miles later supported him) that they could not change the future. What we were seeing were simply events of the past that had always happened. The Losties had always been time looped back to 1977… they just didn’t know it. And Ben didn’t know it… he’d forgotten after being healed at the temple. And, of course, we didn’t know it while watching the first four seasons either.

So… no Parallel Universe, right?

Right?!

Hehe. Aww come on, let me milk it a bit.

Everything up until Juliet detonated that bomb, may very well have happened. The question is whether the detonation itself was also a part of the history of the Island.

But if it was, then it’s hard to rationalize how the events of 2003 could have ever come to be. A nuclear explosion of that size would’ve rocked that Island like the Casbah. The gassing would have never happened. The survivors would have never crashed on the Island. This incident would have splintered the timeline into something new. Something that could never match up with the 2007 we saw last season.

Well, only 10 minutes into the episode and that seems to be the case, doesn’t it?

We know that the timeline the Ajira folks crashed in is the very same timeline our 1977 folks were on. What the Ajira folks encountered last season… all of this was an Island already affected by the presence of our Losties in 1977 (Daniel’s notes at the Hydra, the picture of Kate, Jack, and Hurley as ’77 recruits). And so, in a sense, Faraday is right… you can’t change history… at lease not within the timeline you’re on. That timeline exists from start to finish. It’s already been written… woven into the fabric of our multiverse (<- aww come on, that metaphor's good!)

So then what happened when Juliet detonated that bomb? I mean we all agree, right? There's no way, after a nuclear explosion, that the Island's history could continue the way we've come to know. Where is that Island?

On the bottom of the ocean?

Destroyed Barracks 1

Destroyed Barracks 2

Are those the Barracks after a nuclear explosion? Could be.

But here’s another possibility. And this part gets a little tricky, so bear with me.

Perhaps the explosion didn’t do anything… well at least nothing noticeable to the people of 1977. Perhaps the massive energy of the bomb was absorbed by the Island in some way, simply causing another time jump for our Losties. I guess at this point, it’s hard to know for sure.

But what we do know is that Ben moved the Island. In season 4, he did something, and the Island disappeared before our helicopter escapees’ very eyes.

We assume he moved it in time. But what I hadn’t considered, until last night’s episode, is that he may have also moved it in space… down. Far below sea level. It’s actually a concept @SarahSamudre warmed me to in one of her newest theories… but I’ll get into that more in Part 2 of the post.

Throughout the first half of season 5 we watched our Losties blipping around time periods of the Island. I had always assumed that the Losties and the Island were sort of moving through time together. But… that can’t be. If the Island itself was traveling through time with them… then it wouldn’t be changing appearance, would it? It would look the same. Everything outside the island might be changing, getting older or younger, but not the Island itself… in the same way that the Losties don’t change in appearance as they blip through time. They don’t get younger or older. They’re still wearing their same clothes, right? So why isn’t the Island wearing the same clothes with each successive blip?

Perhaps it’s because Ben didn’t just move it through space (along the 3rd dimension) and time (along the 4th dimension)… but perhaps he moved it to an entirely different parallel universe altogether (along the 5th dimension) leaving our ’77 crew loosely blipping around the history of their own universe until they could finally make it stop.

I had originally believed that the Island we were seeing last season was the one that Ben had moved. But it’s entirely possible… we hadn’t seen that Island until yesterday. Deep at the bottom of the Ocean. On a new timeline… one in which things are a little different. Almost the same… but different.

drinks-1

drinks-2

The stewardess gives Jack one drink instead of two. Hurley is the luckiest guy in the world. Charlie tries to kill himself. Desmond is on board the flight. And it’s interesting to note that some of these traits and circumstances seem at least slightly congruent with the journey of some of these characters on the Island. The most obvious being Rose and Bernard. Rose is a mess on board the plane first season. This time, she has a peace and strength similar to our confident Island Rose. Jack on the other hand could best be described as “uncertain”. And of course, we all know what happened to Charlie on the Island.

But I’m straying from the point.

We’ve been assuming that Juliet’s detonating the bomb would be the act to change history… that would allow the 815 flight to have never crashed… that would “reboot” everything, if you will. But the reboot may have already happened at the end of season 4. Or perhaps further back at the end of season 2 when Desmond turned the key.

All three of those events, after all, have something in common. They all seem directly tied to a massive release of electromagnetic energy living at the heart of the Island. One that makes everything very bright… and comes with strange ear ringing.

So let’s say, just for the hell of it, this underwater Island wasn’t caused by Jughead. If that’s the case then what purpose did the bomb detonation have? It certainly seemed significant.

Well… aside from giving this episode one of the most heart wrenching scenes in the shows history…

Me: Oh you know fans around the country are totally tearing up right now.
Muhney: Dude, it sounds like you’re tearing up right now.
Me: (choking up) I know, that’s what I said, isn’t it?

The bomb detonation may have simply saved our Losties, sent them back to their rightful time by triggering another whiteout flash or “bloop” as @SarahSamudre so eloquently describes them (I call them blips… but I also say tomato and potato).

But then if this is the case… why were they there? What did they need to do there in order to keep 815 from crashing. Well, if you accept this crazy theory that Ben forced the “reboot” by turning the donkey wheel at the end of season 4… then it probably means they needed to create the Ben we all know and love. Something they successfully did or more specifically something Sayid successfully did.

That would make Sayid pretty important, huh?

The irony, of course, regardless of whether it was the bomb or the donkey wheel or the fail safe key that created this new “crash free” universe… the irony is… it’s a different universe. The Losties we’ve been following for 5 seasons don’t get to enjoy any of those changes. It’s almost silly that they thought they could. No, they get sent right back to their own miserable Island present.

But is it possible that despite all of this, our miserable Island Losties have given something very important to the passengers of this new timeline? A Deja Vu of their experiences on the Island? A mental or spiritual link between the two universes that could ultimately help these new characters find their way where the old ones couldn’t?

So, yeah… Parallel Universes… looks like they’re here to stay.

Either that, or everyone’s gonna get a good old fashioned Temple-spring dunking, forget all 6 seasons, and be sent back to 2003 to live everything over again.

Umm… are you guys still there? Do we need to stop here for a second and let everyone catch their breath? We live together die alone, right?

Okay, in Part 2, I talk about Smokey, the four toed statue, why it’s only a foot, Richard in chains, and how the black rock wound up in the middle of the jungle. No parallel universes in this one, I promise.

I’ll have that up tomorrow.