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This is a test of of the ep template "The Shape of Things to Come"

• This is a test of of the ep template "The Shape of Things to Come"

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The Wheel/Theories

Origin and environment

• The origin of the wheel is unknown.
• The ancient appearance of the wheel and the room it is located in suggest it may have been constructed by the islands ancient inhabitants, who also built the four toed statue.
• A nautical origin is unlikely because it does not resemble either the helm [1] or the anchor capstan[2] of a ship, such as the USS Constitution, in service since 1797, or the Black Rock.
• The wheel may actually be the Dharmacakra, a symbol representing Dharma (law) in Hinduism and the Buddha's teaching of the path to enlightenment. It is also sometimes translated as wheel of doctrine or wheel of law.
• The frozen chamber had a rickety ladder and a gas lamp in it. DHARMA-built objects tended to be contemporary late-twentieth century in construct. Both the source of the energy that keeps the chamber cold and the reason for doing so are unknown. The ice, itself, appeared to be a product of condensation.

Mechanics

• The Orchid Wheel is the device used to open the reservoir of the Island's "negatively charged exotic matter." There may or may not always be some flow of energy from the matter. The fact that DHARMA was able to detect it would argue in favor of some "seepage."
• Jacob is an avatar of the Island. He is too ephemeral and does not have the power to move the island on his own; he can order/ask/beg that it be moved but the act requires a human being.
• The Orchid Wheel is not mystical in or of itself. It is a tool used to release the energy necessary to move the Island. That energy charges the device that actually moves the Island. Whether that energy is used for any other important purpose is unknown at this time.
• Only three-eighths of the wheel is exposed at any one time. Tethering a donkey or any other draft animal to the wheel, assuming that there were sufficient room to do this, would require more time than the task of turning the wheel. The animal would then be able to push the wheel through a rotation of only one-quarter of its circumference. The animal would then have to un-tethered, led back to the starting position, and re-tethered before beginning again. True donkey wheels are placed so that the animal may continue to walk in a circle.
• Because moving the island is a last resort, those in charge are unlikely expend effort on training draft animals to do the work.
• The Wheel physically moves pieces of exotic matter together, such as in the Casimir Effect, harnessing their energy and dislodging the island from its place in space-time.

Leaving and returning to the Island

• When one turns the wheel, there is no literal or spiritual reason that they are forbidden from returning. He can not return because he is sent to a destination unknown until arrival while the island is moved to another unknown destination. The person who turns the wheel never knows where the island is.
• Like Widmore, there is nothing to stop Ben from getting to the island if he can find it.
• The Island's contact with the exterior world was severed when the Flame was destroyed. The is no way for the people on the Island to contact its primary agent, Mittelos Bioscience, or members of the Others who live in the exterior world to provide current information to them.
• However, someone knows. Someone has to know; otherwise, returning would be an absolute impossibility. For this person to be willing to assist in a return, he has to believe that doing so is in the best interests of the Island.

The Orchid Wheel

Operation

• The time it took Locke to return to the top of the Orchid and walk the two miles to the place he met Alpert must be longer than the amount of time Ben was depicted turning the wheel. Earlier, Ben told Jack and the people with him to be off the Island within an hour. That was before he knew his tgask would be delayed by the thought to be dead Keamy. Still, Ben had all the time he needed to complete his task, to include closing the resevoir.

• The wheel is some form of release valve or on/off switch for exotic matter which enables the creation of a stable wormhole. There must be some other mechanism present behind the wall that uses the matter. The level of sophistication of this mechanism is an open question. Jacob does not like technology; his dislike is a barrier to the Others implementing a more sophisticated technology for moving the Island. Hence Ben's comment that the results of moving the Island are unpredictable. The Island could exit the wormhole anywhere in the universe.

Wheel History

• There are hieroglyph-like carvings on the pillar when Ben enters the icy room.
• The island has already been moved several times before. That is how the Black Rock got its position in the middle of the island: it just appeared in the open sea and lifted the ship up.
  • The island appear to "sink" into the ocean when it was moved. Thus, it could "rise" up to wherever it reappears. This could also add water to the theory as to why the Black Rock is so far inland. Rather than "popping" into existence, the island lifted it up when it reappeared there.
  • The island did look like it was sinking; there was a ripple effect in the water afterwards. Perhaps this will be the explanation (in the LOST world) for the December 2004 tsunami. The timing of the events on the island and time line to coincide with that major disaster.
    • That was just the ocean water filling in the space that used to be occupied by the island.
      • The same effect would occur if the island sank, but nevertheless I believe you are correct. In either case, however, the "implosion" would in turn create a massive suction around and under "ground zero" -- this is what drowns most folks on ships that sink. If the view we see of the island going >gloop< is meant to be the POV from the copter (at it seems to be) they appear close enough so that the air rushing in to fill the vacuum would've sucked in Lapidus and his intrepid passengers -- at the very least, this natural reaction would've convincingly caused the chopper to crash without requiring the writers' 'out of gas' bit.

• The polar bear in Tunisia (possibly the same spot Ben ended up) could be an indication that DHARMA moved the island in the past, or experimented in the frozen chamber anyway. They could have used the polar bear as a guinea pig to test the properties of the frozen chamber.
  • This explains the remains of the Polar Bear found in Tunisia by Charlotte. Tunisia serves as a dumping location whenever the wheel is turned.

Questions about the wheel

What happens if you turn the wheel the other way?

• Nothing the wheel only turns one way
• The island travels back in time
• The emissions stop, just as if you turned any other tap the other way. We do not have to see it happen for it to happen.

Did Dharma know about the wheel? (Not just the strange energy it emitted)

• The fact that the parka had the name "Halliwax" on it means that DHARMA must have had a cold area (polar bear living quarters?), the Island was in a cold place, or they had known about the cold room, if not the frozen wheel.
  • DHARMA clearly knew about the frozen wheel. The vault was likely built as an experiment to attempt to harness the power of the wheel.
    • The Orientation video also said to keep metal objects out of the chamber because they knew it would open up a hole to get to the wheel
    • Given that the polar bear was decomposed all the way to the bone, in Tunisia, and was wearing a Dharma collar, the Dharma Initiative must have come across the wheel long ago, used the polar bear as a lab rat of sorts (resulting in its Tunisian transportation), and decided to build the station around the wheel and the strange energy for experimentation purposes. The video, like the other Orientation films, and the "transporter room" both had more than one purpose. The video was not only instructive but also purposefully created in order to hide the wheel. The "transporter room" was not only for experiments but was also used to hide the ancient origins and the wheel from all members of the DI except for a select few.

Pregnancies/Theories

The Island, the Others and the gene pool

A lack of genetic diversity (inbreeding) leads to abnormal births. Because the Others are a small group (actual size unknown), they had reached a point at which they required an influx of new genes. The Island has the capacity to heal (e.g.: John Locke's inability to walk); it also has the capacity to harm (e.g: Ben Linus' spinal tumor). The Island normally depends on the leader of the inhabitants to manage the population but, when it detected a lack of genetic diversity, began making it impossible for women of its inhabitants to survive pregnancy. The Island could have simply caused miscarriages, but it chose a more severe warning.

Ben, as leader, attempted to fix the problem, but he was on the wrong track. The Island needed more people from outside. It would have accepted the people from DHARMA if they had wanted to become true residents and provide fresh DNA to the pool. However, the DHARMA people did not want to become true residents of the Island; they were visitors, only there to conduct what Ben referred to as silly experiments. Faced with the bounty of food on the Island, they imported their own.

In response to the pregnancy death crisis, Ben tried to solve the wrong problem. He imported Juliet Burke to try to discover why the existing women of the Island could not survive pregnancy. Juliet did not see the problem either; she continued to search for the solution within the population. All Juliet's original work was with couples of the Others.

• Claire's pregnancy was brought to a successful completion because both she and Thomas are from off-Island.
• Sun's pregnancy would have been successful even if she had remained on the Island because both she and Jin (or maybe Jae Lee!) are from Off-Island. Juliet just did not understand that.
• Alexandra's pregnancy by Karl, had it occurred, might have been successful because she, although born on the Island, carries immigrant genes. Karl's origin is unexplained. Neither Ben, whose concern was parental, nor Juliet, whose concern would have been professional, understood the problem.

The Island/Theories

Sequential moves and events of the Island

NOTE: "Where" should be thought of as "Where/when."

NOTE: This rework changes locations to moves and events and puts "Swan Implosion" into the event category.

The Black Rock Move

This is where the Island popped in after moving from its previous, unidentified location and stranded the ship. Details to be determined.

The Drug Plane Move

This is where the Island appeared and caused the Beechcraft to crash. This location must be within 1200 air miles (a Beechcraft's range) of the airstrip in Nigeria from which the aircraft departed. Details to be determined.

Flight 815 Move

This is where the Island appeared following the system failure and caused Oceanic 815 to break apart on Wednesday, September 22, 2004. We did not see a purple sky, because that effect occurs at the beginning of the move (in this case, the Drug Plane location). Details to be determined.

Swan Implosion Event

This is the Event when Desmond turned the fail-safe key on Saturday, November 27, 2004. The sky turned purple, the loud noise was heard and everything was washed out by a bright light. This was earlier proposed as a move but, when asked at Comic Con 2008 if the Island had moved, TPTB responded, "No. But something happened."

It is known that Desmond's action caused the "7418880 Electromagnetic Anomaly Detected" event, allowing Penny and her father to locate the Island, she to undertake her rescue mission, he to dispatch the Kahana.

On November 27, 2004, a listening station reported to Penelope Widmore that they had "found it." The data at the listening station included the integer 7418880, which is the product of the six numbers. On December 24, 2004, Desmond was able to telephone Penelope after determining that she was his constant. Penelope, in turn, was able to trace Desmond's call to the location of the Kahana, just off the Island. On December 30, 2004, the Island disappeared, the Kahana exploded, and the raft with the Six was left floating in the open ocean. Early on December 31, 2004, the raft was sighted by the crew of the Searcher; Penelope Widmore was aboard.

Hurley asked Desmond in "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3" why they were sailing 3000 miles to "another island." Sayid refers to Membata in his answer. It was necessary to launch the raft at a point between the two far enough away from Sumba to avoid being seen by persons on other vessels and close enough to Sumba to ensure the the Six arrive safely. The Searcher may have trailed the raft part of the way as a watchdog.

The air distance from the proposed Swan Implosion location of the Island (seconds omitted) at 4 degrees, 8 minutes North and 162 degrees, 3 minutes East and The island of Sumba at 9 degrees, forty minutes South and 120 degrees East is 3031 miles.

The conclusion is that until December 30, 2004 the Island was located at at 4 degrees, 8 minutes North and 162 degrees, 3 minutes East.

The Ben move

This is where the Island will be between Thursday, December 30, 2004 and Monday, 24 October 2005 at the start of season five. However, there is no reason to think that viewers will know where "here" is. Details to be determined.

The bodies

Rousseau and Karl were killed at the end of "Meet Kevin Johnson". Their bodies were discovered by Miles, Sawyer and Claire during "Something Nice Back Home". They appeared to have been buried in graves so shallow that their faces and other portions of their bodies were exposed with virtually no effort. An outstanding question is the identity of persons who buried the two bodies. Three groups of people would seem to be candidates:

• The Mercenaries stood to gain temporarily by hiding the evidence of their actions, but, in the long term, they probably did not care who knew what they had done. Burying "enemy" bodies in the Mercenaries current tactical situation also would have been unduly time consuming. Burying them incompletely makes the efforts completely worthless. The fastest way to dispose of a body in terrain like a jungle would be to carry it several yards off the trail and drop it in dense brush. The Mercenaries probably did not bury Rousseau and Karl.

• The Survivors, in the past, from either Locke's or Jack's faction, have shown respect to the dead - and good field sanitation - by burying the remains of their party. However, there is no evidence that any of the Survivors were in the area between the time of the ambush and the time of the discovery. The Survivors, who probably would have done a better job, probably did not bury the two bodies.

• The Others, including the possible separate faction seen moving through the jungle, have demonstrated respect for the dead, but have not used burial on land. There is no evidence that any of the Others were in that vicinity of the discovery. The Others, who also would have done a better job, probably did not bury the remains.

There were no marks from shovels at the site on the trail. There was no excess dirt. There was nothing to indicate that holes had been dug because there had been no burials. The Island was absorbing the bodies. Had Miles, Sawyer and Claire come along much later, there would have been no evidence at all. Sawyer and Claire would have been unable to see anything; Miles might have sensed something.

One can only wonder how all this equates to the disappearance of Christian Shephard's remains and his reappearance as an apparently living person.

The time gap

Until the surprise conclusion of season 3, the nature of time on Lost was evident; real time was on the Island in 2004 with flashbacks to explain the history of the characters. Beginning with "Through the Looking Glass", time became more complicated; realtime was still on the Island with both flashbacks and flashforwards to flesh out the characters and provide a sense of future direction.

With the beginning of season 5 on the horizon, the sense of time has become much more complicated. We need to know:

• The story of the original inhabitants, the people who built the statue, the temple, and building or buildings that became the ruins.
• The history of the people of the Island..., the Hostiles..., the Others..., Jacob's People.
• The early history of the DHARMA Initiative on the Island.
• Much more of what transpired between the Oceanic Six washing up on the beach and that night at the funeral parlor when Ben, referring to Locke's body, said, "We're gonna have to bring him, too."

TPTB have stated that they will not be using the flashback/present/flashforward format.

It is possible that we will see multiple scenes playing out at the same time on screen. Horace and Olivia Goodspeed will be talking while Jack and Kate are standing behind them like a couple of extras involved in their own conversation. The focus will change and Jack and Kate:

• Will continue the Horace and Olivia conversation.
• Will continue their own conversation that will merge seamlessly with that of the Goodspeeds.