Jughead Aftermath

Wow, that's definitely the strangest two-word combination I've ever typed.

I have a few thoughts and theories that I wanted to post before tomorrow night's episode, "The Little Prince." I cannot take credit for a lot of these ideas, but I don't know if any of you have read or heard them elsewhere, so I thought I'd share them here.

Before I do so, be sure to catch the rebroadcast of "Jughead," which will be aired right before the new episode tomorrow night. It should be the "pop-up video" version, and they had some pretty interesting and revealing hints when they did the pop-up version of "The Lie" last week (some of which I posted here).

• There has been quite a lot of talk about the possibility of Penny being a mole for her father. There is a theory that she is steering Desmond away from returning to the island because she is working for Charles Widmore. It does make sense, if you look beyond the love story of Penmond. Or Despenny. Whichever. She could easily be undercover for her father. The two men in the monitoring station in the snow who reported to her (and were then on her ship, the Searcher), the searching she was doing herself - it could all have been done under her father's control. Maybe that's why she got pregnant so quickly after they were reunited - to add to his guilt of leaving not just her for the island, but now a young son, too. For the record, I'm kind of wondering about this... It would have to be the biggest shock of the series if it were true. Just imagine seeing that reveal!
  
• Speaking of ambiguity, I really think Sun is working for Ben, despite appearances. (This one is my own theory, actually.) In true LOST fashion, it's too easy to take her at her word that she wants to work with Widmore to kill Ben. It could go either way, obviously: she could blame Widmore for killing Jin because he sent the freighter, or she could blame Ben for getting the Losties involved in all of his chicanery in the first place. I think it's the old double-cross, where she's leading Widmore to believe she's on his side just to take advantage of his power and resources with the ultimate goal of getting back to the island for the slim chance that Jin survived. You might ask, then, how she is trying to use the resources of Widmore, a man who can't seem to return to the island himself in the face of Ben, a man who can. (It's called irony.) To quote that man, "I always have a plan." Maybe Widmore has something that Ben needs for his plan to work, which is what he has put Sun to work for. And maybe Ben told her that Jin is in fact still alive. Or that time travel will allow her to see him again. He may even be offering her the false hope that she could change the past and save him from the exploding freighter. She definitely has the motivation either way.
• There has also been a lot of talk about Ethan shooting Locke in the leg at the drug plane crash site, and how in Season 1 when Locke was there with Boone, he suddenly and inexplicably lost the use of his legs at that same location. Was there some sort of connection across time? I like this idea...
  
• The compass is stuck in a time loop. If we start where we last saw it, with Locke giving it to Richard at the Others camp in "Jughead," the next time it would be passed on would be when Richard gives it to Locke when Locke is shot by Ethan in "Because You Left." We know this because Richard tells Locke that he has to show it to him the next time they meet. So where did it come from?
• I think Daniel Faraday is definitely making decisions now to save Charlotte. I think that's why he went to Desmond in the Swan, even after telling Sawyer he couldn't change anything. He was saying, "Please let this work...please let this work." This was right after he noticed Charlotte's nosebleed. It was a snap decision made out of desperation. Even though he believes that telling Desmond to see his mother won't change anything with Charlotte's fate, he's still giving it a shot. Or...can you change things? Maybe he's telling everyone you can't so that it doesn't complicate things further. He knows he's making things more complicated, but it's worth it to save Charlotte, and he'll figure out a way to clean up the mess somehow. Maybe by sending Desmond to his mother (who we're pretty sure is Ms. Hawking, who knows a little something about time travel), it's a signal to her that he has done something to complicate time, to change things, and she will need to figure out a solution.
• I think I've said this before, but I think that when we've seen Locke in earlier seasons, it has really been Locke from the future. There were so many times when we (and even the characters) have wondered how Locke knew how to do something (knife throwing, hunting boar, and other things he had no business knowing how to do), or knew when something would happen (the easiest example is his skill at knowing when it would rain) or where things were. We've heard him say things like, "It's not supposed to happen this way," or things that were somewhat prophetic. (I keep meaning to find some examples - if you can think of some, please post them in the comment section below!) I don't think the Locke of past episodes was completely from the future, but that at times when we've seen him, he might have been. Maybe past Locke was somewhere else on the island, but future Locke popped up somewhere and interacted with the Losties to guide them and give advice. I honestly don't know how plausible this is, but it sure if fun to think about.
• I'm wondering if they need to all get back to the island to be in a certain place at a certain time, and this would fix the "time problems" that may be happening. It's almost like they are actors who need to be on their marks on stage when the curtain goes up, and this would allow the show to go on according to plan. The way things are now, maybe the "actors" aren't where they are supposed to be, and this would cause chaos in time and space, and therefore existence. If anyone has read The Langoliers by Stephen King, you might understand what I'm getting at. I read it when I was in high school, but it was such a cool story (involving a plane, no less) that it has always stuck with me.
• I can't figure out how the frozen donkey wheel is inside the rock. It's not like the rocks they are trying to drill through are stacked there by human hands; it's solid rock. My only idea: the volcano. In "The Man Behind the Curtain," when we saw the story of young Ben, his teacher was talking to the class about volcanoes, and I think she even mentions how there is a volcano on the island. We haven't heard mention of it since. Maybe the wheel was placed there eons ago by a time traveler, and there was a volcano eruption that sealed it off in volcanic rock. I dunno.
• Are the "rules" of time travel the same "rules" that Ben accused Widmore of breaking when Keamy killed Alex? Was Ben so blase about Keamy putting a gun to Alex's head, and then so shocked when he actually pulled the trigger and killed her, because that wasn't how that moment in time was supposed to play out? Did Widmore do something to change time, and therefore the "rules"?
• Okay, I'll leave you with one more, and I'm sure this has been proposed by someone somewhere, but I don't recall ever reading about it: could the island be the original Garden of Eden? People who don't age or live a very long time at least, and those in the know, trying desperately to protect it and keep it from the outside world? Are the special properties like the Tree of Knowledge and the forbidden apple? Is that what the tons of Biblical references in the show are trying to clue us in to? Are the Others descendants of Adam and Eve (the Biblical duo, not the remains that were found in the caves on the island and dubbed "Adam and Eve" by the Losties)? I haven't thought this one through very much, but again, it's fun to consider.

Alright, enjoy "The Little Prince," everyone!