As many of you know, I’m a big LOST fan. On another blog, I posted all of my thoughts re: each episode of the last few seasons of LOST. As soon as last season ended, I started slowly going back and watching all of the previous episodes from seasons 1-5. I’m at the final episode of Season 3 right now (trying to finish up Season 5 by January just in time for the final season). Here’s something that’s struck me.

Throughout Season 3, Desmond has these “flashes” of Charlie’s impending death. Desmond constantly tries to keep Charlie from dying (he saves Claire from drowning, keeps lightning from striking Charlie’s tent, keeps an arrow from piercing him in the throat, etc.). By the finale, Desmond realizes that Charlie’s death is inevitable, a necessary “course correction” in the cosmic drama of fate or “The Island” or whatever. But he has this final flash of Charlie swimming down to The Looking Glass station, flipping a switch, seeing the yellow light turn off and then Charlie drowns. This flash comes to pass in the Season 3 finale when Charlie cryptically tells Desmond that the rig offshore is “Not Penny’s Boat”.

But one thing has always bothered me. Desmond’s flash has a conditional element to it. IF Charlie does all of this, then he sees Claire and Aaron climbing aboard a helicopter and leaving The Island. Of course, this doesn’t happen. Or at least, it hasn’t happened yet.

Which gets me to thinking: what happened that prevented that portion of Desmond’s flash from occurring?

Elsewhere in the episode, Ben meets Jack and the castaways as they are trekking across The Island to the radio tower. Of course, this is where Jack will make the phone call that ultimately leads to he and the rest of the Oceanic Six leaving the Island. Just before he makes the call, Locke shows up (after receiving a vision of Walt) and tells Jack this is not what he is “supposed” to do. Prior to this, in Ben’s conversation with Jack, Ben tells the good doctor that he once made a decision that caused 40 of his people to lose their lives in a single day. Of course, Ben is talking about the Purge. But Ben is also trying to keep Jack from making that call. He says to Jack, “If you make this call, every single living person on this Island will die.” He warns Jack that history is about to repeat itself if Jack makes this phone call.

Is this true? In a way, yes. By making this call, Jack essentially forfeited the lives of “his people”, the 40 or so “redshirts” that we see in the background. So here’s my thought: what if Season 6 somehow leads us up to that moment of decision again for Jack? What if it’s true that Jack was never “supposed” to make that phone call? What if his fate is truly tied to The Island? What if Desmond’s flash of Claire and Aaron getting aboard the helicopter didn’t happen because of Jack’s decision to go “outside the box” by doing something he wasn’t “supposed” to do? Season 5’s trippy timeline-shifting story seems to be leading us to some sort of revision of the history we’ve been acquainted with thus far? Now that Jack has lived with the despair of that decision, perhaps we’ll see him being led to this moment of decision again, only this time he chooses not to make the call and thus fulfill his ultimate destiny on the Island. In this way, he and Locke are finally aligned as the rightful leaders of the Island in a way that “pleases” Jacob (who I think was communicating to Locke via Walt, encouraging Locke to implore Jack not to make the impending phone call).

Does this make sense? I know the mythology of this show can get sort of dense at times, but I’m thinking that everything may hinge on this decision Jack made. Ultimately, I think we’re going to see Jack and Locke emerging as the new leaders of The Island, replacing the current regime of Ben and Richard.

Your thoughts? I’m probably way off here, but it’s something to ponder.

Only a few more months until Season 6!