Who says the island has even been Donkey Wheeled before? Ben did have to blow a hole in the Orchid station to even get at it. If it's been moved in the past, it might have been through different means under more controlled circumstances.
I figured that was the case. Watching all that Star Trek probably helped me out. I think it'll be 3 years for the Oceanic 6, but a few days for those on the island.
I doubt that in all these centuries they've never Donkey Wheeled the Island before. They've never had to move the Island to avoid discovery and exploitation before?
Also, Ben to blow a hole through the Dharma station to get to the Donkey Wheel. And he knew before hand it was going to be freezing cold down there. And Chang had a parka sitting there ready to go on a tropical island. This suggests that they have foreknowledge of the Wheel chamber, probably from Dharma messing with it in the 70s over Chang's protests (which is probably "The Incident").
IMO The Incident and the Wheel are unrelated, IMO The Incident is simply an accident of them experimenting with the electromagnetic properties of that part of the island The Swan was built on, something happened with their reactor, it started leaking and a charge built up, and this was The Incident.
My first thought was - Jin spent the last three months trying to learn English, now he wakes up surrounded by people who only speak French!! The first episode this season, Candle was called to the Orchid because 'they' 'discovered' something. The donkey wheel had been imbedded in rock - the workers wanted to blast it. I don't think, prior to Dharma (the 70s?) the donkey wheel had been used in several centuries.
It seems to me that the Swan and the Orchid are closely related to each other. Both are sitting on a pocket of exotic matter. The Swan appeared to be on a pocket black hole, whereas the Orchid is on a timey-wimey-travel-thingee-matter bubble. Perhaps it is the micro black hole that powers the time travel bubble.
a pocket black hole? really? all they said was they (the DI) were studying electromagnetic properties in that part of the island
Yeah, I've had this theory for awhile. The Swan sat on a micro black hole that existed in equilibrium within the Island due to its weird properties. Dharma, in its finite wisdom, decided to poke a hole in the dam so to speak, hoping harness the energy from a pinpoint hole in the black hole. This is why if you don't push the button it will destroy the world; it periodically vents the released energy harmlessly. If you don't push the button, the black hole escapes its captivity and devours the planet. The fail safe key permanently seals the Dharma hole in the barrier, so that no more energy can escape, but this also means Dharma could never hope to harness that energy for good (hence why they didn't just seal it in the first place).
Maybe the Swan's EM field was supposed to counteract the time-unstickyness, and when Desmond hit the failsafe that protection was destroyed.
Oh, that's an excellent point! What's different between the 70s and now? The Swan blew up! Of course, my understanding is Dharma created that hole in the 70s and now it's sealed, so that basically the Island was reverted to its pre-70s state with Desmond blowing the Swan. Gee, that sounds dirty...
Lots of people were convinced she was an Other who got exiled or ran away from them. Too many holes in her story, like how she's never seen the Others before only heard their whispers, then all of a sudden she's an expert at tracking and capturing them and is an expert on Ben and how he'll lie for a long time under torture... It appeared that she was married to Ben and had Alex with him but then ran off for some reason. I never thought it myself but it was a plausible theory. Still could be true if she just joins the Others after the Frenchies get killed.
It's been so long I don't remember, but I think the black hole thing might've been semi-confirmed by the creators in an interview/DVD? Or maybe I just think too highly of my own theories
This also explains they don't just have an automated computer program perform the button pushing. They were afraid gravitational distortions or an EM pulse would short out the computer. That's why they need living people pushing the button.
I've never heard any of those theories. I also never once thought that Alex was Ben's kid. As for how Rousseau knows so much about the Others, I just figured that she knew what she knew because of her time on the island, hiding and watching. I do think she had some brief encounters with them early on though. Looks like we'll actually see what happened in the next few weeks.
Solid great episode. I'm really enjoying this season. Does Hawkins/Widmore stay in touch? Desmond is en route to LA. Given that he has a sail boat he will most likely dock in the very same marina as the group of Ben, Sun, Aaron, Kate, Jack are gathered explaining how they'd cross paths. Or will they cross paths after they leave dock and they are en route. Didn't see them meeting up at marina but makes so much sense for this show. Doesn't feel contrived but is plausible. Like how the show is using time travel to explore and address outstanding mysteries of the island that could only be done through time travel. Plus I always get a kick out of the stroll down memory lane a la "All Good Things..." we've been treated to this season as we revisit familiar events in the history of the show. I'm thinking now Miles is Chang's son we briefly saw in the 5.1 teaser. Pretty clever and subtle on the writers part. Who is darting Sayid and Hurley? Ben? Widmore? Just because the guy had Kate's address doesn't necessarily mean they are linked or it could be misdirection. We saw Dan in the Orchid as it was being constructed in the 70s by Dharma in episode 5.1. Tonite we saw that survivors have decided to go to the Orchid, what if by the time they get there they will be in the 70s and Dan goes in there since he is the only one that knows of it and how it works. Will this also lead to crossing path with Chang? Sun came to LA to eliminate Ben. Did Ben use himself as bait to lure her here so he could take her back to the island? Certainly would be in Ben's manipulative style. Who are the new mystery attackers? We never learned what time period this was. They did a good job with casting the younger Hawkins and Widmore last week and did a good job this week with the younger Rousseau. Jin probably thinks he struck his head a bit too hard when he sees this young Rousseau. He never learned that Rousseau was killed by the mercenaries. We know the survivors are in 1988 since Rousseau crashed 16 years earlier and furthermore we know the Purge didn't occur until 1992 since in "Cabin Fever" we learned it occurred 12 years earlier. So maybe they'll cross paths with Dharma in the 80s. The weakest parts which thankfully didn't take up too much time were the attempts to create emotional resonance with Sawyer missing Kate. I've never cared for them or Jack/Kate myself.