Ethan

[MikeS]

Watch season two's Maternity Leave and see near identical similarities to season six. Ethan's examinations of Claire in What Kate Does just reminds me so much of the early seasons. There is something important going on here but I can't put my finger on it. Is Ethan a link between realities?

Season 2 - Claire remembers an examination in a highly equiped theatre...

...days later Kate discovers a long-ago abandoned theatre

Season 6 - Claire gets examined in a highly equiped theatre...

Is Claire of season 2 remembering this future alternate reality? Brings me back to her dream and statement about the Black Rock in Season 1. Plus Nihojin has just told Jack how important she is....

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

IMO the universe is somehow course-correcting the timeline.

 

[spinnerlys]

I also liked how he has an aversion of needles, or at least does not want to bother Claire with them.

It's like he did a 180° turn.

 

[Mallet]

Well alternate timeline Ethan could be a totally nice guy. With out a lifetime spent being an Other he might have grown to be a nice, happy doctor, rather then the evil one he was in the other timeline.

Him running into Clare in the alternate timeline, is just a way of showing the cosmic coincidences that can happen (like all of the ones that brought everyone together on to flight 815 originally).

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Well alternate timeline Ethan could be a totally nice guy. With out a lifetime spent being an Other he might have grown to be a nice, happy doctor, rather then the evil one he was in the other timeline.

Him running into Clare in the alternate timeline, is just a way of showing the cosmic coincidences that can happen (like all of the ones that brought everyone together on to flight 815 originally).

Speaking of Ethan, not sure if this was addressed already elsewhere, but we all know he is Horace Goodspeed's son. And he went by Dr. Ethan Goodspeed in this flashsideways, but in the other timeline at he went by Ethan Rom, was that just a cover? Or was he adopted? We'll probably never get that answer will we?

 

[Mallet]

Well alternate timeline Ethan could be a totally nice guy. With out a lifetime spent being an Other he might have grown to be a nice, happy doctor, rather then the evil one he was in the other timeline.

Him running into Clare in the alternate timeline, is just a way of showing the cosmic coincidences that can happen (like all of the ones that brought everyone together on to flight 815 originally).

Speaking of Ethan, not sure if this was addressed already elsewhere, but we all know he is Horace Goodspeed's son. And he went by Dr. Ethan Goodspeed in this flashsideways, but in the other timeline at he went by Ethan Rom, was that just a cover? Or was he adopted? We'll probably never get that answer will we?

The think "Rom" was just the fake last name he gave the survivors of 815 when he was pretending to be one of them.

 

[Hober Mallow]

The think "Rom" was just the fake last name he gave the survivors of 815 when he was pretending to be one of them.

Then why would he bother with his real first name? And what difference would giving his real name make, since the survivors would have no way of knowing that is was anything significant?

I like the idea that he took the last name of the Other or Others who raised him.

 

[Mallet]

I like the idea that he took the last name of the Other or Others who raised him.

What Other or Other's who raised him? He was born when? 1977? The "Purge" took place in 1992? He would have been 15 then and he had already sold out his own family and let them be murdered by the Others. I doubt he needed any of the Other's to "raise" him and so I doubt he would have taken on the last name of any of the Others.

People often keep their first name when choosing fake identities, it makes it easier to remember and more natural when you respond to people calling your name out. Goodwin also gave his real first name when he infiltrated the Tailies. I don't think we ever find out what last name he gave them (if any).

Why he would need to give a fake last name? Who knows, but it wouldn't be the strangest or most unnecessary thing the Others ever did.

 

[MikeS]

Well alternate timeline Ethan could be a totally nice guy. With out a lifetime spent being an Other he might have grown to be a nice, happy doctor, rather then the evil one he was in the other timeline.

When were we shown that he was evil? IIRC that was a false trail left by the wirters. When we saw events from his perspective he was trying to help and seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

By the way, you probably all know, but Ethan Rom = anagram of "Other Man".

 

[Klaus]

...this makes me wonder even more about Ben. He's got no reason to be "evil" either in the new timeline!

 

[Mallet]

Well alternate timeline Ethan could be a totally nice guy. With out a lifetime spent being an Other he might have grown to be a nice, happy doctor, rather then the evil one he was in the other timeline.

When were we shown that he was evil? IIRC that was a false trail left by the wirters. When we saw events from his perspective he was trying to help and seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

Well, first he kidnapped Claire and Charlie, then he beat up Jack, then he tried to murder Charlie by hanging him from a tree, and then he murdered (but first spent time breaking most of the bones in his body) of Steve(?) who was on guard duty protecting Claire.

I think that counts as evil.

 

[Hober Mallow]

What Other or Other's who raised him? He was born when? 1977?

We saw Ethan as a child with Ben and the Others in, what, 1988? When Ben stole Rousseau's baby. Presumably he had already left and joined the Others by this point.

 

[RoJoHen]

What Other or Other's who raised him? He was born when? 1977?

We saw Ethan as a child with Ben and the Others in, what, 1988? When Ben stole Rousseau's baby. Presumably he had already left and joined the Others by this point.

Whenever it happened, Ethan had to have been with the Others sometime before Ben poisoned the Dharma Initiative, otherwise he would have also been killed.

 

[Mallet]

Unless, like Ben, he was working with the Others to kill off Dharma, but still living and working among the Dharma people.

But also at some point he after that would have had to leave the island and do all of his medical training. He was the only surgeon the Other's had when 815 crashed so he must have done his medical school off island somewhere. And since that was after the purge, it must have been the Other's that sent him off island to get that education.

 

[biotech]

Thanks for spoiling the surprise that he would be in the episode with the title.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, having Ethan in the title by itself wouldn't be a spoiler. There should have been a spoiler warning in the thread because the contents would be a spoiler.

 

[Lindley]

...this makes me wonder even more about Ben. He's got no reason to be "evil" either in the new timeline!

If the island sank when the nuke went off, then Ben is probably dead. He wasn't returned to the Dharma folks before the sub left, anyway.

It's possible that Richard had a boat stashed away and used it to take some of the Others off the island as well, I suppose.

 

[Mallet]

I don't think the island sank when the nuke went off. that would be pretty hard to fathom. I think it will end up being that because the nuke went off, something that should have happened later, didn't, and therefore the island sank (possibly years after "the Incident".)

 

[Checkmate]

I don't think the island sank when the nuke went off. that would be pretty hard to fathom. I think it will end up being that because the nuke went off, something that should have happened later, didn't, and therefore the island sank (possibly years after "the Incident".)

Why? They basically bombed the core of the "magic" of the island with the nuclear device. A magic island that could travel and teleport all by itself, indicating it wasn't any ordinary island whatsoever and thus fully capable of sinking Atlantis style.

 

[Mallet]

Well, first of all, "The Incident" always happened in one way or another, even in the regular timeline. In fact, I'm not sure that the Nuke going off didn't always happen, even the "first time" around. Remember that when Jack and Sayid were first exploring the Swan Station they found an area totally blocked by tons and tons on concrete. Sayid even said that the only other time he had seen anything like that was at the nuclear incident site at Chrynoble(?). So that seems to indicate that there is a good chance that "whatever happened, happened" and that Jack was merely doing what he was destined to do (and had already done in the past before).

If that's the case then I think it is something else that eventually causes the island to sink in the alternate timeline.

What that is? Who knows? If the timeline can be changed, and it wasn't the nuke going off that changed it (since it appears that that always happened) then maybe it was something else that caused the island to sink.

Also the Swan wasn't really the "core" of the Island's power, it was just a pocket of unstable energy. The "Core" of the Island, if it even has one, seems to be at the Orchid station with the big pocket of energy, and the mysterious donkey wheel. It was that place that had the energy needed to make the island move and also to send people through time.