LOST Recap/Theories

Courtesy of exclusive guest blogger AK. Get a sandwich and clear your schedules for this read. I would also like to say that when 2005 Locke told 2005 Richard to go tell 1977 Locke to go back and die so that he can return to the island, and we realize that the knowledge given to Locke by Richard actually came from Locke AFTER he went back and died and came back again -- that's when my brain started bleeding a little I think.

Without further ado, here is AK's take:
here are the "stories" we have going right now. Some of what follows is just overall viewpoint, and a bit is specific to last night's episode.

The island and its mysterious powers.
The hostiles.
The Egyptians (I think that all of the Egyptians are hostiles, but not all the hostiles are Egyptians).
Widmore and Eloise.
The Dharma Initiative.
Widmore versus Ben.
The survivors.
Locke.
The Ajira survivors.
Time travel.

I think we need a big Venn diagram for all of this to explain overlap.
The island is everything. It's the big circle that everything overlaps. The smoke monster is "part of the island" - it predates the Egyptians. The carvings we saw in the temple show it talking to the Egyptian gods. It is a presence that pre-dates them.
I think the Egyptians are the second oldest thing on the island. The temple, Richard (he's been an advisor "for a very long time," and Jacob. The island predates them, but they were the first people on the island.
The hostiles are the larger group of indigenous people that have accumulated on the island over the years via shipwreck (the Black Rock, et al) over the years. The Egyptians have brought them into the hostile fold. Gods do need followers after all.
Widmore and Eloise then came to the island at some point. How? Why? Wasn't young Widmore in the Army? Military operations in the South Pacific during WW2 brought them here, and they never left? (Backstories will assuredly come for one or both of them with dedicated episodes.)
The Dharma Initiative comes to the island and plans to stay. The hostiles don't like this. They establish an uneasy truce.
Ben is brought to the hostiles, his life is saved, he usurps power from Widmore, casts Widmore off the island (where is Eloise?)
The survivors crash on the island, and eventually we discover they've landed in the middle of this whole mess. It is interesting to me that if you look at the "turnover ratio" of the original crash survivors, one could make the argument that none of the survivors is relevant... they are just part of the background. They are the eyes through which we see the greater story unfolding. None of the survivors are all that important in the big picture, except for one...
Who is Locke in all of this? Why is he so special? I don't think Locke was special. I think Locke makes himself special (see below).
And then the Ajira flight crashes and these new Ajira survivors surface. I still think they overlap with the Egyptians, clued by their passphrase of "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" I think Widmore hired them, but I think they are Eqyptians. In the war, who will they fight for (see below)?
I think that there is a war lining up for the last season. But who are the players in the war? Potential players in the war are 1) The Egyptians; 2) The Hostiles mutiny led by John Locke; 3) Charles Widmore? But what troops does he have in place to fight in this war? Where is his representation?; 4) Benjamin Linus? Does he have individual skin in this game, or does he fight on the side of the Eqyptians? It's kind of funny because it sort of seems like no one wants Ben. (Poor Ben.) But what troops does he have in place to fight in this war?; 5) Eloise Hawking. Something tells me she is going to have a role in the war, but again, on whose side? What are her motivations, and are they aligned with Widmore?
And then you add in time travel. The show has always focused on philosophy and religion. It has lead me to wonder about all of the talk of destiny, and with the one scene we saw last night with Locke watching himself come out of the woods, it made me think about Calvinism and free-choice, and pre-determination. Which then led me to the thought of removing religion entirely from the destiny talk. If one could travel back in time, would you not know your own destiny, it having already occurred? And if one knows what the future holds and has at least some level of control over it, does that not make them a god of sorts? Think of Jacob, and Richard, and the Egyptian angle... forget about Stargate and alien Egyptian gods. If you can control time relative to those around you who cannot, would you not be a god to them? Using the power of the island, are people like Jacob and Richard simply people, very old people, who many years ago were gods to a nation? And now, for reasons unknown, they are gods to the hostiles on this island. I think people are creating their own self-fulfilling prophecies. Take this as a thesis and chew on it: Is John Locke the new god of the island? Even more powerful than Jacob? And the reason he is going to kill Jacob is because he already has? And he knows it is his destiny? A destiny that he created for himself. The one thing Lost has made an artform of is tipping us off that very important things have happened offscreen and gets us to move on and forget about them from some other compelling twist. It is the reason that the flashbacks have always been so compelling - they reveal something to us that we never expected, but perhaps we should have (Nothing demonstrates this better than the best hour of TV ever - when we found John Locke had been in a wheelchair.) Think of all the things that Locke could have done while he was out of the picture. The time travel he could have accomplished (or fallen into). And, truth be told, he didn't need any offscreen time, because with the manipulation of time, anything done can be undone? For example, did Locke actually rise from the dead? Or did he "simply" travel back in time prior to having died, and then traveled forward in time again to where he is today? And pardon a brief sojourn into tongue-in-cheek blasphemy, but imagine if Jesus Christ had the power of the island? Could he not have done the same thing? Does a god have the ability to manipulate time, and determine fate and destiny? Or is it the other way around - is it the mastery of time that makes one a god?
I think it will be an interesting ride to the end. I still stick by my bookend theory that the series ends with the remaining survivors boarding the original flight with their corrected timeline. I'm not sure that the timelines will get corrected this season to reunite the remaining survivors. I think that survivors split across the timelines may play out and ultimately something that happens in the past timeline (the detonation of the bomb) will ultimately have a direct effect on the outcome of the war in the future. I think many great dramas and comedies (think Seinfeld) play out best when multiple storylines, seemingly unrelated come together in the realization of the plot. Will we have Kate, Sawyer, Juliet in mainland US in 1977 interacting with a still living Daniel Faraday and Charlotte and any number of other "dead folk?"; Miles, Hurley, and Jin on the island beaches of 1977 - perhaps with Dr. Cheng along; Sayid, Eloise, and Richard on the island in 1977 trying to move the bomb to the Swan - against the wishes of Widmore (and Richard seems to have something planned, as well); and Locke leading a mutiny to Jacob's doorstep, while Richard and Ben have other things in mind. But can/will Ben actually go against his pledge to the smoke monster to follow Locke? Plus Widmore of 2007 is trying to get back to the island. I believe he will. Somehow or other he is going to get back to the island with Desmond in tow...