Lost What Ifs

No, Claire isn't important to any of my "What If" theories, but I needed an intro picture, and she's really nice to look at.

Take all of the following theories with a grain of salt. Some reflect what I really think, others are just meant to be playful.

Hey Island, Why No Tykes?So we know that pregnant women on the Island all die around the beginning of their third trimester. According to Juliet, the mother's body treats the fetus as a foreign invader and attacks it, whereby the mother's immune system shuts down.

We also know that Benjamin Linus' mother went into labor, early in her third trimester to be precise, and subsequently died. We also know that Ben's father blamed him for his mother's death for most of his life.

What if Ben is causing the deaths of the Island's pregnant women?

As I've stated before, I believe the Island's immense electromagnetic properties allow for the physical manifestation of human consciousness, be it the Will to Survive (Locke, Rose, and Mikhail's healing), or the Fear of the Past (Jack's Dad, Eko's Brother, etc.) Perhaps Ben's subconscious survivor guilt over the death of his mother is being physically manifested by the Island. We know that Ben was a "special" child, like Walt, who has some kind of special communion with the Island. Perhaps he's killing all of these poor women without even realizing it, just like Walt kills birds. Perhaps Jacob or the Island gave Ben a tumor to get rid of him so that Island love-birds can do their thing without worrying about getting killed in the third trimester.

Me Rousseau, You OtherSimply put, Rousseau's backstory doesn't add up. In case you don't remember, she claims to have crashed onto the Island 16 years ago, when her "research vessel" decided to investigate a radio transmission that was repeating the Numbers over and over. Already, there's a problem with that story, because in the Sri Lanka Video, Alvar Hanso specifically states that the Numbers would be "broadcast in a frequency and encryption known only to us." There's no way Rousseau's "science expedition" could've picked up that signal.

She then claims to have spent the next 16 years surviving alone on the Island, during which time she never came into contact with any members of the Dharma Initiative or the Others. To which I say, "Bologne." How could she manage to travel all over the Island, and make those detailed maps, and completely miss the enormous presences of Dharma and the Hostiles/Others? You may be tempted to say, "Well, what about the Purge, Adam?" However, the producers claimed that Mikhail's account of the Purge was entirely accurate, and he said that he came to the Island in 1993, and witnessed the Purge sometime after that. Rousseau, if we believe her story, has been on the Island since 1988. Doesn't. Add. Up.

What if Danielle Rousseau is actually Annie?The eye and hair colors are right, and the producers have already said that one day Annie will be of "seismic" importance to the show, and she was noticeably absent during the Purge flashback. Also worthy of note is Rousseau's apparent obsession with using dolls as booby traps, and Annie's similar birthday gift to Ben. Perhaps Ben and Roussannie grew to love one another, but disagreed on the Purge. Perhaps Ben, convinced that wiping Dharma out was the right thing to do, but still in love with Roussannie, let her escape into the jungle on her own. Perhaps afterwards, concerned about the upbringing of he and Roussannie's daughter, Alex, he kidnapped Alex from Roussannie to raise her in the community of the Others.

Perhaps Rousseau is not the French Woman in the distress call (she sure doesn't sound anything like her), but assumed that identity when she contacted the 815ers, similar to the way Ben assumed Henry Gale's identity.

Cap'n Jake SparrowWe know that the Black Rock disappeared in 1845 traveling East from Indonesia, and that it was owned by one Magnus Hanso, grandfather of Dharma-founder Alvar Hanso.

What if Jacob is Magnus Hanso, the Columbus/Cortes of the Island?

Perhaps Magnus was the first foreigner to reach the shores of the Island, the first Westerner to make contact with the indigenous population, and was revered as such? His cabin certainly hails from the Black Rock's time period, as did Richard Alpert's clothing in The Man Behind the Curtain. Perhaps Richard was the Black Rock's first mate who kept the journal that Widmore purchased in The Constant. The auctioneer did mention that the seller of the journal was one Tovard Hanso. Could that be Magnus' son and Alvar's father?

It would appear, Magnus or not, as though Jacob was the founder of the Others/Hostiles, an amalgam of people from different groups (Natives, Pirates, Dharma rebels, Real-World Recruits), who want to protect the Island from forces that wish to exploit it. It'd be like Christopher Columbus getting on real well with Native Americans and then saying "Hey, I changed my mind, the rest of you white people need to get out of here and leave these people alone." Or something like that. And then if Columbus communed with the properties of America until he was no longer enslaved by Time or Space. Yeah the analogy only goes so far.

"Each of us is here for a reason." - John Locke
What if each of the people on Flight 815 were hand-picked by Ben to serve his purposes?

Ben had a tumor on his spine - Jack was a spinal surgeon. Ben needs assassins in the Outside World to defeat a greater enemy - Sayid is basically Jason Bourne with a tan, and Jin was already a hit-man for Mr. Paik. Ben needs to fix the pregger-problem on the Island - Claire and Sun are baking bread. The Others are "interested in children with special abilities" - Walt's a freak. The list could go on. Perhaps Ben used his influence in the Outside World to manipulate each of these people into getting on that flight. Manipulation is what Ben's all about, correct?

The Darth Vader of Lost
This is completely off-the-wall, but hear me out. Thanks to Locke's speech in the Pilot, we know that on Lost, "There are two sides. One light, one dark." One side wants to protect the properties of the Island, the other wants to exploit them. In the future, Ben is trying to eliminate the dark side, using Sayid as an assassin. Who is the Big Bad Wolf? I really hope it's Walt.

He was, after all, the person that Locke was talking to during that speech. And Locke was the white side of the Backgammon board, while Walt was the dark. Wouldn't it be neat if the writers were setting up that Good vs. Evil dichotomy right there in the Pilot?

The producers have said, "there's a circularity to the way the story of Michael and Walt is going to unfold in the overall mythology, and that is a long-planned approach." For reasons we don't know yet, and that I'm not going to guess, Walt becomes the power-hungry villain of the show, bent on exploiting the properties of the Island. He'd certainly have reason enough to hate the Others after they kidnapped him in Season 2 and stuck him in that brainwashing room for who-knows-how-long!

I know what you're thinking: "Walt's just a kid!" And yet, we already know that in the 30 days Walt's spent off the Island, he's apparently grown up quite a lot. He's years older than he should be. Perhaps, like Jacob, Walt is no longer enslaved by Time or Space. Which is why I think he may be Matthew Abaddon.After all, Abaddon made his first appearance sitting in front of a black-and-white chess board. Could this be harking back to that Backgammon speech in the Pilot? Abaddon certainly seemed to be in charge of the Freighter mission to find the Island and kidnap Ben. Perhaps power-hungry Walt wants a little revenge.