There are two overall theories of time travel.  One states that time is a fixed constant and that, in the words of Daniel Faraday, "whatever happened, happened."  The other is that the past can be changed, creating alternate futures.  For an example of this, see Back to the Future and the disappearing photograph.

The question on Lost is: which time travel theory does the show adopt?  Initially Faraday seemed convinced that time was fixed and that the survivors who traveled back to 1977 couldn't change the future even if they wanted to.  However, he almost immediately put a hole in that theory by talking to Desmond, who is somehow immune from the fixed constant theory.


But shortly before his sudden and tragic death, Daniel Faraday was singing a different tune.  His study of relativistic physics proved to him that events in the future can be changed, as he hypothesized that stopping the Incident at the Swan Station would prevent Oceanic 815 from ever crashing on the Island, essentially negating the entirety of Lost.

Is this really a possibility?  Can the future be changed, or are the survivors always doomed to crash onto the Island in 2004?  Given what we've seen Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse do, I'm forced to say that anything is possible.

Lost has killed off major characters, flashed forward, time traveled, and resurrected the dead.  An alternate future isn't that absurd when facing pillars of Black Smoke that may or may not be related to ancient Egyptian mythology and.or the movie Stargate.

As I see it, there are four possible ways for this season to end:

1. Nothing is changed and everyone stays exactly where and when they are.  Since this is Lost, I will instantly dismiss this theory.

2. The survivors in 1977 find a way to travel back to the future and rejoin Ben, Locke and Sun on the Island.  This is completely possible, though there would certainly be a twist somewhere.

3. The survivors of Ajira 316 somehow make it back to 1977 to rejoin the survivors at the DHARMA Initiative.  This is less likely than the previous option, but still a perfectly logical way to reunite everyone.

4. The survivors in 1977 find a way to stop the Incident and change the future.  What happens after that?  Nobody knows but Lindelof and Cuse.  At this point they could make up whatever they want.

But Daniel Faraday did propose an interesting theory before he died that might be a clue about how the season will end.  He suggested that if the Incident is stopped, then Oceanic 815 would have landed safely in Los Angeles back in 2004.  With Charlie and Claire and Eko and Ana Lucia and Libby and Boone and Shannon and Nikki and Paulo all safely on board.

But Lost couldn't possibly do something that outrageous, could it?


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)