A great man named Miles O’Brien once stated, “I’ll never understand temporal mechanics.” Poor guy, especially since he was stuck in an unending time-loop when he said this.
I, on the other hand, have a sadly strong understanding of temporal mechanics (and stellar dynamics, and string theory, but not the math behind any of them, go figure.) So since I’ve already been asked this question twice today, and hope to find a way of explaining it before asked again, here is WTF was going on with last night’s episode of “Lost” for those who are confused.
(Warning: Spoilers to follow, if you haven’t yet watched the show, start with season 1 episode one, and once you’ve gotten through season 6 episode 1, read this, otherwise it won’t make any futzing sense to you either.)
Now, I’m not really going to be able to discuss all the time jumping of last season, as IMHO it was only used as a device to connect certain characters with certain events in order to progress the storyline of the show. It actually had nothing to do with time travel outside the show’s own timeline and the need to put certain pieces into play at certain times.
What I wanted to discuss was the whole dual-time-line thing with Jack and Kate and Sawyer being both on the island and still on the plane. How the island can both exist and be sunken at the same time. To understand this I have to explain (minimally, don’t worry) Quantum Theory.
Quantum Theory states that the same object (usually the electron of a specific atom) can exist in multiple locations or “states” at the same time and no one can ever really know where it is at any given time because even observing this object can theoretically change its location. Get that? I could fill up several chalkboards with the math that allows for this, but suffice it to say that this theory has not yet been proven false
(For anyone confused so far, two things: First, no theory can ever be proven true, to date gravity is just a theory. Second, somethings in life you just have to accept as true, like gravity.)
But the ability for one object to exist in two or more locations at the same time does not fully explain why there are two timelines occurring in this episode of “Lost.” For that we have to do what the Losties did and go back in time.
Here’s what happened, the Losties got to the island, a bunch of stuff happened including the Others, the Dharma Initiative, and some evil black smoke monster (and a polar bear and a wheel, but those aren’t important to this explanation.) After 90 days a ship showed up and some of the Losties got off the island only to return a few years later.
In the meantime the Losties who stayed on the island started that time jumping I mentioned earlier and finally ended up in 1977. The Losties who left and came back also mysteriously ended up in 1977. Then with the goal of turning their lives around and never ending up on the island they detonated a nuclear weapon (pronounced new-klee-ar, NOT new-kue-lar, say it right!!!)
Suddenly we see the Losties all happy on their original flight which doesn’t crash on the island and they all get to Los Angeles as they should have in the first place. At the same time we find the Losties on the island whining about how the weapon detonation didn’t work and now some (more) people are dead, and we’re all very angry about it.
So what happened? How can the Losties be in both places and this not corrupt the timeline and cause the world to implode in a huge temporal BOOM?!?! Easy, by going back in time and blowing up the bomb, they stopped themselves from making it to the island. However, since the plane never crashed, they never went back in time to blow up the bomb and stop themselves from coming to the island.
Both things happened. They both did and did not crash. They both did and did not detonate the nuclear bomb. They both did and did not have all the goings on they’ve had over the prior five seasons. They did both things.
Here’s another way to explain it if you’re still having trouble. Say you built a time machine (and not the one from Quantum Leap, we’re not going back to right the things that once went wrong, there’s no hoping that the next leap will be the leap home.) We’re going back to kill someone. Specifically, we’re going back to kill your grandfather before he even met your grandmother. Let’s shoot for when he was eight.
So we go back in time and shoot this poor little innocent eight year old in his footy pajamas. Boom, dead, done. So your grandpa is dead, your grandma met someone else, they had only daughters and your dad never came into existence. So he never met your mom and they never had you. So you could never go back in time to double-tap your eight year old gramps.
This is famously called the Grandfather Paradox and some say it’s impossible. But the writers of Lost are saying it is possible and that it opens up the multiple worlds theory where every decision made in every way it can be, yes, no, maybe, and not made at all. (By the way, I personally believe the multiple worlds theory is a both a load of hooey and a brilliant theory, so again, go figure.)
So, the Losties, according to the writers, did both. They blew up the hatch and they didn’t. They found Desmond, and they didn’t. They killed Jacob and they didn’t. Both things happened.
I hope that explains it, and if it didn’t, sorry, but maybe I can get you the math.
