LA X, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (that Created the Alternate Universe)

I absolutely loved the premiere episode, although I’m a huge LOST apologist so I suppose that’s not too surprising. What was surprising, though, was how much I enjoyed the alternate-flashes throughout the episode. Initially, I was concerned that showing an alternate dimension would at best be a waste of time and at worst a storytelling disaster. I am relieved to admit that LA X satisfied my doubts, and—although there’s still a long way to go—I am extremely excited to see where the writers take us this season. Anyhow, in this post, I will examine the concepts behind the alternate-flashes and offer four reasons on why I’m excited to see more of them.

Whatever Happened, Happened (WHH)
So much time was spent discussing this last season, so I’ll keep this brief. However, it’s still important to understand the concept and note that WHH held true in the main timeline. In a nutshell, WHH states that the past, present, and future are immutable. Time only happens once and any attempt to change the past will fail. If tomorrow I were to travel back to 1900 to eat an apple, my actions as a timetraveler would already be recorded in history. I have not personally experienced eating the 1900 apple, since that act remains in my personal future (I’ll experience it tomorrow), but history states that I was in 1900 and ate an apple. Since the year 1900 only happens once (not twice—i.e. once without my presence and then again with me there), I must timetravel to 1900 and eat an apple. I do not have the ability to eat a pear instead, or not eat anything, or not even to refrain from timetraveling back to 1900 at all. Whatever happened, happened, and it must always happen in exactly that manner. Quite simply, history demands it.

As relates to LOST then, Jack & Co. were always fated to travel back to 1977 and to carry out Faraday’s Jughead plan. And it was those actions which ended up causing the “incident,” and ironically, the very future they were trying to avoid. Jack drops the bomb in the hatch and Juliet hits it causing a timeflash sending the Losties back to the “present” (2007) and also counteracting the electromagnetic pull long enough for Dharma to cover the site in concrete, finish the Swan station, and install the button and failsafe. The button is pushed every 108 minutes for the next 27 years, until September 22, 2004 when Desmond fails to push it which releases the electromagnetic pull and causes Oceanic 815 to crash on the island. Thus, it appears that Jack helped create the future he was hoping to avoid. In sum, you cannot change the past because time only happens once and whatever happened, happened. However, while you cannot change your own timeline, it might be possible to create an….

Alternate Universe
According to some theoretical physicists, there are an infinite number of universes. The Multi-universe Theory states that anything that could have happened has—in fact—happened in some universe; as such, there are an infinite number of universes which contain the infinite combination of possible events throughout history. Imagine, for example, that you decide tomorrow to wear a blue shirt (we’ll call this Blue Shirt Universe). Now, imagine that you instead choose to wear a green shirt (Green Shirt Universe). Then imagine that in each of those universes you decide whether or not to go see a movie. We now have four different universes (Blue Shirt/Movie; Green Shirt/Movie; Blue Shirt/No Movie; Green Shirt/No Movie). Note that until your decisions, each of these universes was exactly the same: namely, each universe’s history of events leading up to the moment of your decision was identical. It is only at the point at which you decide to wear a blue or green shirt that the previously unified universe splits into two distinct universes (Blue Shirt & Green Shirt). We’ll call this point the Divergent Point. A Divergent Point can be absolutely anything: a human decision, a human or animal death, whether it rains or not, whether a ball or atom bounces one way or another. Any change you could imagine is a possible alternate universe.

In LOST, our Divergent Point appears to be the detonation or non-detonation of a nuclear bomb in 1977 on our Island. In our main timeline, the bomb does not explode and the future unfolds as we’ve seen through Seasons 1-5 (and the on-island events of this latest episode too). However, in our alternate timeline, we imagine that the bomb does explode and the Island sinks. Our next question then becomes: Given this change, how does the alternate future (1977 onwards) unfold?

Chaos Theory
Chaos Theory deals with the concept of causation and posits that even minute, seemingly insignificant changes to a system will, eventually over time, lead to significant alterations in the expected outcome. The best known version of the theory is the Butterfly Effect, in which a butterfly flapping it’s wings in China might—through the intricacies of causation—eventually lead to the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a tornado in Kansas. A better example for us, however, would be this: imagine one universe in which a man is killed at the age of 20 before fathering children and a second universe in which he lives a full life and fathers 5 children. Now try to imagine the potential differences we might expect between the two universes after the Divergent Point (the point where the man dies or not). Well, in our second universe (U2), everything the man does past the age of 20 will be different from U1 since he never lived past 20 in U1, and everything the five children do in U2 will of course be different from U1 since they were never born in U1, and everything the man’s grandchildren do in U2…and so on. Finally, remember that any difference created by the man, children, etc. in U2 will in turn create further differences and those differences will create further differences and so on in a chain reaction manner. In sum, the point of chaos theory is that as time passes after a Divergent Point, we should expect alternate universes to become more and more different (more time = more difference). Additionally, the greater the impact of the initial difference of the Divergent Point, the greater the expected change (e.g. compare the expected differences created by killing a man at the age of 20 and merely punching him—think of the ripples in a pond, bigger stone  bigger and faster ripples).

So how would chaos theory affect LOST’s alternate universe? Well, considering the fact that our initial Divergent Point was the difference between a nuclear bomb exploding or not and 27 years has passed, chaos theory (alone) would predict that our alternate-2004 should be rather different from our original-2004. I imagine that the bomb possibly killed (or at least severely altered the lives of) several important non-timetraveling characters on the Island in 1977 (e.g. Charles Widmore, Eloise Hawking, Ben Linus, Richard Alpert, Ethan (Rom) Goodspeed, etc.). These deaths or alterations would in turn lead to the further changes of our chaos theory chain reaction (e.g. any lives which Widmore was going to affect post-1977 are no longer affected, and so on). Finally, take into account the potential other significant effects on the world that a nuclear explosion in the Pacific might yield (e.g. at the very least, news coverage of the event which would lead to differences worldwide). Again, I would expect the alternate-2004 to be radically different. And yet….

Fate, Destiny, and Course Correction
Unlike (I presume) in the real world, in literature and LOST, chaos theory need not be the only determining factor; rather, an outside determining force such as fate, destiny, or course correction (all the same term) can work to counteract the chain reaction of chaos and ensure that certain events still happen. Given the amount of chaos expected in our alternate LOST universe, it would be highly unlikely that, for example, each of our Losties board the same flight from Sydney to L.A., or that Jack’s father again dies in Australia, or that Hurley again wins the lottery, or Locke is again paralyzed, or that Sayid is again chasing Nadia to L.A., and so on. And yet, each and every of these events does occur in our alternate universe. For me, the only possible explanation is that fate has decided that these events must occur, and as such, they would occur regardless of how radically different we make our alternate universe. Each of these characters was fated to be on Oceanic 815, the alternate reality offers direct proof of that to us.

But, we should ask: If everything is fated, why do differences still exist between the original 2004 and the alternate-2004? Here is where the writers of LOST shine. It would have been far too easy and lazy to make every detail of the alternate universe match the original one. Chaos theory is still at work and there must be consequences and differences stemming from the detonation of the bomb in 1977. To ignore these differences is to suggest that every single detail of the universe is determined by fate. But isn’t it silly to expect that fate cares whether Jack’s hair was buzzed or long, or whether the flight attendant gives Jack one or two bottles of vodka? Instead, we have the brilliant interplay between fate and chaos, and throughout the season, I look forward to finding out which events were actually fated and which events were merely coincidences.

Alright, that wraps up my take on the themes and concepts behind the alternate reality. This is getting long, so if anyone’s still reading, I will briefly offer…

Four Reasons to Look Forward to the Alternate-flashes
1) Alternate-flashes provide actual proof that fate/destiny/course-correction exist
From Locke shouting “This is my destiny,” to Jack being told that he does believe in fate but “he just doesn’t know it yet,” to Eloise Hawking explaining to Desmond that “the universe has a way of course-correcting itself,” these themes have been integral to LOST since the very beginning. However, it is one thing to touch on a theme through dialogue or even circumstantial evidence (such as the fact that Charlie kept facing death due to course-correction), it is another thing to actually address the theme in a straightforward manner. I believe the alternate-flashes (for the reasons explained above) do just that, and as a basic storytelling rule, it is generally better to show the audience something as opposed to simply telling them through exposition and dialogue. I’d much rather see fate working throughout the alternate-reality than merely have some all-knowing character such as Jacob or Mrs. Hawking tell our characters that all of this was their destiny.

2) The Alternate-flashes will probably end up telling their own story
I imagine that the alternate-flashes will likely show one of two things: a) Regardless of how we might try to change our fate (hell, Jack went so far as to detonate an H-bomb), we are ultimately powerless to change the final outcome, and so at some point we’ll see the alternate-reality lead up to the exact same ending as the original reality; or b) Perhaps fate has its limits, and while it was our Losties’ destiny to come to the Island, the destruction of the Island negated that possibility and irrevocably halted fate, and thus, the alternate-reality will show the potentially devastating results of this fact (remember Mrs. Hawking saying “God help us all” if the Oceanic 6 were unable to return to the Island). Anyhow, I think witnessing either outcome would be pretty cool.

3) Alternate-flashes can be used to produce reverse foreshadowing
I expect the first half of the season to show us a growing number of alternate-universe events which transpire in a similar fashion to the original universe. Already we’ve seen such things as Christian Shepherd’s body being lost, Jack saving a suffocating Charlie, Kate escaping from the U.S. marshal, Locke and Jack having a philosophical discussion, etc. Over time, I expect us to be able to draw the conclusion that certain important events were fated to happen—regardless of the universe. Once we are able to draw this conclusion and become used to the idea that the alternate-universe is mirroring the original universe, I think the writers could throw us a curveball and show us a major event in the alternate universe that has not happened in the original universe. Take for instance (and this is entirely hypothetical, so don’t worry) that we are shown alternate-Sawyer killing alternate-Jack. Suddenly, we have the horrific foreshadowing of the possibility that this event will take place in our original universe. Thus, even if we don’t care about alternate-Sawyer and alternate-Jack (they are only alternate versions of the characters we’ve grown to love afterall), we suddenly care very much about what alternate-Sawyer does to alternate-Jack. And much like flashforwards were used to generate anticipation during Season 4 (e.g. we wanted to know what were the “very bad things” that supposedly happened after the Oceanic 6 left the Island), alternate-flashes can be used to build this same suspense.

4) There is the very real possibility that a connection exists between the original and alternate universes
Now, let me first admit that I was less than thrilled by the thought that Jack & Co. would suddenly wakeup in the alternate universe with all the memories from the original universe. Not only does this idea make little sense (given the framework of ideas I’ve outlined above), but I really fear that if alternate-Jack suddenly remembered everything from the Island, the final season would simply devolve into a Matrix-like (and likely incoherent) mission by Jack to uncover the original, real universe and return to the Island (a return attempt we’ve already seen in Season 5 anyhow). No, I instead much prefer the more subtle use of the alternate universe for the three reasons immediately above. Nevertheless, LA X offered two important clues that perhaps some connection between the universes does exist:

a) Jack definitely acts strangely when we first see him on alternate-815 and especially when he talks with Desmond. This could either be a clue that he has retained some memories of the original universe or simply the writers playing with us. While I hope that Jack doesn’t experience a complete recovery of memories, I would not necessarily be opposed to the idea that perhaps our moments of unexplained intuition or strange feelings of déjà vu are actually fleeting connections to an alternate version of ourselves. Perhaps when we meet someone who we feel as though me must have met before (although we know we couldn’t have), we have actually met them in some alternate universe? I know it’s a trippy thought, but I would personally much prefer this subtle reason for Jack’s hesitations to a full-blown recovery of memories.

b) Juliet’s death scene and subsequent “It worked” declaration to Miles are an even stronger clue that some connection between the universes exists. My thought is that perhaps in our moments of death and then after, we become connected to alternate-universe versions of our self. Juliet’s final words were “Maybe we can go for coffee sometime,” and “We can go dutch.” I have a feeling that we might see a scene in the alternate-reality in which Sawyer and Juliet meet and Juliet says these very words. Juliet, in her moment of death, was able to commune with the moment she meets Sawyer in the alternate reality. Maybe, maybe not? But it could provide an explanation for why she said “It worked” – namely, “the plan to reset things did in fact work, and in some other universe, you and I are happily sharing a cup of coffee.”

We’ll see how far the writers decide to go with the connection between the original and alternate universe. If done carefully though, I think certain connections could lend even greater meaning to the alternate-flashes.

So there you go, 2,700 words on LA X without saying much at all haha. Feel free to offer thoughts, criticisms, etc. I’ll probably offer some less theoretical thoughts on the episode once I rewatch LA X (assuming I can before next Tuesday).