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The Island and the surrounding area appear to have become "unanchored" from space/time as we know it and exist in a pocket dimension which intersects with the rest of the world only intermittently. Some fans theorised that the Island has always been like this, others that it only happened with the Incident (since prior to 1977 it's - just about - plausible that an island of that size could just about escape discovery in the middle of the Pacific). In this sense the Island itself does not move but the windows/connection between the Island and the rest of the world move.
By tracing the Island's specific electromagnetic and radio signature. I'm pretty sure this was explicitly said on the show.
Following up on the reports from the US Navy expedition that stumbled over the Island in the 1950s and through Alvar Hanso, the industrialist who funded DHARMA, whose great-grandfather was the captain of the Black Rock, Magnus Hanso. Alvar was obssessed with finding the ship and by tracing the last known course of the Black Rock it appears he was able (helped by the DeGroots) to find one of the paths onto the Island.
Walt has an unusual psi ability of some kind which is actually unrelated to the Island. Damon Lindelof's original plan was that Walt would be revealed to have these amazing abilities but they'd have nothing to do with the Island and eventually the baffled Others would just let him go (as they did). I think this was supposed to be irony, but they didn't explain it very well because they suddenly saw how big the actor was getting and they needed to find a way of getting him off the show.
According to the writers, they never wanted to outright say it did, but kind of drifted into it. The original idea was that Locke's paralysis wasn't necessarily permanent and the shock of the crash would cure him. It was then up to the audience to side with that theory or with the idea that the Magic Island Magically Cured Him With Magic. That got lost in the mix. Later on it was put down to the unusual properties of the Island.
When DHARMA evacuated the Island, they had to leave the Swan Station running because they feared what would happen if the EMP build-up was left to run amok after the nuke went off on top of it. The resulting explosion might only destroy the Island, or it could go haywire and blow a hole in the side of the planet. They built the failsafe system to vent the EMP in one go, but were wary of using it, so left the dudes pushing the button and left the supply drops going. The Epilogue episode on the Season 6 DVD shows Ben visiting the supply drop warehouse and shutting them down.
This to be fair was never explained. The best theory I saw was that originally there was a DHARMA reporting station in that location and it was dismantled by the Others for spare parts at some point, or destroyed by MiB for a laugh, leaving behind the tube.
The Island's energy can strip a soul from a body and turn it into a free-roaming cloud of what might be nanobots or just spirit energy of some kind, to help defend the Island more effectively from enemies by judging them and their past actions. The Man in Black should never have been pushed in, that's where it all went wrong. It should have been a willing guardian: it's heavily implied that "Mother" also had that power (she obliterated the Man in Black's village single-handedly, which is impossible for a middle-aged woman but perfectly feasible for Smokey) and when she died that power returned to the source, to be inherited by the MiB. When MiB died that power returned to the source again, to be inherited by...well, that's never revealed but there's a good fan theory that Jack then had that power (I think they might have been a bit more hinted at if that was true, otherwise we may assume that the power was never inherited by anyone else as it was no longer needed).
He'd been guarding the Island for 2,000 years and was really, really over it.
Because the Smoke Monster is actually the No-God
Or, more likely, the properties of the Island are harmful to pregnant women in some way. Only women who are already close to term when they arrive on the Island (like Claire) can give birth.
It's said that the polar bears escaped during DHARMA's departure and they swam over to the main island once the food was exhausted on the Hydra Island. Hydra Island is 4 miles off-shore and the world record for a polar bear swim has been estimated at 230 miles (although in the wild they almost never swim more than 30 miles in one go), so that's well within arctic ursine tolerance levels.
Either coincidence or a predestination paradox.
That was a fan theory. The show never really seriously went there.
The numbers were the result of the Valenzetti Equation, which attempted to predict when the world would end based on the probability of nuclear war, disastrous global climate change, manmade pandemics, the singularity and other possible causes. One of DHARMA's projects was attempting to see what could be done to change these values and thus extend the viability of the human race (I always personally liked the idea that DHARMA and Hanso were also looking at using the Island as a last redoubt to evacuate people to if civilisation did collapse, but that was never explicitly stated). The Numbers were never cursed, Hugo just chose to blame them rather than accept he'd had a run of bad luck which actually had natural explanations (his grandfather died because of the shock of Hurley winning the lottery, his house may have been burned down because someone was jealous of his achievements etc). If you step back for a second you can actually see the Numbers have a reason for recurring: Leonard hears them being broadcast out of the Island where DHARMA are studying them, he relays them to Hugo where they happen to be the winning lottery numbers and then Hugo comes back to the Island where they're all over the place because DHARMA was studying them there (so natch), and some bright spark had the idea of using them as the computer password to reset the EMP timer.
Admittedly the LOST writers made a big mistake in not explaining the Numbers properly on the show (they came out in the LOST EXPERIENCE spin-off project), as they're not actually that big a deal.
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How does it move?
The Island and the surrounding area appear to have become "unanchored" from space/time as we know it and exist in a pocket dimension which intersects with the rest of the world only intermittently. Some fans theorised that the Island has always been like this, others that it only happened with the Incident (since prior to 1977 it's - just about - plausible that an island of that size could just about escape discovery in the middle of the Pacific). In this sense the Island itself does not move but the windows/connection between the Island and the rest of the world move.
Quote
How does the off island station find it?
By tracing the Island's specific electromagnetic and radio signature. I'm pretty sure this was explicitly said on the show.
Quote
How did the Dharma initiative find the island in the first place?
Following up on the reports from the US Navy expedition that stumbled over the Island in the 1950s and through Alvar Hanso, the industrialist who funded DHARMA, whose great-grandfather was the captain of the Black Rock, Magnus Hanso. Alvar was obssessed with finding the ship and by tracing the last known course of the Black Rock it appears he was able (helped by the DeGroots) to find one of the paths onto the Island.
Quote
What was up with Walt before he went to the island?
Walt has an unusual psi ability of some kind which is actually unrelated to the Island. Damon Lindelof's original plan was that Walt would be revealed to have these amazing abilities but they'd have nothing to do with the Island and eventually the baffled Others would just let him go (as they did). I think this was supposed to be irony, but they didn't explain it very well because they suddenly saw how big the actor was getting and they needed to find a way of getting him off the show.
Quote
How did the island cure people?
According to the writers, they never wanted to outright say it did, but kind of drifted into it. The original idea was that Locke's paralysis wasn't necessarily permanent and the shock of the crash would cure him. It was then up to the audience to side with that theory or with the idea that the Magic Island Magically Cured Him With Magic. That got lost in the mix. Later on it was put down to the unusual properties of the Island.
Quote
Why is there still a Dharma initiative supply drop if they are all dead?
When DHARMA evacuated the Island, they had to leave the Swan Station running because they feared what would happen if the EMP build-up was left to run amok after the nuke went off on top of it. The resulting explosion might only destroy the Island, or it could go haywire and blow a hole in the side of the planet. They built the failsafe system to vent the EMP in one go, but were wary of using it, so left the dudes pushing the button and left the supply drops going. The Epilogue episode on the Season 6 DVD shows Ben visiting the supply drop warehouse and shutting them down.
Quote
Why does the message tube system terminate in a field in the middle of nowhere if the button is real and thus the need to monitor those people from the Pearl is also real?
This to be fair was never explained. The best theory I saw was that originally there was a DHARMA reporting station in that location and it was dismantled by the Others for spare parts at some point, or destroyed by MiB for a laugh, leaving behind the tube.
Quote
Why does a dead guy turn into a smoke monster?
The Island's energy can strip a soul from a body and turn it into a free-roaming cloud of what might be nanobots or just spirit energy of some kind, to help defend the Island more effectively from enemies by judging them and their past actions. The Man in Black should never have been pushed in, that's where it all went wrong. It should have been a willing guardian: it's heavily implied that "Mother" also had that power (she obliterated the Man in Black's village single-handedly, which is impossible for a middle-aged woman but perfectly feasible for Smokey) and when she died that power returned to the source, to be inherited by the MiB. When MiB died that power returned to the source again, to be inherited by...well, that's never revealed but there's a good fan theory that Jack then had that power (I think they might have been a bit more hinted at if that was true, otherwise we may assume that the power was never inherited by anyone else as it was no longer needed).
Quote
Why does Jacob need a replacement?
He'd been guarding the Island for 2,000 years and was really, really over it.
Quote
Why do the pregnant women all die?
Because the Smoke Monster is actually the No-God
Or, more likely, the properties of the Island are harmful to pregnant women in some way. Only women who are already close to term when they arrive on the Island (like Claire) can give birth.
Quote
How did Polar Bears get from the other island to the main one.
It's said that the polar bears escaped during DHARMA's departure and they swam over to the main island once the food was exhausted on the Hydra Island. Hydra Island is 4 miles off-shore and the world record for a polar bear swim has been estimated at 230 miles (although in the wild they almost never swim more than 30 miles in one go), so that's well within arctic ursine tolerance levels.
Quote
How did Jack coincidentally end up meeting Desmond?
Either coincidence or a predestination paradox.
Quote
Not to mention they always left dangling the possibility that Hurley was imagining the whole thing from the asylum.
That was a fan theory. The show never really seriously went there.
Quote
Oh yeah, and what was the significance of the numbers, and was Hurley cursed?
The numbers were the result of the Valenzetti Equation, which attempted to predict when the world would end based on the probability of nuclear war, disastrous global climate change, manmade pandemics, the singularity and other possible causes. One of DHARMA's projects was attempting to see what could be done to change these values and thus extend the viability of the human race (I always personally liked the idea that DHARMA and Hanso were also looking at using the Island as a last redoubt to evacuate people to if civilisation did collapse, but that was never explicitly stated). The Numbers were never cursed, Hugo just chose to blame them rather than accept he'd had a run of bad luck which actually had natural explanations (his grandfather died because of the shock of Hurley winning the lottery, his house may have been burned down because someone was jealous of his achievements etc). If you step back for a second you can actually see the Numbers have a reason for recurring: Leonard hears them being broadcast out of the Island where DHARMA are studying them, he relays them to Hugo where they happen to be the winning lottery numbers and then Hugo comes back to the Island where they're all over the place because DHARMA was studying them there (so natch), and some bright spark had the idea of using them as the computer password to reset the EMP timer.
Admittedly the LOST writers made a big mistake in not explaining the Numbers properly on the show (they came out in the LOST EXPERIENCE spin-off project), as they're not actually that big a deal.
This post has been edited by Werthead: 04 May 2016 - 10:51 PM
