Present Time

I outlined my theory on Season 5's timeline a few posts back. I'm still trying to piece together a more detailed outline, but in the meantime it's nice to know that others are mulling over the question as well. From Approaching Lost:

How will the Lost producers work the “present time” moving forward?
1. Present Time is When the Island Moved:
In this option “present time” continues on the Island’s perspective and the characters continue moving forward with flash forwards to the Oceanic Six and possible character flashbacks (prior to the Oceanic crash) to fill in plotlines.

2. Present Time is With the Oceanic Six:
In this option “present time” continues where the final scene of Lost Season 4 left off, with the Oceanic Six trying to get back to the Island. The characters who were left on the Island could then have their story told in flashbacks, leading us to understand what happened with Locke’s leadership and his reason for leaving the Island. We could also see the Island’s current story lines being told.

3. Present Time is Somewhere in the Middle:
In this option “present time” lies somewhere in the middle with flashbacks and flash forwards showing us both sets of characters in their respective times.

As I've said before, I'm relatively confident that Season 5 will focus on the Oceanic 6 post-Locke's death, and the people stuck on the island, post-Move. If true, choices 1 and 2 would both be half-right.

For the Oceanic 6, flashbacks can still play a part: if we begin after Locke's funeral, we can still flashback to Kate meeting Cassidy, Nadia's murder, and everything else we haven't seen yet. However, on the island, if we reunite with them right after the island moved, it seems unlikely that they would still continue pre-crash flashbacks.

If the island jumped ahead in time the same distance Ben did - to October 24th, 2005 - that makes the island present a lot early than the Oceanic 6 present, which is either late 2007 or early 2008. So here's a theory I haven't explored yet: what if the island present time of Season 5 is not directly after the jump but instead concurrent to the Oceanic 6 present? That way, the on-island characters could still have flashbacks of their past two years on the island, which we will have not seen.

There's so many different possibilities, I'm going slowly insane...

TAGS: Season 5, Timeline
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