Possible, but in general, circles in various magical are meant to trap things, not protect them (think demon summonings).
Not that it counts one way or the other, but clearly, normal humans like Locke and Hurley face no problems in walking over ash circles: it’s only mystical beings that care about goofy stuff like that.
X-Files had an ep where a circle of salt protected the agents from zombies.
Proximity to the weapon’s detonation is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter, believe me, if you’re a foot away or a hundred feet away at the top of the shaft; you’re vaporized. If the timeline is changed, and causality is changed, Juliet is never there.
The nuclear weapon detonation kills anyone nearby. The only question is whether it changes the timeline by making the Swan station never exist - ergo Flight 815 never crashes, ergo most of our brave heroes land safely at LAX, and ergo the island would be a very different place for everyone who’s already on it. Juliet might not ever be recruited by the Others and so she continues to live her life in the USA, and so on. (Of course, then you have to admit that that means they never bring the nuclear weapon there and blow it up, so on and so forth. Or you argue about parallel timelines. Then you get a headache.)
Indeed, that is pretty much the only possibility; if it doesn’t change the timeline then not only Juliet, but Jack, Kate, Sawyer and all those folks are as dead as doornails on the 1977 Island. So I’m guess they WILL land safely in LAX in the next season… and some weird-ass events will bring them back anyway.
Anyone else reminded of the ending of the new Battlestar Galactica?
[spoiler]In BSG, we end up with the divine running a test that seems to repeat over and over, overseen by two “angels.” Humans make Cylons, Cylons rebel, there’s war, death, suffering.
Now on Lost we have two “angels” overseeing what appears to be a repeating test, occasionally manipulating events.
They both hope if they repeat the test enough times they’ll get a better result.[/spoiler]
Unless the crazy anomaly under the hatch trapped the energy. Or converted the energy somehow and blasted them into the future.
So the episode where Eko gets killed was just on SciFi. He has a discussion with John about the monster:
LOCKE: So, what exactly did you see back there? I saw it once, you know.
EKO: And what did you see?
LOCKE: I saw a very bright light. It was beautiful.
EKO: That is not what I saw.
Perhaps when Locke saw the monster, it was controlled by Jacob, whereas when Eko saw the monster, it was controlled by Esau. Maybe the smoke monster was created by both of them to judge people in their cosmic “game.”
Also, I think it’s hilarious how quickly we’ve taken to calling him “Esau”. I guess it’s easier than saying “Anti-Jacob” or “Jacob’s Enemy” or “That Black Shirt Dude at the Beginning.”
Some people over at the Lostpedia boards are calling him Mr. X.
Oh, I’m sure that they’ll be plenty of different names until his comes up in a podcast. If only Sawyer had met him so we would at least have a nickname.
I was more thinking that once the nuke radius hits the “energy,” time flips out.
I mean, we’re all clear here, right? Whatever happens, Jack Sawyer and all the other 77 crew perhaps save for Sayid and Juliet, are going to make it somehow, somewhere, and as themselves, with all their memories. It would be a huge stupid waste of character development if they really do wake up in LAX with no memory of the previous timeline. Maybe they could still make the show, but… it would be stupid. And then all the stuff in the present day, Locke, Sun, etc. would never have happened either. Huge waste of time.
Of course, if the Lostees all end up in, say, the present, we’re still left with the vexing question of why the timeflashes take them and not everyone else. If the timeline hasn’t changed, then Chang is still in the past, as is megasshole map maker.
Jacob is an interesting pickle, no? He seems to exist outside of time (i.e. he greets the Lostees as kids) and yet can be killed in a particular place and time. Does his enemy have the same power? It seems sort of like… not.
I don’t think he exist outside of time, just near-immortal. Although he seems to have some sort of idea of what’s going to happen. So it goes back to free will vs. destiny again.
Which brings up an interesting question. He touched all of the losties that are still on the island (except for Rose and Bernard. Maybe he did touch them and we just haven’t seen it). So did they all end up on the island because of his interaction with him, or did he go to all of them because he knew they would end up on the island?
So I kinda drifted in and out. Who the hell/what is this “Esau” and “black shirt” everyone’s yapping about?
It’s the guy at the very beginning that Jacob was talking to. If you missed that well then… I’d watch the episode again.
Regarding the destructive force of the nuke:
Although ‘Jughead’ was a fusion (H-bomb) device, they only took the fission (A-bomb) starter device from it, which may not have been all that powerful.
After 33 years it is surprising that the device worked at all–it would not be surprising if it’s yield was less than it was designed for.
Sayid’s modifications and the way Juliet set it off may have effected it’s yield.
Although the drill-shaft wasn’t as deep as that in a typical underground nuclear test, it would certainly tend to attenuate the force of the blast significantly.
We can’t ignore the unknown effects of the mysterious ‘energy source’ it was intended to defuse.
I would guess that we’re in for some CGI of a miniature version of the surface effects of an underground test; some ground deformation followed by a subsidence crater.
Questions about Jughead.
Okay, it was leaking the first time we see it, and Farady recommends to Eloise that they bury the bomb to protect people from radiation.
Instead the Others just set the bomb inside the tunnel underneath what will be dharmville. Yet Richard says something that sounds like he thinks they took care of the Jughead problem. Are the tunnels supposed to somehow contain the radiation? Or the leakage controlled through some other sciency/magical means? (Richard clearly has access to some sort of magic/superscience, he used it to heal Ben.)
The Dharma women folk are still able to get pregnant and give birth successfully at first, aren’t they?
Then in 1977 (or whenever it is) Sayid opens up Jughead and removes the inner bomb, leaving the other casing open. AND Richard smashes through one of the tunnel walls.
Could it be that THIS is when the radiation starts leaking again? And that be the cause of the pregnancy/death syndrome that afflicts the Others when they move into Dharmaville post purge?
I got the impression that the others didn’t venture into the caves very often. In this case leaving the bomb there is effectively the same as burying it. It is still far enough away and shielded enough to be safe to the islands inhabitants.
Yes, we saw Miles being born.
I guess we find out in about 8 months.
This has been debated, but as someone pointed out, these types of leaks would likely cause sterility and not only miscarriages and certainly not death.
Plus, it seems tied to conception on the island and not simply exposure.
All of this baby talk made me think of something. In the three years Juliet had been in Dharma, she must have seen several babies born on the island. So she knew they could be. Was her phobia not that the baby would be born, but rather just some psychological barrier?
During the episode that Ethan was born, the doctor said that they always take women back to the mainland to give birth. Which is what Juliet wanted to do while she was an Other to see if it made a difference, but Ben wouldn’t let her.
I don’t think the radiation caused the pregnancy problems. I don’t know how much they teach in med school, but I’m sure Juliet is smart enough to recognize radiation poisoning.
Refresh my memory here: when Desmond turned the key, that’s when he started having visions of Charlie dying, right? And all his attempts at saving him, we learned, just delayed the innevitable “cause correction” of the island/universe/JJ Abrams wanting him dead. It’s something I haven’t thought on in a while, but it certainly figures in.
I guess my big question is “What does this ‘energy’ actually do?” Is it the cause of time travel? Tangentially related? Linked up to the Donkey Wheel in some way? Think I need to read up on Season 2’s finale and see if there’s anything there.
I thought we were talking about Locke. My bad if I was confused. I’ve never watched Deadwood. (well, once, and just didn’t get it.)
It definitely is similar to the energy under the Orchid. Daniel said so himself.