Radzinsky
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Joined: 28 Apr 2008
Posts: 14
Location: New York, NY
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| Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:45 pm Post subject: Ben's Jacket, Polar Bear Bones, Arctic Chill & Tunisian |
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*** THE ORCHID STATION WORMHOLE ***
Now then... theory time... I don't know if I'm coming a little late to the party, and I haven't had a chance to read all the posts here. I'll be more up to date in the future. You guys let me know if I'm being repetitive. Here's a pretty solid theory about Ben, the Orchid Station and teleportation:
The short version of this theory: the Orchid Station, made famous in the orientation video that was circulated at the San Diego Comicon, houses a wormhole that allows for teleportation/time travel, due to the Island's unique properties. This might not be the central mystery of the Island, but it's certainly a big part of it. I'll build this theory up step-by-step:
(1) The Orchid Station Orientation Video
First off, our Asian narrator is back. Formerly Marc Wickmund and Marvin Candle, he is now Edgar Halliwax. Although, in this video, he has both arms intact. You can see the video here: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Orchid. Halliwax begins by apologizing for deceiving the viewer by telling him that the Orchid was not a botanical research station. He goes on to say that the Island has a certain "Casimir Effect," which, if you look on Wikipedia, is a phenomenon associated with quantum mechanics, wormholes and faster than light travel. Later in the video, bunny #15 appears to duplicate, hysteria ensues, and Halliwax shouts about keeping the bunnies separate -- likely to avoid creating a paradox.
(2) Charlotte Discovers a Polar Bear Skeleton
In the second episode of this season, we meet Charlotte Staples Lewis (a derivative of C.S. Lewis, implying that she's been to the Island once before -- read Narnia: Prince Caspian for details). She's in the desert in Tunisia and she discovers a polar bear skeleton in the sand, with it's characteristic Dharma logo collar, from the Hydra Station. We don't quite know what to make of the skeleton at first, but Lindelof and Cuse, in an official podcast, told us to pay attention to the Orchid video and the polar bear skeleton, and remarked that the polar bear and the bunny have similarities.
(3) Ben Wakes Up Shivering & Steaming
Then, this week, we see Ben awake in the middle of the Sahara, also in Tunisia. He's red-faced, he's shivering with cold, and he is literally steaming. Fresh from the Arctic, anyone? He's wearing a heavy coat with the name "Halliwax" on it and the coat also bears a Dharma logo that we haven't seen before, a large series of concentric circles, shrinking to a single point. Ben also looks to have a pretty severe cut on his arm.
(4) Putting It All Together
It's no great leap to assume that the Orchid Station houses a wormhole and that Ben travels through the wormhole at some point soon. It may not be in October 2005 (as he is told in by the hotel clerk). After all, it is hard to know how much time will pass when Ben steps through the wormhole. But it is clear that Ben was most definitely SOMEWHERE ELSE before he winds up in the Tunisian desert.
Not only is he in a jacked that at one point belonged to Halliwax, but the new Dharma Orchid logo looks very much like a portal -- the concentric circles collapsing on themselves is sort an established image of a portal or teleportation. The gash on Ben's arm is also interesting. Pure coincidence that Halliwax/Candle/Wickmund loses an arm at one point? Might he lose it experimenting with the Orchid wormhole? I am doubtful, but the connection is intersting.
So the question remains: where was Ben? Where did he come from? Where is the Orchid Station? Conventional wisdom suggests that he was someplace cold, even arctic, and some have drawn connections between the Orchid Station and the listening post where Penny had her two Portuguese-speaking guys that called her on the night that Desmond turned the key.
I'd like to propose an alternate explanation. The Orchid Station is on the Island -- it may not be in the arctic -- but, in order to use it, you face extreme temperature change. Maybe the process of wormhole travel itself is extremely cold. And, once you're done with it, it punts you out into blistering heat in the Tunisian desert. Dharma would need an especially robust test subject to experiment with the wormhole, something that could handle climatic extremes.
Now then, if you remember back to the Blast Door map that trapped Locke, you may recall this entry in the lower right-hand corner of the map: "Stated Goal: Repatriation accelerated de-territorialization of ursus maritimus [polar bear] through gene therapy and extreme climate change." Starting to sound familiar to anyone? The polar bears were Dharma's test subjects in the Orchid wormhole -- hence the skeleton in the Tunisian desert that Charlotte discovered -- and the reason they were exposing the polar bears to extreme heat was to help them survive the trip through the wormhole to the Sahara and back.
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So... that might not be rocket science to everyone reading this, but I hope you find it interesting. I've got another observation or two about Smokey/Cerberus and what I think is going to happen next week. Might save those for later tomorrow. |
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