Thank you kindly, sir!

Nor can I!

This has been the most helpful thing I’ve found on the internet since finishing the series. I love every video and have been more than happy with all of the explanations.

Thank you, Vincent!

That is wonderful to hear! The very notion that these videos might help enrich and improve the overall viewing experience of the show itself is the best possible outcome I could ask for. Thank you for letting me know :)

Super :)

Here, here! And very well said! 👍

As someone who was heavily invested in lost when it was airing, posting on forum's, reading the theories, listening to all Lindelof and Cuse's interviews, watching all the lost specials. The fact the Lindelof and Cuse stated every single chance they got that the mysteries were all planned out and all have resolution it makes the whole retcon aspect very hard to accept. With a series that is very heavy with mysteries you cant just change plans when you've established clues about nature of some mysteries especially when you've been very public saying that all these mysteries have been planned out cause Lindelof and Cuse ended up looking like the biggest liar's at the end of lost.

They didn’t say they had every mystery planned out. I would challenge you to show me that quote or interview or podcast excerpt. This is a Mandela Effect memory thing. They said frequently that they had a roadmap for the mythology and that they knew where they were going, not that everything was set in stone. You can’t plan out an entire six season series on network TV, especially when for the first three years you have no idea how long you will have to keep the story going. The story evolved and changed as they went along for all sorts of reasons - network demands, cast changes, writers strikes, budget limitations, etc - and sometimes they could not force old ideas for a mystery from Season One into the answers of Season Five because the story had evolved beyond that point. It is a very complex issue, not as simple as you are making it out to be at all. Writing a serialised mystery series across six years in collaboration with many others when you don’t always have full creative control over what you can do/where you can go is not the same as one single author writing a mystery novel. The retcons were an inevitable result of that process. Some were successful (and barely noticed) and others not so much. But most of the things we learn about by Seasons Five and Six were established all the way back in Season Two, from the elemental energy beneath the island to DHARMA and the incident to establishing the afterlife. The misconceptions about what the writers said and promised are pretty pervasive, amongst detractors and there are many made up claims and false memories about this. Which is why I’ll be making a video addressing these types of criticisms.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Id suggest watching Velodus's long ass review cause he actually pulls up receipts showing the Lindelof and Cruse did say they have a plan and the mysteries were planned out, it isn't a Mandela effect situation. The only thing that we know of that was changed that was justifiable due to budget reason's was the original plan for the heart of the island being in a volcano. Going back to the man behind the curtain as well Lindelof and Cruse said Ben's friend Annie would also plan and important role but that story element was dropped as well. As a writer you need to plan you story out and generally the good mystery series the writers have planned things out a head of time before implementing them into the story. Writing and changing stuff leads to things being incoherent which is what happened with a large amount of lost mysteries.

I have seen the Velodus videos. He is the main source of where a lot of these bogus claims come from, which many aggrieved former fans tend to parrot. Before I get further into that, I would like to just establish the differences between “making it up as they went along” and “changing things as they went along”. This is not the same thing. Let’s use the Annie plotline that you mentioned as an example. When introducing that storyline, the writers had a plan for that character and backstory which they intended to unspool in Season Four in a Ben-centric episode. But in Season Four the writers strike hit, which shifted their plans because they lost about three or four episodes as a result. They were forced to drop that backstory because there was much more pressing storylines to deal with, including Ben’s flash-forwards. And they couldn’t fit it into Ben’s flashbacks in Season Five because the priority for that character became his backstory with stealing Alex, since that was the running emotional arc for him in that episode (his guilt over her death). This is what I mean about writing a serialized mystery across six seasons. Whatever your initial plans are, some of those plans will change out of necessity. This doesn’t even qualify as a retcon, it’s simply a dropped plot thread that doesn’t actually change anything about the overall story. I explore this particular part of the mythology in my video on the pregnancy crisis, and how the writers didn’t really need to expound upon it any further. I can understand why it was dropped for time and narrative economy. Back to Velodus: his videos were made in bad faith because he approaches the showrunners from a position of viewing them as con artists; charlatan hucksters who intentionally misled and deceived the audience. And enjoyed doing so. As a result, he has perpetuated some really disingenuous myths about the show, which I have combated on here with a lot of counter evidence. I consider several of my answers on this channel to be direct repudiations to some of his material. The key problem with his methodology is that he frequently conflates his own interpretations/opinions about the story as “facts”. While some of the points he makes about certain issues are fair - the whole Charlotte’s birthdate retcon and how the showrunners ducked accountability over it is a good example -- his overall analysis is deeply flawed and filled with misrepresentations and petty gripes. There is a detailed essay on Reddit by @Choekaas that debunks many of his criticisms one by one and demonstrates how he draws conclusions based on opinion not established narrative fact or accurate behind the scenes info. His research is very bad. I really recommend you read that essay. Here’s the link: www.reddit.com/r/lost/comments/9cw6gv/a_6900_words_response_to_reetae_reviews_lost_part/ There are things Velodus says that do not make sense - such as MiB appearing on the freighter being a plot hole - when in fact they do make sense, and he simply hasn’t followed some of the basic plot points. But I understand why his video series plays well to those who dislike the show or dislike where the show went and how it resolved. It’s easier to demolish a house than it is to learn how it was built. I have issues with the show too, but unlike Velodus I also understood the story and what happened, and I do my due diligence with research. I also appreciate the demands and realities of writing a network television show and how there are many factors involved in that process. I present the story told and analyse it in good faith, but also acknowledge the retcons and interrogate them to see how well they work. Bottom line: the writers knew where they were going with the story, but they adjusted parts of it as they went along. Like every single writer would when telling a complex serialized story such as this.

Welcome to the channel! I started making these videos about a year ago and I fully intend to keep it going for a long time to come :)

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yayyyy

I come down more on the 1992 side too and agree that we can explain away how Alex was raised and Ben being a double agent for a few extra years more so than we can with the discrepancies from the 1988 date.

Cheers! Many more videos to come. I have a long, long list to get through and I still feel like it's only the beginning lol. Btw, what Ben claimed about the hatch to John Locke is unreliable information. We must remember that Ben was already threatened by John Locke -- The Others knew that he was a paralyzed man who could walk again -- so he took every opportunity to attack Locke's confidence and faith in the island. It is made clear in several instances later on the show that The Others were aware of the hatch, how it functioned, and what was happening down there the whole time. I will be talking about this in more detail in a future video, and perhaps tie it into what happened when The Swan went into lockdown. As I said, so much more to discuss! :D

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 do you think the others could have initiated the lockdown remotely

@@johnlocke5728 Yes, this is one of the possibilities I will be exploring in a video about the lockdown in Season Two. 👍

Thank you!

The theory about Ben and Annie is definitely one that I share and believe was the original intention behind the Annie character. This theory is actually something I explore in my upcoming video on the pregnancy crisis (due out this month). So, your timing in bringing it up is fortuitous!

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Did Ben (and so the others) known about swan station? as Henry Gale he looks confused when he sees swan computers...

@@incelpolskatv3855 I answer and explore that very question in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fcuTg8en1bHVYH0.html

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 okk thanks, I've just discovered your excellent channel and I will watch all videos, I like your explanations, they fit really well, good stuff.

Really appreciate the kind words, thank you! I hope these videos help to enrich the show for fans.

We do see Roger being more contrite with Ben before The Purge, so we can infer that after Ben was shot in 1977, it might have softened Roger’s treatment towards the kid a little bit. But he was still a pretty lousy dad either way!

A question mate, what's the software you use for speech in your videos? Thanks in advance.

There is certainly enough evidence to support either year, which is what makes this whole debate so difficult to reconcile. People have to pick the year that best works in their own mind. It's ironic that my video led you more towards 1987 when you say you had never questioned the 1992 date before. That's really interesting to me! I still think, canonically within the show, 1992 is the only date that is specifically stated in dialogue, dream or not. Although 1987 makes more sense when it comes to what we see take place in Season Five flashbacks, especially those in 'Dead is Dead'. This is why such a seemingly simple question took almost 44 minutes to discuss lol.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 it’s like you said, in the show it was only every stated in the dream with Locke and Horace, that Horace died 12 years to 2004… 1992, easy math. Never second guessed it. I always figured the purge happened in 1992 and of course, for sure, Danielle and her team arrived in 1988. It’s just not until this video that I never saw an error with Ben and Ethen running around while Dharma was still up and running on island or they were already purged off. It’s so great to see the show in new light time and time again even almost 20 years later. Thank you for the work you put in!! Cheers!

I think it's likely that after the purge on-island The Others kept up the pretence of DHARMA still being in operation there to the outside world and strung along DHARMA headquarters in Ann Arbor until they found a way to take them over from within. But your theory is also plausible too: that DHARMA discovered this deception and tried to wrestle back control of the island and sent in more paramilitary types, like Kelvin Inman. There are many possible permutations of what might have happened post-purge.

The Others absorbed several DHARMA Initiative members and imported many of their own recruits from the mainland over the years. One of them was bound to have been a doctor who trained Ethan up. Remember, by the time Ben was leader, The Others took over the DHARMA facilities and became fairly technologically savvy. They would have their own doctor(s).

Technically, it’s already a small causality paradox without that additional detail. Because Daniel’s research from (presumably) the early 2000s is what gives Charles Widmore the data needed to sabotage The Tempest in the 80s/90s (depending on your preferred purge date of course). So information from the future informs an event from the past. That said, Daniel was researching DHARMA but we don’t know what his methodology was, so it’s possible he was being fed information from Widmore by proxy. I say “by proxy” because they had never met before the scene they share together in ‘The Variable’, according to Widmore himself. He had been a private benefactor in name only up to that point. There is no way to know how Daniel collated DHARMA history. So that gap in our knowledge about where the information came from can be speculated upon and I think it’s totally plausible that some of it was filled in by Widmore.

Lol, I'm afraid that was not me.

You can watch it for free on KZfaq. Here is the link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/orOag92Hl7jaf2w.html Enjoy! :-)

All excellent points! Well stated. 👏

Technically, it was a retcon between Season Four and Five because the Horace Goodspeed dream happens at the tail end of season four in 'Cabin Fever'. Which means the writers didn't change their mind on the purge date until they came to writing Season Five itself. Maybe they had not even realised that they needed to retcon it until reaching 'Dead is Dead'. I think the Wired photo can be added to the list of supplementary materials, but much like the original episode script and the Lost Encyclopedia, it fails to actually resolve the issue. Because the only in-show information that we ever receive in regards to a timeline remains from Dream Horace and is stated very specifically: 12 years ago. No matter what the writers were trying to do by gliding over and retconning the date, that scene and line survive and give a precise date and it is very hard to try and explain that away. In regards to Baby Alex and formula milk (and general baby supplies), I would offer you this counter: if DHARMA was still around in 1988 then Ben would simply have taken the baby back with him to raise her there for the next five years, where access to baby supplies would be plentiful. Or, if DHARMA had been wiped out in 1987, then all The Others would need to do is go to The Staff or The Barracks for whatever medicines/supplies they needed. And if those supplies dwindled, they could just make sure that such things were included on the next pallet drop. Either way, I don't believe the baby formula/breast milk is help nor hindrance to the purge date guessing game. It's just one more thing that has multiple explanations depending on your interpretation. I agree that Radzinsky most likely made it to the turn of the century before his suicide since he was the only one to have any real contact with "the hostiles" (most likely through the hatch computer). The washer/dryer is certainly evidence that there was a truce-like agreement between him and The Others, in which he was given whatever he needed in order to continue his work. It seems unlikely that Kelvin was ever introduced to Ben or any representatives. He certainly never demonstrated that he had any way of communicating with them. It is amazing that the purge date is still debated all this time later. Although I do think the retcon the writers attempted with 1987 was a narrative mistake, and ultimately it doesn't make sense given what was established earlier. Unlike the whispers, they had already given the answer as to when the purge happened, a mere season earlier. They seem to have genuinely forgotten or dismissed that scene in 'Cabin Fever'.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 > Technically, it was a retcon between Season Four and Five because the Horace Goodspeed dream happens at the tail end of season four in 'Cabin Fever'. I am aware of that, but I could've rephrased it better. I meant that "a retcon between season 3 and 5" as in from the first time we hear about the Purge ("Enter 77" and then seeing it in "The Man behind the Curtain") to the time travel scenes and flashbacks that possibly contradict it ("The Little Prince", "This Place is Death" & "Dead is Dead"). If I were a betting man, I'd say that the retcon was in place when planning season 5 during the mini camp in May/June 2008 and upon the release of the Comic-Con video later in July. The one with Pierre Chang saying that he and his colleagues will be dead in a violent purge. Your counterargument on formula milk works well. I just needed to say it out loud because of the bottle-feeding of an infant every 2-3 hours while living in the jungle is pretty hard. They would additionally need clean bottles and nipples, and none of the Others women could breastfeed. That still works with your argument regarding the dates. Either that Ben explained he found the baby in the jungle (like you said, which would be easy to explain to the rest at the barracks) and the DHARMA folks helped him with supplies or in a post-Purge world, the Others got what they needed and then moved into the barracks.

Speaking of feeding baby, I wander how did Losties feed baby Aaron after they lost Claire...🤔😊

@@malinho2342 Good question. I think they should be ok with that 1-2 day with Claire being missing and Aaron just carried through the jungle/on the freighter. But there's an additional week on Penny's boat. I hope she had some lactation aid or bottle feeding.

@@Choekaas once they arrived Penny's boat it's okey...but I don't think 2 days before that would be okey... babies need to be fed like every 2 hours... Whatever, it's a small issue and we could assume there was dharma milk at the Losties camp on the beach...😊

In death, time has no meaning. So a person can be any age from any point in their life. Remember that Kate most likely died an old woman yet she appears in the afterlife at the same age she was when she met Jack in 2004. This same logic applies to island ghosts. Ghost Jacob appears as his younger self to remind the Man in Black of a time before they were who they became. And to let him know that, even in death, he will never truly be gone.

Okay benjalina linus

LOL! Thanks! 😆

Designed by the same people perhaps? Both in the real life LOST production and within the fictional realm of the show.

You mean the lighthouse? It is implied that a protector has the power to control who can find places on The Island. The Heart of the Island cannot be found by anyone other than a protector; no one can go inside the four toed statue without Jacob allowing them; and the lighthouse is concealed from everyone until after Jacob’s death. So, it’s more likely that the lighthouse was unfindable by anyone on The Island.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I should have been more specific. In this video you talked about how Ben/Others didn't know about or ignore the radio tower where Russo's message was broadcasting from. I was speculating that it would make sense because Jacob might have "told" him that Russo's message needed to continue to broadcast so that it could bring people to the Island, and because it broadcast some of his favorite numbers before Russo changed it.

Oh I see! Yes, I think that is absolutely a possibility. The Others definitely knew about the radio tower, as they knew about all DHARMA structures on The Island, so there would be a reason as to why they left it playing. I think you’ve nailed it! It’s also the short answer as to why they never took over The Swan. Jacob outlawed them from doing so as that station would be the key to bringing his final candidates to The Island.

Richard had to remain an impartial advisor. He probably carried out many orders that he didn’t agree with.

Hmmmm.... sounds interesting. It is very close to the winer solstice.

That depends on whether or not Ben was referring to DHARMA being wiped out as a community on the island or DHARMA being wiped out as an off-island entity too. It may have taken another several years for the DeGroots and their people at Ann Arbour to be completely absorbed and/or killed. So, if the purge was in 1988, the Ann Arbour base might have endured for another four to five years, and this could be what Ben means. Basically, his statement still leaves some tricky wriggle room in this context.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Fair enough. I guess some parts of Dharma could have survived for several years after the purge. Thanks for the reply.

Even if it were Smokey in the dream, we know that he doesn’t get the year wrong because the original purge date was intended to be 1992. And it is also made clear that Smokey has a clear sense of time considering he manipulates the time loop to his advantage. The show never indicates that the Man in Black had the power to give dreams, but we know The Island gives people visions, so it’s logical to assume it can also give instructions through dreams.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yeah, that also explains why he was stuck in a loop. The first vision we seen with Johns mom and Boone was pretty glitchy as well

Yes, that's fair reasoning. The dream has another piece of inaccurate information too, when Dream Horace claims that Jacob is actually in the cabin, which we know to be a deception or distortion of the truth. Although that distortion is a necessary lie to put Locke on the road to meet his fate. However, the main problem I have with dismissing the information in the dream is its preciseness: "I've been dead for 12 years" is so incredibly specific that I personally find it hard to handwave it away as a random number. But, as you say, it's easier to explain away information from a dream than it is information given outside of a dream.

I put forward a similar theory in this video. The Others took over DHARMA operations bit by bit. First on The Island and then on the mainland, and they kept certain DHARMA stations and subsidiaries running, like The Lamp Post and the warehouse in Guam. It was Ben who was keeping the DHARMA warehouse workers going with the paychecks over the years (they kept the pallet drops coming), which is why we see him cutting the men some severance pay in the epilogue. The Others had taken over everything and just kept what they needed.

The show establishes that Jacob tries to stay out of the decision making process of The Others unless he absolutely needs to step in. Richard confirms as much: “Jacob never tells us what to do.” It’s unlikely that Jacob would want that many people to die either. Some DHARMA personnel were also no doubt candidates. We see some familiar names on the lighthouse dial, such as Horace Goodspeed and Roger Linus. It’s heavily implied that Charles Widmore ordered the purge since he was in charge of The Others at the time. Richard is immortal in the sense that he never ages, but he is not invincible. He can be killed, especially if The Island demands it. The only thing that is guaranteed to not kill him are the ravages of time.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 So much love for you ❤❤❤❤

The implication is that Rousseau suffered a genuine mental breakdown back in 1988 and became confused over the traumatic events that took place within quick succession of her being on the island (witnessing impossible sights such as the monster and time travelling people, the murder of her teammates, killing her own lover, losing her child). When Ben took Alex, he was shrouded by shadow and she was seeing him through recently awoken, bleary eyes. She then spent the next 16 years in total isolation. In that time, her memories of 1988 became muddied in her mind. When Ben was captured in her net, she sensed a familiarity about him and was certain he was an "Other", but she was probably unable to articulate why she was so sure. And after making this same error with Sayid and torturing him as an innocent man mere weeks earlier, she probably felt it was better to leave the interrogations to someone more qualified than her. Sayid was someone whom she came to respect and confide in, and knew that he was a pro.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 your honestly the Goat 🐐 man I can’t wait for more content I saw this question in an old review and just wanted to see your explanation, which was flawless of course!

I get what you mean and admire the thinking, but there is no alternate iteration of the time loop. The time loop is baked into history and always happens the way it does. There is no timeline where they never appeared in the past. The whole reason everything happens the way it does -- from the plane crashing on the island to the Man in Black being vanquished -- is because of the causality created from the time loop. The sideways shows us a potential version of reality in which the time travel (and the plane crash) never happened, but in terms of the living realm, history always happened exactly as it did. The past could not be altered in any way. Even Desmond couldn't change the past and he was unique in that he could relive past events with foreknowledge of his own future. When the show was first airing, the discrepancies kicked up by 'Dead is Dead' in regards to the purge were put down to the time travelling characters altering events (and history of the island). At that point, we didn't know that the past couldn't be changed. It was part of the writers way of keeping us on the hook into the season five finale: can they change the past with this bomb? But, as it turns out, they could not. There is only one timeline and it only ends once. As Jack says in 'The End': "There are no shortcuts, no do-overs. What happened, happened." Including the wonky purge timeline lol.

Sayid and Kelvin meet during the first Gulf War that took place between 1990-1991.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yes i researched, your right!

That scenario might be plausible if the purge happened in 1992, but not if the purge happened in 1987. Depends on which purge date you want to support. If it's 1992 -- which allows enough time for Kelvin to be in the Gulf War and teach Sayid how to torture -- then we have to reconcile the flashbacks from 'Dead is Dead' and why Ben was with The Others in the jungle in 1988 (and how he raised Alex). If it's 1987, then Kelvin would had to have been recruited by The Others posing as DHARMA after the Gulf War in order to give Radzinsky a new hatch partner who would be capable of the extreme conditions required. It's interesting that you mention that Radzinsky could have had other hatch partners because I agree with this and actually think Mikhail Bakunin was one of those partners, due to a glass eye being in storage with Radzinsky's items at The Arrow bunker.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 That's a very good explnation! Thanks!

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yeah, maybe they were conflicts between Mikhail and Radzinsky at swan station and DHARMA/the others decided to replace Mikhail with someone else as new partner for safe swan operation. BTW its silly that Radzinsky (who created the swan) can't program the computer to automate the process xD

@@incelpolskatv3855 You have to weigh up the scenarios between human error versus automated error. Sure, a simple automated program could do all the work without the need for human supervision. However, all it would take is the computer program to blip a little bit and the world would end. That would have been too risky. At least the two man team could double check and support one another. One person fails to push the button, the other person can correct. If the hatch were built today, it would probably use an automated system *and* human supervision to make sure the time horizons were met and any blips could be quickly identified and corrected. Back in the late 70s, computers were not as reliable as they are today and the technology could not be solely relied upon to do the job. It was safer having rotating teams of button pushers back then. When the time came to upgrade such an analogue system, DHARMA had been wiped out.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 yeah but it was possible for 70tech to fully automate the process, sure a presence of a scientist as safety measure would still be needed but numbers and buttons for every 108 minutes not so much, its just for show. Its funny that if something goes wrong between 2 random guys then the island or whole world could explode, so here is my theory: I do not believe that DHARMA trusted the swan team, in case of swan team fail then another DHARMA team could prevent the catastrophe remotely via cable, after all swan was monitored and its computers were connected to a network (and even used for communication) HOWEVER after the death of DHARMA the swan was left on its own and could go boom, the others do not understand or took over all of the DHARMA projects...

Because he isn’t invincible. He doesn’t age. That isn’t the same as being un-killable. Richard believed that he could still die at the hands of other people, just like it was for the candidates.

I tend to lean more to 1992 as the canon purge date even though the writers tried to retcon it, but I'm not hardline on the subject. To play devil's advocate here... Drawing a firm conclusion from Ben's statement of "almost 20 years ago" is still underlined with ambiguities. Because it depends on whether or not Ben was referring to DHARMA being wiped out as a community on the island or if he meant DHARMA being wiped out as an off-island entity in its entirety. It may have taken another several years for the DeGroots and their people at Ann Arbour to be completely absorbed and/or killed. So, say the purge was in 1987, the Ann Arbour base might have endured for another four to five years until they were finally taken over, and this could be what Ben means. Basically, his statement still leaves some wriggle room in this context.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 New subscriber here and love your channel. I agree that the idea Ben was a father on the side for 4 years is hard to understand how someone could pull that off. Video idea. New so not sure if you did it already. I would love a video debating whether Ben is redeemable or completely evil.

Really pleased to have you here! Another point in regards to Ben being on both sides... we could argue that the reason he got so good at lying was because he spent years as a double agent going back and forth between DHARMA and The Others. I think it's plausible that he could have brought baby Alex into the fold at the DHARMA barracks with a story about how he found her abandoned in the jungle. That seems like an easier sell than him raising her with The Others at night whilst masquerading as DHARMA during the day. I have delved into the nature of good and evil in the series, touching upon both Ben and Sayid's arcs specifically in this video here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nqp4d9uZrtHLZWg.html I think whatever the writers were trying to communicate about the nature of good/evil, morality, sin and redemption were embodied within the journeys of those two characters. I think Ben was redeemable by the end after he makes a choice to not kill Ilana in order to save himself, and we see his transition to the light validated by Hurley's acceptance of him in the finale. But Ben himself couldn't reconcile his bad choices in the sideways, hence why he chose to stay to sort through his emotional baggage, and maybe seek forgiveness from the people he hurt most like Alex, Danielle and Widmore.

Well, the idea was to make convincing arguments for both dates but to also explore the flaws of both possibilities. The only reason I lean more towards 1992 by the conclusion is because of the Horace Goodspeed dream and his dialogue that indicates what year the purge happened. It’s very hard to explain that scene away within the show, but I don’t take a hardline approach to either date due to the various discrepancies. 👍

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I used to think that as well, but seeing all the arguments for 1987, the 1992 just doesn't make sense considering there is only a mere DREAM to back this up. I now find Ben raising Alex, Russo not encountering Dharma for 5 years and Ben running around the jungle at night with kid Ethan 10000x more compelling then Locke's dream. Anyway, I know that either option can't be ruled out entirely and is left to discussion by the writers, but I'm 100% in the 1987 camp now. It just seems more likely to me.

I’m glad you have been convinced to back 1987! Lots of evidence and logical reasons to support that one, as explored in the video. It’s not my intention to persuade or dissuade fans regarding either date per se, only to offer up the possibilities, the supporting evidence and the contradictory problems. I’d be happy to plant my purge flag in the sands of the 1987 camp if I could think of a decent in-canon explanation as to why Dream Horace would get the date wrong. Sure, it’s a dream, but it’s a dream from The Island, and why would The Island not get the date right lol. It bugs me too much. So I remain mostly a 1992 guy, but I’m not hardline about it at all.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 from lostpedia "Ben's watch, that he checks before killing his father, is a Timex Easy Reader Indiglo analog wristwatch. The Indiglo backlight feature was introduced in 1992 in Iron Man watches and eventually spread to other Timex pieces" and if the purge happened in 1987 then why Ben with taken baby Alex is talking to Widmore in the jungle tent camp and not in the barracks?? it seems that at this point the others didn't take the barracks yet. Rousseau didn't run in to Dharma because in 1988-1992 DHARMA had financial troubles and they activity was much lower than before; some stations had been closed (Radzinsky map show this) perhaps the purge happened because the others knew that DHARMA is weak and going to be closed soon or put on sold, late 80' is the dawn of DHARMA and probably Hanso died. Rousseau would have entered the radio tower and replaced its message without DHARMA's intervention because the radio tower station was abandoned (later DHARMA used flame and looking glass) at least this make sense. In this scenario Ben works at night as double agent for the others right before the purge and as for Alex, Ben may or may not taken her to DHARMA, who knows but my guess is that he didn't and if he claimed that Alex is his daughter then Widmore can't kill her because of the RULES. (the existence of Alex could motivate Ben to kill DHARMA and take their modern barracks right after he adopted her)

It's fairly well known that the LOST writers used excessive cursing in their scripts because they couldn't actually have swearing in the dialogue due to being a network show. They compensated for this with adding in colourful language into the action and description. You'll find interviews with them online about this fact. As someone who works in the business, I can confirm that some writers have been known to use cursing in this same way. Believe it or not, but lots of scripts are written in this informal way. It's not like a novel with literary language. It's about conveying how you want the scenes to play and feel. Further to this point, the notion that scenes on the show played out exactly as written on the page is very specific to LOST. Because only the writers knew what things were supposed to mean at the time of writing, therefore the directors and actors followed the scripts close to the letter. There isn't a lot of room for improvisation or diversion on TV shooting schedules. You shoot what's on the page. It's not like making a movie. The script sample I used is officially sourced from the show. You can find quite a few of the scripts for the show online, which are all ABC copyrighted and can be traced back to the writersroom. Damon Lindelof recently released his and Carlton's script for Season Five finale 'The Incident'. And you shall find in that script, as well as the others available, that the use of swear words are on every other page to emphasise dramatic moments and beats in the episode narrative. You can find many of these scripts on websites like Simply Scripts or Daily Script. Or just google LOST tv script pdf. You'll find at least a dozen official production drafts available. I recommend you read some of them as there is no better tool for understanding how LOST was written and translated to screen than seeing it on the page. I hope this helped clarify things a bit more.

He’s in it for literally one episode lol. A guest character. I think LOST had a trackable number of main characters even though the cast was very large for the time (but we got used to it) and lots of smaller supporting roles throughout, but that’s like any serialised show these days. Game of Thrones had way more characters and that you could argue was too many to keep up with.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Game of Thrones is what HBO put the money they should have out into Rome into. I will never watch it because of that.

The Others killed them because DHARMA kept breaking the terms of the truce and trying to access sacred or off-limits spaces to experiment with the light. Widmore made the decision (an extreme solution) because that’s how Widmore deals with things.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 but why all of them even the familys of the DI ppl tha were just lifen they’re that has nothing to do wth the DI

@@gregsmith1746 Because Widmore was ruthless and this was his final solution to the problem of "sharing" The Island with DHARMA. He wanted to wipe them all out in one foul swoop. Although it is implied DHARMA didn't have as many families (if any) there after The Incident and any young people living at the barracks, such as Ethan, were taken in by The Others before they released the gas. We don't see any children in the ditch or at the barracks.

This channel is exploring and explaining every facet of the show, including the purge. The question of when the purge took place has been discussed amongst the fanbase for years, so it's a legitimate topic to cover. The reason why it is so hotly debated is because the answer changes parts of the story, particularly for Ben, Widmore, Ethan and Alex. Those that wish to delve into the contradictions of this plot retcon will find themselves wrestling with potentially two very different versions of these past events. I'm sure there are fans who couldn't care less about certain mysteries in the show -- for example: I never cared about Libby's backstory and whether or not it got told -- but just because I don't care about one mystery, doesn't mean others don't. This channel covers everything.

I wish it was that simple lol. Yes, Alex is 16 in 2004. But she is definitely older than 2 years old in that scene on the swings. That scene is taking place around 1992, so she's about five. And looks it.

The problem with this is that we see Ben come across Horace Goodspeed's body on the bench as he surveys the carnage at the barracks moments after the purge has taken place. We even see Ben lean over a very dead Horace and close his eyes forever. And then we see Locke find Horace's decomposed body in the DHARMA pit years later; a pit that all of the purge victims had been thrown into. Horace was officially killed in he purge.

No, but you can roll with "Daddy Picket" if you're into that!

No it’s just me. The voice in the old videos was a text to speech voice; I didn’t have the equipment to record narration at the time. But because there were consistent complaints about the text to speech sound (which were very fair complaints!) I decided to invest in proper recording equipment and software to use my real voice. And I re-voiced and remade all of the old content as The Theory of Everything six part series. So, anything uploaded from the past two years on the channel is the real me. 👍

This didn't become a big deal until after Season Five episode 'Dead is Dead' aired, and even then fans were still holding out for what would happen in Season Six. Because it wasn't certain at this point in the show if the past was being changed from our Losties time travelling through it. "Whatever happened, happened" was just Daniel Faraday's theory. Not a fact. People were arguing that the inconsistencies with Ben and Rousseau flashbacks in Season Five (such as Ben being with The Others before 1992 purge and Rousseau meeting Jin, etc) would make sense if events had been altered by the causal effects of our time travelling Losties. It wasn't until LOST finished and people started going back to re-watch the series -- now realising that the past was never changed -- that these issues began to flag more acutely. Essentially, the question of when the purge took place only really started to become a debate after the show ended.

I think it was intended to be a joke on his part, but even when Ben is telling jokes about himself he still somehow manages to lie lol.

I haven’t used the text to speech voice in over a year now. Check out the last 12 videos to be uploaded to the channel. All use my real voice.