The main giveaway is that it's the only way the Man in Black (aka Christian) could know about Eloise Hawking telling them how to come back to the island. There is no other way he could possibly know about that unless it's 2007 and post-Ajira.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Yep, makes total sense. Which means the MiB's plan unfolds in a causal loop way too. He only knows what to say after using Locke's memories of what was already said. Both at the Nigerian plane and in the wheel chamber.

One question though: how did MiB know that time-traveling Locke would turn up at the donkey wheel at the respective given time he did in 2007? He may have had Locke's memories but even Locke didn't know when and where he was at that given time.

Ben asks Man in Black this very question during the time loop scene at the beechcraft, as Richard gives time travelling Locke the compass. And the Man in Black replies: *"The island told me."* I establish in these videos that the island communicates with the protector of the island and other key people. We see both Jacob and Jack in their respective protector roles receive information they couldn't possibly know about unless it is coming to them like an intuition. For example: Jacob knows when and where to be when John Locke falls out of a window, in order to save him from death and make him a candidate. Elsewhere, Jack knows that taking MiB to the heart of the island will allow him to kill him, even though he doesn't quite know how it will work. And the Man in Black knows when and where to be for Locke's time loop appearances in order to perpetuate the loop and ensure/sustain his new Locke guise. Because The Island tells them these things. And this knowledge comes to them like a guiding inner voice.

Actually I think mib was time traveling along with the candidates. Mib was deliberately sending them through time with his own time wheel. The hieroglyphics on the walls of the donkey wheel room say "this wheel steers the island through time" mib was there the whole time sending them where he wanted. Jacob can see the future and mib knew he would have to alter history itself to have a chance at killing him.

The Man in Black has the power to manifest instantly before people and teleport, which is why he can be there in one moment and gone in the next. We see him do this on multiple occasions throughout the series. We also know he has the power to create illusions to some extent, as seen with Eko in the jungle when he is surrounded by the multiple men that he killed at Yemi’s church. How tangibly real any of those apparitions truly are is open to speculation. Are they all physically the Man in Black or are they just projections? He also demonstrates the power of telekinesis, hence why objects in the cabin start to rattle and smash, which veils some of his trickery by keeping Locke and Ben distracted by chaos. In that scene, he uses his powers like a magic trick on both men.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108yes this is correct although I would call it changing forms rather than teleporting, although he does end up in another place. As for the illusions, mib can only do that when the person is susceptible to hallucination, dreams, drugs, exhaustion, blood loss. He did it with eko after he was attacked by bears and delirious. He did it with Richard too after waiting for him to become delirious with starvation and thirst.

Thanks :) The clips are based on what I can find available online. I don't have the full series downloaded so sometimes there will discrepancies in video quality.

I do cover this in a later video. Ilana does indeed claim that the Man in Black cannot change his face anymore. That he is stuck that way. But why? What changed for the smoke monster between the end of season five and season six?... *Jacob was killed* (the other half of the battery). This is what Ilana means. The Man in Black could shapeshift into any dead person he wanted (within the rules) right up until Jacob died. Remember, he shapeshifts between Fake Christian, Fake Locke and Fake Alex all within the space of a couple of episodes. And that donkey wheel conversation between Fake Christian and Real Locke is taking place in the timeline *before* Jacob's death during the events of season five episode 'Dead is Dead'. Hope that clarifies it a bit more :)

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Ohh, I see, and I wasn't exactly sure anymore when that conversation happened / when fake Locke went for that errand. Thanks for clarifying^^

@@WiiAndii I'm jealous, wish I could watch for the first time, i just started my 8th playthrough of the series. Still hasn't gotten old

I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoying the series. :) To answer your question... The Losties are not flashing through time at random. They are being intentionally moved through time periods where they are supposed to appear because they have already been there in terms of objective linear time and created key causal events (this is discussed in more detail in Chapter Three - The Time Loop). Locke is pulled into the wheel chamber's pocket into what has become the objective present day in terms of causal ripple effects. It is the time period that Locke needs to be in with the Man in Black. If you look back at where they travel into the future during the flashes, they keep popping up on and around the same few days post-Ajira's return. We know this because Locke speaks to Richard in an early time flash and gets the compass (several days post-Ajira), and later Locke steals an outrigger with an Ajira bottle in it (once again several days post-Ajira). Locke's time travel trifecta into the future is completed in the wheel chamber. The reason how we know this is 2007 is because of the Man in Black's knowledge, which is incredibly specific. The only way MiB (aka Fake Christian) could possibly know about Eloise Hawking telling everyone how to come back to the island is if it has already happened. There is no other way he could possibly know about Eloise's involvement in the real world unless it's happening post-Ajira. So, just to clarify what's happened: Locke dies and is brought back on Ajira. Sun and Frank arrive at the barracks to find Fake Christian (who now knows that Locke's body has returned). He goes over to Hydra Island and replicates Locke, absorbing the man's memories, including the memory of the interactions with both Richard Alpert by the plane and the meeting with Fake Christian down in the wheel chamber. MiB knows exactly where he has to be and when, thanks to the Island's guiding influence. Therefore, MiB as Fake Christian knows exactly what to say to Real Locke in the wheel chamber and what the outcome will be. This scene is a direct mirror of the scene by the Nigerian plane in which Fake Locke instructs Richard on how to speak to the Real Locke, based entirely on Dead Locke's memories of the event. First, MiB deals with the chamber part of the loop (which is why he leaves Ben and Sun at the barracks) then he deals with the compass part of the loop (once they meet up with Richard). For Real Locke it all happened in a linear order but for the MiB it was all in a non-linear order. I know its complicated but it's all there. What people often glide over when understanding the Man in Black's loophole plan is that he is doing it in the future of 2007, retroactively perpetuating the lies back through time.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 This was a really good explanation but my only doubt remains - when Locke is climbing down the rope into the well....The time flash happens. Everyone travels to past with the statue still intact but Locke goes to 2007 to see Fake Christian? is that it?

@@shivamtiwari_141 Yes, that's right. The donkey wheel chamber exists within its own pocket of time. The wheel fell off its axis in the future post-2004, not the past. It's important to remember that everyone moving through time is being moved purposefully to where they need to be in order to fulfil their parts of this time loop. The Losties don't know it but everything they do during the time skips is already predestined to happen. This includes Locke talking to Fake Christian in the chamber and unsticking the wheel.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Why is it a certainty that the MIB only knew about Elouise and the return post 2007, through Lockes memories? Surely it's just as likely, that he may well have known how they'd return, in 2004/05. He knew they DID return because they were there in the 70's, so are we just assuming that he didn't know how they'd return or if they did until 2007? Despite the time travel etc? I'm just wondering because you say it's the ''only way'' he could have known. Great video as always!

@@CucumberCheese Well, we don't know how much the Man in Black knew about our Losties in the 1970s. Because he never comes across and scans them back then (onscreen) there is no way he would know the specifics about how Jack's group came back to the island via Eloise. It is also fairly clear that the loophole plan revolves around events in 2004-2007 and he has not yet instigated that plan in 1977. The plan begins with Locke and Ben's first cabin visit in 2004. Smokey has been waiting for a special candidate to come to the island like Locke that would gain him access to Jacob. Meanwhile, Ben was selected a long time beforehand as the "anti-candidate", perhaps after The Purge. We have to look at that scene in the wheel chamber and try to understand how MiB would know specifically that Eloise Hawking was the person to get the Losties back in 2007. He has no knowledge of off-island activities unless he has scanned someone with that specific knowledge from that specific period. He wouldn't even know that Eloise was still alive off-island, never mind capable of helping anyone get back to the island via the Lamp Post. There is just no possible way he could have that knowledge... unless he is talking to Locke in 2007 after Ajira has returned with Locke's body. We know there is a period of time in S5 episode 'Dead is Dead' in which Fake Locke is running an off-screen errand. We never are told what that was. He just returns to Ben and Sun at the barracks without explanation. This is the point in the timeline when he met time travelling Locke in the wheel chamber. This wheel chamber conversation is part of the loophole. A continuation and reinforcement of the scene at the Nigerian plane in which the compass is given to time travelling Locke and he is first told that he has to die. Man in Black is creating a loophole in a non-linear way. The Island is guiding him where to be and when to make this happen. At the Nigerian plane, Fake Locke knows exactly what needs to be said and perpetuated in order to ensure that the timeline maintains this loop. And it's the same thing in the donkey wheel chamber. We know that the wheel exists within its own pocket of time because Locke is in the frozen chamber while Sawyer and co are up top in a time *before* the wheel even existed. We know that this pocket of time in the chamber is after Ben pushed the wheel in 2004 because it is off its axis. It is further confirmed to be post-2004 because Christian is there and MiB needs the body in order to appear as that person. And Fake Christian's knowledge of Eloise Hawking means it must be 2007. He also knows that the candidates he needs to kill have left the island and need to be brought back. So, I don't believe there is any other way to explain MiB's knowledge in that scene without theory crafting some off-screen events. Someone might absolutely have a compelling alternative explanation for his knowledge in that scene but I am yet to read or hear about it. This is the only explanation that makes sense to me.

I think that’s also a valid reading. There are a couple of reasons why I think Horace finished the cabin earlier. The first is based on the dream that Locke has, which portrays Horace as a middle-aged man building it by cutting the trees down himself. By the time he dies in the purge, he has turned grey and looks a lot older. The dream implies that he was younger when it was first built (70s Horace) and, just practically speaking, he would have been more physically able to take on such a project in the late 70s/early 80s. When we see his body on the bench post-purge in ‘92 (or ‘87 if you prefer), he is looking older and frailer. Not quite in his prime to build a cabin single-handedly. I suppose Locke’s dream can be disputed in its accuracy since it was technically “a dream”, but I don’t see why Horace wouldn’t have looked the age he was when he built it. Surely he should be greyer and older if he built it around the time of the purge? Another thing worth considering is this: the cabin was essentially finished. It had windows, furniture, even a painting inside! Which means that Horace got use out of it long enough to presumably move in all that stuff and paint some pictures. So, the reason why he has the blueprints in his pocket would still stand to question even in your reading. Why did he still have the blueprints if the cabin was finished enough for him to move things in and spend time there? A possible answer for either of our readings of the cabin construction timeline is that Horace planned to make some more adjustments. Maybe he planned to do some more work, or maybe he just always kept the blueprints on him in his pocket. Or maybe after The Incident and the breakdown of the terms of the truce between The Others and DHARMA, Horace’s cabin became too risky for him to venture out into the jungle to get to anymore, and so he kept the blueprints close. It was his little dream project after all; his place to escape to. I don’t know if Horace would have used the cabin to form the truce with Richard - wouldn’t Horace want to keep his cabin as a private retreat? - but it’s absolutely plausible! I put forward the notion in this video that Richard and Jacob used the cabin post-purge to meet up and exchange lists and information with one another, and the cabin became known as a Jacob rendezvous point. And this is why Ben thought to take Locke there in the first place. It’s the only location he ever knew of Jacob being. And we know that Jacob definitely did use the cabin for messages and meetings because Ilana seeks him out there and finds his message about the statue. Anyway, I digress! I think your reading is totally possible and that Horace could have built the cabin later, I just wonder how you would reconcile some of my aforementioned points? What do you think?

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 All good points! I like the idea of him thinking of remodelling and building something more to the cabin. That's probably the best explanation. Everyone who does home improvement (and are smart enough) finds the original blueprints of the house anyway, so that can totally work. I was also thinking of his dream, but it's so flimsy since the whole thing is so weird anyway. He says he's been dead for 12 years, but he isn't as grey-haired as he was when he died. And he says that if they find him, he'll find Jacob, but that isn't true either. I was also thinking of his hairstyle, since he has short hair in 1973 as well as during the purge, but long hippie hair in 1974-1977. So I think we can easily remove that time period. I was also thinking, if it was earlier, then the "missus" he refers to is Olivia and not Amy since Amy was dating Paul up to his death. Horace and Olivia had wedding rings and although it's not uttered in the show, the script says they were married. Not that it matters here that much though. Divorces happen and Olivia was never seen again after that classroom scene. Maybe if it happened pre 1974 it could've been a fine way for Horace to "repair his marriage to Olivia"? Kind of like a situation where he realizes he's spending too much time fixing his relationship with the Hostiles rather than the relationship with his wife :P But anyway, I like the idea that he found the old map again to do some improvements, hence why he had it on his body when he died

It is best to think of the cabin as a micro-version of the island. It moves between points in space and time, following a predetermined path. The reason that it moves is because the Island is lining up events to play out in a certain way. If Locke found the cabin in S4 E3 when he first sought it out and Fake Christian told him to move the island, he would have done so before the Oceanic 6 left and before Ben was primed to take his place and push the wheel, which means the wrong people would be time travelling at the wrong point. Therefore, time paradox. Ergo, the world ends. The causal chain of events leading to the wheel being turned (and the start of the time loop) would not have happened the way they were supposed to. The cabin needed to move (and be impossible to find) until the time was right. However, the important thing to note here is that the cabin does not move when it is unoccupied. It is not the empty structure we see moving. *It is the occupant that resides within it* The Island is really moving the Man in Black. After all, we see him inside the cabin waiting for Locke in S4 E1 as the cabin teleports around Hurley. When the Island moves people through the time jumps in S5, any vessel those time travellers are in such as the outrigger, Jin's wreckage driftwood, or the Dharma van, moves with the travellers through both time and space. So, it's just as possible that the Man in Black is being moved by the Island and the cabin around him is travelling too. Whether he is aware of this is unknown. The Island is moving the cabin, but the cabin itself is not the main factor in why it moves. It's just a cabin. Its occupant is the reason it is moving and the reason that it can be moved at all.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Ok, thank you for sharing your perspective; it has many interesting points I haven't thought about.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 That second paragraph is particularly interesting but how come the Island just move MiB around? Wouldn't that be useful later on?

@@MatiZ815 We know that The Island intervenes to accomplish certain outcomes and it does this through various means, as explored in videos on the time travel, the dreams/visions/flashes, and the various powers of Jacob and MiB. Moving the cabin is one of many things The Island is setting up in order to trigger the time loop, and making sure everything and everyone are in the right place at the right time. Yet everything it does is already part of the time loop. Every intervention is part of a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. In short, The Island does what it is supposed to do when it is supposed to do it, because it has *already* done it.

You are thinking of Ilana's line to Ben in season six episode 'The Substitute'. She says he cannot change his face anymore. That he is stuck "this way". But why? What changed for the smoke monster between the end of season five and season six?... *Jacob was killed* (the other half of the battery). This is what Ilana means. The Man in Black could shapeshift into any dead person he wanted (within the rules) right up until Jacob died. Remember, he shapeshifts between Fake Christian, Fake Locke and Fake Alex all within the space of a couple of episodes. And that donkey wheel conversation between Fake Christian and Real Locke is taking place in the timeline *before* Jacob's death during the events of season five episode 'Dead is Dead'.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 that’s right! Very, very good, sir.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 but doesn’t the smoke monster turn from Locke to Alex after Jacob has died? When Ben goes to get “judged”

As I explain above, the scenes you are talking about take place *before* Jacob dies.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 ahh, I see. Thank you!

I've covered how and why the Man in Black was turned into the black smoke in other videos. I recommend you watch these ones in a row: The Source Jacob and the Man in Black The Smoke Monster Mother Together, they form the picture of the smoke monster and what it is and how it functions, and why.

LOST EXPLAINED thanks!

Ah that's good to hear! I'm pleased you are getting some positives from the videos. I would recommend doing my latest series called 'The Theory of Everything', as I lay out everything in much more detail and in a better, clearer order. To understand what is happening with the Man in Black, we have to establish what the light is, how it works, and what happened to MiB's body when he entered it. The full playlist is here and will explain the whole shebang: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pbqKa5uWurfWeqM.html

In season 1 Walt is seen reading a comic book and there's a picture of an island with a barrier around it. It's like Desmond said they're in a snow globe. There's a electromagnetic field around the island preventing him from leaving. It is generated by Jacob so if he dies the barrier goes down. Dogan was the generator for the barrier around the temple.

As we learn when Ben pushes the wheel in December 2004, he goes forward in time by a year. When the hotel clerk says the date is October 24th, he makes an uncertain guess that it's 2005. But it could easily have been a year before in 2003, or possibly further forward or further back. As we see with the time flashes, the Island moves people to whatever time period they need to be in to fulfil their destinies. So Locke travels from the chamber wheel, post-Ajira in 2007, back several months to start the causal chain that will bring Ajira to the Island in the first place.

A Libby video will be in the works in the near future. :)

Yes, a lot of time and effort has gone into this video series, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of making them 🙂 I actually answer your question directly in a future video about The Magic Box and what was really in it. The magic box is actually more meaningful to the show as a metaphor than as a literal thing. If you’re watching the videos in order then you will come to that video eventually. 👍

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 im lookin forward to it mate. :)

The magic box is a metaphor for the island itself. Walt sees a polar bear in a comic book and thinks, maybe, polar bears are cool. So now there's a polar bear on the island. Charlie wants heroin, so there's a planeload on the island. Hurley wants food, so there's a hatch full of it. As for Locke's dad, Locke and Sawyer both wanted him, so Jacob probably told Richard or somebody to make it happen.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Jumps around time just to answer questions! Legendary! Looks like the island has plans for you too pal.

The donkey wheel conversation between Fake Christian and Real Locke is taking place in the timeline *before* Jacob's death during the events of season five episode 'Dead is Dead'. In that episode, he also turns into Fake Alex as well. Both of these events are happening in season five (post-Ajira's return in 2007 but pre-Jacob's murder).

Yeah, the problem is that we don't know how much the Man in Black knew or when he knew it. We also don't know how much he understood of the time loop beforehand. From the way he acts with Locke at the cabin, he clearly has some degree of foreknowledge. A confidence about where this is all going. He knows he is sewing the seeds of Locke's demise. And we know that his plan is to become Locke to gain access to Jacob, otherwise it's all for nought. I think the point of getting Locke to turn the wheel is to get him off-island. MiB has figured out that Locke cannot die on the island (as evidenced in 'The Man Behind the Curtain' following Ben's attempted murder of him) but he intuits that Locke can die off the island. It's a vaguely defined part of the loophole plan but his knowledge works much in the same way as in other movements of the show. We've seen that he receives Island "intuition" before, like knowing where and when to find time travelling Locke at the beechcraft for the compass handoff and also for Locke's appearance in the wheel chamber. Something is guiding MiB. There are also other practical ways MiB could know about certain future. Example: If one of the bodies in the DHARMA pit was Pierre Chang then MiB almost certainly would have scanned and downloaded the cerebral data about the time travellers, whom Chang interacted with. This would have been a core memory for Chang because his son Miles was involved in those interactions. So, he would know that time travel was going to come into play. Another possibility is that MiB came across Charlotte's remains in the jungle, scanned them and absorbed all kinds of information about the future to come. These are just speculations, of course, but such ideas might help to give MiB a little more foundational knowledge to operate on during his interactions with Locke in 2004. It's possible but not provable. So, I tend to stick with the demonstrated and proven Island intuition. He knows what is going to happen to Locke because "The Island told him". This is why MiB as Fake Christian in the wheel chamber scene is annoyed with Locke that he let Ben move the island instead. He declares: "I said that *YOU* had to move it, John." Because the whole point of giving Locke that order was to put the man on his path to dying. Now not only had the island been moved by "the wrong man", but key candidates had left too. The wheel chamber meeting allows MiB to reinforce the "you must die" narrative and also to get Locke to bring back the Oceanic 6. And because the wheel chamber meeting is happening in 2007 post-Ajira's return, MiB also knows that Locke will be successful in both dying and triggering the O6's return. In regards to Ben, while I feel like he was an important part of the loophole, we see that MiB is always keeping an eye out for a back-up option in case things go bad with Ben (e.g. he dies from his cancer or he doesn't become amenable enough for coercion in time as he had yet to incur the loss of Alex, etc.) Enter Mr. Eko. Our resident priest was clearly being primed as a replacement at a point when Ben was looking like he might not survive his cancer. And by the time the events of the wheel turning in Season Four are going on, MiB now has poached Claire as a back-up Jacob killer, which is why I think he took her in the first place. If Ben gets killed or doesn't come back, MiB will still have Claire's mind to poison. So, to me, the plan was: Locke cannot be killed on The Island but somehow he can and will be killed once he is off The Island. MiB needs to engineer circumstances to make that happen. Some of it goes to plan wile other aspects do not. But, as it turns out, everything happens exactly the way that it was supposed to. And once MiB becomes Locke on Hydra Island, he finally understands how some of these pieces fit together and that he has to trigger this non-linear loophole plan from the future of 2007, which will send causality effects backwards through time (the compass, the prophecy of Locke's death, the Oceanic Six's return and time travel to the past, which in turn will create Ben from Sayid's gunshot, etc.) All of it is perpetuated from 2007 *backwards* through time. Not forwards. The MiB of the future is sewing the seeds for the MiB of the past to plant. But before his full transformation into Fake Locke (in which he gains all of the man's memories), the MiB was only operating on those seeds of information, including half-glimpses of the future, his own whims, Island intuitions and general instinct.

Christian's body was on the island, which made him a "fresh face" for the Man in Black to become for a while. But, more crucially, he had recently appeared to Claire as Christian to lure her away from the group. So, he continued using that guise whilst interacting with Locke. It's worth noting that Christian was a useful face for MiB to wear because he had connections to several characters on the island (Claire, Jack, Ana Lucia, Sawyer, etc.) The question of whether or not Ben's mother Emily Linus was the Man in Black remains an ambiguous point of contention amongst the fanbase. Chapter Ten on The Smoke Monster and Chapter Eleven on The Whispers explore this plot point in more detail. Either the MiB had a way inside the compound via the underground tunnels, or it genuinely was the ghost of Emily.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Thank you very much!

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I figured it was really her ghost, since she didn't die on the island for Smokey to copy her image and memories. There was some point made about that I think by Richard. Also the Others would burn their dead in an at-sea burial so they couldn't be copied, though Ben's followers might not have known this.

It always looked like Locke's eye to me. I think it was an early allusion to the idea that the Man in Black would ultimately take on Locke's form. It doesn't really make sense in the context of what we learn later (being as Locke had to be dead before MiB could look like him). Another possibility is that it is still the Man in Black but as Fake Christian, teleporting from the chair to the window very quickly.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 That's exactly the theory I always came to...they were both the MiB. I think the theory that it was Locke's eye was debunked when you look at a side by side. But with the episode being titled the beginning of the end, there was clearly a bigger plan this was foreshadowing that didnt quite pan out I don't think. Obviously Hurley being the focus of the episode was setting up his fate as new protector. A fitting focus for the episode title. I remember reading that Hurley was meant to see himself? Idk. It seems the MiB was trying to manipulate him into thinking he was just seeing things maybe.

@@TheFourthAct I think, at the point Hurley finds the cabin, MiB is simply waiting for Locke to return. He has given the man of faith the bait, now all he needs is for him to take it.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I thought that it was Jacob himself having a talk with MiB but that doesn't exactly makes sense.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I like this reasoning of MiB giving early allusions that he will be taking Locke’s form in the future. Hurley saw it because he has the ability to tap into the source more than others. Also Locke saw it because he also has this ability. Remember in 3x20 for just a split second you can see someone else in the cabin? The outline greatly resembles Locke (with a wig, but still)

The important thing to note here is that the cabin does not move when it is unoccupied. It is not the empty structure we see moving. It is the occupant that resides within it that The Island is really moving: the Man in Black. After all, we see him inside the cabin waiting for Locke in S4 E1 as the cabin teleports around Hurley. When the Island moves people through the time jumps in S5, any vessel those time travellers are in such as the outrigger, Jin's wreckage driftwood, or the Dharma van, moves with the travellers through both time and space. So, it's just as possible that the Man in Black is being moved by the Island and the cabin around him is travelling with him. Whether he is aware of this is unknown. The Island is moving the cabin, but the cabin itself is not the main factor in why it moves. It's just a cabin. Its occupant is the reason it is moving and the reason that it can be moved at all.

The cabin didn't start moving until after 'The Man Behind the Curtain'. It was stationary in that spot for a long time. The reason why it starts to move by the time Season 4 begins is because the timing has to be right for Locke and Fake Christian to meet, and for Locke to be told to move the island (which begins the time loop).

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 That makes sense...and Bram and Ilana found it through Jacob's instructions I suppose. I guess it's just weird to me that it moves at all. A random building constructed by Horace? What makes it so special that it moves? If it's simply the island then what's to stop literally anything else from moving too?

@@TheFourthAct Well, the whole island moves and we accept that fact. The smoke monster teleports around the island. Walt projects himself across long distances. Our Losties move through time and space, often taking objects with them such as ropes, compasses and outriggers. Ben and Locke are teleported across the planet to Tunisia. The Island moves all kinds of things for different reasons and allows the movement of objects and structures. Perhaps it is best to think of the cabin as a micro-version of the island. It moves between points in space and time, following a predetermined path. The reason that it moves is because the Island is lining up events to play out in a certain way. If Locke found the cabin in S4 E3 when he first sought it out and Fake Christian told him to move the island, he would have done so before the Oceanic 6 left and before Ben was primed to take his place and push the wheel, which means the wrong people would be time travelling at the wrong point. Therefore, time paradox. Therefore, the world ends. The causal chain of events leading to the wheel being turned (and the start of the time loop) would not have happened the way they were supposed to. The cabin needed to move (and be impossible to find) until the time was right.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I get the importance of the timing. And I'm aware of all these examples. Only thing is with these examples I can trace exactly how the source is being channeled. With the items following characters through time it seems to establish a clear rule that items in possession of our time traveling individuals stay with them (compass, oars, and don't forget clothes 😆) There is a logical answer within the rules the show has established. With the cabin there's no established connection to the source. If I'm to believe the island can literally move anything anywhere it wants I can't help but think certain things could've been easier to accomplish (Locke finding the beechcraft for example). Or more likely, if the cabin is somehow channeling the light I wish we had and idea of exactly how/why it became that way. I like thinking of the cabin as a micro-version of the island but there doesn't seem to be any reason for it being that way. Unfortunately I think this is one of the parts where you just have to accept a lack of answers. It feels like the cabin has always had a missing puzzle piece to me.

@@TheFourthAct Oh I see where you're coming from now. I think that's a fair question to ask about the actual cabin itself. But I do have a solution to this to some extent. The cabin does not move when it is unoccupied. It is not the empty structure we see moving. It is the occupant that resides within it. Try to look at this event as the Island moving the Man in Black rather than the cabin. After all, we see him inside the cabin waiting for Locke in S4 E1 as the cabin teleports around Hurley. When the Island moves people through the time jumps in S5, any vessel those time travellers are in such as the outrigger, Jin's wreckage driftwood, or the Dharma van, moves with the travellers through both time and space. So, it's just as possible that the Man in Black is being moved by the Island and the cabin around him is travelling too. Whether he is aware of this is unknown. The Island is moving the cabin, but the cabin itself is not the main factor in why it moves. It's just a cabin. Its occupant is the reason it is moving and the reason that it can be moved at all.

That's how I feel about life in general, Chris.

Jacob couldn't be killed directly by the Man in Black. But the Man in Black could still keep manipulating people on the island into trying to assassinate Jacob on his behalf. Jacob was in hiding so he wouldn't encounter any more scenarios involving knife-wielding new arrivals, like with Richard. The Man in Black knew that Jacob often spent time fishing by the statue as we see in 'The Incident', but it is later demonstrated in 2007 that he was never aware of the secret chamber inside the statue. And it is further likely that the Man in Black never found Jacob in that spot again after what happened with Richard. The closest he could find to a key Jacob location was the cabin.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I agree but one would think you couldn’t fool or keep A secret from a smoke monster. At least that’s been my experience with smoke monsters. 🌻😸🌎🌹🦋💜🌈🌟🐱🌘☀️These Analysis are fun. Thank you for them.

So one thing I never understood is does Ben actually even speak to Jacob or is it just mib manipulating him and Richard the whole time

It always looked like Locke's eye to me. I think it was an early allusion to the time travel and the idea that the Man in Black would ultimately take on Locke's form. It doesn't really make sense in the context of what we learn later (being as Locke had to be dead before MiB could look like him). The most likely possibility is that it is still the Man in Black but as Fake Christian, teleporting from the chair to the window very quickly.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 Little puzzling how the MiB could be two people at once in the cabin.

@@Awesoman Remember when Mr. Eko was being haunted in the jungle by "visions" of the warlords he killed? Those are Man in Black apparitions and they appear simultaneously, i.e. MiB is more than two people at once at the same time. He has definitely demonstrated this power.

​@@LOSTEXPLAINED108no MIB can only take on the form of dead people

Candidates cannot kill themselves or be killed by the Man in Black. However, they can be killed by other people, or even each other. Also, a candidate cannot die until they have fulfilled their "destiny", whatever that destiny may be.

Locke moved to the objective present day when he fell into the well because the donkey wheel chamber exists within its own pocket of time. Time is relative down there. Hence how Locke ends up in a different point in time with Fake Christian than to Sawyer and co above. Firstly, think of the logistics. The pocket of energy is down there, adjacent to the wheel. When that flash happens and Locke is pulled into the pocket, Sawyer's group remain above ground standing in a place and time BEFORE the wheel ever existed in that location. Before a well had even been dug. Secondly, remember that the wheel is off its axis in the present day, not through all the time periods that it ever existed within in. Real linear time has nothing to do with relative time. Or, think about it like this: our Losties were time travelling across centuries but that doesn’t mean the wheel was off its axis for centuries. The wheel being off its axis is at a specific fixed point in the timeline. So, *how do we know 100%* that it's 2007? Well, this is based on Fake Christian/MiB's knowledge. He tells Locke the following: CHRISTIAN: There's a woman living in Los Angeles. Now once you get all your friends together -- and it must be all of them, every one who left -- and once you've persuaded them to join you, this woman will tell you exactly how to come back. LOCKE: Who is she? CHRISTIAN: Her name is Eloise Hawking. There is no way that the MiB could know that Eloise lives in Los Angeles or that she is the key to getting the Oceanic Six to return to the island. Eloise left in 1977 and never came back. The MiB has no connections to the outside world that could tell him this info. Even Ben himself didn't know Eloise could get people back to the island. The only way Fake Christian/MiB could possibly know about Eloise Hawking and how to bring back the Oceanic Six is because this has already happened. Eloise has already helped the O6 come back to the island at this point. Ajira has returned and MiB as Fake Christian has already met and spoken with Sun and Lapidus at the barracks. He has already scanned Locke's dead body and downloaded everything the dead man knew. Including this interaction in the wheel chamber. Fake Christian is therefore repeating the exact movements and words and information that Real Locke remembered Fake Christian saying to him. The Man in Black is essentially recreating this memory in real time as it happens and following the script. It's part of the causality loop with the snake eating its own tail.

The Man in Black doesn't see every angle all the time, or else he wouldn't have been tricked in The End. His hubris is his downfall. It's fairly clear that when he appears to Locke as Fake Christian in the wheel chamber that he is frustrated with Locke. "I said that *you* had to move it, John. Since when did listening to (Ben) get you anywhere worth a damn?" The Island has been moved at least several times, yes. The wheel being dislodged no doubt is a result of a fated-to-happen "accident". It had been frozen for decades and it had not fully defrosted. But this was meant to happen. After all, every time the wheel slips our Losties travel to a predestined point in time. It is an "accident" in the same way Oceanic 815 crashing is an "accident". Everything happens for a reason.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 gotcha... another one: What's your take on the eye Hurley sees in the cabin?

@@TheFourthAct Funny you should ask that. I literally just had this conversation with another commenter on this same video about an hour ago lol. This was my answer: It always looked like Locke's eye to me. I think it was an early allusion to the idea that the Man in Black would ultimately take on Locke's form. It doesn't really make sense in the context of what we learn later (being as Locke had to be dead before MiB could look like him). The most likely possibility is that it is still the Man in Black but as Fake Christian, teleporting from the chair to the window very quickly.

The wheel was off its axis. Locke didn't turn it so much as unstick it. It transported him off island and stopped the flashes for the others. What's important to note is that the island itself did not move through physical space when Locke unstuck the wheel hence why there was no lighting up of the sky for anyone else.

It does kinda make sense to ask why it happened on 2007 and not January 2005. It's odd to think about

Why the sky lit up in 2004 but not in 2007? My reply above addresses this. Because the wheel was off its axis. Locke wasn’t turning the wheel so much as *fixing* the wheel. When the wheel was pushed back into place, it stopped the time shifting for the predestined travellers and placed them where they each needed to be in the timeline. The island didn’t move (and therefore the sky doesn’t light up in the present) because the wheel wasn’t technically turned. Watch the scene again and you can see that Locke lifts it and pulls it a bit to click it back in place.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I understand that. It's just weird to think that it was just down there for 3 years rocking like that. If they were only skipping through time for a relative 96 hours or so then one could argue that the wheel skipping would've lasted an equal duration. It feels random that it's so far in the future.

Time is relative in the wheel chamber. Hence how Locke ends up in a different point in time with Fake Christian than to Sawyer and co above. The wheel might only have been off its axis for a few minutes or hours in this bubble. “Real” linear time has nothing to do with relative time. I mean, think about it like this: our Losties were time travelling across centuries but that doesn’t mean the wheel was off its axis for centuries. Their time travelling through the past is being caused by a problem in the future. It’s another causal example of the time loop. It’s complicated to understand because it’s paradoxical.

Next month I will be releasing a video that goes through all of the island apparitions one-by-one to explain which ones were the Man in Black and which ones were something else. Richard had little to no contact with the MiB after their first meeting as far as we are aware. He only knew what Jacob told him.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 thank you watching lost for the 6th time now i am at the episode of the man behind the curtains, so locke saw and heard MIb asking for help (to leave the island and kill jacob) so ben is being manipulated all this time from mib .. except the vision of the mother because they had the pillar to protect the village from the mib (black smoke)

You've come to the right place then! ;D

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I just finished your 5.5 hour video on the THEORY OF EVERYTHING. Thank you for making that video as it cleared up many things that I didn’t understand and pointed out a number of things I just missed after rewatching the entire series. There’s one thing that still remains unanswered though and I’m sure it is just a plot device but still irritates me. In the first two seasons the behavior between the 815 survivors and the others is absurd. Why would this group of ‘others’ infiltrate the survivors instead of just helping them go home? Maybe Jacob told Ben to expect this group and what to do when it arrives but that is never made clear so from a viewer’s perspective. It looks more like they just wanted friction between the groups in order to create drama. I almost stopped watching on my rewatch because of this gaping plot hole. The others kidnapped some of the survivors and killed others. Only Claire’s kidnapping was explained. Anyway, thank you for putting in the hours to do what you’ve done to help viewers like me. 👍👍 for your great work.

Locke moved to the objective present day when he fell into the well because the donkey wheel chamber exists within its own pocket of time. Time is relative down there. Hence how Locke ends up in a different point in time with Fake Christian than to Sawyer and co above. Remember, the wheel is off its axis in the present day, not through all the time periods that it ever existed within in. Real linear time has nothing to do with relative time. Or, think about it like this: our Losties were time travelling across centuries but that doesn’t mean the wheel was off its axis for centuries. The pocket of energy is down there, adjacent to the wheel. When that flash happens and Locke is pulled into the pocket, Team Sawyer actually appear at a point *before* the wheel ever existed or had been built. Which is how we know that Locke is in a different bubble of time down there. So, how do we know it's 2007? Well, this is based on Fake Christian/MiB's knowledge. He tells Locke the following: CHRISTIAN: There's a woman living in Los Angeles. Now once you get all your friends together -- and it must be all of them, every one who left -- and once you've persuaded them to join you, this woman will tell you exactly how to come back. LOCKE: Who is she? CHRISTIAN: Her name is Eloise Hawking. There is no way that the MiB could know that Eloise is in Los Angeles or that she is the key to getting people back to the island. She left in 1977 and never came back. The MiB has no connections to the outside world that could tell him this. Even Ben himself didn't know Eloise could get people back to the island. The only way Fake Christian/MiB could possibly know about Eloise Hawking and how to bring back the Oceanic Six is because this has already happened. Eloise has already helped the O6 come back to the island at this point. Ajira has returned and MiB as Fake Christian has already met and spoken with Sun and Lapidus at the barracks. He has already scanned Locke's dead body and downloaded everything he knew. Including this interaction in the wheel chamber. Fake Christian is therefore repeating the exact movements and words and information that Real Locke remembered Fake Christian saying to him. The Man in Black is essentially recreating this memory in real time as it happens, if that makes sense? It's part of this causal time loop in which the snake eats its own tail.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 or maybe the island told him? To be honest the first time mib-lock told Ben that the island told him , i thought maybe he was lying to make Ben angry since Ben thought locke is his replacement and Ben doesnt like it when other people are special than he is. But yeah maybe the island told him, he said it before.

I agree that The Island definitely "speaks" to characters and they act upon this knowledge. We see this happen with Jacob, the Man in Black, John Locke, Desmond, Walt, even Jack. But I don't view it like a dialogue or the island unspooling information. It's more like an instinct that comes to them. When Fake Locke leads Ben and Richard to the beechcraft, it's an inner instinct telling him where he needs to go and when. It's made clear that MiB's knowledge of Locke's time travel appearances are the result of this instinct. But there are several other factors in the wheel chamber scene that suggest this is not simply the island telling MiB things. Because his knowledge is not exclusively related to what is happening on the island. It's specifically about off-island knowledge, and the only way he can know that is if it has already happened in the timeline. Also, we know that the wheel chamber exists in its own pocket of time because of my aforementioned points. We also know that the point in which Locke enters that pocket is *after* Ben has pushed it and it has fallen off its axis. So, it's not happening in the past. It's happening in the future post-wheel turn in 2004. And we know that 2007-era MiB would know all of this information anyway. Basically, 2007-era Man in Black is engineering his loophole plan *backwards* through time. This is not a linear plan. The moment by the beechcraft takes place in 2007, in which Ajira has already returned and the Man in Black already knows what Richard needs to say and do due to Dead Locke's memories. The same logic applies to the wheel chamber scene. Remember that bit in 'Dead is Dead' when Fake Locke disappears to run an errand for a while? He leaves Ben and Sun in the barracks alone as they wait for the monster to respond to Ben's call, then Fake Locke shows back up again? We are never told where Fake Locke went or what his "errand" was. Because we already know. It is during his absence in that episode when the wheel chamber scene is taking place. It is is like the compass scene. A self-perpetuating feedback loop. MiB knows what to do and say because it has already happened. So, he simply follows the script to some extent.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 great explaination. Thanks so much

He couldn't transform into other people after Jacob was killed. He changed between Christian and Locke in S5 before that happened. I mention this in my latest video about the smoke monster and his abilities.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 ah, thankyou kindly

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 thnx

A true LOST question if there ever was one!

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 hahahha Thanks for the videos This is a great series

Wrong. Jacob was well thought out and present throughout the whole show. The numbers are Jacob's signature, everywhere u see them Jacob is involved. For example Jack sat in seat 23 on the plane and Anna Lucia seat 42. Jacob obviously planned for each of them to be on either side on the plane to lead each group. The hatch has the numbers all over it, and whenever the button needs.to be pushed something important is happening because it's Jacob's plans signed by Jacob's numbers for example one time the button has.to be pushed is when the leader of Jacob's own people is being pulverized by sayid and the button saves him. The clues are everywhere.

I'm making a video that addresses this criticism that they made it all up as they went along. First of all, that's been evidenced as being untrue and, secondly, there is a complicated backstory to what happened behind the scenes and why certain elements had to change. In short: not every plan works out. The writers retconned elements in later seasons for story-of-the-day reasons, and that changed the meaning of certain scenes when looking back. From what I understand, the original idea that was conceived is that Ben had imprisoned this entity with the ashes (I think Jacob and the smoke monster were supposed to be one and the same during this part of the narrative), but by the time the writers entered the endgame of the final three seasons they decided they needed to split that entity into two opposing forces. They needed a good Jacob and bad Jacob, basically, which is why these two forces end up being twins. So yes, it is a retcon that changes the intentions of when the scene was first written, but it works IMO. Ben was threatened by Locke's specialness and wanted to save face by pretending that he knew more than he actually did. It's a fairly simple to understand motivation, but you need to include all of the context surrounding it when explaining the dynamic between the two men. There are certainly a mix of retconned plot points in the show that work and others that don't, but many of the intentions and plans that the showrunners discussed in the early days of Season One and Two were fulfilled in some way. They played around with elements during the six years of writing a very long-running narrative with complex mythology. That's the nature of longform TV writing; it will never be perfect. I can't remedy your dissatisfaction or unrealistic expectations of whatever you thought the show owed you by the end. It's not an ex-girlfriend that dumped you in 2010, so either get over it and move on to whatever your thing is now, or accept and forgive the flaws in a great but imperfectly told TV show.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 It's an extremely flawed show because the writers didn't know where they were going with it, threw too many balls in the air and made it impossible for them to pull it all together. The original idea for the cabin, with Jacob being somehow trapped there and for some reason being technology adverse, was a good idea. The retconning with Ben not actually being able to communicate with Jacob and it really being the smoke monster trying to make Ben jealous is a bad idea. The entire end game of Smoke Monster's plan makes no sense. Why not appear to every new person that arrives on the island and tell them "This guy Jacob is the smoke monster you have been seeing, the devil personified, and he has trapped you here. You have to kill him with this sword when he is in human form if you want to escape the island. I will show you where he sleeps"? Why go through all the elaborate manipulations of trying to make someone jealous because they aren't 'special'? The whole thing is just silly. They should have just kept it simple not tried to constantly 'surprise' the audience with constant narrative hat tricks.

LOST being a flawed show is a fair statement. I don't think I've ever seen any show that was perfect and didn't have problems or bad episodes. But LOST being *extremely* flawed is a totally subjective statement based on your own disappointments with the narrative. The story adds up to a cohesive whole but it requires a bit of work. And there are admittedly threads that get tangled up due to various changes in direction, which happened for various reasons. I can't stress this enough: they *did* know where they were going with the overall mythology and we have external supporting evidence. Two former writers from Season One and Season Two have gone on record as to what had been cooked up in the early days of development of the series, and both of these writers had grievances and did not get on with the management. So they have no reason to lie or cover for the show. One of the writers Javier Grillo-Marxuach has written an extensive essay about his time being part of the creative think tank that devised the mythology, and many of the mythological milestones were cooked up pretty much from the beginning then fleshed out further in Season Two. This is documented evidence, which I shall be referring to in my video that will address this myth of "making it up". That said, from season to season, the storylines within the grander structure were malleable and often needed fine tuning. They still had to deal with week-to-week stories and sometimes the needs of a season dictated changes to some of their plans. It was a road map, not an unchangeable blueprint. The first three seasons were hindered by multiple external factors, some of which you may have heard about. The biggest one was that the network wouldn't let them end the show, so they couldn't pull the trigger on the endgame (i.e. the Oceanic Six getting off the island then needing to come back, the Jacob-MiB war over the candidates, the smoke monster becoming Locke, etc.) This meant that they had drag out plot points to play for time. Also, the network wouldn't let them explain the fantastical too much. Their creative hands were tied for three years. That's why, once they got their end date after threatening to quit, the show suddenly becomes much faster paced and more focused. But it had also evolved beyond some of those early plans for answers to certain mysteries. It's a really complicated, but fascinating story in and of itself. Anyway, I'll get into all of the nitty gritty details in that video. As for your points, the show actually deals with them. We see that the Man in Black does try to manipulate someone into killing Jacob by essentially saying: "that guy is the devil". A whole episode is dedicated to exploring that plan. Remember Richard Alpert? But the plan fails because Jacob talks Richard around, which is when the MiB has to get more creative in how he will get someone else to kill Jacob. He spends the next 140 years searching for a loophole. But we also find out that Jacob goes into hiding and the MiB can no longer find him. You can't kill someone that can no longer be found. The only one with direct access is Richard, and Richard only takes worthy leaders to see Jacob. And so MiB starts searching for a future leader that he will be able to become and someone who will kill Jacob for him. We find out in Season Five that Jacob did use the cabin to meet people in for a time as Ilana goes directly there. Therefore, Richard would have met Jacob there too. After all, he had to pick up Jacob's instructions and/or lists from somewhere. And Ben knew about the cabin being a Jacob-related meeting point, which is why he took Locke there. All you have to do is connect a couple of dots between what was established. Easy peasy. Also, the scene in the cabin with Ben and Locke isn't simply about making Ben jealous. You're conflating different points I made in the video. Ben was already jealous of Locke. The main point of manifesting to Locke in the cabin was so that Locke would believe that was actually Jacob and so he would know to come back there for further instructions. Driving Ben's jealousy was a helpful by-product of that manipulation. Something that MiB nurtures years later. He was playing a long con on both men, over many years, and it involved exploiting a time loop that was baked into the island's history. Yes, it's complicated, but these plot points were parsed out over the course of years. And it is these details that make the show so rewarding to rewatch and discuss. This is what many LOST fans still love about the show. Like I said, if you found the story lacking or silly by the end and you want to make that known to the fans that disagree with your take then that's your prerogative. But the show explained enough of its mysteries and gave us enough information that we can iron out the creases between them, even with those aforementioned retcons. The show resonated with people back then and still resonates today, and even the haters are still thinking about it 13 years after it ended and looking for analysis videos on KZfaq for more exploration in spite of their issues with the direction the show took. I find it interesting that you are here watching these videos at all. If I hate something or found it to be a waste of time, I have no want to waste more time thinking about or discussing it. I just move on. LOST brings the passion out of people, both in the positive and the negative, and we are still talking about it two decades after it launched. To me, that's a win.

​@@Letsplay222they had all the core elements planned out from the start. Alot of the clues are very subtle and the writers constantly try to mislead people and disguise things like making the audience think the flashforwards were actually flashbacks. When Locke says he and Ben are going to see Jacob the camera cuts to Richard for no reason, now we have learned Richard is the only one who talks to Jacob thats why it cut to him standing up as though to address the matter himself. The same thing happened when Ben asked widmore if killing Alex was what Jacob wanted. Later Ben reveals the whole thing was a lie. So yes it does all fit the greater narrative

Because he is, in part, fulfilling a time loop. But also pulling a long con on the Man in Black so he can be killed once and for all.

Ben being the Man in Black's "anti-candidate" is just shorthand terminology I use, it's not literal. There is no supernatural influence over Ben's actions. The MiB had been watching Ben for many years. You have to remember that Jacob was aware of his brother's plot to have him killed someday (from 1867 onwards) and started making his own plans to destroy the MiB. Hence why he started recruiting candidates to replace him. Ben was a pawn being used by both Jacob and MiB, similar to John Locke. This is part of the reason why Jacob never met with Ben when he became leader. A lot of this is connected to the causal time loop and whatever happened, happened. Jacob was fulfilling a time loop that spanned almost 2,000 years. I have videos in this series that get into why Jacob does what he does. Watch "Chapter Two: Jacob and the Man in Black", "Chapter Twenty: The Rules", "Chapter Twenty-One: The Candidates" and "Chapter Twenty-Four: Mother". All deal with Jacob, his powers, his limitations and his motivations.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 mate ur seriously reaching with this stuff

It’s really not reaching; a lot of this is in the details and deductions. Watch this series of videos then see if you still feel the same way. You’re asking questions that are explored and explained in detail in various other chapters. But if you feel like this is all “reaching” or a waste of your time then feel free to discontinue watching.

@@LOSTEXPLAINED108 I have watched and your version of what happened is good for the majority. But this particular bit doesn’t add up and is too much of a leap.

Jacob didn’t interfere in the day to day of The Others. He would make lists and give them to Richard with names and/or specific instructions. But his whole philosophy was to let The Island play things out. Because he knew there was a time loop. Think about the timing of when he selected certain candidates. They were already on the island in the 70s before he visited their younger selves off island and “activated” them for the future. The person that leads The Others is not down to his choosing but Richard judging who The Island wants based on certain factors. Is the person special in some way? We see this happen with Locke later. Of all my deductions, this doesn’t require as much speculation. It’s there in the show IMO.

While I agree that there are some glaring continuity errors within the show, the wheel chamber scene is not one of them. We know that Locke moved to the objective present day when he fell into the well for several reasons that we can use in-show evidence to support. The donkey wheel chamber *does* exist within its own pocket of time or, at the very least, time is relative down there. Hence how Locke ends up in a different point in time with Fake Christian than to Sawyer and co above. Firstly, think of the logistics. The pocket of energy is down there, adjacent to the wheel. When that flash happens and Locke is pulled into the pocket, Sawyer's group remain above ground standing in a place and time BEFORE the wheel ever existed in that location. Before a well had even been dug. Secondly, remember that the wheel is off its axis in the present day, not through all the time periods that it ever existed within in. Real linear time has nothing to do with relative time. Or, think about it like this: our Losties were time travelling across centuries but that doesn’t mean the wheel was off its axis for centuries. The wheel being off its axis is at a specific fixed point in the timeline. The fixed point where Locke is pulled into. So, how do we know 100% that it's 2007? Well, this is based on Fake Christian/MiB's knowledge. He tells Locke the following: CHRISTIAN: There's a woman living in Los Angeles. Now once you get all your friends together -- and it must be all of them, every one who left -- and once you've persuaded them to join you, this woman will tell you exactly how to come back. LOCKE: Who is she? CHRISTIAN: Her name is Eloise Hawking. There is no way that the MiB could know that Eloise lives in Los Angeles or that she is the key to getting the Oceanic Six to return to the island. Eloise left in 1977 and never came back. The MiB has no connections to the outside world that could tell him this info. Even Ben himself didn't know Eloise was in LA or could get people back to the island. He didn't even know about The Lamp Post. The only way Fake Christian/MiB could possibly know about Eloise Hawking and how to bring back the Oceanic Six is because this has already happened. Eloise has already helped the O6 come back to the island at this point. Ajira has returned and MiB as Fake Christian has already met and spoken with Sun and Lapidus at the barracks. He has already scanned Locke's dead body and downloaded everything the dead man knew. Including this interaction in the wheel chamber. Fake Christian is therefore repeating the exact movements and words and information that Real Locke remembered Fake Christian saying to him. The Man in Black is essentially recreating this memory in real time as it happens and following the script. It's part of the causality loop with the snake eating its own tail. It's not magic. It's science fiction. And almost all of the so-called "magic" in LOST can be explained from that perspective. A lot of it is admittedly pseudo-science, but it still has a trackable internal logic.

I never claimed that the Man in Black travelled through time at any point. I make it very clear that he is exploiting the time loop, not participating in the travel. The Locke-Alpert beechcraft scene and Christian-Locke donkey wheel scene are taking place in 2007, where the Man in Black already has all the knowledge he needs of the past to manipulate events. It might be worth watching the video again for clarity on this.