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Charlie's swimming abilities

• If the Looking Glass Station is located 60-70m under water, Charlie wouldn't be able to dive that deep untrained in such conditions.
  • It was Charlie´s destiny to dive down there, so the Island (or the Monster) gave him powers to do it, like extra-ordinary powers (Desmond can see the future, Rose and Locke healed).
  • Desmond was able to do the exact same thing in Through the Looking Glass so it must not be as hard as it seemed.
• Charlie's acquisition of swimming abilities since "White Rabbit" is just a continuity error.
  • It's a reasonable to assume that after the length of time Charlie has been on the island that he has learned to swim. This is not an error.
    • But in the flashback it shows Charlie learning to swim as a child, and he claims to be a swimming champ. Maybe he was just not motivated enough to be the hero to save the girl in "White Rabbit" because he didn't know her, but he'll do it for Claire and Aaron because he loves them and he knows he's about to die anyway.
    • Undertow can be a considerable factor off a coast, and is mentioned in some previous episodes. Also, saving a person that is drowning is much harder than most people suppose, you are much more likely to get pulled down by the drowning person. This would further limit Charlie's ability to save the woman, especially when combined with his "hobbit" sized stature.

Desmond's flash

• Desmond's vision of Charlie drowning in The Looking Glass and of Claire being rescued is an event that takes place much later in the future.
• Desmond could be lying.

• The viewers didn't get to see Desmond's vision. It took him a considerable amount of time to tell Charlie. He was creating the story about Claire and Aaron on a helicopter because it was plausible and presuasive. He needed Charlie to go to the Looking Glass because he knew that he and Penny would end up getting together if he did. This is why he wanted Charlie to do it. he felt a little guilty. That is why he looked so disturbed about it.
  • The time at which he told him the story was right after he saw Charlie talking to Aaron and Claire about how much he loved them. Desmond knew he could use them as an excuse. After that Charlie went back to see them again, knowing he would die. Desmond must have known by this point that it was all working out easily. Desmond wanted him to drown not because he saw aaron and claire getting saved, b ut because he saw Penny and him.

• This holds true to the principle that we can only accept something as fact if we witness it ourselves (as opposed to just taking a character's word for it). We were not shown Desmond's flashback. There is a reason for this.

• It's unlikely that he's lying as we have actually witnessed the flashes he's had in the past and been honest about.

• They have not always shown the visions so that alone is no evidence that Desmond is lying. To show the viewers the vision in this case would likely have revealed too much about the plot.

• The fact that we know that Claire does NOT get off the island I would say is proof that Desmond lied or did something that changed the outcome like in previous visions. And he did lie once before but couldn't go through with it when he saw Charlie get killed by the arrow trap but saved him at the last second. He also seemed to regret doing it throughout the rest of that episode because it changed the outcome of the parachuter being Penny.

• Suggesting that Desmond is lying based on the fact that the viewers did not see his flash is misleading. The viewer has yet to see a Desmond flash firsthand outside of a Desmond-centric episode.
• That's why this is the 'theories' page, not the 'facts' page.
• It's possible that Desmond saw two things in his flashes which motivated his actions; that Charlie would undoubtedly die if he participated in the imminent conflict with the Others, but also that in some way entering the Looking Glass would reunite Desmond with Penny. He brought Charlie with him to save his life, knowing that there would be no other way to convince him to leave Claire and Aaron, but had no intention of sending him into the water. In his flashes Desmond may have seen himself returning to the outside world, from where he could attempt (probably unsuccessfully) to send the rescue helicopter he promised Charlie.
• It could be that Desmond's flash contained Aaron and a woman holding him, and he naturally assumed the woman was Claire.

• Desmond knew that the swim to the Looking Glass wouldn't be fatal, otherwise Desmond would have read "Our Mutual Friend" before volunteering to take his place.

• Unless he knew Charlie wouldn't let Desmond take his place.
• Or Desmond could have lost "Our Mutual Friend" after the Discharge or maybe just not care anymore about the book.

• Now that Charlie hit Desmond with the oar (mirroring him getting hit with the cricket bat in Flashes Before Your Eyes), he will no longer have visions of the future.

• Both Naomi and Desmond, who Naomi says she was sent to rescue, can't be trusted with what they tell Charlie. Both are inflating his ego - Naomi tell Charlie that he was "a big deal" after the crash, and Desmond implies Charlie will be a hero, martyring himself for Claire.
• Desmond lied to Charlie by saying that the helicopter will rescue Claire and Arron, but rather, he saw himself getting in the helicopter (as seen in the economist).

The Looking Glass

• The Looking Glass Station is the location of the underwater beacon (designed to guide submarines to the Island) that Mikhail refers to in "Enter 77". The station's name is a reference to Lewis Carroll's book, so named because following the beacon is the only safe way onto the Island. When, in "The Man from Tallahassee", Ben tells Locke the underwater beacon was destroyed and submarines can leave but will never be able to return without the beacon, he is referring to Looking Glass Station and does not attempt to have the beacon repaired because he believes the station is flooded.
  • The station is so-named because of how it camouflages the Island from view. Outsiders see a reflection of the surrounding ocean. The beacon is necessary to find the Island, but the station may also be the source of the cloaking technology.
• The Looking Glass is a doorway between times, dimensions, or universes. The sub brings people from the Looking Glass to the Island. That is why we've never actually seen the trip a person has to make, we've only seen them getting off the submarine. This is also why Juliet was asked to drink a strong sedative for the ride to the Island, why the DHARMAs and Hostiles are always shown arriving via submarine, and why, as Ethan put it, "the last leg is always a little bumpy".
• The two women at the station (Bonnie and Greta) are remnants from the original DHARMA project. The hostiles were not able to kill all the DHARMA workers, only the ones at specific stations (like the barracks). DHARMA workers at the Looking Glass survived the purge and are continuing their mission.
  • Kelvin and Radzinsky were also both left alone in The Swan.
  • Except Ben knows about the Looking Glass. According to Juliet, he is using the station to jam all transmission except those made by the Others.
    • Ben and Juliet know about the Pearl, therefore know about Swan (as did Mikhail), so, the women can be from DHARMA.
      • It's doubtful that DHARMA would knowingly jam the transmission of everybody except the Hostiles, as Juliet claims. Kelvin and Radzinsky knew that they had been in the Swan well past their assigned stay, but they had no way to contact the outside world. If the Looking Glass has a means of controlling communications, it seems likely that any remaining DHARMA workers left in the station would attempt to use the station to their advantage.
• The Looking Glass has a submarine entrance; the Others made use of that entrance to get their people on board to jam transmissions.
  • However, now that the sub is destroyed, the folks on the Looking Glass have no idea what's going on, depending on the last time the sub visited the station.
• Mikhail, shown inside The Looking Glass, took the sub there, the sub that Locke did not explode due to a deal they made in "Enter 77", which we'll find out about in "Through the Looking Glass".
• Since the station must be pressurized in order to keep the water out of the Hatch, it's not possible for the inhabitants to leave the station without using decompression stops when ascending.
  • This only applies if the station is more that 13m underwater
  • This could be easily worked around by use of pressurized oxygen bottles (used i.e. for sport open water diving), and doing decompressing stops on ascending from the station.
    • This of course presumes that the person ascending from that depth knows at which levels to stop for decompression and for how long.
    • However, if the station is really 60m underwater as stated on the plan possessed by Sayid, then this is on the border of diving with an ordinary oxygen. Some more sophisticated gas mixture to breathe would probably be needed.
  • If the Looking Glass Station is really 60m below the surface of the water then the station MUST have a pressurized, partial oxygen system. A person leaving this station would be having to follow Boyle's law of partial pressure. To reach the surface on one breath the person leaving would need to exhale the whole way and even then could get into serious trouble with no decompression tables. The only way to get to the surface would be a 25 minute decompression stop @ 15 feet or a vessel capable of maintaining a 1 atmosphere environment.
    • The 60m note is wrong, or perhaps refers to something other than the main station. Charlie gets to the station far too quick, and the scenes of him diving to get there show it to be much closer to the surface. Also, if a cable was set to go underwater from that depth to the beach, attaching the cable to the boat would have made it tight and the boat get pinned between the cable and the surface much before they could reach the station.

Ben

• Ben decides to abduct the pregnant women from the beach a day early because he has deduced that they are aware of the abduction plans.
  • Ben knows the minicassette recorder, which he had shown to Locke, has gone missing.
  • He also knows that Locke was out of sight for a day or two.
  • He suspects that Locke was unable or unwilling to kill his own father, and that he would have enlisted the aid of one of the Others from the beach. Thus, Ben can speculate that the tape recorder (and the messages on it) have been made available to the targets of the abduction plan.
  • With all of this in mind, Ben thinks he may have a chance to surprise the people on the beach if he moves up the timing of the attack.
  • Ben is visibly bothered by Jacob’s communication with Locke. He is not acting rationally by dramatically altering the plan, but acting out of fear or anger or both.
  • The arrival of Naomi, and her radio phone, has Ben worried that people from the outside world will reach the Island. This would have all sorts of bad implications for him.
    • He also lied to all his people when he said that Jacob told him to go a day early.
      • This could suggest that Ben has often lied about what Jacob has said, including taking care of Rachel's cancer. Can we even trust that Ben takes any ordered from Jacob? (And if Jacob is on the Island, how could Jacob have cured Rachel's cancer off the Island?)
      • Although we do not know his return path from Locke's shooting to the camp - he went back to consult with Jacob further about the plan.
    • Ben moved up the day as part of a plan either to further Jacob's wish to be "helped" or to foil it.
• Ben realizes that (although Locke is injured) he will rapidly heal - as has happened a number of times with Locke already. Therefore he brings the operation forward to get away from Locke in advance of his return to the Others encampment or in case Locke makes it back to the Losties beach settlement before the Others can attack.
  • If Ben thought Locke was still alive, he probably would have shot him again, maybe in the head.
• Ben now knows there are potential mutineers in the Others. He ups the abduction schedule to forestall an open rebellion. This will keep the group focused on Ben's priorities and delay their discovering that he has shot Locke.
• The introduction of time travel being plausible through the Looking Glass Station gives weight to the theory that Ben is trying to find a cure for what is killing the pregnant women late in their second trimester in order to travel back through time and cure his mother. This is supported by seeing his mother on the Island in "The Man Behind the Curtain" and his insistence that Juliet continue her work till her job is done in "One of Us".

Karl and Alex

• Karl knows something about Ben that Alex doesn't; she asks him if Ben is really is her father.
  • It's possible that they both know something, but Alex seems to ask Karl as if he knows something that she does not.
  • Karl could be slightly older than Alex; he says he was born on the Island, and perhaps Alex has been told that she was born elsewhere and brought to the Island as a baby. Thus, she thinks that Karl would have heard from the adults more than she about that time in their history.
  • If the Others have in fact been on the Island for centuries (aging very slowly), and Karl was an island "native" or a young crew member of the Black Rock, then he was about the same age then as now, and would certainly know whether Ben was actually Alex's father.
    • Karl would know a lot more than we think he does.
    • The slow aging is evidenced by Richard Alpert's seeming non-aging, as well as the Island's healing properties.