Lostpedia has arranged an interview with TLE blogger Speaker for this Friday. Submit your questions here!
Do you have an idea for a new wiki? Please share it with us here

From Lostpedia

Why was she involved with Desmond, Hurley, and then the crash?

Theory 1: She works for Charles Widmore

For the general theory of Widmore's involvement with Flight 815 see here.

Evidence:

• The odds of her being in Australia and running into Desmond, then being assigned to Hurley's mental institution in LA, then being on the flight that brings Hurley to the island, and them both surviving have to be almost impossible - plus giving a stranger a boat? Clearly there is a pattern here. She is critically involved in facilitating Desmond getting to the Island (after Widmore buys him off and he goes to Australia to begin his training for a boat he doesn't even have). And Desmond is the one who, by not pushing the button, is responsible for bringing everyone else there, including Locke and Hurley.

• Her facilitating Desmond and watching Hurley is very similar to the role Matthew Abaddon (employed by Charles Widmore) plays in getting Locke to the island Matthew_Abaddon#As_an_orderly. On both occasions, it implies that Widmore somehow knows in advance either who is going to be on Flight 815, or has an agenda for who he wants to be on that flight.

• Who else would know about the kind of boat's that could be used in Widmore's race, and afford to give one a way, as well as has a strange interest in Desmond? So far, the only character who could make this extremely unlikely coincidence possible is Widmore, who we know has an interest in both Desmond and the Island.

• She may have really been a clinical psychologist assigned to watch Hurley.

• The fact that she radically changes her hair color suggests that she might be concealing her identity. When she meets Desmond she has red hair, Hurley - brown, and on Flight 815: blond.

• Her medical knowledge (shown when she first arrived with the other survivors) may have been the result not of medical school, but rather that she prepared in advance with first aide training because she knew she was headed to the island.

• Also the fact that she starts dating Hurley, never mentioning that she had seen him before, seems like she has some reason for being around him. Hurley himself mentioned how improbable their relationship was given his physique. Maybe she had an ulterior motive. But clearly, given that she helped talk him down from suicide, she was interested in his wellbeing.

• Desmond's trajectory seems to point to Widmore. Consider: Brother Campbell picks up/recruits Desmond to the monastary (where Brother campbell has a picture of Ms. Hawking in his office. Desmond get's fired and on the same day Penny Widmore shows up to pick up wine from the monastary for her father, starting their relationship. Then, Ms. Hawking puts Desmond on route to leave Penny, Widmore himself pays for Desmond's journey to Australia where Libby gives him the boat, and he's off to the Island.

• Also, Damon mentioned at Comic Con 07 that they would be getting to Libby's story in a season or two suggesting that their is more than what meets the eye when it comes to Libby.

Counter-evidence:

• Might not have been in the mental hospital for Hurley, but rather Leonard.(if she is working for Widmore and knows about Leonard, the numbers and the island.)

• She was put in the hospital after she told people she gave away a $48,000 boat to a stranger in a coffee shop.
  • This would not justify putting someone in a mental institution.

Theory 2: Everything she said was true

• She was telling the truth about almost everything. She was an American psychologist working in Australia, married to her husband who died. After, she had a nervous breakdown in L.A.. She did not come to Australia for Hurley. She is not an Other. She is not a pathological liar. She is not a fiendish manipulator.

Evidence:

• She seemed to be taking medicine at Santa Rosa

Counter-evidence:

• Who gives a boat to a stranger?
• What are the odds she was in both Australia and L.A. with Hurley, who, years later, she would coincidentally be in a plane crash with and then start a relationship with?

Theory 3: She is Annie

• After the purge, she grows up, married David (Libby's Husband) and is traumatized following his death. The island wants her back and she contributed to the crash of 815.

Background

Mental Patient?

Libby as patient on Santa Rosa Hospital

• Became obsessed with Hurley at the hospital and been following him ever since.
• Libby was in the mental institution, as a result of depression following her husband's death (and meeting Desmond), and took a liking to Hurley because she thought he was talking to her husband "Dave" in the afterlife.

Clinical Psychologist?

• Libby is not a clinical psychologist. No Clinical Psychologist would call what was happening to Hurley (on the cliff after Dave jumps) a "panic attack." A panic attack does not mean standing around looking nervous; panic attack symptoms include hyperventilating, chest pain, sweating, and overall serious anxiety.
  • True, the symptoms of a real panic attack are distressing to say the least; but perhaps some artistic license should be granted. If they were to portray Hurley in the midst of an accurately depicted panic attack, any reasonable exchange of dialog couldn't occur. All in all, the symptoms were intentionally played down for dramatic effect.
• Libby may have needed to choose a profession at random, so, with her experience in a mental hospital, chose a clinical psychologist because that's a job she knew pretty well

Her Husband, David

• Is not Dave. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have stated that they just "have a thing about the name Dave". Hurley's imaginary friend was intended as a reflection of his missing father David, but Libby's husband is a different Dave who we may or may not meet in the future.
  • Source? It's all well-and-good to brandy the producers' names about, but it would also be nice to have a website to confirm your statement. (I've actually decided that Hurley's imaginary friend was married to Libby. Well, until you show me the interview in question.)
    • Check the David (Libby's Husband) page. The producers have confirmed this.

Libby & Desmond and Their On-Island Near Miss

Theory 1: Libby vs. Desmond

• The writers had to kill her off to bring Desmond back on the show; since they have met, having them both on the Island would cause complications. Desmond was deemed more important to the plot, thus Libby got shot, and Desmond appeared -- in the boat she gave him -- during her funeral.

Counter-evidence:

• Unlikely, since Desmond also met Jack
• The flashback showing Libby in Desmond's past was not shown until after Libby was dead.
• The fact that characters knew each other from the past doesn't mean that either "has" to be killed off.