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Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Mr. Eko stares down the "smoke monster," which fans call part of a security system. Find links to hidden images in the smoke at thefusilage.com. The brighter your screen, the easier they are to see.
Eerie Theories Online Try to Explain 'Lost'
ABC's hit castaway drama has boffo ratings, a new Golden Globe for best TV drama, and umpteem mysteries. No wonder legions of fans keep filling Internet message boards with more theories than Ben Franklin has plugs in Philly media.

I was hoping to delve and return with 10 Fascinating Things You Didn't Know About "Lost." Instead, I found myself overwhelmed.

But I did find some sites that might pique your interest.

You've probably noticed that backstories often intersect. For example, Sawyer met Jack's dad, and Locke and Hurley had the same boss. Check out the character connections discussion at lost-forum.com.

You can scratch a bunch of theories, if you can believe the show's creators. Purgatory? Nope. Alien high jinks? Hooey. Time warp? Phooey. All in one character's mind? Pshaw. A post at dharmasecrets.com links to evidence.

Warning: Don't read any more if you're afraid a right guess would ruin the show for you.

Two wild theories, though, both involving the end of the world, resonate with fans.

The Big Bang suggests the island is Atlantis on the move. It was underwater in the Atlantic in the 1800s when the Black Rock slave ship sank on top of it. It followed shifting techtonic plates on a northerly path, enabling it to pick up polar bears. Then it settled in the Pacific, where the survivors crashed. The theory even ties in the Mayan myth about the world ending in 2012.

The Ultimate Theory suggests the survivors are part of a repopulation project created by scientists fearing a flip-flopping of the Earth's magnetic field would expose the planet to lethal levels of solar radiation. So they created a refuge with a magnetic shield of its own, and imported people to unknowingly continue the human race. These people may have been in a state of suspended animation for years, only to be reawakened during a simulated crash. That would explain, for example, why Locke could walk after the crash, why transmissions and compasses don't work, and why punching a code into the computer every 108 minutes may be vital, after all. The island's magnetic field could also play a role in creating a kind of collective consciousness.

For lots more links, visit www.lostlinks.com. ABC even set up real-looking sites for the airline and the enigmatic scientific group behind the underground labs.


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