Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Island Timeline



I hope this will help me figure out what's going on when and what side people are on. Please contribute and make corrections. The dates come from Lostpedia which is not canon, but is pretty close.

100 BC? - Days of the 4-Toed statue; Locke puts the Donkey Wheel back on its axis and turns it

1845 - Black Rock disappears. Magnus Hanso was captain of the Black Rock.

1954 - Richard Alpert and a band of Latin speaking Others including young Charles Widmore and Ellie are on Island and view it as THEIR Island
- US Army arrives on Island with 18 men and Jughead. 18 Army people die on orders from Alpert's superior.
- The Left Behinders (LBs) jump to 1954 and Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Daniel and Charlotte plus 2 redshirts interact with Alpert's Others.  Both Alpert and Ellie are told about the time skipping.


1970s - The Dharma Initiative (DI) funded by Alvar Hanso begins building stations on the Island. They create a station, The Arrow to deal with the hostile indigenous population presumably Alpert's Others.

1970 - Charlotte Staples Lewis born

1973 - Young Ben Linus joins the DI and arrives on Island with his dad.
- The Hostiles, presumably led by Alpert, attack DI facilities
- Young Ben sees his mom and in an effort to find her encounters Richard Alpert


1974 - Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles, Daniel and presumably Rose, Bernard, Vincent and any other remaining 815ers end up here after Locke turns the wheel
Hostiles kill DI member Paul
Sawyer and Juliet kill 2 Hostiles and rescue DI Amy
Sawyer tells DI his name is LaFleur and he and his crew integrate into the Dharma Initiative after also informing Alpert what, that is who, they're waiting for
The Dharma submarine travels approximately every 2 weeks to and from the Island


- Daniel (not sure if it's 2005 or other aged Daniel) travels to the time they are building the Orchid. I'm thinking now this is definitely 2005 Daniel, but the exact date of this scene is unknown.

Somewhere in the 1970s, probably between '74 and '77 - a young Charlotte Lewis lives on Island; a crazy Daniel visits her and tells her to leave and never come back; Charlotte leaves with her mother, her father stays behind

1977 - Sawyer, Miles and Jin work for Dharma security
Juliet works as a Dharma mechanic and only reveals herself to be a doctor in order to deliver Amy's baby
A baby is born to Amy and Horace; no word on where it was conceived.

Kate, Hurley and Jack are flashed into this time from Flight 316 and are found by Jin
Motor Pool Kate, Chef Hurley and Workman Jack are part of the DI
Sayid in DI custody as a presumed Hostile; visited by young Ben

Young Ben springs Sayid; Sayid shoots him in the jungle and flees

1980s - Alpert's Hostiles and Ben purge the DI with poison gas. Possibly 1984/5 if you take Miles statement that Widmore has been looking for the Island for 20 years as accurate. This date does not agree with Horace's dream statement to Locke though. At this point Island is left with just Alpert's Others plus Ben plus possibly other DI that become Others or are left to die at the hands of polar bears. We do not know of any DI escaping the Island post-purge, but somehow Daniel knew about the purge as evidenced by Daniel and Charlotte's trip to the Tempest. I suspect Widmore knew about it too, but I don't know chicken and egg style if he told Daniel or Daniel told him.

November 18, 1988 - Rousseau's team crashes on Island 
- Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Charlotte and Daniel find wreckage of French ship
- Rousseau's team finds Jin
- Smokey kills Nadine and rips off Montand's arm; Frenchies minus Danielle go after Montand and Smokey

Between Nov. 18 and Alex's birth
-French team discovers Black Rock on Island

Late 1988/Early 1989 - Rousseau shoots LaCombe, Brennan and Robert
- Rousseau goes to radio tower and changes message
- Rousseau gives birth to Alex
- Ben takes Alex.  Alex becomes an Other.

Post-Gulf War maybe 1991/2 - Kelvin Inman arrives at the Swan
- Mikhail arrives on Island about then too.

1995 - Desmond meets Penny

1995/6 - Desmond meets with Charles Widmore to ask about marrying Penny
Desmond sees Charlie Pace performing on a street in London

1996 - Desmond meets Daniel in Oxford
Charles Widmore buys Black Rock ledger from the Hanso family

1997/8 - Daniel sends Teresa time-tripping, leaves for America, Widmore pays for Teresa's care

Late 1990s? - Nigerian drug plane crashes on the Island
- Ethan checks out plane crash and shoots a 2005 Locke
- 2005 Locke sees crash and is shot by Ethan

2001 - Desmond meets Jack at stadium in LA

2001-2004 - Desmond lives in Swan Hatch
- Juliet becomes an Other 

Sept. 22, 2004 - 815 crashes and Kelvin dies

Sept/Oct 2004 - The Others take members of the Tail Section to become Others including Cindy, Zack and Emma

Nov. 1, 2004 - Aaron born, delivered by Kate
- Time skipping LBs jump here from 1954 and see Swan lit up as Locke pounds on it and Aaron's birth


Nov. 2004 - Desmond meets Locke, Jack and Kate

Mid-Nov. 2004 - Desmond meets other 815ers

Dec. 31, 2004 - O6, Ben, Desmond and Frank leave the Island
LBs start skipping through time


2007 - Ajira 316 crashes on Hydra Island
Sun and Lapidus take outrigger to abandoned Dharmaville and meet Christian Shephard


2007 Crash date + 2/3 days - resurrected Locke found on Hydra Island; Ben in Ajira infirmary

2007 Crash date + at least 3 days - 2 Outriggers appear on beach; beach camp emptied; Zodiac gone
- People in Outrigger chase and shoot at LBs

And now for the Time Skips

Episodes 1 and 2
2005 LBers go to date of Nigerian plane crash  
Then to post-Swan implosion time
Then to somewhere between 2001-2004 when Desmond is in Swan Hatch


Episode 3
Then to 1954


Episode 4
Then to Nov. 1, 2004 where they come across a lit up Swan Hatch and Aaron's birth
Then to some future date where the beach camp exists, but has been raided by people in two outrigger canoes and the Zodiac is missing
Then to the day Rousseau's people crash on the Island

Episode 5
Opens on November 18, 1988
Jumps ahead about 2 months
Multiple unknown jumps
Locke puts Donkey Wheel back on its axis and turns it again


Episodes 5, 7, 8

The flash when Locke falls down the well takes them to 4-toed statue days
Locke turning the wheel takes the remaining LBs to 1974


Episode 9
Sayid is in 1977; Sun, Ben, Locke, Lapidus in 2007

Episode 10 - 1977

26 comments:

Capcom said...

I guess that we'll just have to wait for TPTB to tell us that stuff, unfortunately. I'm slowly, grudglingly, learning to wait for missing info like that now. I guess I'm just getting used to (or fed up with) all the ridiculous holes in the story at this point. That could be a good or bad thing, I'm not sure yet.

Great work on the timeline!

maven said...

Thanks so much for laying this out, Memphish. There's still so many holes left here. When and why Widmore left is a big one...he definitely needed some time to create his empire.

Ellen said...

Awesome, Memphish! I think this timeline of yours will help us to keep things straight and be able to understand everything much more...thanks for sharing it!
xxoo

Benny said...

As for when Widmore left the island, I would suggest it is somewhere in the 1980s, from Miles' statement and possibly once Ben was deemed special and leadership-bound.

Also, I would suggest that the purge happened in the early 1990's, from Horace's statements mostly and given Ben's and his dad's appearances; but that's not saying much.

Is there any indication that Mikail arrived on the island in the 1990's and not earlier, I don't remember.

memphish said...

Benny, how do you reconcile Alex's age with a 1990s Purge?

As for Mikhail, I think he said in 2004 that he had been recruited 13 years earlier which would be 1991. I think that sort of matches up with when the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan too, though I have not checked my dates.

I'm also not sure how much weight to give Miles offhand statement that it took Widmore 20 years to find the Island again. I take that as an estimate. I also think he had to leave the Island earlier than that given Penny's age. But he could have left while knowing where the Island was. That's one of the mysteries I'm looking forward to learning more about.

Thanks for commenting!

Capcom said...

I like your avi Benny! :-)

I think that I'm going to go study the blast door map again, and see if any of the Latin, abbreviations, and more quirky notations make any more sense with what we've gotten so far in S-5.

lost2010 said...

Cherchez la femme. . .

If Ben didn't somehow cost Widmore a woman or someone else he cared about, I'll be very surprised. It can't JUST be about the power. . . although I'm sure that's part of it.

memphish said...

Hmm Lost2010, like Penny's mom? That could be interesting.

lost2010 said...

Interesting that we have yet to see Penny's mom or hear her name isn't it?

In 2004, Horace's ghost claims to have been dead for 12 years (okay, I read that somewhere, I didn't go back and rewatch) - and he's supposed to have died in the purge. So, that implies the purge was in roughly 1992. When, if Alex isn't a timejumper herself, Alex would have been roughly 4 years old.

It sort of points out that we still don't really know how Alex ended up with Ben. . . we just know that she was taken from her mother and ended up with Ben raising her. . .

I wonder if we can rig those purple time flashes to send our friends to 1988 sooner more than later. . . .

Capcom said...

Indeed, it does often come down to a woman driving a man crazy on Lost doesn't it, Lost2010? :-)

pgtbeauregard said...

There's a theory out there that Eliie is both Penny's and Desmond's mom. That her split with Widmore is because she sided with Ben.

memphish said...

I"m pretty much hating on all the bro/sis theories out there. So are Daniel and Penny close enough in age that they wouldn't remember the other one if they were separated early in life? Hey, maybe they're the Bad Twins. Except in the book they were both male.

pgtbeauregard said...

P.s.

like your new avi

Unknown said...

The most important question regarding Alex/Danielle/The Others is the first one on Lostpedia's "Alex" entry:

If she was taken shortly after birth, how is it that the Others even know her real name considering Danielle never even saw them?

Rousseau's a big ball of obfuscation and crazy. I'll trust an honest ghost over a crazy itinerant.

Benny said...

Thanks Capcom

That's a good point regarding Alex's age. There's probably a good deal we'll learn this week or the next.

Danielle mentions that she was taken (no name) by the Others. It could be that Ben took care of her when he joined the group and did not necessarily take her directly from Danielle. Although I should not necessarily trust a dream/hallucination to tell me when something happened!

Tess315 said...

You did a good job on the time line.
I agree that the others took Alex before Ben became their leader. Why he ended up with her I guess we'll find out later. Maybe ;)
Mikhail said he had been on the island 11 years, if you can believe him. Which would be 1993 a year after the purge presumably.
Oh I don't know if it will be important or not but Claire should have had Aaron in late Oct. since she was "nearly" eight months when they crashed.

Capcom said...

Keep up the good work Memphish! :-D

Black Swan said...

Excellent work on the timeline, memphish! (I like your use of color to distinguish time-frames, too).

To me, one of the biggest questions that still remain blurry is the timing of the Purge. With our Losties in New Otherton now and infiltrating the DI, I feel the future WILL change and that's what they were always 'supposed to do'.

maven said...

Thanks for the updates to your wonderful and understandable time line!

Capcom said...

Nice updating, and sooo very helpful! :-)

Benny said...

I think for now that Ben's arrival on the island is closer to early 70s since the production notes stated his birth is in 1963. It makes it 73-ish when Ben gets to the island. We just haven't seen any kid on the island for now, and neither Sawyer nor Juliet knew of Ben's existence within DI. More Ben story to come!

As for Charlotte's birth year, you're theory is widely accepted. But consider this: no one mentions her name in "LaFleur". To be fair, we obviously have a red-headed young British girl... and she fits the Charlotte profile.

memphish said...

There are definitely some Dharma dates up for grab at this point. Ben's arrival being a key one. I do think young Ben has arrived between 1974-77 because of the Juliet crush. I don't think now that most of the O6 is back that they'll spend much longer in Dharma days, though I could easily be wrong on that one.

As for Charlotte, I don't plan to get hung up on her dates. I for one don't miss her, or her part of the story, especially if her parents turn out to be Dharma randos as appears for now to be the case.

Benny said...

You're absolutely right. Except for some key known time references, the entire DHARMA history is really up in the air and all we can do is speculate as best we think.

Charlotte's role will definitely be more elaborated on, whether in great details or superficially is what's left to find out.

Unknown said...

Great job with the timeline. :)

There are a lot of DHARMA dates up for grabs: Richard leaving, Ben arriving, Penny born. You have to think Penny's mom is going to be someone we know (Amelia, perhaps)? Definitely think the writers messed up with Charlotte's dates.

Good point about Ben/Juliet too. I always thought that Ben had a crush on Juliet because she looked like either his mom or Olivia, but that makes a lot of sense.

Tess315 said...

You're doing a good job with this memphish.
I became obsessed with the timeline last season and started my own this year just so I could keep it straight. Ours are the same except when Locke was found in the water. Which isn't that important.

Are you going to do an off island timeline of the 06? Or do you think that's not important for this season?

Keep up the great work.

memphish said...

Capcom - I estimated that based on general Egyptian history, but after seeing the finale I'd guess they could have been anywhere up to the time of Ben being on the Island. In the finale we saw the statue with the Black Rock which is mid-1800s and Ben said the statue was gone by his time, the 1970s, so we have no idea when it was that the Island jumped to other than earlier than 1970-something. Except for the fact that there was no well, so it was sometime before they dug a well, but there was a donkey wheel chamber or Locke would have been buried alive, right?

Yeah, I give up. :-p