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When is the Island?

Posted Feb 9, 2010 by Courtney Cairns Pastor

Updated Feb 9, 2010 at 10:58 AM

I don’t know how the island sank, but I am beginning to doubt the bomb did it.

Damon Lindelof hints in an Entertainment Weekly article to pay attention to the underwater island for clues to when it disappeared. He points out New Otherton/the Barracks – we get a nice view of the playground. We also see the famous foot.

The Barracks did exist pre-1977, when the bomb went off, but I’m not sure we know when the statue crumbled. This could be key to figuring out when the island vanished.

I went into journalism, not physics, so maybe I’m off base here, but wouldn’t a bomb have left everything in ruins? And can it actually sink an island whole? Doesn’t seem likely (but neither did time-traveling bunnies). I keep thinking about the scene when the island disappears in the Season 4 finale. It looks like the water swallows the island whole. Could someone (independent of the bomb) have tried to move the island only to hit a snag, resulting it in becoming submerged?

My other problem with the island sinking when the bomb goes off is it wipes out compelling characters and decision-makers. Ben, Widmore and Chang are all dead. If Chang dies, there’s no Miles. There may or may not be a Penny – she was born off the island, but we don’t know what year. Eloise is pregnant when the bomb explodes, so no Faraday (which makes my head hurt, because if Faraday never existed, how does Jack know to explode the bomb in the first place).

And I just like having Ben around.