Remember when we first met Danielle Rousseau in the Lost season 1 episode “Solitary”? We all thought that she was crazy, but what if we were wrong…
Rousseau: “We were part of a science team…
Our vessel was three days out of Tahiti, but our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm.. the sounds.. The ship slammed into rocks. Ran aground. The hull breached beyond repair.. so, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter… temporary. Nearly two months we survived here. Two months before…Sayid: “Your distress signal, the message I heard – you said “it killed them all”.
Rousseau: “We were coming back from the black rock. It was them, they were the carriers!”
Sayid: “Who were the carriers?”
Rousseau: “The others”
Sayid: “What others? What is the black rock? Have you seen other people on this island?”
Rousseau: “No, but I hear them. Out there in the jungle. They whisper.”
I think Rousseau knew exactly what she was talking about.
When referring to “the others” being carriers, I think we can assume that there is some form of deadly virus or disease on the island (the sickness) but when we heard Rousseau say this, we didn’t know about The Others, so the question is, are Ben’s Others the carriers of a deadly virus or are the others Rousseau is referring to other “Others”?
This is a bit of a stretch, but…
Danielle says that she was part of a science team, but we’ve always assumed that her team had nothing to do with Dharma or those we know as “The Others”. What if Rousseau was a Dharma scientist? If she was, how does that affect our view of her?
The sickness
Later in the same episode Rousseau continues to talk about the sickness:
Rousseau: “It took them, one after the other. I had no choice, they where already lost.”
Sayid: “You killed them”
Rousseau: “What would have happened if we where rescued? I couldn’t let that happen.”
The question remains – what is the sickness and does it even exist?
Rousseau sure seems convinced that the sickness is a real and very scary thing.
On the other hand, the word “Quarantine” was printed on the inside of the hatch doors and Desmond and Kelvin injected themselves with a vaccine, but since that appeared to be a hoax that Kelvin pulled off to steal Desmond’s boat it’s impossible to know for sure.
It is worth noting that Kelvin had Hazmat gear which he wore outside the hatch. If the sickness is a hoax, why would Dharma keep Hazmat suits? My guess is that the suits where used for protection against the electromagnetic anomaly in the Swan station.
The virus
Another idea which depends on how Lost is tied together with the Lost Experience is that the sickness could be Mittelwerk’s virus which is designed to kill 30% of the world’s population. However, considering time differences I’m not sure about this. Maybe the sickness was the base for the virus…
And now for something completely different
As a last note, there was a somewhat unrelated but still interesting thing said in “Solitary”. When Sayid asks Rousseau about her transmission she answers:
“It is broadcast from somewhere else, but they control it now.”
If “they” are The Others, how can they be in control of the transmitter now but not have been so when Rousseau changed the transmission into her call for distress? Does this mean that The Others came to the island after Rousseau or that they didn’t know about the transmitter?
LostBlog.net 
i like this idea of other others. i keep thinking about the season 2 episode when jin and eko went after michael. they hid in the bushes when the others came. these others were dirty ragged ones, (we only saw their feet but they appeared very zombie-like to me (and remember one of the fake script pages on the main LOST site had michael fighting zombies)) and the child’s teddy bear was roped? impaled on a stick i think. from the bushes jin and eko seemed very unsettled
this scene has never struck me as matching what we know of the ‘ben others’ there werent ragged like that, they dont imaple stuffed animals. or engender that sort of fear.
i think that here may be a 3rd party, the ones who really do do midnight kidnappings and have seemingly extrahuman strength/reflexes.
good point todd, I’ve been wondering about that scene and these ‘lost boy’ Others. One thing though — Ethan seemed to have extra-human strength/reflexes, and did midnight kidnappings, but he was seen living and working with Ben’s group…?
Todd, Ethan seemed to have superhuman strength and he was part of Ben’s Others so I’m not sure…
This is a minor spoiler but Damon has said that there are “other others” on the island. This might mean that there are other characters among Ben’s Others we have not yet seen or that there is a completely different group altogether.
Maybe the “other Others” are in fact the ones who walk without making a sound, and maybe they were Dharma scientists who were infected by the sickness?
great thought! and, didn’t she say that ben couldn’t be trusted? that he tells lies? she said this, i think, when he was captured in the net. i’ve wondered if that meant she knows him. and if so, this idea holds up becuase she would either be someone who doesn’t trust any of them, or someone who is rebelling against ben’s others.
One note…Hazmat suits won’t protect anyone or anything from an electromagnetic anomaly. Not designed to do so.
I think the virus theory is spot on. How about this: The other others were test subjects that were exposed to the Mittlework virus and the stations were set up to observe them for afar to judge the social ramifications of illness and eventual death. Somehow the test subjects figured out what was going on and escaped with the clothes on their backs (sans shoes?) taking control of parts of the island from The Others. Perhaps a side effect of the virus is that besides not everyone dying (only 30%) those that don’t die have some genetic code flip that gives them some special ability (cure ailment, superhuman strength, clairvoyance, telepathy, etc.). …Maybe a long shot theory but I’ve heard worse!
Could the others know so much about our beloved castaways because one of them has telepathic abilities? It is the one thing that seems to make sense…the rest is just trying to put pieces together in a puzzle where not all the pieces are yet presented
Aside from being cool and making good points, this post reminds me of just how much i forgot about.
We need answers! 🙂
[quote comment=”11760″]One note…Hazmat suits won’t protect anyone or anything from an electromagnetic anomaly. Not designed to do so.[/quote]
Hehe alright, I’ll admit that I was getting a bit carried away! Isn’t it possible that the suits were Radiation Protecting Suits which protected from electromagnetic radiation?
If they were none of the above, then why did Dharma keep the suits?
I wonder if Rousseau’s “science expedition” was more of a containment strike force accompanied by military personel (ie kelvin’s responsibilites with the cia). Maybe some knew they were going to run aground there and were told by mittlework to do so, because you just dont go following random signals or beacons out in the middle of an ocean. Rousseau just seems too know weapons and tactics, demolision, trapping, and interigation meathods a little too well for a novice. She had to have been trained. Probably not prier to getting to the island, but soon after getting there. Possibly by kelvin himself or someone from the team. They probably encountered one of the others soon after arriving and interogated them the same way rousseau interogated sayid. Maybe her team was sent there for recon, but were really more test subjects for ben and his crew. its always seemed like we havent gotten the full story on her though. i think we’ll learn more later on. i wouldnt be suprised if she pops up in a juliet or other flashback.
What ever the case, i do feel its important to review season 1 and not forget the past which has lead us to the point we are at now.
Those who control the past,control the present,those who control the present,control the Future.
When was the last time we saw Rousseau anyway?
[quote comment=”11831″]Rousseau…[/quote]
Rousseau: “It took them, one after the other. I had no choice, they where already lost.â€
What if “lost” is a euphemism for sick or dead or “affected” by whatever agent(s) or mechanisms that are at work on the island?
I agree Rita, in that context “lost” probably means that they were lost to the sickness. They were beyond salvation.
I think that the Other others have to be connected to Ben’s others in some way. When Ben sent Ethan off to meet the plane crash survivors, he told him to make lists. And the other others who carried everyone off into the woods had a list that Anna Lucia found? *shrug* just what I was thinking at least.
all i can say is this , we all know that her child was taken shortly after given birth,
another point she knew ben is a liar, so she knows about ben,
im unclear if she knew about the projuects, or was she meant too re place the old dharma sciencest, or is just the mangets pulling them in., like desmond was. she said about the sickness, THE VIRUS.
another point, kelvin, had a RIP in his suit which DEZ saw and asked about. hmm another thing for us to think about. LOL. ill stop here before im banned.
I really want to see Rousseau again. Episodes with her always prove to be interesting. Jack should have listened to her when she said Ben was an other. Stupid Jack.
[quote comment=”11730″]good point todd, I’ve been wondering about that scene and these ‘lost boy’ Others. One thing though — Ethan seemed to have extra-human strength/reflexes, and did midnight kidnappings, but he was seen living and working with Ben’s group…?[/quote]
Why did Ethan have superhuman strenth? Why DIDN’T Goodwin have the same? Or did he? Since these two Others were ordered to rendezvous with the 2 plane sections obviously they belonged to Bens Others. Here is something else, we have only been shown one group of Others. If there truly is another group maybe Locke and friends will encounter them on the journey to get Jack, Kate and Sawyer back. Or maybe there isn’t another group and Ben is manipulating the Losties into believing there is by masquerading his minions. Or what if Rousseau is the leader of the other Others and keeps the Losties away from them for fear of losing control to the chaos all around the island?
[quote comment=”13124″]I really want to see Rousseau again. Episodes with her always prove to be interesting. Jack should have listened to her when she said Ben was an other. Stupid Jack.[/quote]
i think she told syrid
Yeah, I’ve played Command and Conquer, too.
I think ye should all wait to the end to see what actually happens!!!
[quote comment=”13272″]Yeah, I’ve played Command and Conquer, too.[/quote]
What the heck are you talking about?
Just a couple of comments…
Do you think that the “aquarium hatch” that Jack has been kept in connects the two islands?
Maybe Jacob is the name of the woman who originally gave the list to Michael.
Alex is one of the “good guys”, but we found out that she doesn’t trust many of the others except Ben. Hmmmm?
to Deb:
1)I, for one, do think the islands are connected thru the caves that the polar bears are living in currently(where eko was taken).
2)The name of the woman that gave Micheal the list and interigated him is Bea Klugh. Jacob is probably the “HIM” we have been hearing about for two years. They love to throw little things like that at us in a finale or before a long break. Something for us to think about and speculate for three months.
3)As far as Alex being good or bad that remains to be seen. She must have had a falling out with the “Others”.
Can the “Others” move silently about the island using secret tunnels? This would explain the fact that if they truly are on another island, they got there without a boat. ie; Michael was giving the power boat and Ben really, really wanted the sailboat. Seems to me if they had boats, they would have just wanted the survivors boat sunk.
skipper wrote that the others might use the caves to move about the island…
….ooh that might explain the “whispers” too.
As they move through the caves (trying to be silent) their voices carry out to the jungle.
I think there are two types of others sane and insane. The sane others are ovcourse bens group, but they’re linked with the other group. The insane ones are the pirate guys group, and possibly they live underground, under the water where Sayid found the electric cable going into the sea.
Also remember when Claire and Charlie got kidnapped, well Bens others say that they don’t harm anyone and keep questioning saying that are we really the bad guys? Well Eathen wich was with Bens group left Charlie to die. I think he was infected by the virus and started to convert into the other others.
Ana-Lucia when talking to Goodwin looked at his knife and after examining it she says something like its an 1970’s army knife. Also Rousseau been on the island for over 20 years or so because of her radio signal, and her child Alex. Which means that the other others may be linked to her and some members could be from the 1970’s army, like that pirate guy looking into the camera.
When you talk about the virus, I remember Charlie giving some injections to Claire and the baby saying that they will protect him (the baby), but Desmond says that you shouldn’t bother with that.
I think the last few episodes of season 3 will see the return of Rousseau, because she will probably meet up with Alex. And from this we will discover more of the plot. Also I’ve got a feeling that the guy on the Dharma films is alive, or more movies will be shown.
[quote comment=”14071″][quote comment=”13272″]Yeah, I’ve played Command and Conquer, too.[/quote]
What the heck are you talking about?[/quote]
[quote comment=”11941″]Those who control the past,control the present,those who control the present,control the Future.[/quote]
This is a Qoute from the opening scene of command and conquer: red alert(i forget where it originally came from. some author, but c&c is what i always remember it from). For some reason i the comment and quote thing was working that day. Sorry to get off topic drea. I was attempting to be funny. Mission: failed, i guess.
KillerR, don’t worry about the off topic thing, as long as it’s relevant to the discussion I don’t mind. I just didn’t understand what you meant with “I’ve played Command & Conquer too”, hehe.
Thanks for clarifying! I never played Red Alert so I must have missed it =)
Don’t call me drea, I prefer Andreas, Andi or Andy, thanks.
Aren’t there supposed to be at least nine different factions of “others”?
Perhaps they are the stealthy, whispering others who also carry the virus?
Nine different factions? Where did you hear that?
On the LOST: Season 3 Video Podcast 1 podcast:
http://abc.go.com/fsp/index.html?channel=Lost&clip=114441
At 6:48, Carlton Cuse says there are nine factions of the others (Damon Lindelof then confirms it).
Hehe, Damon and Carlton goof around a lot in the podcasts so you can’t take everything they say in them as the truth.
My interpretation of what was said was that Carlton joked about there being nine factions, but Damon confirmed that there are more than one faction (they didn’t say how many). It is possible that the two factions they were referring to are those who are loyal to Ben and those who want change (like Juliet wants Jack to believe).
Ben’s Others and the others that walk through the jungle without sound could also be two different factions.
The answers are more simple than everyone claims. Danielle has been on that island for 16 years and we have proof of this, BECAUSE her transmission has been on a loop and this was identified in the transmission. So we can’t say Danielle could of been lying, unless time passes VERY fast on this island, but i doubt it, the Sun is the sun and people would notice if time passed fast.
There is a great possibility that Danielle is part of Dharma in some way. The virus mittlewerk was working on sounds alot like this virus (BUT, who says the Virus didn’t dissipate and the island cleanse itself over time (because the land does do this constantly, self-cleansing over years) So why wouldn’t this vaccine Kelvin and Desmond took not for the virus or that the suits were not for the virus. I believe it was and now the virus has gone and passed, but of course the Quarantine writing and vaccines and suits will still be there ….
Kelvin was told about the virus when he got there , it was probably still active then.. but when Desmond came (which was just 3 years ago, 13 years after Danielle’s arrival )
This virus was a test, it about 30% OF PEOPLE SICK TO DIE, but 70% will now ward any disease or sickness from those people , (a poor solution to Valenzetti Equation problem Dharma first tackled) It sounds like the virus was a second attempt at saving the world , since they probably failed at changing one of the numerical values of this equation, they believed they could through this virus. Lets just say this was done just a few years before Dharma shutdown and ended all experiences, leaving The Others on the island (probably because were the first group of people this virus was tried on, 30% of them died and now they are into other things, with genetics, probably cause the virus may have altered genetics to accomplish what Dharma called a last chance. After the INCIDENT and other unforeseen (unknown problems) the leaders of Dharma decided this was going to be it, they have killed too many, wasted too much money and all for nothing because they still did not alter the valenzetti equation.
As for the island and its magnetic field, in the experiments conducted in the real Philidelphia experiment and the MOutok experiment, they could actually make something disappear (but leave a very vague shadow of the object) but not disappear completely. The amount of magnetic energy to make an island of that size disappear is actually quite impossible (I love fiction shows) but I believe this is how the island is not visible, people can’t leave it, because of the magnetic pull and people can’t find it, because objects on the other side of the wall are repelled (will be forced around the island and they never even see the island though) This shield is now gone, Penny Widmore with her hired help have found the island and are preparing to travel there. Desmond is a large key to this story, I believe Desmond is clarivoyant and the island HAS inscreased his abilities as well as Walts and such.
The Properties of The “Lost” Island
The lost island (in my eyes is alot like one of the hawaiian islands). It is in reality, but a flight from sydney to LA, flying for a few hours then heading in another direction for 3 hours or so would last that plane about in hawaii.
Plato discussed this possibly lost continent and it was discussed by many years later, he believed that this continent was sunk somewhere near Gibralter (spelling?) and it is said that there was another continent that vanished. This other continent was known to be the lost continent of the pacific (NOT the Atlantic liek Atlantis) The name of this continent was Lemuria. Lemurians were the 3rd civilization on this world and the first two are unknown. Lemurians were a peaceful people, they tried to remain humble which shouldn’t of been too hard considering all the benefits they had. The continent, their land was special, a special part of the world as there are many. This continent had natural energies, it has been seen in movies about atlantis or lemuria having powers, and usually what supplied these powers were jewels or gems, very large ones. This is most likely fiction, but I don’t think the energies are fiction and I believe some places in the world are like this. Bernard brought Rose to australia to be healed, now Australia has many PARTS of it that have similar properties, healing ones, energy that strengthen psychics, para-psychics, telekinesis, telepathy, etc. The early peoples of earth were not like the year peoples of today. The early people of today would be like settlers of the 17th century. The early people of the world are the Lemurians, Atlanteans, Aztecs, Mayans, Eqyptians (start to get into todays world). These early peoples did not put down the female, they actually had great respect for both sexes and many females were the best psychics, were more ethereal than men, (more with the power of the mind than men). Egyptian had priestesses for talking with God and such many other things.
What I am trying to explain is that the island has these energies and has for a very very very very long time, hence the four-toed statue. But, NOT ALL parts of the island has these energies and some parts have different energies than others. The area near the hatch, the losties area on the beach, has strong healing powers, both for seen and unseen sicknesses. The swan hatch was placed in that location for that specific reason, they were experimenting with electromagnetics in relation to the islands natural energies to try and change one of the numerical values of this valenzetti equation. When you watch the Swan orientation video, Mr. Candle mentions that this station focuses on THIS area of the island (not in those words).
The smoke monster is apparently and unfortunately a side effect of this experiementation of the swan with the natural energies. I believe its physical manifestation of the psychic energies mixed with the electromagnetic leaks from the swan station (a leak was mentioned about the INCIDENT) and fused together with the ongoing electromagnetic discharges and such each 108 minutes. This is why it can read people’s minds and how it can take forms and be gaseous (electro magnetic particles). I don’t think the smoke monster is controlled directly, maybe indirectly associated with the Flame station , Flame = Smoke.
The island has a tunnel system under it, with Vents that the smoke monster uses to move around the island. This tunnel system is the very system that Locke would have been pulled into if Jack and Kate didn’t save the day in that episode.
Desmond’s exposure to the island has increased his pschic abilities, but it didn’t appear to do so in the Hatch! The electromagnetic fields of the hatch drown out the the more natural energies and this is why Desmond is increasing his abilities much more quickly (result of the overly large discharge of a huge amount of electromagnetic build up) All these energies on the island affect each other and show side-effects of the losties.
To finish off, Dharma new about these energies and new it would be a perfect spot to have the best chance at changing these numerical values to change the future of the planet. They researched built hatches and started with the experiements to create the island of Lost that we know today.