Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 5:23 pm
You might be right. Did the fallout also prevent pregnancy?
Well, sort of. If the explosion changes things like Jack hoped, then there had to be a "time flash" to cover the paradox event. But if the detonation was a mere fulfillment of the time stream, then there may or may not have been a time flash. But as you say, moving the Losties out of that time, and harm's way, would explain Richard's immediate reply.wayfriend wrote:I vote for time flash and atomic explosion both.
Because future Richard/Ricardus said that everyone in the photo was dead.
I think that the finale provides an opportunity for everyone in '77 to be moved back into their proper time, in such a away that everyone assumes that they must have died in the atomic blast. Including '77 Richard.
When Richard looked at that photo, he didn't ponder each person individually to remember if they were alive or dead. He just knew, immediately, that the were all dead. This speaks to my mind of some cataclysmic event in the past where everyone dies. As soon as Richard recognized them, he immediately knew that they all were dead.
Also, an atomic blast provides just the kind of radioactive fallout that caused everyone to fear going outside without radiation-proof suits, exactly as we have seen Desmond and some others believe prior to the plane crash. Of course, at a certain point it was a farce, but it must have been a farce that originated with a truth - the island would have been radioactively contaminated for some time after '77 if there was an atomic explosion.
Heck, they can't all be dead. Of all the originals, that would leave Sun.