Blast door map/Theories

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Theories about Blast door map

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Theories may be removed if ...

Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Please note that each of the sub-articles related to the map have a theory and commentary section dedicated to that subject. This area is intended to speak to general theories about the origins or purpose of the map itself.

• Near the bottom of the map there is a notation that says Fatalities: 5. This could be a reference to Rousseau's crew, a six-person crew, five of whom died. Kelvin was around at this time, and Radzinsky could have been as well. This would mean that Kelvin or Radzinsky were somehow involved in the crew's death, or at least witnesses to it.
• On the map there are eight crosses. These crosses could mark the blocked passageways which lead to the ? in the center, and protect the outside from whatever is in there. We have already seen the concrete filled passage in the Swan. However, they can be only the entrances to the hatches, in The Swan, for example, there are three entrances: the main entrance, the hatch from which Locke first entered and the concrete filled passage leading to another, smaller ? in the map than the center's one, so Radzinsky and Kelvin could know something about the filled passage.
• A strange thing however is, that the notes on the map sound more like planning notes (e.g. "not a suitable place for...not safe place for...") It may be that the map was not (or not entirely) made by previous inhabitants, or is partially derived from another map?
  • Radzinsky had a photographic memory, and the map was his idea in the first place. The map may have been a recreation of one he saw/memorized beforehand.
• The crossed-out hatch in the upper left is the fake hatch that Sayid found. Perhaps it was added to the map and crossed out after the mapmaker found out it led nowhere.
• Ben purposely showed Locke the map, by turning on the black light while in the room with the computer. It was his gift to Locke for trusting him. The black light never came on at other times the blast door was down.
  • There is no indication that Ben knew about the map. The reason the black light came on has do to with whatever Ben did to stop the countdown.
    • It is more likely that Ben did know about the map from the Dharma Initiative, and turned it on as part of the whole plan.
      • If Ben did know how to turn on the light from DHARMA then why Radzinsky didn't?
• Some of the station locations on the map have dotted outlines whilst others have unbroken outlines. It seems likely that the dotted outlines are stations the map drawer never visited himself/herself, as only the dotted lined stations have no name whereas stations actually identified like The Flame are fully outlined. This would mean that the map drawer never went to the "?", the 'aborted' station, or the Eastern stations.
  • This could also mean that the emphasis on the "?" in the center could be overstated. Considering the dotted outline, the map drawer may have simply seen the "?" outline in the ground and considered this highly significant. Thus, the center "?" could still be the Pearl station, with its importance compared to other hatches just marginalized by its exterior.
    • The Pearl's importance is probably significantly larger not only because of its exterior but because of its purpose (to watch subjects in the Swan who are in a mind experiment).
  • According to the map there is an unusually high number of DharmaTel relays in that area. Possibly for communication between all the huts and the rest of the island.
  • If "you could probably make that shore in an hour" then the tail section obviously fell much closer to the Barracks then the fuselage which would be consistent with the Tailies finding The Arrow and the rest of the Losties finding The Swan.
    • The Others could reach that shore much faster by taking a boat part of the way.
• The upper right of the map may actually show the second island, brought closer to the first island in order to fit on the blast door.
• Notice that all the known stations are under the ground. These are displayed as a full line. Maybe above ground stations are those with the dotted line. This might be proven by the fact that the barracks are approximately located near C3 or even is C3.
  • The Flame, which we have seen to be mostly above ground, is drawn with a solid line...
• The nature of some of the notations indicate that they were not painted on with detergent. Notice the circles drawn around the red "I AM HERE." note. These were most likely drawn with a marker or pen, as there would be many more visible breaks if they had been painted on in short strokes.
• Note that the writing near the Staff saying "It's a bad plan that can't be changed" might refer to the fact that the Others are trying to help the women's bodies not turn on their pregnancies, but it is a bad plan because the pregnancies keep failing, and it cannot be changed because Jacob or someone else doesn't want the research to stop. "It's a bad plan that can't be changed" more likely means that if a plan can't be changed when it's not working, it's a bad plan.
• The station labeled "Subterranean Conduit" is the "Underworld."
• The map is upside-down geographically. Ben's maps show the Barracks as being south of the Pearl. As the blast door map is laid out, Locke and Eko would have encountered the Barracks on their way to the Pearl.
• This map was created by Radzinsky before the purge (around 1988). It was part of the planning for the purge. And of course, it was kept hidden from Dharma personel, and even if the blast door came down, an added security feature, the black light, was needed to view it. It seems apparent to me that the different teams of Dharma personal never had TOTAL access to the whole Island, or complete knowledge of all that was happening on the Island. Radzinsky (and some other Dharma employees, such as Ben), where planning the purge, and this map represents their effort of documenting the Islands operations. That is why certain items on the map appear in the form of a question, or displayed with limited information.

Stations on the map

• Swan
• Flame
• Staff
• Orchid (its very likely they knew about it )
• Arrow
• Tempest (they knew about it because its very dangerous)
• Electricity Station (they new because the knew there was a station that produced electricity)
• And the Pearl in the center.

Bagua Map Theory

When overlaying both a bagua image, and the map seen in Lockedown by arranging the Flame station, with the Fire labeled section of the bagua symbol, many other themes set the same. For instance The Staff Station , is labeled "Mother", the area of the "Swan" is labeled "Family/Past", and also other sections like "Spirtiuality",which lay other the pearl stations area, may be linked to when Locke saw the message on Eko's stick or may be linked to the Temple, and other sections like creativity, carreer, children and future may line up with The Others' Barracks. And finally the Yin-yang sign lines up with the ?, suggesting that the ? may be a place of a mixture of energies, possibly "The Line" in the jungle. As well as all this the bagua map includes compass bearings (North South East and West) and possibly the area which holds the 3 broken lines (☷) may be the way to exit the island, in the same context the station with the white belt on its logo, which strangly looks like a "No entery sign", may mean that that directions isn't the way off the island, this has 3 solid lines on the Bagua map (☰). Notice as well how the west and east directions are inverted much like on The Maxwell Groups, logo. Also in many of the Wizard of Oz books, the East and West positions are inverted; we know that this book is a popular theme in the show, and might have offered inspiration to the writers.

The Bagua Map

The Bagua map overlayed with the Lockedown map