What went wrong? The Oceanic 6 were not supposed to leave the island and now, if they don’t go back and “course correct” something bad is going to happen. But Faraday says time is a string and you can’t change things; if it didn’t happen, it won’t happen. Soooo, if they weren’t suppose to leave, 1. Why could they and 2. Why isn’t there a normal course correction that does not involve the 70-hour to get them back drama?
Here is what I think. Something catastrophic happened on the island – something we have seen – that disrupted the normal time flow policy and allowed the Oceanic 6 to leave when they were not suppose to (it didn’t/won’t happen in the normal line). The rules got changed by some event. But what was it? Desmond not pushing the button and the plane crashing? I don’t think so because they O6 are suppose to be there. Keemy killing Ben’s daughter – Ben said Widmore change the rules then. Dharma messing with time travel when they didn’t fully understand it. I think it was Locke not pushing the button, leading to the failsafe and the flash that allowed Widmore to find the island (and kill Alex). If the boat had not come, they couldn’t have left.
Other thoughts?

This is a great question in light of the raging "can't change the past"-destiny-time travel discussions.

We know what happened when the button was pushed late. We know what happened when the donkey wheel was turned. We sort of know what happened every time the Swan button was pushed.

What we don't know is why all that electromagnetism was dammed up and a little was released every 108 minutes. We also don't know the ramifications of blowing up the damn.

I'm with you. My money is on the failsafe.

What went wrong? The Oceanic 6 were not supposed to leave the island and now, if they don’t go back and “course correct” something bad is going to happen. But Faraday says time is a string and you can’t change things; if it didn’t happen, it won’t happen. Soooo, if they weren’t suppose to leave, 1. Why could they and 2. Why isn’t there a normal course correction that does not involve the 70-hour to get them back drama?
Here is what I think. Something catastrophic happened on the island – something we have seen – that disrupted the normal time flow policy and allowed the Oceanic 6 to leave when they were not suppose to (it didn’t/won’t happen in the normal line). The rules got changed by some event. But what was it? Desmond not pushing the button and the plane crashing? I don’t think so because they O6 are suppose to be there. Keemy killing Ben’s daughter – Ben said Widmore change the rules then. Dharma messing with time travel when they didn’t fully understand it. I think it was Locke not pushing the button, leading to the failsafe and the flash that allowed Widmore to find the island (and kill Alex). If the boat had not come, they couldn’t have left.
Other thoughts?


Not trying to correct you, but I believe Faraday said "time is a street, you can go forward on that street, and reverse on that street, but you can't ever create a new street, because you will always fail."