minkowski and brandon left the freighter to check out the island and then they both suffered from jumps in time/consciousness. and then they died. i am if the mind that this is the "sickness" that danielle said her teammates experienced, and why she had to kill them.

according to the translation shannon made from danielle's french transmission call for help - from the radio tower - "brandon has the keys". danielle recorded that transmission 12* years before the oceanic crash. what are the keys? is this the same brandon as minkowsi's dead shipmate? if so, then how long has the freighter been out there?

this could really complicate the time differential but is a delightful riddle.

(*oops i mean, 16 years!)

About ten or twelve minutes from the end of this episode, the name Brendan is mentioned on the freighter. My mind instantly went to Danielle's transmission in which she said something like "Brendan is outside and he has the keys". Could the mention of this name be a clue? Do any of you think it's possible that this freighter is actually Danielle's ship somehow moving around through time? Could that mean that one of the men we have met is Alex's father?

No

Danielle has been on the island for years before the freighter arrived.

Going through the barrier does not make your body travel back in time, only your mind.

No

Danielle has been on the island for years before the freighter arrived.

Going through the barrier does not make your body travel back in time, only your mind.


There are two kinds of time travel shown in this episode.
1) Desmond and Minkowski's conscious travels- Desmond's a "side effect" of being slightly off the bearing the helicopter was supposed to take AND having exposure to electromagnetism. Minkowski's not yet explained- but something to do with the travel with Brendon.
2) Everyone in the helicopter took a 20 minute ride to the freighter which from the islands perception took 1 and a half days. Sayid said "why did we take off at dusk and arrive at dawn".

2 might not be an actual travel through time but just a strange property of the island, i don't know but there's an example I can't stop thinking about is how do you explain Richard Alpert talking to Ben when he was a boy and then decades later appearing to not have aged at all. We know he's been on and off the island- he was off the island when 815 crashed and Ben told him to "get back to the island because they will be having visitors soon". He also helped recruit Juliet and gave her the tranquilizer before they traveled in.

That's because there is two things you have to separate:

1) Time shift

2) The casimir effect

Others experience the first one (Desmond, Minkowski, Eloise..), others the latter (for example Ben).

i thought about it further and decided the freighter ain't danielle's ship. she said their ship crashed. the frieghter is ok. though it might have been one of the dinghies, like minkowski and brandon took to see the island. but i think that'd be stretching it. what i am now considering is whether danielle's team is/was affiliated with the same 'big bad' that is connected to abbadon, and/or directing the freighties mission.

when I saw the title of this thread I straight away thought NO!

Then I read what you wrote and thought hhmm maybe it could be!

But now i'm back to thinking NO!

I was waiting for a thread like this to address the difference in 'perceived' time passage on the island. The scene on the beach when Jack is waiting for the helicopter passengers to call gives us a few variables in the equation. My numbers are not concrete, but if we can use 1 day on the island equalling 30 minutes in 'reality', then
we can truly get an accurate sense of the perceived time difference. Again, I'm guesstimating numbers based on the beach scene.

1 day on the island = 30 minutes in reality
48 days on the island = 1 day in reality
1 year on the island = 7.6 days in reality
16 years on the island = 121.66 days in reality

My math may be off, so forgive me. However, it is entirely possible that "Danielle's Ship" and the freighter are the same vessel. In reality, the freighter could be floating out there for 4 months (possibly), trying to find a safe route to the island to capture Ben. They witness the 815 crash, call their employers who then realize that this 'secret research mission' has been comprised, and send in Naomi and friends to extract any survivors so they can continue their 'evil plan' mwaahhhhaaahhhhaahhh!!

A stretch? Maybe so, but everything's a stretch these days, and anything's plausible here.
100%
Actually, this could also explain Richard's amazing anti-aging abilities...
Could this also be a reason for unsuccessful pregnancies on the island?

I don't think that would have been Danielle's boat because didn't she says that everyone on the ship went to the island to research? or something like that. It was also sixteen years ago. Besides the crew member don't look french

I don't think its her ship but the organization behind the freighter could have sent Danielle's team to the island. The freighter group seems to have been looking for the island for a long time. 16 years ago they could have sent a smaller vessel and crew to the island and after they were lost they (the freighter organization) decided to send a larger vessel with more people.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it's possible. Danielle's ship found the island by following the transmission of the numbers; but the transmission of the numbers were stopped 16 years ago. So that's not how the freighter ship found the island. Danielle's ship also sailed out of Tahiti, whereas the freighter sailed out of Fiji.

Interesting idea, but I think it's one of those cases where the viewer's idea is more clever than what the writers have in mind.