So What Exactly IS the Plan for the Bomb?

[kjenkins]

What exactly is Daniel's plan for the bomb .... light fuse "at just the right time" ... then --- RUN LIKE HELL!!!!
How does that work?

[Jungle Otter]

Set a timer?? Good question as the blast would most likely consume the island


Run away!! Run away!!! 

[TheBrightandTheDark]

Well, if the movie Deja Vu is any indication, the people on the island will sacrifice themselves in the bomb-explosion, but they'll really never die if that sets up an alternate timeline because the Swan will never be built and their plane will never crash and they'll never go to the island to be sent back in time and killed in the bomb-explosion. 

[RM]

I don't know.  It seems like what sends people time-jumping is the release of the EM energy.  So when the plan to detonate the bomb fails (like I think it will) and the Swan Incident still happens, I fully expect all of our Losties to time-jump yet again.  (To when, who knows?)

[joshzam]

I expect Jack to accomplish his mission by setting off the detonation close to the source of the electromagnetic radiation under the Swan, and THIS is what later must be contained by pushing the button every 108 minutes. So, in an attempt to prevent the crash of 815, Jack CAUSES it! Whatever happened happened.

[Writers_Strike]

Plan for the bomb:

Step 1. Find the bomb-check
Step 2. Read the journal on what to do next-check
Step 3. Realize you do not have the specialized equipment, firing mechanism, firing sequence or training-check

Give up and become the cause of the incident you were trying to prevent.

[GUTZandRAGE]

I still do not fully understand what they are trying to do. Did Daniel want to detonate the bomb and just wipe out the island completely? Is the H-bomb supposed to counter the electro-magnetic discharge? I mean, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Supposedly the energy was discharged, bad stuff happened, and the Swan station was built to keep it contained. However, Miles' dad seemed pretty surprised when Daniel told him about the possible catastrophe, but we saw that rat-bastard Radzinski already had a model for the Swan.

If the Swan was built to contain a disaster that had not happened, why was it already planned? And how the hell is a huge bomb any better?

This is more of a Michael Bay answer to the problem than that of a scientist. But what can you expect from an egghead who walks into an enemy camp waving a loaded gun?

[Writers_Strike]

Dan said that he could negate the energy from the incident with the H-bomb. Or something along those lines I still don't know how that is supposed to work. Now to pull off a Star Trek answer, detonating the bomb will kill off everyone and everything on the island. The DI will never put a swan there and 815 will fly harmlessly over glowing island. All of our time traveling heroes, dead 815'rs, Henry Gale, Russoes team, crazy guy who told Hurley about numbers and numerous other People affected or killed by the island will go on living their life as if they never went there. OK so a few DI and others will be vaporized and killed off, they were going to die in '92 anyways. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

[BobBX542]

The bomb would not kill everyone on the island, expecially if it's underground.

Best example as far as I can tell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp6aZIhHiRE

Many more I'm sure to follow on here.
http://www.google.com/search?q=underground+Hydrogen+bomb+test&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

As far as lighting the fuse at "just the right time", I don't think that's going to matter really. The only deadline they have in 1977 is before the D.I. drills into the electromagnetic energy (so far). So, as long as they get there and set it off at all, they're good.

[ukslim]

I think (as far as Jack and maybe Sayid are concerned) it's a suicide mission. They die in the blast. But (Jack thinks) it won't matter because "none of this will have happened", so he doesn't really die, he never comes to the island.

I think he's wrong, of course.

[Austruck]

I expect Jack to accomplish his mission by setting off the detonation close to the source of the electromagnetic radiation under the Swan, and THIS is what later must be contained by pushing the button every 108 minutes. So, in an attempt to prevent the crash of 815, Jack CAUSES it! Whatever happened happened.

I really like this explanation, for some reason, and wondered about it myself. Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought of this. 

[LostGirlDeb]

I think (as far as Jack and maybe Sayid are concerned) it's a suicide mission. They die in the blast. But (Jack thinks) it won't matter because "none of this will have happened", so he doesn't really die, he never comes to the island.

I think he's wrong, of course.

well yeah he is wrong because he tells Sayid that Eloise will send them back 30 yrs from now
Doesn't that mean that his plan will not work?  If he never crashes he will never need to be sent back

[BobBX542]

I think (as far as Jack and maybe Sayid are concerned) it's a suicide mission. They die in the blast. But (Jack thinks) it won't matter because "none of this will have happened", so he doesn't really die, he never comes to the island.

I think he's wrong, of course.

well yeah he is wrong because he tells Sayid that Eloise will send them back 30 yrs from now
Doesn't that mean that his plan will not work?  If he never crashes he will never need to be sent back

That was the point of the episode from last week called the variable. It is possible for the 815 survivors to change things, but they have to actually do it first, because it's their present.

Sort of like the time machine idea. I have the idea to make a time machine, and then suddenly, a time machine appears in front of me and I step out of it. Now, did the time machine appear because I had the thought to make it, and in the future, I went back to say that it worked, OR, did I have the thought, and in thirty years I make it and then come back?? It's all about the action or inaction that they do "NOW" that affects the future.

[Writers_Strike]

The bomb would not kill everyone on the island, expecially if it's underground.

Best example as far as I can tell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp6aZIhHiRE

Many more I'm sure to follow on here.
http://www.google.com/search?q=underground+Hydrogen+bomb+test&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

As far as lighting the fuse at "just the right time", I don't think that's going to matter really. The only deadline they have in 1977 is before the D.I. drills into the electromagnetic energy (so far). So, as long as they get there and set it off at all, they're good.

Those bombs were detonated very far below the ground and smaller then Jughead is.

From Wikipedia "Plumbbob Rainier was detonated at 899 ft underground on 19 September 1957. The 1.7 kt explosion was the first to be entirely contained underground, producing no fallout."

Jughead was expected to be 7Mt according to http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php?topic=8459.0
A 1,700 ton explosion at 900 feet produces no ill effects. But a 7,000,000 ton explosion at 50-100 feet will kill everyone on the island.

[ukslim]

That was the point of the episode from last week called the variable. It is possible for the 815 survivors to change things, but they have to actually do it first, because it's their present.

I don't think they can. Dan had the desperate last ditch theory that they could - but my guess is he's wrong.

Partly because it's a literary mainstay - try to beat fate, but you can't.
Partly because I can't see how TPTB can 'undo' all of the facts about the world post 1977 that we've already seen on screen, without it, well, being lame.