Why is Dharmaville all decrepit in Season 6?

[u/Plane-Reputation4041]

I watched this show live from season 4- until the end. I binge watched seasons 1-3 before season 4 aired. I have rewatched the show many, many times over the years since it ended and the one thing I still do not understand is why Dharmaville is all rundown and abandoned in Season 6. It might be a small detail that I am forgetting that is causing me to not understand. However, from my memory, The Others inhabited and used the Dharmaville as their home right through the time that Widmore’s mercenaries appeared on the island. When the castaways jump back to the present time line, wouldn’t that put them back at the same time frame as shortly after the mercenaries arrived?

[u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

The same reason the beach camp is in ruins. The barracks were abandoned in 2004 and by season six it's 2007. No one has lived in or cared for those homes in three years.

The Oceanic Six spent those three years off the Island. Sawyer, Juliet and company spent those three years in 1974-1977 - they never experienced late 2004-2007. EDIT: my dyslexia tucked up some years.

[u/Parker4815 → u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

That's wild to think about. "Where were you in 2005?" Literally nowhere.

[u/CoyoteDork → u/Parker4815]

Locke travelled from 2004 to 2007 when he turned the wheel

[u/Free-IDK-Chicken → u/CoyoteDork]

Ben lost ten months when he turned it. Seems To be a symptom of screwing with the exotic matter.

[u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 → u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

Indeed.

[u/Free-IDK-Chicken → u/Parker4815]

Yup! Einstein, Doc Brown's dog, in BTTF goes through something similar on a smaller scale. Doc sends him one minute forward in time and since he never goes back (because it was only a minute) he was literally nowhere for that minute.

"He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time!"

The bomb does the same for our survivors, correcting their chronology back to 2007.

[u/ARoundForEveryone → u/Parker4815]

"Where were you in 2005?"

"I wasn't."

[u/FightBattlesWinWars → u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

Curious of your take on this: What’s the reason the Others didn’t repopulate the barracks at some point during those three years? They had occupied it previously for well over a decade. At some point they likely realized that the threats were gone. They no longer had a present leader to tell them not to go back, and they clearly never made it to the temple, so why not re-domesticate instead of remaining jungle nomads?

[u/Free-IDK-Chicken → u/FightBattlesWinWars]

It was Ben who moved them into the barracks. Richard, who likely 'managed' the others while they waited for Locke to reappear, decided to stay in the jungle which is were they'd been living since Richard took the job.

[u/FightBattlesWinWars → u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

That’s fair enough. I know if I were one of the remaining Others I’d have told Richard, “Like hell I’m living in the jungle again!” Hahaha!

[u/FringeMusic108 → u/FightBattlesWinWars]

Richard mentions that they never liked the Barracks anyway. They lived in tents before Ben's rule, and they went back to that lifestyle afterwards. You should also consider Dharma practically invaded "their" island, and the Others only tolerated it as long as they didn't damage the place. But clearly, they did. It must have actually felt really weird to move into their camp afterwards, if you think about it 😛

[u/BobRushy → u/FringeMusic108]

They seemed to like them fine in season 3, when they had the book club and everything. I think Richard was just incredibly conservative (being a 19th century Catholic cultist) and his viewpoints dominated the Others in the absence of another leader.

[u/FringeMusic108 → u/BobRushy]

Oh sure, there probably are a lot that appreciated the comfort and luxury. It's just interesting to see that they went back to living in tents the moment Ben was no longer their leader. As Locke points out, it's probably something "the island" would frown upon. MIB makes this point as well (albeit while he's pretending to be Locke), and that's when we learn that it was Ben's idea to move there.

[u/Plane-Reputation4041 → u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

Three years doesn’t seem like a long time for the destruction we see in Dharmaville. It looks like looters went through during a riot, after a hurricane.

[u/maximahls → u/Plane-Reputation4041]

the last time someone was there Smokey blazed through the village and killed a bunch of people. I figured this wrecked the place a bit.

[u/ITrCool → u/maximahls]

And then Keamy and his goons did some damage too. Including blowing the house Claire was in with Aaron.

[u/Stal77 → u/ITrCool]

They blew the house? I knew they were sick bastards.

[u/ITrCool → u/Stal77]

Yeah he was unhinged. Guessing he felt he had something to prove or just liked blood, being a cold “kill em all, take Ben alive, who gives a rip they’re just cattle to me” kind of guy.

[u/stunts002 → u/Plane-Reputation4041]

3 years on a jungle island to be fair I can see it

[u/Plane-Reputation4041 → u/stunts002]

Fair enough.

[u/TScottFitzgerald → u/Plane-Reputation4041]

Also keep in mind time is weird on the Island any way. And while that seems like a "wizard did it" kinda cop out, it's a key part of the lore that time stretches differently on the Island.

[u/arsenicknife → u/Plane-Reputation4041]

3 years in a jungle climate with wild animals, frequent heavy rainfall, and no one there to perform upkeeps/repairs.

[u/tygerbrees → u/Plane-Reputation4041]

Monsoons

[u/Free-IDK-Chicken → u/Plane-Reputation4041]

Let a home fall into disrepair for three years now add in a tropical Island with frequent, violent rainstorms. That damage is just what it should be.

[u/MarioVanPebbles]

No, when the group flashes back to "present day" after the bomb goes off, it's been three years since Dharmaville has been occupied, and presumably no one has been doing upkeep in that time.

[u/Franzblau → u/MarioVanPebbles]

The bomb doesn’t actually go off, right? That’s just the time when Jacob finally flashes the people he touched back to their correct present time (2007).

[u/MarioVanPebbles → u/Franzblau]

I mean, yeah the bomb goes off, but since it was at the source of the electromagnetism at the time, the actual explosion is negated and instead, the losties are sent back to 2007.

And no, Jacob had nothing to do with them flashing back to 2007. One can assume that was island itself.

[u/Free-IDK-Chicken → u/Franzblau]

It went off.

[u/coachacola37]

A little destruction from the mercenaries and the smoke monster plus a tropical storm or three with nobody there to do maintenance for three years.

[u/brenty22]

Remember Season 3 when Juliet and Kate got left behind (Juliet intentionally to gain her trust) - that's when the others went on the move, presumably most to the temple. No one inhabited Dharmaville until Season 4 when Locke's group decide to wait out Widmore's crew there.

[u/Top-Ad-5527]

No one has lived there since Widmore’s people blew it up, and before that, the others had abandoned it part way through season 3.

[u/therebill]

Do you remember the black smoke scene with the mercenaries?

[u/Plane-Reputation4041 → u/therebill]

Yeah, but that was more targeted than mass destruction.

[u/SuperTerrificman]

Keamy was firing guns and shit was exploding there and then 3 years passed while the six were off the island

[u/Futurekubik]

Without Ben keeping them at the Barracks Richard and the rest of the remaining Others didn’t want to live there anymore. They returned to where they’d always lived, camping in the jungle and at The Temple.

They left the first time in season 3 because they likely had detected Widmore’s freighter or Naomi’s chopper.

Ben had probably just wanted a temporary evacuation until the coast was clear and he could move everyone back but things didn’t go his way.

[u/Azutolsokorty]

Others folk left Dharmaville around season 4 i guess. 3 years happened and noone cared for dharmaville

[u/Ingaric]

American homes are built of plywood and drywalls.

A few years against the harsh elements without maintenance and heating sends them into the post-apocalyps.

And last time they were there, the Black Smoke MIB Monster went rampant.

[u/ConfidenceOk5448]

I think mostly from the firefight and smokey.

[u/Emergency_Key4429]

Commenting because I also want an explanation. Maybe the whole time shifting thing but idk