- In the Orientation Film, Dr. Marvin Candle mentions there was "an incident" which resulted in the creation of a protocol that requires a code to be entered every 108 minutes.
- It is unknown what the incident was.
- We find out in "What Kate Did" that using the computer for anything other than entering the code, communication with the outside world is specifically mentioned, will compromise the integrity of the project and could result in another incident.
- The incident that the Orientation Film mentions occured prior to 1980 (when the film was supposedly made).
- The map on the Blast Door says "Caduceus station believed to have been abandoned due to AH/MDG incident of 1985 or possible catastrophic malfunction of Cerberus system."
- There is some dispute if the map says Caduceus station or Cerberus station. Given it's position on the map next to the Caduceus station, the prevailing thought is Caduceus is the correct interpetation.
- This incident occurred in 1985. If the Orientation Film was made prior to 1980, this would mean there were at least two incidents.
- The map on the Blast Door says "possible CV II inactive since accident." Many believe that this accident is a reference to the Incident.
Theories
- AH/MDG incident of 1985 seems to stand for (AH/MDG = Alvar Hanso/Mr(?)DeGroot) wich could be the cause of their death on the island.
- It is possible that no incident actually occured and that it is merely a story that masks a larger experiment (see B.F. Skinner).
- The incident was how Marvin Candle and Ray Mullen lost their arms, left and right respectively. Being opposite arms could be because they were around a display or control system, such as the computer.
- The incident was a meteorite crash caused by the magnetic effects of the island (or whatever attracted the planes and ships, see the Crashes). A possible reason to believe this is the appearance of "la cratere" (or 'the crater' in French) on one of Rousseau's maps. It also makes more sense that it's an actual crater versus an installation (eg. a hatch) named 'The Crater' since Rousseau wouldn't easily have a way of knowing what a hatch was called. However, it should be noted that the Island, filmed in Hawaii, appears to have been formed by volcation action, and dormant volcanoes -- as in Hawaii -- are notable for their massive craters.
- Although this theory does not explain the repercussions of the crash, only that something happened as a result of this incident (ie. a substance being worked on, became contaminated or ended up being spread to the scientists working on it... see The Sickness).
- The idea that there was more than one incident is backed up by the fact that INCIDENT is written twice on the Blast Door map.
- It is possible that the incident referred to is "The Crisis" featured in the DC comics Linear Men storyline.In their investigations, the Linear Men discovered records of a cataclysmic event so great that space-time completely reoriented itself. The universe, formed as one, had been split into many parallel universes, each distinct, occupying the same space and time but with their atoms and subatomic particles vibrating out of phase with each other. Large-scale objects, like planets and stars, tended to coexist. For instance, each vibratory plane contained an Earth, but history varied from plane to plane.
- 'The Incident' might be just a red herring; a fallacy that introduces an irrelevant issue to divert attention from the subject under discussion. The following example demonstrates a red herring related to another incident that remained unexplained for the entire duration of a series.
Paraphrased from the TV show, Cheers:
REBECCA: Woody, could you watch my cat?
WOODY: Sure, Ms. Howe. I've always been great with animals. At least, until... the Incident.
REBECCA: Never mind.
FRASER: Woody, would you babysit my son?
WOODY: Sure. In Hannover, people used to have me babysit for them all the time. At least, until... the Incident.
FRASER: Never mind.
NORM: Woody, that's amazing! You can get out of doing anything! That's brilliant!
WOODY: Yeah. I wish I'd thought of that before the Incident.