The Pearl Logo
A fan-created map of the Pearl from 4815162342.com
This is a fan-created CGI map pf The Pearl hatch. It was posted by user "LockeTight" here at the forum of 4815162342.com
The Pearl is a DHARMA Initiative station, it was discovered by Locke and Mr. Eko who were looking for the questionmark at the center of the Blast Door Map. The purpose of this station is to monitor The Swan station and possibly other stations. The station is one large, octagonal room, in which nine television sets are fed live surveillance pictures. However only one television is still working, receiving a live feed from a camera pointed at the kitchen counter in The Swan station. There appear to be no living quarters for the Pearls personnel, no bathroom, no beds and no cooking facilities. A camera was also notably visible inside the Pearl.
The Pearl Orientation Video
According to The Pearl's Orientation video (dubbed # 3 of 6, indicating The Pearl might be station number 5), the staff of The Pearl live there for three weeks, and monitor the occupants of the other stations in eight hour shifts. After each shift they're taken to barracks via the Pala Ferry. Whenever an observation notebook is filled, they are placed in a pneumatic tube and sent off to what is only described as 'us'. The video is hosted by a man who introduces himself as Dr. Mark Wickman; however, he looks identical to Dr. Marvin Candle from the The Swan's Orientation film with the notable difference that he has no prosthetic arm and is wearing a different attire.
The Monitor Bank
There is a monitor bank consisting nine screens on the far wall of the facility. Each monitor uses dials to operate. The monitors shown had three circular dials each, in a vertical column. The upper two had similar designs, but the lower third dial was quite different and about twice the size. In activating the monitors, Locke used the big dial to turn on screens 1 thru 3 and the upper small dial to turn on screen 7. The monitors are configured in a 3x3 array and numbered, columns first. Screen 7 (upper right) shows the kitchen of The Swan. Screens 1 thru 3 displayed static. Screens 4 thru 6, 8, and 9 were not shown per se, but it may be inferred from Mr. Eko and Locke's gazes and the reflection of light in their eyes that screen 5 displayed the The Pearl's Orientation Video. It should be noted that the Blast Door Map only notes six possible stations with a seventh scratched out. In either case, supposing that all the nine monitors have a particular use, with one used strictly for viewing video tapes, means that either there is more than one camera in at least one of the stations, there exists more than seven stations, or there is an extra monitor on the monitor bank that may or may not have a purpose.
The Computer
There is a computer similar to The Swan's Computer, with the addition of a printer (a Dharma-rebranded Apple ImageWriter II). Locke discovers its screen to be displaying the prompt "Print log? Y/N". Upon entering "Y", the computer's dot matrix printer created the log printout. Upon giving the "Y" command, the computer printed a repeating series of numeric codes, interspersed by the word "accepted", as "41602064:41 accepted 41602086:29 accepted" etc. One theory is that the numbers represent activity on the Swan's Computer, for example representing the time (in hour:minute format) at which the inhabitants of The Swan enter the numbers and press "Execute".
The Chairs
The cigarette on the chairs table
There are two viewing seats each with a table and a magnifying viewing lens mounted on an adjustable arm assembly. Controls on the arms of the chairs seem to be made from spare parts. On the left arm of the left chair, a rocker switch similar to older style power windows can be seen. On the right arm of the right chair, Locke uses a conventional stove dial to un-dim the lights in the room. On the dial these words can be read, starting on the right and moving counterclockwise: "HIGH", "MEDIUM", "WARM", and "OFF". On the table there's also a cigarette and debris that fell from the room's ceiling (this would be consistent with the minor structural damage seen elsewhere in this room). According to the writers the cigarette was still burning when Eko and Locke entered the station.
The Message
There is a pneumatic tube with which messages can be sent to and unknown location. Locke takes his sketch of the Blast Door Map and sends it up through these transport piping.
Photos
The Hatch and the Printer
| http://i1.tinypic.com/xprhv7.gif | http://i3.tinypic.com/xpsrgx.gif |
The Monitors and the Message Tube
  Center monitor #3 |
  Center monitor #5 |
  Message Tube |
Theories
- The Pearl is CIV on the Blast Door Map - and NOT the "?" hatch. The viewing of other stations may connect to the RVS refence on the map (Remote Viewing Station)
- The Pearl is not the huge question mark on the Blast Door Map, because Eko and Locke would have had to travel much farther for that to be right. If you look right about the Swan on the Blast Door Map there is a closer, smaller question mark. This is most likely a red herring to throw them off from the big question mark, which could be to the base of operations for Dharma and the desination for the tubes. Also on the map, to the far right side near CIV "The Pearl?" is written. It is possible that the Pearl's reported location was there but since it's job is to monitor all the other hatches it is actually kept secret right near the Swan. Hidden in plain sight, just as Sawyer hides the guns.
- Yemi warned Mr. Eko that he would encounter "distractions" on his way to the Question Mark. Perhaps the Pearl is one of the distractions.
- The Pearl's Orientation video says that the purpose of the station is to study the occupants of the other stations, and says that these occupants believe that the work they are doing is extremely important. Perhaps the pushing of the button in the hatch is just as Jack said - nothing but an experiment to see if somebody would do it?
- It is very possible that all 9 screens are there to monitor The Swan and that the other 8 cameras are no longer working, as The Arrow and The Staff don't seem to have been used for experiments. It could be thought that the other hatches are for use by The Others and not monitored by The Pearl.
- The people in The Pearl are observed. They are the true experiment. The people in The Swan are really doing an important task by pushing the button.
- Also, the orientation video never makes it perfectly clear where the completed notebooks go once they enter the pneumatic tube. Perhaps The Pearl is just an experiment to see if people would fill notebooks, just like The Swan and The Button are implied to be?
- It could be that The Pearl is the real psychological experiment here. The people in the Swan only have to push a button every 108 minutes, a rather simple job. By contrast, the residents of the Pearl have to document every little thing they do, a much more difficult job.
- The orientation video also doesn't mention the logs. What are the inhabitants supposed to do with them, and do they have any idea what they mean? Perhaps the logs are part of The Pearl experiment.
- Regarding the logs, in The Pearl's Orientation video one of the monitor screens over Mark Wickman's shoulder clearly shows a closeup of someone sitting at a computer similar to the one in The Swan. This implies that all the tasks in all of the stations being observed were related to using the computer, and not just the entry of the numbers in The Swan. Therefore The Pearl's computer could be monitoring the actual completion of all tasks, complementing the observer's notes.
- If the entire eight-digit number to the left of the colon represents only hours, hour 0 works out to 4745 years ago. Because the numbers start with 416020nn, increase up to 41602099, and then wrap to 41602100, this is a logical conclusion.
- The entire eight-digit number to the left of the color is not only hours. It could be more code-like than a time. EG the 1st number (4) means something else (time 0 = 183 years ago). The 1st two numbers (41) could mean something else (time 0 = 69 years ago). The 1st three (416) or four numbers (4160) mean something else (time 0 = 87 days ago).
- The video footage may reveal Michael shooting Libby and Ana-Lucia.
- This may be where the message from "Walt" was sent from.
- The log may also reveal if "Henry Gale" was lying to Locke about not pressing the button during the Lockdown_Incident.
- If this is indeed the case, then it may confirm the existence of hidden passages interconnecting the Hatches, as the only visible entrance to The Pearl was uncovered by Eko and Locke.
- Then again, the others could have brought Walt in the same way Locke and Eko went in, and just closed the door & moved the plane back over it when they left.
- Alternately the video feeds send to The Pearl may also be viewable at another station, as one must assume the video being shot inside The Pearl is being sent somewhere else.
- Additionally if we assume that the lines on the Blast Door Map represent computer network connections then the message from "Walt" could have come directly from C3 or The Flame, or indirectly from anywhere.
- There appears to be damage to this station. Missing panel in roof, loose wires, boulder in room.
- The Swan is supposed to be use to study Electromagnetism. The purpose of the Pearl is to study Psychology?
- Each of the numbers printed on the log increase by 108 minutes (or seconds) eg. 41602064:41 + 1:48 (60+48 = 108) = 41602066:29 This therefore puts forward the possibility that each time the numbers are entered, it is 'accepted'. But for this to be the case, the numbers would have to be entered precisely every 108 minutes, which is not the case due to the 4 minute period available
- This could still be the case, for when the numbers are entered in the 4 minute period, the amount of time remaining in the 108 minute period could be added onto the next, without the inhabitants of the hatch realising (there being no other way of telling the time in the hatch, they would never realise an extra few mintues added onto the time) If the 108 minutes therefore varied slightly, it is unlikley it is for any sort of scientific use.
- It is possible that the 416 is some sort of prefix, which would mean that remainding numbers could be the amount of hours since a certain event (approx 86 days)
- 416 is a telephone area code in Toronto, Ontario (where Ethan claimed to have lived).
- This could be part of the experiment. i.e. Would you stop at a stoplight at 3am on an empty street?
- This could be similiar to the series of experiments by Stanley Milgram in which a volunteer was recruited to help researchers in a lab administer increasingly-painful electric shocks to a subject, ostensibly to see how negative reinforcement would affect learning. It turned out that the “subject” was actually a part of the experiment and the volunteer was actually the one being tested. The experiment was designed to see how willing he’d be to cause harm to another, once absolved of any personal responsibility by an authority figure. In this case, harm is watching people slowly go mad as they try to stay on top of the button and discuss if it is all just an experiment.
- The Circle that was near the entrance to the Pearl is an intended drop point for DHARMA supplies
- The Island itself is the ultimate experiment, with the The Pearl being yet another side experiment.
- The dreams that have been occurring are actually a manipulative way to control some of the actions , and the orientation videos are set up to see how they react. Something will happen if they don't enter the code, they just want to see if they will stop entering the code.
- The Blast Door Map indicates that the Pearl may not actually be in the question mark. Perhaps Locke and Eko missed.
- Going against this theory, if The Pearl really is meant to monitor all of the Dharma Stations, it would make sense to be in the middle. The Blast Door Map shows that all the relays connect here.
- The Pearl Orientation Video states that the staff should just watch the screens and write down the incidents, but it does not mention any use of a computer. Computer looks unnecessary since the Pearl staff is ordered to not miss anything. Perhaps this hatch had a secondary, higher purpose (or staff)?
- The Pearl itself is an experiment along the lines of the Milgram experiment
- This Hatch is where The Dharma Initiative had failed. The substance on the desk and on the floors are heroin from the crashed airplane. Under the influence of heroin residents of this hatch got a breakthrough and since they were monitoring other hatches they warned The Others. But The Swan continues operating by strangers like Desmond.
- Also The Pearl's breakthrough might have triggered Dharma Initiative to take some precautions. And refered as The AH/MDG Incident.
- Pneumatic tube might be used to deliver heroin causing additional trouble.
- The Pearl is part of the overall experiment. The Blast Door Map is a plant, intended to convince the person in the hatch to explore the purpose of the stations. Why salt the ground so that a huge question mark is visible from the cliff above in a way trhat only really makes sense when you have a map with a big question mark on it? The Pearl is meant to be found (possibly as is) to observe how the experiment reacts to finding out it is being experimented upon.
- When Locke initially explored The Pearl, he noticed cigarrette butts (perhaps smoke rising from them). This shows that someone was watching all the activities within the hatch at some recent point, possibly even when Locke and Eko broke in. The hatch doors to The Pearl were also not sealed air-tight as The Swan was, supporting the evidence of a person or people coming and going.
- The absence of a bathroom and other living facilities could mean:
- The Pearl has a bathroom and possibly other rooms, which Locke and Eko did not find. The smoker of the smouldering cigarette they found could have hidden in those rooms for the duration of that visit; or
- Those working in the Pearl were expected to climb the ladder to relieve themselves, and possibly live in tents outside the Pearl; or
- No-one ever lived in the Pearl, and the video is misleading.