LOST Season 4 Official Thread

if y'all have read spoilers, please alert us before posting em!  especially if theyre good ones...

Now that the WGA strike is over the producers have said the writers are going back to work tomrrow (i think) and they expect they can finish the season, though they were meeting with network bosses to see if it would be all 8 remaining episodes or not, and if would air in march as soon as these 8 episodes run out or if it would air in the spring.  I think either way would be OK with me, if it is in the spring then a shorter wait until next february, if nothign else!

oh no worries, i didn't post anything spoiled, sorry to act as if i was going to post that - i meant it more as observations, not fact 

yeah, i know, i wasnt calling you out.  but i started to read your post, realized there might be a spoiler, and had to keep reading it anyway, i couldnt control myself... so the fact that it is spoiler free was a refreshing surprise.  see, my request is really more a reflection of me and my poor self control, more than anything else!

My tattoo appointment was canceled: Boo!

I dont have to miss Lost tonight: Yeah!

Oh, conflicting emotions!!!

I'm surprised you guys aren't talking about this...

Top is when the ghost hunter goes up stairs, bottom is when he comes back down.

i thought cassun mentioned the picture were different.

I'm wondering if with this kid and having the other cop guy in the hurley episode, they'll bring back in the ana-lucia storyline somehow.

what. the. fizzuck.

This episode was ridiculous.  And amazing.  Does Ben count as one of the Ocanic 6?

Oh, so many questions and thoughts.  But I am going to take the night to work, and then I check Lostpedia, and then I will try to gather my thoughts...

this one gave me the googoo. It just doesn't seem right that sayid would be one of the oceanic six and then become some top secret assassin. Seems like that would be a little too much limelight on you to do that. But then maybe he just mentioned Oceanic Six to that guy to get his reaction?

It will be interesting to get some sort of time idea on when this flash forward is happening as to whether Ben was the guy in Jack's funeral or not.

I dont think Ben was the dead guy.  That would be too predictable for the show.

i think sayid IS one of the oceanic 6, i dont think he was saying it for effect.  Otherwise he managed to get off of the island without anyone knowing.  Which I guess is possible, as he is working for Ben.  And Ben can seemingly do whatever he wants, with a drawer full of cash and dozens of passports.  No surprise people are after him!

I'm figuring there is/was a group that got off the island that no one knows about. With that Abaddon guy looking for them still. I suppose he could just be wondering if they are still alive on the island though.

the missle coming in with the timer is peculiar. there's a 31 minute difference in the time but apparently you don't notice it as you come into the island yourself? or maybe no one has really looked at a watch or had anything to compare the time with till now? I don't know if i like the idea of them doing this whole time fluctuation thing or not but I do like them getting back to making the island more of a character on the show again.

BTW, Carlton Cuse has announced they will shoot 5 more additional episodes for season 4, giving us a 13 episode season.  The plan is that the now 13 episode season will still tell the same storyline as the 16 episode seaosn was intended to tell, just condensed.  The remaining 3 episodes will be divided between the last two seasons.  There will be a gap between episodes 4x08 and 4x09, most likely a 4 week or so gap, which means that the season finale will actually ocurr after the nielsen ratings week, which means we're probably lucky to get five additional episodes instead of just 3 or 4. 

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Re...

i think they need to do some sort of temporal flux, of some sort.  They have been setting it up a while, anyway.  When Naomi talked about Driveshaft reuniting, having a memorial concert for Charlie, and reccording a new number one album, well, there has to be some time shift going on.  (She could be lying, but she did not seem to be, she certainly seemed to ne "remembering the rockstar."). 

I like a temporal shift of some sort more than time travel.  It means that somehow, the unusual electromagnetic properties of the island cuase a rift in the time continuum, and physical objects operate at a time that is different than that of the real world.  This is obviously something Farraday expected, otherwise why would the sole item that was part of the payload be a clock?  For some reason, this rift does not affect electronic signals.  So, according to the woman on the freighter, it took about 1 minute for the payload to reach the island, if that long.  It took about 30 minutes for the object to arrive.  Could we do some approximate math, and say that between the island and the rest of the world time moves at a difference of 30x, or 3000% ?  This means they have been on the island for 3000 "real days" (100 island days).  That means a little more than 8 real years.  Which is ridiculous, but would explain a lot of things in the flashforwards and off the island, (though all of these things could be resolved on their own, even even without a temporal shift theory, depending on either info the flashforwards are not telling us, or other info as of yet unrevealed) such as why and how an entirely new head of surgery had taken over the hospital in a relatively short time, why, when people talk about the crash they say, "Oh, I remember that" as if it happened a long time ago, how Ben knew that Juliette's sister's cancer would go away (how we knew he could "cure" her), how Walt grew up (when did they get off of the island, the end of season 2?  That was between 65-67 days on the island.  Which means it has been about 30 isalnd days since they have been off of the island, which might equate to about 3 real years, which would explain Walt's growth.  It could explain lots of things.  As for the statue's foot, and the temple that we have yet to see... these could have been built by ancicent peoples who miraculously found the island 3,000 real years ago, which would only be 100 island years, which would explain why the statue foot at least looks pre-homo spaien almost (4 toes) but is still in relatively good shape.  (Sure, the rest of the body is missing, but that could have happened in myriad ways.  The rock itself of the foot was not crumbling or falling apart).

To think of a temporal shift, think of the "Planet of the Apes" analogy... the crew on the ship had been traveling at light speed for a certain period of time and therefore the actual quantum physics of time acted upon them in different ways than it did the real world.  I doubt the island is moving anywhere at light speed, but somehow it is generating for itself a similar effect.  I wonder how and or why they posit it as happening, is it all due to a weird electromagnetic anomaly?  

It seems I may have been wrong about the whole 31 minutes thing... I misunderstood it... According to Lostpedia his time read approx 135 minutes and the timer on the payload read 196 minutes, so the difference in the timers was 31 minutes, but the relationship between them is not 1:30 as I assumed but 165:196, so assumign the temporal shift is linear and constant, time off of the island moves approximately 120% faster than time on the island.

This is easy to calculate, since they have been on the island for 100 days, it means 120 days have passed off island.  Which could still explain some of the stuff I posited above, but not as much of it.  20 days difference doesnt really account for Walt's growth or for the reuniting and #1 album of Driveshaft.  I liked my numbers better, they were more exciting.  OK, maybe they were wrong.  But still, more exciting.  Oh well.

I like the 1:30 thing to but yeah the mathh doesnt hold up like you said. aside from all that it would explain...oh what's the guys name? the lawyer looking dude that was there when Ben was a kid, him not aging it would even explain why hirley is getting skinny as heck from just eating cocoanuts and whatnot. and I suppose it could be used in a way to explain why the pregnant women are dying as well. but just a 20 day diference just doesn't really do all that.

The 1:30 thing could still fly, maybe the temporal shift decays exponentially as you get closer to the island, but at the max extent of the islands power theirs a difference of 8 years.

I think Sayid is the perfect person to be a secret assassin if he is one of the Oceanic 6.  If you had a load of money from a settlement, you could travel all over the place and no one would give it a second thought.  Also, since they are billing each episode as revealing another person, I think it's obvious he is one of them.

As for the time difference, time travels more slowly inside a high gravitational field.  So maybe that has something to do with the Pearl station.  With the time they have been there, it is totally possible that it is actually 2010 in the outside world.

>> Would you like to know more?

I don't know if i like the idea of them doing all these flash forwards back to back like this. I mean, I like them and how it tells the story but i'd rather see them interspersing themmore with the flashbacks. But I suppose there'll come a time to where they've already told the backstory for everyone and all they have left is flash forwards to do.

I dont think they'll be able to do it with the way things are moving now but i'd like to see the series finale show how/who gets off the isalnd and a flash forward to where jack and co. come back to the island to take care of whatever it is they need to.

You want this as the series finale, or season?  If it is the series finale, then dont you want to see Jack & Co. come back to the island to take care of whatever it is they need to take care of?

And while the whole temporal shift could decay exponentially, the whole 1:30 / 8 year numbers themselves come form a misunderstanding of the episode.  So those numbers are only legitimate in the mind of my misunderstanding.  So it could the passing of time could somehow decay at an exponential rate and the max reached could be 1 year, or 100 years... if the difference in time is notin fact a constant than we as of yet have no means of determining either what it si nor if it has any limitations.  Ben would know these things, as he and others have gone off of the island regularly, and they know what the date is off of the island.  Or at least they did before Locke blew up the hatch and their communication system, the Flame, stopped working.  And then of course it was blown up (also by Locke) before it could hope to be repaired.    If we are using the clocks involved in Farraday's experiment, though, the ratio is roughly 10:12, island:real world.  I dont like that ratio so maybe someone with better math skills (or quantum physics skills or electromagneticism skills or whatever the hell it takes) can discover a better formula and constant using the little information than myself.  On the Lostpedia there are a bunch fo different theories... many of them contradicting each other...

I just realized this, and noted it on the lostpedia theories... were those clocks we saw, or stop watches?  We saw Daniel first compare the rocket time to his watch, and then he went over to his little experiment station and had a digital clock.  if those are in fact digital stopwatches, and not clocks, then it makes a big difference.  it lends more creedence to my previous idea.  If they were stop watches, and synced up at time of launch, then the intent was to measure the length of time from launch to landing. 

I havent figured this out entirely, but I think it makes a difference... but i am confused again...

Sorry, I misunderstood.... In my head, you meant that Jack and Co. would finally come back to the island to take care of shit... and then it would end.  I didnt think you meant that Jack & Co. would fix shit in one episode, but that the series would end on their re-arrival at the island, with the intent to fix shit.  With that understanding, my response was that I want to see them fix shit, I dont want it to end with them returning to the island.

And I dont see them fixing whatever is wrong in one episode.  My guess is that the return to the island is the season finale of season 5.  Season 6 will all take place on the island, again, and they will make everyone happy.  at least everyone who is not already dead.

* SPOLIERS AHEAD *

Sayid is one of my favorite characters - and his assassination on the golf course bumped him up to near-Locke status - but his flashbacks/forwards always seem to disappoint. Other than him being a hired killed, and his boss being Ben, there was little to get me too excited about that part of the episode. Also, I'm sure the guy he killed on the golf course was somehow related to DHARMA or the Widmore group, but if that's the case then there's no way in hell I'd believe the guy didn't recognize Sayid the moment he stumbled upon him.

On the island was a ton better. All the stuff with Daniel Faraday and his time experiment, the stuff with Locke's group trapping Sayid's group, and the missing scene (available in transcript at Lostpedia) of Sayid, Kate and Miles approaching the sound barrier was interesting. Also, did Kate really decide to stay with Sawyer and the rest of the group, or are they as of yet unwilling to let her go? That can turn out to be pretty interesting. Also, I'm wondering what exactly is going to happen when Desmond reaches the freighter. I think its significant that Charlotte didn't want to go back. Daniel has his experiments to keep him busy, and Miles is now a captive, but she had no real reason to stay, except to maybe try to extract information from Jack's group.

I gathered from next weeks preview that Kate is still basically a hostage, Sayid just said she stayed as a way to keep from arguing with Jack. As for Charlotte staying, she also told faradayif he got whatshisname on the boat to not talk to him. So she seems already aware that things on the boat aren't kosher.

as a little wishful thinking, I was re-reading that intial post waiting for the page to load and it would have been awesome if they would have used Billy Dee Williams as Henry Gale instead of wasting him in that one garbage episode with paulo and the chick.

I'm wary anytime they use well known people as guess stars or temporary primary characters, so i was really worried when I heard he was guess starring, but having him play himself was cool.

Also, I'm still curious as to why Naomi parachuted to the island ahead of the crew, who piloted her, and what happened to that helicopter - I thought it went down in the ocean. There's been no mention of it since the arrival of the new guys, but I think it's either an important plot element or a mistake by the writer's. Either way, it should be addressed.

I was wondering about that too but i just figured she was piloting the helicopter herself. They do need to get back to that helicopter eventually if just to explain why it sounded so weird as it was coming in.

as for guest stars. I think jeremy davies and jeff fahey are in that same echelon of fame as Billy dee and they seem to be working out ok. It's when you get to using really famous actors for those roles that it gets to be distracting form the actual story. A show like this is great for using those " Hey, I've seen that guy somewhere before!" kinda stars.

What if she DID parachute out earlier than the others on the copter, and the time flux thing caused her to appear sooner? If she was drifting fdown like the test payload... maybe she bailed out before the others onboard?

Then you got to ask at what point is this "barrier" that holds the time back begin or end? Either way, i think it's obvious she came in on an earlier copter as there's been too many days go by for her to have been on everyone else's copter. there was only a 31 minute differential on the clocks.

Unless of course, the time flucuations are still fluctuating and there is no set amount of time that differs from on or off the island.

Jeez, I miss a few days in here and I'm having to do some serious reading.

New time slot:

As of April 24 LOST will switch to 10pm...  Better for me, thoguh seems like a poor decision on the part of ABC, except Lost will not have to compete with The Office this way...

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=42209

WHAT!?!    How does that even work? I mean the baby and Kait? What happened to Claire?  And only 8 survivors?  What da fudge?  And no helicopter? Whats going on?  Any theories?  I got nothin.

Wow.  So, Claire is not one of the Oceanic 6.  Didnt really see that coming.  We all assumed Desmond's flashes were accurate.

Why couldn't Claire still be one of the six? it's still not known when or where Kate had the baby at.

Why wouldn't Jack want to see erin?  Dose the baby screw Jack over at some point on the island?

In this episode, Claire is exclaiming her surprise at being a good mother.  If Claire makes it off isalnd, for what possible reason would she give Aaron to Kate, a fugitive on trial and possibly facing a life in prison, to raise?  Claire either dies or chooses not to leave the island.

I am not sure why Jack doesnt want to see Aaron.  Maybe he, at this point, has discovered that Claire was his half sister, so Aaron is his nephew, and he does not want to deal with the memories that brings up.  Either memories about the island or about his wife and the family they never had or about his father and his father's secret family across the globe.

The question is, why do they agree to lie to everyone about the crash situation?  Is it in order to respect the wishes of Locke and the Others, so no one continues rescue missions on the island?  Or are their ulterior motives?  And if this is the big secret, the one Jack visited Hurley about at the nut house, why was Abaddon looking asking Hurley questions?  If he does or does not work for Oceanic is a moot point, though I doubt he does.  Maybe his questions would have been concerning the Others and Ben?  (On a side note... I dont know if anyone watches The Wire, but in the most recent episode, we see the actor who plays Abbadon in a t-shirt, and the man is ridiculously skinny.  And has a hue chest.  It looked like he was wearing a freaking corset.  It did not look normal or healthy...)

ahhhhh, i'll have to watch it again. I thought she called the baby Eric.

I was wondering why they built the music up to intense levels and then the >boom< Lost logo. That makes a little more sense now.

I just don't understand how the public in the show understand the circumstances on how kate has a baby.  They know from Kates history that she wasn't pregnant, and that their was no baby on the plane.  I'm guessing claire had to be one of the "8" and she died in childbirth?  If their gonna lie, obviously they're not going to be saying that they are killing one another as they have in reality.

The only reason I was so focussed on the baby, was because in the commercial the said how we would learn another one of the oceanic 6, and it was coming in on the closing seconds and we still didn't know.  I was waiting for sawyer to walk in the bedroom door, but I was wrong.

Did they say we would learn the identity of a new O6 this week?  They said that in the commercials for this week, but I didnt see it in any of the commercials for this week's episode.

1.  How does everyone know that Kate was not pregnant when she was on the plane?  They do not know that.  The only person who knew would be the marshal, who caught her.  All the public knows is that she was apprehended in Australia.  She coudl very well have been 8 months preggers and given birth on the island, for all the public knows.

2.  We still dont know how long they were gone, nor how far in the future this flash forward is.  Aaron looked to be at least 2 or so in the last scene, and he could obviously talk somewhat coherently, as he responded "Hi Mommy" to her.  Maybe, as a result fo the whole potential island time shift phenomena, they were on the island for a year and a half.  Who knows?  Maybe they have been missing for three years?  Who knows?  In all of the flashforwards they are quite clear in saying the crash happened in 2004.  They always say the year.  Which leads me to believe that it is much fartehr in the future than just the 90 days that have passed on the island. 

PS - Why is Locke so crazy?  Especially towards Kate?  I appreciate that he only wants what is best, and that he has finally stepped up to do what is needed, but that doesnt mean he has to be an ass in the process.  Locke is m favorite character, and since we opened on his eye I was *really* hoping for a Locke flash-forward, but alas, it was not meant to be.  But brother needs to chill out a little! 

Maybe start by arming the fence around the Barracks!  It would protect you from people AND from the black smoke monster.  I dont understand any impetus not to arm the one protective measure they have.  Makes no sense. 

I am a fan of the hand grenade breakfast, though.  But I bet it is a disarmed grenade.  Locke wants answers.  In the next episode he will take the grenade from Miles's mouth and put the pin back in, get some answers of some sort, and then pull the pin and laugh as it doesnt explode.  Or maybe he will not give away this secret to Miles, it might just be revealed as he walks away or something.  But he wants answers, not someone's face blown in half.  As he said to Charlotte, "What good are you dead to me?"

There is a theory that Jack is somehow responsible for Claire's death, which is why he cannot deal with seeing Aaron.  This makes sense to me.  Team Locke and Team Jack are going to have to cross paths again befre the O6 get off-island, as Hurley needs to switch sides. 

According to their faux story in the future, the plane crashed in the water (which matches the wreckage footage shown earlier this season) and there were only 8 survivors, an two died on-island.  We are certain of 4 of those 8 (Sayid, Hurley, Jack and Kate).  Of the other characters that are not currently part of Team Locke... Jin, Sun, Bernard, Rose, (Michael), (Walt),  Desmond,  and about a dozen background fodder characters,  who does not make that 4 man cut?  Do the rest of these folk decide to switch teams, and go hang out with Senior Locke?  Are they killed?  Are they just abandoned on the isalnd because whoever is orchestrating the coverup will only take a limited number of folk?  What happens to them? 

Wow, talk about laying an egg (har har). Until about 4 minutes to go until it was over, there wasn't a lot to keep me riveted. I liked the twist at the end and I suspect that Claire ends up dead somewhere along the line and Kate decides to care for Aaron. Jack probably learns from Ben that he is related to Claire, but why he wouldn't want to see the kid is beyond me, unless he had something to do with her death and its guilt that keeps him away.

I guess I like the fact that they're building Miles up to be money hungry, but I'd prefer if they'd just focus on his ghosthunting abilities. I mean, he might be a fraud, but I don't think Widmore or whoever runs the freighter, would have put him on the boat for this mission if they suspected he was just a con artist.

I've been sick of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle since about halfway through season 1. I was kind of happy with the idea that we wouldn't have to deal with it in the flashforwards, but that didn't pan out. Fuck that shit, let's move on to something interesting.

Next week looks to be a Desmond episode. Hopefully it'll be a bit better than this week (and to an extent, last week's Sayid episode - which was good until the relationship part). However, I think we're going to continue to be strung along until episode 8, where the producers have promised a huge twist and cliffhanger. Which is good, I can't wait, but seriously, don't just string us along, give us something worth watching. Tonight's episode was pretty much complete crap, with a little bit of sugary sprinkles on top.

The theory I have working is........

The Oceanic 6 got off the island and the rest are still there. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and? got off because they were the first to go. The reaons for Jack, Kate and Hurley were to go back to their' normal' lives because they wanted to, and Sayid was recruited by Ben to make sure the rest of the survivors on the island were never found. I think in The Economist, Sawyer laid the ground work for this scenario by saying 'he had no reason to go back because there was nothing there for him'. I think as the episodes go on, you will hear more and more survivors say this.

I also think Claire gave Aaron to Kate because she was a 'soon to follow' as in she would come off the island later and fold into society somewhere. It really is the perfect scenario. Come off the island later, move to a new country, assume a false identity and now you have a new life. I think that Claire was maybe going to do this but she wants to be  absolutely sure her son gets off the island.

I think though the problem is, and this is supported by the funeral scene in last seasons finale, is that their only way back to the island is now gone. This will be supported by Bens' death, and we dont know the 'time' of Sayid's and Ben's alliance. The timeline is going to be crucial to my theory!

Bascially, some surviovors want to stay and others want a 'new' life and will fold into society somewhere that is not their home.

The theory I have working is........

The Oceanic 6 got off the island and the rest are still there. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and? got off because they were the first to go. The reaons for Jack, Kate and Hurley were to go back to their' normal' lives because they wanted to, and Sayid was recruited by Ben to make sure the rest of the survivors on the island were never found. I think in The Economist, Sawyer laid the ground work for this scenario by saying 'he had no reason to go back because there was nothing there for him'. I think as the episodes go on, you will hear more and more survivors say this.

I also think Claire gave Aaron to Kate because she was a 'soon to follow' as in she would come off the island later and fold into society somewhere. It really is the perfect scenario. Come off the island later, move to a new country, assume a false identity and now you have a new life. I think that Claire was maybe going to do this but she wants to be  absolutely sure her son gets off the island.

I think though the problem is, and this is supported by the funeral scene in last seasons finale, is that their only way back to the island is now gone. This will be supported by Bens' death, and we dont know the 'time' of Sayid's and Ben's alliance. The timeline is going to be crucial to my theory!

Bascially, some surviovors want to stay and others want a 'new' life and will fold into society somewhere that is not their home.

What's stopping Ben from faking his death with the funeral.  So i honestly don't think Ben is actually dead when the flash forwards are occuring with Jack.

Plus the Kate episode was a boring episode for me.  Mostly because I always tend to find Kate's character a pain to listen to.

I don't think it was ben's funeral anymore but i do think it was actually [i]someone's[/i] funeral. that it wasn't a faked one, i mean.

Something else I thought about last night, they've pretty much resolved Sawyer's whole story and Kate's it basically done now with the flash forwards. Everyone else on the show that they've wrapped up their story have been killed off. The idea seemed to be once they resolved everything on the island that it took them out or whatever. So I wonder why Sawyer is still alive? Besides the ratings.

Am I the only one who liked this episode?

I didn't really like the sayid flashforward last week. I like Sayid in the present, but not in the pat or future. 

I liked this episode.  Overall it was decent, it provided some plot questions and some movement both in the present time and in the future.  It did not offer any answers at all, which is expected by now.  I think one of the main drags people had, consciously or not, is we wanted to see something of the helicopter flight in this episode.  They are going to show the helicopter in the next episode, and i am guessing they are goignt o replay the same day, but from the point of view of folks on the helicopter.

I am not a huge fan of Kate and do not particularly enjoy her FBs or FFs, but it is what it is, I suppose.  I enjoyed Sayid's last week, I like that he is stilla  bad ass and still feeling guilty about it.  Also, I have really seen enough of Jack and Kate, so anyone else's FBs or FFs are more appreciated.  They could still do another Jack FF in the near future, as his current FF from Season 3 was farther in the shows chronology than either of these current FFs.  So he could be given another one, which would be unfortunate.

I agree with you: Sayid now is so much better than Sayid then (except when he was torturing people for the army). Future Sayid started out awesome (fuck yeah, he's an assassin!), but then the love story just blew it for me. I think by the time he's resolved, for whatever reason, to actually go out and contract kill people, he'd be smart enough to 1: not fall for some ugly blonde chick, and 2: not realize she was setting him up. Now that they've got that out of the way, I'm super excited for the next Sayid flashforward.

As far as Sawyer goes, it'd be interesting to see him killed in a flashforward. That'll make his current-day character so much more interesting. I don't think his story is necessarily wrapped up, though. Yeah, he killed the original Sawyer - that was a big part of it - but he still has his own daddy issues to deal with, meaning, his issue of being a daddy. I'm sure if we see a flashforward, that'll be what it revolves around. He may change his mind and decide to leave the island because he has a child back in the US. Maybe this change occurs when he finds out Claire is killed or can't leave the island, and it melts his heart and he decides he wants to see his kid. (Wouldn't it be great, by the way, if he was being conned by that chick and he really didn't have a kid?) Maybe it was him in the casket - maybe killed by Sayid - and that's why Kate says she has no interest in going to the funeral, and that's why Jack says he's neither friend nor family. And maybe Jack is onto the fact that Sayid is killing people for Ben, and that's why he's obsessed with getting back to the island. I really think the fact that Sayid is killing people for Ben is going to be a huge part of the future of the show.

Next week's episode seems to be a Desmond episode, and we see Sayid is in it, so perhaps Desmond gets killed in the flashforward. I doubt it'd actually happen, and although I really like Desmond's character, if he were killed off it would be a reminder of why I love this show so much - the producers aren't afraid to kill off a beloved character when necessary to further the intrique.

Lastly, I'm disappointed that Kate has Aaron for only one reason: it means that Kate is still significant to Lost. Of course she'd be relevent on the current day part of it, but during this last episode it seemed like her future story was going to be wrapped up nicely, and therefore there'd be no more reason to ever see another flashback or flashforward for her again. But with the twist at the end, now we have to revisit her at some point.

I generally don't like any of the episodes where the "big reveal" at the end is in the flashback/forward. Sure they should reveal something, and maybe have a big reveal in them at the end of the episode, but have it run concurrent to a "big reveal" on the island as well.

also, does anyone watch the episodes on abc.com? Is it just me or is the volume on the commercials there incredibly louder than the audio for the show? It drives me bonkers.

Also, one of the things I'd like for the writer's to do is find a clever way of giving us the timeline of the future events so far. If I were to guess, I'd say Hurley's, Sayid's and Kate's flashforwards took place about 2 years off the island, and Jack's took place around 3 years off the island. My reasoning is that it'd take Jack quite some time to go from seemingly normal (Hurley and Kate episodes) to completely bonkers (Jack's episode), and that he told Hurley he was planning on growing a beard, which meant he probably started growing it pretty much after the episode ended.

Also, my theory now is that the Oceanic 6 were told the only way they'd be rescued is if they came up with a lie they could all agree to stick to, that they were the only survivors of the crash. They were told this by whoever is trying to get to the island (mostlikely by Widmore or Hanso), and Ben convinces Sayid that the only way to keep the island safe is by killing the Oceanic 6 and the people behind the lie, either Hanso or Widmore.

Also, I really hope that when the show is over and all the smoke is cleared, it doesn't turn out to be some sort of Christian themed resolution (the fact that Christian Shephard seems to be a hugely important character unnerves me a bit), or that the message is "corporations are bad, mmkay?". If they're going to lean more toward the second one, which seems pretty likely, I think it'd be an interesting twist at the end that it turns out that Jacob is the "bad" twin, that him trying to keep the island a secret is going to eventually allow the rest of humanity to suffer, and all these guys - Hanso, Widmore, Paik and the like - are actually trying to use the island to save humanity.