Index:

• Scene By Scene
• Theories/Questions
• Recaps

Terms:

• T1: The timeline where flight 815 crashed on the Island.
• T2: The "flash-sideways" timeline where the Losties continue on to LA and the Island is underwater.
• Jack2, Kate2, Claire2. etc2: Characters in T2. T1 characters have no suffix.
• Flocke: The impersonation of Locke, presumably by the Man in Black, aka Esau, Jacob's Nemesis, The Smoke Monster.

Scene By Scene

All dialogue from the Lostpedia "Sundown" Transcript

• In the language of flowers, yellow rose = "forgive and forget"
• Sayid2's reflection in Nadia's door is split - half is clear, half is black/obscured.
• Sayid2 says he does translating for oil company contracts, which doesn't explain why he has an Iranian passport.
• Sayid2 's brother is in dry cleaning, which indeed can be adventurous if you borrow from load sharks.
• Uncle Sayid2 brought boomerangs: foreshadowing of things sent away that come back.

• The prominent colors are green plants and red books.
• Still wondering why Dogen wears a fingerless glove on his left hand.
• Why did Dogen attack Sayid?
• Good Sayid says he's bad, Bad Sayid says he's good.
• How the hell can Sayid march into Dogen's office alone and then have a noisy, knockdown fight without anybody else showing up? Short version: Other Security SUCKS (#1).

  Cynical version: We needed a fight, so we had a fight. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense.

• Dogen declines to kill Sayid. Following Jacob's rules?

• Why not just have Claire clear the ash away?
• Nice lack of sentries/lookouts - Other Security SUCKS. (#2)
• Flocke didn't really answer Claire's question about why she had to go to the Temple
• Flocke: "I always do what I say" - Flocke's promised Claire that she'll get Aaron back. Doing this would be challenging, as Aaron is off-Island with his grandmother. This is a opportunity to see if Flocke lies.

• Sayid2 is sleeping on the couch, which implies that he doesn't live in LA.

• MILES: "They... they tried to save you, but... you were dead, man. For two hours. Trust me when- when you sat up they were just as surprised as the rest of us. So whatever brought you back, it wasn't them." - Sayid might take this as independent evidence that something bad did happen to him.
• Claire just waltzes in the front door. Other Security SUCKS (#3)
• Why does Dogen obey Claire and speak to her in English? Is she still a Candidate, despite being Claimed/Infected?
• Claire: "..maybe you should send someone he won't kill"
• Who are the people Flocke won't kill - Candidates? Is it won't or can't?
• What's with all the back and forth, Claire goes in-send somebody out business? Why couldn't Claire just deliver Flocke's message instead of Dogen sending somebody to talk to Flocke who then comes back and talks to Dogen? Was Flocke hoping Dogen would send Sayid?
• Why did Dogen want Jack and Hurley? Was he going to send them to meet with Flocke?
• Did Jacob bring Jack and Hurley to the Lighthouse so that they wouldn't be sent to talk to Flocke?
• Jack and Hurley are missing. Other Security SUCKS. (#4)
• Dogen and Sayid are alone, AGAIN. Other Security SUCKS (#5)
• Dogen kept the knife buried in a flower pot.
• Dogen describes Flocke as an "angry man". Is he angry at being trapped, or is their something more?
• DOGEN: "For years, he has been trapped, but now Jacob is gone, he's free. This man will not stop until he has destroyed every living thing on this island. He is evil incarnate."

  Wow, that's a pretty clear statement.

  Does "every living thing" mean animals and plants, not just people? Why would Flocke want to do this?

• Why should Sayid believe Dogen?

• Sayid2 says he has to go to Toronto. He's lying, because every time a character in Lost refers to Canada they lie. Ethan, Kate, Sawyer, Anthony Cooper, and Ben have all lied about Canada.
• Big Red backpack
• Nadia2's bright Red blouse.
• Jack2 passes Sayid2 and Nadia2 in the hospital hallway.
• Omer2 has a punctured lung. This would indicate either a stabbing or a severe beating that broke a rib. Either way, this is a bad business move for a loan-shark. If Omer2 dies or can't work it's more likely they won't get paid.

• "What'd I miss?", "Ask Miles" - I REALLY like how the Losties are at least trying to talk and share information.
• That Kate said "Thank you" to the Other who opened the courtyard door stood out to me, maybe because it's so normal and gracious.
• Miles is playing solitare.
• It was nice of Miles to give Kate a simple explanation for what Sawyer did.
• I love it, Kate quicky asks Miles what's going on and Miles tells her. This would have been unthinkable in seasons 1-5.
• Miles thinks Claire is "still hot". I worry about him.

• That's a badass knife. I wonder if there's something special about it.
• Screenshot of Knife
• Flocke was out and about as Smokey again.
• Flocke said "Hello Sayid" before he was stabbed. I don't think that made Sayid's attack futile. I think Dogen warned against Flocke speaking because of Flocke's persuasiveness.
• The blade actually went into Flocke. I wonder if the bullets in the Statue's foot went through Flocke and flattened on the stone behind him.
• No Blood
• How does Flocke know that Dogen tried to have someone else kill Sayid?
• I think Flocke is right, Dogen expected Flocke to kill Sayid. But is Sayid still a Candidate, and therefore someone Flocke can't kill? Not to mention the old question of "can't" vs. "shouldn't"- was Dogen trying to get Flocke to break the rules?
• Flocke doesn't address the whole "Evil Incarnate" issue.
• LOCKE: "...Sayid, if you'll do this for me... what if I told you that you could have anything you wanted. What if I said you can have anything in the entire world?
  SAYID: "I would tell you that the only thing I ever wanted, died in my arms, and I'll never see it again."
  LOCKE: "What if you could?"

  The rest of Flocke and Sayid's conversation occurs off-camera, and I hesitate to be overly legalistic, but it seems odd to me that Flocke never comes right out and offers "anything in the whole wide world". He keeps prefacing his statements with "What if", which to me makes his offers hypothetical rather than actual. In other words, he never comes right out and says "Do X for me and I will give you Y"; it's more like "If I were able to give you Y, would you be willing to do X?". As they say, the Devil is in the details.

• Is there any connection between Flocke's seeming offer of "anything you wanted" and Ben's story of the "Magic Box"?

  And yes, I still want to know how Anthony Cooper ended up on the Island.

• According to Sayid, the outer wall is a mile south of the Temple proper.
• Note how Flocke doesn't give the Temple Others the same choices he gave Sawyer: They may be "free", but it's only to choose between joining Flocke or death.
• SAYID: "He wants you to know that Jacob is dead. And because he's gone, none of you have to stay here anymore. You're free."

  Flocke may in part see himself as freeing the Others from Jacob's slavery. That they allowed themselves to be ruled by Jacob may be why he was "very disappointed".

• Claire is singing "Catch a Falling Star".
• The Other's apparent solidarity crumbles when confronted by choice.

• It's Omar2 (not to be confused with Omer2), last seen being blown up by a grenade in T1.
• Omer2 speaks Arabic.
• Keamy2 does a good Christopher Walken impression without being too obvious about it.
• Keamy2 is wearing a big shiny watch-did he get it from Jin2? Was it intended for Keamy2?
• I can't fault Sayid2 for killing Keamy2 and his thugs-they clearly represented a mortal threat to him and his family.
• Jin2 pled in Korean for Sayid2 not to kill him.

• Sayid is allowed to meet with Dogen, alone and armed, Other Security SUCKS (#6).
• Dogen's recruitment story is interesting, but it didn't answer Sayid's question. We still don't know why Dogen wanted someone else to kill Sayid.
• Other people have theorized that part of Dogen's deal with Jacob is that Dogen follow some rules, like not killing Candidates.
• Dogen didn't deny that he tried to have other people kill Sayid twice.
• Baseball floating up echoes the baseball falling in the earlier fight scene.
• Wait, Dogen was keeping Flocke out? How? (no answer). What about the ash? (no answer). If Dogen was keeping everyone alive, why did the Others let someone they knew to be Claimed/Infected kill him? (no answer).
• Of course, once Flocke has minions the ash doesn't work so well as a defense.
• Ilana seems to always refer to the Losties by their last names.
• Smokey is lit from within by flashes.
• I think we can safely conclude that Sayid has gone over to the dark side.
• Miles tells Sun that Jin is alive.
• How did Kate and Claire get out of the pit?
• Claire knows about the Flocke/Smokey connection.
• No sign of Sawyer this episode. Is he off on a mission?
• Flocke, Claire and Sayid shared a very creepy smile.
• Flocke and minions aren't staying at the Temple. Why did he attack it?

Questions/Theories/Hairbrain Predictions

• I don't know why they introduced the Temple only to ravage it a few episodes in or why the Temple was guarded by a 20th century businessman who chose to dress like a medieval samurai (Halloween costume maybe?) or where all these people were a few short days ago when the Smoke Monster was haunting Ben in the Temple basement, since they've made a rather large point out of the fact that, until this episode, the Smoke Monster couldn't get into the Temple.

  Source: Fishbiscuitland

• OtherSayid's story is different from the OtherStories that we've watched in recent weeks. He didn't contemplate his reflection in a clear mirror, as his friends had done. Instead, there was only a passing glance of his distorted image captured unexpectedly in Nadia's front door glass.

  OtherSayid was an interrogator for the Revolutionary Guard, just like Original Sayid. He was still fearsome and violent. Still a passionate lover separated from the one he loves. There were no radical departures from his story as we knew it, except of course that he'd apparently manipulated Nadia into becoming the wife of his brother, and it's unclear if the two had ever bonded in a torture cell, the way we'd seen them do. Unlike the previous Other-flashes, Sayid's story seems much the same. He is still an assassin. He doesn't rise above. He doesn't conquer his demons. He doesn't solve his problems. We can tell that OtherLOST isn't going to be merely a mirror story of redemption, because there isn't any redemption there for Sayid.

  Source: Fishbiscuitland

• # Temple security leaves much to be desired. Claire -- the same wingnut who spent the last three years picking off Others -- knocked on the front door unimpeded. And Kate walked right in as well. Next week, Rose and Bernard will pop by for mojitos and backgammon ( ... I'm thinking that'll be cancelled, though).
  # Speaking of the Temple ... Dogen's death allowed Flocke to enter, right? So what's the point of the ash? We saw Bram use ash alone to keep smokey at bay (temporarily), but I'm not getting the Dogen connection. Does the temple elder carry some sort of anti-smokey mojo?
  # ANJATH? -- Anyone Notice Jack At The Hospital? Figured I'd get that out of the way.

  Source: Filmfodder
• 'Lost': When is 'wanting answers' a bad thing? Or a good thing?
• Lost Discussion Group: What's the Objective?
• The Others have certainly shifted from the implacable enigmas of seasons past to confused and frightened peasants.
• I think you could make a case that Jacob abandoned his people at the Temple. Yes, I know he's dead, but he's still a major player. If he can finagle a way to nudge Jack towards enlightenment and keep Jack and Hurley out of Flocke's clutches maybe he could have made an effort towards keeping the Temple safe. And dunking Sayid in the Pool was his idea in the first place. Smooth move, Sherlock.
• Who was controlling the time-travel? Some of the jumps were necessary to Flocke's plot to kill Jacob, but Jin's jump to the French team allowed Jacob to save Sayid.
• Flocke/MIB is still nameless.

• "He will come to you as someone you know... someone who has died." WOW. This kind of information would've been pretty fucking useful last season, no? Dogen's intel on the dark man's operation is a thousand times better than Ben or Richard's. You'd think if they're sharing personnel with the barracks crew that Dogen could somehow educate his allies against what looks to be the island's greatest potential enemy. Instead, he keeps that knowledge to himself and hides ancient mystic weaponry in the soil of common houseplants. Not a smart move.

  Source:Vozzek99
• Why did Dogen know about Flocke's ability to impersonate the dead but Ben and Richard were kept in the dark. besides it being necessary to the plot?

Recaps

• THE DARK SIDE , by Fishbiscuitland
• Things I Noticed - "Sundown" by Vozzek69 , by Vozzek69
• 'Lost' recap: The Measure of the Man , by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)
• He Drives a Hard Bargain: "Sundown" - Recap , by Robz888
• Terms of Indenture: Culture and Corruption in LOST 6.06 , by Pearson Moore
• 'Lost': Course Corrections for 'Sundown' , by Zap 2 'Lost'
• Marc Oromaner’s Lost In Myth: “Sundown”—Temptation of the Dark Side
• S6Ep6 - Sundown , by Long Live Locke
• "The Man Inside of Me" by Locke, the Greatest Hits from this week's Ongoing Lost Post!! , by The Ack Attack!
• Lost Recap 6×06: Sundown , by The Ack Attack!
• 'Lost' Dueling Analysis: 'Sundown' , by Celebritology
• Lost: “Sundown” , by Kulturblog
• Initial Thoughts: Sundown , by Gitsie Girl
• 6 X 06: Sundown , by Gitsie Girl
• 'Lost': Sayid loses himself in the dark , by Showtracker (LA Times)
• Lost Friday - "Sundown." , by The CDP
• The MISFit Dares TO Ask - SHOWdown , by ThEmIsFiTiShErE
• Lost: Better Off Dead , by Tubular

Index:

• Scene By Scene
• Theories/Questions
• Recaps

Terms:

• T1: The timeline where flight 815 crashed on the Island.
• T2: The "flash-sideways" timeline where the Losties continue on to LA and the Island is underwater.
• Jack2, Kate2, Claire2. etc2: Characters in T2. T1 characters have no suffix.
• Flocke: The impersonation of Locke, presumably by the Man in Black, aka Esau, Jacob's Nemesis, The Smoke Monster.

Scene By Scene

All dialogue from the Lostpedia Transcript

• 
  

  I could Photoshop a better picture with my nose.

• Apartment was all black and white. Every piece of art-black and white.
• Appendectomy Scar:

  There is NO WAY Jack2 would have forgotten that he had had his appendix taken out. He's a neat-freak surgeon who waxes his chest hair-he wouldn't forget that he has a big-ass scar right over his hipbone. Sure, he might have forgetten the actual incident when he was seven, but he would have been reminded about constantly since then.

  So I see 2 possibilities:

  1. Jack2's appendectomy is new, and T2's past has changed to accomodate it.
  2. My Theory: Jack2 is confused between memories of both the T2 and T1 appendectomies.

• What song is playing in Jack2's truck? It's driving me crazy.
• It's a sullen mini-Jack!

• Jack's reflection is unclear.
• "Tie again" - If the first player is allowed to play in the center, tictactoe can always be played to a tie. How many games have MIB and Jacob played to a tie?

• David is a Dodgers fan, not the Red Sox.
• T1 Jack read "Alice in Wonderland" to Alex.
• David takes after his dad, took ONE cookie and resealed bag.

• Screenshots of writing on Hurley's arm. Good luck decyphering it, Jorge Garcia has terrible handwriting.
• It's interesting that Dogen knows about Candidates but not Richard.
• Hurley is still a terrible liar.
• Dogen's Japanese: "You're lucky that I have to protect you. Otherwise I'd have cut your head off."
• Hurley's looking for the Shen Ring to open the secret door.

• Love the creepy Pig-Skull Baby
• It must never rain on Claire's camp.
• You just know we're going to see more of that dynamite.

  Irrelevant Fun Fact: Dynamite and TNT are not the same.

• CLAIRE: "We'd better get that cleaned up. If there's one thing that'll kill you around here it's infection."

  IRONY

• As someone who is Claimed/Infected, is Claire not getting any Island Healing Goodness?
• Screenshots of Claire's Camp

• The house has a red door.
• Bottle of MacCutcheon Whiskey
• Red books, Red Sweater

• The Others must not have been trying to find Claire very hard, her camp seems easy to find.
• Claire makes a distinction between "her father" (Christian) and her "friend". Bear in mind that she's nuts.

• This must be the last season, because finally characters are asking questions and sharing information.
• The new Lost forthrightness doesn't extend to Jack telling Kate that Claire has been zombiefied.

• Red six-pack of soda.
• Key was under a rabbit. Episode 5, Season 1 = "White Rabbit".

• A poster on the wall of David's room advertises the band Meat Coat, which is the band that Charlie tells his brother that they have the chance to open for in LA.

  Source: The CDP
• Same Chopin piece that Faraday played.

• Jack's reason for returning to the Island may be selfish, but at least he's being honest.
• HURLEY: "It's right there. It's a lighthouse."
  JACK: "I don't understand. How is it that we've never seen it before?"
  HURLEY: "Guess we weren't lookin for it."

• The Others tested Claire like they tested Sayid.
• How did Claire escape? Are the Others unwilling to kill her because she's a Candidate? "313 Littleton" was crossed off in the cliffside cave.

• Sign: "Welcome All Candidates!"
• Reflection of David in piano lid.
• Red judge's table.
• From the back I thought Dogen2 was Sayid2.

• Lighthouse wheel echoes Frozen Donkey Wheel
• In the mirror: The temple where Sun and Jin got married, the church where Sawyer's parents had their funeral, Jack's parent's house.
• Jack's house has a white door-T2 house's was red.
• Oh, NOW you want answers.
• Lighthouse Interior Screenshots
• Austen (Kate) wasn't one of the cliffside cave names, but she's on the wheel.
• Sayid and Jack's names on the wheel look to be written or rewritten with a darker line than the other names. This isn't because they time-travelled, because "Kwon", "Austen" and "Ford" (above "Jarrah") aren't darker as well.
• The wheel appears to be full, with no space for more names. This is like the cliffside cave, where the numbers got to zero.
• 108 on the wheel is "Wallace", which could be a "William Wallace" reference to Desmond or just a red herring, since Jacob didn't intend the wheel to get turned anyway.
• If "Wallace" is a reference to a philosopher, it could be Alfred Wallace.
• List of Names and Numbers on the Lighthouse Wheel.

• " Kwon is at 42° and Ford is at 15°. Jack is at 23°, which would mean that if the wheel were turning clockwise, we would see Sawyer’s reflection, then Jack’s, then the Kwons. If it was turning counter-clockwise, we’d see the opposite - but nevertheless, we would see Jack’s reflection in between those. Perhaps he just missed the reflection the first time since the wheel was turning so fast, or perhaps the powers-that-be weren’t really paying attention. And maybe I pay too much attention."

  Source

  It's stuff like this that makes me worry about plot holes the size of Jupiter.

• Hurley actually chides Jacob for not filling him in.
• Hurley is never as dumb as he seems.
• How did Jacob know that Jack would see anything in the mirrors?
• Why can't Jack be told what he needs to do? Probably because he wouldn't do it.

• Of course She's nuts, but it seems a little contrived that Claire would want to kill Kate for raising Aaron. Somebody had to take care of him-Claire had disappeared.
• Flocke doesn't seem happy to see Jin.
• How does Claire know that Flocke is "her friend" that's been with her for the last 3 years? The MIB couldn't have assumed Locke's form until a couple of days ago, and he's been busy. How did the MIB appear to Claire before Locke's body returned to the Island? And if Claire can recognize the MIB no matter what form he takes, why did she make a distinction between "her friend" and "her father", who presumably was the MIB impersonating Christian?

Questions/Theories/Hairbrain Predictions

• Ep #604 was title "The Substitute", which might have tied in with the Who song. And if you want to go down the rabbit hole of Lost references, this episode's title, "Lighthouse", could be a reference to The Who's unfinished and unreleased followup to "Tommy", "Lifehouse".
• I had always assumed that Jack's Ford Bronco was something he bought post-Island. It just seemed to be a strange car for a tightly wound spinal surgeon to drive.

• "Like season 6 Jack, the tragic hero of Greek myth Narcissus also was fond of looking at himself in reflective surfaces. According to Wikipedia, the word ''Narcissus'' is derived from a Greek word meaning... ''sleep'' and ''numbness.'' (Wow. That tangent was both short AND possibly relevant!)"

  Source: Jeff Jensen
• I'm thinking of referring to Jacob as "The Smug Bastard" from now on.
• Justin was ready to kill Claire, but Dogen couldn't just kill/execute Sayid. They are both "claimed" Candidates, what accounts for the difference?
• The Great 'Lost' Debate: Analyzing the sideways universe
• Why was Claire tested? Why didn't the Others just kill her?
• What is Jacob's relationship to the Purge?

• The $64,000 question: did Widmore knowingly send Locke back at the behest of The Man in Black or Jacob? Because one of those two had to give him his marching orders. Answering that is like answering "Who staged the Oceanic 815 crash at the bottom of the Sunda Trench?" during Season 4. You've got two equally plausible scenarios that can't be answered definitely at this point. Either The Man in Black told Widmore to send him back to create the loophole, or Jacob WANTED the loophole to be broken in order to make the final leap of progress.

  Source: Zap 2 'Lost'

Recaps

• Through A Glass Darkly , by Fishbiscuitland
• Things I Noticed - "The Substitute" , by Vozzek69
• Things I Noticed - "Lighthouse" , by Vozzek69
• 'Lost' recap: Mirror Image , by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)
• Mirror, Mirror: Cultural Themes in LOST 6.05 , by Pearson Moore
• Mirror, Mirror (Part II): Cultural Reflections on LOST 6.05 “Lighthouse” , by Pearson Moore
• Key Points from "Lighthouse" , by Filmfodder
• My reVIEWS!! The Lie OUtHouse , by ThEmIsFiTiShErE
http://getlostpodcast.iimmgg.com/image/588a006ec4681c387f190a77c5c577c1
• Initial Thoughts; Lighthouse , by Gitsie Girl
• 6 X 05: Lighthouse , by Gitsie Girl
• LOST Episode 6×05 "Lighthouse" - Screencaps, Easter Eggs, and Analysis , by Get Lost Podcast
• 'Lost' Dueling Analysis: 'Lighthouse' , by Celebritology
• 'Lost': Course Corrections for 'Lighthouse' , by Zap 2 'Lost'
• Marc Oromaner’s Lost In Myth: How "The Lighthouse" Can Enlighten Us
• Smoke and Mirrors: LOST 6.05 "Lighthouse" Analysis , by Chris Kirkman
• S6Ep5 - Lighthouse , by Long Live Locke
• Lost Friday - "Lighthouse." , by The CDP
• LOST: “Lighthouse” , by Kulturblog
• Lost Recap 6×05: The Lighthouse , by The Ack Attack!
• Best of the Ongoing Lost Post , by The Ack Attack!
• Lost: Jack Earns His Degree , by Tubular

Index:

• Scene By Scene
• Theories/Questions
• Recaps

Terms:

• T1: The timeline where flight 815 crashed on the Island.
• T2: The "flash-sideways" timeline where the Losties continue on to LA and the Island is underwater.
• Jack2, Kate2, Claire2. etc2: Characters in T2. T1 characters have no suffix.
• Flocke: The impersonation of Locke, presumably by the Man in Black, aka Esau, Jacob's Nemesis, The Smoke Monster.

Scene By Scene

All dialogue from the Lostpedia Transcript

• License plate number of Locke2's van: 3PCI068
• Locke2 took a leap of faith off the van.
• T1 unmarried single Locke wouldn't have laughed at being stranded on the lawn and doused by sprinklers.
• Locke loved the rain on the Island.
• Where did Locke2 meet Helen2? T1 Locke met Helen at an anger management class he was taking because his dad conned him out of his kidney.
• Locke2 gets along with his father, Anthony Cooper2, which strongly suggests that AC2 didn't con Locke2 out a kidney or push him out of an eighth-story window.
• This would also mean that Locke2 is paralyzed for another reason.
• Black and White (with a little Grey area) Coffee Cup.
• "Lost Luggage" LOL

• POV Smokey-Cam! Screenshots
• You could see Smokey's reflection in the window.
• I suppose Smokey knows where all kinds of stuff like rope and tarps are.

• There was a picture of Locke2 and his dad, Anthony Cooper2 in Locke2's cubicle.
• Yes, Randy Nations is a dickwad in every universe. In a lesser show they would kill him off in an interesting way. I'm still hoping.
• Screenshots of Locke at home and work

• Flocke deliberately hit Richard in the throat to prevent him from speaking. What didn't he want him to say?
• RICHARD: "What do you want?"
  FLOCKE: "What I've always wanted. For you to come with me."
  
  Flocke is probably just flattering him, but Richard does have some value.
• RICHARD: "Why do you look like John Locke?"
  FLOCKE: "I knew he'd get me access to Jacob. Because John's a candidate. Or at least he was a candidate..."
  RICHARD: "What do you mean? What do you mean a candidate?"
  FLOCKE: "Didn't Jacob tell you any of this?"
  RICHARD: "Any of what?"
  FLOCKE: "Oh, Richard... I'm sorry. You mean, you've been doing everything he told you all this time and he never said why?"
  [Richard does not reply]
  FLOCKE: "I would never have done that to you. I would never have kept you in the dark."
  RICHARD: "And what would you have done?"
  FLOCKE: "I would have treated you with respect. Come with me... and I promise I will tell you everything."
  RICHARD: "No."
  FLOCKE: "Are you sure about that, Richard? Because people seldom get a second chance..."
  RICHARD: "I'm not going anywhere with you."
  FLOCKE: "Alright."
  [Locke sees a blond boy with bloodied arms standing in the jungle ... ]"
  RICHARD: "What?"
  FLOCKE: "I'll be seeing you, Richard. Sooner than you think."
  [FLocke walks into the jungle]
• Flocke said Locke was a Candidate, which gave him access to Jacob. Richard didn't know about Locke's candidacy or the concept of candidacy, so there was or is something other than Richard that controlled access to Jacob.
• Flocke promises answers.
• I'm unsure whether Richard couldn't see the blond boy or if the boy was simply gone when he turned around.
• Flocke attempted to recruit Richard, but let him live once he refused. Is is against "The Rules" for Flocke to kill Richard? It's possible that Flocke/Smokey can't kill people unless they've been "judged" or in self-defense. Of course now that I think about it, "self-defense" is a pretty murky concept when one is bulletproof.

• Ben tells the truth about everything except for the part about him killing Jacob.
• Ilana collected some of Jacob's ashes.
• First instance of Ilana showing knowledge of Flocke: "He's recruiting".

• Search and Destroy, by The Stooges:

  I'm a street walking cheetah
  with a heart full of napalm
  I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb
  I am a world's forgotten boy
  The one who searches and destroys
  Honey gotta help me please
  Somebody gotta save my soul
  Baby detonates for me
  Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology!
  Ain't got time to make no apology
  Soul radiation in the dead of night
  Love in the middle of a fire fight
  Honey gotta strike me blind
  Somebody gotta save my soul
  Baby penetrates my mind
  And I'm the world's forgotten boy
  The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy
  And honey I'm the world's forgotten boy
  The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy
  Forgotten boy, forgotten boy
  Forgotten boy said
  hey forgotten boy
  
  lyrics source

  Quite possibly the best use of pop-music in the entire series.
• Stooge: " One who allows oneself to be used for another's profit or advantage; a puppet."
• I can see Sawyer thinking, "great, another sonofabitch who's supposed to be dead but is still walking around."
• Flocke tasted the booze but did not drink. I'm betting we never see him eat or drink.
• Even drunk Sawyer could see through Flocke.
• LOCKE: "This isn't your house, James." - This mirrors Locke2 telling Jack2 that the airline didn't lose his father.
• Flocke promised answers again.
• SAWYER: "I'm on this island because my plane crashed. Because my raft blew up. Because the helicopter I was on was ridin' one too heavy."
  Coincidence, Fate, or Enemy Action?

• Hurley2's luck: Locke2's lift doesn't even touch his Hummer.
• How the hell did Hurley2 even get out of his Hummer?
• There's a little polar bear statue in Locke2's box

• The crab on dead Locke's head was a nice (creepy) touch.
• It's interesting that both Lapidus and Sun were packing heat.

• Flocke was surprised that Sawyer can see the blond kid.
• BOY: "You know the rules. You can't kill him."
• Can't kill who? Sawyer?
• Is this a rule that can't be broken or one that shouldn't? If it can't be broken, why remind Flocke? If the rule can be broken, is there a penalty, or are the rules based merely on agreement? Or is the boy's warning to Flocke just a storytelling device to introduce the rule?
• FLOCKE: "Don't tell me what I can't do!"
• Is Locke's personality beginning to manifest itself in Flocke? Flocke has shown a liking for machetes similar to Locke's.
• Richard and Sawyer's conversation didn't tell us much except that Richard is scared shitless of Flocke. Whether Richard is correct in his low opinion of Flocke's veracity and motives remains to be seem. Me, I'm with Sawyer: get some answers. Even lies can be informative.

• "I enjoyed a brief interactivity with LOST this week; when Locke was faced with a stuck chair lift at the beginning, I yelled out "JUMP IT!!!!" seconds before he attempted that very thing. I was highly amused, and tried it later on when Fake Locke was chasing the Island Boy. I yelled "why are you running?!? you're not human!!! change into smoke and GET HIM!!!"

  It didn't work."

  Source: The CDP (comments)
• "What Kid?" Uh, the one you asked if I could see? AWKWARD

• In T1 Locke2's interviewer was hired by Hurley's father to pose as a tarot reader.
• In T2, Rose2 works for a company Hurley2 owns.

• Flocke said "Of Mice and Men" was before his time.
• SAWYER: "What are you?"
  FLOCKE: "What I am is trapped. And I've been trapped for so long that I don't even remember what it feels like to be free. Maybe you can understand that. But before I was trapped, I was a man, James. Just like you."
  SAWYER: "I'm havin' a hard time believin' that..."
  FLOCKE: "You can believe whatever you want, that's the truth. I know what it's like to feel joy... to feel pain, anger, fear... to experience betrayal. I know what it's like to lose someone you love. So if you wanna shoot me, shoot me. But you're so close, James. It would be such a shame to turn back now."
  
  That's a pretty good speech. It may even be true.
• I think one reason Sawyer didn't shoot Flocke is because he believes there's a good chance it won't work.

• BEN: "Why did you have to bring him [Locke's body] to the statue in the first place?"
  ILANA: "Because the people there need to see the face of what they're up against."
  BEN: "And whats to stop what they're up against from changing his face?"
  ILANA: "He can't; not anymore. Hes stuck this way."

  I've got a possible problem with what Ilana knows and doesn't know:

  • She knows somehow that Flocke is recruiting.
  • She knows somehow that Flocke can't impersonate a dead person other than Locke.
  • How is it that she does NOT KNOW that Flocke couldn't have killed Jacob? I hope she didn't believe Ben and is just stringing him along until they get to the Temple.
• When did Ilana realize that resurrected Locke was the MIB and why didn't Richard or Ben?
• Loved Ben's eulogy. I think he may actually feel guilty.
• If Locke was the new leader of the Others, will Ben's confession that he murdered him get him in trouble?

• Every episode this season so far there's been a mirror scene. Jack2 in the airplane bathroom, Kate2 in the repair shop bathroom and now Locke2 in his bathroom. Locke2's scene is the first where the character doesn't at themselves in the mirror; because T1 Locke is dead?
• "Oh honey, you travel with a case full of knives, how sweet"
• Unlike T1 Locke, Locke2 decides to accept his paralysis and stop fantasizing that he could be some special person leading an exotic exciting life. Now all he has to do is stay away from ocean trips.

• How are they going to get out of that cave?

• Evil genius and master manipulator Ben Linus is a passive-aggressive european history teacher.
• But how can Ben be alive? He was wounded and at the Temple when the Losties lit off Jughead and sunk the Island, wasn't he? Except that this requires that flight 815 crashed with Sayid on board so that Sayid travell back to 1977 and shoot Ben, which didn't happen. Welcome to the paradoxical nature of the T2 timeline, if T2 depends on T1.

• Hey, it's Jacob's ladder! I'll be here all week.
• Items on cave table: Scale, small sundial, round mallet, lute
• Screenshots of Cave Entrance
• Screenshots of Cave Interior
• We aren't shown Kate's name or the number 108.
• What would Jacob say that he is protecting the Island from?
• Jacob's Cave Screenshots
• Why are the names "Littleton" and "Straume" crossed out, neither Claire or Miles are dead.
• The 3 levels of reaction to the Cave scene:
  1. Super Crazy Lost Fans: *BRAINS MELTING* FORGET IT, I AM JUST CALLING OUT OF WORK TOMORROW.
  2. Your Everyday Lost Fans: Wow! This is rather a lot of information, but I am pleased!
  3. The n00b Lost fans: I totally bet this is purgatory, you guys.
  Source: The Ack Attack!
• Chart of Names on Cave Wall

Questions/Theories/Hairbrain Predictions

• You know what this episode was missing? Tom Berenger
• I'm getting a feeling that we won't get many answers from the Others. If Richard doesn't have the inside scoop, who does?
• At first I thought the blond boy was 2 people, the first bloody one younger than the second. But Lostpedia says it was the same actor both times.
• Casting call for the blond boy:
  "Teenage boy, caucasian, 12-14. Dirty blond hair. Wise beyond his years. He's got intense, searching eyes. He's dealt with a horrible family accident. Even at a young age, he has been put in charge of something very important, and it weighs heavily on his shoulders."
• Why did Jacob visit Kate as a child but not write her name in the cave? Let's put it this way: He's been on that damn Island for hundreds of years with only a homicidal pillar of black smoke for company.
• 4 - Locke
  8 - Reyes
  15 - Ford
  16 - Jarrah
  23 - Shephard
  42 - Kwon
• I'm not buying that Jacob gets people to come to the Island by influencing ONE choice they make, usually in childhood. That would be like making a 10 dimensional bank-shot off thousands of cushions.
• The numbers may have started with Jacob's Cave list, but why to they keep showing up?
• Notice how the Cave numbers are counting down? The current crop of shanghaied dupes are the last ones unless Jacob starts over with larger numbers
• Parallels between Jacob/MIB and the Hatch by CruzaderJC
• ..........................................
  You think we look pretty good together
  You think my shoes are made of leather
  
  But I'm a substitute for another guy
  I look pretty tall but my heels are high
  The simple things you see are all complicated
  I look pretty young, but I'm just back-dated, yeah
  Substitute your lies for fact
  I can see right through your plastic mac
  I look all white, but my dad was black
  My fine looking suit is really made out of sack
  
  I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
  The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south
  And now you dare to look me in the eye
  Those crocodile tears are what you cry
  It's a genuine problem, you won't try
  To work it out at all you just pass it by, pass it by
  
  Substitute me for him
  Substitute my coke for gin
  Substitute you for my mum
  At least I'll get my washing done
  
  The Who: Substitute lyrics
  .........................................

• Do the Jacob's Ladders lead to Jacob's Cave, like the Monster says? Are the names those of the people Jacob wanted to bring to the Island? Or are they just the Monster's list of each of Jacob's players that he's managed somehow to capture? I think it must be the Monster's cave, because Juliet's name is crossed out, and Jacob was quite dead before she finally kicked it. Or maybe it was until just recently a shared space, a free zone where both had equal rights.

  Source: Fishbiscuitland
• Theory: Jacob needed Ajira flight 316 to bring back the Oceanic 6 (-Aaron) as much as the MIB needed it to bring Locke's body and Ben.
• Symbols of confinement:
  • Locke2 in wheelchair
  • Locke2 stuck on van lift
  • Locke2 in bathtub
  • Locke2's cubicle
  • Hurley2 blocking Locke2's van
  • Richard wrapped in tarp
  • Sawyer inside house, drinking behind bed
  • Flocke describing himself as "trapped"
  • Locke's grave
  • Cave
  • Flocke stuck impersonating Locke
• Every time I hear the line "The time for questions is over" in a promo I get the impression "they" are telling me to shut up.
• Why does the Island need protecting? Sure, the Island is a strange and unique place, but is it a good place?
  • Pro: Undependable healing effect
  • Con: Pregnant women die in childbirth
  • Homicidal cultists
  • Malevolent smoke monsters
  • Manipulative, kidnapping, murderous blond demi-god
  • Booby-trap laying crazy women
  • Nuclear Weapon
  • Chemical Weapon
  • Ben Linus

Recaps

• No recap by Vozzek (yet) because his house burned down .
• PLAYING FOR KEEPS , by Fishbiscuitland
• Lost Episode 5.15 History Repeated, by Luhks (Which is totally late and totally worth it)
• LOST: “The Substitute” , by Kulturblog
• SPOILER ALERT: Mini-Recap & Discussion Post for “The Substitute” , by The Ack Attack!
• Initial Thoughts: The Substitute , by Gitsie Girl
• 6 X 04: The Substitute , by Gitsie Girl
• Lost Recap 6×04: The Substitute, by The Ack Attack!
• And now the Greatest Hits of this week's Ongoing Lost Post!!. by The Ack Attack!
• My REVIEWS - EPisode 6x04 - THe SUB is Two , by ThEmIsFiTiShErE
• 'Lost' Dueling Analysis: 'The Substitute' , by Celebritology
• Lost: The Writing on the Wall, by Tubular
• Prime Candidate: Cultural Thoughts on LOST 6.04 “The Substitute” , by Pearson Moore
• 'Lost' recap: The Man With the Plan , by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)
• LOST 6.04 "The Substitute" Review , by TV Overmind
• 'Lost': Course Corrections for 'The Substitute' , by Zap 2 'Lost'
• S6Ep4: The Substitute , by Long Live Locke
• Lost Friday - "The Substitute." , by The CDP
• Marc Oromaner’s Lost In Myth: Why LOST Can Be A Substitute For “Willy Wonka”
• Key Points from "The Substitute" , by Filmfodder

Source: Fuckyeahlost!

Index:

• Scene By Scene
• Theories/Questions
• Recaps
• Miscellaneous

Terms:

• T1: The timeline where flight 815 crashed on the Island.
• T2: The "flash-sideways" timeline where the Losties continue on to LA and the Island is underwater.
• Jack2, Kate2, Claire2. etc2: Characters in T2. T1 characters have no suffix.
• Flocke: The impersonation of Locke, presumably by the Man in Black, aka Esau, Jacob's Nemesis, The Smoke Monster.

Scene By Scene

• The camera focused on Lennon's bare feet.

  In " ...And Found", Eko and Jin see some people, possibly Others, walk past them in the jungle [All Barefooted - Utility Fog]. One of the group appears to be a child, and is dragging with him a teddy bear tied to some rope. The bear resembles Zach's, though Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse denied the similarity on the Official Lost podcast.

  Source: Lostpedia

• Is Dogen inside a maze? Lennon looked behind like he was worried about being followed.
• Dogen using a manual typewriter.

• Flash of connection between Kate2 and Jack2?
• First sign that Claire2 is pregnant.

• Of course it moves the plot along, but why bring Sayid out into the courtyard? He was dead 5 minutes ago, let the man rest.
• Seeing his healed wound freaks Sayid out a little.

• "Sayid seemed more than a little confused after his apparent resurrection. He was totally blanked out - his mind resetting to the moment he got shot. Jack makes no bones about the fact that he died, and the temple-dwellers seem to understand this too. If Sayid had been healed by the water, he would've been fine, but that's not what happened. Somehow Sayid has returned from the dead, and in the eyes of Dogen's people, that presents a very big problem.

  Did Sayid spend some time at the "in-between" place mentioned in the Eko-centric episode entitled "?" Totally. Just as Charlotte Malkin drowned and later came back to life, it seems Sayid might've dipped into this realm for a few minutes himself. It should be interesting if he regains memories of being in that place, and can somehow talk about it the way Charlotte told Eko of seeing his brother, Yemi. Sayid's mention of the last thing he remembered also seemed similar to Locke's words when he woke up on the beach after the Ajira flight: "I remember dying".

  Sawyer's line about Sayid coming back because he was a torturer and child-killer was him channeling his anger at what happened to Juliet. Yet in a very 'only the good die young moment', it reminded us of some Purgatory-like rules: the greater the sin, the more the suffering. Perhaps Sawyer has it all backward. Maybe Juliet was allowed to pass on because she'd reconciled herself and made peace with her past. Sayid on the other hand, had drifted into unconsciousness knowing and believing he'd end up in a very terrible place. That place? The island, all over again. If it does turn out to be a place of suffering, it would make sense that the island isn't done with him yet - the same way it wasn't done with Michael."

  Source: Vozzek69

• "Nothing to worry about" my ass.
• Lennon: "Oh, I'm sorry, we need to talk to him alone. Just a few questions..."
  Jack: "You have a few questions" Well, so do we. I mean let's start with, who are you? Why are you holding us here? You--"
  Dogen: [speaks Japanese] "Kono otoko wo damarasero" (この男を黙らせろ―Let this man shut up.)
  Lennon: "Once we've spoken to Mr. Jarrah we will be more than happy to tell you everything you want to know."
  Jack: "Something tells me... that you're not gonna be happy to tell us anything."

  One thing that really stood out this episode is the number of questions the Losties asked, in stark contrast to seasons past.

  And as we will see, Lennon is lying about about telling the Losties everything they want to know.

• When the Japanese Other, who we now know is named Dogen, sees Hurley, Jack and Miles with Sayid in the Temple courtyard, he says, "What are you doing?" with a phrasing (attomari suru) that could also mean "What are you becoming?" Then, we Jack starts asking questions, Dogen says (I think), "Don?t say anything." Just before the scuffle, he says, "Take him."

  source: Kulturblog

• Jack was pulling an interesting move on the big Other who tried to grab him.
• Where did Sawyer get the gun?
• Dogen wants Sawyer to stay bad enough to speak English and say "please". I wonder if we'll ever see Jacob's note from the guitar case?

• I didn't see Sawyer actually shoot anyone, but in the background two Others carried away a wounded Other.
• Shouting "Calm down, Everybody calm down!!" might work better without the sticking of pistols in faces.
• The theme for this show is "Running Away and Going Back".

• At first I thought Kate2 was going to try to trade the cab for another car at a chop-shop.
• The mechanic was played by Jeff Kober. You can't have a Sci-Fi show without him - he's been on Earth 2, Buffy (2 roles), X-Files, Star Trek Voyager, Charmed, Poltergeist, Star Trek Enterprise, and Supernatural among others.
• Aaron had the same stuffed orca when Jack and Kate were living together in "Something Nice Back Home".
• Another mirror, the first one was Jack2/Airplane bathroom.
• My take: Kate2 didn't go back for Claire2, she went back for Aaron2, even she doesn't know it.

• Dogen blew a powder, probably ash, over Sayid and closely observed something.
• Dogen applied electrodes to Sayid's chest and shocked him.
• Dogen burned Sayid's chest with a hot poker and again closely observed his reactions.
• Dogen: [Japanese]"Yoshi kore de jyuubun da"(よしこれで十分だ―"All right.That's enough.)"Shiken ni tootta to omoe"(試験に通ったと思え―Think you pass the exam.)
• Dogen's "diagnosis" of Sayid echoes Rousseau questioning Sayid in "Solitary".

• I got nothing.

• Kate asks questions.
• I hope Aldo and Justin brought some ash.
• Jin asks questions.
• I'll Aldo some credit, when he doesn't answer questions he doesn't get all vague or ask a question back - he just refuses to answer.
• Aldo got clocked by Kate in "Not In Portland"

  Alex brings Sawyer and Kate to another part of the Hydra compound in the jungle. An Other named Aldo is sitting guard outside, reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, and Alex approaches, claiming to have captured Kate and Sawyer. As they argue about "her dad" not wanting her to be there, Sawyer knocks him over and mocks him for falling for the "ol' Wookiee prisoner gag." Kate threatens to shoot Aldo in the knee (she tells Sawyer later that she wasn't bluffing), so he reveals that Karl is at the end of the hall in Room 23. Kate knocks him out and they break into the room, where Karl is strapped to a chair with an IV in his arm and LED glasses on his face. He is being forced to watch a video with strange flashing images, text, and sounds. Sawyer is momentarily entranced by the video but Kate snaps him out of it. They remove Karl from his chair, and Sawyer carries him out over his shoulder.

• Kate was smarter than Aldo then, and she's smarter than him now.
• What does Kate do? She escapes.

• It's odd that the Others had the Losties stay at the spring. I'd be worried that somebody might get the bright idea to drink the water or even slip and fall in. But I guess when you build a kick-ass set complete with running water you want to get your money's worth out of it.
• Sayid references Han Solo's line, "They never even asked me any questions", after being tortured by Darth Vader.
• I can't make out what book Lennon was reading.
• "We were hoping you would come on your own" - first reference to choice/free will.
• Oh yea: What was it that Dogen want to talk to about to Jack alone before Sayid came back to life? Or did we just need a little conflict to be dramatically interrupted by a resurrection?
• "We didn't do anything to him" - Dude, you electrocuted him and burned him with a hot poker! Go ahead and argue that it was necessary, but don't deny it didn't happen.

• Dogen describes Sayid's condition as "keigansarete shimatta," (a form of the verb keigan suru) which his translator says means "infected," saying there's no literal translation. This could be translated as "he has been turned into something." It could also mean "judged as being," which has interesting implications when you think about the Smoke Monster and its judgments.

  Source: Kulturblog

• "Because it won't work unless he takes it willingly and he won't take it willingly from us."
• Pill as redemption: obvious guilt-trip/con game.
• "The infection will spread" - in Sayid or too other people?

• "I remember being shot" - echoes Flock's "I remember dying."
• Sayid trusts Jack

• Jin wants to find Sun.

• Adoptive mother losing her husband: Unknown force making sure Claire2 raises Aaron2?
• The adoptive mother's name is "Lindsey Baskum", an anagram for "Used by Malkins", the psychic who got Claire to fly to LA.
• If Kate2 hadn't returned would Claire2 have given birth at the bus stop?

• I got nothing.

• Man. Claire2 was just annoying.
• Ethan2 was still kinda creepy, though not murderous or kidnappy.
• Kate2 has a flash when Claire2 mentions Aaron's name.

• Kate wants to find Claire and reunite her and Aaron.
• Sawyer realizes he's partially to blame for Juliet dying. Here comes the guilt.
• No Skate for you!

• Dogen: "I was brought here, like everyone else.

  Everyone? Were none of the Others born on the Island? Was Ben rebelling against something that had always happened? What about Ethan, Miles, and Charlotte?

• Dogen implied that he was brought to the Island just like Jack was. This implies that Jack could become an Other as Dogen did.
• "There isn't any time" - lame excuse.
• Jack's not giving anybody any pills until he gets some goddamn ANSWERS. I know how you feel buddy.
• I love that Jack took the pill. It's as if he said "I'll see your bullshit mind-games and raise you a I'm-batshit-crazy, your move".
• How cool would it have been if Jack had palmed the pill and conned Dogen into believing he had swallowed it?
• Dogen had to tell Jack something, otherwise Jack could just take the pill again.
• Dogen said the pill is poison. He could be lying.

• The date on the ultrasound is all screwed up. Just let it go.
• The pattern on Claire2's hospital gown is an eight-sided "snowflake" - Dharma reference?
• Kate in T1 also used the alias "Joan Hart".
• Joan Hart in the movie Damien: Omen II discovered the identity of the 13-year-ol Antichrist. She got her eyes pecked out and run over by a truck. This doesn't mean Aaron is EVIL.
• Is Kate innocent in T2? I seem to recall her admitting to killing her stepfather in T1 but in T2 she keeps asking people if they'll believe her if she says she's innocent. If she is innocent that would leave the question of who blew up her stepfather's apprentice.

• At the end of the episode, Dogen tells Jack that Sayid has been "meisareta," a passive form of the verb "meisuru". The translator says this means "claimed," but a more literal translation would be "stamped, engraved or inscribed." Dogen explains that "there is a darkness growing in him," and tells Jack that the same thing happened to his sister, referring, we can only assume, to Claire (Jack's half-sister). How does Dogen know Claire, let alone that Claire is Jack's half-sister?

  Source: Kulturblog

• Jack learned that Claire was his half-sister at the funeral for Christian Shepard after the Oceanic 6 left the Island.

• Who the hell brought bear-traps to the Island?

Questions/Theories/Hairbrain Predictions

• So the "Sickness" finally reappeared. What did we learn about it this episode? Nothing firm. We don't know how it's caught, though near-death experiences might be involved. We only have Dogen's word that Sayid and Claire are infected, and the Others lie about things all the time. We only have the testimony of insane Rousseau, and a short time-travel scene with Jin to show that the French Team were infected - you could make a good case that Rousseau was infected and/or just nuts and the French Team were just trying to defend themselves. We don't know where the Dharma Vaccine fits into this at all.

  Dogen's view that the Sickness is bad, and that "once it reaches his heart, everything your friend once was will be gone" could be one-sided or a lie. The Sickness could just make you immune to the Other's cultish brainwashing juju, and hence a threat.

• Theory: Sayid failed Dogen's test by reacting normally to torture.
• "Because it won't work unless he takes it willingly and he won't take it willingly from us." What does this mean? Sayid won't die if you force him to eat poison?
• Is the whole torture/infected/pill/claire thing a test of Jack?
• What about the psychic's warning that Aaron must not be "raised by another"? Is Aaron going to have to return to the Island? Or will Claire leave?
• Were the visions of Claire warning Kate not to bring Aaron back to the Island done for MIB's benefit?
• What happened on the Island 2004-2007 when all the major Losties were gone?
• If the 2 timelines are equal in importance and "realness", why isn't T2 "bleeding through" to T1 the way T1 is into T2?
• I figure there are 2 basic ways T1 and T2 can become 1 timeline:

  (1) Merging: Everyone in the world ends up with 2 sets of memories? My Head Hurts.

  (2) Destroy one timeline: Cue the Valenzetti equation.

• This episode had lots of binding symbology: rings, handcuffs, Sayid's restraints
• Theory: Flocke/MIB told the Others at the Statue: "I am very disappointed ... in all of you." What he's referring to is the Other's unquestioning servitude to Jacob. MIB wanted to kill Jacob to free himself from being a watchdog and he wants to free the Others.
• The Losties have one advantage over the Others: They've seen Star Wars

Recaps

• Kate, Interrupted, by Fishbiscuitland
• Things I Noticed - "What Kate Does" , by Vozzek69
• Risk: A Cultural Thesis for LOST 6.03 “What Kate Does”, by Pearson Moore

  "LOST tells us if we do not form bonds like those of Jack and Sayid, if we do not respect, if we do not have compassion, we will likely end up in Widmore’s camp, wearing the black uniform of Stuart Radzinsky, ready at a moment’s notice to enforce our desires over the needs, even over the lives of others. Or we may end up in the MIB’s camp, seeing in law, discipline, and judgment the pinnacle of human perfection. Or we may end up in the dreamer’s camp–with Jacob, coming to believe that there are no laws, save the seeking after perfection.

  LOST is about a world gone awry. The Island is split between the ungrounded followers of Jacob, the harsh law imposed by the MIB, and the occasional self-serving visitors like Charles Widmore and the Dharma Initiative.

  It has become a game."

• Impartial Risk: Cultural Musings on the Resurrection of John Locke, by Pearson Moore
• 'Lost' recap: Staying Connected, by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)
• S6Ep3 - What Kate Does, by Long Live Locke
• Initial Thoughts: What Kate Does, by Gitsie Girl
• 6 X 03: What Kate Does, by Gitsie Girl
• My REVIEWS - EPisode 6x03- WHat hate DOES!!, by ThEmIsFiTiShErE
• Thoughts on What Kate Does... , by Eye M Sick
• Lost Recap 6×03: What Kate Does, by The Ack Attack!
• 'Lost' Dueling Analysis: 'What Kate Does', by Celebritology
• Lost: Get down with the sickness, by Tubular
• Key Points from "What Kate Does", by Filmfodder
• 'Lost': Course Corrections for 'What Kate Does', by Zap 2 Lost
• The Great 'Lost' Debate: How will 'it worked' work?, by Zap 2 Lost
• LOST: “What Kate Does”, by Kulturblog
• The French Connection - “What Kate Does” Analysis, by Chris Kirkman
• This Week's Ongoing Lost Post Greatest Hits!!!, by The Ack Attack!

Miscellaneous

• The red rug from Jacob’s inner sanctum inside the Four-Toed Foot
• The Whispers from S6E601E602 "LA X"
• The Double-Edged Sword Of Devotion: 'Chuck' Vs. The Entitled Fan Base

"I know, I should be in the Swan Hatch right now, accidentally crashing this very plane, but I'm not. You see, when you detonated that hydrogen bomb back in 1977, you sunk the Island, which meant I never washed ashore there during my race around the world, which meant that I never had to be trapped there, which means that this parallel universe had damn well better be the right one, otherwise I'm going to carve one of your gonads out with this tiny liquor bottle." - CDP

How I'm Going to Look in May if I Don't Get Some Friggin' Answers

Terms

1. MIB: The character who sat on the beach with Jacob and watched the Black Rock arrive. Lostpedia Entry for "The Man in Black"
2. Impersonation: The MIB can take the form of dead people, maybe only those who's bodies are on the Island. He doesn't reanimate the dead body and the impersonation seems to be able to disappear/appear and to be bulletproof.
3. Flock: MIB's Locke impersonation.
4. T1, T2: Timelines, which may not be timelines, but alternative realities or pocket universes or something else entirely, but I've got to call them something. T1 is the main timeline, the one we've been watching for 5 seasons. T2 is the timeline for the season 6 "sideways-flashes" where flight 815 doesn't crash on the Island.
5. Jack2, Locke2, Kate2, etc: Characters in T2. Connection to the characters in T1 has yet to be established. Characters in T1 will not have a number suffix.

Scene by Scene

2004 T2 Flight-

• We symbolically only saw Jack2's neck wound in the mirror. From his surprise, it seemed as if we are to believe the wound is tied to Jack in T1.
• Was the spot on Jack2's neck blood at all?

  At SL-Lost.com, Chris Kirkman presents a very good case for the spot on Jack2's neck being paint, and related to the spot of paint on Desmond's neck in "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

  Here's Jack2 looking in the mirror at the spot:
  

  Desmond had a spot in the exact same spot (remember the mirror):
  

  My contribution to the theory: If the spot was blood, and a connection to T2 from an injury in T1, why didn't Jack have a spot at the Temple in T1?:
  
  

• X-Files Reference: The back of Rose's "Weekly Woodsman" magazine said "The Truth is Out There" and had a picture of a pack of Morley cigarettes.
• Desmond2 was reading Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
• Desmond2 was wearing a wedding ring.
• I guess Jack2 finally saw Desmond "in another life".

2004 T2 Sunken Island-

• The sunken Island had still standing Otherton buildings and swingset, indicating that if the H-Bomb went off, it didn't result in a massive explosion.

2008 T1 Jungle/Hatch -

• This episodes opening-of-an-eye-shot: Kate
• Loved the muffled deafened-POV soundscape

• Kate waking up in that tree was a fairly big clue - another prime example of a character suddenly appearing at a specific 'respawn' point. We've seen it with Jack when he returned via Ajira 316, and we've seen it when both Ben and Locke ended up in the same little corner of the Tunisian desert. So if Kate's tree seems familiar, maybe it reminds you of the tree the smoke monster dropped 815's pilot, Seth Norris into. Or perhaps you remember Bernard's first appearance on the island, strapped into his seat and stuck high up in a very similar position. This isn't simple coincidence... Kate wasn't stuck up in that tree just so we could check out her ass (although I'd accept that line of thinking). There's a definite reason our characters seem to wake up or enter certain scenes in a strangely limited number of places, just as they seem destined to repeat the same events and experiences over and over again.

  Things I Noticed - "LA X", by Vozzek69

• Don't know if means anything, but Kate rushed to unconscious Jack instead of Sawyer.
• No doubt about it, Jack's life sucks.
• Yea Yea, Jack was wrong - that's what happens when YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON.

2004 T2 Flight-

• Another book: Arzt was carrying what looks like a guide to insects.

2008 T1 - VW Van-

• Sayid: [Weakly] "When I die... [groans]" what do you think will happen to me?"
  Hurley: "Just--just try not to talk, dude.
  Sayid: [Inhales sharply] "I've tortured more people than I can remember. I murdered. Wherever I'm going... [whispers] it can't be very pleasant.
  Hurley: "Sayid, come on.
  Sayid: "I deserve it

  FORESHADOWING!
• Hurley has all the weapons skills of a concussed panda.

2004 T2 Flight-

• Jin2 is back to being a dick.
• Boone2 is sticking with Locke2 if they crash. That's what got Boone in T1 killed.
• Boone2: "You're not pulling my leg, are you?

2008 T1 - The Statue-

• Jacob's body disappeared from the fire. A human body in a normal fire would still be there and probably be smoking like hell.
• It's good of Lapidus to remind us that the Others aren't necessarily the Good Guys, even though they oppose the MIB. And as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on Jacob. He's a good candidate for the old utopian-vision + ends-justify-the-means = lots-of-people-die syndrome.
• Lapidus and Sun shared information! I feel faint.

2008 T1 - Hatch/ Van-

• Did you notice that it looked like Jacob was debating a bit about Sayid when he hunched over him? I couldn’t tell if he was just trying to figure out if he could be saved at all… or if he was trying to determine whether or not Sayid deserved to be saved. Either way, it was probably a good thing that Sayid seemed so remorseful in the last words we heard him speak. Jacob instructed Hurley to get his buddy to the Temple – the same temple Richard took Young Ben to after Sayid had shot him (oh, the irony). When Jack came back and confirmed that there was nothing he could do for He of the Flowing Locks and Black Tank Tops, Hurley was all, “I can fix him.” There were two moments on the beach in Oahu when the crowd of 15,000 erupted into applause. That was one of them.

  Long Live Locke

• Jacob: "Your friend Jin won't be able to see me."
  Hurley: "Why not?"
  Jacob: "Because I died an hour ago."
  Hurley: "Sorry, dude, that sucks."
  

  It's nigh-impossible to freak Hurley out-He plays chess with dead Nigerian drug lords.

• Jacob knew about Jin being at the Temple wall with the Rousseau and the French Science Team.
• Jacob told Hurley his name. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, and Locke met Jacob off-Island, but didn't learn his name. Locke heard about Jacob, but didn't know Jacob was at his crippling fall.
• Hurley knew about what Jin did in his 1988 time-jump and Jin didn't skip a beat.

2004 T2 Flight-

• Sawyer2 called Cindy2 "Earhart".

2008 T1 - Hatch-

• Juliet told Sawyer she detonated the bomb.
• Hurley took a leadership role with the only plan to save Sayid.
• Jack, Jin, and Miles heard Jacob's name.
• New Jack admitted he can't fix Sayid.

2008 T1 - Statue-

• Even though he knew that whoever is in the statue isn't Locke, Ben still tried to get Richard to go in there alone. Jealous Dickhead
• Was Flock's chair the one from the Cabin?
• Bram shot Flocke square in the chest. Later he found a dented bullet. QED: Flocke is bulletproof.
• A circle of some sort of ash is a Smokey barrier.
• Bram Stoker/Dracula Reference: Bram was killed by a large wooden stake through the chest.
• Flocke disappeared before Smokey arrived and reappeared once it left. And by disappeared, I mean like into thin air.
• Flock: "I'm sorry you had to see me like that"

  This pretty solidly suggests that Smokey=Flock=MIB, and while I think that is basically true, I bet it's more complicated than that.

2008 T1 - Hatch-

• Juliet: "We can get coffee some time, we can go dutch" - Juliet might have been in contact with T2, or she might have just fallen down a 100 foot well, detonated a nuclear device next to her head and been moved 31 years through time, thereby making her a little loopy.

2004 T2 Flight-

• Charlie2: "Shoulda let that happen, man. I was supposed to die" - Many of Charlie's deaths/near-deaths/foreseen deaths have involved breathing: drowning, hanging, arrow in neck, choking on heroin, suffocating in a cave, choking by Desmond. He's also been attacked by polar bears and almost struck by lightning. It isn't healthy to stand near Charlie.
• In T1 Jack indirectly killed Juliet, in T2 Jack2 saved Charlie2's life.
• Where did Desmond2 go? Was he really on the flight?
• The pilot was the same as in the pilot episode.
• Sayid2 had an Iranian passport, which might mean nothing: The CIA and Australian Intelligence could have cooked one up for him.
• Jin2 still has a big honking watch, presumably to give to somebody in America.
• The airplane appears to have Oceanic Airlines markings
• Charlie2 had a guitar case with him.
• I wonder if there is anyone we know underneath all the hair on the Big Biker Guy seated near Sayid2, like Tom Friendly? Tom did like to take off-Island trips, so he might have missed the sinking.

2008 T1 Jungle-

• It sure is handy that the VW van traveled in time with them. It's almost as if someone knew that they would need a flashlight and a way to pull wreckage and transport wounded Sayid. (cough...jacob)
• Sayid was wearing a pair of Horace Goodspeed's coveralls.
• I think TPTB was just messing with us by having Hurley wear the largest, brightest Red Shirt EVER.

2004 T2 LAX-

• Ok, it was an Oceanic Airlines flight.

2008 T1 Temple Wall and Tunnels

• Montand from the French science team was carrying a copy of Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling,

  In Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard introduces the "Knight of Faith" and contrasts him with the "knight of infinite resignation". The latter gives up everything in return for the infinite, that which he may receive after this life, and continuously dwells with the pain of his loss. The former, however, not only relinquishes everything, but also trusts that he will receive it all back, his trust based on the "strength of the absurd".

  For Kierkegaard, infinite resignation is easy, but faith is founded in the belief in the absurd. The absurd is that which is contradictory to reason itself. For Abraham, this faith in the absurd manifests itself in Abraham's belief that he would kill his only son but he would nevertheless receive him again in his lifetime. Silentio's opinion is that what separates Abraham from being a killer is his faith. (In the end of the Genesis 22 story, an angel stops Abraham at the last moment. A ram appears which Abraham takes as a sign from God, and he sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac.)

  An important theme is the conflict between theology and philosophy. According to Kierkegaard, mid-19th-century secular philosophers laughed at faith and saw no mystery in the story of Abraham while professing to find Hegel's philosophy exceedingly difficult. Kierkegaard, however, thought that understanding Hegel was possible (if difficult), but trying to comprehend why Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son caused him to be "virtually annihilated".

• I like bad-ass practical Kate: "What's in the dead guy's pack that we can use?"
• Hurley wonders what happened to Montand's arm AND JIN TELLS HIM. Frickin amazing. In seasons past Jin would have replied with something uninformative.
• Kate does a nice job of wandering off alone with the torch and leaving Jack and Jin in the dark as they try not to fall into the hole.
• The Temple Others are wearing a lot of red. Hurley's shirt fits right in.

2004 T2 LAX-

• I think Sawyer must have seen that Kate was wearing handcuffs in the elevator.

2008 T1 Burying Juliet-

• How does Sawyer know that Miles can communicate with the dead? Miles told Hurley, but I can't remember Miles or Hurley telling Sawyer, or Sawyer witnessing Miles's special talent firsthand. Of course they did have 3 years for the subject to come up.
• "It Worked": Juliet had to know about T2.

2008 T1 Temple/Others-

• More red: red bushes, flowers.
• The Japanese speaking leader of the Temple Others is Dogen, who's name is in the Lost tradition of philosopher references. In this case Dōgen, a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher.

  Dōgen's Death Poem:

  Fifty-four years lighting up the sky.
  A quivering leap smashes a billion worlds.
  Hah!
  Entire body looks for nothing.
  Living, I plunge into Yellow Springs

• Dogen's Japanese lines Translated
• Prediction: The tube that Dogen wears as a necklace has one of Jacob's lists.
• Cindy referred to the "first plane". I think the "second plane" was Ajira flight 316.
• Dogen wears a leather fingerless glove on his left hand, but not on his right.
• How did Dogen know to break open the giant ankh? I don't think this is a big deal. Dogen sees the ankh, realizes that this symbol proves that the guitar case is from Jacob and that there must be more information somewhere and the logical place would be inside the ankh.
• The ankh is the Egyptian hieroglyphic character for "eternal life"
• All the Losties at the Temple were visited by Jacob in past, as was Sawyer. Miles, not so much - Oh oh.

2004 T2 LAX-

• Sun2 might not understand English

2008 T1 Temple Spring-

• Guess: The water wasn't clear because Jacob is dead.
• The hand Dogen cut is the same one that had the fingerless glove.
• Guess: The water should have healed Dogen's hand.
• I wonder if it's significant that Dogen wanted to know who injured Sayid. It's kind of weird that he asks the person who says Sayid being hurt is his fault for permission to undertake the risky spring treatment.

  Or is he worried that Sayid might have been shot by an Other, and that once Sayid is healed he might be upset?

• So when Jack gave Sayid CPR, did he happen to notice anything about his bullet wound?

2004 T2 LAX-

• What was up with that wordless scene between Sayid2 and Arzt2? Arzt2 seemed disgusted/disturbed by either Sayid2's passport or the photo of Nadia.
• Frogurt2 - still a dick. I eagerly await his T2 flaming-arrow-to-the-chest analog.
• The Marshal was up and searching for Kate, so she didn't hurt him as bad as he was after the T1 crash.
• Claire2 has crappy hair.

2008 T1 Temple Spring-

• It's Zack and Emma, kidnapped children from the tailsection. Nice to see that the Others haven't harvested their pineal glands.
• Dogen put back on the fingerless glove.
• How handy for Dogen that there's a Japanese-speaking white guy around just so Dogen won't have to bear the unpleasantness of speaking English. When I become an Other I want my Pig-Latin to be translated by a Swedish bikini model.
• There's a parallel between Jacob and Dogen: They both speak through someone else.
• Dogen and Lennon expected Jacob to be coming to the Temple. - This would seem to be at odds with Jacob's previous reclusiveness.
• Hurley asked Lennon who "Him" is - I wonder what his answer was?

2008 T1 Statue-

• Flocke didn't deny being Smokey, but that doesn't mean he is. There's clearly a connection between Smokey and MIB/Flock, but I'm withholding judgement.
• Flock/MIB knew that Ben strangled Locke and what Locke was thinking when he died. My guess: MIB got this knowledge as a result of impersonating Locke. This would imply that MIB also knows everything that all the other people he's impersonated knew.
• Flocke seems to have lost the scar under the right eye that Locke got in the crash.
• Flocke/MIB said he wants to go home. We don't know if this is true or what it would entail.

2008 T1 Temple Spring-

• I think Miles suspected that something is up regarding Sayid's presumed state of deadness.

2004 T2 LAX-

• Takeaway line: "Nothing is irreversible"
• Jack2's business card has him still working out of St. Sebastian Hospital at 8444 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Fun Fact: According to Google Maps that building also holds The Gale Group, as in Henry Gale.

2008 T1 Statue-

• Flocke: "Hello Richard, it's good to see you out of those chains." - This implies that Richard was a slave from the Black Rock
• Flocke: "I am very disappointed in all of you" - This is the mystery line of the episode. What were Flocke/MIBs expectations that the Others didn't meet?
• Lapidus is in white, Sun in black. Not judging, just saying.

2008 T1 Temple Spring-

• I don't think that now Sayid=Jacob. That would be way too simple.
• Sayid -

  "What happened"

  - pretty much sums it all up.

Differences between T1 and T2:

• Locke2's Knives
• Christian2's Body
• Hurley2 isn't reading a comic book
• No Michael2 & Walt2 I guess that also means Vincent2 wasn't in the cargo area
• No Shannon2
• Jack2/Rose2/Bernard2 were in aisle 24 instead of 23.
• Charlie2's dope was in his throat instead of inside the toilet.
• Jack2 spilled his drink.
• Cindy2 gave Jack2 one bottle instead of two.
• Marshall Edward Mars2 got the exact same head wound, he just got it in a different way.
• Rose2 was calm about the turbulence, Jack2 was freaked out.
• Jack2 asking for a pen to do a tracheotomy on Charlie2 because his was stolen by Kate2. In the original, Boone was the one scrambling for pens to try one on Rose.
• Rose2 isn't wearing Bernard2's ring on her necklace.
• Jack2 is sitting next to the window and not on the aisle.
• Cindy2 has no accent. Later in the episode at the Temple she sounds Aussie.
• Jin2 and Sun2 are clearly sitting several rows behind Jack2; but they're not sitting there in the Pilot.
• The upholstery on the seats is different.
• The original flight seat configuration was 3-3-3 and this one is 3-4-3.
• Charlie2's hair is cut very similarly to when he appears to Hurley in "The Beginning of the End." He had longer hair in the Pilot, didn't he?
• Jack2's hair is much longer in the alt timeline. In the original timeline, his hair was almost shaved.
• Jin2 & Sun2 are not married. Neither of them are wearing their wedding rings, and Sun2 is referred to as Ms.Paik instead of Mrs. Kwon.
• There is no evidence that this is the Flight 815: The flight number is never mentioned, the seat configurations are different, and the type of plane (as shown from the landing & taxiing shots) is a different one altogether than the original plane.
• Jack2, Rose2 & Bernard2 are sitting in row 24, not 23. This also places Locke2 in a different row -- a row that now includes Boone2 and Frogurt2.
• Jin2 & Sun2 are also in different rows, a few rows behind Jack2.

Via Fuselage Forum Thread

• Remember the Halliburton suitcase that Kate was so obsessed with retrieving from the Marshal? You know, the one that contained Tom Brennan's toy airplane? Well, in the Alternate Timeline, Kate2 merely leaves it in the bathroom with the beaten Marshal, not even giving it a second look.

Via Communist Dance Party

• The original flight 815 had radio problems and turned back for 2 hours before the turbulance and the crash.
• Hurley2 and Sawyer2 are sitting in coach, in the back.
• Sun2 might not understand English.

Small Questions and General Snarkage

• Did Locke2 go on his walkabout, even though he's in a wheelchair, or did he lie to Boone2? I think he lied.
• Ben makes a good point: Why didn't Jacob fight back?
• How did Ben and Flocke get into the outer Temple and do their whole "talk to dead daughter" thing without the alerting the Others who so promptly nabbed the Losties carrying wounded Sayid? Hell, Ben and Flocke collapsed that big hole in the floor of the tunnel-didn't anybody hear that?
• And why haven't the Others done anything with Montand's body? Or sealed up that hole in their wall?
• It seems pretty dumb of Illana's group of Others to be prepared with ash to defend against MIB/Smokey but have no effective offensive weapons. Either they didn't expect MIB or know that he is bulletproof or they don't think things out.
• You know what would have been a smart thing for Illana and Bram to do? Lay a circle of ash all around the Statue. If it's good enough for the Cabin....
• Will any ash work against Smokey, or is it more complicated?
• Did any of the Others survive the sinking? Some of them could have been off-Island.
• Will we see any of Dharma2?
• Is Jacob the source of the general healing that occurs on the Island?
• Richard: "I'm this way because of Jacob." - With Jacob dead will Richard start to age?
• What is the difference between the bulletproof Flocke and the "infected" French science team? Rousseau shot and killed the team after they encountered Smokey and changed somehow.
• If MIB was most of the On-Island dead-person visitions, who or what was Off-Island Christian?
• Since Jacob is dead, can the MIB impersonate him? My guess: Since Jacob's body disappeared from the fire in the statue, MIB can't impersonate him. Besides, if he could I would assume he would.
• Is Smokey another of MIB's impersonations, with the original Smokey dead and buried on the Island?
• If Locke's body were cremated, would this mean MIB couldn't impersonate him any more?
• Was Smokey constrained from attacking the Others?
• Richard: "What I mean is that, he'll forget this ever happened, and that...his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us."

  If Richard treated 1977-Ben with the Temple Spring, will something similar happen to Sayid? Not that we know how Ben was changed.

• Is Ben not fully informed about the Island/Others? Dogen and Richard knew about "Him"/MIB but Ben didn't figure out that a reincarnated John Locke who's associated with Smokey and is insistent on Ben killing Jacob might be the MIB?
• Did the Cabin's circle of ash keep MIB in or out?
• If MIB was trapped by the circle of ash in "Jacob's" Cabin, how was Smokey out and about?
• Who broke the circle of ash around the Cabin?

Big Thoughts

In order to get this recap posted before Ep603 "What Kate Does" airs I'm going to forgo a complete "Big Thoughts" section. But here's what I'm working on:

• What is the nature of the "Flash-Sideways" timeline/reality?

  Lindelof: We will say this: season 6 is not about time travel. It’s about the implications, the aftermath, and the causality of trying to change the past. But the idea of continuing to do paradoxical storytelling is not what we’re interested in this year.

  Source: Entertainment Weekly

  Good luck with that, Damon.

  That said, are you saying definitively that detonating Jughead was the event that created this new timeline? Or is that a mystery which the season 6 story will reveal?

  Lindelof: It’s a mystery. A big one.

  Source: Entertainment Weekly

  This is the question: What is the pre-flight 815 past of T2?

  What we are likely to watch during the final season of Lost is course correction doing its thing. Why the island itself sank is unknown, but the ALT timeline is the current timeline and everything we watched that occurred after 1977 in seasons 1-4 did not happen. Darlton can refer to them as flash-sideways all they want. What we will be watching is a NEW history of how and why the passengers of that plane end up on the island, go back to 1977 and detonate Jughead all over again.

  Source: Everything Changed. Only one timeline exists now by Shotaro

  If we are to assume that a divergence in the timeline was spawned by the atomic explosion in 1977 which sunk and "killed" the Island and not by any other event, we must also consider that ALL interventions made by time-travelling post-1977 visitors to the Island have been nullified.

  As such, changes made to the timeline pre-1977 figure prominently and we must consider what would happen if:

  - Faraday had not disabled and interred Jughead in 1954 (although the Dharma Initiative may have done so when they came to the Island)
  - Locke never told Richard about his own specialness, thus Richard never visited him in the real world
  - Jacob never visited or intervened in the lives of the Losties (except maybe with Sawyer whose parents died before the Incident -- then again Jacob could have visited him from any future point as well)
  - Sayid never shot Ben
  - Hawkings died, erasing Faraday (although Richard said he saw the Losties die, which may have allowed time for an evacuation)
  - Dharma Initiative disbanded, but possibly reconstituted to refind the Island
  - etc...

  And the big one -- our heroes never learned about the Island, never returned to the past, never had anything to do with the atomic explosion, etc. This fact alone creates a massive unresolvable paradox.

  As such, the initial assumption of this post must be wrong -- that "Whatever Happened, Happened" must still hold true, that Miles was right. Our flash-sideways are actually glimpses of a parallel universe that does not causally touch on our own.

  In the parallel universe, 815 didn't crash, and thus none of the time-travelling took place. As such, Radzinsky's drilling was continued to proceed unhindered, and indeed, it was hitting the pocket energy that sunk the Island. In our universe, the Island -- as well as our timeline -- was saved by the failsafe of the atomic detonation.

  So was Inman's attempted escape that drew Desmond out for an extended period part of the plan? Or maybe it is Jacob's death, not the Incident, that has multiverse spawning consequences? And is this why Desmond is Faraday's constant?

  Source: Separate Universes by ceti

ScreenCaps

• Episode 6x01 "LA X" - Flight 815 (HQ)
• Episode 6x01 "LA X" - John Locke as Smokey (HQ)
• Episode 6x01 "LA X" - Dealing with Sayid and Juliet (HQ)
• Episode 6x01 "LA X" - The Temple (HQ)
• Episode 6x01 LA X - Smokey Attacks and Bram Uses Ash??

Recaps

• MORE LOST THAN EVER ,by Fishbiscuitland
• Thoughts on LA X... , by Eye M Sick
• Lost Episode 5.16 The Dark and The Light , by Luhks
• Things I Noticed - "LA X", by Vozzek69
• Lost Recap 6x01: LA X ,by The Ack Attack!
• 6x01 - Best of The Ack Attacks! bigass Ongoing Lost post
  LOL YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE A GUN, HUGO. NOW IF YOU HAD A HOT POCKET, YOU COULD DO SOME REAL DAMAGE...
• Lost: Looks Like We Maaaaade It! ,by Tubular
• S6Ep1 - LA X (Part 1) & S6Ep2 - LA X (Part 2), by Long Live Locke
• 'Lost' Dueling Analysis: 'LA X, Parts 1 and 2', by Celebritology
• Initial Thoughts: 6 X 01 LA X ,by Gitsie Girl
• 6 X 01, 6 X 02 LA X ,by Gitsie Girl
• THe MISFits Dares TO ask!! Questions ABOUT Lacks!!
• Lost Friday - "LA X." ,by Communist Dance Party
• Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse Talk About LOST Premiere PART 1 and Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse Talk About LOST Premiere PART 2 (YouTube)
• The X Factor - LOST 6.01/6.02 Analysis, by Chris Kirkman
• 13 Questions with the Producers of Lost: Polar Bears, the Smoke Monster, and the Man in Black
• 'Lost': 8 more things you need to know about 'LA X', by Ryan McGee/Zap 2 Lost
• Confused by the 'Lost' premiere? Never fear! Damon and Carlton explain a few things about the start of Season 6 (SPOILERS AHEAD) , by Jeff Jensen/Entertainment Weekly
• Key Points from "LA X, Parts 1 and 2", by Filmfodder
• 'Lost' faces a new reality in the final season premiere, by It Happened Last Night

I have 2 questions, one that I think must be answered and another that I bet won't be:

1: Who are the Others? What is their mission and what motivates them?

2: If the Universe always "course-corrects", as she said, why did Ms. Hawking bother telling Desmond he had to go to the Island? If she's right, no matter what she said or what Desmond did he would end up in the Swan pushing the button.

"86. LOCKE: Hey. Uh… was he talking about what I think he was talking about?
BEN: If you mean time traveling bunnies, then yes.
- There’s No Place Like Home

85. SAWYER: So, a tribe of evil natives planted a ringer in the camp to kidnap a pregnant girl and a reject from VH-1 has-beens. Yeah, fiendishly clever. And why am I getting the evening news from a six-year-old?
WALT: I’m ten!
SAWYER: Okay, then it must be true.
- All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"

I have no doubt that after the big finale Damon and Carlton will have to go into seclusion/witness protection for their own safety. Too many questions + Not enough answers = kidnapping.