I was surprised that Locke ignored Ben, the man who shot him and left him for dead. It was anticlimactic and odd for Locke simply to limp away after he couldn't bring himself to shoot Jack.

When Jack was in the funeral home, the employee asked "family or friend" and he said "neither"? I thought he said "either"...any clarification? (or is there really no difference?)

Now, now. Jack had niether a flashback nor a flash forward. In the "flash," Jack's dad was alive yet, he had a gold card from the airline for the crash and he wanted to go back. As for the newspaper clipping there is a closeup somewhere I don't know where 'cause my parents found it, and it you can kind of make out a Jo on the name leaving people to believe it was Locke. There were no people at the funeral because he had no family and people didn't like him for keeping them on the island. That's the theory I've heard so far. Unfortunately, I do think that Charlie is really dead. I think Locke left Ben alone due to the look of fright on his face. Good old family reunions too. Wonder when Jack and Claire will figure out they're siblings? I'm starting to think that Mikial is a very adept person and can control cetain muscles in his body to minimize damage and pain. That would explain why he's lived all the time.

Has anyone seen the picture floating around the web that shows a closeup of the newspaper clipping Jack had? It looks like the name of the person that died was Jo............antham. You can also make out these words: loud noises, beam, loft. If you can rely on that for anything. Oh and also the name of the funeral parlor was an anagram of "flash forward."

Thanks for this info, Dave. I have no idea who died, but apparently Kate didn't care for them and neither did anybody else. Maybe it was John Locke? That's so cool about the funeral parlow anagram!

I loved the season finale. It was exciting, well done and satisfying. Go Hurley!

Charlie sure looked dead, but you never know on this island.

I think the flash forward is a possible outcome if things continue as they are, but I believe their fate can change. It may even be an alternative reality since Jack's dad is alive. I assume the man waiting for Kate at home is Sawyer.

Loved the butt kicking from Jack, Sawyer, Sayid and Rousseau!

Susan

It may even be an alternative reality since Jack's dad is alive.

We can't know that for sure though since Jack is pretty much out of it at this point. He could be just really confused.

When Jack was in the funeral home, the employee asked "family or friend" and he said "neither"? I thought he said "either"...any clarification? (or is there really no difference?)

I put my TV on mute and subtitles pop up. The subtitles said "neither."

I think the Island is caught in a perptual time warp. The space/time continuum mentioned by the writers in the recent summary plays an important role. The Island is somewhere on the space/time continuum, but not necessarily in the space/time that we live in here and now.

There are flashbacks, which are really for the benefit of the audience to inform us about these characters and how they came to be on the plane.

The flash forward, or whatever it was, of Jack is not necessarily something that did happen or will happen. It may happen.

The bearded, drug addict Jack is desperate to get back to the Island, but he can't. It's like Shangri-La. It doesn't exist in our world. The Island exists in its own little bubble of time, out of sync with our world.

With the Island in a time warp, it's possible that Jack's father is still alive, that maybe Kate hadn't yet killed her father. It opens up limitless possibilities. Limitless "what ifs."

I bet the Island explodes at the end, disappears completely, so no one can ever go back, and the Roses and Rosseaus and Bens and Lockes of the Island will be devestated, or dead. I think that's what Ben and Locke are fighting for... to keep the Island as it is now, safe in its little time warp where no one can really get them.

OK, so how did all those people arrive on the island, come and go to and from the island, and how did the parachutist find the Island? Sort of blows my theory out of the water. But maybe not. Maybe, the Island is so magical, the electromagnetic force so special, that it seeks out certain people and allows them to see the Island.

Who the heck knows?

Very interesting theory Maggers. A person would have a certain trait or flaw that the island was attracted to. This would be as a key to access it. If the flaw was corrected, the island wouldn't be accessible. Neat.
But then again....to attract all of the survivors aboard one plane load is truly against the odds I would think. Then again....we don't know just how strong the magnetism to the strange is.
Again I say, I'll be watching again next season.

I think the Island is caught in a perptual time warp...

I don't think it is anything quite so complex. Every time they get a chance to explain something that seems mysterious, mystical, fantastic, or magical -- the explanation is pretty believable. It's just the buildup that is out of this world, not the explanation.

My only issue with the episode (which was brilliant by the way) was Charlie's death. I don't understand why he shut the door from the inside when he had plenty of time to run out and slam it shut from the other side. It seemed like a pointless death.

I wondered that as well. Or after that, why didn't he swim out the blown porthole?

And was Walt a figment of John's imagination or was he really there?

Or was Walt actually Jacob in another form .... or the swarm creature?