I think it is what the true others are. I believe the true others (natives not people that came to the island) are a race of Atlantians who are able to separate their souls/consciousness from their bodies (smoke monsters), move through time and space - their species are dying off and looked to Ben to protect them from foreigners while helping them re-establish their population and control over the island. Once you arrive on the island, your soul/consciousness slowly evolves to the island’s power, especially if you’re chosen or marked. Once you begin to change, you cannot leave the island for extended periods of time. True Atlantians have evolved with the island to the point that they exist without a body and can re-insert their souls into unborn children - in order for immortality, but human invaders have screwed up the island preventing their re population … or they’re aliens with four toes…

Juliet - The Home-wrecker
We knew from last season that Juliet was playing “Hop on Goodwin” - now we know that he was married to a woman named Harper. We also now know that Ben really likes Juliet - as in restraining-order likes. Apparently Juliet looks like Ben’s ex/dead wife/girlfriend. This all plays in some sort of demented love triangle through Juliet’s flashbacks on the island. It was an okay episode, but it just made Juliet appear all too eager to hop into the sack with anyone that gives her the “blue steel” look and has a PhD.

Of course, Juliet in a bikini - yaaaooowwww baby.

Then there’s the question of whether or not Harper is dead. I think she killed herself when she found out about Goodwin being staked. And Juliet knew this in the jungle. I think the real question is who is the island working for? Is the spirits working for Ben or the island? Why does the island want everybody dead - including the Others who went to the temple?

It’s clear that Ben solves his problems by genocide. Heil to the king. And the new station, the Tempest, is an obvious nod to Shakespeare’s play and of course, Ben is Caliban. And what purpose did DHARMA have in mind for a station that can produce a deadly nerve gas? I say get on with the Orchid station.

Preggers
The episode also explained the pregnancy thing better. The island’s healing abilities are turning the mother’s body against the fetus. Interesting.

Daddy Widmore
Big shocker here - the question’s going to be if that guy in blindfold was anybody significant. Locke was being a douche like he has been all season. This is season 2 Locke all over again - pushing a button. Exciting stuff. /sarcasm

Michael Row Your Boat
Michael is on the boat. He’s the mole. The question is, why? Do the Others track him down and blackmail him somehow? Did the Others take Walt - again?

The List
Here’s a theory, I think Ben is the one who came up with the list. When he came across the Others - they were dying out and disorganized - savages. He came along and proposed “society building” partially taking orders from Jacob but mainly positioning himself as king of a new country. A “Good Person” is someone that exists in the Others’ society as a functioning member. A “Bad Person” is someone that doesn’t fit, thereby, in the case of DHARMA, marked for extermination. Juliet being marked is still bugging me though.

This is best smoke monster explanation I’ve read in a long while. The problem is, I don’t think the Lost writers are that smart. They could be, but I’m going to have to go with “no”. There’s also the theory on “Vile Vortices” over at Wikipedia which is neat. There is another theory floating around lately, which is the “Hollow Earth” theory. I would elaborate on it further and simultaneously call bullshit, but there’s enough on the Lost blogasphere to dismantle it without my help.

And for a fun mind-numbing read, I give you this thread. People don’t get it. The rat DIED. I’m pretty sure it takes a good while to teach a rat a maze so it doesn’t miss a turn going through it. More than 75 minutes to be certain. But the kicker is this, Daniel would have had to of known that the rat was going to die before 75 minutes (the rat was clearly expired when Desmond saw it in the cage) before sending it to the future. And what would have happened if Daniel sent the rat into it’s future after it had died? And I’m not buying the bullshit that since Daniel was intending to teach the rat the maze, it learned it without being taught it. ::head’plodes::

Desmond has Penny, will time travel.
Heavy doses of radiation or electromagnetism? Well, Des got a nice dose of electromagnetism when the Swan hatch imploded. I liked this episode because it explains a lot about Daniel. I think he’s an interesting character. His odd behavior, it’s clear that he’s experiencing some sort of “confusion” - added that he’s been exposed to that purple ray he invented. Here’s a theory, Daniel dies on the island - but he experiences that while watching the footage of the 815 wreckage from the “Confirmed Dead” episode. That’s why he’s crying then.

The Purple Ray
Kinda like the purple sky that Desmond caused when he blew the Swan hatch. If the rat died before Daniel teaches it the maze, wouldn’t that change the future? The rat experienced a future that didn’t happen.

The Black Rock Log
This was something that Daddy Widmore seemed really interested in. This ties him in to my other theory - that he’s behind the freighter “rescue”. Widmore used Des to find the island. I’ve said this before.

Altering Reality
The thing that got me was the ending - Daniel looked through his journal and saw “Desmond will be my constant”. This is interesting in another aspect. I’m sure that writing wasn’t there before and appeared right there after Desmond did his trips. Reality was altered. Here’s my proof - a screen cap from “Confirmed Dead”:

Miles visits a woman whose grandson had died. This is, presumably, a nicely framed picture of the grandson when Miles walks into the house.

When Miles comes down, something happened - a slight shift in reality. He looks over to the same picture - something is different…

When I first saw this - I was trying to figure what was different about the picture - not the frame. Something happened when Miles talked to the “ghost”. Reality got altered. Maybe psychic abilities portrayed on show stem from the type of temporal powers the island possesses.

Here’s another theory:
Maybe Ben has been leaving the island in order to moonlight as the ultimate psychic. He’s imprisoned Jacob with the ash ring in order to make millions telling rich people their fortunes. Hmmm…

So Sayid gets off the island. So does Ben. Sayid is playing hitman for Ben. That’s all interesting and stuff - but the meat of last week’s Lost “The Economist” is how the episode addresses the time shift directly. Dan had the freighter fire a rocket at the island. The rocket contained a clock. Never minding the insane velocity in which the rocket intiatly traveled (the have been posts on other sites that determined that the rocket was going way too fast by seconds per kilometer). But the clock on the rocket had arrived thirty-one minutes after it was supposed to arrive. I am going to deduce that the rocket did not enter the proper coordinates/bearings that was necessary to enter the island. Think of the island as a clock. If you approach the island at, say, 12 o’clock, you’ll enter the proper time. But if you enter it at 1 o’clock, you’ll be arrive at the island a few minutes after you should be there. If you enter the island at 11 o’clock - you’ll arrive at the island before you should arrive. That’s why it’s so hard to find the island - or the inhabitants of the island - you must arrive at the proper bearing or you’ll be thrown so far back into the island or so far forward, that nobody would seem to exist on the island anyway. This also might explain why Desmond couldn’t leave in his boat - he kept on sailing at a wrong bearing especially if he was following the sun - throwing him towards the island. I don’t know if that makes sense. Time is of the essence on the island, that much is clear. Maybe that’s how the wormholes can be formed - the island is in a constant state of timeless-ness - leaving the island, you can choose when in our timeline you can re-enter - that is, if you know where to exit. That would be cool - if it was to happen…

Here’s another theory - Walt has been known to appear in places, could he be one of the masters of these wormholes? Could a select number of people have command of certain holes. Richard was able to bring Locke’s father to the island very quickly. Are we to believe he traveled to Tennessee by sub and then plane, get Locke’s Father, and then travel back to the island? Or does the island have a wormhole on it’s outskirts that allows the sub to exit? Does that explain why Desmond wasn’t able to escape? Or why Michael was only allowed to leave the island by certain coordinates? Does that explain how the rescuers found the island - having Michael direct them back? Is Walt helping Ben by relaying the information of the rescuers back to him? Since communications on the island had be shut off - how did Ben get all this info on them?? Even if there was someone on board the boat - he would not have time to gather the intelligence on them since 1, the communication station had been blown up, and 2, the sky turning purple had knocked every thing out anyway.

And if Michael or Walt is helping Ben - why? First, why would Walt help Ben direct people to the island that are to harm him - and why would Walt help Locke at the same time?

Okay, now that I’ve recovered…
The polar bear in Tunisia is an interesting concept. It supports my new theory that there are temporal wormholes on the island that not only allow a traveler to appear in different places over the world (at different time) but also connect to the spirit world. The smoke monster exists to protect these holes in space at the behest of Jacob.

Put that in your sandwich and eat it.

Here’s another… Oceanic is a sub-company of Widmore, it’s sole objective is to fly planes over the world on different and erratic flight paths in order to find the island. Widmore also sponsored a boat race around the world, probably on a strange course, in order to find the island.

Good? Here’s another -
I think the “rescue” team is there to not only find Ben, but to silence the survivors as well, and to find a way to reveal the island to it’s sponsor - Widmore. OR, maybe it’s another company - and Widmore has found the island too, via Naomi - who was a Widmore mole.

Good times - can’t wait for tomorrow’s episode.

Polar Bears. Tunisia. Polar Bears. Tunisia. Psychics. Light scatters. We all hate Ben. Polar Bears. Physicist. Anthropologist. Polar Bears. Hydra Collar. Polar Bears. Smoke Monsters. Hurley sees Jacob’s cabin. Tunisia. Miles sees dead people. Polar bears. Plane decoy. Tunisia.

My head is gonna ’splode.

I didn’t get to finishing my predictions before the season 4 opener of Lost. But it was a great episode. Here are my thoughts:

Hurley and the Oceanic Six
Hurley was one of six that got off the island, this includes Jack and Kate - leaving 3 unnamed (who will be eventually named in upcoming episodes. I believe that if the person in the coffin isn’t Locke, then it would be someone who wasn’t part of the Six. I think this because of something that someone brought up in the Jay and Jack Lost Podcast - If the Oceanic Six were celebrities - then the funeral would have been attended by reporters or other people. Famous people do not have empty funerals.
There is also the question of why Oceanic is trying to keep the Six hush about the events. Hurley was reluctant to give up information on Ana Lucia to her ex-partner, the detective.

The Oceanic Attorney Matthew Abaddon
Either this guy is part of Oceanic or he is one of the Manifestations. He’s creepy either way. I would have guessed he was part of the cover-up if it wasn’t for ghost Charlie showing up later in the episode. But of course, Hurley has seen other imaginary friends before the crash - but the nurse did acknowledge Matthew’s presence, so it remains to be seen.

Jacob’s Cabin
Yes, it’s been confirmed that Christian Shepard was in the cabin. And the eye that pops up in the window wasn’t Terry O’Quinn’s (Locke), although I had originally thought it was. I still can’t figure out if there were two people sitting, or only Christian… And the fact that the cabin can disappear leads me to believe that the entire thing is a manifestation of the island. I’m not clear on whether or not the ash line keeps it inside it’s boundaries or not - something that was left out in this episode.

Charlie Angel
The strangest thing, of course, is the appearance of Charlie off the island. This can mean a great number of things. 1) Charlie is not dead. 2) Charlie is dead and it is a ghost, not a property of the island that visits Hurley or 3) It is a manifestation of the island that can reach outside into the whole world. 4) It is Hurley’s imagination - something that is fuzzy, since another patient pointed to Charlie - and it can easily be thought of as mass delusion between two crazy people. If a crazy person points to an invisible person, it takes another crazy person to see it as well. Chew on that one.

Jack Shoots Locke
I just thought this was great. Jack pulls the trigger with the gun pointed at Locke’s face. Good TV right there. What mystifies me is why half of the camp goes with Locke - even if Hurley does give a passionate speech, Locke did flat out murder Naomi.

The Rescue Party
Yeah, I don’t trust these guys. But I guess we have to wait until next episode to meet most of them. I did see a preview of two of the rescuers that land on the island - one for Jack’s camp, and another for Locke’s camp. Crafty bastards. Kinda makes the Others look like honest men.

Naomi
Okay - knife in back, she gets up and walks away and NO ONE sees her leave (besides Ben)? And wasn’t kind of odd to see the Losties celebrate getting rescued while just leaving her body where it dropped with the knife still in her back? And how did she pull that out? And how did she climb a tree with a 8 inch knife wound in her back? Sure you can blame it on the island’s weird healing abilities, but c’mon… and then she ultimately covers for them, even though it is certain that they are the bad guys. My thought: Naomi doesn’t have a sister - that was code. It was an act to throw Kate off guard.

Well, that’s it - next episode “Confimed Dead”, might have some startling revelations about the other Oceanic 815 plane that was found at the bottom of the ocean. Two more days…

Well, less than a week until Lost starts - you know where I’ll be on Thursday night. In 2006 I made predictions of Season 3 (which you can read here) and some of those predictions where really accurate - some were way off… So I’m going to give it another shot. I’ve given up on actually calling what is going to happen. These predictions aren’t my beliefs but merely a “I hope”. So here we go:

Jack
I’ve always thought Jack was too much of a numbskull to be a doctor, hopefully in this season he’ll assert some of the same smarts that got him a PhD. I hope he bags Juliet, something tells me she’s going to die this season - and the women always die right before or after sex (Ana Lucia had sex with Sawyer, Shannon was jumping Sayid, and Libby was about to take the bounce with Hurley). We do know that Jack gets off the island and develops a painkiller habit so naturally he’d have to screw up big time in order to break him in the future. I think Ben was right, Jack is going to inadvertently kill a whole bunch of his people - or leave them in a perilous condition.

Locke
He’s going to be the other’s new leader - or at least be the leader of the group that wants to be on the island. He’s now acquired some God-like powers granted by the island, and will do the island’s bidding. I still think he’s the one in the coffin and that the series will end with him being taken from the island against his will. Either-way, hopefully we’ll see Jacob in this season and maybe Locke will, too. I just hope Locke stops being the mad bomber like he was in Season 3.

Kate
Kate is PREGGERS. If she is, then the rest of Lost will take place in less than nine months. Hopefully it will be a boy, and the child is who she is referring to in the finale as the one who is “wondering where I am” as she’s talking to doped-up “We have to go back” Jack. Sawyer will prove to be supportive and ultimately sacrificing his life for Kate and the baby - a call back to the “Tale of Two Cities” reference.

Charlie
Will appear as one of the island’s/monster’s forms. I don’t think the rest Charlie will exist though. He’s been sleeping with the fishes for quite some time. Hopefully, Claire will find his note “greatest hits” and his ring.

Hurley
He will make it off the island, but hopefully will have lost some weight - this unfortunately won’t be the case, as none of the recent pictures show him slimming down. This however leads to an interesting theory about whoever is “hushing” the survivors who make it off the island; what can you offer a millionaire to make him lie about what happened? Hurley is not the type to be swayed by money - so is he lying like Kate and Jack after they are “rescued”?

Michael
He’s on the freighter that Jack calls at the end of the finale. For some reason, Walt isn’t with him. He is going to either make amends for his murderous activities, or have some serious whoop-ass handed to him by Hurley.

Sawyer (now James)
Sawyer’s pretty much been castrated after killing his nemesis Cooper (”the Real Sawyer”). What other back stories will be told about him? The only question is how soon are the creators of Lost going to kill him off? Charlie kicked his demons (heroin) and now that James has exacted revenge, what’s left but to do one last noble thing and then die?

Sayid
Hopefully, Sayid will offer some better flashbacks (and flash-forwards) and step up as the Season’s action star. I wonder what’s the possibility of Nadia showing up on the island? Andrews is a great actor and I get weepy every time the dude sheds a tear.

Desmond
Well, first he’ll have to swim up from the Looking Glass station. Then he’ll have to race to inform everyone that it isn’t Penny’s boat. Where is Penny anyway? Why was she transmitting video to the Looking Glass Station? Charlie received an incoming transmission from her so wouldn’t that have to be a direct line broadcast? Unless she is nearby sending out a blanket transmission… I think the creators of Lost are setting up the biggest “Fuck you” in television. I think they’re are going to have Desmond and Penny almost meet before one of them dies.

More to come tomorrow…