BanLinus… I believe if you go back to a point that you are not alive that it may give you a certain clairvoyance or psychic ability in regards… not exactly sure what, but why did the “Others” specifically want the kids, was it only because they were more pure?

Rick_ D… I rewatched the 1st couple of episodes again during this long weekend, and at one point Jack does theorize that the plane was more like a couple hundred feet in the air when it split, but regardless – coming in at that force and strewing bodies all over the place with such violance… if one person survived it would have been a miracle! I also used the word “purgatory” (or rather “Limbo”) loosely – I absolutely do not buy in to the whole Religious equation in LOST at all. I was trying to find a word as to that state of their existence at the moment.

I think the Island is actually is not only at a different date and time, but is essential part of a completely different dimension – one beyond our sense of reason. All the 815ers are actually dead – yet because of this dimensional void they have past through, they are suspended in time and have the capability to move freely as if they were still alive. Why would it be so important that they can not leave the Island? And why could Michael not be killed of the Island (or just outside of the Island)? Was the boat not inside the radius when it blew up? Sawyer & Juliet did see the plume of smoke from the beach, and the only time we actually see any vessel in the waters surrounding the Island is if its in the radius of the Island.

I know that Locke dies off the Island but could it have something to do with the fact that he left the Island the same way as Ben did, and maybe in accordance to the rules, Ben knew he’d be the only one that could somehow kill Locke…?

The tricky part about this whole show is that we constantly see people appear that have died, and are led to believe all along that this is possible – we actually see them converse with the various people on & off the island at different times… so in regards to that why do we automatically take for granted that the 815ers are alive, and they are just seeing or conversing with ghosts?

If we are looking for logical reasons and a few hooks to hang our hats on, we sould first go to the “scene of the crime”, and first determine how 78 people survived such a crash, wouldn’t we? I guess my point here is that why do we all take that impossibility for granted?

Has anyone read the “The Third Policeman” yet? (It’s a difficult read at times, but the similarities to LOST are numerable…) It’s sort of an “Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” type of novel where the main character turns out to be dead the whole time. I’m more, and more leaning towards this with the 815ers, but I believe that the added wrench to this twist is that they did not die within our dimension. In other words like I mentioned prior, the Island is revolving in a different dimension – maybe not like I metioned in a different time period, but maybe its a dimension is similar to the state of mind of the main character of “Slaughter House 5″, were he constantly lives on his life in random order, yet he already knows when he dies. They call it the 4th dimension.

So they definitely did not just accept what happened,, just hoping we get more answers!

The whole idea of purgatory, limbo, etc, has been debunked so many times now by the writers, that’s the main problem here. Granted, there are multiple interpretations of “These people have hearts and when those hearts stop beating they die.”

But at this point, I think if they wobbled even the slightest bit back toward “they were all kinda-maybe-sorta-half-dead” at this point, we’d collectively cry foul.

Some interesting ideas, particularly trying to figure out what the heck Claire is doing hanging out with dead-dad. But a few too many holes I fear.

I hope the writers are smarter than this.