1) When they first arrive and meet the Dharma folks it is through Amy, who just saw her husband Paul killed by some Hostiles and may have been killed herself had Juliet and Sawyer not flashed up with their guns.

2) Amy had some serious complications during her premature childbirth. Were it not for Juliet’s super baby-doctoring it seems little baby Goodspeed may not have come into the world.

So while we know Ethan Goodspeed to be Horace and Amy’s kid, Ethan Rom, whose parentage isn’t discussed, could be the spawn of someone else. Perhaps Amy and Paul- like if it weren’t for something that happened during all those headache-inducing flashes their picnic wouldn’t have been attacked and they could have gone on to happily procreate.

Or (and this is how I am leaning) Ethan Rom could be the progeny of a completely different couple – like if Ethan were destined to be born on the island, to whomever, even if Amy’s anatomy wasn’t up to the task. And the couple would probably be non-Dharma, because didn’t Ben killed the whole Dharma Initiative? So wouldn’t that mean Ethan Rom is of Hostile lineage?

And looking forward to the Buffy-Lost comparisons when I eventually get to final season of Buffy. I’m just starting the series now.

http://www.movieline.com/2010/02/buffy-lost-similarities.php

Sandy brought up something that I wondered for a split second then was promptly distracted by some whooshing by the show; Daniel Faraday and his mother AND father don’t have the same surname! It’s a tiny detail; but it’s bothered me for some time, not sure why.

They have yet to show PW Daniel so I’m not sure if he’s insignificant now. Before, he was a wreck due to his testing accident ruining his brain-pan.

The fact that we haven’t seen any of the old Others mingled with the other Others makes me curious as to that angle. Do the other Others know about the old Others? Or are the other Others the original inhabitants, pre-old Others; or am I off base?

I’m still trying to figure out Richard. He seems like a lackey or pawn in all of this island business. He does what he’s told like a good boy. I wouldn’t put it past the writer’s to make him out to be the mastermind in all of this at the very end.

P.S. POParitaville.com is a good Lost blog for the funny real-time commentary and the hilarious comments by @RabbiMarauder & @JungleJesse. I turn to you, @johncabrera for insight and the hilarity bonus

I forgot to mention it was also never made clear if this was the same vaccine/injections that Ethan was giving Claire during her abduction.

and there was a whole other subplot much later on about Juliet giving her the same injections when she got sick

But that went in an ENTIRELY different direction. Something about it being an implant[wtf?] that made Claire sick on purpose?

I cant remember the details other than it seemed to go nowhere, of course

I wonder if they will tie this with the pregnancy issues [also something that was never really clarified]

It seems possible to me that the similarities between Claire and Rousseau are coincidence, but it could also mean something very important. It’ll just depend on what Claire says or does when we see her again. Which would give us a big clue as to what this infection really means.

A lot of these things I don’t have the answers for because it requires a ton of knowledge we don’t have and I don’t feel comfortable making up. But, what I’ve stated before is what I thought about while first watching this episode. I’m excited to see how all our theories flesh out!

At very first glance I thought that the Mechanic was Tom. But he’s obviously not Tom and I don’t recognize him as any Other we’ve ever seen. I recognize him from BTVS. It was Jeff Kober, and he is credited on IMDB for LOST as the Mechanic, but no one else.

Pauline – I think that Smokey is the MIB. He was shot, then disappeared, and the bullet was on the ground and he was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t just hide behind a pillar. He was GONE. Where would he have gone if he wasn’t Smokey?

Plus, according to IMDB, Jeff Kober wasn’t even credited for his Lost appearance and no signs he’s ever appeared in Lost before.

I seem to recall Charlie getting ahold of these vaccines and giving them to Claire to give to herself, or possibly Aron.

Later on, Desmond admits that the vaccine was possibly part of the ruse that Kelvin tells him, involving the HAZMAT suit and the ‘quarantine’ sign on the hatch door. But if the button ended up being real, why wouldnt the danger that DHARMA had to create these vaccines for, also be real?

Also: if these are part of the ‘shots’ that Dharma recruits have to take when arriving on the island, like Ben’s dad was complaining about, then the ’77ers like Sawyer, Jin, would have also taken them.

Could that also tie into why the Purge was started in the first place? Does the vaccine prevent infection/sickness, or maybe from the Others’ POV is the cause of it?

Or the Temple Others could just be extremely paranoid…

Not sure if it was mentioned, but this infection may have been the reason why Widmore ordered Ben to kill Rousseau

It just bothers me that they’re bringing this type of storyline back, so late in the series.

All I’m going to say is I doubt Claire is infected. I mean, ok, she could – with Lost, everything is possible- but I feel like she may have tried to survive. Though they will need to explain why after the explosion she disappeared. Was she kidnapped? Did she lost herself? Or by the time she could have found the Losties, they were gone and therefore she was left alone on the Island for 3 years? I think this should be explained (I hope) next episode.

Oh and John, I agree with what you’ve said about Walt and his ‘possible’ super powers. And I think we may never hear from him again (but who knows, right?). I feel like it may be the one storyline they dropped in the course of the show and thus might never be explained. But considering how many shows drop storylines casually (*cough* Smallville *cough*), I think I can give them this one if we never hear from it again. Or I’ll tweet Carlton about it

I’m suspect of Richard. He was part of the purge… makes me wonder who he’s working for. Ben says he made a decision to kill a bunch of people in one day (obviously the purge) but yet, later it was admitted that someone else called the purge. And why would Jacob purge a people who seemed pretty down with his Ankh-iness?

Fun pre-brunch facts…
In further looking into the Tec’s I’ve found that Tezcatlipoca was similar to the tripple goddesses of various pagan religions. Only he was more of a quadruple god, or a QuadGod, if you will…. OMG! Shut up! I just recalled this… one of my favorite goddesses, the Norse Goddess The Morrigan was also a Quad. She is known as Morgan, Badb, Macha and Nemain. She (they) is also a shape shifter like MIB. So, anywho, the four aspects of the TezQuad are: Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec.

Huitzilopochti known as the god of war, had a messenger named Painal who often took on his master’s attributes at official functions while the big guy was trapped in the underworld or otherwise unavailable. Makes me wonder who he’s really working for. We’ve never actually SEEN him with Jacob, have we?

Oh… and we’ve seen one of the DHARMA-ites acting as the island’s chorus… In Locke’s dream when Horus was chopping down that tree. Wait… why did horus have the map to Jacob’s cabin in his pocket? Where the DHARMA’s the REAL chosen people before the Losties? Does Jacob go out and pick successive groups of people to take on the Others?

Sorry J, I’m treating your blog comment area like the wall behind the stove tonight.

So I take it from your comment, you’re not a big fan of Sawyer? Cause I feel like I’ve always been able to see through the tough guy act to a vulnerability underneath. In some ways when he was at his angriest and most sarcastic is when my heart went out to him the most.

Also, my point about Smokey taking on the form of dead people, is that he can only do it if the body is exposed. Meaning any body that’s been buried would be off limits to Smokey. And that’s why I think last season the Dharma folks seem so obsessed with burying their dead. So Boone’s sister Shannon wouldn’t qualify. Or any of the dead losties, because they were always buried. But Eko’s brother Yemi was left in the plane, Alex was left dead at Otherton, Christian’s body was in a coffin, and so was Locke’s.

But of course, P, you make a good point. Why not cover up the Dharma folks after the purge? Maybe they planned to do so. I mean, if you dig a pit like that, you probably plan to cover it up, right? And just because a body is left unburied, may not mean that Smokey will take it… just that he can. He seems to use these dopple-forms for a purpose. Also, maybe the Others don’t know about the burying thing. Maybe it was only the Dharma folks. They did, after all, know enough about Smokey to build a sonar defense against him… where did they learn that? They also placed some sort of value on the Ankh symbol which does seem tied to Jacob. I remember last season, you had a theory about them being some sort of religious cult. Perhaps a certain spirituality did play hand in hand with their science.

I agree with everyone that Kate’s character is stunted; I’m over it, show me someone more interesting. Claire the Wild Things Are? I’ll take it!

Sawyer makes sense that he’d grow, he had all that time with Juliet to really find a home, something that I feel he’d never really allowed himself to have. His sarcasm/con always armored him against it. Meh, whatever. The audience is supposed to feel for him now, mission accomplished.

Not everyone who died on the island has reappeared somewhere. Have we seen the blonde sister of Boone again yet? I don’t remember (I don’t remember her name either).

I feel like there has to be a reason (other than actors getting other gigs) for certain characters to be revisited via vision/hallucination/Smokey manifestation; but for the life of me I don’t have one.

I really feel like this whole series is one big leap over a tankful of great whites with blood in the water; and I’m addicted.