2. WHO WAS IN THE CASKET?
Why I'm intrigued: Because clearly, I'm SUPPOSED to be wondering who was in that casket! It was neither ''friend'' nor ''family,'' nor was it someone who was particularly well liked. And yet it was someone whose death could move Jack to tears and bridge-jumping despair.
What you guys are saying: The likely suspect is Michael, followed by Locke, Ben, and even the mysterious Jacob. Curious: According to several eagle-eyed super-sleuths like Maria Rotella, the name of the deceased in the death notice that Jack saw in the newspaper is partially visible. The first name begins with ''J'' and the last name ends with the letters ''ntham.'' (However, there MIGHT be a second reference in the obit that spells the last name ''Latham.'') Many of you believe that this clue points to ''Jeremy Bentham,'' a name that happens to be shared by...yet another Enlightenment-era philosopher! And as Ryan McGee pointed out to me, one of Bentham's claims to fame was designing a prison known as the Panopticon, which has a Wikipedia entry sure to fire the imaginations of all you theorists.
Doc Jensen says: Shout-outs to Ramon Valera and Arma Marquez for hooking me up with Bentham research. But I also like the idea advanced by Dan Cymarron and Johnny Utah that the obit points to ''John Latham,'' a conceptual artist who subscribed to Lost-ish-sounding notions regarding the interrelationship of past and present called ''Flat Time.'' (Again: see Wikipedia.) But how about the reference to the name of the building mentioned in the newspaper clipping? It was ''The Tower.'' Hiatus homework: Read Stephen King's Dark Tower saga, then investigate the Tarot card significance of ''The Tower.''
Hyperlink allusions aside, which (dead) castaway is hiding behind the curtain of this pseudonym? My money is on Michael. Gobstopper feels the same way, and offers this savvy read on the real reason why Jack would be so distraught over the castaway traitor's death: ''I don't think Jack actually cared about Michael. I think he cared about what Michael knew. Let's assume Michael escaped the island. With his suicide, he would have taken with him the knowledge of how to return to the island. It's possible that Jack is devastated now that his only [possible source of direction to the Island] is now dead.''
3. WHY DID JACK SAY ''FORGIVE ME'' RIGHT BEFORE HE WAS ABOUT TO JUMP FROM THE BRIDGE?
Why I'm intrigued: Because it seems to suggest that between now and when he leaves the Island, Jack will make a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Is Ben right? Will calling Naomi's freighter prove to be a tragic, bloody ''beginning of the end''?
What you guys are saying: Many of you were troubled by this dark turn for Jack. Reader Vicki Hobb was so bothered, she came up with some theories designed to reverse Jack's downward spiral. ''I have 3 theories. 1. The flash forward is a 'possible' [future], not set in stone a la Desmond prognostications. 2. The flash forward is a bad dream a la Bobby Ewing. 3. The flash forward is real, which would really bum me out because unlike some people out there, I really like Jack.'' Indeed, while most of you LOVED the flash-forward, Robert St. Laurent worries that the show may have made a strategic mistake by revealing that post-Island life for the castaways will be exceedingly bleak. ''If this is the case, how do we stay invested in this group of people? We want them to live, to get off the island, to find redemption. If the show is three seasons more of the characters' slow, tortuous decline to despair or death, then this really was, in the words of Ben, 'the beginning of the end.'''
Doc Jensen says: To Rob and Vicki, I might suggest that instead of alienating you, the future twist has brilliantly hooked you. Two reasons: 1. Now, more than ever, you find yourselves invested in these characters. 2. I think you were so distracted by Jack's jarringly dour circumstances that you failed to recognize that what we REALLY saw in that flash forward was the beginning of a new Hero's Journey. I like reader Michael Peters' projection of where Lost is headed; he thinks that over the course of the next three seasons, the Island-set stories will reveal how the castaways got OFF the Island, while the flash-forward stories will track Jack's efforts to get back to the Island with several other surviving castaways: ''Season 6 will be the return [to the Island], and THAT will close out the series. Am I out of control?'' No way! Sounds wonderfully (in)sane to me!
(And if Jack could find it in his heart to shave that unkempt cat off his face between now and the end — even better!)
NEXT PAGE: What Planet of the Apes has to do with it
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