I don't think the four years that Kate's mom mentions has anything to do with the timeline of when the flash forward takes place.

She wasn't saying that she thought Kate had been dead for four years. What she was saying is that for four years, doctors have been telling her that she only has 6 months to live (we knew she was sick before Kate even went to the island, as we saw in flashbacks). So she doesn't *really* know how much time she has, so 4 years of constantly being told she has 6 months to live COMBINED with several months of thinking Kate was dead changed her attitude toward Kate.

That was my take on it anyway.

Perhaps he doesn't want the the people who sent him to the island knowing he is there to make some money for himself.

The credit reads "William Blanchette as Two Year Old Boy"

Same here without Locke this would be an average show. I did think this episode was more of a filler one. The ending was way to obvious...unless she just happened to name her baby the same exact name. Given this show that could be a possibility.

Although Locke is one of my favorites, the show would still be great without him. Sure some of the past seasons had a lot of crappy filler episodes, but the depth of the show is in the storytelling.

It was shocking at how predictable it was. The creators of this show rarely take the predictable route so when they ended it that way, I was shocked that they stayed with the obvious.

I think it's going to be Ben.

I agree...

I think it will be Ben as well. The question is, will we find out this season?

According to the producers in the new EW today,

AARON HAS BLUe EYES, that BABY HAD BROWN EYES

Don't all babies start out with blue eyes, even when they change to brown later?

I think it's only green that turns into brown. Blue eyes only get lighter, no?

Other books on Ben's shelf:

Caravan Of Dreams by Idries Shah
Farhenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Glass Menegerie by Tennessee Williams
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

And one book each by Arthur C. Clarke and Kurt Vonnegut. The rest of the spines are unreadable.

Another thing for you Close Caption people out there: when Kate comes out of the car and is confronted by the press, there is one guy who seems very out of place and clearly not from the media. He's got a white t-shirt on and a jean coat with wool on the top and a scraggly beard. As Kate goes by he screams at her something which sounds like, "we'll get you all!" You have to pause to get a really good look at the guy. It's only a second or so.

I called the baby being Aaron the minute Kate said that she had a son.

I actually liked Locke for a few seconds when he fed Miles the grenade.

cracksky - I noticed that dude, too.

I noticed that as it aired, and rewound to check the CC - nothing on mine. I *think* he just yelled something like "You're a hero!"

My theory is that in addition to being a physicist, Daniel Faraday is also a psychic. An empath, if you will. That would explain why he would be crying at the discovery of the "fake" Oceanic plane and not know why. Charlotte was obviously trying a psychic experiment with Daniel trying to guess the cards. Perhaps, the island is blocking his psychic abilities.

Well, you have to look at everything together. Kate went to see her mother when she found out she was sick and in the hospital. A reasonable assumption is that she was in the hospital because she was suffering from cancer and got the bad news of her impeding death then. Then her mom gives the four years line at the courthouse.

Now we have the complication of the "two year old boy". But clearly the island the real world are not synced timewise (see the payload experiment conducted by Daniel). While possible, I don't think Aaron is going to suddenly age two years the second he comes off of the island. So he's at least been off for about two years. The question is how long of a gap is there between island and real time. I've said before I don't think it's a constant multiplier, so to me, two years might be a reasonable period of time.

So, using this theory, I would estimate this timeline (all dates in real time)

2003: Kate in hospital.
2004: Crash
2005: Rescue
2007: Trial of Kate
2009: Meeting of Jack / Kate at the airport
2010: End of LOST Series

No, we haven't forgotten (and you won't let us). But, I wouldn't put too much stock into it.

considering how the members of the oceanic six are very worried about a secret getting out (Jack visiting Hurley in the nut house to make sure he didn't tell; Kate interrupting Jack's testimony at her trial), I think it's pretty likely that anybody who happens to leave the island who isn't part of the O6 is probably going to have to use an alias.

Matthew fox stated in an interview that the crash, as we know, happened in September of 2004. And when we see him all bearded up and depressed is approximately 18 months after the crash. I seriously doubt that they are trying to keep the time of the show with realtime. It would be damn near impossible. Every episode we watch is either a day or two of island time and not real time.

Did anybody else see this coming at the end of season 3? I was discussing that idea with a friend of mine that I bounce my Lost theories off of, and he didn't think it could be Aaron, but I thought then (and know now) that the "him" Kate told Jack she had to get back to was going to be a child, more than likely Aaron. My friend thought there was no way. Just as he thought there would be no way that Ben could be in the coffin because he thought Ben would never leave the island, but that was proven wrong in last week's episode.

Ben had SEVERAL passports...who is to say he's even known by Ben on the main land, or that he used the same name on each passport? He obviously had people out looking for him for a long time, judging from the amount of trouble they put into reaching the island to get to him in this season. Do you think he traveled to America using the name Ben Linus?

Jack seems to come to know Ben very well, and may even discover the aliases Ben uses for his off island travels, and knows Ben's alias in America, and thus recognizes the name in the paper not as the actual name but as Ben's alias.

I don't recall which of the previous Lost threads it was in, but I recall reading on here somebody post that the producers of the show were aware that Walt would age in real time faster than they were pacing the series, so they planned for that. When we last saw Walt, Locke was surprised by how much older he appeared...AFTER he got off the island. So that certainly does validate the time sync theory, and it's likely they are keeping Aaron young on the island but once he gets off he will start aging normally again.

The ageless theory on the island also works because eyeliner man who works with Ben appeared to be the same age now as he was when he encountered Ben as a young boy. The island doesn't just help people heal faster but it also slows down the aging process considerably.

So if the rescue is in 2005 and Aaron pretty much hasn't aged on the island and the trial of Kate is in 2007, then yeah...he'd look like he's two years old because he started aging normally off the island.

If something happens to Claire, it must be after she and Aaron gets on a helicopter. Desmond had a vision of them getting on a helicopter in the season 3 finale. So far, this vision is the furtherest out we've seen, as it's been a few days since he had it, and she hasn't done it yet. This vision should come true since all of his other visions (except when the times he saved Charlie) have come true.