Let me see if I understand this correctly: The MIB can't kill candidates and candidates can't kill themselves, but non-candidates can kill candidates and candidates can kill each other. Is that right?

Why was Michael unable to kill himself? Was he a candidate at the time but we just didn't know it?

Do I have this right?

Hurley used the numbers to win the lottery. He got the numbers from a guy in the looney bin, and the guy's wife said the numbers were cursed.

The Dharma people put the numbers on the hatch door, and they typed them into the computer every 108 minutes.

Jacob assigned those numbers to some of his candidates.

Is the repeated use of these numbers just mere coincidence? Has it already been explained (and maybe I just don't remember) or are we still hoping for an explanation in the finale?

I think he was joking. I hope he was joking.

I don't know. I don't think Michael not being able to kill himself had anything to do with being a candidate. I think it had to do with the will of the island not allowing him to kill himself. Maybe the island's will and Jacob's will are one and the same and I'm totally lost but who knows.

Once again, I think most of the frustration that people are feeling with this show comes from their desire to fit everything that's happened on the series as a whole into logical flowcharts and provable scientific equations that make perfect sense.

"THIS happened in season 1, and THIS happened in season 2, therefore it doesn't make sense that THIS was the result in season 6! *stomp*"

This show just doesn't work that way. It has greatly evolved over the years, and each season seems to work best within its own particular rules and logic. I'm not saying that I'm anywhere near fully satisfied with the conclusions that are coming up, or even the direction that some characters have moved in (or non-direction, hi Kate!), but I prefer to enjoy what's happening on the show now rather than make sure page 79, line 4 of my clue notebook can be reconciled with page 3, line 8.

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I think you're conflating science and logic. I think only a fool would be looking for a plausible scientific explanation for what has gone on. I think only a fool would excuse the lack of an ending that is logically satisfying, though. This is one show. There is no excuse for there to be different "rules" for each season, particularly over the last half of the series. This is just more excuse making for hack charlatans who had every opportunity to make something much more satisfying than it would appear they did.

"I f**** your son's dog."
"What?

Wrong. She was candidate 313, a tidbit I only remember due to the fact that I have an affinity for this particular number. MIB lied to her and Kate about not being candidates....dunno why. Or, maybe, he meant no longer active candidates.

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Cand...own_candidates

Agreed, fully.

Or the writers forgot. Which seems more likely.

That's the thing though - I am pretty much satisfied at this point. So are many others.

Also, we haven't seen an ending yet, so we don't know whether it's satisfying or if it needs any excuses. I can imagine, however, that there will be plenty of people watching tomorrow night with their keyboards poised in front of them, fingers ready to strike at those hack charlatans at a moment's notice. I'd rather just try to enjoy the final episode of what has been, for the most part, a brilliant, moving, and unique show, the likes of which we probably won't see again.

qft

Truth. There are people who get their rocks off being negative.

regarding this episode

let's remember that Ben "always has a plan"

i assume Ben giving Miles a 2 way radio had some significance

There are also people who intend to hold the creators to their statements circa the time when the length of the series was set and expect a conclusion that does not jerk us around Alias or X-Files style. It's not a particularly high bar. I've never demanded any of the really trivial answers like who shot at the outrigger.

I'm the sort of guy who is pissed that they gave us an episode that was even titled in a way that made it clear we should expect significant exploration of the Linus-Widmore relationship, yet we have dick there. No excuse for that. No excuse.

Whatever happened to Christian's body on the island? Assuming Oceanic didn't ship an empty coffin, shouldn't his body have been found at some point?

And there will also be plenty of people watching tonight that will eat up anything the hacks will give them. They've already seemingly decided that the finale will be awesome, because hey, it's Lost.

I've had a way out theory for quite some time that Jack used to be on the island as a baby (dunno if you saw when I posted it before...I think I posted it early on in this thread) and that Christian was a central figure on the island at some point in the past, at some point our Losties did not flash to in season five.

The fact that his body seemed to have disappeared in both realities when the plane went over the island whether it was under the water or not has to be leading to some big reveal in the final episode. I don't know if he was on the island in the past, but considering how the candidates were flashed off the Ajira flight it's perhaps a clue when Jack and his father's corpse were apparently flashed off of the Oceanic flight.

I can't think of any clues up until now that would suggest this theory is correct...so that's why I consider it very out there. But they really haven't fed us too many clues why Christian's body disappears in both timelines.

I never considered that before, but I think you are spot on. I did consider Desmond would use the electromagnetic properties to change something in the past, whether it be stopping the bomb from going off or stopping Jacob from influencing the Losties, but I never considered he would go into the source.

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not, but TVGuide.com had ten questions they wanted answered in the series finale and at the top of the list was (of course) the sideways timeline. I loved a theory they threw out there...I think it sticks better than anything we have come up with...and that's Eloise is somehow responsible for the reset and that's why she's the only one who knows about both timelines in the reset/sideways timeline. But how would she get to the island in the finale? I think somehow she does, though.



Interesting idea! Gee, if only they touched on this in "Across the Sea." I wonder if we will get a full answer to this in the finale.

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I think the hatch/pushing the button was actually protecting the source of the light. If Desmond didn't turn the fail safe key I think the island would have been destroyed. And I think that's what we are going to see happen in the finale...somebody (MIB, perhaps, or maybe even Eloise or Desmond or Jack...those are the only people I can see pulling it off) will find a way to get to the source of the light to use it to destroy the island. But I don't think it will destroy the light itself...my theory is that the light itself cannot be destroyed. It may just displace to a different part of the world, hidden again until the cycle starts all over again.

Neither do I. I've been terribly busy over the last several days (moving) so I don't know how the theory of David being MIB went over, but I do hope there is a happy ending for MIB and he does get off the island and gets to lead the life he always wanted. Thinking more about it, him becoming David is the best way for him to achieve this goal.

I will always think they had the broad strokes in mind, but the details in the pudding? There's no way they had everything mapped out early on. And I think the finale will be good and satisfying. I think it will piss people off, but that's inevitable with something with this much hype behind it. All along, I've been on board for the ride and the ride only. I know in the past year I've gotten more deep into the theories of what's going to happen, but even if they go in a completely different direction than I expected I trust it will be a thrilling direction.

Hmm. But what about Sun? She didn't flash off flight 316 and she was a candidate. Neither did Frank, and last night's enhanced repeat of the pilot episode said he was a candidate at some point, which is why he was drawn to the island twice--first as Widmore's chopper pilot and then as the captain of fllight 316.

Plus, this season the MIB told Jack he was impersonating Christian when Jack chased him through the jungle in Season 1. I thought the MIB was able to do this only because he found Christian's unburied body. I thought this step was necessary for the MIB to appear as others (he found Yemi's unburied body and appeared as Yemi to Eko; he found Locke's unburied body and now appears as Locke; etc.). If this is how it works, then that means the MIB found Christian's body. The question remains: what did he do with it?

MIB stole Christian and Yemi's body... he must have hid em somewhere because once he start looking like em, they were nowhere to be found

Lockes body was retrieved and buried by ilana and them, meanwhile MIB is stuck as Locke

is there a correlation between MIB being stuck as Locke in human form and the fact that we know where his body is? hmm

The Man in Black can look like anyone who you remember from your past. Richard's wife's body was not on the island, neither were the people that Eco saw on the island that he killed in Africa. I assume that he can look like anyone that you have "stored in your head" after the MIB reads you.

True...that's why I said it was "out there" because I was thinking of the holes in the theory as well. It's probably the most off the wall theory I've come up with, but at the very least I need an explanation by the time this wraps up on why Jack was apparently flashed off the plane in season one. He woke up in the same bamboo field in both instances of Oceanic and Ajira...there has to be a reason.

And if the island is destroyed in alt 2004 and apparently MIB is either dead or free of the island, why does Christian's body again disappear? There may be more to it than "he was on the island before" but I do think it will lead to a big reveal in tonight's episode.

As for why Sun may not have been taken off the plane...perhaps because Jin wasn't with her? Perhaps the island needed both of them together and considered both of them one candidate? Married people being viewed as one in union goes back centuries...it wouldn't be a new concept for the show.

And I must have been missing something...I totally missed Lapedius being a candidate. I'm not disagreeing with you...it's just proof there's a few details I missed out on.