The argument that the Purge is in the 1980s is based on the idea that it makes no sense for Ben to have kidnapped Alex while still feigning loyalty to the Dharma Initiative. Whereas the argument that the Purge is in 1992 is based on the apparition of Horace implying that it was in 1992. The latter is much stronger…

So you're saying Hurley and Libby weren't a good couple? Why? They seemed to get on OK. Also, your '1000-yard stare of disgust' comment doesn't seem to fit at all with Hurley and Libby's interactions in Two for the Road. Why go on a picnic with someone if you see them as irresponsible (the near suicide)/condescending…

Knowing Hurley, he wouldn't have given up on either. It's Jacob who decided that protecting the Island was a job for an emotionally disturbed loner - because he, understandably, was one himself. Hurley seems more like the kind of protector who would a) understand that life is too important to spend all of it saving…

Hurley says that he won the lottery about a year before the crash. He says that he won the lottery a couple of months after he left the institution. It's unlikely to have been all that long between Hurley rejecting Dave as imaginary and Hurley being released, as he describes the rejection as 'a breakthrough'.…

How about 'a woman who has overcome severe mental health issues might find it easier than others to connect with a man who has overcome severe mental health issues'?

Which gives those of us who really liked Ana Lucia even more reason to be pissed off with Michael.

I always thought Ana Lucia's death came right at the end of her conflict; she had minutes earlier resolved to stop being antagonistic towards people she was afraid of, and she was finally in a position where she was no longer lost, she was just a tired, honest-with-herself woman wanting to go home. Her candidacy ended…

Maybe after 3 years of being constantly on the run she's just relieved to have a different, less all-encompassing thing to be afraid of.

If Eko was meant to do what Locke did in S5 and S6, does that mean Locke was meant to do what Jack did in S5 and S6? If so, what would have happened to Jack?

Harold Lauder and Frances Goldsmith certainly weren't.

That makes sense, except that Kate and Sawyer were on the Mainie list, both of whom were at that time candidates. Also not making sense: Ben's claim he was there to take Locke, another candidate, and the reason Jack and Hurley, the two actual subsequent Jacobs, weren't on it. Perhaps Jacob had been spying on Kate and…

Cindy was there to give the Tailies a way to know that rescue wasn't coming, as they couldn't get the info from Seth Norris like the Mainies did. Bernard was a grounding voice post-S.O.S. and he did help with the tent-attack on the Others.

It's a great theory, but undercut by the sheer shoddiness and irrelevance of the FST as a concept. It would have at least been plausible if they'd limited it to the already-dead characters and not saturated the arc with that Last Battle-style religious claptrap about how the island events were better than anything…

I loathed the reveal in Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham that she died of an aneurysm. I'd have preferred Locke's attempt to reunite with her go 1 of two ways: 1a) she convinces him to return to the Island and agrees to come with him, when he dies she goes in his place, perhaps reminding the O5 of their own reasons to…

The missing splices in the Orientation film reveal is a good one. I myself grew tumescent with anticipation.

When I saw it originally, and every time since, I get the impression that Cynthia Watros is playing 'Oh my god, there were 23 survivors when I left, but now there's 5 and I'm surprised and horrified.' She looks horrified and confused in that shot, when she says 'there were', rather than grim and long-term afraid,…

A Jacob Did It.

In my opinion the Man in Black was the result of fusing a dying man's consciousness with an ancient mechanism of judgement. The smoke monster existed before the Man in Black - it was an Anubis figure, worshipped by the Island's Ancient Egyptian culture - the difference being that Anubis judged whether people were good…

But the weight is immediately taken away by Sawyer pooh-poohing the idea.

As far as I'm concerned that is the case. Nothing on the show ever contradicted this; the only thing that came close is Richard saying 'he'll forget this ever happened'. That could be interpreted as 'he won't remember being brought to the Temple.'