do you think that was before Claire got pregnant with Aaron? Because Jacob's reasoning for crossing off Kate's name was that she became a mother.

Re: MiB wanting the candidates back on the Island, I'm still thinking about him being the one to bring them back via the "flashes".

So what could have been done to prevent this?

Oh, man, I had totally forgotten about that conversation. Big story, LOST is.

A friend may ask you to go to the coffee shop, and you go along. You can also go to the coffee shop on your own volition. The Island is like that. The wheel may make the Island move (although the Island does have some say in it, as in moving well for Locke or poorly for Ben.)

Kate needed to see for herself the reason that she had to go back to the Island.

MiB is the one who is supposed to be the eventual protector, and Jacob "steals" that from him, the end result being Jacob throwing MiB into the light and turning him into Smokey.

All right, "non-linear." Better? ;-)

Yay, 1000!

Jumping in here…

I love Mother as a Demeter figure— nurturing and caring, but capable of great wrath and destruction.

I can also talk about how Michael's timeline from "Live Together Die Alone" to "Meet Kevin Johnson" doesn't work at all…

The way I see it, pretty much as I outlined above. The Dharma evacuees don't return (like Miles and Lara Chang, for instance.) Amy stays because she's just had a baby, and the submarine pressurization / depressurization could be dangerous. So Ethan basically grows up as the only child in the remaining DI.

I do love ATS, though: it's one of the few episodes I'll rewatch for the hell of it, just to immerse myself in the world, at how wild and beautiful the Island is, yet at the same time how Mother has become a sort of "death goddess." It gives me that chill up the spine that CS Lewis called "the numinous."

Aw, I could ship that. I liked him.

Hi there, welcome to the world's most convoluted but very fun LOST discussion!

She just told Locke the last episode that she didn't want to come back, even if everyone on the Island was going to die.

Locke needs reassurances from people all the time.

the voice sounded like one Hugo Reyes.

So to summarize so far:
Me: Hurley, Rose, Claire