they are in the same time period as the Dharma Initiative

Also I’m almost more interested in, not WHO Adam and Eve are, but why and how they come across the white and black stones (another reason it shouldn’t be bernard and rose…that’s too easy).

Am I the only one who really dislikes those 2 characters? And, besides, where the hell have they been?! We haven’t seen them since the beach got pelted with flaming arrows.

Ben’s way pushed the wheel handle to the wall. Locke’s way, left his body’s width between the wheel handle and the wall.

Is Locke the “key” to stopping the skipping? Is he the only one with the right “space” that makes the right adjustment for the axis?

thoughts?

Losties in the wrong time?

Others? Is it a Parallel Universe?

Hmmmmmmm

In any case, bang-up job as usual. For my money, Ben and Widmore are two halves of Ozymandias, more in their fascist methodologies than anything. And Locke’s blind faith/ambition does remind me a little of Rorschach — just a little. I love that the man who once believed Boone was the sacrifice the Island demanded is now, well, the sacrifice the Island demands.

As for Des, hm…never really saw him as a Dr. Manhattan-like character despite the similarities you mention, if only because at the core of Desmond’s character is a sense of being storm-tossed and not in control. Particularly at that point in the story! That was where he went from Odysseus to Billy Pilgrim to me. But he’s also never had the resigned acceptance of being “a puppet who can see the strings,” either. He’s fighting the future in a big way.

And the Island? I’ve been ambivalent about the Island’s motivations ever since Smokey executed Eko in cold blood. Until that point, I had a notion that it was only bad or unworthy people who ran afoul of the Island’s rather harsh form of (usually poetic) justice. But the second the Monster did that to Eko, I started to wonder if the Island wasn’t perhaps more capricious in the mold of the Greco-Roman Gods.

I think you’re right: splitting hairs.

Christian Sheppherd tells Locke, “There’s a wheel here that’s slipped off it’s axis. All you have to do is give it a little push.” Locke doesn’t give it a little push, he pulls the Donkey Wheel.

Now, that may be splitting hairs, but I’m wondering since he didn’t push the wheel, it leaves the Island skipping. Somewhat like Ben pushing the wheel, wasn’t what the Island wanted. It wanted Locke to do the job. If you notice, Ben did in fact PUSH the wheel…..

There are some huge loops opening and closing lately. Now that Locke may have stabilized the Island in who knows what time, will it ever get unstuck again? If they are now in 1980, for example, will the Left Behinders have to live for 24 years on the Island (fulfilling destiny) just to gaze into the sky to see themselves crashing? Did they always see themselves crash? Maybe that first night, the Smoke Monster ate all the Left Behinders up while the recent crash survivors thought there might be a dinosaur in the trees. Nope, just yourself getting chomped. Pay no attention to those super loud noises over there.

As far as loops getting closed, I love that the rope that Sawyer was holding on to may be the reason someone may have dug a well there in the first place. Love, love, love. That may have been the first “discovery” of the wheel since it was originally built perhaps centuries ago. Great use of “what you hold comes with you.” But perhaps the biggest loop of the show is the actual creation of the wheel. Doc has his theory that it was Faraday, missing foot and all, that created it.

When Locke fixes the broken donkey wheel, will that effectively mean no more time skipping? If so, where does that leave Sawyer, Juliet and Daniel? If they are in the year 10,000 BC, will they be stuck there then? If the Oceanic 6 (or a subset) make there way back to the island, will they find them as old people, or not there at all? Seems like this may be part of the adventure of the rest of the season!

LOCKE: How did you know there was a bullet in my leg, Richard?
RICHARD: Because you told me there was, John.
LOCKE: No, no. No, I didn’t.
RICHARD: Well… you will.

The conversation where Locke tells Richard about being shot occurs off screen in 1954, which leads to:
RICHARD: After you were shot in the leg and I… wandered out of the jungle to patch you up?
LOCKE: That’s right.
RICHARD: Then why don’t I remember… well, any of this?
LOCKE: Because it hasn’t happened yet.

in the season premiere, Richard arrives at the downed plane to remove the bullet from Locke’s leg. when Locke asks why he came with a first-aid kit, Richard’s response is basically, because you told me to, drill sergeant. since we haven’t seen Locke give Richard this order, we can deduce that Locke will return to the island alive, right? Or are we supposed to have assumed that Locke told Richard this at the same time he gave him the compass (back in 1954)?