Theories on Namaste

-I think the big question I had after watching this last episode is this: when are Ben, Sun, Lapidus, etc.? The show labels the time as "30 years earlier," which would put them at 2007. However, Sun and Lapidus end up in what look like Dharma barracks.

Now, we know the Others lived in the Dharma barracks for an unspecified amount of time, and when they moved in, they removed all traces of Dharma. They are there from at least 2001 (when Juliet is recruited) to 2005 (when they abandon them after the mercenaries land on-Island).

The Purge occurred in 1992 (Horace Goodspeed tells John he's been dead for 12 years in 2004), so that means there is a time period of about nine years where Dharma is gone, and we're not sure if the Others have taken over their compound or not.

This puts Sun somewhere between 1992 and 2001.

Unless, of course, this isn't the barracks, and is instead a part of the Dharma Initiative that was never used by the Others. We don't know for sure that the Processing area and the living quarters are in the same place. It doesn't seem to me that the barracks are so close to the ocean, and Sun and Frank only walked a few feet before finding the Processing building.

-Did anyone else notice, during the scene with Christian, that there was a few seconds where the camera centered on an open door with smoke coming in? It jumped out at me because the focus was not any of the characters, and the smoke didn't seem like Smokey smoke... it was more like there was a campfire outside and the wind was blowing smoke from that in.

-To echo John's sentiments: where is Faraday? The way Sawyer said he'd left was a bit ambiguous. Is he insane? Did he leave the Island somehow? Is he off living with the Others?

-I think Sawyer's moved past the "con" phase of his relationship with Dharma and is now firmly entrenched in an "identifying with them" phase. Count how many times he uses the phrase "my people." That's going to be a problem.

-I mentioned to my wife while watching that Christian is much more specific about what he wants to get done than Jacob is. Whether Christian IS Jacob for all intents and purposes is another discussion, but I am leaning more and more towards the idea that they are competing forces on the Island. Jacob has his lists, which have an unknown purpose. Christian tells Locke to move the Island (though to be fair he didn't tell him how). I get the feeling he'll tell Sun exactly what she needs to do if she wants to find Jin.

-There is good reason to believe that Ben manipulated Sun into going to the Processing center. Remember, every time he appears vulnerable or beaten, he comes out on top somehow. This guy seems to be the king of the Xanatos Gambit.

-I believe that in 1977, young Ben is tight with Alpert and the Others. When he asks Sayid if he is a Hostile, what he's really saying is, "because I don't recognize you." In a related tangent, if we believe Faraday's "one timeline and one timeline only" theory, this means Ben knows Sayid when they "meet" for the first time in the Swan in Season 2. It also means he knows Sawyer, Juliet, Jack, etc., which adds layers upon layers to the previous seasons. How did he have such large files on people like Jack and Kate when they'd only been on-Island for relatively short period of time? I believe it is because he'd been working on them for years beforehand.

-To beat a dead horse, I believe if you're going to get into time travel as a writer, the only feasible way to do it without screwing up or going crazy is by using Faraday's "one timeline" theory. As long as LOST stays here, we'll be good. As Gagnon said, the first five episodes of this season were overwhelming enough, and we're using the simplest form of time travel theory there is.

And to conclude, boy do I not care about the Jack/Juliet/Sawyer/Kate love square. Just pair off and do your thing. I don't need 10 more episodes of furtive looks and hurt, tortured expressions. Ugh.