Lost Season 6 Theories [Opener Spoilers If You Haven't Seen It]

Time to roll out the Lost Season 6 theories and speculation, while last night's season premiere is still somewhat fresh in our minds. (By the way, if you're busted at work downloading a Lost Season 6 premiere torrent, just say that it's not you, but a parallel timeline version of you)

Okay, so the first Lost Season 6 theory is one that anyone who saw the epidsode can agree upon: When Juliet detonates Jughead (badass!), the lostaways (and the entire world) are thrown sort of "sideways" in time, a parallel-but-still real timeline in which Oceanic 815 does not crash on the island in 2004. (Check out The Real Rules of Time Travel, which does not address such sideways leaps)

Meanwhile, Juliet, Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Jin, and Myles are thrown from the 1970s to 2007, the same time period occupied by Sun, Ben, Frank, and UnLocke, as well as John Locke's well-dressed corpse.

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John Locke Figure #2

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Okay. But something's not quite right, as we see from the opening scene: 

• Jack's hair is longer, and he's nervous in turbulence. 
  
• Desmond is on the plane, brotha. Desmond and Jack don't recognize each other, though they did in Season 2 when they meet in The Swan.
  
• Boone is on the plane, but not Shannon
• Hurley claims to be "the luckiest guy in the world" instead of cursed
• Charlie was choking to death on a swallowed packet of heroin in the airplane toilet instead of trying to flush it
• We see that the Island is under water, although the Dharma barracks have been built and the four-toed foot statue is broken
• We learn that Christian's body didn't make it onto the plane

We find that the characters themselves are basically the same, and their core life-stories are unchanged: Kate is still a recaptured fugitive, Sawyer's still a con man, Locke is still in a wheelchair. Also, both Jack and Sawyer are attracted to Kate. Sun and Jin still have mad marital issues. One main change, though, is that Kate is less annoying and more cool.

So, Desmond is somehow on the plane- what was he doing in Sydney? We didn't see Michael, Walt, or any of the tailies besides Bernard: what about Ana Lucia or Mr. Eko? At least Frogurt was on the plane. Whew. Also missing were Nikki and Paolo, who, let's face it, weren't on the plane the first time, either.

So, same-same but different, with some sort of butterfly effect... what, didn't Jack realize that, if he "changed the past", then the entire world's timeline would be altered. Well, I guess he didn't. And neither did any other character.

Also, what's up on the island in 2007? Juliet is dead and buried (noooooooo!), but not before Myles finds out that Juliet somehow knew that Jack's blow-sh*t-up plan worked. The remaining lostaways take the dying Sayid to the Others' temple, where a Japanese guy and Sol Star from Deadwood heal him in this sort of Ta Prom baptismal pool thingie. Why was the water murky? Because of Jacob's death? Is the water the Island's healing agent?

Who are these other Others? They freak when they find out that Jacob's dead, and batten down the hatches against UnLocke, who is actually Jacob's nemesis, the Smoke Monster. They seem really different to the Others who lived in the reclaimed Dharma Initiative barracks, though. 
The Temple Others share the same annoying qualities, though, and the lostaways still have trouble with things like asking follow-up questions: if someone told you that bringing your friend back from near-death had "certain risks", wouldn't you want to know what they were? Not if your driver's license says "Shepherd, Jack".
Ah, yes... John Locke. The smoke monster has taken Locke's form, and smokes out in order to defeat anyone dumb enough to take a shot at him. He then emerges from the broken statue, expresses his disappointment in the Others, beats up Richard, and carries Richard out into the jungle. Huh. Ben is terrified, humiliated and perplexed, emotions he's far more used to inflicting on others than experiencing himself.

Do you think that UnLocke really knew what John Locke's final thought was, or was he just messing with Ben?
So... what do you think will happen next?