That said, I’m also wondering if they’re actually flash-forwards, e.g., that Jack’s appendix scar is indeed from his season 4 appendectomy, retconned in to his childhood somehow. Hmm.

Regardless, the path being laid out is predicated more explicitly than ever on characters’ choices (nudged by Jacob/MiB, of course). Does Jack really “have what it takes”? Will Hurley accept that he’s lucky, rather than cursed? Will Locke accept “what he can’t do”? Will Ben accept that he’s not a candidate? And so on. These questions will come right to the fore, now that “teams” are lining up (as my wife observed; Team Jacob vs. Team Smokey).

Each of the last three peisodes, we’ve seen a major one of “the Others” safe and sound off the island, when they shouldn’t have been (assuming they were on the island when Jughead went off) — first Ethan, then Ben, now Dogen. But, I’m not sure it’s as simple as the island just “blew up” when the bomb went off in the sideways timeline. After all, the entirety of the island seemed to have just … sunk? The barracks, the foot of the statue, etc. were all pretty much intact, which could have just been done to make it clear to viewers what they were seeing, but also could be more significant in some way.

I didn’t mean specifically about Dogen in LA as much as “why aren’t the people who should have died on the island dead?” Obviously, Dogen could have not been on the island in 1977 (I guess it would be unlikely now that I think of it, given that he speaks English with an accent), and how Ben escaped as well. But as you suggest – and I allude to in my post – there does seem to be some para-reality relationship between the two streams more than a clear fork in 1977. And I haven’t found a relationship that seems satisfying rather than cheating. But clearly, patience is needed…

Last week, we had Locke moving up in the world from the demoralizing box company gig, as well as apparently working out some of his disability issues with Helen. This week, we have Jack working out some of his Daddy issues with his son (who’s the mom? My guess is Juliet, Annalucia, or Libby — David’s name is the same as Libby’s dead husband). So, it’ll be interesting to see if this is just an illusory pattern or something they’re developing as they move along with this storyline.

Your question “How does Dogen live in LA?” doesn’t seem terribly confusing to me, as we have no idea where and when Dogen came from in the prime timeline. As Rose lives in LA instead of New York in the sideways-timeline, Shannon’s still in Australia, Ben and Ethan are both in LA, etc., this doesn’t seem too much of a stretch. Re: “Did the island exert enough force over Jack’s life to change the history of his appendix?” I suspect the most interesting interpretation of this is around Jack’s lack of memory of this event — he lost the appendix in season 4, as an adult, and this seemed to me to be hinting that the Jack of the alternate timeline might somehow still fundamentally be the same Jack as in the prime timeline.

I found the visit to the caves and all the season 1 hints (Shannon’s inhaler) to be a bit tiresome, to be honest. For the viewer who hasn’t been paying attention or doesn’t have lostpedia around, it’s useful, but for those of us who have been obsessing about the show for years now, I can’t say it did much for me. The Claire storyline, similarly, is nicely evocative of Rousseau from the first season, but I can’t say it’s doing much for me just yet.

Plus, one nitpick: The show’s done a great job of foreshadowing significant geographical bits on the island several years before they become important to the story — from the underwater cable in season 1 (that pays off end of season 3) to the radio tower (from the pilot to the end of season 3) to the statue (first seen end of season 2, but not explored in any detail until season 5). The lighthouse, then, seems a bit… random? No mention of it that I know of until last night, and it seems odd that something so large and significant wouldn’t have been noticed or mentioned by anyone else. Is it another structure like Horace’s/Jacob’s cabin that only appears to specific people at specific times? Does it move around the island, like the cabin (or like the island does around the ocean)? Who knows?