[Brennan]

It looks more like that guy who won American Idol.  Except, with a beard.  And an auctioning sign.

[vanyvrgs]

I think it's a random dude too.  Back in the day, it would have been someone important and we would have seen the scene entirely from that dude's perspective.  But I don't think they have time for that now.  Now, they'll flash a random guy on the screen like that and some gullible people who are still playing by Season 1 rules will speculate to their hearts' content.  No payoff in sight.

However, I reserve the right to be pleasantly surprised on this.

See that is the problem, yep, I certainly agree this is a random dude, and back in the day there were plenty of random people on the flackbacks, some were not, that is true but it was a developing story -- the writers were giving us the questions,  now that they are answering the questions (albeit slowly) and are not raising anymore questions to make us wonder -- we are not happy.  For the first three seasons there were too many questions and many complaints, now not enough questions.  Don't even get me started about the fact that I guess the questions answered are not up to par to some people's wondering minds.   

[Ruinlach]

My reaction: it's Anthony Cooper.




The timeline fits nicely, too.  Cooper was in a car wreck, he was unconscious, and the next thing he knew, he was on the island.  He could have been transported to the island not too long after, and been there in time to meet Locke fresh out of the "box."  Or, if you wanted to be a little less mystical about it... Tom had plenty of time to get Cooper out of there personally.

[NeilHonky]

i think it would make more sense. think of the time scale too as it must of been around the time locke was about to meet his father on the island.
and if you remember Anthony Cooper said he was in a car crash and the next thing he knew was that he woke up on the island.

[MayoMoose]

I know most people probably think it's a stretch to say this guy is Hanso or A. Cooper, and I agree, but just a thought:

Wouldn't it make sense that if the Others/Dharma/whomever was watching Michael, (as they obviously were, Tom came to see him and all,) that they might be the first ones to get to him after his attempted suicide? What if he was not in a normal public hospital, but a private Dharma/Hanso/whomever facility? Where a sick Hanso was? This could also help to explain Michael seeing a vision of Libby, if he was in a place that had some freaky mind experiment island-ish stuff going on somewhere in the building.

Don't really believe it very much, but just a thought.