[Enkidu Zau]

Hey all..

Well, my thoughts are this.

Christian Shepherd was originally on the island, and so was Jack, a long time ago (when Jack was young).

Christian Shepherd was an island martyr similar to John Locke.

In order to turn Christian into what I call an 'island spirit entity', Christian must leave the island...die...and be reborn /ressurected on the island (metaphorically like Jesus Christ).  Then he will finally be one with the island.

Christian Shepherd was advised to leave the island and commit suicide.  Just before doing this he visited his daughter Claire and tried to make ammends with Jack, knowing that he would never return as a real person again..being forever connected to the island.

Mz.Hawkings advised Christian that the only way to return was via Flight 815 which was going to cross the path of a point where the island was 'going to be' in the near future. 

Christian Shepherd is instructed to commit suicide (his leap of faith) and he must be on this flight 815.  However in order to force events to allow the plane to be taken by the island, others that were on the island previously must be present.  This is where Jack comes into play.  Jack places his father in the coffin on the plane, and takes the flight...thereby ensuring the plane would go down. 

As Flight 815 is going down, Jack is flash-zapped to the ground while the rest of the passengers actually crashed (as we saw in Season 1).  This is the connection that shows that he was in fact on the island previously when he was young, and does not remember it.  So we can understand from this that Christian didn't risk his sons life on the plane since he knew he would appear on the ground.  The question in this theory is 'Were there other returnees that were trying to get back to the island, and were part of the passengers with Jack?'  Is it one of the other main cast that we see?  So maybe Jack was born on the island and only (what I'll term as an) 'island child' can bring back the 'destined one' (Christian, Locke) to their salvation once again on the island (resurrection).

Finally, Christian Shepherd is returned to life as a sort of 'spectre' island spirit...but alive.  What we see of him in the wooden shack and other locations.

Soooo...moving forward to this episodes events.  Locke will probably be instructed to commit suicide so that he can get back to the island (his leap of faith, the final requirement for him to be ONE with the island).  The Losties need to return to the island, Mz. Hawkings shows them which airline to take, the shoes are changed, etc.  Everyone trying to return is flash-zapped to the ground and the other passengers actually crash in this plane.  (we can guess that the guy that spoke to Jack in the airport line will survive the crash, playing the equivalent of the Losties in season 1). 

So, next episode we will probably see Locke realizing now that he is in the same sort of spectre arrangement as Christian (sitting in the shack, showing up here and there, ghost-like), while his flash-back scenes of him show us that he must commit suicide as his leap of faith.

So what I'm trying to get at with all of this....  The Losties who escaped aren't really important.  They are being used and duped into thinking they must return to do something on the island..to save their friends, etc.  But in reality they are just needed to be pawns to leave the island then return with the dead Locke.

Lastly, its easy to see that the canoe full of people shooting at Sawyer and Juliet (a few episodes back) was actually Jack, Kate and Hurley trying desperately to stop them...probably at that point jumping to the future and also realizing that Sawyer and Juliet were about to do something terribly wrong in the timeline.

That's my understanding and predictions...

[dharma/karma]

Yes, the theory is quite feasible, but i dont quite agree to the idea that whoever was shooting at them were in fact their future / alternate selves. There would be a lot at stake if they got hit and inadvertendly changed the course of events.

[Radzinski]

I respectfully disagree with the entire theory. If Christian wanted to get back so badly as to kill himself, he wouldn't take a chance that Jack might not come to find him in Sydney. If you remember from season 1 that Christian talked with Sawyer in the bar in Sydney, and he believed that Jack was back in LA and that he was too weak to let him know he was proud of him. In fact, this theory has no real evidence to suggest in any way that it is plausible. Too much is guessed based on nothing such as  Christian and Ms Hawking knowing each other

I know that when you posted this theory you hadn't seen "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" (i assumed you posted after the previous episode) but Locke is more substantial than Christian. He wasn't a ghost, he was back to life. And i bet Ben's gonna be pissed off.

Also, it seems impossible that it was the Oceanic 6 shooting at Locke and his crew because they would have jumped through time along with them and continued shooting, or at least followed them

[dr_bishoy]

I disagree too.it doesnt make sense.