LOST LaFleur, first thoughts

As always *SPOILERS* if you aren't caught up!

Wow, I loved this episode!  I think in part because Sawyer is my favorite good guy character.  (Overall I think that Benry is probably my favorite character, but that guy is EVIL.  Like Evil League of Evil evil.  He makes Bad Horse look like a saint.)  (That's a Dr. Horrible reference people, keep up.)  I also love episodes that have emotional cores, and this one really did.  We open with the pain and anguish that Faraday feels for losing CS Lewis.  In the middle of the episode we get the sensational scene involving Juliet's return to her dream job, the one that the Island stole all her passion for.  Remember how excited Juliet was about delivering babies back in the episode Not In Portland?  And how happy she was to get to once more bring joy to someone when she told Sun that the baby was Jin's in the episode D.O.C?  But mostly for the last 6 years, Juliet has hated the idea of babies being born.  Apparently she believed that the inability of anyone to give birth on the Island was somehow her fault.  The scene in which she helps Michelle Dessler give birth and tells Sawyer and Jin that she's okay was Emmy worthy stuff.  (Speaking of Michelle Dessler, I wonder if Tony knows that somehow she's on the Island.  I say he leave Jack to saving the world and he comes and gets his wife back.)  (That was a 24 reference, seriously you guys, keep up.)  And finally the episode finishes with Sawyer's lies thrust back in his face as he sees Kate across the grass and knows that while he may in fact love Juliet, he is by no means over Kate.  All three of these emotional touchstones grabbed me.  Great stuff.

I also loved this episode because it really got my mind racing again in the theory department.  There was some good stuff in this episode for that.

Real quick, we'll start with the statue, since that is where the episode started.  It definitely had an Egyptian feel to me, perhaps an Egyptian god.  (Mainly cause of the ears.)  I wonder, however, if the Island might in fact be Atlantis?  (Not my cat, but what she was named after, the ancient LOST civilization.  (Do you see what I did there?)  Just a thought.

My real theorizing came about do to a couple of events in this episode.  One, dead bodies don't time shift, as evidenced by CS Lewis staying put while Faraday left (or vis versa if you go by how Faraday put it, and I think that was interesting), and two, the fence doesn't stop Alpert or those like him.  What does this add up to?  The Others are dead.

Just like Locke, just like Christian, just like Claire, Alpert and the Others are dead but are walking and talking and interacting like they aren't.

Oh, and by the way, I'm going to fit the Smoke Monster into this theory also.  So be ready for that shortly!
Dead bodies don't jump.  The Others don't jump.  I've really been wondering (since the time shifting began) why none of the Others jumped with Locke but Juliet jumped.  Alpert says his people weren't affected, why not?  When Juliet sided with the LOSTies did she give up her not affected by time shifts card?  And if Juliet wasn't immune to the time shifts like the Others because the Island knew she was no longer an Other, why didn't Locke get to be immune?  After all he had fully changed allegiance to the Others at that point.  Nope that theory just didn't hold water.  Juliet wasn't immune because she was different then the other Others.  At least those that Alpert had with him.  Perhaps they were all truly native to the Island, as in they had been born there.  I think that this is partly true.  And for a time I believed it fully.

Okay, Alpert only brought those that were native to the Island with him from the Temple to save Benry.  Therefore people like the stewardess (who was a survivor of 815) and anyone who has come to the Others but wasn't born on the Island are skipping through time like our LOSTies now.

The problem is, they were all at the Temple, and our time skipping took us to the Temple, and there was no one there except Smokey.  (Don't worry, I'll get to him).

So, none of those Others were time skipping even though we know that they weren't born on the Island.  And not only that, but both Miles and CS Lewis were born on the Island and they were skipping like children hopped up on too much sugar.

So, why is that?  Well, it is because dead bodies don't jump, and the Others (the real Others, a group into which Juliet had not yet been initiated) are dead.  I don't think that it's an honor you get automatically, because while being dead might not sound awesome on the cover of it, on the Island it has its privileges.  Even besides avoiding annoying time skips.  You can appear and disappear in random places throughout the Island (as evidenced by Harper showing up and disappearing a little too convincingly) which is cool, but more importantly, YOU DON'T AGE!  That's right, Alpert doesn't age because he doesn't live.  Aging is for living people.  He looks exactly the same in 1954 as he does in 2008 because he's dead.

Eko in the episode The 23rd Psalm).  I think that Smokey is also like a computer, it holds the essence of a person so that when they die the Island can reanimate them to "live forever" and to serve the Island's needs if they are worthy.  (Perhaps the lists that Jacob is so fond of making are people that the Island might find worthy of receiving this "gift".)  And while it can be done elsewhere if it is an emergency (read: Claire) I think that the place this happens is usually the Temple.

And, of course, being dead, there wouldn't be any need to fear some wacky Dharma sonic fence.
So, what do you think about my "The Others Are Dead" theory?  Work for you?  Why or why not?
Just to bring it up because if I don't someone will ask me about it, if the LOSTies are in 1974 as Lostpedia says they are, then how could that be little CS Lewis because Locke said she was born in 1979 after he had gotten all of the Boat Folk info from Benry (who got it from Michael)?  Well, it is probably a continuity error on the part of LOST, but after her mom lied about her time on the Island, why wouldn't she have lied about when she was born also?  It happens in Little League all the time.  In other words, I'm not that worried about it.

Until Next Time, I also loved this episode because not only was Locke cured of his paralysis by coming to the Island, apparently Herc was also!  (Dude, I really hope that he told Street about this magical Island where they could walk again!) (Friday Night Lights people.  You really need to start recognizing these references on your own.)