If they had gotten Maggie Grace to appear earlier in the season, I might be able to accept this explanation. But considering what was actually shown and told to us on the show, my opinion about Sayid/Shannon remains the same: it was an emotionally manipulative piece of fanservice that didn’t actually fit Sayid’s character arc.

Focusing on the characters and heaving to emotional beats that (courtesy of plinky plinky piano music) leave fans an emotional wreck is certainly a winning formula. It works best for soap operas. And that’s what Lost is, a soap opera with a very literate index for you to follow up on (“I’m going to go on Amazon and buy A Treatise of Human Reason/The Third Policeman/Carrie”).

The creators call Lost a mystery show, but I don’t think that’s correct. There is no mystery, just six years of increasingly bizarre occurences. It sets up a dialogue between faith and reason (Locke vs. Jack), but the godsquad wins hands down, much like in BSG….which was set in space!

Faraday was an interesting scientist character on the show, but then his mother performed an abortion on him during the 138th trimester. Bad show for science I guess.

Actually, I did, and I liked the show a lot. I just wanted to see what the appeal was in being a jerk about these things. It felt kind of empty.

I’m happy that’s working out for you but don’t quite see why you are following discussions about something you are so thrilled you have no interest in.

Are you very bored?

Is there any detail in the alternate world that would have been a deep dark secret that the person would never have mentioned to Jack or anyone else?

Hurley and Ben thanking one another for being such a good partnership pretty much kills the “it’s Jack’s dying dream” theory, as Jack left before Hurley offered Ben the job and it’s a real stretch to claim he imagined what happened anyway.