It was right AT the Black Rock that Rousseau said her team got infected (season1ep23). Someone asked if this illness was the same as the time-space dementia that affected the freighter crew (side note: Minkowski played “Mr. The Plague” in Hackers opposite J.L. Miller and A. Jolie, maybe it’s a studio inside joke since J.L Miller’s Eli Stone was right after Lost). Something like radiation sickness from the power source under the Hatch? The sky went purple but the energy source maybe remained, albeit now spewing out freely like a gas wellhead that blew off. Attach a propeller and that might be how Locke could move the island.

Did the sickness affect the Black Rock crew? Why would the pirates abandon their dead to rot inside the ship? Jack had to burn the plane to prevent rotting bodies from contaminating his survivors with plagues. Supplies were readily available in the cargo holds (the tsunami could not have washed out only the food and left just the explosives behind). The pirates could have burned their dead and made a home base out of their stranded ship. Instead, they abandoned their ship. They did not even disassemble the ship and restore it near shore. Perhaps they headed for the beach whereafter the first mate escaped the island and produced his logbook. Maybe the time-space sickness did not kill some of the pirates but put them into some sort of Purgatory like the Lord of the Ring’s ghost army holed up in the mountains until Aragorn showed up. Maybe the first mate did not get off the island via normal route but rather paranormal, Ben’s teleporter. Poof! The rest of the pirates were left knocking on the walls of the wardrobe puzzled that they can’t seem to get into Narnia too. Nonetheless, Alpert maybe learned to project himself off the island to search for and await the return of the Black Rock’s first mate with compass pointing the way out of time-space Purgatory. Hence, Alperts’ disappointment with young Locke for choosing the knife. This showed Locke had not yet had the dove come down from heaven to awaken his memory of his previous life as — the Black Rock’s first mate? So does that make Aaron another member of the Black Rock coming home? The birth of babies on the island is important, so it that how the Black Rock pirates intend to return to non-time-space-sick life?

Good to see the smoke monster back in the yard but Ben should really learn how to better whistle its commands. “Good doggie, very good doggie, eat green man, green man bad” was only the stun setting. My heart fell when the mercenaries came out of the bush basically intact.

Charles Widmore accused Ben of stealing the island from him. Does Widmore know of the existence of Alpert and the original Others of young-Ben-era? If Widmore is unaware of Cindy (the stewardess) and the original Others bunkered at their own Helm’s Deep, this could be a source of fresh troops against the mercenaries? It was Alpert’s original pre-Dharma Others who empowered older Ben into taking out the Dharma camp. I am also led to ask, was Alpert’s hand actually in that cookie jar or just Ben’s? If none of the original Others actually physically touched anything, then maybe they aren’t corporeal enough to grasp switches and pull triggers like Desmond could not write Penny’s phone number. They needed the body of Ben and the bodies of Cindy’s Oceanic passengers they captured to do their will. Were the “ten best” who attacked the beach just bodies recruited over time like Juliette? I’m trying to recall Alpert physically doing any kind of work. Any thoughts?

Also, in claiming the island as his, Widmore forgets that it existed hundreds of years before he was ever born. Who owned the island THEN, Chuck? Dharma came on board less than half a century ago. Meanwhile, during the centuries previous, hapless travellers must have landed and read the sign on the beach “this island does not belong to anyone named Charles” and become stranded unaware that escape was only possible via certain compass heading 305 or Narnia wardrobe teleporter model 37H (available only in mahogany, void where prohibited).

A side note. The rocket landed on a corner of the house beside Claire and a mattress but the fridge and other appliances were strewn about in the same section of the house. I think the fridge saved her despite “getting her bell rung” and the mattress cushioned the impact of the appliances.

I think Christian and Claire are dead and that they told Locke about Jack.

So what do we think about Claire? Is she dead? Island dead (whatever that means)?

Is Christian dead?

Has Christian told her about Jack?

Did they tell Locke?