Theories.

One of the few things I wish I could sit around and do all day (while eating red velvet cupcakes, of course) is theorize about the most intellectually stimulating drama to hit television. Indulge me.

• Richard was on the Black Rock. In "Follow the Leader," he is seen building a scale model of the ship in a bottle. "The Incident" (part 1) shows Jacob + Mysterious Friend (later, Anti-Locke?) watching the same ship approach the island.

• "Dead is dead. You don't get to come back from that" (Ben). John Locke is dead. Christian, similarly, is dead. The man who swears to kill Jacob in the opening scene of "The Incident" has taken Locke's form (Richard notices there's "something different" about (Anti-)Locke when he sees him for the first time since the exodus), and since Alex (the smoke, now in the form of Alex? And Anti-Locke is conveniently out of the picture when Alex appears to Ben) tells Ben to do everything Anti-Locke says without question, and Anti-Locke is out to kill Jacob ("Follow the Leader"), Ben kills Jacob.

• Juliet is dead (e.g., she's not coming back). She fell on top of a hydrogen bomb. Sawyer's not going to take it well. I think he and Kate will get together at least once more before the series ends (but I think she'll end up with Jack...UNLESS she becomes one of the Adam and Eve skeletons from Season One!). And Ben Linus has to grow up and kill the Dharma Initiative. Whatever happened, happened. Therefore the Dharma peeps have to exist after the detonation. Maybe the detonation already happened. Or maybe the Dharma peeps died in the conflict over the hydrogen bomb, so they ended up dead anyway. But what about little Ben?

• I think we'll revisit the footage of Faraday crying as he watches the footage of 815 at the bottom of the ocean.


• Desmond's the constant. Faraday's the variable. Episode 4 of Season 6 is slated to be called "The Substitute." Algebra, anyone?

• Note character placement in the picture above. Locke, the Resurrected, is Jesus. Sayid, interestingly enough, plays Judas, and there's a skull at his feet. Who is he going to betray? (In keeping with the theme, is it Locke?) There's also a skull at Hurley's feet. Does this mean these two are going to die? (I hope not!! Though the last time we saw Sayid, he was bleeding from a bullet wound to the abdomen and saying, "Nothing can save me.") Kate is Mary Magdalene a la Dan Brown--maybe she will carry someone's child?

• Um, Ilana. Ties to Ancient Egypt? And Jacob? My theory is he's an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh who found a loophole to eternal life (explains the obsession with hieroglyphics!). "What lies in the shadow of the statue (which holds an ankh in each hand, the ancient Egyptian symbol for eternal life)?" Fun fact: Biblical Jacob is great-great-grandfather to Aaron. WE WILL FIND OUT, BEGINNING FEB. 2.

♥

Favorites: Ben, Richard, Desmond, Sayid, Sawyer (kill 'em, Cuse & Lindelof, and Fabio gets it)