omg, GREAT, classic episode last night!!!! It was vintage LOST, having me on the edge of my seat there at the end! "Dad?" omg! omg! I knew it!

I have a theory about Walt that I've had since Shannon's (sniff, sniff, sad about her being gone...okay, moving on) sightings of him, and him apparently being on the computer last night has only cemented this idea for me: Wherever the "others" are holding Walt, he has access to some of their computers and other technology and, smart kid that he so definitely is, he has figured out both how to use some of it and when to use it, when the "others" are all out getting pedicures or something. He must be at whatever Dharma station on the island does the experiments on "accelerated remote viewing", for one thing, and he is figuring out how to project his image to the other Lostaways, in order to get messages to them. He keeps "ssssshhhhing" them when he does that, as somehow, if he were to talk, "the others" could hear him, and if the Lostaways that he projects himself to were to say anything, apparently whatever the others are using to monitor Walt could pick that up, too. He is trying to warn them about something(s). And maybe he gets on the computer periodically, when he has a chance, to try to see if he can get a message out that way. Anyway, Walt is, imho, definitely in one of the Dharma stations on the island and he is, in typical Walt fashion, figuring things out and not taking being held against his will lying down. U go, Walt!

Meanwhile, WOW, what a last scene, when Michael and Walt (or was it really Walt? might not have been, but I think it was) were communicating on the computer, just after Dr. Marvin Candle (lol, the casting there was SO perfect--he is ominous and hilarious all at the same time!!!) said in the film that Locke and Eko watched that use of the computer for anything other than punching in the numbers is "strictly forbidden"!

omg, VINTAGE episode!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I were any more obsessed with LOST, I would have to be committed to a mental hospital and would end up rocking back and forth all day repeating "the numbers are bad, the numbers are bad"!

The thing that confuses me is that earlier in the episode Michael asks Locke why they just can't input the numbers right then and Locke says that they can't type anything until the 4 minute mark. Then all of a sudden at 51 minutes the word "hello?" and Michael can type back. I don't claim any theory (because I think most theories conceived on the message boards prove false and misleading) but it does make you wonder and think what's going on.

Why, if Locke has such a regimented schedule for manning the button, has no one else mentioned the computer talking back to them?

Why, after just splicing the film back together and it saying that you should never use the computer for communicating with the "outside world", does the "Hello?" prompt pop up? Are the Others monitoring the hatch?

Too many questions and too long of a wait until the next episode.

The thing that confuses me is that earlier in the episode Michael asks Locke why they just can't input the numbers right then and Locke says that they can't type anything until the 4 minute mark. Then all of a sudden at 51 minutes the word "hello?" and Michael can type back. I don't claim any theory (because I think most theories conceived on the message boards prove false and misleading) but it does make you wonder and think what's going on.

Why, if Locke has such a regimented schedule for manning the button, has no one else mentioned the computer talking back to them?

Why, after just splicing the film back together and it saying that you should never use the computer for communicating with the "outside world", does the "Hello?" prompt pop up? Are the Others monitoring the hatch?

Too many questions and too long of a wait until the next episode.

patience, my friend, patience...

Maybe you can't initiate any input into the computer in the Swan Station hatch until the four-minute mark, but if someone on a computer in another station on the island initiates a conversation, it overrides that control and allows communication? Maybe Walt figured out how to override it? I dunno, I have another thread about why on earth was the Hanso Foundation alluding to the internet if the spliced-in part of the filmstrip was really made in 1980 with the rest of the strip, as the net didn't even exist then! I think the spliced bit was newer. But anyway, there are a lot of questions, to be sure! That's what makes LOST LOST and keeps us on tenter hooks 24/7!

Why, after just splicing the film back together and it saying that you should never use the computer for communicating with the "outside world", does the "Hello?" prompt pop up? Are the Others monitoring the hatch?


Who says that message was coming from the outside world? I believe that it may be coming from another Dharma station. There's no reason to believe that the stations can't communicate with each other. Also, it may be like a phone -- the computer can only reply when prompted from another computer. I don't have all the answers obviously but the whole ability of that computer is still to be seen.

or maybe when michael was monkeying around with the computers he may have changed something...or, if, as seems likely, they are being observed remotely, the watcher realized he was about to do something or figure something out that would be detrimental to the experiment and started making the terminal beep to get his attention and engage him in conversation to distract him from what he was doing. Just thinking. I also DON"T think he was communicating with Walt.

I'm thinking the other hatch controls their hatch!

Sadly, it is quite possible that whoever is at the other end (...get it, "other end"? ...Sometimes, I amuse myself!) of that computer dialog was not Walt. But, for some reason, I really think it was Walt. I think either he somehow periodically gets on the computer at whatever station they are holding him at, and perhaps whatever "jiggling of the cords" Michael was doing (technical jargon there, try to keep up *lol*) prompted some sort of message to pop up at the "other" end. Walt (hopefully, it really was Walt!) saw it, and typed in "Hello?", and the rest is CLASSIC history! But, frighteningly, it could also be as you all everybody just postulated, perhaps the others who are monitoring the Swan Station noticed Michael tinkering around and got nervous. They decided to distract him with a faux conversation with Walt, which maybe, as it plays out, will lead him on some wild goose chase in search of Walt, and thus away from whatever it was they feared Michael was about to discover about the computer system.