The "tortured" woman in Sayid's FBs reminded me of one of the show's main themes. The Losties aren't "good" or "evil" people, they're both. Most of them did very bad things pre-island, but here we see them struggling with their concience and duality and slowly transforming. I fear Locke may have the reverse transformation.

We've seen the Losties behavior teeter between the two opposing forces over the last few seasons, and will continue to do so. What I'm wondering is, could the Others be trying to change the course of history by changing the dominant force (good or evil) that drives these Losties? Will the universe course-correct if they succeed?

I agree that the "grayness" of the characters is one of the main themes of LOST, if not THE main theme, and this was a great episode to depict that idea yet again. I don't think there's ANYONE who doesn't like Sayid, and here we learn he tortured a woman. :(

As for the Others' attempt to control these aspects of the Losties, I don't think so. I think they're just thinking of themselves and how any of the Losties can serve or hurt their society. Remember, they wanted to kidnap people on "the Good List". If they could influence any or all of the Losties to become "good", they could have just taken as many people as they could, rather than trying to get the good ones to begin with.

As for "course-correcting", Desmond seems to think it works. But remember, he's only human. Another theme of the show is fate vs. free will, and last week's episode was a little reminder that maybe, just maybe, you can tell fate to take a flying leap. No course-correcting allowed that time around.


So maybe the Losties DO have a some degree of control over their fate. If HURLEY'S right, it's all about 'thinking good things WILL happen'. Maybe our "will" can overpower that of the Universe, at least once in awhile.

I have heard some people speculate that the island is the only place where free will can alter things, hence why Hurley's belief makes an ancient bus work, John can suddenly walk again because he wants to so badly, Sun can become pregnant because she and Jin want it, and so on.

I have heard some people speculate that the island is the only place where free will can alter things, hence why Hurley's belief makes an ancient bus work, John can suddenly walk again because he wants to so badly, Sun can become pregnant because she and Jin want it, and so on.

Then why doesn't a nice cruise boat show up off the beach?