It just ended here yesterday. I've been avoiding this thread for months (boy, you people sure like spoiling stuff). When does the new season start in the US? I think I'm gonna have to download these bitches when they came out, I can't take the long wait.
When the "pirate" boat showed up, I thought the guys would be rescued, but then the rescuers would say "island? there's only water here", and it turns out they're near floating near Europe or something. So the guys get home but they can never find the island again (so we never see THEM again). I was a little disappointed they took Walt... doesn't he have powers? And how could the other three possibly save themselves? The raft blew up and they sailed for days.
In the episode where Boone talks on the radio with someone before falling, I think the other person said "we're ALSO from flight 815!". That, what the black lady said in an early episode about her husband being alive, and Michelle Rodrigues' not so subtle introduction, make it obvious there's another group of survivors in the island, which shoudl give the show a push once it gets stale (for that reason I hope they don't find them too soon).
Maybe I'm crazy, but in the sequence in the last episode where they show the characters before the plane took off (when Boone last appears), I think I saw that journalist guy from Alias. Other possible new characters could be the annoying couple who talk about Sun in the airport thinking she can't understand them. They could be like that rich old couple in Gilligan...
The sounds the "defense system" made mean there's definitely a technological element in the island. I think the second season is gonna explore that aspect a little more, be a little more far out (almost sci fi) than the first season.
My theory when the show started was that it was the ultimate reality show: a virtual reality show where the contestants don't know (or simply can't remember) they're competing. When they die they simply "wake up" and go home. Last one left alive wins. That's why Locke was "cured". His "the island did it" idea is simply him seeing the patterns every game (and TV show) implements from time to time to keep things interesting, and rationalizing it as religion. If this is right, he should be pretty pissed once he finds out it's ratings what control what happens on the island, not fate.
Anyway, now I'm not so sure about this theory. The goverment facility theory seems very likely, which is why I hope it's not real. The "purgatory" theory seems like typical "seeing more than what's there" internet theory.
