And auditions must have been a bitch…
“Okay, next up, a 747.”
“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got. Crash for me. Crash for me! C’mon, break apart like you mean it!”
“NEXT!”
A common misconception.
Georgia was conceived by James Oglethorpe as a haven for the most industrious among the heavily indebted, including those recently released from debtors’ prison. But according to this site, no actual prisoners were among the initial group of colonists:
Even in its conception, Georgia was founded for deadbeats, not hardened criminals.
Speaking of which, can anybody lend me $20? I can repay you on Tuesday.
If you want to know who took Claire’s baby… go here, to video gallery and you can see a scene from the finale.
Okay, that was pretty funny! 
Methinks I need to pull back a bit from this show. At one point I was calculating air velocities of various planes, and trying to figure out if the pilot meant 1000 miles or 1000 nautical miles.
Too much free time + mildly obsessive personality make Homer something something.
Well, at least my misconception was common. Nothing worse than an uncommon misconception. 
I stand corrected!
If it makes you feel any better, I’m a Georgia native and I didn’t know the part in boldface either.
Ooh, loophole here! (I just watched the episode last night.) The Aussie police DID know his real name, James Ford. They had his complete criminal record when they spoke to him. So if the manifest did have his fake name, and not his real name (I’m asking because I can’t remember definitively), how? Especially since he was immediately deported following the conversation with the cops.
Also, it looks like ABC has cleaned up the synopsis that you all are quoting. The one I’m reading here doesn’t have the paragraphs you’re citing. Damn!
FWIW, elsewhere on the ABC website is a diary that has been frequently mentioned in these threads. I don’t know if this has already been revealed, but I understand that the identity of the diary writer has been a mystery; the page currently displayed on the website discloses who the diary belongs to. (And I haven’t heard of a castaway by that name.)
Other observations of mine:
–The scratches on CFL’s arm looked like claw marks, not fingernail scratches. Possibly from . . . a polar bear?
–Whoever said that the DVDs should be released on August 15, full kudos to you, sir or ma’am! I just got that.
–Acclaim must also go to the composer of the music playing as the raft set sail. I watched that scene three times . . . wow, did that music ever fit the scene. Stirring, hopeful, yet understated.
–The TCM (POG?) became less . . . comprehensible with this episode. In the pilot, it kills the, well, pilot of the plane. Later on we see Locke stare it down, which reminded me of Jurassic Park–stay still and the T Rex can’t see you. Now it’s a security system? You punch in four digits into the keypad and it goes away? I had hoped it would prove to be one of the central threats of the island, yet we’ve gone 22 episodes since it last are anyone.
–I don’t think this deserves a spoiler tag, but Dan Roebuck, who plays Arzt, has been announced as a new member of the regular cast. So I don’t think he’s going anywhere. Too bad that every time I look at him, I think “Man, that Jay Leno has really let himself go!”
–Speaking of redshirts, it would be nice if the producers could plan for these things, so that we would see a recognizable actor in the (rare) crowd shots, yet he wouldn’t have any speaking lines for a season or two. But that’s too much to ask.
I just remembered… there’s a point in the episode when Jack’s on the beach and there are a couple dozen people circled around him, and he says, “I know what you’re thinking…”
and my thought was, “who the hell are all these people?”
Dammit, spoke, you beat me to the punchline.
-rainy
The writers wouldn’t have put it in there if it was a scratch from a bush (would they? :)), but that would be one tiny polar bear if that was the cause. Looked more like what you’d get from a house cat.
Nope… they’re definitely fingernail scratches.
Why did I watch? Curse my weak will!
I’m weak too, which is why I had to share. 
You…are evil.
They went via the Indian Ocean. You don’t sail around Cape Horn unless you have to, is my understanding - particularly from east to west. If the transportation of prisoners ended in 1852, I expect that the Black Rock could fit into the time frame. I’m not sufficiently knowledgeable to narrow down any further than 19th century, and it’s possible that even if the stern design would narrow it down further that the props folks just goofed. For all I know it’s supposed to be a 16th century carrack, and they just got it completely wrong.
Can you spoil it for me? I couldn’t get the video galery to work for some reason.
I can’t make it work either, nor can I find a link for “install ABC video player.”
The CFL got the scratches from Claire when Claire was in captivity. Claire remembers this and confronts the CFL and the next thing we see, Sun finds Claire waking up from a head bashing and the baby is missing.
He’s a man, isn’t he? (Speaking as a man.)
Why thank you, I try my best.