Anybody notice that there was absolutely no mention of the numbers during the recap episode? I also noticed that they were only barely mentioned (i.e. once) during the last recap episode. For something that figured so prominently during the previous episodes, it is certainly being ignored now.
Oh, ok, I haven’t read that one. There’s some similar stuff in The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
It just seems like a decent super-science explanation. The cloud could be lots of things, but that makes the most sense to me at the moment. For example, it could be a hologram or a hallucination or something, but that doesn’t seem to make sense since the cloud has had actual physical effects on things.
I don’t think we can rely on the state of decomposition as a accurate indicator of time. I’m thinking that on a tropical island bodies should be gone in a relative flash. Like whats-his-name that Anna skewered. I would have thought that he’d be sludge by the time that Jin saw him with Eko. And none of these bodies show any real signs of scavengers getting at them.
And Eko’s attitudes / demeanor seemed like time had passed and he had changed.
-rainy
Rumors are swirling that…
Clancy Brown.
Will be guest starring in the future.
Please let this be true. Wouldn’t he be perfect as the leader of the others? Just the thought of it is giving me chills. 
I imagine the images have something to do with the Hanso Foundation Accelerated Remote Viewing Training Facility.
It reminded me of the “id monster” from The Outer Limits episode The Man with The Power with Donald Pleasance.
av8rmike: It’s the creature from The Abyss!
Raise your hand if you think it was a Nigerian smoke tentacle…
Hurley’s crush… I wonder if she recognizes him for having won the lottery? Or is it just, “Here’s a man who knows how to find food…”
SenorBeef: why does michael have to be alone?
Maybe because Walt knows there’s another mole…
borchevsky: Also, did anyone else hear the drug deal guys mention Sayid right before they got Eko-slashed? I don’t even remember the exact context of it now, but I was sure I heard Sayid’s name.
I heard it too…
**flex727: Where are the numbers??? **
That’s in keeping with the above-stated point that it’s supposed to be about the characters, and that the writers have also said the numbers don’t necessarily mean anything, and we’re all a bunch of retentive geeks for trying to read too much into this.
I heard it as well, and my mind didn’t even go to Sayid from the island. I immediately thought of the character of Kareem Sayid on “Oz,” a Muslim prisoner that Adebesi (Adewale’s character) admired - who eventually killed Adebisi.
Of course, it’s probably a coincidence, but seeinging Adewale play another bad guy in the flashbacks put me in that frame of mind. Now, of course I’m wondering about what connection he could possibly have to the “Lost” Sayid, and I got nothing there.
They didn’t switch planes. Eko’s bloody handprint was still on the wall next to the door.
Occam’s razor suggests it is likely just a continuity/production problem.
So can we presume that Walt is being held at one of the other Dharma sites? If so, what does this say about the sightings of Wet Walt?
Michael’s using the computer for Unapproved Purposes…is the world going to end, or was the guy on the film just blowin’ smoke?
Ah, yes. You are correct.
How exactly did they refer to Sayid? I missed that part.
That, and probably a logistics thing. The plane in the jungle is a crashed plane, and the one taking off from the airstrip was in working condition. Probably not as easy to take that “plane wreck” prop and move it to another site, and have it roll down the tarmac like it’s taking off – as to just use another airplane of the same make.
Of course, they could have just painted the same numbers on it, but maybe that prop guy called in sick the day of shooting, and it didn’t get done… 
Wow, what a great episode! Eko gets such a cool backstory, too. But we still don’t know exactly why he was in Australia. Were the drugs supposed to be brought there eventually? Surely that plane couldn’t fly from Nigeria to Australia (without refueling somewhere).
Does anyone have pics of the tail section of the Nigerian plane(s) that show the different numbers? Could the plane have two sets of numbers (one on one side and one on the other)?
I missed part of it, but when Locke went into the gun cabinet to change the combination, there was a quick shot of him using the numbers to open it.
But we already knew that one.
Yeah, I don’t know too many holograms that can rip trees up by their roots. And I’m wondering where the trees are going? I don’t recall seeing any of them actually land.
On another message board I found a link to a site with images of the black smoke:
The Island isn’t anywhere near Australia. Or Los Angeles. Or Nigeria. Or anywhere else on Earth.
Wow.
Hmm, maybe that’s why he says he’s a Priest at the end? The images he saw as some kind of revelation about himself and what he should do.
Which only makes me wonder more what sort of images Locke saw, and what revelation he got from it.
I have my own theory about Walt. I haven’t kept up with these threads, so more than likely this theory has already been hashed out and forgotten about, but in case it hasn’t, I’ll post it in a spoiler box below.
As much fun as it is to come up with weird theories about where Walt is and what is happening to him, the obvious reason for this subplot is that the actor who plays Walt is a small child, and it is too difficult to have him in every episode because small children grow too quickly. This is probably the same reason the small children were taken from the Tailies. It wouldn’t make any sense for Walt to grow eight inches in “a few months” of island time, so they have to come up with something to remove him. My guess is that he will never be back in a full time role, or if he is, he will have been “aged” by “The Others”, perhaps as part of the “Hanso Foundation Life-Extension Project.”