[QUOTE=tds1273]
I’m wondering if maybe Sawyer doesn’t make it back as part of the Six. The flashforwards tonight were just soon after they were “rescued”; Kate invited Jack back to her place and had someone else* watching Aaron. She seemed pretty much on her own, if Sawyer had been back I don’t think they would have been able to keep him hidden at this point. Like he said, Freckles always returns.
Kate drinks from his box; Sawyer eats from hers 
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I’m starting to think that maybe Sawyer leaves the island, but isn’t one of the Oceanic 6.
Consider this: we know from the flash-forwards that Ben leaves the island, and is apparently killing everyone who he thinks is a threat to the island. In the flash-forwards, Sayid is Ben’s assassin, but wouldn’t Sawyer be the obvious first choice? Everyone knows that Sawyer is willing to kill, and the file that the Others gave Locke specifically linked Sawyer to the murder of that guy in Australia.
I’m betting that Ben figures out that Sawyer really would like to leave the island, but he knows that the moment anyone starts examining his past, he’ll be sitting in a jail cell, awaiting extradition to Australia. We know that Ben has a bunch of fake IDs, so he could probably offer to create a new identity for Sawyer, and give him a chance at a new life, in exchange for Sawyer doing his dirty work to help protect the island. (Ben’s enemies are probably former Dharma people, or at least those who supported the project. Penny’s father is definitely one of these guys.)
My theory is that Sawyer goes along with this plan, but in truth he isn’t willing to be anyone’s hired gun. He outwits Ben and creates a new ID for himself behind Ben’s back, and then disappears. At this point, Ben recruits Sayid to be his new killer. (I have no ideas as to how Ben ever gets his hooks into Sayid, however.) If events unfolded like this, then Ben might want to kidnap Kate and/or Aaron in order to force Sawyer to resurface. This would be where Sayid either redeems himself (by helping Kate to escape) or puts himself totally beyond redemption (by doing something really bad to Kate, maybe for the specific purpose of proving that he won’t help her to escape.) Either way, Ben is going to take Aaron back to the island, so one of the Others can have a child to raise. Kate will, of course, then want to go back to the island to rescue “her” child.
Other thoughts:
I’m wondering if the last two Oceanic 6 might be Sun and Jin. (This assumes that Aaron doesn’t count as one of the six.) I can see it now: Sun and Jin leave, and start planning for their life as a family. Sun thinks that because she is off the island, it is safe for her to have her baby, so she never says anything to Jin about the “pregnancy curse.” Unfortunately, she isn’t safe. (Remember what Juliet said to Ben in that one flashback, about how the problem begins at conception.) Sun dies before giving birth, leaving Jin alone. Jin, who never learned about Sun’s problem, is left to conclude that they were supposed to stay on the island.
What happens to Juliet and Desmond? Neither were on the Oceanic flight. Either they die, or they leave secretly, in much the same way I theorize that Sawyer will. Desmond might get help from Penny, but I suspect that Juliet will die. In the present, things seem to be heating up between her and Jack, and Jack definitely doesn’t have a woman in his life after he gets rescued.
I think that when Locke saw Walt, it really was Walt. Somehow, Michael and Walt became seperated again. I’m sure that Michael is Ben’s “man on the boat.” As to whether Michael returns to the USA, gets stranded on the island, or is killed, I can’t say. If he ended up being rescued without Walt, he’d want to get back to the island, bad.