Unless, for whatever reason, they knew or suspected that they were being clooooosly watched… and had to act as if they were both in mourning. Maybe that has something to do with why Hurley says “Good!” with that weird emphasis when Sun tells him no one else is coming.
[sup]conspiracy nut shifty eyes[/sup]
Mile High Club 
Or: “I’m… not… quite dead yet… come on… yobo… send me on… with a smile!” 
Well, here’s the thing. If the bodies were actually pulled up from the bottom of the ocean and closely examined there’s no way all the dental records and DNA tests would match if it were faked. This allows only 2 scenarios:
They didn’t actually recover the bodies, just visually inspected them on the ocean floor with a sub, or perhaps Ben’s people simply distributed disinformation on the subject.
The bodies were recovered and miraculously matched the tests which means that they were cloned/replicated in unfeasible detail, or that there’s some alternate reality plane and bodies ripped from another parallel universe actually sitting there.
Now, the cloning thing is too outlandish to accept. The alternate reality/time travel thing is possible but I think the creators have said that’s not going to be the case. Additionally Frank said that the Captain seen in the pilot’s seat wasn’t the man he knew because he wasn’t wearing his wedding band, which pretty much rules out the whole alternate reality idea. So I’m assuming that the staged bodies were never actually recovered but just seen, counted and assumed to be who they should be. Or perhaps the “search” team are agents of Ben’s and made the whole thing up.
Say’s who? We saw a DSRV taking video of the broken remains of the plane and the pilot from the front window. That’s all we know. One can presume that any wreckage of a plane that crashed into water is going to be somewhat scattered and some of the bodies would be disturbed and not conveniently strapped into their assigned seats.
The world has been told that all the bodies were accounted for. The Captain has said the wreck was staged and that 324 bodies were put on board. Logic dictates that those 324 bodies weren’t actually recovered.
I don’t think people would be too flabbergasted that an underwater search team might have miscounted the number of dead bodies they found, or that they just mistakenly assumed no one could survive. A plane crash under water is a pretty uncertain environment after all, it’s not like all those bodies were filling caskets at funerals. There’s no reason to think that there’s a corpse of “Kate” and “Jack” stored or buried somewhere to create controversy.
I just don’t think the idea that there was a “miscount” of the bodies on board would be much of a story when 6 survivors are rescued.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they state this was the case? The plane was too deep in the trench and it would be too difficult to actually recover the bodies. I think this was made clear when the news footage was shown.
In the LOST timeline, it has only been about 100 days since the crash. So the authorities may be in the procees of recovering the plane but might not have completted the task.
I think, and this is purely a gut feeling, that time moves at different rate on island. Its 100 days since the crash on the Island. All the flashforwards are much further on by three years, I’m wondering whether thats because its really around there off island…
I do wonder about the significance of the Red Sox tape. They won the world series in both 2004 and 2007, right? One the year of the crash, the other the year the Oceanic six appear to be in…
Or this might just be nonsense…
You missed two definitely off the islands, and one probably off the island.
Desmond (but not oceanic passenger, but neither is Ben)
Michael
And of course probably:
WAAAAAAAAALLLLLLTT
I think that JohnT was listing those who are off the island in flashforwards. We don’t know the status of Desmond, Michael, or Walt in that future time.
And that’s what I think - they visually counted 324 bodies in the wreckage. Oh look, we STILL have eight too many corpses.
-Joe
It was '06 in our time when Jack was shown the video of the '04 series, was it not?
Based on the calendar on the freighter and Desmond’s call to Penelope, Sayid and Desmond arrive on the freighter on December 24, 2004. That’s within a day or so of what people who had been tracking time in the show had come up with as the current date on the Island. So, if the date really is different on the Island than in the ouside world then it is only off by a day or so at most.
Hmmmn, I can’t remember that (not being a baseball fan). I was referring to the last episode which was 08… If he’s seen it before in an older episode, then it does strike me as strange to refer back to the tape as if it means something…
In which case they’re not only off the island, but its a good 2 years later…
Now thats a question to ask… Why isn’t it just 2 months or something?
Sept. 22 is my birthday which is why I noticed it on Jin’s tombstone listing his date of death as Sept. 22, 2004. It was also the reason that I noticed it in Season 3 when Desmond is in the locked hatch trying to convince Jack(?) to push the button. He was checking the data printed out on the racks of paper they got from the Pearl listing the date each entry was put into the machine. The day he missed was the same day the plane fell from the sky, Sept. 22nd. At first I thought the grave was just the one they gave him when the world discovered the bodies in the plane they found, but then I remembered Hurley says something to the effect of, “do you want to go see him?” to Sun meaning he knows Jin’s body is there.
Who is “they” and what event are you referring to that must be 2 years later?
He’s referring to the Oceanic Six and the flashforwards, which are actually taking place between seven months later (because we know Sun is about two-three months along) and anytime after that.
But the Oceanic 6 are off the island, and he said they’re not. So I’m still confused.
I think you’re parsing it wrong:
Oh, OK. But why does it have to be 2 years? As already noted, it’ anywhere from 7 months to close to present day (Through the Looking Glass). I’m thinking that each flashforward is a little closer to exit day from The Island, and I’m hoping this week’s episode tells us at least something about why the Oceanic 6 got off and not everyone else.