Ben (The Others, technically) kidnapped her (making Crazy French Chick go crazy, a-la Claire) and Ben raised her.
The explanation Eloise gave to Jack was that they had to recreate the conditions of Oceanic 815 and that Locke had to have something that belonged to Christian so that Ajira 316 would land on the island. Jacob leaving the guitar case with Hurley in the cab seems to back up Eloise’s explanation.
I thought that the ATL confirmed that, in both timelines, the airline simply screwed up and Christian Shepherd’s body was never on the plane. It is in Australia.
Ben is not Alex’s real father. He stole her from the CFL.
How common is it for people with a Doctorate to be teaching high school instead of college?
I can’t speak to how common it is, but a social studies teacher in my middle school had a doctorate, so it wasn’t unreasonable.
Yeah, I had one high school English teacher with a doctorate. Definitely not the norm, but not outlandish either.
A theory and a question:
Smokey hid the body. If Jack had come across the real body, he’d have been as freaked out as people were when they saw Locke’s corpse. It kills the illusion. And, only tangentially related to this one, all of which brings up a question:
Did Hawking have Jack bring Locke’s body back because the body is somehow metaphysically “necessary” for smokey to hijack it? Or did she send the body so that the smokin’ hot Ilana and crew could have access to it?
No. In the ATL, the coffin and the body are missing. In the original timeline, Jack finds the coffin empty. No way they removed the body from the coffin and lost it separately. That’s pretty advanced luggage-losing.
Re: a high school teacher doctorate…I had the feeling that they made him a Ph.D. teaching AP History to show that he’s probably not quite lived up to his own expectations. You certainly got the idea that he felt like his job was beneath him (especially such drudge duty like detention monitoring), which is why his choice not to burn Alex for the principal job was surprising.
I would guess that most people typically don’t get a Ph.D. in History to achieve a lifelong dream of teaching AP students, no offense to any high school teachers with doctorates out there reading this. 
As a high-school teacher (almost with a doctorate 
), I think the whole
- Asking the principal for a letter of recommendation
- You quit and name me successor
Would have worked if it had been a private-school. Have the science teacher friend complain about the principal’s favoritism in making assignments (Jenkins always get chemistry and I get dumbass freshmen in biology) instead of supplies. Actually, the most unrealistic thing about the school was that Linus told another teacher and it was still private. The only thing that travels faster than light is a rumor at a school.
I get the impression that Christian is reanimated and “infected” in the same manner that Sayid now is and presumeably Claire too (she must have died in that explosion, right?)
When Jin asked Claire if she was alone, she replied, “No I’m with Christian and my friend.” Ergo Christian is not the smoke monster, and that’s why his coffin is empty.
Does that mean Smocke’s army consists of Eco’s brother too?
Claire first said ‘Oh, I’m not alone’, then later when talking about the others having her baby she said ‘first my father told me, then my friend told me’
Christian wasn’t alive to make to the magic pool, so I don’t think he’s reanimated like Sayid. Smokey had the ability to take the form of any dead body on the island apparently.
And if Ilana was correct in “The Substitute”, smokey can only take the Locke form for the time being, plus the smoke monster form itself.