* A lot of what follows is based on other observations on the web. I'm not going to point out each and every case, but to be safe you can assume that all the good ideas originate from some other source. Except the desired finale title.
* It certainly seems as if the Island dead are the ones who are capable of opening people's eyes in 2004X...Charlie, Faraday, Libby. Once that spark has been passed, then others can run with it, as we've seen Desmond do, and hopefully we'll see a big fella with lots of resources take that path as well. But so far, the initial revelations have come courtesy of someone who died on the Island. Of course, we've also seen dead characters who've yet to demonstrate any knowledge (like Charlotte), and it's quite possible that this theory will be blown to bits by Locke's near-death experience.
* I completely whiffed on this one--the pouch that Hurley lifted from Ilana's gear was the one that contained Jacob's ashes.
* People have been saying that since the Whispers are the people who can't move on, the purgatory theory of the Island is back in play. I can't agree. Does the explanation of the Whispers imply a purgatory for some lost souls, like Michael? Absolutely. But that's a far cry from the original purgatory theory, which is that the crash survivors had died in the crash and now were trapped in purgatory.
* But was Michael working for the Man in Black, or Jacob, or just out of the goodness of his trapped heart, independent of godly masters? The argument for MiB is strong circumstantially--after all, there the Monster was, whittling his stick and waiting for the other candidates to matriculate him. Michael goes out and offers advice to Hurley, and voila, candidates!
We've seen that desire to escape bondage is a powerful motivator on the Island, for no less a person than MiB himself (at least to the extent that he is to be believed).
* Finally, I realize that the finale title has already been released, but I try to avoid episode titles beyond the next week's. So it's a little silly to propose episode titles, but nonetheless, if my long-standing desire for a finale called "Our Mutual Friend" cannot be fulfilled, I think a great title would be "Once Upon a Time".
Given the way LOST loves to play with our inherent temporal assumptions, what better way to end the story than with the first phrase in so many other stories? "Once upon a time" is most often uttered in fanciful tales, fairy tales, a genre which LOST can arguably be included as a modern version. Time itself is a major theme on the show, and it would be referenced (this is why I suggested a Desmond episode called "Time Out of Mind", in homage to Dylan). Speaking of Desmond, we already had "Happily Ever After".
"Once" is also a key word-as Jacob says, "it only ends once". There was a Season Six promo featuring narration from the actor that plays Widmore which started "Once upon a time, there was an Island".
