Fake plane crash conspiracy sounds rather weak- Ben or Jacob might well be involved with the circulation of misinformation in the outside world, and Naomi's comment might be an example of that..

Producers have dismissed the purgatory explanation long time ago- one of the earliest and most common conspiracies actually..perhaps this week's crazy ending has more to do with some time-twist- or 'temporality working differently on the island' kind of thing (wounds getting well sooner than they normally would, likely to be an indicator of that) In their weekly podcasts, Producers have always found subtle ways to suggest that time could be working different with/on the island (you might want to check out the Podcast listing and descriptions on Lostpedia.org for details. most are still on.)

But if that's the case, how come was Ben able to make a live connection and show Juliette a newspaper's date before showing the sister?

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"Bear...? Is that you?"-- Hurley S03E4