The newspaper Jack is reading while living with Kate indicates late August, 2007. It seems logical to assume that his flashforward meeting with Kate at the airport occurs sometime after that.

If so, that means the airport flashforward occurs on a date in the future relative to the date that scene was broadcast. I don't know why but that bothers me a little. I guess it is because all the other flashforwards seem to have occurred on a date in time prior to broadcast. Does this bother anyone else?

So Season 3 would have already been over for months and months of waiting ahead of him before Season 4 started. No help to him at all. Too bad.

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

By "bother" I mean that I have to accept that either (a) or (b) is true, where-
(a) the flash forward at the end of season 3 was to some date subsequent to the date it aired (which does not seem to be the case with any other flash forward); or
(b) the K/J airport meeting occurred before Jack moved in with Kate, while everyone seems to assume the reverse order.

The timeline on Lostpedia says that the airport meeting is at an unknown time. So just wondering whether this casts doubt on the presumed sequence of these two events.

The airport meeting has to happen a while after Jack and Kate shack up. He was only just starting to lose it in the flash forward from Something Nice Back Home, and he was totally clean shaven, and steady-handed. The flash forward scene at the airport is when Jack is in real trouble. I think Kate probably kicked him out, or she and Aaron moved out without him.

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

I had posted somewhere once before that I beleive the scene of K/J airport was part of the end of season 4 which I still think so. And I think that Jack is trying to convince Kate they need to go back to the island as I think Hurley might do with Sun, think the flash forward of when S/H at Jin grave might be the lead into him telling her they all need to go back to the island.
Jack has said he's tried getting back to the island on his own and he can't so I think the only way any of them can get back is that all have to be together in order to do so. I just can't figure in how Sayid going to be part of this cause he's running around doing deeds for Ben. Then maybe again the reason Sayid hanging with Ben is cause he's the one that can get them back to the island. Can't be too hard to get Aaron to go back since he's with Kate. That's my input about timelines sorry if I had confuse some I'm just throwing this out there.

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Standing in the ocean with the sun burning low in the west
Like a fire in the cavernous darkness at the heart of the beast
With my beliefs and possessions, stopped at the frontier in my chest
At the edge of my country, my back to the sea, looking east

I have a theory that Kate eventually returns to the island because she realizes she needs something to physically keep her from running. She said herself in "I Do" that she "doesn't do taco night." She's not naturally cut out for the PTA and Mommy & Me classes. She loves Aaron and she knows that he needs stability. She returns in order to give Aaron stability, a place where she can't run. Also, if Jack's going back she can go right back to being in the middle of them and have more choices that way. (Sawyer's got to be an especially tempting choice if Jack has really lost it at that point and become a total drunk and Oxycontin junkie.) Probably some combination of the two motivations.

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

That could explain why kate says " i have to get back to him" referring to Aron. as she says in the ending of season 3

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That which never sleeps is always awaken

The Hurley/Sun meeting has to happen considerably before the Jack/Kate airport meeting, correct? Don't Hurley and Sun meet soon after she has the baby? Assuming she has a normal 9 month gestation period, they would have met up in Summer of 2005. Jack and Kate at the airport we can assume happens after August 2007. In addition, Hurley is not yet crazy when he goes to see Sun. Just making sure I have my mental timeline right...

Yes, I think just about everybody agrees on that sequence. I ust find it odd that the Kate/Jack airport flashforward is to a date in the future relative to the date the episode aired. As far as I can tell it is the only one like that. And the timeline on lostpedia has yet to concede that the airport meeting occurred after August 2007. But given the response to my posting on this issue, it seems no one else finds this to be significant, so I guess it isn't.

I think it's significant......
From reading darkufo postings, the creators of Lost have said this season is about how they get off the island... next season is why they need to get back, then the final season is what happens when they get back.

So, it would make sense that we see everyone off the island (in the next few ep's we'll figure how they got off) and the season will end with pleading to go back. Next season we'll see WHY they need to get back to the Island and how they find it....
and then a series finish of them getting back there and the events that occur once they are back.