at this point they haven`t explained why walt has abilities, why hurley has abilities, why jacob has abilities. We may never get that info. You have no facts to support your theory so i don`t see why i need facts to discount it. how would they explain that theory in show. both daniel and desmond were involved in incidents where they were exposed to radiation which has something to do with time. its plausible within the context of the show. If in some episode someone says `oh miles can hear the dead cause when he was a kid on the island he was also there as an adult` I wouldn`t buy it, neither would you. Doesn`t make sense when you think of the show we`ve been watching for 5 years.

Actually we DO know - in a small way - why certain people have 'super powers'; Jacob.

Hurley was told by Jacob "You're just gonna have to take my word for this - You're not crazy".

Bram (one of Jacob's 'good guys') told Miles that if he came to the Island with 'the side that's going to win' he'd find out "why he could do the things that he could do, why he is special, ect".

Jacob had an invested interest in Walt because of his 'abilities', and subsequently put in a huge effort to convert him, however acknowledged at some point that Walt was 'more than he could handle'.

If I had to name those who are 'special' off the top of my head, I'd say Walt, Desmond, Miles and Hugo.

Good points! You are right that we actually do know some about Jacob. Wonder if we go back and watch seasons from the beginning would we happen upon more things which we missed the first time around?

I completely agree with your "special" list of Walt, Desmond, Miles and Hugo. The two other people I remember being called "special" were Shannon (Boone said it about her) and John Locke (he told us his mother used to say it) and they both ended up dead. Yikes! Does this mean Walt, Des, Miles, and Hugo are the truly special ones and John (and Shannon) were mislead - not visited or touched by Jacob?

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I don't think we'll really be in any position to judge 'who is special' until the Season 6 premiere, by which Damon hopes that we'll have all the clues we need to put together a theory. I think the key question of Lost is - as TPTB have said - "Why these people, why this plane, why this Island", and if they were indeed all summoned to the Island then they are all special in some way. I still can't wrap my head around The Sheperd Family's communion with the Island, but....

John was certainly mislead, we know that, but thats not to say he's not special in the same way all the survivors are special. Remember what Sayid/John(?) said wayyyyyyyy backkkkkkkkk in Season one; "We all survived this plane crash, many of us with only superficial injuries!". I think thats the key question of LOST and the moment we know the answer to that everything else will fall into place.

With regards to the 'special list'... It's interesting to note that only two of the special folk came to the Island on 815. Miles and Desmond are both here on Widmores dollar!

Just a thought as to why Eloise would send Faraday to the island even though she knew she had killed him.

We have to remember that a purpose for sending Faraday back was so that his mind could be healed. Faraday's mental state was pretty bad, almost vegetable like. Eloise as a mother had to make a choice. Either let Faraday live a long life in a severely debilitated state or live a short life in a completely healed state. Considering just how much of a genius Faraday is and that Eloise was always so proud of him, i imagine the choice was simple. She just wanted Faraday to be back to his normal genius self even if it was for a very short time.

I'm not saying that there weren't other motivations involved for Eloise sending back her son, but I am saying that Eloise is not a cold-hearted fatalist. She didn't send her son back solely because she knew she had to. She did it because she just wanted her son to be whole again.

No, she did it because she was worried about the space time continue, um, dude.

I never said that she didn't do it because of the space time continuum. I just think that it wasn't SOLELY for that reason. That the bigger reason was so that Daniel would be healed.

I'm a big believer in the whatever happened, happened theory.

I just figure Eloise's sending Daniel back was more like the ep where Desmond jumps through time and he ends up still deciding to leave Penny after taking their picture together.

Desmond went into that encounter intent on proposing to Penny. He even bought the ring when Eloise told him that he wasn't supposed to. He has the ring and takes that picture with Penny, only to have second thoughts at the end and still not go through with it. Desmond was trying to go against the space time continuum and he even did something that hadn't happened before. But he still got caught up in its momentum and force. The space time continuum still continued as it was supposed to despite the minor hiccup of Desmond buying a ring when he wasn't supposed to.

Similarly, Eloise could've gone her whole life thinking she'd never send Daniel to the Island and even tried to take whatever precautions necessary for him not to go. However when Daniel became debilitated, everything changed and she decided to send him back b/c it was the only place he could be healed. She didn't want him to become a vegetable like his female assistant and that overrode her desire not to send him back.

Tough choice. Deprive your offspring of a possible long life for a few years of mental well being. All because "whatever happened happened"? I think Eloise is more under the influence of Blackshirt than she realizes. And Daniel got it right. We have a choice...we are the variables. Eloise, knowing what she knew, could have allowed her mother instinct to take over and decided to care for Daniel no matter his mental state and not send him back to the island to die. She could have allowed him to have a "normal" life with girlfriends and socializing and the like. But she decided, for whatever reason, to force Daniel into the profession and life that would bring him to his mental meltdown and thus end up being the cause and instrument of his death.

I don't know if I think that was her overriding emotion, but could be. She tells Desmond during his first time traveling episode that he can't change the past, because it will will happen anyway, I think she probably learned this in her attempt to save her son from his fate on the island. I think her reason for giving up and allowing daniel to go to the island will be discussed next season, at least i hope it will.

He didn't change his tune. We have to remember Miles' and Hurley's conversation. Daniel is right - whatever happened, happened is true. You cannot change the past. But at the moment when Daniel tells Jack about the variables, or when Daniel walks into his mother's camp that is NOT the past for Daniel - that is his present. Therefore anything any of the Losties or Freighter4 choose to do is of their own free will. And it is why they can die. That is why he called them the variables.

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