In the future, that is…
My theory is that it’s Locke who was in the coffin. The way I see it going down is this:
Whidmore (or whoever is on the boat) fakes a rescue in an attempt to take control of the island in order to learn / exploit its secret properties. Jack and the others cooperate with them, even to the point of disabling Locke who will still be fighting to prevent it. Whidmore carts everyone (including an unconcious / incapacitated Locke) off the island, which they think they want at the time, until they get home and Locke wakes up and reveals to them that it was a mistake to let the island fall into the hands of Whidmore.
Perhaps he only tells Jack, or perhaps Jack is the only one who believes him, but either way, it’s fairly obvious that Jack knows now that his decision in tonights episode was wrong.
PS – I called the “flash forward” bit in the opening sequence, and believed it for the most part throughout the episode. My faith did waver a bit when Jack called for them to go get his dad upstairs, but I did quickly realize that he was just saying that because he wasn’t in his right mind at the time.
What immediattly tipped me off on the whole Flash Fwd things was his phone. Lost creators have had a good deal of continuity and very little mistakes for the sake of advertising. His Phone told me that the flashes took place AFTER the Island. It was a new model. His Car ( a new model Range Rover also i think) was a good hint also.
I think Ben was in the Coffin. When the funeral director asked if Jack was family or friend, he said neither.
Interesting idea. But I think the clue was the fact that it was a black funeral director in a black neighborhood. Could it have been Rose? Maybe in getting off the Island, her cancer came back–another reason Jack would feel guilty.
LA is pretty diverse; I don’t think the fact that it was in a particular neighborhood means anything at all. I don’t think Rose would be a significant enough character for them to discuss like that either, and she probably would have had friends or family.
Locke is the ideal choice since we’ve already seen that he has no family connections and probably no good friends either. You could say the same thing about Ben, but my bet is still on Locke.
I agree with Jared’s theory. I think Locke may be in the box. I don’t think it is Ben. Why would Jack be so distraught about Ben’s death, to want to kill himself. But he may be that upset about Locke’s death, especially if Locke was right about him making a big mistake by answering the phone and getting off the island, and maybe Locke was his only way to get back to the island? Why do you think Jack wants to go back to the island so bad. Do you think that only a few got off the island?
My theory is that all (or most) of the “Losties” get off the island (including Locke – against his will) by way of Whidmore, but either some die along the way or they end up doing something really evil once they have control of the island, and Jack knows it wouldn’t have happened if he had listened to Ben or John.
As for why he wants to go back, perhaps he now knows a lot more about the island, and may even think that there may be some way to change the past and/or future if they can get back to it. Either that or some people were left behind (as you suggested) and he was never able to save them.
i think that the island time was like 1996 so when john came back to mainland in real time,fate intervened time caught up with itself so his injury he sustained when he was thrown out the window would have happend to him again in the form of a similar serious injury,because hes supposed to be dead in 2006, or at least seriously injured, so thats why he died..just like how fate made a bus hit juliet’s husband or desmond couldn’t change the past.thats also how jacks dad and eckos brother are somewhat alive on the island because on the island time 1996 jacks dad was alive in 1996 so his body is half dead/half alive kind of, complicated,the bad news is john will probly be resurrected but not in a way id hoped hed be more like jacks dad most likely a ghost like figure who can appear from time to time but isnt corporeal like a normal human more of a ghost.
That’s an interesting theory as well – the dead/alive issue time relative, and so when time fluctuates so does the status of the people who have been affected earlier or later in that timeline.