At the end of season 3 the producers tried to make us think that we were in the future, they even put an anagram to confuse us. What we really saw was a flashback of Jack. When Jack finally gets back to the island he is transported through time to the first time he was on the island. So in the pilot Jack knew Kate, but he knew that she didn't know him so he introduced himself. Now this doesn't explain why he's shocked to find out that Kate is a fugitive. I believe that when traveling through time he lost some of the information that he had known.
This also explains why Richard appears so young. We know he has left the island and returned. When he returns to the island he is transported back to the first time he got to the island. He would have to keep a diary so he would be able to remember everything in between his previous arrival on the island.
Back to the main part of the theory. Since some information had been lost in his passage through time (no pun intended) he isn't realizing that he is making the same decisions he made last time.
In this Jack would be enslaved by time. In "Not in Portland" it is said that 'only fools are enslaved by time and space.' Jack knows he needs to change something every time he comes to the island but he can't remember what. He is trying to change his future but he is stuck in a time loop trying to change something.
Theory by Taterific
This also explains why Richard appears so young. We know he has left the island and returned. When he returns to the island he is transported back to the first time he got to the island. He would have to keep a diary so he would be able to remember everything in between his previous arrival on the island.
Back to the main part of the theory. Since some information had been lost in his passage through time (no pun intended) he isn't realizing that he is making the same decisions he made last time.
In this Jack would be enslaved by time. In "Not in Portland" it is said that 'only fools are enslaved by time and space.' Jack knows he needs to change something every time he comes to the island but he can't remember what. He is trying to change his future but he is stuck in a time loop trying to change something.
Theory by Taterific
