I believe that the mystery to figure out and puzzle to solve this season is...
Well first let me give you examples from previous seasons:
Season 4 - When do these FlashForwards occur, was this BEFORE Jack and Kate were engaged, and/but/or AFTER Hurley saw Charlie in the Convenient Store?
Season 5 - What do all of these Time-Jumps wind up affecting in the past...what do they change, or, actually what was part of their Destinys all along to do (Sawyer held the rope during a time jump to Statue time, ancient folk found the rope in the ground, undug it, built well, found cave, made Frozen Donkey Wheel, DHARMA folk find it, build the Orchid, Ben goes to the wheel, turns it, sends Sawyer & crew through time where SAWYER EVENTUALLY HOLDS ON TO THE ROPE when they jump through time where the Ancient folk find it.)
okay..so Season 6's puzzle will be what Alternately happens in THIS parralel universe. How could things play out if they did land in 2004....but with the knowledge of the other timeline, seasons 1-5! But what happened in their lives in the past, since it's a Parralel Timeline! [[IMHO]]
Kate differences:
-Killed someone else (the America's Most Wanted clip)
Hurley's differences:
-He isn't cursed from the Numbers and he winds up owning Mr. Cluck's Chicken and going Corporate.
Oceanic's differences:
-Oceanic 815 didn't crash and they have a 30-year clean record.
Those are all comic-con canon vids, and as far as the canonocity goes, it's decent, like the others...so here's some of my speculation:
-Claire gets married to her Fiance but maybe decide to give up the baby for adoption anyway, but changes her mind now with her knowledge of her life on the island with Aaron and how much she loves him (Maybe it's going to be a girl..?)
-The woman now supposed to be the adoptive parents is Jenny, aka Jennifer Gale, wife of Henry Gale, and their flight in 2003 was successful and wanted to settle down with a baby, found Claire and were those adoptees, but now Claire doesn't want to give up the baby.
-Maybe Charlie was going on the Second Tour of Finland and was traveling to America for some reason, but the band was still together.
-Jack would make it in time for his Father's burial
-Locke would continue on his sad life and go to see Helen
-Boone and Shannon would continue their lives
-Sayid would continue his search for Nadia
-Sawyer would continue his search for Sawyer....etc, etc.
The only thing I have to ask is when they do finish off the Series on the island, how do they get there? Do they just wake up with only a glimpse of the possibility of life back home, then get back [[SOMEHOW]] to the island? Do they fly back [[No, it would take too long!]]? How will they depict them getting back?!
So that is my take on it, tell me what you think of the possibility of this year's puzzle?