Jack, Sawyer, and the Best Kind of Foreshadowing by SubRosa

The best kind of foreshadowing is the kind you don't realize IS foreshadowing until after the fact. You know---it's when the grand scheme is unveiled, and you scream "Of course! It was right in front of me ALL THIS TIME, and I was just too blind to see it!"

Everything that's happened over the last five years has foreshadowed Season 6. So let's take a look at a few major events and apply them to Season 6.

THE UNHOLY QUADRANGLE: Dark-haired Jack and light-haired Sawyer, brunette Kate and blonde Juliet. Light and Dark epitomized. I wanted to claw my eyes out when the Season 5 finale had a good twenty straight minutes of these four angsting about their various relationships. But that got me thinking: how does the quadrangle tie into the larger picture of LOST? One of the most striking things about these four characters is that they have NEVER actually been enemies. Outsiders would naturally assume these four aren't operating on the same side; you'd have Jack and Sawyer vying for leadership positions, Kate and Juliet vying for Sawyer, the doctors vs the criminals, Juliet and Sawyer operating with DHARMA and Kate and Jack operating against. BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED. At the end of the day, all four were always on the same team, working toward the same goals; Jack and Sawyer were beating the crap out of each other one minute and saving each other's lives the next; Kate beat up ! Juliet when they were handcuffed together in the jungle in Season 3, only to immediately apologize and help her. In Season 5, all four immediately began operating as a unit, separating themselves psychologically from DHARMA.

I think this ties into the MIB/Jacob conflict. Light and Dark aren't operating against one another---fate and free will are seeking the same ultimate goal, and only because we're uninitiated, we haven't seen these characters intimately, do we think they're operating at cross-purposes. Jacob wanted to die, wants the Others to start asking questions; the MIB wants people to live peacefully on the Island---notice how sad he seemed when he noted the way people always end. Everything that's happened has been part of a mutual plan, just like everything that Jack and Sawyer, Juliet and Kate, have done has ultimately been to serve their larger mutual goals.

THE FREIGHTER FOLK AND THE LOSTIES: Charlotte and Miles, the children of Dharma, Daniel Faraday, child of the Hostiles, and Frank Lapidus, 'lost' pilot of Flight 815. In Season 5, we had Miles living with his parents before he was born, Daniel interacting with his teenage/middle-aged mother, and the Losties seeing toddler Charlotte after seeing adult Charlotte sicken and die. So I'm thinking that we witnessed the same thing in Season 1---we just didn't know it yet. The Losties have been interacting with their own children since the beginning. So who's related to who? A few possibilities:

DESMOND HUME/CHARLIE PACE: (I figure I'll ignore the obvious 'Charles Widmore is actually Charlie Hume!' theory.) How does Desmond being Charlie's father fit? Charlie Pace is a musician--if he's Penelope's son, then he's Daniel Faraday's uncle, and we know Daniel had a musical gift. Widmore knew his son was going to die; Desmond knew Charlie was going to die. Charlie died warning Desmond about a coming catastrophe; Daniel died trying to warn his parents about a coming catastrophe. Other than Mikhail, his murderer, Charlie died in the 'presence' of two people: Penelope and Desmond.

JACK/KATE/DESMOND: Desmond Hume as Jack/Kate's son. Desmond dropped out of med school (Jack is a doctor) and was handy with explosives (Kate blew up her father). Jack was the first Lostie Desmond met (chronologically---without traveling through time, otherwise the first person he met was Daniel) off the Island. Kate was the first Lostie he met on the Island, when she was lowered into the hatch. If Kate is pregnant in 1977, she could have the baby, give him up for adoption, and voila! Instant awesome Scotsman.

JULIET/JACK/KATE: this one gets a little freaky. If (again, IF) Kate is pregnant in 1977, she could give birth to Juliet on the Island and give her up for adoption. She names her after her friend Juliet. Then the Jack/Sawyer confrontations kind of echo the endless enmity between Widmore/Desmond, Mr. Paik/Jin, etc. Jack and Juliet only ever kissed---guess what? SO did Luke/Leia in Star Wars, and Some Like It Hoth had heavy Star Wars vibes. Jack and Juliet are doctors, and Juliet is attracted to Sawyer, a la Kate. This would make Sawyer/Kate incredibly freaky, but this show had Kate/Roger interacting, so who the heck knows.