Major Season 6 Spoiler

[wnt2kno]

I think they were in 77 to make sure the bomb goes off - Sawyer and Juliet there to bond so Juliet reacts to a look at Kate. Jack there to drop the bomb, Sayid there to set up the bomb, Hurley there to encourage Miles to connect with his father, Miles there to make sure his father believes the time travel and sets up Dharma for more studies. I'm just stuck why Jin was there.... Any ideas?

[Lord Brad III]

Do you suppose that they are filming an Alternate Reality, but from the point of view of Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc.? For instance in the show "Fringe" the Alternate Reality runs parallel with the reality or universe we all live in. Whatever exists in our universe also exists in the alternate reality. Everyone is the same, but how things have turned out for them in the alternate reality is a little different. Maybe the explosion combined with the electromagnetic energy creates a hole in the universe and Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc. cross over into the alternate reality. Maybe the scenes they are shooting are actually of the Jack, Kate, Hurley, Frogurt, ect. that exist in the alternate reality and at first we will think it is our original Losties and the reset worked, but then we'll see the Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc. that we've always known observing these versions of themselves in this other reality. This will leave them having to figure out a way to get back to their own reality. Since Jack's already done this once, hunting down Daniel and/or his mother and suggesting the old bat put them on a flight that will get them back to the island in the YEAR they actually belong in shouldn't be too difficult. Three, maybe four episodes tops.

The reset won't have worked, but the group from 2004 that were trapped in 1977 will be back "in time" where they belong.

Now all I need is for someone to explain to me why they ever needed to be in 1977 in the first place. If WHH then what was the purpose of our Losties traveling through time?

Taking into account that I don't think it would necessarily be a weird sort of "alternate reality" in the weird sense, but more in the sense of Fringe...as in, it's been there all along, and always will be, but is just as normal in every way except for a few differences made by a few different people.
That would be kind of cool actually. We have the precedent of Two Lockes, Two Miles, and even two Daniels (albeit one wasn't born yet when the other older one showed up). It would be quite an insane situation for the Losties that WE know to try and get all of the others to believe them. Since they had already landed safely in L.A., well, who knows what would happen then. That would be the whole set up for the very first part of the season. Kate could be escaping because "flashed-in Kate" told her something about what would go wrong. I don't know. I think I know where you are going with this idea, and would at least hold-off for a bit on my very un-likeable possibility of a full-blown reset.
My mind is very tired right now but maybe later I can't think about this great food for thought you've given katieb!

I think they were in 77 to make sure the bomb goes off - Sawyer and Juliet there to bond so Juliet reacts to a look at Kate. Jack there to drop the bomb, Sayid there to set up the bomb, Hurley there to encourage Miles to connect with his father, Miles there to make sure his father believes the time travel and sets up Dharma for more studies. I'm just stuck why Jin was there.... Any ideas?

As much sense as this makes, there has to be much more meaningful stuff going on, that we have yet to see. Much larger, or at least more profound (inner and outer) destiny/destinies.
Sawyer and Juliet there, to bond, so that Juliet reacts to a look Sawyers give at Kate. Naaaahhhhhh.

[babybop]

Sawyer & Co. traveled back in time because of the island. Maybe Jack, Kate, Sayid & Hurley were transported back to 1977 to bring Sawyer & Jin to the present. I say only Sawyer & Jin because they were the ones touched by Jacob (that we know of). I seriously doubt they were meant to stay in 1977...so maybe it was simply Jacob's way of getting his army, so to speak, back together in the same time period. And in the course of their stay they put Ben on his path to being an "other".

I mean I think the bomb will serve its purpose (whether it's how Jack imagined it or not).

[Lord Brad III]

Sawyer & Co. traveled back in time because of the island. Maybe Jack, Kate, Sayid & Hurley were transported back to 1977 to bring Sawyer & Jin to the present. I say only Sawyer & Jin because they were the ones touched by Jacob (that we know of). I seriously doubt they were meant to stay in 1977...so maybe it was simply Jacob's way of getting his army, so to speak, back together in the same time period. And in the course of their stay they put Ben on his path to being an "other".

I mean I think the bomb will serve its purpose (whether it's how Jack imagined it or not).

I pretty much agree, I didn't mean for it to sound like it came out, what I said. I was going in and out of napping-state, and as such, the strange scenario I had in my head might have come out a little pre-emptively.

[chartreuse]

My bet is on an alternate time line. They arrive at the airport, but we also get stuff exactly after Juliet hits the bomb. I definitely prefer that instead of a reset.

I don't get why people are so big on the idea of an alternate universe being created - that seems like the ultimate copout to me. These events could have occurred, but they didn't. Big deal. Why even waste the time on that with so much relevant ground to cover in Season 6? Leave the alt universe speculating to the fan fiction folks, please.

I much prefer a reset storywise, because contrary to what people seem to think, it wouldn't make the last five years irrelevant at all if done right (and I do believe they would do it right). It would be more along the lines of showing us how NOT having 815 crash had impacted their lives and then showing just how much the island/the numbers/DI/whatever the root of all this is still "has" them, and is still a force in their lives, trying to get them to the island. And I do think you would have some bleedthrough in that some characters would have a sense of what they previously experienced, even if they're unable to really define what they're feeling.

[Lord Brad III]

My bet is on an alternate time line. They arrive at the airport, but we also get stuff exactly after Juliet hits the bomb. I definitely prefer that instead of a reset.

I don't get why people are so big on the idea of an alternate universe being created - that seems like the ultimate copout to me. These events could have occurred, but they didn't. Big deal. Why even waste the time on that with so much relevant ground to cover in Season 6? Leave the alt universe speculating to the fan fiction folks, please.

I much prefer a reset storywise, because contrary to what people seem to think, it wouldn't make the last five years irrelevant at all if done right (and I do believe they would do it right). It would be more along the lines of showing us how NOT having 815 crash had impacted their lives and then showing just how much the island/the numbers/DI/whatever the root of all this is still "has" them, and is still a force in their lives, trying to get them to the island. And I do think you would have some bleedthrough in that some characters would have a sense of what they previously experienced, even if they're unable to really define what they're feeling.

I do not see an alternate reality as being a cop-out if it is pulled off with some finesse. Also hope that's not the case, though.
5 seasons have included characters growing up, growing old, growing together, and growing apart. Learning from their mistakes. Redemption. Apologies. Vengeance. The wisdom of hindsight.
One way not to negate the effect that the past 5 seasons has had on our characters could be to reveal all of it to have been a mass consciousness-travel, via the Swan and Desmond. Since that energy came from the Swan, it might have the same effect on people inside 815 (mind-jumping through time, finding constants, etc).
If so, our characters are now at a point where, could they do things over again, they would to them differently, or at least view them differently. Not everything, just some things.

If everyone's consciousness jumped into their future bodies on the beach and stuff, all the way up to the point of Jughead, then if Jughead causes the reverse, them coming back to their bodies on the plane, they could sort of remember everything, and end up making better choices in life. Time dilation has occurred on the show, too. The strangely long amount of time might have taken place exactly the way we saw, but to the 815'ers minds, when they come back only seconds, minutes, or close to an hour has passed. Desmond's 1996 consciousness traveled to 2004 didn't it? D&C said it was not the other way around, which is why he did not remember anyone in 2004 when it first started happening; he went FORWARD to his 2004 mind. Which is to say what if the 815 passengers also traveled FORWARD to waking up on the Island and after all of these experiences, came back to the moment we first see them in the plane, or some time around that?
If we now see them land safely in LAX, their memories might influence the decisions to make, giving them choices to make their lives better or worse. For instance Kate can still choose to escape from Edward Mars; only this time, it's not because he dies on the Island, but that she makes a run for it after landing in LAX. The problem they could be having with getting back to their 815 minds could be something, or someone, is not letting them (MIB?) (Remember Minkowski? "I can't get back!" *dies*)
Season 6 will show us the results of this new knowledge, everything still really WILL have happened, and unfortunately, some characters are still going to make these bad decisions. Or on the other hand, maybe not all do remember. Does this require a constant? I don't know.
No dream sequence, no snow globe, no cut to black, no they're-all-dead, no purgatory, no they're-in-hell.
I have no idea how deep Jacob and MIB might be involved in this either. Plus the myriad of all the other mysteries. Anyways I'm sure that all the Island's history, ancient history, more recent history, and the present, have all played out in basically the same way. The Black Rock, Jacob, the statue, Egyptians, Natives, Others, 815, 316, the Hansos and D.I., Rousseau and the science team...
WHATEVER the large story of LOST is, "history is repeating itself." and Losties are unknowingly walking down a beaten path. But someone wants to prove someone else wrong.

Okay, that all being said: I do not believe my own theory! I don't want this to happen at all. Just trying to brainstorm on things that would not negate previous 5 seasons of experiences. The war, Jacob, reincarnation, off/on-island, a moving island - these are all reasons for me to not want to believe everything I said above. I want to them to end up back on the island, even if the first episode shows them landing in LAX. We don't know why, when, or to what end yet, but it's obviously going to be a bait-and-switch or something to that effect...