'Letters from the Flame': 'Lost' about 'The Package'? I have your answers

After a short hiatus, "Letters from the Flame" is back to answering your burning "Lost" questions. I didn't think anyone would actually miss it, but lo and behold, many of you openly wondered if it was gone forever. Some of you commented, some of you wrote me emails, and at least two of two sent me Edible Arrangements and wished a speedy recovery for me. Awfully nice of you. But we're back this week, and will continue to be back going forth.
 
Onto your questions!
 
Is "Letters from the Flame" gone for good?
J.
 
Last week marked the halfway point, in terms of overall hours, for Season 6. So I decided to switch up the usual routine and post this article instead of the usual Q&A. I tried to incorporate your questions/theories into the "Course Corrections" and podcast for that week in order to make up for a full entry. Won't happen again though!
 
Any chance that Jin and Sun will run into Jack at the hospital in the sideways world? Things over there have to be reaching some sort of tipping point; I can't wait until the series finale for whatever is going to happen with the sideways world!
splinter
 
My first thoughts as to the doctor that Jin will take Sun to wasn't Jack, but instead Juliet who would be the one who could help with the baby. Thoughts?
Steve
 
I can't decide if this would be great or too cute by half. I would disagree that the sideways world has reached a tipping point in anything besides audience imagination. I don't see a clear vantage point to which all stories over there are inevitably going to collide. Then again, given the collection of people needed to get off the Island, I can easily see a scenario in which a certain number of people have to gather in the sideways world to have something big happen. (I almost wrote "for that timeline to be erased," but decided I've offended the epiloggers enough recently to not start all that up again.)
 
I think the geophysicist is referring to another attempt by Widmore to take the island when she says he should have sent mercenaries. I might be confused (okay, definitely confused) but isn't the timeline on the island now 2007, but the time when Widmore sent the mercenaries to go to the island 2004, right? Please clear this up for me, if possible!
dillchik
 
I consulted the Lostpedia timeline on this answer. (FANTASTIC way to lose half your day, trust me. I know.) Desmond turns the failsafe key on Nov. 27, 2004. The Kahana leaves Fiji at some point between Dec. 5th and Dec. 10th, 2004. Mighty short time to assemble a crew, isn't it? Almost seems as if Widmore had been cultivating a crew in anticipation of the operation. Yes, money can buy you many things at short notice, but this seems a bit fishy to me. In fact, I think it's high time we look at every Des-centric episode before next week's installment. "Live Together, Die Alone" and "The Constant" in particular hold some intriguing Des/Widmore scenes worth rewatching.
 
Ryan, why do you think that the fertility question being linked to the destruction of the statue has now been proved wrong and why do you now think it's linked to the Incident?
 
Why did Jin say 'thank you' to Keamy before he was gagged?
 
Do you think there always has to be at least one candidate on the island at any one time? And might this be a reason for the times that the losties went back in time to - to fill gaps when this was not the case or in danger of being so?
fiftypence
 
1) Because Ethan was born in 1977, 110 years after the statue was destroyed. 2) Because he responded to the tone, not content, of Keamy's devastating speech. 3) I'd love to see who's behind sending certain people back and keeping certain people in the present for Ajira 316. Is there agency behind that white light? I have to assume Jacob sent the candidates back as part of his strategy to let The Man in Black think he'd won by finding the loophole.
 
Regarding the mirror scenes, why has Sawyer been the only one (so far) to smash a mirror in the sideways timeline? Does this have any significance?
Buffy fan
 
I wish there was. If you look back at each mirror scene, there's little you can glean from them as a general takeaway. Jack tends to notice wounds that weren't there, Sawyer sees his own self-loathing, Sun may/may not see the Island, and Locke/Sayid/Jin don't seem to see much of anything. Heck, Jin doesn't even see his reflection at all! This says to me that the idea of the mirror is more important than what the characters actually see in it. Considering all of the "Alice in Wonderland" references on the show, certainly we should soon be seeing something through the looking glass, no?
 
Coming tomorrow: the Great "Lost" Debate returns with a look at everyone's favorite returning Scotsman, Des!

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Photo credit: ABC