Unanswered questions continue to plague me. Specifically, do we know that the island-based infertility problem was the result of the Incident?

My biggest consolation is that I said, at the end of season five, that I was sure they had caused their own entire situation by setting off the bomb. That seems to have turned out to be right - although they side-stepped the point entirely, by focusing on the 'sideways reality'. (I'd have much preferred a season six where we saw the results of the Incident in more detail. But there you go.)

Seska,

Jacob mentioned that he brought them to the island (because they were unfulfilled), so I'm not sure they really "caused" their own situation.

He did. But they also set off the Bomb that caused the Incident that led to the Button that crashed the Plane (that lived in the house that Jack built. But not that Jack). Faraday thought the digging at the Swan would cause that, but it was actually their attempt to stop it that did.

Hmm. Maybe it's a free will/determinism puzzle.

I don't think the bomb either went off or caused the incident. The drilling caused the Incident which was was already happening when the Lostaways brought the bomb to the site. I think *it* is what flashed the Lostaways from 1977 back to 2007. The bomb was the fail safe mechanism that Des set off in 2004.

Oooh, I like that theory, Cindy! Not sure about your last sentence, though. Wouldn't a nuclear explosion have done more physical damage? Maybe the fail safe was just a recreation of the incident.

Agree that it's what pushed them back into the present. Interesting thought about the bomb not going off and Desmond setting it off in the failsafe.

OK, so if the bomb doesn't go off/expel its energy until Desmond, what's the cause of the failed pregnancies on the island?

(& damn. I was enjoying thinking I was right.)

Oooh, I like that theory, Cindy! Not sure about your last sentence, though. Wouldn't a nuclear explosion have done more physical damage? Maybe the fail safe was just a recreation of the incident.

Remember back when they first found the hatch, Jack and Sayid went down into some sort of corridor and Sayid estimated how thick the solid concrete walls were? Plus, the hatch had blast doors, and whatnot. I think the 1977 Dharma Initiative people found the bomb and being scientists, engineers and whatnot, knew how much concrete to put around it to minimize the damage.

OK, so if the bomb doesn't go off/expel its energy until Desmond, what's the cause of the failed pregnancies on the island?

The bomb had a leak in it as far as the 1950s. That's one of the reasons Daniel told young Eloise that it had to be encased in concrete, but the 1950s others just hid it in the tunnels. I'm sure some of the poison leached into the ground and water.

I really felt like this stuff was all addressed last season.

I really felt like this stuff was all addressed last season.

I missed a lot of this - or it went over my head - and I've seen every episode at least twice. I need to rewatch again, then. Sigh.

Nice to hear I was only half-wrong, then - in that the bomb was to some extent responsible for all their troubles. Less nice to hear I may have been the last person to realise this.

The pregnancy stuff could have been due to the bomb, but it doesn't explain the magical healing properties of the island.

I do think there was something mystical about the island and therefore explains the pregnancy stuff. Perhaps the fact that the island isn't quite fixed in time or space has a negative impact on fetuses. I would believe that.

Maybe Mr. Black Smoke (or his presence) messes with pregnant mothers' bodies in such a way that makes pregnancy problematic.

Perhaps the fact that the island isn't quite fixed in time or space has a negative impact on fetuses. I would believe that.

This was what I was wondering earlier, when we heard that the light in the cave is the source of life, death and rebirth. But there was no obvious link made between that and the birth problems - whereas it was a bit more clearly the origin of the ghosts, like Michael.

I have an easier time believing that the mystical properties of the island were responsible for the healings than I do for the pregnancy issues. Not sure why.