Don't want to start a new thread, so I hope someone can help me with this stuff. I don't get to read much on theories of Lost, so I'm hoping to get some feedback on all this:
What were the theories on why that picture on the desk of the head monk guy had the lady in it from Desmond's flashbacks? That struck me as one of the biggest curveballs I've ever seen in the show. To me, she was an indication that the vision Desmond was having was a prediction/dream/falsehood... something in those areas. Does that mean that the flashback Desmond had about meeting his woman and being a monk for a time was fake? Is he imagining the whole thing? Doesn't seem like that's the case given that a woman now landed on the island, and we had that scene from those people that observed the explosion (weren't they in Antarctica?), so Desmond's woman must exist. I just can't figure out why that was in there. Total red herring?
What happened to the numbers? I don't remember them being mentioned at ALL this season, when they seemed to be a critical, uniting issue in previous seasons.
My theory on the communications: the island has a major natural "anomaly" that prevents communication. I believe that the only way communications were possible before were because of that station. When it went down, it no longer provided the ability to get through the Island's "net". So maybe the explosion caused problems with electrical items, but it was the loss of the machine and not the explosion itself that was the real problem. This "net" also masks the island from detection, to an extent, and that mask was ruined, temporarily, by the explosion, which is why Desmond's woman (or at least the people she hired) found him.
As for the religious stuff, just want to add my own thoughts. Many shows have themes that have meaning outside the show. For instance, Chronicles of Narnia has a very religious undertone, but it's a story outside of that. In the same way, I believe that the references to the Island being a "second chance" and possibly "Purgatory" are two things: a red herring, and real lesson/meaning to it all the writers put in there. In other words, when it's all done and it turns out that this is all real, the entirety of the story will be more profound because the characters will have learned something from their existence on the Island. Without the - we'll call them - "spiritual" lessons, they are just happy to be home and continue with their lives. Plus, they're kind of putting in a little meaning to the show's viewers. They've said that it's not Purgatory, so give up on that possibility.