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From the beginning this show has been staged as conflict between fate and choice. Between faith and science. Between what is supposed to happen, and what one can do to alter that. Locke has always been the voice of the Island, and what its about. He lost some of that faith, that belief in determinism, in season 2...he dropped the ball, in a way, from doing what he was "supposed" to be doing, which led to him not pressing the button...which started the chain reaction of events that eventually allow some people to get off the island...something we desperately saw him trying to rectify in season 3...to the point of almost killing jack to stop it from happening. No one was supposed to leave the island...Locke knew it in some form, Jack didnt believe it...but boy does Jack realize the mistake in the FF's, no?

It all goes back to why these people ended up on this island in the first place, and why many of them, especially Locke...didnt want to leave. And even more, why they shouldnt.

The entire introduction of Desmond into the story, along with his abilities and burdens, is to further ease the viewer into the overall conceit of the the show. Without Desmond, making people understand the direction this story is about to take us, would be near impossible/improbable. Desmond is now the embodiement of the concept of time and fate, and the will to try and change ones fate...and to question whether its even at all possible. Desmond is showing us time/fate as more of a loop than endless track...he isnt looking into the future of what hasnt happend yet...but into a future that already is.

There is a famous theorist, which i quoted in last seasons thread (in comment to cindi asking :)) who has a theory about time, a theorist Lost has alluded to in past episodes. Sorry i forget his name at the moment, but his theory is that time is constant...not an endless, singular track where the past is dead and the future has yet to be constructed, and we are in a train car in the present riding along the track of time...but that the past, present, and future is all occuring at one time...we, as simple humans, just observe it in a linear, progressive fashion. The idea being that everything has already happened...BUT if you somehow had the ability to change an event in the present, something that wasnt going to occur in the first place, you'd automatically be changing the past and future at the exact same time. Likewise, if you had the ability to change something that happened in the past or future, it would have similar effects.

In this way, they are introducing Desmond. He, through the electromagnetic pulse accident, has the ability to view the supposed future as well as the present. Which gives him the burden of deciding what and if, he should do anything in the present to affect the future. We've already seen him try, in small ways. And i believe, every time he saved Charlie, like preventing him from drowning that first time trying to save Claire...he HAS been changing the present and past and future just a bit.

But then it goes back to the same conceit that "fate" always tries to fix itself, something that Desmond seemed resigned to at the end of last season. And i think the show, as a whole, is leading up to the same conceit...albeit possibly with a different ending.

Boone "has to die" because if he didnt, he would have used that working plane radio to call for help and get some people off the island. Locke should have killed Jack before using the radio for the same reason. So why is getting off the Island a bad thing?

Beyond all theories and guessing about what the show is leading to and what the conceit is...we do know this as a fact. The idea is that if people leave the Island too soon, or at all, its bad. Locke has been a huge believer of this, and as we saw last season, Jack, the huge skeptic, suddenly realizes this as well. So its important.

My theory, is that these people are, at this point, all doomed to repeat their fate. They are in a sense "lost" and helpless to do so. But its the Island, and its wacky mix of scientific properties and powers...that allows a group of people to possibly change that. Thats the conceit of the show. Just as the Island allowed Desmond to recognize and affect things on a smaller, personal scale..the Island also is giving the others abilities to do it on a larger one. The theory is that this has all happened before, and these losties are doomed to repeat it again and again. Something about being "saved" off the island continues the cycle. (i mean, doesnt it look like Jack fell back into is unfortunate, predestined ways after he got off the island?) The hope is the Island.

I believe that killing Boone was something that hadnt happened before. The reason Boone was killed, was because otherwise, some of the Losties would have gotten off the island earlier. And we all know, that's bad in this story. Boone's sister having to die...a similar conceit. Maybe if she lived, it would have also led up to a sequence of events to get people off the island sooner as well. This theory also may explain why we hear those voices in the background every time one of these "event changes" take place...its alot of scambled mumbling about trying to do something, to hurry and do something, how this or that is or isnt supposed to happen...as as if with each and every attempt to change something that was supposed to be, it becomes a new scramble to change another event to prevent fate from reasserting itself...something we saw Desmond do in season 3.

I think the idea is that if these Losties, and others, can change enough and keep doing what they are "supposed to do" in order to change their fate...its for the greater good. and this is something deep down Locke knows...and Jacob as well ;)

Something that Jack didnt help change in season 3, but was supposed to.

Now, i know if the show progresses along with this conceit, its gonna be alot to swallow and explain, and it will have some fans crying foul. "They said this wasnt purgatory!" "They said it wouldnt involve science fiction!" But, i feel they are setting up the plate for this already, with characters like Desmond and Locke, and now Jacob. It still wouldnt be PURGATORY, in the sense that its a metaphysical place between death and the after world...it STILL would be a real place, and the explanation would be with real science and real physics...it would just give some people the power that most dont have to recognize that present life and the way past and future is connected is a constant purgatory in a way. ;)

And it wouldnt be the science fiction the producers were poo-pooing way back then when they were discounting aliens or being in outer space on another planet. They definitely can explain away the above theory in terms of real life theory and real world physics. Lets face it, the show has already introduced a character who can see into the future and trying to change it...we have to come to terms that special abilities, and "time travel" to some extent, and the idea of changing ones fate is all part of Lost. And, i think a big part of the answer to its puzzles.

So to answer your question Felicia, yes i do think the FF's are still subject to change...in the same way Desmond's interference has changed alot of what was supposed to happen as well. :)

It would be as if we, as viewers, in season 1 saw an FF of Charlie drowning trying to save Claire...or an FF of Charlie getting killed by lighting...and then me telling you back then that those events might be changed in future episodes. And Desmond did in fact change them. We just now have the luxury to see a FF before the inevitable change in season 5...get what i mean?

Heck, i dont even think whoever who is in that coffin in the FF will be in that coffin by season 6. :)