Previewing tonights show

Tonight we focus on Miles (aka "I hear dead people"). Check out Doc Jensen's required reading before the show. OK, It's not really required, but it is always interesting.

Will we learn the origin of his powers? Will we learn why his parents gave him a name that sounds like ''maelstrom,'' a Nordic term for 'whirlpool?'' Will we learn why he's such a Mr. Snarky Cranky Pants? Recall earlier this season how Daniel Faraday wondered if his freaky freighter friend had been to the Island before; might Miles be Pierre Chang's infant child all grown up? If so, did Young Master Sixth Sense spend any time in Room 23, à la Walt? FUN FACT FROM THE WORLD OF CONSPIRACY THEORY LORE! Time-traveling Miles is currently parked in 1977 — the same year that the Senate conducted an investigation into a secret CIA project called MKULTRA, which conducted research into brainwashing, mind-control, and even psychic powers. Heavy drugs were involved. And allegedly kids were used as test subjects. Very Room 23, if you ask me.

Hmmm... Any Alias fans out there? Remember Project Christmas Tree? Alias was another JJ Abrams show.

Are we going to learn more about Smokey?

Watch with Kristin at E!Online gives us some SLIGHT SPOILERS for an epsiode airing at the end of April.

Mrs. Hawking and Daniel Faraday are both coming back for "The Variable" on April 29 (which just so happens to be the series' 100th ep). Also present are Penny and Charles Widmore and Charlie Hume (not to be confused with Charlie Pace).

As for the variable itself, it will almost certainly tie back to the equations and notations from the blast-door map we saw in season two, which included such bon mots as "Geological composition likely to cause magnetic disturbances/interference with weather project," "Primary nexus of Cerberus-related activity" and the infamous Valenzetti equation. Come on, who else wants a monster-centric ep? Remember, the only rule about flashbacks is that there are no rules.

Before the end of the season, Smokey is totally gonna get himself some backstory!

More theories from Doc Jensen

As we wait for tonight's episode, here's a little reading from Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly to hold us over.

(This post is spoiler free. But if you like to avoid spoilers, wait to click on the article until after tonight's episode. The spoilers aren't answers. Just what questions will be answered in tonight's episode)

Writes Doc Jensen:

''Whatever Happened, Happened'' is the phrase that Daniel Faraday used back in ''LaFleur'' to summarize his belief that the castaways aren't creating a new version of the past, but rather merely creating the past that has always existed. And yet, one episode later in ''Namaste,'' Sawyer says that Faraday ''has some interesting theories on what we can and can't do here.'' I didn't take that to mean that Faraday has reversed his position, but rather that his position has become more nuanced. Might there be permissible exceptions to the ''whatever happened, happened'' principle?

I do have to wonder if history can be changed. Remember, Faraday knocked on the hatch and met Desmond during the flashes. And then, in current time, Desmond awoke and remembered that meeting.

Since he didn't always know about their meeting, you could argue that it didn't always happen.

Can the Losties change the past? Or the future? Post your insight, speculation, questions here.

Doc Jensen posts additional thougts on 'LaFleur'

Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly can't say enough about Lost. (We have no idea what that's like, right?)

He has another short post expounding upon his initial recap of "La Fleur."

Anyway, he wonders where Faraday was during the 1977 portions of the epsiode.

He also posts two reader/viewer theories about the island's anti-baby policy and how Amy's baby was born when others haven't been.

"My theory is that the Island's anti-baby policy was a result of Ben joining the Others and helping them kill off the Dharma Initiative. That must have been when everything got off track. The war to which Widmore was referring is the war that leads to the death of Dharma Initiative and his eventual forced exile from the island. The Left-Behinders and the Oceanic 6 were sent back to 1977 to stop those events from happening or to change the outcome." --Lorena

"You have to remember you are dealing with two different groups. The Dharma folks were all killed by Ben and the Others. The Others then moved into the Dharma facilities. Two possibilities. One, the Island is punishing the others for killing the Dharma folks. Second, the Others can't have children because they live so long, either as a byproduct of the treatment or a condition imposed by the four-toed god for the gift." --Jim Laurence

What do you think of these ideas and what's your theory about what's going on with babies being born or not being born on the island?