Ok, some thoughts that my coworkers and I discussed:
1) The people that Sawyer, Michael and Jin ran into are people from the back of plane (where Ana-Lucia was sitting). However, they have had it much harder than the people in Jack's group because they didn't have even the limited supplies that Jack's group has. They've probably had run-ins with the 'Others' already too, so it's made them overly cautious.
2) I wouldn't have pushed the damned button at all. I wanted Jack to just let it count down. The stupid button is annoying.
3) As for the others - you can only lead us on so much about it, you know? We need some glimpse of who/what the others are.
4) The boat that took Walt is short range therefore it probably came from the island, therefore, Walt probably is somewhere on the island.
If you want to read tons of ideas on the show head to
http://www.oceanicflight815.com - it's got tons of information!
By the way, there is a write-up out there of the significance of the numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) - including the number of times each number has come into play in the show...
I'm still hooked!
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