[ASTalumna06]

I guess I'm just still confused as to how this show is working. Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention.

Obviously, before time shifts occurred, everything that happened in the past affected the future, as it clearly does in a non-Lost world. But... is the present time affected by what happens in the 70s now? For example, will the grown-up Ben just disappear because he was killed in the 70s? And what would happen then? Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that Ben, when looking beat up at the pier, had just come from killing Penny. If Ben's killed in the 70s, would Penny reappear in the present time?

I'm still wondering what Faraday's "rules" are about all this. I'm guessing he told Sawyer something about how all of this is supposed to work.

And if things are completely changed in the past, I wonder if the Dharma Initiative will continue to operate and they won't all be killed off, as the passengers of the Oceanic flight are expecting.