Love it! Great theory Doc!

I like it. What about the possible replacement of Bernard and Rose (by Des)? Doc, do you have a theory on that?

I think the spider bite/burried alive thing happens during the flashback because in one of the promos they show Arzt holding the spider in a jar or something...

My theory was that Sawyer finds out about someone working with the others, like in the ad, and tells Sun, also like in the ad. Pretty much, long story short, she poisons Nikki with Arzt's spider and attributing it to whoever is working with the others trying to kill them off. Paulo makes the conclusion that the two are being phased out and goes to talk to his other paymasters with some sort of, "this wasn't part of the deal" or what have you confrontation and whomever kills Paulo. With Paulo dead the island folk feel that they have gotten rid of the infiltrator. Nikki comes out of her death coma and tells nobody that she was an infiltrator as well. And now we have a time bomb set up in Nikki that the audience knows about, yet our beloved castaways don't. And this would actually make the character semi-compelling to watch; solving the problem of her overwhelming worthlessness.

I think the spider has to def be in the flashbacks, how else can dr. artz be back in present time? we will soon find out.....

I did it again, I was gonna read this on Wednesday at 11 pm...wtf is my problem.

lmao... I just hope they both are killed, or at the least something like what B said.

There is no apostrophe in the title.

I think Arzt will simply foreshadow the spider, and the effect of its venom, in the flashback. The bite will be present day.

AWESOME theory! Seriously, this is the coolest. I really hope this is what happens (or relatively what happens.)

Doc is just too cool for school.

OK this may come off as a pretty far-fetched theory, but hear me out:

When Desmond turned the failsafe key the purple sky was a sign of the dimensional/time rift being opened, which allowed Desmond to see the future. In his “dream sequence” the mysterious woman tells Desmond about fate being unchangeable. Once back on the island, Desmond knows Charlie will die and tries to save him. But fate won't allow this. In this week's episode I think Desmond will have to make a choice to help/save another survivor instead of Charlie. Jin will be the one who kills Charlie, once he finds out "what Charlie did" when he kidnapped Sun. Charlie will be the father of Sun's baby.

At the same time, Nikki and Paulo will be involved in some conspiracy which will lead to their demise. The others will bury them ALIVE in the Adam and Eve’s cave. (No one has checked the Adam and Eve cave recently, but Adam and Eve have been gone since the time rift [purple sky]). Charlie will die at the same time as Nikki and Paulo are buried alive. This will undo the dimensional rift, causing another purple sky. Desmond will lose his future sight powers. And... NIKKI AND PAULO WILL BECOME THE AGED ADAM AND EVE, DUE TO THE TIME RIFT.

Thanks for reading!

JOSHVM

B, that's great brother, seriously hope that comes to pass.

And Doc, I wish you could hear me clapping wherever you are in the Lost universe, because that is gold.

It's like you WERE in the writer's room, because that's probably how it all went down.

My choice would be Nikki, only because I have her in a Lost Death Pool, along with Pickett (check) and my long shot pick, Sayid.

Anyways, I digress. I hope they both bite it in this episode and we can forget Nikki and Paulo ever existed, delete their entries from Lostpedia, and just move on.

Yes, but why introduce Paulo in the first place, if they were just gunna kill him off soo soon?

Cause they have some kind of an important secret. Maybe they were in the Pearl station or somethin and saw some kind of orientation film, like a new piece? I don't know.

While I find your speculations interesting, it's really not cool to equate stripping/sex work with being a scum bag.

no but a stripping/sex worker who seduces a guy so her lover can still his gems... scumbag...

As much as i think these characters are useless, i feel bad for the actors. It would totally suck to get on a show and then get killed off right away

So I have another version of this great theory/spoiler.

What if Nikki & Paulo are the "they" that Charlie talked about when Claire was abducted in season 1? Also, maybe "they" (N & P) were the ones to string Charlie up by the neck? This would also make them hated, even more than the death of Sceve . . . especially if they helped kill him as well.

This would link into the revelation coming up about Charlie abducting Sun in the same episode.

Imagine if when it is found that they were involved with the Charlie/Claire abduction/assassination--so Sun and Jin assume that they were in on her kidnapping as well, then somehow it is revealed that it was Charlie!

Kinda makes sense, and WOULD change the game in a way. It would definitely change perception of Ethan & the Others if we found that it wasn't they who tried to kill Charlie.

Had to throw that out there, it's been bugging me.

soap opera-esque if you ask me... but i can't stop watching this show now... oh lost what have you done to my life?

Judging by the clip on ABC.com, Nikki and Paulo Can't act!!!!!! It was pathetic. She's nice to look at but not sure about her acting though.

Couldn't ethan have just taken the sub. Locke said he came from the water.

I'm with 3rdy..Those two are terrible in the LOST moments that are currently airing!!! She is nice to look at...My spider-biting-hot-girl-in-primetime-television-fantasy is coming true in less than 36 hours!!!

Doc you're like the theory beast...i wont be surprised if you are right...I think you hit it dead on.

Would be disapointed if it turned out that Paulo was involved in Steves death.

My own theory is that Boone felt asleep when he guarded the camp. We were shown several times that he was very tired that night. So when Boone slept Ethan just walked into the camp and killed Steve. The morning after when Boone was informed what had happend he had this look on his face telling " It's my fault he's dead). But he kept it for himself.

just my theory...

All the talk of "they" was being done when Rose and Bernard were around. If N&P are "they," it would debunk the whole replacement of R&B theory.

sorry, Ethan barely shows up!

While I clearly appear to be in the minority, I was thoroughly entertained - and then slightly revulsed in the final moments (file under the saying, 'wouldn't wish such a fate on even my worst enemy'- interestingly, Hurley spoke well for me when demurring that there still had to be some good in Nikki and Paolo - yes, I mourned, perhaps prematurely, for them both) - by this episode. It was hardly perfect, but a good installment all the same......as for the burning questions that seem to have gone unanswered:

1. We now know for sure that the Others can travel from one hatch to another by tunnel and thus there is most definitely a far more extensive underground network than we've yet seen - otherwise Ben and Juliet would've realized that Paolo was already inside when they approached the Pearl's open doors, as previously noted. Also, Juliet's giddy comment about Jack is RIGHT in keeping with her character - very Buffy-like in demeanor as she possesses a degree of determination and ruthlessness despite her charming one-liners.....

2. What D & C were trying to tell us is that after this episode, we would take Nikki and Paolo FAR more seriously - and I venture to say that most of us do; Nikki was revealed to be every bit as ruthless as Juliet or any Other.....

3. And finally, we found out just who is the gay character, thanks to Shannon: her stepbro Boone, which had to be a shock even despite their Season 1 Susan and Mel Profitt vibe ('Wiseguy' reference).....

Ultimately, like "The Other 48 Days", "Expose" provided a very different perspective to certain events and the passage of island time (Nikki and Paolo's mostly singular focus brought them into starkly different encounters, such as Paolo's with Ben and Juliet.....)

Personally I found the episode only slightly enjoyable. It was interesting to get a look at Ben and Julliet in the Pearl. I was glad that Charlie was able to be honest with Sun. His character has been grating throughout the 2nd and 3rd seasons for me and the last couple episodes have started to redeem him in my mind. If you pay close attention, which I'm sure all of you do, you'll also notice the scene wherein Jack is recesscitating(sp?) Rose on the beach, while Nikki is wandering about like a blonde. So another theory disproved, although I did like the concept of Desmond being some sort of time travelling super hero rescuing people from thier undeserved fates.
Did anyone else notice the descrepency from the first shooting of the crash scene in the pilot? I could be wrong, but if memory serves me, when Locke is trying to get the attention of the man who gets sucked into the plane engine there is no moment where he looks away, which he does in this episode to tell Nikki to get back. Those can be so frusterating in shows like this, because you never know whether or not it has some sort of value or if it is just bad writing. I'm sure they added it just to give the feeling of including her in all that was happening in the pilot to give the viewer a further sense of them having been there since the beginning, but I personally would prefer them to not assume that we wouldn't notice the change if that is the case. It takes away from the feeling that every single thing in the show is carefully thought out and planned...which is essentially the essence of Lost to me.

Sorry, as an addendum to the above post, I suppose it would have also been obvious that the "replaced" theory had been disproved when Boone asked Nikki for a pen.