i always thought the time anomaly happened as a result of desmond turning the failsafe key and the sky turned purple. if memory serves (which it may not), any question of time passing happened in seasons three and four, after the hatch imploded. i could be wrong, though.

I understand what you are trying to say. 2 things:

-The time difference between Abaddon telling John to take a walkabout and him doing so are too different. The John we see then is weak whereas when he actually goes on the walkabout he is stronger in character, which is shown by his persistance that he can go. He's also a lot balder. However, with desmond being able to send himself in the past to go see Faradey, it is possible that other people can do the same thing.

To be honest I think that Locke himself will at one point tell Abaddon to go back and tell him to go on the walk about, if that makes sense.

-Secondly, when Ben goes to the Flame, the outside world is talking about the disappearance, not the crash. And the disappearance would have been apparent just one hour into the flight when they started going the wrong way. So a discrepancy there is entirely likely, as it seems like the plane has been there for day or two before the news is talking about it missing. Good theory though

Communications to and from the boat seem to take place in real time. I suspect the time anomaly only effects physical objects - communications to and from the island can take place normally.

I suspect that Abaddon is going to be more important as the story develops, but I don't buy any of time travel theories.

See the Popular Mehcanics scoop here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/science_news/4260693.html

Satellite communication is not affected by the time distortion, other communication, like the morse code message, is.

maybe he is similar to mrs. hawking?? she seemed to have a lot of knowledge about the past and the future.

I agree with you, Forrest. Maybe he has knowledge of the future and saw the crash happen already. Maybe he is working for Richard Alpert and Alpert knew and sent him to get John on that plane. He could also be time traveling like Ben.

It is interesting, b/c in Season 1 in the episode Walkabout (which is a big fan fave) Locke gets indignant w/ the Walkabout operator that he needs to go 'because it's my destiny' - this is clearly a reference to that conversation he had w/ Abaddon, we now realize why he thinks it's his destiny.

And clearly if Abaddon knows that Locke can get on the plane that crashes, he also knows that Locke will be turned down from the Walkabout - and hence have to leave Aussie on that flight.

It seems clear to me that Abaddon knows exactly that this plane will crash and that Locke will get declined from the actual Walkabout - he simply uses that as a ruse to get John over to Aussie to make the flight, and also likely knows that the 'enter with ones wits and a knife' will really come into play on 'the island'

There are two signs to the Abbadon theory.

Abbidon knew the plane was going to crash and Desmond was supposed to crash 815.

Or

Abbidon did not know the plane was going to crash and Desmond totally chanced 815 down.

It would be more reassuring to me if it was a chance crash caused by Desmond, because people have some control in the worlds events. As Desmond had all these flashbacks about what he was supposed to do, they all involved 815 memebers so I'm led to believe the crash was predetermined to happen. This means that man has NO control over events and that the island or God is in control. Again, this does not sit well with me as there was supposed to be a battle of science versus faith. If this battle is to take place, then Desmond would have had to cause the crash with no predetermination by the island or God. It would have had to be mans power that changed events. If this is the case then Abbadon probably does not know the plane will crash (wouldn't he be on it if he wanted to discover the island, knowing it would crash there and survivors would be on it?????). Abbadon just knows Locke is vital to the island and he probably wants to get him as far out of Mittelos's way as possible to prevent him from being used as the great one Mittelos expects.

One thing I think that we as viewers may take too literally is the fact that the plane crashed because of Desmond. While the Season 2 finale did reveal that Desmond's absence from the Hatch is what caused the crash, I never really bought this. I do not doubt that the failure to push the button brought the plane down, but in light of what we know now, I think it is safe to say that these events were put into motion long before Desmond crashed on the island(3 years before 815 crashed).
It is easy for me to imagine that Abaddon knew that all of these events would take place, and the Walkabout was the perfect tool to get John on the plane. Just as it was no accident that Desmond was not there to push the button.

I have a theory that Matthew Abaddon knows about the crash cos he was on it and was called Walt at the time!
THis could explain why the writers NEVER have been comncerned about the actor playing Walt growing, beacuse he was always gonna be depicted as an older person!

Im sure it was just coincidence on the shows part. BUT the guy who runs the walkabout agency is wearing the same rolex that jin had on him! Its the daytona, i know for sure. If someone can get a screen cap it would be great.