Lost Finale: Who is in the coffin? and more questions…

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I’ve gotten 40 hits to MamaNeedJava this week that were for “Lost Theme Party” keywords, and you betcha I’m as excited as all of them for tonight’s 2-hour Season 4 Finale!

So, as we ALL know, this season was cut a wee bit short because of the writer’s strike. We’ve been intrigued by flash-FORWARDS, introduced to new characters (Freighties!), seen some time-travel, learned who the “Oceanic 6″ are, witnessed the tumultuous return of Michael, and seen several characters die. The short season has been interesting, certainly, and has taken a bit of a dark turn, if you ask me. No longer do we bop our heads to some acoustic tune while we watch slow close-ups of our beloved characters in the last few minutes of the episode. Nope. Now we’ve had to stomach some pretty gruesome and intentional crud, perhaps most significantly, the death of Ben’s Danielle’s daughter, Alex — mercenary style.

As I gather the spread of goodies for tonight’s 3 hour (total) event, I’m thinking about all of the questions I still have (wouldn’t be “lost” without them!) and the things I expect to find out a little bit more about in tonight’s finale.

Here’s a few:

Who’s in the coffin? Last season’s finale included a funeral scene, in which only Jack was in attendance. He tells the parlor that he is “neither” friend, nor enemy, to the deceased. He later asks Kate if she went, and she replied, “Why would I go?” This episode shocked everyone when we realized it was set in the future, the first of more to come for Lost. My speculation is on Ben or Michael being the coffin’s mysterious dweller.
Does Jin and/or Claire die? Last we left off, Jin was in a room on the freighter with Michael and Desmond — and a whole bunch of explosives. We know from a flash forward that Sun, his wife, delivers their child back in Korea, alone. She also tells her father that he is one of the men responsible for her husband’s death. Claire, the aussie mommy, has wandered off in the middle of the night following her (presumed dead?) father, Christian Shepperd (who, coincidentally, is also Jack’s father), leaving her newborn behind with Miles the ghost-whisperer and Sawyer. Later, John Locke seeks and finds “Jacob’s cabin”, but instead of the invisible and allusive Jacob being there, it is Christian Shepperd and Claire. Are they both dead? Are they both alive? WTF? All we know is that the baby winds up with Kate, who raises him as her own after she finds “rescue” with the other “Oceanic 6″.
How do the “Oceanic 6″ randomly bump into each other (as at the moment, they are more or less scattered) and hitch an exclusive, one-way ride off the island?
Why are the Oceanic 6, in flash-forwards, keeping the true story about the island from the rest of the world?
What is the deal with the time difference between the island and the freighter?
Who is the ageless Richard?
many, many more…