LAST EDITED ON 02-04-10 AT 09:48 PM (EST)
FP, I moved our discussion here because too many curls make me dizzy!!
I had a very different view of Locke. I think he did go on his walkabout and he looked happy telling the story to Boone. He also was in a good mood when he told Jack about his lost knives. The old Locke wouldn't have been so easy-going if the whole trip had been for naught and ended with lost luggage.
I'm sure Nemesis will go to the Temple but not because it's home. It's just that he has things to settle with those who disappointed him. Now, maybe Nemesis isn't evil as some suggest but then that would mean Jacob was the evil one. Yet it was the Man in Black that asked: "Do you know how much I want to kill you right now?" And it was Jacob who was optimistic about Man's progress while Nemesis only thought of us as wolves.
Yes, you are right that Jacob didn't deny all the lists that Ben received so maybe this gives us a timeline for when Nemesis took over. It happened during Ben's time as leader and, as I'm writing this, I just had a flash: Nemesis could have used Desmond's lateness in pushing the numbers to infiltrate the cabin! A plane crash wasn't the biggest incident that the numbers were preventing. Just like I thought Jacob's death was the real incident that marked last season's finale instead of what happened at the Swan, the overthrow of Jacob would have been the incident that started the series. Nemesis taking over the Island is what caused people, humanity, to be Lost.