LOST: "Who Cares If It's The Plot From 'Sliding Doors?' I Wanna Do It!"

Another season, another interesting opener (Attention: POSSIBLE SPOILERS). Sayid dies, then doesn't. Locke's reborn, except he ain't. The Losties escape the the Island, except they didn't.

Looks like the new story-telling gimmick (flashbacks and flashforwards) is showing us what would have happened if our beloved characters never crashed on the Island (someway, in this reality, it's underwater). Here, Kate's still a fugitive (of course she escapes custody again after they land), Locke's still in a wheelchair, Jack's looking for his dad's coffin, Jin gets arrested (Sun did not espose her ability to speak/understand English) and we're even treated with a Boone & Charlie cameo

But hold on: while we're treated to a world with the Losties but sans the Island, there's still the reality we're all too familiar with: in this world, Faraday's/Jack's plan was a complete screwup, Juliet dies in Sawyer's arms, Hugo become a temporary leader (Yay!) and Sayid proves too awesome for death.

DISCOVERIES

1. I guess the biggest one is that the Monster is the Man in Black, the one who wanted to kill Jacob last season, the guy impersonating John Locke.
   
2. As stated above, Juliet's actions have created two worlds: one where the plane crashed and nothing was really altered and one where the plane landed safely in LAX.
3. The Others have more leaders than we knew about.
4. The Others are as scared of The Monster as anyone else.
5. The sand is used to protect people/things from the Monster.

OBSERVATIONS

1. Ben's become a mess; he was tricked to kill his leader by someone who pretended to be someone else, his daughter's still dead, he still hasn't regained leadership of the Others. Seriously, how dangerous is this guy without some kind of following?
2. If we're going by what took place on the Island, a confrontation between the Losties/Jacob's Others and the Ajira Flight/Monster's Others is inevitable.
3. Jacob had little interest in saving Juliet.
4. Even though Alternate Sun had a change of heart about leaving Alternate Jin, she certainly doesn't care for him enough to keep him from going to prison.
5. The focus on airport security was kinda in-your-face. I'm not even sure it was as bad in 2004 as it is now, but whatever.
   

QUESTIONS

1. How did the Temple Others not know that Sayid may survive the process?
2. How did Juliet know that "it worked?"
3. Why couldn't Miles sense/tell that Jacob was dead?
4. Why did Flocke (Fake Locke) not just transform in front of his attackers?
5. Where is Island Claire?
6. How did Jack's Group end up near the Hatch?
7. What was Desmond doing on the Alternate Plane?
8. Why were Alternate Boone's and Alternate Hurley's stories different? Boone never brought Shannon back, and Hurley now claims he's super-lucky.
   
9. Why didn't Jacob ever warn the Others about what the Monster could do?
10. What happened to the coffin (Jack's dad) in the Alternate World?