TPG's LOST Compass: The Substitute

Let's just establish a one thing right out of the gate here. I would be terrified if I had John Locke as a substitute teacher in any subject, not just anatomy. That being said here are couple of observations to wrap your minds around.

1. Kate's name was not chalked onto the ceiling of Jacob's little romantic bungalow. This is mind rattling because she met Jacob when she was a child.
2. My fellow castaways pointed out that talking about Jacob "touching" young Sawyer and young Kate sounds really shady.
3. Going back to Kate not having a number and not being on the ceiling. Could this mean that Kate is some form of wild card? Perhaps her free wheeling attitude allows her to be unclaimed, or is just that Jacob and The Man In Black are proper old gents and don't want to include females in their cosmic battle (note this would also explain why he doesn't know if he's Jin or Sun who Jacob got to).
4. While this probably means nothing in season 3, good ol patchy reveals a little information about "the list" check out this quote from lostpedia:

He said that it was impossible for her to understand because she was not on "the list". He then went on to detail specific reasons why they were not on the list, indicating that Kate was "flawed", Sayid was "frightened", Rousseau was "weak", and Locke was "angry"

At this point, Kate wasn't on the ceiling, if you believe Dogen, Sayid is claimed, Rousseau is dead, and well Locke, we know where he's at. So perhaps good ol Patchhhy boy was onto somethin.'
5. I like this idea of "candidates" and I while it will spawn a stream of t-shirt sales at Comic Con it is an interesting concept, and one that we have seen before. Let us not forget that before John Locke died, he was constantly being evaluated to see if he was capable as a potential leader.
6. If Sawyer is on team Locke, then Sawyer's opposite, Jack Sheppard is now most certainly on team Dogen. I believe that all that business last week with the pill and Sayid was mainly a test of the loyalty and leadership capabilities of Jack, a test mind you, that he passed with flying colors. So get ready for the final Jack and Sawyer showdown.
7. MIND MELT, here it comes: In the last episode Dogen spoke of "a sickness" something that was mentioned in previous seasons by Rousseau, Ethan, and the others. And now in this episode the concept of "the rules" rises again. The boy in jungle reminds Locke that he "knows the rules" which is similar to Ben and Widmore's conversation in the classic season 4 episode "The Shape of Things to Come." I'm very excited to see where this general theme takes us in later parts of the season.
8.  It was nice to Locke finally get some good loving, even if he shows his fiance his case full of knives on the day he gets fired (strange idea there Johnnn Boy), but it's getter harder for me to see the importance of the "flash sideways" timeline. The events on the Island are so damn interesting, and the ones in Los Angeles, not so much. We all know they are going to be connected, but I hope they fuse in a LEGO way, not some lame ass DUPLO way.