As link pick told us, the producers want to get rid of the word "flash" in flashback. This leaves us all wondering, how on Earth are they going to tell this story without flashbacks? That's just the way Lost is. It's their thing.

But, when we think about it, do we really need them anymore? We know more then enough about each character (did we really care what Jack did in Spingapore? That Charlie stole stuff to buy heroin? That Juliet was hitting Goodwin? That Kate was married?), so I don't think I'm going to miss flasbacks. Flashforwards, however, are a different story. What's going to happen to them?

It's been link that the Lost's whole format will be changed. It's rumoured to be "an unspecified new format, reminiscent of the episode Ji Yeon." In link we were led to believe that all of the "flashes" were flashforwards and that Jin had made it off of the Island with Sun. However, in an ever-so Lost-esque twist, we learn that Jin's story was actually a flashback and Sun's was a flashforward. So, will Season Five make it unclear where the characters are in time?

Personally, I don't think it will be set up this way. How long can they confuse us? And how long would we put up with it? I think that the idea of "flashes" will be discarded entirely and whole shows will that place in one "time".

However, if flashbacks are gone, how will Rousseau's story be told? Keamy's? With these people dead, how are we going to find out about them if there are no flashbacks?

Here, my friends, is where I think they new "Lost storytelling style" comes into play.

The Island was moved in time. I think that something went wrong when Ben moved it. It could only be used as a last resort because it was "dangerous" not only because the person who moved it couldn't come back, but because it could totally screw with time itself. Time, now, will start bleeding into itself. This is how the "flash" will be taken out of "flashbacks". The past, instead of staying in the past, will start happening at the same time as the present.

Think of it as a painting. Let's say the past is red, the present is blue, and the furture is yellow. When Ben moved the Island, it was like he poured water all over the painting. Now the red past is running into the blue present, making everything a weird shade of purple. (But how long before the purple bleeds into the yellow and we end up with yucky brown?)

I think this is how they're going to finish up telling us the backstories of characters and tie up the many loose ends we've almost forgotten about. Maybe we'll see Rousseau, younger and with Alex, walking through the jungle at the same time as Juliet and Sawyer are on their way to Locke.

There are many rumours of old cast members returning for Season Five. We assume it's through flashbacks, but with the producers' reluntancy to use "flash", could there be another way they come back? It's been confirmed that Ana Lucia(link) is returning for at least one episode this season. It could be that she appears in someone's flashback, but what if she's back on the Island before she was killed? If the past is really happening "over again" or has caught up to the present, will that mean that she's still back with Tailies? Or chillin' in the Hatch? If someone sees her, will they warn her of her fate? Will she do anything to change it?

If something like this does happen, does it mean the remaining Island Losties might interfere with, or even change, the past? Or have they already done it and what we've actually been watching is them dealing with what they've changed?

We'll just have to wait until 2009 to see if my theory is right, but I figured I'd cast it out there and see if I got any bites. Even if this isn't it, I'm sure Season Five will deal heavily with time because, as Pierre Chang put it, "time isn't of the essence, time is the essence."