[D-Roc]

For me this is one of the most interesting aspects of the episode - Christian telling Michael that "you can go now" upon him buying enough time to delay the explosion and thus completing his "work".

Considering that the bomb would have gone off prior to the helicopter getting to the frieghter, it makes me wonder 'WHO' he was actually saving..who did 'Christian/the island/Jacob' want Michael to save? It couldn't have been anyone onboard the chopper, since the red-light came on before it landed..which only really leaves Jin, Desmond, Sun, Aaron and a bunch of redshirts. We know that Jin 'dies', so that really only leaves Aaron as an acceptable possibility for the person Michael's work entailed saving.

I guess this makes alot of sense, seeing as Christian and Claire appear to want Aaron to live off the island (Cabin Fever), and that Aaron is his grandchild and Claire's son.

But behind this layer of intrgiuge lies another..the notion that Christian Shepherd has so much leverage that he has the ability to authorise fate to protect Michael until the pieces had fallen into place and Michael had completed his work. Of course 'Christian' could ust be the the island in 'humanesque' form - however I think that there is a distingtion between the type of manifestations of the dead that we've seen - some appear to be the island, whilst others appear to actually be the spirits of the dead. Or perhaps they are one in the same?

Anyway, I just find it interesting that Michael's work seems to have meant saving Aaron..that's also quite some redemption considering he lost his own son.

Also, what does all this say abo the islands predictive powers - as I have previously suggested, it is becoming more and more appearent that the island and those entities associated with it (Jacob, Christian etc) are able to see the future, since how else would the island/Christian know that Michael was needed to save Aaron, for example. This also strengthens the time-loop angle and young Locke's scene with Alpert..