I know this has been brough up over and over again and I apologize in advance. It hit me like a ton of bricks, so I have to see if anyone else caught it. Did Shannon say she was 18 in her flashback? Didn't she tell Hurley she was 21 when she was on the island? So if Shannon is telling the truth to Hurley, her father was killed only 3 years prior to the plane crash...the same time Jack met, healed, married and then...unmarried his wife? I can't speak for those who are currently 21, but when I was in highschool, it was cool to have Marky Mark posters on your wall and wear a mullet - and highschool is more than a decade back for me.

So...was Shannon lying to Hurley about her age? Or is there some time wonky going on?

um..i dont understand you..

I thought she had said she was 20? So it would make it only 2 years for all that to happen. I think Jacks wife ended up eventually dying. I don't know why I think that though.

She said she was 18 allright. I thought she said 20 to Hurley but am not sure. But that does mean that Jack was married and divorced/widowed very recently, i.e. in the last 2 or 3 years. Could very well be the case and would explain why he's acted like a monk for the whole time...

I noticed the exact same thing. I really want to know what year they crashed. The timeline is starting to unravel.

Remember that Jack meets Desmond at the stadium during the period where Jack's wife-to-be is in the hospital and Shannon's father has just died. Between then and 'current' time, Desmond has left on his sailing voyage and been on the island for approximately three years. I assumed that it had been a longer period because of young-Jacks horrid Duchovny haircut, but assuming Desmond started his sailing trip soon after his meeting with jack, the ages given for Shannon then and now could be accurate.

-ariakel

I don't think the timeline is weird. Shannon is definitely still quite young. The bigger mystery is what caused Sarah to be out of Jack's life so quickly. Did she go back to her ex-fiance? Death seems like the most obvious choice, because it can happen so quickly.

I believe the plane crashed in late summer/early fall of 2004, when the show really started because they made a reference to the Red Sox never winning the world series...which happened after the crash/show started...therefore they should only be into October because there hasnt been mention of thanksgiving or christmas yet.
As for the Markie Mark poster comment...I think that was just showing that Boone was dissconnected from Shannon and he hadnt been around her much since she was about 8, 10 years before with markie Mark posters

She said she was 18 allright. I thought she said 20 to Hurley but am not sure. But that does mean that Jack was married and divorced/widowed very recently, i.e. in the last 2 or 3 years. Could very well be the case and would explain why he's acted like a monk for the whole time...


And it could explain why Jack was so emotional when Desmond asked him about Sara. I don't know why, but I keep thinking Sara died as a result of an ectopic pregnancy and that Jack's dad was somehow connected to her death.....

As for Shannon's age, either she lied about it,(a woman lying about her age, hmmm that's a novel idea); or she was close to turning 21. Or, the creative team does not keep good notes on the timeline.... not likely.

But the thing that seems really weird is that in both flashbacks (Shannon's and Jack's), it seems like there are references to it being much earlier than 2 or 3 years prior to the crash: The mullets, Boone's big shoulder pads, the Marky Mark reference. To me, it seems to suggest that Shannon's father died in maybe the early 90s, latest. And yet, in Michael's flashbacks...the ones which occured when Walt was a baby, so 8 or 9 years earlier...there is hardly any indication of outdated fashions or references to past trends or anything.

But then...there is Desmond to consider. He's been in the hatch 3 years according to his own estimate. Before that he was racing around the world for who knows how long. Before that he's in the scene with Jack at the stadium.

So taking Desmond's timeline into account, the very minimum amount of time between the crash and the Desmond/Jack/Shannon's Dad's death incident could be 3 years.

What do you think? Is it more? Is Shannon older than she admits? Or am I seeing clues that aren't there?

she told hurley she as 20, she said she was 18 in this flashback, so 2 years, and Sarah said that the accident happened a little over 2 years ago, so Shannon could have been almost 21 or just turned 18, or both, but te timeline does fit. Hopefullly we'll find out what happened to Sarah soon. I don't think she died, because Jack would probably still be wearing his ring and when asked by Ana if he's married he says 'not anymore'. Widowers would probably say either 'she passed away' or 'i'm a widower', not 'not anymore'. it implies divorce or annullment.

seems feasible to me. shannon is 18 yo in 2002 when Desmond went for race and daddy died. Birthday was next month so its still 2002 and shes 19. 2 more birthdays lapse and flight crashes in September 2004. Shannon told the truth to Hurley shes 21. maybe she has January funeral (2002) and February birthday (turns 19 on valentines day) 2/19/5 shes 21 and also date of crash

And maybe desmonds three years were rounded up...january 2002-september 2003 is 21 months, september 2003-2004 is full year, total 34 months rounding to 36 months as 3 years makes Desmond story jive.

The flashback happened in 1998 or later. When Shanon opens the acceptance letter there's a Dave Matthews Band song playing in the background. I'm fairly sure its "Stay" which came out in 1998.

Plus I think it's safe to say that Desmond's concept of time is probably a little "off". Not by much surely, but somebody in that situation would probably round up rather than down, most likely subconsciously.

Nah. I still listen to songs from 1999, doesn't mean I'm in that year.

They were playing a old Patsy Cline song in Tabula Rasa on the car radio, same thing.

Don't forget that Sarah was hit head on by an SUV. Isn't that what the doctor told Shannon and her step mother had happened to her father? So was Shannon's dad in the same car as Jack's wife? Or did one SUV hit two cars head on? As for the timeline, I don't think we can reference something like pinning the date on the year a song was playing. Good catch, but don't we all listen to music that came out years ago simply because we like it. Or it has some sort of meaning that we like to remember or relive?

Does anyone have a screencap of the picture in the hatch of Desmond and a woman? I remember she was blonde, but I don't remember what she looked like. Could Desmond be Sarah's fiance? He sure seemed interested in what happened to her, and it would explain why Jack took it so hard when he asked. I remember Jack looking at the pic.

No, her fiance appeared in the episode for a minute or two, then quickly disappeared. Sorry, wasn't desmond.

Could Sarah and Shannaons Dad have been in the same car? Possibly, Shannon's StepMom and possibly her Dad have a wedding business, Sarah was getting married. Could Sarah and Shannon's Dad have been going to look over a wedding site, or to meet a caterer or florist? It is weird though cause I'm pretty sure I remember in Jacks flashback that Sarah asked about the guy in the OTHER car. Maybe I'm remembering wrong though.

Someone was thinking it wa Locke in the accident, who knows, maybe there were more cars involved...head on collision starts chain reaction sorta thing...

During Jack's flashback to about Sarah when he meets Desmond. Sarah asks him What happened to the driver of the car I hit and Jack tells her he didn't make it. Sarah was driving the SUV. I believe she states in the ER that her SUV had a blowout and her vehicle flew over the center divider and hit the car head on.

There is another thread on this already that has pretty much sorted some of this out already.
http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=25358

Basically if Shannon had just turned 18 it would all fit within 3 years.

Put this iin the other thread, but posts it here as well;
Lets not forget that Boone was born in 1981 -> Shannon born in 1983.