The Watch => Locke killed the people on Hydra Island?

[rumli]

It just hit me... Locke picked up the watch _before_ he walked into the Ajira plane. So he must have already been planning the submarine bomb idea, and he must have known that the bomb was on the plane. He planted the bomb on the plane himself, then decided the sub was a better death trap. Did he kill the Ajira passengers just before planting the bomb?

And since I've started typing, some other random questions...

Is Desmond's role in the alternate universe simply to bring everyone there to a happy ending? Perhaps the two universes will not cross over after all (beyond the few flashes of memories that drive the characters to meet the ones they are supposed to fix and be fixed by).

Knowing for sure now that Smokey could not kill Candidates, was Eko a candidate when he first encountered Smokey? Did his refusal to repent take away his candidacy and thus allow Smokey to kill him?

If a candidate can't kill himself (as demonstrated by Jack and the dynamite), isn't Locke's plan flawed in the sense that whoever tries to dismantle the bomb can't kill himself. So even if the bomb did somehow go off, at least that candidate would stay alive.

That said, all these questions of plot and logic feel almost trivial compared to the gut-wrenching, miserable feeling that seems to only grow two days after watching The Candidate. I think I was in denial about this show coming to an end, but what happened in this episode really knocked me down... "like a shotgun blast to the chest". :/