Not only that, but on the fifth season blu-ray/DVD commentary, Lindelof says they thought it would be cool to have Jack be passive for most of the season and let other people tell him what to do to, in his words, give him a break before what's coming for him in the final season. So Jack's definitely got a big role coming up. Another hint of what's coming from the commentary -- According to Cuse and Lindelof, Desmond's purpose has yet to be revealed. Why he's special and "the rules don't apply to him" isn't specifically stated, but Cuse mentioned the turning of the key and being at ground zero for the hatch implosion, implying this is the reason.
Thinking about it more, and within the context of what has happened since, I wonder if "turning the key" did in fact "reset" something, like what the nuke going off was/is supposed to do? Maybe what Desmond did then with the fail safe altered the timeline somehow. Maybe that's how Locke, Desmond and Eko survived the hatches destruction? And when the nuke went off at the end of season five, the timeline got altered again. So what we are dealing with now is an altered timeline, of an altered timeline. Or something like that. I mean they still have never said how Eko, Locke and Desmond survived the blast/impolsion of the hatch. They should have all been killed by it, not somehow "teleported" out of the hatch at the last second, with Locke having no voice, Eko injured and Desmond naked.
I assume that the Island moved when Desmond turned the key hence the sky changing color like it did when it moved in the fourth season's finale.
Well when Desmond turned the key, the sky went all violet but when the island was moved by Ben, it went all white. So not sure if that means anything. Also I'm not sure how turning the key would move the island. How would Dharma be able to rig a key to make the island move? If there was an easier way to move the island then turning the wheel wouldn't Ben have done that? Especially if it would allow him to stay on the island after moving it, like Desmond was able to. Also, Ben and the Others seem to know a hell of a lot about the Dharma stations and experiments so if the Swan had an easy way to move the island why wouldn't they take it over so they could use it if needed? This also brings up the Button issue. I don't think pressing the button "saved the world" or anything like that. It might have stopped a major explosion of something, but nothing super dangerous. Otherwise, the Other's would have taken the station over themselves. They definitely had the man power to safely keep pressing the button, rather then leaving it in the hands a lone man who may or may not kill himself or hurt himself or run off and not press it. I mean the Others want to keep the island safe, so if the button actually did anything major, they would have been pushing it to keep the island safe not let someone else do it.
They didn't - it was already there. In the one scene where they were drilling and they came up with some x-ray/sonogram picture of the chamber, you could see the wheel in the wall. They were acting very surprised that all that was in there, prompting the fear that additional drilling would release the energy. My bet is that equipment was placed there by the ancients who "built" the island. I'm still thinking the whole place was a piece of Atlantis or Lemuria or something of the like.
You're confusing the two stations. The station where they punched in the numbers, and Desmond turned the key, is not the same station that had the 'donkey wheel' (where they did the x-ray/sonogram picture of the chamber).
Interesting. Locke was 4. Sawyer 15. So who will be 8, 16, 23, and 42? And what's the significance? They said the Numbers will be back in a surprising way, I think this is going to be it.