Spoilers for everything that's aired so far MAY happen, like any thread around here, so beware. 
I just paused "Outlaws" from the first season in my latest re-watch of Lost from the beginning, and I still can't come up with a good reason for "the whispers." In the 2nd season, the idea was that they happened right before the Others showed up. But in the first season, and especially in "Outlaws," it seems to have happened more to be "weird" than to really mean something, which I think season 1 does a lot more than the later seasons.
Case in point: I had to pause and post this topic because Sawyer just heard whispering, and the only clearly understandable phrase was "It'll come back around," which anyone who's seen the ep before knows is what Duckett says to Sawyer right before he (Duckett) dies later in the episode's flashbacks.
Why is that included in the whispers, and why is that the only intelligible bit? Did Sawyer hear that one little phrase? (If he did, he never mentioned it, a la Jack having may or may not heard his father's voice in the shark tank intercom in the S3 premiere...but that's another topic.
) Why does a boar show up instead of the Others directly afterward? Were the Others just around, and happened to whisper this important line from Sawyer's past, while there happened to be a boar nearby? Is it "The Island" mysteriously speaking in this case, or are the Others responsible? Or is it just a case of the season 1 team not yet having a fully clear idea of where they were going?
I personally lean towards that last option. Season 1 is really, really great, but honestly I think it's the only one that doesn't fully fit in with everything they've done since. I could be (and hope I am) wrong, but little things like this I don't think will end up explained at the end, even though the "major" mysteries surely will be.
I just paused "Outlaws" from the first season in my latest re-watch of Lost from the beginning, and I still can't come up with a good reason for "the whispers." In the 2nd season, the idea was that they happened right before the Others showed up. But in the first season, and especially in "Outlaws," it seems to have happened more to be "weird" than to really mean something, which I think season 1 does a lot more than the later seasons.
Case in point: I had to pause and post this topic because Sawyer just heard whispering, and the only clearly understandable phrase was "It'll come back around," which anyone who's seen the ep before knows is what Duckett says to Sawyer right before he (Duckett) dies later in the episode's flashbacks.
Why is that included in the whispers, and why is that the only intelligible bit? Did Sawyer hear that one little phrase? (If he did, he never mentioned it, a la Jack having may or may not heard his father's voice in the shark tank intercom in the S3 premiere...but that's another topic.
) Why does a boar show up instead of the Others directly afterward? Were the Others just around, and happened to whisper this important line from Sawyer's past, while there happened to be a boar nearby? Is it "The Island" mysteriously speaking in this case, or are the Others responsible? Or is it just a case of the season 1 team not yet having a fully clear idea of where they were going?I personally lean towards that last option. Season 1 is really, really great, but honestly I think it's the only one that doesn't fully fit in with everything they've done since. I could be (and hope I am) wrong, but little things like this I don't think will end up explained at the end, even though the "major" mysteries surely will be.
Still pisses me off how the Losties are, after only a couple of years, superior in every way. Navigating the island, sneaking around, tracking people, hiding their own trakcs, not being a bumbling boob, etc.
