For the last few episodes I thought bearded-Jack was past-Jack, and that we were now discovering he did have a drinking and drug problem at one point, but then he sees Kate and talks about returning to the island. When he saw Kate, I first thought they must have known each other in the past, and that was a huge plot point. But then when he mentioned 'going back there' I realized that this was taking place in the future, not the past, after they were rescued. So now all of it makes sense, why he was suicidal and stuff.
But I don't know if I was supposed to know that before, if there was some hint I had missed, or if that scene is when I was supposed to have figured out this was really the future.
And there's a lot more like that, scenes in which you aren't supposed to know what's going on, in which the puzzle pieces just don't fit together because most of it is missing. I still don't know if the scenes show what really happens, or only what 'would have' happened if they wouldn't have done something they're actually going to do. Maybe someone's going to come back from the future now and make them stop. Or maybe they do get rescued, go back to the island and the next two seasons are about that.
The show was about them being stranded on an island, so now with all these weird things happening, being captured, rescued, too many new people introduced, it feels wrong. Really uncomfortable, like I just want to see the characters I'm used to. Some new ones are okay, but too many isn't good. It feels like something about the whole atmosphere of the show has changed, like they got a new director and new writers or something. If they do get rescued and aren't even going to be on the island anymore, or come back years in the future and don't have the same relationships or anything among one another, it just isn't going to be the same. I hope that isn't what happens.