ok, so the desmond thing, he probably would have never been on a boat at all. widmore was on the island with the bomb, think people. a hydrogyn bomb went BOOM, most every living thing on it would be destoryed, and he seemed well within the blasting range, so he would never have had a race that desmond entered. just thought someone should bring it up. and in the oringal timeline jack had met desmond at the arena, but desmond prolly wouldn't have been training at the time because once again, no race to train for, no widmore, prolly no penny, unless she was just born when the island went all desolate

and alot of people have met before
1.shannon met jack at the hospital when he decided his wife over her dad
2.locke met sayids chick
3.sayid met kate's step-dad and the dude desmond was in the hatch with during the gulf war
4.locke and sawyer's lives both got f'd-over by lockes dad
5.kate new sawyers baby momma before and after the island in original timeline, but before reguardless
6.sawyer met kate's mom at the diner
there are many others, but just don't forget all the hours of seemingly useless flashbacks that show nothing but char connections
and ben went into the temple when everything was working properly, sayid after the water wouldn't heal the asain dudes hand, catch at least what they feed you people

and anyone wondering how hurley won the lottery this time? there was no number relay to be heard by the astralian and hugos crazy friend, so no numbers to be heard by hurley, and prolly why somehow when he came up with them in the new timeline stragely 4-8-15-16-23-42 don't make him feel cursed, strange coincidence or what? maybe differant numbers even? but why was he in astralia this time if not to see the crazy guys partner wife?

and the thing with jacks dad's casket not showing up… time has changed, reguardless of what or why, thing have happened differantly in the new timeline, it isn't exactly the same world as before, so minor discremencies or bound to happen

other than that, i've seen alot of great ideas