Totally "Lost": Kid stuff

  Hopefully, this isn’t too spoilery, but in looking at the cast list for the season finale, we notice that “young” versions of several Losties are slated to appear, so without getting into what might be going on with them in “The Incident,” let’s recount what we know about them and their childhoods so we’re up to date and ready to deconstruct.

Kate and Tom
  They were childhood sweethearts in Iowa. They buried a time capsule in 1989 in a New Kids on the Block lunch box that they dug up in 2002 while Kate was on the run for killing her abusive stepfather, Wayne, who she had just learned was really her biological father.
  The capsule includes, among other items, a ball cap, a baseball, a cassette tape and Tom’s favorite toy airplane.
  The cassette featured a dedication where young Tom said he wanted him and Kate to have nine kids and remain in Iowa. Young Kate said she wanted to run away with Tom. Tom noted that Kate always wants to run and Kate said, “You know why.”
  The reunion turned tragic the next day, when Kate’s mother tried to turn her over to the police (again) and Tom was killed as he and Kate fled. Tom’s airplane was left behind and Kate, of course, went to great lengths to retrieve it.
  Burning question: Why does Kate always want to run?

Juliet and Rachel
  We know very little about these two sisters as children (but apparently we’re about to learn more).
  As adults, we know that Rachel Carlson was left sterile from chemotherapy treatments and her sister was secretly treating her with drugs she had stolen from Juliet’s ex-husband’s laboratory. (Also, don’t forget we saw that creepy scene where Ethan seemed to be lurking outside Rachel’s apartment in Miami.)
  Miraculously, Rachel became pregnant at about the time Juliet was recruited to the island in 2001.
  While Juliet was on the island, Ben reported that her sister's cancer had returned and that she would die in less than a few months. However, he also swore that if Juliet stayed he would cure Rachel.
  On the day of the crash of Flight 815, Ben took Juliet to see a live video feed in the the Flame Station of Rachel playing on a playground with her son, Julian.
  Burning questions: Was Rachel really pregnant? If so, who is the father?

Sawyer
  We’ll try to keep our editorial comments to ourselves here but we have to point out that much of what we know (or assume we know) about Sawyer’s childhood came not from flashbacks but from Sawyer’s letter or from Sawyer himself. As we recount, we’ll note the source.
  When James was eight, his parents were swindled out of their life savings by a man known as “Sawyer,” (letter) who slept with James' mother, Mary Ford, and conned her into believing he was going to take her with him out of Alabama (letter).
  When the con was discovered by James's father (letter), he came home enraged, banging on the front door and screaming for Mary (flashback, BUT this assumes the man at the door was actually Sawyer’s father. His face was never shown and he was referred to by Mary only as “him”). Mary told young James to hide under the bed and not come out for any reason, so “he” would assume the child was with his grandparents (flashback). James heard the man break the door down, shoot his mother, then shoot himself in despair while sitting on the very bed James was hiding under (flashback).
  Shortly thereafter, James wrote a letter to the con man, hoping to deliver it to him personally (Sawyer). It is unknown who took custody of James after this. He may have been living in Knoxville, Tennessee when he wrote the letter, based on the markings on the envelope.
  Burning questions: Was the man who killed Sawyer’s mother really Sawyer’s father? Is Sawyer’s letter legit or is it the longest con on the show?