s3e15: Left Behind - Where did the Others go?

• Where have the others gone? Well I suspect they have gone back to Island no.2 to continue whatever it was they were working on before. Whatever needed the stone shifting that Kate and Sawyer did, was what Cindy and co went to watch and is what set the time limit for Kate's stay on that island (according to her conversation with Ben on the beach), that is what they've gone back for. I think this relates to this supposed "archeological theme" we were told to expect in Season 3. Perhaps they had uncovered something and the real reason they went back to their village was because they expected the Losties to come look for them and didn't want them to go to that island (if they indeed could). Perhaps the brainwashed kid they took with them was a plant in that instance.
  
  
• I don't believe the Others have or use tunnels to travel around the island generally, but that doesn't mean there aren't tunnels. I suspect there were tunnels at some point but that most were blocked up. But it is possible there are still some people/things using the tunnels. For a start there are those Cerberus Vents and I have to suspect there are tunnels between those, but who wants to go down there?. It is also possible the others have dug up some tunnels that they wish to explore or they expect to find something in there.
  
  
• The use of the gas masks could have been because they were going into one of these tunnels and were expecting to need to filter the air. They probably wouldn’t need them just to gas Kate and Sayid, although I wouldn’t put it past the Others to just be cautious.
  
  
• ·On a side note, it’s an odd thing with Ben and his schemes, that he seems to rely a *lot* on luck. I mean I have to assume he didn't plan on any of his people getting killed, but he certainly used it to his advantage.