Ok this may not belong on this thread, but I feel its important.

Sounds strange, but the Walt that Locke saw is in fact the black smoke. The black smoke is the island, since its only fair to call the island a character.
The island has always tried to keep its residents on their same belief system. For example, every time Locke starts to lose his faith, something happens. When Ecko was beginning to lose his belief that he was still guilty of all his sins, the island came to him in the form of Yemi. My reasoning for that is that Yemi says "You talk to me like you know me" or something along those lines.
The smoke also was Chandley Price, goodwins wife, who came to talk to Juliet. She came in so quickly, and left just as fast. Also, Juliet was spooked by it, but I have a distinct feeling that it wasn't the first time that she's seen someone who is either dead, or someone who shoulnd't be at that place at that time.
If someone questions why is there no sound from the smoke, I have this for you.
The smoke can split up into as many small pieces as it wants, which we have seen happen. Also, it can "cover" its noise with other things I can only assume. I think the whispers are those of people who may have died on the island but haven't "left" (I.E. jacob. Someone has a really good time travel theory that explains this).
So idk, I think that everytime we've seen Walt, its actually the smoke. That took way to long to write.

When we saw Walt talking to Locke in the hole, the writers did nothing to hide / mask the fact that Walt looked older. Surly for a show of this quality, they would have desguised walt in some way. Therefore I belive that his aging does mean something to the Storey line.

Maybe Walt is a Dr Who type character who can skip between the Past, Present and Future? Just a thought!

Okay, was that a real question? Did anyone actually think that Locke was talking to the real Walt? That never even crossed my mind as a possibility. I just fully expected that "Walt" was an apparition or whatever you call those things.

I meant to say GOD not good.

So, the island gets to play GOD you say.

Give me one "Good" Reason why Jacob/Smokie/ or Ben would sent Walt to save Locke....

Give up.

Ok, cause there is none. I don't buy how the island wouldn't let Micheal die nor do I believe Locke deserved to live via Ben's Gunshot.

So, this island gets to play good you say. Boone was a sacrifice the island needed to make. Well screw that. Let in Charles Widmore and destroy this evil place. I have no flippin idea why anyone would want to go to this Island other than to cure cancer. Redemption you say well I don't see redemption working for everyone. Drowning woman in the Ocean, Pilot, Shannon. They don't add up. Boo that...Expose Craphole

It is probably a different actor as LOST has been filming for the last three years and the original actor who we saw as "bigger" Walt is obviously what the actor looks like now. Since only a few months have passed for the LOSTIES they had to use another actor who looks enough like Walt to pass off as Walt in that time line. Did that even make sense?

need a screen shot of the older walt that came to locke to compare

Yeah, that kid had too much of a growth spurt to stay in the story but the producers knew we would want to see him again so we saw him with Locke, as smokey.

Looks like the same actor i've seen play Walt all this time, maybe a little older though.

Something nagging me. Why when Walt "appeared" previously to some like Shannon, was his speech backwards. Is it possible that Walt can travel back in time thereby reversing his image and speech? He is the only one who ever "appears" and does it backwards.

was it credited as the same actor? I thought it looked like him, and even looked more like younger walt than before. we also noticed Alex looked ALOT older then the last time she was in it too. The problems of teenage actors in a show that never ends!

personally, i am really happy for this screen shot because i didn't get a good look at "walt". i assume they just had to replace the actor playing walt because the original already looked too old. OR is this supposed to be some one possing as walt for michael to see?

This episode sealed for me the following:

-there is no time difference
-Walt did not age (though it looked like a double was used for the shot).
-If Walt appears on the island as older/taller, it is either not Walt, or it is him from a future state, but not from the time when Michael got back to the real world.
-Michael is still annoying and it's too bad he couldn't just kill himself.

Why is everyone assuming that when the survivors see Walt, Christian, Yemi, etc., it is always Jacob or the Smoke Monster manifesting themselves as these characters? I would imagine being stranded on an island after a plane crash would make people go a little crazy. Maybe they are just hallucinating.

I thought it was interesting angle and also interesting they propped him up on the second floor where they could easily make the floor lower to adjust for his height growth.

I think it is him, but it doesn't look like him because they're trying to make him look the same as he did before if ya know what I mean. It's a weird angle, he looks out of proportion.

that is what I thought when I first watched it but after seeing this picture I see it is him.

thats not Walt, I mean it is Walt, but it's not the actor who usually plays him!