the maps is jack tryin to find the island i think, this guy's theory is interesting...

Many clues were given in the season finale if you just looked hard enough. Jack is clearly a mess in the flash forwards. He is unable to deal with the fact that he has traveled backwards in time from what was his and the other crash survivors present. But his future is acutally his past and the rest of the worlds present from when the LA flashbacks take place.

Look at the wall in the room through the curtains when he is in the patients room discussing her status with the Chief of Surgery. A big sign onthe wall say “NOW” as a hint to what we first believe to be the usuall flashback is actually their present not ours in 2007 but some time before the crash took place i n 2004. Jack says at the end “He is so tired of LYING.” He is a mess and Kate is made to look younger and seems to have made serious life changes in a positive manor to her past as her calmness, clothes and vehicle would have us believe. Jack on the other hand was unable to Handle his past of losing his wife and other setbacks we learned of and instead of being positive as before has now “LOST it” and turned negative from the life style we see him leading with the drugs and alcoholism. Several statements made by Jack lead us to belive he is in a time when his “dad” is still alive. Which is actually his past. Ben even points out at the end what did he have to go back to, “No life, No wife, No father cause he was dead.” It is a fact that the plane crashed in 2004, yet when the woman was talking about her message she recorded to send it she clearly states she made it 16 years ago. Right on the machine next to the button they press is an orange sticker with “85” on it so 1985 + 16 years equals 2001 current island time. Never until this point are we ever given an exact or porximate island time or year. We just assume it is 2004 cause thats what they all belive and in a few episodes back we see Ben cheking the news screens and the crash is dated but that is from the outside world and still not an island account of date or time. So I am saying that when they get rescued the island year is something older than 2004 possibly 2001, and even though they are continuing on with their present and future they are rescued to their past. As the LA scenes hint us to believe. Basically their past is the whole worlds present. Thats why she has changed for the better and not made the same mistakes and he cant handle relieveing the pain he has had to bear already once.

Also The newspaper clipping he is caring around reads “man found dead” Keyword is MAN everyone. So all the woman theories are 100 % wrong. The fine print reads ” Man found hanging from beam in loft.” So obviously whoever it is killed themselves as Jack was going to do because they could not handle relieving their past. I belive the man was Michael. Let be observant. The neighborhood he drove into definitely had an african american etnicity to it. Form the barbershop and the men in front of it and the funeral home across the street and the actual funer director. The coffin was rather small larger than a child but the size of a smaller man. Jack seems so, broken up by this death but we cant figure out why. The reason he is so broken up which we learn from the last few scenes especially the one of his apartment with all the maps and charts spread out he wants so bad to get back to this mysterious island, which seems no one knows where it is. Where did we last see Michael sailing off into the ocean. So other than whoever rescues them,which sounds like some type of covert government agency which I am sure kept and is keeping the islands whereabouts a secret, Michael knew because he sailed away and learned of the secret location. Now with Michael dead Jack feels hopeless and loses it again realizing now he may have lost his only possible chance of getting back to the island and his old peaceful present instead of his miserable current present which is actually his future but really his past.