[Note: A version without pictures was posted at 12:28pm Central-DST, on 3/25/10. This version was posted at 1:38pm CDST, on 3/25/10.]
[3/26/10, 11:44am Update: Yes, in addition to Jacob's red wine symbolizing Christ's blood and the lightside act of communion, it would be interesting to learn that the wine was not a burgundy or a merlot, but was instead a PORT, riffing not only on a 'ships haven' aspect, but also winking at the island's function as a PORTal among the 'verses, and to higher dimensional realities-- nod to ISABELLA, JACOB, etc....]
CORKPORT:
SEALING OFF THE ACCESS TO EVIL
ON THE ISLAND PORTALCORK
By now the speculation is running rampant regarding Jacob's instructive image of the island as a cork, holding evil at bay, sealed off within a veritable bottleverse. Of course, this is consistent with our prior surmises regarding the existence of a bubble or pocketverse. Indeed, this could very well be construed as the 'HELL' to which God banished the rebellious God-wannabe-Lucifer and his merry band of darkside Fallen Angels.... the NEPHILIM.... (See my Season 5 postings in this regard.)
Another viable interpretation is apparent when we consider that the cork functions as a stopper not only in sealing off one space, but rather as a means of separating one space (that which is in the bottle) from another (that which is outside the bottle). This view is consistent with the Mirror Matter Theory devotees who point to the existence of a dark SHADOWLANDS reality comprised of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. From this R. Footed view, as we've posited before, the island is a portal among the darkside and lightside, Yin/Yang 'verses, and of course the portal may be plugged (or corked!) if one wishes to block transit among these 'verses.
Indeed, one core theme prominently figuring in the Crisis On Infinite Earths (COIE) series was the looming war between the darkside, mirror-matter-king ANTI-MONITOR and his lightside counterpart, the MONITOR. I reviewed a myriad of connections to Lost in my 2/3/10 "LAX" posting, including the very prominent issue of how to keep the darkside/antimatter forces bottled up and how to contain the infective spreading of the dark one, once He has been 'uncorked' as it were, with his dark, cloudy, smokey veil of influence spreading throughout the multiverses, sowing the dark seeds of matter-destruction, remaking the universe in the dark image of the 'Wrinkly-In-Time' anti-matter king....
the ANTI-MONITOR....
One prominent problem in COIE involved the challenge of figuring out how to 'UNCORK THE BOTTLE', namely how to open a portal to the darkside antimatter 
'verse, and ALEX LUTHOR was absolutely critical in doing so. In my LAX posting I first identified the eerie parallels between Alex and Aaron, and even Ji Yeon, sharing as they do a unique ontogenetic heritage as HYBRID SPACETIME BEINGS, borne of intermixed matter and mirror/antimatter forces, through this exposure possessing rare and valuable powers to.... yes, open the portal between the dark and lightside 'verses... and yes, this means that AARON and JI YEON should be uniquely well-qualified to POP THE ISLANDCORK... 
Depending on how the VALUES in the Variables/People turn out at the end of the season-- nod to the Lostisagame site and to my Anti-Life Equation (ALE) theory in the 3/23/10 posting-- this ability could be used either for evil or for good.... Will Eye M. Sick be correct in surmising that AARON will end up serving a darkside purpose, with Ji Yeon on the lightside? If so, then look for Darkseid/MIB/ Flocke to try to ALEfully manipulate Claire to manipulate Aaron to 'POP THE CORK', opening the portal to his homeworld, APOKOLIPS, and the dark/evil 'verse lying just on the other side of the islandportalcork....
If, however, Darlton and company choose to follow a more COIEesque/New Gods plotpath, then look for a neat plot twist involving Aaron as a means of popping the cork not in the best interests of MIB/Flocke and his Army of Darkness, but rather as a means of cross-infecting (pun?) the darkseid/side with The LIFE EQUATION, symbolically and materially instantiated in the form of the clear spring water that imbues one with the spirit of the Holy Ghost and the lightside force. MIB and Jacob just may well turn out to be functioning as a genomic/ dyadic form of a Mutual-Infection-Society. THIS helps to explain why MIB did not want to drink the red wine offered to him by Jacob at the end of the Ab Aeterno episode-- Jacob 'spiked' the wine with the LIFE-EQUATION-INFUSED goodness of clear spring-fed HOLY WATER.... And of course, MIB would have none of that! Plus, he was given a chance to dramatically telegraph his intentions to us all by smashing the bottle, symbolizing his desire not merely to return to his darkseid home, but also to free his evil forces from the bottle/bubble/pocketverse prison....
Don't forget that Damon Lindelof has promised us that the key to the conclusion of Lost is.... WATER... Please see my 3/16/10 "Recon" posting for how this may well figure into the future plotlines of Lost. Having witnessed Jacob 'baptizing' Alpert in the ocean, and the use of wine in a bottle to represent the island function and the evil one's plight, I would not at all be surprised to see Darlton and crew deliver on Damon's promise.... And yes, I readily admit a fascination with science-fictional applications to Lost, and must also admit that instead of Jack immersing in a Jacob's Well analogue on the island and physically 
'dissolving' into the islandmind/Source, what we may actually see in the final episodes is a less science-fictional, far simpler form of baptism into the role of Island Protector, as Jack submits to being KILLED through BAPTISMAL DROWNING in a clear-water, lightside pool infused with a 'Holy Water' viral Life-Equation force, subsequently reborn into a higher dimension, a higher plane of existence, heading for a new flight of adventure, with Jacob welcoming him aboard.... 
Yes, this is not that far-fetched, after all, as we've already seen a rough darkside precedent for this in the case of SAYID.... But of course, his 'baptismal drowning' and rebirth happened in a brown-ALE water, darkside pool infused with an 'unHoly Water' viral ANTI-LIFE EQUATION force, and we witnessed firsthand the quantumly-entangled 'vampiric/zombifying' effects that a literal infection of MIB/Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation can do to one's heart, mind, and soul.... AMMIT, indeed!
How interesting to consider the differences in how the cork appears in the Original Timeline (OT) and the Flash Sideways Timeline (FST). Indeed, the cork analogy helps us to see how the island portal may, when transit from one verse to another is plugged, appear to be functioning and structured not unlike a cork... Is the OT island showing us the TOP or the BOTTOM side of the cork? Of course, the same question applies to the FST. With the island sunk on the bottom of the ocean in the FST, does this mean that the cork has been popped in the FST?
If so, this would be consistent with those who have interpreted the FST as a neat twist on the evil one's silver-tongued promises of providing whatever our minds and hearts desire.... As I observed in an earlier posting this year, don't forget that good 'ol TWILIGHT ZONE episode-- "A Nice Place To Visit"--
in which the criminal thinks he's died and gone to Heaven, as all of his billiard shots go in, he wins every hand in the card game (etc.), finding out in the end that it's not as gratifying as he thought it would be, when one's every wish and desire is granted.... And then, of course, there is the final delicious O. Henry-twisty closing exchange with his guardian angel PIP-- played in trademark debonaire fashion by Sebastian Cabot-- who, interestingly enough, is clad not on black, but in white....
"....Soon, however, after a month, he becomes so thoroughly bored by always having his whims satisfied and predictably winning at anything he attempts, he tells Pip "I don't belong in Heaven, see? I want to go to the other place". Pip retorts, "Heaven, Mr. Valentine? Whatever gave you the idea that you were in Heaven? This is the other place!!" With this shocking truth, Valentine tries vainly to leave with Pip laughing uproariously, but finds that there's no escape..... [And then the Closing Narration].... A scared, angry little man who never got a break. Now he has everything he's ever wanted- and he's going to have to live with it for eternity in the Twilight Zone." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nice_Place_to_Visit]
Yes, what if.... what if.... it is the case that the FST turns out to be a nice place to visit, but.... it really ends up being a Hell on Earth, functioning as an unbalanced darkside mainland reality. If this turns out to be the case, then showing the island as lying sunken and ostensibly dormant would make sense, as the strong inference would accordingly be that the island is no longer functioning, i.e., it is no longer 'corking' evil in the bottleverse, and MIB's image at the end of Ab Aeterno has been realized.
Of course, the opposite argument could be made that the FST view is showing us a lightside 'verse, unbalanced in the favor of GOOD, as the island at the bottom of the ocean is signifying that the islandportalcork is FIRMLY planted in place on the ocean floor, keeping evil at bay. This view is definitely and directionally consistent with the archetypal notion of evil/bad/darkness as being located downward/lower. On this view, the OT islandportalcork could be construed as having been 'popped' from the ocean floor, and is now floating on the surface of the sea. Of course, the rebuttal to this is that the islandportalcork is bottling up the entrance to the darkverse, a wormhole-based ingress which by its very nature is not stationary in a classical mechanical sense, but rather is subject to some quantumly uncertain movement at each end.
Hmmmm..... So which verse is which? Is the OT the top or bottom side of the islandportalcork? And is the FST simply showing us the opposite side of the islandportalcork? Which timeline is on the inside of the evil bottleverse (bottom of the cork), and which timeline is on the outside (top of the cork)?
And who will ultimately win the game? Will the cork be popped, letting the evil GENIE/DJINNie out of the bottle? How will the Values in the Variabled Equation be resolved? Will the equation be solved in favor of the lightside or the darkside? Will MIB/Darkseid succeed in uncorking the bottle, thus securing a release from his corky New Genesis Islandprison?
Time will tell....
Dr. Todd J. Hostager