Two weeks ago, when Claire survived a rocket-propelled grenade attack on her Othersville home with little more than a cut on her pretty forehead, I wondered: Is “Lost” venturing into soap opera territory?

Come on, how on earth could she come out of that explosion alive?

Um, maybe because she didn’t?

I’m not the only one thinking that Aaron’s baby mama may no longer be among the living.

Entertainment Weekly’s “Lost” guru, Doc Jensen, floated that theory in his recap of last week’s outing. So did J. Wood over at Powells.com.

And it’s pretty popular in online forums: Plenty of fans—like this one—are on board with the notion, too.

After all, do we Lost-philes really think that the masters of this show—who know that we’ll examine every minute detail —would resort to an “All My Children” technique?

It’s hard to believe that the writers would blow up Claire’s house just to ramp up the drama, hoping that the viewers would chalk up her unlikely survival to dumb luck.

Everything on “Lost” means something.

So that brings us to this week’s debate topic:

Is Claire dead?

There’s certainly lots of clues that point to it. But I don’t know if we’re looking at Ghost Claire.

I think that—like Christian Shephard—Claire is now undead.

Not in a vampire sort of way. More like she’s trapped in limbo, with the island preventing her spirit from “moving on.”

Perhaps that’s because, like Jack and Locke, she’s “got work to do?”

Stick with me here, people. Read on for more of my convoluted explanation…

So here’s the deal.

Obviously, Sawyer, Locke and the rest can see Claire, so it’s not as if she’s completely passed to the other side.

But remember, plenty of island-eers have seen other supposedly dead characters: Hurley’s seen Christian and Charlie, Jack’s seen Christian, Michael’s seen Libby.

And while those glimpses of Libby and Christian were fleeting, Hurley’s surprise meeting with Charlie at the mental hospital was pretty concrete. And Christian can hold Aaron, implying there’s some kind of bodily structure still in place.

So are there different degrees of dead?

Let’s look at how Claire called Sawyer “Charlie” when he pulled her out of the rubble. She also mentions that she was seeing things for awhile. (Doc Jensen reports that the show actually shot a Claire hallucination scene, but it was cut for time.)

Could it be that she’s now on an equal plane with the late Charlie, except she doesn’t quite realize it yet?

This could link back to Charlie’s season premiere conversation with Hurley. When Hurley insisted that Charlie is imaginary, Charlie told him, “I am dead. But I’m also here.” Then he slapped Hurley to prove his point.

Need more? There was that odd interaction between Claire and Miles. Remember when Sawyer asked how Claire was feeling post-explosion?

Claire responded, “I’ll live.” Then Miles said, “Well, I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

Sure, he was probably joking about trying to keep Keamy and his mercenaries at bay. But he is a ghostbuster, and it’s almost like he senses there’s something different about Claire now.

Plus, Miles seemed to see Christian as clearly as Claire when they went off into the jungle (leaving Aaron behind).

It looks like we’re going to find out more about this in tonight’s episode, which focuses on Jacob’s cabin.

Some are speculating that Claire can be seen in the background in the cabin in this ABC promo shot of Locke seen below.

(She’s supposedly just to the left of the lantern. Go here to get a supposed “closer look” at that photo, and see if you agree…)

So if we take the leap that Claire is undead, what does that mean?

Well, we all know by now that Claire is the one who’s supposed to raise Aaron. That psychic told her so when she was pregnant.

Yet off the island, Kate is Aaron’s mommy. And, as Charlie told Hurley who told Jack (in the craziest game of Telephone EVER), Jack wasn’t meant to raise Aaron, either.

Now here’s where my thinking goes a bit kooky.

Could it be that Aaron is the reason why Jack and Hurley realize they need to go back to the island?

Maybe a Kate-raised Aaron grows up to do something to destroy the world. Not necessarily in an evil way, but in an innocent but still destructive way. Think Miles Dyson in “Terminator.”

That’s what the Oceanic 6—minus Kate—is trying to prevent. If the island is operating in the past, or in a time-travel loop, maybe they can reunite baby Aaron with Claire and avoid catastrophe.

So why wouldn’t Kate be on board with this plan?

Well, any mother—including an adoptive one like Kate—wouldn’t want to think badly of her child. She’s protective of little boy Aaron, not thinking of what he’d be capable of as a grown man.

She’s also obviously grown to love Aaron deeply, so she may not want to give him back to Claire either.

As for Claire, she could be trapped back on the island—possibly in the same way Jacob is—because she’s waiting for her “work” to be finished when her boy comes back to her.

Wow. That’s the most I’ve thought about this series in four long years. My head hurts.

Go ahead and poke holes in this theory, please! I’m sure there’s lots of points of contradiction.

I can already think of one myself: If Claire isn’t truly alive, how can she fulfill Desmond’s vision of her and Aaron getting on a rescue helicopter?

Help me out, Lost-philes! Do you think this theory holds any water whatsoever?

And don’t forget to tune in here tomorrow, when I’ll recap tonight’s episode, “Cabin Fever.”

Hopefully we have more clues to prove—or disprove—this crazy Claire notion of mine…

(Photos courtesy of ABC)