WHAT HAPPENED HAPPENED

The great debate is whether Juliet's Jughead detonation will reset the time line or set an alternative time line. The whole concept of the 1977 bomb strains the WHH rule since the bomb and/or the Swan station would not exist in 2004 when Desmond turns the fail safe key.

Unless, the bomb explosion is the WHH defining moment. It always creates a reset in this world. As MIB fumed on the beach to Jacob that his human arrivals to the island always created problems: they come, they fight, they destroy. Destroy the island?

The bomb going off may be a metaphoric "calling someone's bluff" in poker. Boom, hand over. Then the cards (characters) are reshuffled for another hand to see who blows up the bomb and wins the hand.