Yea same here...everyone was wondering why the hell he has a crazor of whatever and it took me until about 11:30 to realize hte phone thing. I felt quite stupid.

@Shack: Ben wasn't born on the island, but he was a young child when he arrived so that does make sense.

I'd agree except for the fact that I don't think Ben would leave the island. Same with Locke. I doubt either of them would want to leave, I think they'd both rather die (on the island) than go back to the real world. Or perhaps that's why whoever it is hung himself.

I really have no idea whose funeral it is now.

Locke is a possibility, Kate would hate him after all

J = John Locke?

If it's suicide it's Locke. "Him" is Sawyer.

I think at least.

Glad you guys liked it

Locke would also have no one show up.

Yeah but would Kate care enough about Locke?

I think Kate would show up for Sawyer, it's in her nature.

Also, the Charlie stuff was wonderful.

His last minute scramble to write down the message on his hand was horrible (in a good way!)... It was a very "Abyss" like moment.

Although, Penny sure like sits by the sat/video phone doesn't she?

No, she wouldn't. And I think it portends to what the next 3 seasons are going to be like. No one will like Locke.

I'm thinking, however, that something will happen. Maybe Jack will have a Desmond like flash, or something of that nature. It seems kind of weird that they would give us a kind of ending 3 years befoe the show has its series finale.

Well what else is she supposed to do?? She's got nothing better than to Pine for Desmond the entire time.

Despite this episode being great great great, I still stand by my statement that, if they kill Desmond anytime before the series finale, I will stop watching the show. And if they do it at the series finale I will be pissed.

My theory is that Lost starts burning from both ends now.

The flashbacks move backwards, the show moves forwards. Show inches towards a point where Jack and the rest have to make a decision that will change destiny (ties in with Desmond's visions)... I dunno. Just musing.

Desmond gets out and runs to the beach, gets on the walkie, tells Jack that the boat is not good, Ben was telling the truth. Ben comes clean early in Season 4 with what's about to happen.

There's now two groups of people on their way to the island.

Oh and does anybody get the feeling that this episode is pretty much the death of "The Others". Sure, there are others alive, but impotent.

Richard is going to be a big character next year I think.

I only wished they killed Ben. I loved seeing the Others get their asses kicked thuroughly. I very very very much enjoyed that. Ben is the KING other, though. The most pretentious asshole out there!

Oh, and "The Temple".

Well... I have been saying the flashbacks have been almost entirely useless for a couple seasons now. This would be a way to shake things up, and obviously the flash forwards wouldn't be as useless. But how would they deal with the several flashbacks each person has a year? Will the flash forwards become just as useless?

Yeah, but he's the key to the island at this point.

Juliet was being lied to obviously (Ben told all the Others that the Looking Glass was flooded, so she only lied to separate Sawyer).

I think Juliet knew that they might be intercepted once they only saw 2 explosions.

If not, she might have tried to jump in on Tom and work some mojo (if Ben didn't know Juliet had betrayed) but regardless, she knew the scene would be complicated for her if the Others showed up at the radio tower.

I personally don't see the flashbacks as useless, so I dunno. It's just the device that this show uses to explore the characters.

I will admit, I have hated Ben less since he became less "prentious asshole" and more "evil bastard" His flashback episode was fantastic. He also appears to be somewhat crazy.

Well how many times do we have to see Jack cry to get that he's a sensitive guy who wants to help everyone?

Hehehehe... he was only trying to help himself in the flash-forward.

He was trying to fix the lady because he felt guilty that he caused the crash. He was making sure he didn't have more death on his hands.

This was probably the best Jack episode... though... it is possibly the show's best episode... soo.... But the flashback part was also Jack's best "flashback," though that probably has a lot to do witht he fact that it wasn't really a flashback.

Don't get me wrong... I think they've gotten off track with Jack's flashbacks before. I didn't like the one where he was trying to heal that lady's father, and he kissed the lady... the divorce episodes. I wasn't thrilled about the flashback with his wife at the beginning of the season, and although I liked Bai-Ling in the 2nd flashback this season, Jack was just creepy with the tattoo...

...but in general I think the Jack development took a turn this year and got a lot more complex. It was interesting to me that he would break down so much off the island.

I really liked his talk about how he gets on planes hoping they crash.

Yes. Very good "flashforward" tonight. I think the problem I have is that he just had way too many flashbacks, which leads to a bunch of them that aren't that rgeat, as mentioned in your post.

I think it's interesting with all the attention his character gets, that he was originally supposed to die in the pilot. He must be happy they didn't kill him off! TV is where the real acting money is at!

Really, the last few flashbacks have been quite good, cause it wasn't the same kind of formula. Even Charlie's was excellent (though I am not a Charlie hater like most). It was a different flash back formula, and was actually pretty sweet. I hope Claire gets his note.

By the way, have I mentioned how much I love Desmond? It may be a bit unhealthy.

Alright.

The shit officially went down tonight. That was freakin amazing. I don't seem to have loved it as much as everyone else did (though ya I thought it was great great great) but I'm so digging that EVERYONE loved it.

The way Charlie and Desmond's storyline played out in this episode made last week's ending much better than the original "What? they didn't kill him off?"

Rose: Jack, if you say live together die alone one more time, I'm going to punch you.

Some of you spent way too much time talking about Jack and his comment about his father. It was just a random reference he made or something he said because he was high on drugs or drunk. From the very first "flashback" I sensed that this may be a flash-forward but I was reassured when I saw him use a razor. I saw the ending coming completely but that may be due because of this thread even though I didn't read a single spoiler about the finale... but it was still amazing.

I also don't think the flashbacks are completely useless. Some of them are, yes, but they don't have to be.

I think toying with flash-forwards instead of flashbacks is really interesting. Since we have 16 episode seasons from now, they should really focus on 1 character per episode and they'd be able to do all the characters every season.

I'm just in such a state of awe still that I don't know what else to say or think or discuss.

Random thought... how was the looking glass not flooded as it is? For some reason I can't wrap my brain around how it is submerged underwater, has this huge opening and is not filled with water.