Yeah, I've wanted to do some catching up, too, after all the talk.

One thing we learned: Juliet has a good looking back.

Some updates:
Episode 19 does have flashbacks, but they're Locke's from after the time that he saw his dad. So they'll be from the time he spends with the Others.

The summary for episode 19: A newly focused Locke breaks away from "The Others" in an attempt to persuade Sawyer to help rid them of a great nemesis that has caused nothing but pain in both of their lives. Meanwhile, a new island inhabitant discloses some shocking information about Oceanic Flight 815.

This makes me certain that Locke's dad is the original Sawyer. Also, the 'new island inhabitant' is Marsha Thomason's character Naomi, a parachutist.

Notes for episode 20: Someone you wouldn't expect to see wearing a Dharma suit will appear in episode 20. There will be a big, epic, shocking scene. We will see more Dharma vans. Roger wasn't the only workman.

That's some crazy news...

Hmmmm. Random thought following one of those spoilers.... Could Rousseau be part of Dharma?

More spoilers - maybe we should have our own thread like with 24:

Juliet is up to no good. There's going to be a Goodwin story in the future, although it's hard to determine if they are joking. Rachel may not have had the cancer come back... Ben's folder may have been a lie, MAY.
Something "fairly momentous" is going to happen tonight.
We will see Dharma before the purge and we might see how they repelled the smoke monster with the sonic fence
We're going to meet Ben's mom and dad. We will get much more info about Ben's origins and the origins of the island.
The end of the season features a showdown between Jack and Locke — a showdown long anticipated and a showdown with an extremely significant outcome for the future of the castaways.
There will be at least five deaths on Lost during the month of May. (!!!)

Can't wait for tonight...

I'm betting Ben dies. I guess he counts as an other, but it would be a pretty monumental death. Can't really think of anyone else.

Like the Superman Flash convo between Charlie and Hurley.

I have to say, seeing a sequence of Charlie getting impaled in the throat by a spear immediately following Sanjaya getting booted on American Idol is like a dream come true night of television for me.

Charlie is great and I will be very depressed if he gets killed off I love the relationship between him and Claire.

Ohhh right

The hot British black woman from Las Vegas

I hate watching this with crappy reception.

What were they looking at right before commercials?

Dammit Desmond!

Damn it, Desmond

Why'd you have to say "duck"

I love everything about Desmond. He is by far my favorite character on this show EVER! The day they kill him off is the day I stop watching the show for good.

Other than Desmond saving Charlie and the beach soap opera antics (Kate goes to sex up Sawyer after seeing Jack with another woman - how original and progressive of women!), pretty good episode. Love Desmond.

Decent episode. Desmond made it good. However, it mainly seemed like a means to set up the introduction of a new character - not a lot happened otherwise. It does show that Penny is trying to find Desmond, though.

Another great episode of Lost. Desmond is by far my favorite character. I was hoping Charlie was going to bite it, but oh well. Finally they go back to last seasons finale with Penny trying to find him. I guess the woman in the parachute was working for Penny on a mission trying to find Desmond. I wonder why the helicopter crashed and how it found them. I know on the finale last year they found his location with the hatch exploding, but I thought it was impossible to find even knowing the GPS location? The last couple of episodes look great!

I love Desmond so the episode was great, IMO.

nice to see Sanjaya found another gig already.

regarding white text

Ben, Juliette, Sanjaya, random Lostie (hopefully not Desmond), and random other are my picks to die. Locke takes over the Others and has a super cool ninja battle with Jack. Awesome finale!

Decent episode, but Jin telling the scary story is the funniest Lost moment I've ever seen.

i'll second that.

Just finished watching it and I loved it.

I knew we would be getting a new character (the parachutist) but I didnt know who they had cast so a part of me realllly thought it might be Penny and the last 10-20 minutes my heart was racing and I was on the edge of my seat. I know I would not have been so emotionally involved or interested in this episode had I known who they cast so I've decided not to look at any spoilers anymore.

Lost employed two common storytelling techniques this episode:

1. The WTF Moment: Charlie taking an arrow to the throat.

2. The JJ Abrams Signature: Showing a certain scene, then taking us back to how we got there (Usually, it's a scene with the protagonist in peril, then we get a good ol' fashioned "48 Hours Earlier"). Although, this was a bit different, as it was actually Desmond's vision that we got to see.

They worked effectively, but I really didn't think they'd "kill" Charlie, then actually kill Charlie in the same episode. I doubt he's even going to kick the bucket. Seems sloppy that they'd tell us someone is going to die, then they actually die. But a man can dream...