1.21 gigawatts

Wow. Just when I was starting to question whether Lost was losing some of its pull, out comes last night's ep and my faith is restored in its storytelling abilities.
Loved the "you're gonna die, Charlie" twist. Never saw that coming.
Loved the flashback that wasn't a flashback of Desmond. He's rapidly elevating to one of my favorite characters on the island.
In a way, I loved how creepy and possessive Charlie's becoming. Like we first saw Locke as this survivor-rock type, now we see how twisted and damaged he is, Charlie I think is morphing from the somewhat sympathetic washed up addict to someone who rooted for the husband in Sleeping With the Enemy.
And I loved loved the scene in which Desmond's buying the ring and the white haired lady says 'no.' For me, that was a 'lean forward on the couch and pay intent attention to absorb every second.' On one hand, the argument that the lady is his subconscious and that incident with the ring never actually happened in the real world makes some sense - even if Desmond can see flashes of his future, how can this woman see flashes of his future as well? And how could Desmond's mind go back in time but not his body? So maybe all that flashback stuff was all in his mind while he knocked out on the jungle floor.On the other hand, he seems to have learned some basic rules of the universe righting itself when out of whack - not something one picks up while just knocked for a loop on a jungle floor.
Which leads to the idea that maybe there was some Dharma work involving time travel or manipulation or viewing and the white haird ring seller is part of them. Dharma saw this inevitability of the island and the Losties and everything else, saw that if they don’t get Desmond to the isalnd something horrible happens, so they make sure he stays on that path.
Of course, that raises all sorts of questions about inevitability and why Dharma couldn't just not build the computer and numbers that lead to Desmond needing to be there.
My brain hurts a lot.
Some observations - the polar bear painting in Dad Widmore/Caleb Nichol's office? Significant or just a cute reference to us Lost obsessives? Could go either way.
One thing that doesn't quite make sense about the whole Desmond time warping thing (well, OK, there are many many things that don't make sense, but this one really jumps out at me). Desmond said he turned the key, his life flashed before his eyes including flashes of the future. That future had Charlie electrocuted by lightning. He saves Charlie. So how does he then see into the new future, the one in which Charlie drowns saving Claire?
Lookin' forward to next week. Discuss.