It's going to be a long eight months to season 4

This tidbit from the Associated Press says it all:
(AP) - The average viewer of the 'Lost' season finale two-hour episode said "wow," "whoa," "what the f***?" or "no they di'in't" 32.6 times Wednesday, night according to the latest Pew Foundation survey.

I mean …
Did you see …
And that one part where …

Cripes. Where to even begin.

First off, one huge mystery - Jack was on Oceanic Flight 815 to bring his father's corpse back from Australia. So why why why do we have this flash forward in which Jack makes a couple different references to his father seemingly being alive? Anyone?
Am wondering if we will have more flash forwards in seasons 4-6 - an interesting plot device, though I makes me a bit sad because it seems that at least for Jack, ostensibly the main hero, life goes into the big ol' downward spiral to the point he is channeling Jason Patric from "Rush" and popping hillbilly heroin left and right. Fascinating though that Future Jack is so obsessed with getting back to the island and torn up inside from the lies he and Kate seem to have told (about what happened there)?
And then there's the mystery of who is in the coffin that set Jack off even worse than before. Ben? Sawyer? The funeral home was in what appeared to be a poorer black neighborhood - is that a clue? Michael?
This raises another question - in the past, the flashbacks have seemed to be the Losties thinking back to their pasts, right? So this flashfoward, was Jack actually seeing this, the way Desmond does?

Lotsa death last night. Charlie - not surprising, ultimately, but still kinda tragic. He did redeem himself in the end, though, going from junkie to hero of sorts, giving his life to try to get everyone rescued. How sweet was it that his dying action is to try to warn Desmond with the Sharpie? Realistically, could he have survived - opened the hatch or tried to swim out the blown window? Maybe. But that ain't TV drama.
Then we have a boatload of Others buying it, including Tom. The "Pringles You Can't Eat Just One" award goes to Sawyer, who apparently is finding each subsequent killing to be a little easier.

I would assume that season 4 is going to focus on Naomi's group that has been searching for the island. And one would presume that at least some of what Ben said about them is true, or else we wouldn’t have drama and conflict. My guess - the Hostiles/Others have this long long history of being servants/protectors of the island from outsiders as the island has some huge significance/importance. Maybe it is dangerous, or something there can be used in a wrong way. That would explain why they were at war with Dharma, and why the Others have been so paranoid and secretive with the Losties. Now I'm wondering if the Losties and Others will have to join up to protect things from this outside force, the Naomis.
If Naomi's group wasn't working for Penny, how'd they get that photo and why did they have it? Once the island jamming ended, why did a transmission go through straight to Penny Widmore?

And who saw her death coming? Not I, said the duck. Am presuming that Walt we saw was not Walt astral projecting but Smokey as Walt. And I realize that sentence encapsulates everythign awesome and stupid about that show. Meanwhile, since when did cute little Walt become a 6''8 24-year-old?

Hurley kills someone. Hooray. Jack and hottie Juliet kiss. Hooray. Creepy Rousseau and daughter bond by tying up Ben together. Hooray. Maybe the best father/daughter scene ever - Ben saying he was brainwashing Carl to keep Alex from getting pregnant: "Maybe I went a little overboard." He may be creepy/evil, but Ben gets the best lines.

You can feel the tension as the Armies of Sauron prepare to march... oh wait, wrong franchise. My bad.

Well, I'm pinch hitting today because Wally Pipp, er... I mean, Daneman had to work last night and didn't see the episode. So I'm going to try to emulate Daneman's writing "style" to make the transition as seemless as possible.

Let's see here (looks at Daneman Writing Style Check List, $4.99, Acmeproducts.com)… start with a joke about the episode.

You know what's funny? Hitting people in the mouth with canoe paddles until they pass out and their mouths bleed. Ha Ha. Hah. Heh.

Okay, maybe I'm not so good at the joke thing.

This episode had a little bit of everything. I'm not ready to declare it a home run, but it definitely sets us up nicely for next week. Bernard and Rose. Jack getting his mojo back. Sayid, who presumably grew up on european football, not the NFL, executing a perfect form tackle on Dudley Dooright, who apparently will do anything as long as he gets some sugar from Alex.
And Charlie getting busy with twins….And I... love you TOO. HERE'S TO FOOTBALL. Oh sorry, caught up in the moment there.

First things first: Bernard and Rose suddenly reappear. It was good to see them, but given what we know about the season finale, I think it's safe to say one, or both, are Dead Losties Walking. The writers might as well as hung a flashing neon sign over their heads saying "WILL DIE"

Also, clearly we can establish a pattern. When the previews seem to indicate Charlie will die, he will not die. It's as close to an immutable law as this show gets.

We know where the cord goes now. We know Ben is becoming unhinged. And we have to deal with the possibility that Juliet might know more about the change in plans than she let on. (There Sheila, happy?)

We know Sun will do anything to keep Jin happy. And I thought the moment between Hurley and Charlie was a nice touch.

We also know that there's apparently a stash of chicks in the underwater hatch for emergency use. For all I liked the idea of seeing Charlie redeem himself, and prepare to sacrifice himself, he still ends up slipping up by celebrating too much. I thought that was a nice touch too.

And what other show has to have a special to have the writers explain what's going on, yet still maintains any sort of audience? Unreal. Yet here I am analyzing their every thought. Those jerks. I hate myself.

I need to get me one of those sweet "Work Man" jumpsuits

Don’tcha just hate those episodes where nothing happens? I guess there's not much to chat about today.

Oh, you just got punk'd.
Razzle dazzle, last night was chock full of nutty goodness and huge incidents.

What we now know: The Others are a mix of "the Hostiles", some people recruited off island, and at least one Dharma holdover, Ben. There is travel back and forth off the island, since obviously Richard we see later in the recruiting of Juliet. Patchy was not killed, just stunned bad when he went through the sonic fence. Ben is slowly waking up the fact that the Others are not going to blindly say "how high" when he says "jump" anymore (as evidenced by that scene of when Locke pounded Patchy and no one interfered despite Ben's wishes).
What we don't know: Who the Hostiles are. How they got there. Where they got those guns and poison gas, though I presume Ben gave 'em the goods. How/why Dharma continues to provide goods for the island. One would think that somehow someone would realize that, hey, our big island experiment is suddenly hugely disrupted. How Locke beat up a guy with Soviet Army military training.
What we now know: Ben is an even more awesomely interesting/evil character than previously thought. He is murderously jealous of keeping his special status. He seems to have some special link to the island ("Jacob") that no one else does, but that Locke was developing. Ben's dad is Uncle Rico ("how much you wanna bet I can throw a football over those mountains?")
What we don't know: What happened to Annie. What the frickity frackity froo is going on with the Haunted Mansion Disney ride that is Jacob's house. Ghost? Smoke monster? Ben is psychotic and telekinetic (the telekinesis is an interesting notion, since the Others book group was reading Stephen King's novel "Carrie" when the Losties' plane crashed).
What we now know: Jack seemingly has not been co-opted by Juliet or the Others after all, and Juliet appears to be not the willing mole Ben thought she would be. Jack, the reluctant leader, has become Jack the tyrant, holding off on sharing info until HE decides what they will do.
What we both know and don't know: Richard, of the Others, seems to be the same age now as he was 20 years ago, when Ben was a kid.
What we don’t know: Is Locke dead? Dang well better not be. But Eko, when he was dying, did say to Locke "You are next." Might this be what he meant? TV Guide is promising five characters die and the end of this season. Might Locke be the first?
What we know: Best line of the night - "It's kinda hard to celebrate the day you killed your mom." Yet another character (Ben) on the show with father issues. Whether that's significant to the island mysteries or just an interesting entertainment device, dunno.

My wild-ass crazy speculations:
-- Annie died giving birth on the island, leading to Ben's obsession with fixing the whole pregnancy issue.
-- Richard and the Hostiles (a sweet band name, by the way) are survivors of the Black Rock - the slaving ship that somehow got washed deep ashore a couple centuries ago, and the island has slowed or stopped their aging (hole in that theory, Ben has obviously aged, and Claire's baby Aaron presumably is aging).
-- "Jacob" is the consciousness of the island, and it can manifest itself as visions of something you desire (your mom, your dead priest brother, a black horse) or as a black cloud (made up of that dusty stuff Locke saw outside of Jacob's pimped out crib).

Your thoughts, speculation, observations?

Get yer votes in now

At the grocery checkout line today, I saw the latest TV Guide is saying that five - 5! - people will die in the Lost season finale or in the last couple eps. of the season.
Obvs, Charlie's one - we know he's doomed. Or is he?
Who else?
Start speculating. I'm going to go with several Others - Ben, Juliet, due to some infighting we've seen hints at among the Others. Maybe Mikhail again?
Meanwhile, on contemplation, I think it likely that Kate is preggers. The fact the Others gave her that cute sundress and put her in Sawyer in those cages ... I think we were looking at all sorts of Ben manipulation meant to drive those two closer together so they'd do what we in the Lost blogging community call 'the nasty.'

Poppa, can you hear me?

I will be your father figure, 'til the end of tiiimme …

Big happenings on the island this week. Let's discuss:
- There seems to be some sense among the Others that Locke is capital-I Important. Like a chosen one. Like Neo. What that role is supposed to be, we dunno. Why it was so dang important he kill his father, I'm not sure, aside from the idea that byshedding this last tie to his old life he commits to the Others. Like a baptism. That whole bit about "I'm sorry, he's not who we thought he was" that Ben said to the crowd after Locke didn’t slice and dice Con Artist Dad. But how they can expect him to sign up for the Others when he doesn’t even know what the heck is going on is a bit crazy.
- The fate of Oceania flight 815 is an intriguing/annoying question mark. They're not in Purgatory or Hell - if it was Hell, it'd be a lot more crowded. And not as pretty. And it'd smell. And the producers of the show have sworn 1,000 ways to Sunday that the flight survivors are not dead. So what's the deal with the plane wreckage and bodies actually being found? Elaborate hoax, with faked video? Possibly. Some kind of sci-fi alternate timeline thing? Annoyingly possible.
- So we got a bit more elaboration of the Magic Box notion. Now we see it's a metaphor and Con Artist Dad was kidnapped and brought here. One wonders if other off-island traces of life of the Losties have been brought to the island. One wonders why Ben kept insisiting 'you brought him here, John' to Locke.
- What's Rousseau need dynamite for? You bet your bippy I'm curious to see. One of the great moments of the episode, Locke sitting there whittling, Sawyer locked in the brig, yelling and pounding, and Locke warns Rousseau about the dynamite "Be careful, it's unstable." Pot calling the kettle black there.
- What was Sayid digging a hole for?
- What in the wide wide world of sports is going on with Juliet and Jack? That whole interaction with Kate, where J&J seem to know something Big and Important that they've not shared yet was emblemic of everything I love/hate about this show - so intriguing and yet so annoying at the same time. "We should tell her." "Not yet." If I'm Kate, that's the moment I beat Jack's head with a rock until the white meat shows.
- Quite good episode. We saw Locke's dad bite it, as we'd all been rooting for. We saw Sawyer get his revenge. It was interesting in that it was a non-flashback episode - no backstory, all island events. And now we have so many new questions and mysteries that my head hurts.
- Did I miss any? What'd you think?