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?