You're standing there over by the Ho-Hos

*Pop*
You hear that sound? That was my mind blowing after last night's season premiere. The good news is if there was any worry Lost might've started season 4 on a weak note or that the eight-month hiatus would've proven to be a problem were quickly wiped away.
So let's get into the meat:
One annoyance - 8 p.m. was another recap show? MotherSCRATCHER! Though ultimately it was a bit useful, I must admit.
Then 9 p.m. rolls around ...
Observation - Instead of the season starting with a closeup on someone's eye, it starts with a car plowing through a pile of papaya, like something out of an episode of Simon & Simon or Matt Houston. Sweeeeet.
So Hurley is one of 'the Oceanic Six'? First assumption - six people got off the island and, as we saw later, became brief media celebrities. We got the idea in season 3 finale that Jack was wrestling with some guilt over having gotten off the island when others had not. But the writers did a great move by splitting the Losties into two packs, with Hurley in one and Jack and Kate in the other, instantly quashing any easy assumptions about how some Losties got off the island vis a vis Naomi's folks.
With the Oceanic Six, now we have to wonder if one of the other six was the person in the coffin at that funeral Jack went to in the season three finale. Or, more intriguingly, it was not one of the six.
Also intriguing was that Oceanic atty. who visited Hurley in the booby hatch with his insistent "Are they still alive?" question. My theory - the Losties who remained on the island were hiding, maybe even faked their deaths, to avoid the rescuers. Why? Dunno. But now someone off the island - perhaps whoever was behind Dharma - wants them, perhaps because of their prolonged exposure to the island. Your thoughts?
A quick shoutout to Tivo, which let us repeatedly see Jacob in the cabin - a suit and white sneaker wearing Jacob who looked to some like Jack's father (dun dah dun!) Creeeeeeepyyyy. Raises an interesting question - Henry had indicated to Locke that one could only see Jacob if attuned to the island or worthy. Is Hurley attuned? What the F is Jacob? What does that have to do with Jack's dead dad, if anything? Why the white tennys? I don't know.
And speaking of weird stuff Hurley saw, perhaps the biggest 'you've GOT to be kidding me' moment was an alive Charlie - with a much nicer haircut - shows up at the nuthatch. "I am dead. But I'm also here," he said before indicating Hurley has something to do: "they need you, Hurley." He slapped Hurley. Another looney saw him. So he was real. Unless Hurley hallucinated both. Except why hallucinate Charlie with that haircut? And who needs Hurley? The most obvious supposition is, once again, it has to do with the Losties left behind on the island.
Interestingly, two of the Losties we've seen in the future off the island seem much more miserable now than they were there. Jack's self destructive and wearing a bad beard. Hurley's hallucinating and freaking. Makes one wonder what Kate's post-island life is like.
Meanwhile, life for me is good because the best hour of TV on TV (bite me, The Wire fans, I'll get around to Netflixing it at some point) is back. Next week looks good, too.