Your move, Mr. Eko

There are two types of Lost fans - those who were mostly amazed and occasionally annoyed by last night's slam-bang, two-hour season finale extravaganza, and those who hate freedom and want the terrorists to win. It's going to be a looong wait until January (yes, January) to see what happens next with season 5.

But here's some of what we know now: how Jin died, why Sawyer wasn't one of the Oceanic Six, how the Oceanic Six actually got off the island, how (kind of) Ben ended up in Tunisia wearing a winter parka, who was in the coffin, why the Oceanic Six have lied about their ordeal, whether Desmond and Penny ever would get back together, how to move a tropical island.

Of course, now we have a whole bunch of new questions - who the heck built the island-moving-wheel? are Daniel and the other Losties who were on that speedboat heading to the freighter when it blew up dead in the middle of the ocean or did they teleport with the island? Is Sun teaming up with Widmore to get revenge on Jack (Jack indicating that Sun blames him for Jin's death - which really doesn't quite make sense, but you know how chicks are - totally irrational)? Why do the Oceanic Six, including dead Locke, need to return to the island? (was it me or did kate apologizing to sleeping Aaron seem to indicate she had decided they in fact did need to return?) Why did Ghost Whisperer guy and Charlotte remain on the island?

Some fairly solid speculations - the Orchid hatch is how folks like Richard have been bouncing through time.

Some based-on-nothing speculations - Widmore once moved the island. We seem to think he's been there before, by the fact he is looking for it and that he indicated to Ben 'you took what was mine.' Makes me wonder if before Ben, Widmore was the one in communication with Jacob and he moved the island for some reason and has been driven to return yet cannot.

Nice touches - Hurley playing chess with Eko. The Christian Shepard apparition showing up and telling Michael 'you can go now' before the boat goes kablooey. Yet another partial Dharma videotape giving us just a hint of what's going on - and each time Dr. Marvin Kendall has a different name in the video. The big bad mercenary guy getting what's coming to him, though unfortunately it came at the expense of many lost innocent lives. But at least the island is now a peaceful democracy instead of a haven for terror. Whoops, political commentary in Lost Talk, sorry.

Annoyances - the wheel that moves the island and that magic realism stuff going on there; am really having a love/hate relationship with that aspect of the show. the Eko/Christian Shepard/ghosts thing - dammit, I want some explanation, some clue, something to help explain all this.

Trivia - Jeremy Bentham, Locke's pseudonym, was a noted English philosopher, best known for the idea of utilitarianism - that something's moral worth is gauged by how much pleasure and happiness it brings society as a whole, and thus by its outcome. Perhaps an allusion to choices Locke makes that cause great damage and suffering to the island in the time between the Oceanic Six leaving and Jack growing his Jim-Morrison-in-Paris beard?

In closing - that episode rocked. Your thoughts, speculation, take?

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A multimedia experiment, we are live blogging tonight about Lost.

10:01 - man, Locke had one messed-up childhood.
10:03 - the freighter's doctor is still alive. The same doctor we saw wash up on the shore before with his throat cut. Eeenteresting.
10:11 - the Horace dream sequence was some spooky stuff, Horace being the guy who welcomed people off the boat when they arrived for the Dharma Initiative. Then Ben had an interesting comment, "I used to have dreams." Dreams like Locke's? Seemingly communicative with something supernatural dreams?
10:20 - 'whoa' moment, Richard there at the Locke's maternity ward. A close second, Hurley's supposition as to why only he and Locke can see the cabin: "because we're the craziest."
10:26 - More Richard. I think we're starting to see indications the Losties were set there bh circumstances long ago. Young John Locke then failed some inscrutable test by choosing the knife. Interesting. Am betting the jar of dirt was island dirt.
10:36 - Dick Ide Honda just did a Lost-like commercial? Am I impressed? Am I disgusted? Am I hungry? Where are the carrot sticks? More than halfway through and not much has happened and yet a lot has happened.
10:44 - Ian raises a good question - in regards to Red Lobster, what is 'crunch fried'?
10:51 - Abaddon and Locke! I'm curious if we're going to see evidence of other characters manipulated to be on the Oceanic flight. For example, what brought Christian Shepard to Australia, I wonder.
10:58 - best line "Yeah, I'm cool with you going in alone, too." Hurley with the win.
So I was betting it was Abaddon in the cabin, but Christian Shepard also makes sense. As much as anything in this show makes sense. So what do we know now? Locke was chosen/manipulated to come to the island. Why him? Maybe the time-bending properties of the island meant it knew he'd be there one day, playing the role he is playing, so the island then had to ensure he did in fact go there to play that role (dude, my head hurts). We know Martin and the mercenaries are heading to wipe out everyone and Frank the chopper pilot seems to have some plan. That Ben's role as chosen by the island is apparently over - he fulfilled whatever task and now he's tossed aside. That Claire is a willing part of whatever the island is doing - the Claire sitting there in the cabin with dead ghost dad after having left her baby in the jungle was seemingly cool with everything.
Next week it looks as if we get some Oceanic Six flashforward.