I really enjoyed the episode. I thought the interaction between Charley and Locke was great especially when Locke couldn't talk. Also, the airport scene was extremley well done and I really want to watch it again. I have a feeling that there is alot of foreshadowing in that part of the episode for the entire season. THe polar bear was cool, but I was really hoping that we would get a glimpse at the smoke monster. But, what is up with all the bones there. How long has that bear been there. How many Dharma guys got chewed up by the big polar? SInce Locke just burned the bear do you think we will have a rematch? All in all a great episode.

I liked this episode. It will probably set some people off since it seemed to ask more questions than it answered, but I thought it was solid, nonetheless. They did a wonderful job of further illustrating that Locke has never really had a handle on anything. He has always been the patsy. I know that in the first season it looked like Locke had all the answers, but it is becoming more and more clear that he is easy to string along, perhaps moreso than any of the other survivors. The few times in his life (that we've seen so far, anyway) that he has taken a stand have all backfired. Sorry, I may be rambling, but I love his character.

The polar bear part was cool with the exception of the bad CGI. I hadn't thought about the lack of a symbol in the Dharma logo. It could very well be someone who was not a participant in the experiments.

I'm not sure yet what to make of Desmond's "seeing" the future. I don't think there is much more to the airport scene other than it showing Locke the status of everyone at the present time. Sayid with Jin and Sun; Jack, Kate, and Sawyer with Benry; etc.

One last thing. Even though he has reasons for acting the way he did, Charlie is still a twit.

I know how Desmond sees the future, because (unfortunately) I did the same thing just before the episode started: he watched the trailer for the episode on TV. Really, they try to make those things intentionally misleading but they do go a long way towards ruining the thrill of watching a new episode.

In all seriousness, though, I was thrilled to have a new Locke episode because (other than Hurley) I think he is the most interesting character on the show. My guess would be that the paralyzation will come in his next episode, though, when he returns to his "family" after not properly disposing of Eddy. Also, I'm glad that they seem to be keeping Desmond around this time, I look forward to the true explanation of why he can now see the future (and how the hell he, Locke, Charlie and Eko managed to espape the imploding hatch alive).

I think its pretty safe to assume that the show will try and answer how they got out (in the show's own vague way), and that how they got out is directly tied to Desmond's second sight. I am guessing that the pulse (or an outside force) moved the three forward through time, and then set back the clock. Maybe this just happened with Desmond since he was closest to the key, plus everyone knows that when you time travel your clothes don't make the trip.

Anyone notice the two (new) faces on the beach at the end? Have some of the nameless castaways been elevated to speaking parts or are they red shirts?

I thought that was odd too. When I was looking for the actor's name in the commune I came across this plot synopsis on TV.com

Unless I drank more than I thought last night, they cut that scene but couldn't cut the two from the scene we saw. The next line I didn't bold, but it says "Hurley discusses in detail to the camp..." which didn't exactly happen either. He didn't say anything until Locke came back with Ecko and spilled the beans.

Agreed.

That's still bugging me with this season. I understand that the guys that survived the hatch imploding don't remember what happened, but it seems like they don't care either. I mean, the guys walk by the aftermath of the implosion and make a offhand comment about it being the hatch and then just move on as if they could care less.

Not you. There was a whopping 5 minutes of show between commercials at the half hour mark. It felt like I was watching football: Touchdown -> Commercial -> Kickoff -> Commercial. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the fact that ABC is demanding the show run longer than the creators had originally intended it too, so they're forced to stretch out each episode now.

I thought the episode was decent, but overall this season is still not close to the beginnings of the first two seasons.

They got some 'splaining to do. /Desi Arnaz

While I'm bothered by that a little, assuming that I'm correctly remembering last season's finale, I'm even more bothered that Charlie walked away from the hatch (in the finale) saying that "nothing" happened, then in last night's episode, basically says to Locke, "yo, B, where you been," when he knew damn well that he could have been hurt, along with Desmond and Mr. Ecko. I wanted Locke to say, "Well, I'm here now, no thanks to you, ass." This has pushed me into the "Charlie is still a twit" zone as well.

Agree on both points.

Yes, I think so too. It was good to see open, familiar settings again.

Meh, I thought last night's episode was fine. I'm in it for the ride, not for the question answering, and this episode was a pretty good ride.

Expanding upon my tongue and cheek reply to Rat Boy, I think the show is suffering because of this season's format of just showing 4-5 episodes in the fall, with the rest to come in Feb. It seems like what is going on now is a Lost mini-series, with most of the bigger issues maybe being picked up in the winter.

It might have been better if they'd gone the 24 route and just aired everything in one shot starting in January. But even so, I don't see how things could have gotten this dull to downright bad because of a scheduling change. If anything, you'd think they'd actually have things of importance happen in order to keep people on the edge of their seat until February.

Hobbit twits get all the good-looking women, ya know?

Amen. DVR rules.

I got the impression that Hurly wasn't thinking about Desmond being a pre-cog, but more that Desmond is somehow a part of the Others. At the very least, I got a pissed vibe from him.

All hail the DVR! I rarely watch anything on television that isn't pre-recorded anymore. It takes a 1 hour show and cuts it down to 45 minutes or less. Watch two hours of television and you just saved yourself a half hour of crap that your not interested in anyway.

All in all a better episode but they're still slipping.

I'm confused as to how Charlie got on the beach in the first place. Didn't he help Eko in blowing up the door when Locke and Desmond were staging their "push-the-button" strike? Am I off base there? Was that someone else?

The Polar Bear. They're revising what they've already put out in the show. In the very early episodes every indication led you to beleive that The black smoke monster and the bear were a part of the same "security system" (as the French lady refferred to it). In the first episode they were all sitting on the beach at night and they heard the roars coming from the jungle. They looked over and entire sections of tree's were being shaken violently, indicating something absolutely huge was on the prowl in there...like T. Rex huge, not Polar Bear huge. Then you'd have those times where a couple people would be walking around in the jungle, hear the funny slithering noise, see the black smoke, and then all of a sudden the ground explodes and the bear starts screaming bloody murder at them. Hell even the first time we actually got to see the CGI bear it was significantly bigger than what they represented in this last episode (it was standing up and attacking someone at the top of a tree). The last episode showed us the head of a bear that was significantly smaller - and more along the lines of just a "regular" old Polar Bear that's been munching on people for a while. Definitely NOT the impression that they've indicated in previous episodes.

I'm starting to notice something about the show. At first I thought it was just that they havent quite gotten to explaining a certain thing, or they were just leaving it unanswered. But now I think I understand what the title "LOST" really refers to. It's a moniker for the writers of the show. They're completely LOST as to where they're going with this.

I think they're making stuff up as they go along. And they're starting to run into story conflicts from previous episodes and they're having to devise subtle ways, or new mysterys that will go unanswered, to make things fit with what's already been told.

They're LOST because they have absolutely no idea how to get to the end; and a story like this demands some kind of conclusion.