Yea, good point.

I'm a little confused about the hatch, though. Everytime I've seen it post-implosion, it looks a HELL of a lot smaller than it actually IS. I mean, it was like an underground apartment. Everytime they show it imploded upon itself, its only a ditch in the ground.

I think if Desmond is able to see ahead on the island, then he's lived it before. He's been through everything on the island before (like in his flashback) and will try and "change" it to no avail?

Also, I want to know if that woman with the diamond ring in the shop was his subconscious or not. I don't think she was, but it was kind of implied.

I hope it's not "time travel." That will be so lame and generic. Deja vu would be pretty okay though, if they have good ideas on how to twist it.

UGH, I KNOW. I don't CARE about Jack's tattoos - Matthew Fox had that tattoo from Party of 5 anyways.

I think they're just pulling shit out of the sky and running with it.

Why does everyone care about the kids? ;_;

I don't give a shit about them. They could be dead for all I care. We weren't made to be emotionally attached to them at ALL.

I felt that the show has been doing this for quite a while now. I just hope that the writers can eventually rationalise things in a decent fashion.

Alias (also made by JJ Abrams) went down the road of becoming too complicated for it's own good, this was basically because they ran out of reasonable storylines.

I like all of the incrediably strange things on Lost, however I would like it to be explained fully eventually, and most importantly for it to make sense.

My guess is that the thing just caved in on top of itself, but still, as you said, it looks so much smaller than it should. I'd rather hear an explanation from somebody than see it, because if the CG polar bear from the fall season was any indication, it would look like complete shit if they tried to show it.

If that is the answer (that he's lived it before), that would be very tough to explain unless he's actually Jesus Christ... He kinda has Jesus hair going on now that I think about it...

The only reason I care about the kids is because their kidnapping was one of the first weird things to happen on the show back in season 1 when I got hooked in initially. I've always been curious as to what they've been doing with them, and why THEY care so much about them to go out of the way and kidnap all of them.

Ugh, then you won't want to read this.

According to a recent Ask Ausiello, here's what Michael said.

"Question: Can you give us the scoop on what kind of "answers" Lost is going to provide for viewers this season?— Catherine
Ausiello: Based on recent interviews with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, here's a list of some of the big questions that will be answered in coming weeks:

* Is Claire Jack's half sister?
* How'd Locke end up in a wheelchair?
* What's the link between the Others and Dharma?
* What's the deal with Jack's tattoos?
* What's so special about Claire's baby?"

So the tattoos are going to be a question answered, not necessarily a mystery, but a question answered. It is kind of lame though that he had these tattoos from a long time ago and they just say, "Oh let's incorporate this into the mystery of LOST."

Isn't it possible that they are simply showing where they first entered the hatch and not the entire thing? You know, where they initially blew up the hatch to get in?

In any case, the episode was good, although confusing. The role of that woman in the jewelry shop really should have been clarified, especially if they aren't going to do another flashback like this again. Also, it's obvious from the dialogue between Desmond and that guy in the bar that the writers realize the time travel theme seems impossible, but that they have some sort of idea of where it is going (I hope).

Well, as long as they continue with the strong characters and dialogue I don't care if the answers come slowly.

But I am very confused about what the message of Lost is. If humanity can't change their fate, then why are they even bothering to try and change The Valenzetti Equation? Or will it turn out that we can?

WHO

Quote:

* How'd Locke end up in a wheelchair?

THE

Quote:

* What's the deal with Jack's tattoos?

FUCK

Quote:

* What's so special about Claire's baby?"

CARES?!

Oh, finally one question worth answering.

All of those are interesting, actually.

Well, besides Jack's tattoos.

I'm looking forward to the "answers."

I care quite a bit about how Locke ended up on a wheelchair. :/

And didn't Jack say he got his tattoos from Thailand? I'm more interested in what he was doing over in Thailand in the first place.

I'm interested in all of those questions, except for the Jack and Claire one. Yeah, that one can just get swept under the rug thanks. We don't need crazy soap-opera relative shockers in this show. It's outrageous enough as it is.

I thought this past episode was really good, with the glaring exception of the ring shop woman. Uhg. Hello new loose end never to be tied up, you can wait in here with the others.

Otherwise, what's going on with Desmond is pretty much clear to me. By his own description of it, he's not jumping back and forth from past to present. Before he woke up, his life flashed before his eyes, he experienced weirdo backwards deja vu because he was aware, somewhat, of his current reality. After he came to, these flashes didn't stop. It seems to me he basically became aware of his own fate.

It may of come in an odd package, but it was the sort of really good character focus that we haven't seen yet this season, the sort of thing that made a lot of season two tolerable for me while many complained. They can plod all they want to if they can manage to maintain poignant and impactful character development like this. Not to mention Desmond has been the most interesting character from the moment he was introduced, continues to be so, and any focus on him can never be a bad thing.

As for Charlie, good riddance! As soon as they gave him dream visions and he embraced the role of an outcast, he's become totally worthless. They probably should of done this before he came back into everyone's good graces for little to no reason.

I remember reading way back during Season 1, in a TV Guide interview, that Charlie was the last person the writers would ever want to kill off, the reasons being that he was popular (he was fresh out of LOTR, after all) and that his salary was cheap. Not sure if they still stand on that, but something tells me Charlie will dodge the bullet (and lightning bolt) here; they don't usually spell out the people they decide to kill.

Oooi vey did anyone else think tonight's episode sucked? Maybe I just really dislike Jack flashbacks, but who the hell cares that he got Ling Bai to tattoo him against cultural faux-pas? "He walks amongst us, but is not one of us." Wooo, what a tie-in, guys!

Maybe I'm bitter about the Skate thing going awry. I think Kate is just PMSing and is feeling guilty about Jack.

Speaking of Jack, he's going to be lost forever if they up and move with Dipshit Ben. He'll have to find his OWN way home, unless Locke figures it all out haaaa ha ha.

I also thought 3 secrets were supposed to be revealed in tonight's episode. I hope one of them wasn't that the stewardess and the kids are just peachy - we already knew that, essentially.

Ugh. Back to being unimpressed. They better wow me, or they're going to lost me at the end of the season.

For giving answers, this episode definitely sucked.

But for storytelling, I thought it was pretty good.

Not the best episode, but I enjoyed it.

Jack's flashbacks this season have either been ridiculous or just plain dull. He was fine before, but in season 3 he's been nothing but a pointlessly angry stalker. I think the only flashback worse than tonight's tattoos was Locke growing marijuana on a hippy commune.

That said, I still liked this week's episode more than last week's. At least they actually spent most of the time on the island.

While you have a point, I can tell you I am not watching this show for "story telling" anymore. I could watch a 2 hour movie on DVD which'd have NO commercials and would finish up by the end of 2 hours if I wanted "story telling."

I'm not lashing out at you. I'm lashing out at the producers. I think LeHah was right when he told me not to get my hopes up.

EDIT: LOL @ Tritoch - you're right. At least this week they were on the island, albeit mostly in the goddamned CAGE.

You know, this is just starting to piss me off. They built up this episode as FINALLY telling us something. I feel like I just wasted an hour of my time watching more bullshit that essentially means nothing.

I'm tired of them developing back story. I'm tired of flashbacks that are useless. I don't give a flying fuck about Jack's lifetime of fucking angst anymore.

GET TO THE FUCKING POINT ALREADY!

Say what you will about the episode, but don't blame the writers/producers on how ABC promotes the show. I'm pretty sure they have zero input on it.

I don't understand what ABC's promotion has to do with shitty, elongated episodes dragging on and on about the characters on the island? Can you explain what you mean?

Like Midna (very aptly) put it, we're sick of flashbacks. This is season 3. Character development of all the "survivors" should be pretty well settled. I appreciated JULIETTE'S flashback, and even a littl more of Desmond, but seriously. If I have to watch ONE MORE JACK FLASHBACK.

This character development should be moved on by now.

The promos said three of the Lost's biggest mysteries will be revealed. I can barely count two. I doubt very much that the producers/writers even intended this to be a "big revelation" episode, and I've heard in their podcast that they were kind up upset about the promo. It pretty much set people up for disappointment.

This is apparent, to me at least, that the advertising team made two or three little things into these giant revelations to try and trick people and get more viewers in.

That's why I said "say what you will about the episode" because I thought the episode was good. But many people (like Midna) are crying foul over the promos and somehow think it was a collaboration between the writers/producers and the advertising department of ABC.

You could say ABC did the best with what they were given, but I disagree. They made things up that weren't intended to be there. That's my point.

So are we supposed to be okay with the fact that we've waited MONTHS for what was promised as a fantastic second half to the season only to see a whole bunch of meaningless crap?

THIS is why I'm having a heart attack. I'm sick of flashbacks. I'm sick specifically of Jack's fucking whining. What was the point of this episode. To add that Jack can now whine that a bunch of meanies kicked his ass on the beach?

Networks exaggerate episodes on occasion. I've seen it before, but I'm angry this time because we were given hope that something substantial was going to finally happen. My main point is that we shouldn't be so desperate for ANYTHING to happen in the first place.

I've been feeling this way throughout Season 3.
By now, Season 2 had a LOT of revelation and new events that threw the viewers for a loop. New survivors, the inside of the hatch, what Kate did...
What has Season 3 done? Where's the development? Those Others are all a bunch of mysterious idiots that I'm beginning to care less and less about because nothing ever happens in their respect. There was ONE BRIEF SECOND in Season 3 where we saw Ben & co. in a house on the island. That was it. That's all the new info we got. The rest has been a bunch of smoke-and-mirrors bullshittery.

I think the only thing this season has offered us is what the Others' camp looks like, and that Sawyer and Kate got it on. Did I miss anything out of the last 9 episodes or have I about summed it up?
Oh wait, Desmond can "see the future". I forgot...since we only see Jack, Kate and Sawyer anyway.

I think what they should've done for season three is replace the flashbacks with parallel events. The end of season two showed us some dudes in an arctic weather station or something, and after the hatch blew up (or whatever the fuck it did) they reported to someone that they "found someone", or am i mistaken.

I think they should introduce a search party, who's out looking for the survivors, or hell, maybe a group of people who's going against the Dharma Initiative, or something. Instead of flashbacks, we just switch between the stories, the islanders, and the searchers.

I've become sick of coming with theories about where the show is going, latley i've been thinking of ways to explain things if i were one of the Lost writers. I've come up with some ideas, and it's gotten to the point that if they come up with anything less i'm gonna be pissed off.

I'm not a real big fan of the idea about showing events occuring outside the island. In the end, Lost is supposed to be a Thriller and a Mystery. The unpredictability and limited perspectives are what make those two themes work. Start showing a rescue team navigating close to the island and much of the mystery will be lost. The Dharma group and the Others create fear because so little is known about them. If they get brushed off as some company with secret but ambiguous aspirations, then they lose that sense of intimidation with the audience.

Besides, one theory that a fan had asked the writers of Lost (in an EW mag, I believe) is if, should the group ever find their way out of the island, there would be one final twist to show that the outside world had met some unfortunate tragedy, like a third world war or something. The producers praised the theory, saying it was a great idea and it was something they could consider. Of course, this could probably no longer work as Benjamin proved to Jack that the Others have clear knowledge of what's occuring outside (unless that in itself is another deception).

I enjoyed last night's episode; I didn't believe for a second that they would give clear answers to some of the more major (or not so major, in Jack's case) questions in just one episode. It should be clear to most of you that Lost moves at a very slow pacing. While it is indeed frustrating at times, I prefer this method of storytelling. With no real lead character (this is the first Jack-centric episode in a long time) and each one having some sort of mysterious past, I'd prfer that the writers take their time to explain things instead of hastily trying to wrap everything up in some 1 hour finale. I expect when Lost finally does reach its end, the epilogue alone would take a good 2 or 3 episodes.

My only complaint with last night was Jack's attitude when getting the tattoo. Why did he suddenly look like he was going to strangle that girl just because he found out that she does tattoos? I also thought he didn't believe in that kind of stuff (spending a whole episode debating with Locke about how the button doesn't do anything), so getting a magic tattoo kind of contradicts things.

You see, for me, the only way to watch this show is on DVD.

I can't imagine watching this show during season 1 on TV. I probably would have given up on it. But with DVDs, I was able to watch it and get the entire story in a weekend. That was such an amazing feeling.

Because, really, season 2 of Lost really is great when you watch it on DVD.

Lost isn't the only show I feel this way about. I have the same opinion of 24. I'm not watching season 6 until it is finally over. The only reason why I decided to watch Lost this season is because I'm really into what is going to happen next and I don't want to be spoiled (too much).

In case anyone is curious, last week's episode was the lowest rated ever (somewhere around 12 million viewers), and this week only improved by about 120,000 viewers. It may have to do with the later timeslot, but I think people are honestly getting tired of the same crap over and over again. I know the producers were talking about ending it next season or so, but if the ratings get any lower, they may have to regardless (i.e. they would get cancelled if it weren't already ending).