Season 5 Premiere

ABC has announced that Lost Season 5 will premiere on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8/7c. Hope to see you all here then for all the fun discussion and speculation!

**UPDATE** we've started chatting about the premiere in this thread so beware of spoilers in the comments if you haven't seen it yet!

Summatimmme

Well I don't know about you all but I'm going through a bit of Lost withdrawl... We haven't had a lot of action lately since the show is on summer break, but this last season was quite a doozy and I'd love to hear any thoughts or ideas about what happened. We've been posting some guest written articles on our sister blog, Let's Talk Alias, which has spawned some great discussions, so if you'd like to be a guest writer please let me know! Click on my profile to see my contact info, hope you all are having a great summer!
-SRG

4.13 There's No Place Like Home (Part 2)

Sorry I missed posting about the last episode guys, but honestly I don't think it matters much considering the whopper of a finale we got last night. Again huge props to the writers...starting this episode 1 second after the ending of last season's finale flashfoward was genius. I remember coming to the conclusion that they didn't reveal who had died because it wasn't important, boy was I wrong.

There are so many questions I don't even know where to start, so I guess I'll begin with what we DID learn from the finale. We now know that Dharma knew about the "special properties" the island possesses and was experimenting with time travel in The Orchid station. Ben is still a heartless bastard, no matter how much sympathy was gleaned from the murder of Alex. He got his revenge on her killer knowing full well that would mean the deaths of everyone on the freighter. It broke my heart to see the boat explode with Jin running on the platform toward the helicopter and Sun practically jumping out to grab his hand, IMO those were some Emmy-earning screams she was belting out. I'm still in denial Jin's dead, but I guess that's how I felt about Charlie in last year's finale... As for Sun, I have no idea why she would ever want to partner w/ Widmore in the future knowing he was ultimately responsible for Jin's death. She's obviously become quite shrewd with time and must have something up her sleeve.

So when Jacob/Christian told Locke to "move the island," he really wasn't kidding. It was interesting seeing Ben lead up to the flashforward we saw a few episodes ago; him appearing out of no where in the desert with a bloody arm, now we know how and why he got there. It was also interesting to see how all the events played out to end w/ the Oceanic 6, because all season in my head I couldn't imagine how those specific people were the only ones who got off... Speaking of which, did anyone hear anything that Sawyer whispered to Kate before jumping?

The one moment of relief we got in those 2 hours was seeing Penny lean over the rescue boat's railing as Desmond looked up. Watching by myself I exclaimed out loud "it's Penny!!" and shed a few happy tears seeing them reunited. Of course I lost that feeling with Desmond's foreboding claim that as long as he's got Penny he'll be fine, knowing Ben is seeking to kill her.

One major thing I'm not clear on...why did the O6 have to lie?? In addition to protecting the island and it's people, which I get, did they think Widmore would kill them if they didn't? And why were they making up a name for Locke (which Hurley voiced on the boat) when they thought he was staying on the island? Ben's claim that Jack has to get all the survivors to go back to the island clears up Kate's dream where Claire tells her she shouldn't ever bring Aaron "back", which I think means back to the island. Why do they all have to go back, do you think they can go back in time and reverse all the horrible things that happened from the finale and on? I have a hard time believing this horrible future we've seen glimpses of all season is unchangeable for our beloved Losties...

Out of office...

Hey all,
I'm out of town at a conference most of this week so no time to do a recap of the last eppy. Please post all comments in this thread and I'll read through 'em before doing the delayed post later this week. Thanks!
-SRG

4.11: Cabin Fever

Wow this was a bizarre episode. We got to see more flashbacks of John's past, and two main themes came across from them:
1. John is a miracle baby/man who has defied death on multiple occasions
2. The Island has been recruiting him since birth

We got to see the man who never ages looking in on him right after his birth mother ran out, and visit him years later to give some weird test that John didn't pass at that time (what the crap was all that about??)

On the freighter it seems the captain and the pilot are actually good people. The captain helps Sayid escape on a dingy after realizing the soldiers have a nasty second protocol, only to be shot by the their leader who then convinces the pilot to take them back to the island only by slitting the doctor's throat (um, does that mean now the island is in future time??)

In I think the weirdest ending ever, John finds Jacob's cabin and ends up talking to Jack and Claire's dad...guess she wasn't hallucinating after all. Her relaxed and almost amused demeanor was unsettling though, it was like she was brainwashed all over again. We've definitely noticed that Christian seems to be the tying factor to all of the Losties in some way, this seems to confirm that theory. Locke evidently finds out how to "save the island" from him and from the looks of next week's trailer our Oceanic 6 begin their journey home...along with their ill-fated destinies we've had glimpses of all season. Can their futures be changed somehow or is everything up to fate??

4.10: Something Nice Back Home

Dang, this season just keeps getting better and better! For once we see flash forwards of a happy time, after Kate's trial, to her and Jack living together, getting engaged, and raising Aaron. This goes back and forth with the present time on the island and Jack suffering through an appendectomy (which we obviously know he survives since the flashes are about him, so that drama was kinda pointless IMO). Of course you know with the episode starting out happy it won't end that way...

We progressively see Jack's downfall, which is sadly driven by Hurley's insanity and claims Jack shouldn't be raising Aaron and will get a visitor. Jack starts hallucinating that he sees his dad which spawns his drug and alcohol use along with mistrust of Kate, who he finds out has been doing some kind of "favor" for Sawyer. What we learn from this is the rest of the Losties "chose" to stay behind, as Jack put it, so does that mean none of them (including Jin and Claire) are actually dead? Something does seem to be wrong with Claire though, who throughout the episode is dizzy, woozy and at the end sees her (and Jack's remember) father and goes off into the woods w/ him, leaving baby Aaron on a tree root. I mean the girl's house was blown up, seems crazy to think she'd walk away unharmed, so I'm thinking there might be some kind of internal head wound or something... :-\

Other interesting events in this eppy:

• The helicopter pilot saving Sawyer, Claire, Aaron and the ghost dude from the crazy freighter soldiers
• Jin talking some serious smack to Charlotte in Korean
• Juliette seeming like a total beeatch by telling Kate Jack kissed her, then redeeming herself by stating she knew it was to prove he was actually in love with Kate
• Kate adamantly calling Aaron her son, which I also noticed in the episode w/ her trial...I mean she says it like she really gave birth to him, just seems odd...

4.9: The Shape of Things to Come

Whoa! That was my reaction to this episode, very mind blowing. I'm not going to do a "recap" really since they can be rather lengthy (not to mention boring at times), so I'm just going to point out the events I thought were most interesting and my reactions, so I'd love to hear yours!

Kate being Ms. Flirtypants w/ Jack again doesn't surprise me, but was does is Jack's inability to diagnose his own health problem, which according to the next eppy's trailer, is appendicitis. There's some definite weirdness with them finding the freighter's doctor w/ his throat cut but back on the boat they claim "the doctor is fine", huh? We finally see what they're capable of though, bombing Claire's, shooting random people, but I never ever thought they'd actually kill Alex. I had the same reaction as Ben, jaw dropped, wide eyed, complete shock. That poor girl! Turns out we were all wrong thinking Ben planned the murder of Carl and Danielle, it really was the crazy freighter people, and they are just as dangerous as Ben claimed they were. Oh, and I give some major hero props to Sawyer, who rescued Claire and stood up for Hurley and his curly head, bravo!

Getting to the flash forwards, we don't see how Ben ends up in the middle of the Sahara desert, but it sure looked to me a lot like when Des has his time traveling spells. He seemed to just appear out of no where w/ an arm injury and waring a Darma jacket, but he's definitely resourceful and seems to be able to get around no matter where in the world he is. We finally get the picture of how Sayid comes to work w/ Ben, wonder why the Widmore crew decided to murder his wife though. The thought just occurred to me that maybe Ben set all that up, just to get Sayid to be his assassin, what do you think? The episode ends with Ben confronting Widmore and declaring he's going to murder his daughter the way Widmore murdered his...bad news for Des and Penny. :(

So what did we learn in this eppy?
- Ben knows how to control and call the smoke monster
- The freighter people never intended to rescue the 815 survivors and are cold hearted murderers

What else gang?

Yay and yawn

Lost returns this Thurs. Apr. 24 (yay!) at a new time, 10/9 central (ugg). I don't know about y'all, but frankly that keeps me up past my bedtime, so probably watch the episode on Fri. evening. Please visit after that for a recap and discussion!

Season 5 rewind

I'm posting these observations on behalf of our loyal blogger Robetron. Some very interesting points to muse over in our Lost hiatus! -SRG
-------
I just went back to watch this seasons first and second episodes. I noticed some things that I didn't catch before.

A. There may be a problem with the "different reality/ nightmare" scenario. In episode 1, we are shown on a TV screen that someone was in a high-speed chase in an old orange camaro (which, we eventually find out is Hurley because this is his flash-forward). What we only get a brief glimpse of is that the watcher of that TV is Jack, it is early in the morning, and Jack is making himself a Screwdriver with orange juice and Absolute Vodka. He begins to nurse the drink before noticing Hurley's antics on TV. This would damage the view that Jack was "just fine" in Hurley's flash-forward, as opposed to his own flash-forward where he was a raging drunk. I think Hurley's flash-forward was further back in time than Jack's, and that Jack was only in the process of his alcohol-induced problems.

Later, when Jack pays Hurley a visit in the mental institution, they discuss whether or not Hurley would "tell." I think they made it off the Island, but left everyone else alive on the Island and swore never to reveal it. This also is when the idea of "going back" was introduced to Jack. Hurley was way ahead of him, and suggested it. I don't know why, but it does seem to be the moment when Jack started to think about it, which of course, made him drink more, bringing him to the point of near lunacy and suicide.

B. Later, in Hurley's flash-forward, a thin black man claiming to be a lawyer for Oceanic Airlines paid Hurley a visit. We do not discover much about him, but we get the sense that he is lying throughout the interview, until he reveals himself to believe that the rest of the Losties are still alive on the island, and Hurley freaks out about it. Then he disappears. Weird and mysterious, but not enough information for us to really think about it.

Come forward into episode two where we get to know how the crew on the helicopter came to be a part of their "expedition." Naomi is protesting the selection of an untrained crew, and the guy who is convincing her is none other than --

--the guy who so disturbed Hurley in the mental hospital. He was working for (as we know now) the man who is funding the ship and the craziness of trying to capture Ben Linus as well as locate the island: Mr. Widmore. now there is an unexpected twist. Mr Widmore was having his lacky interrogate Hurley in the future to see if the other Losties were still alive. That means that somehow, the "Oceanic 6" got back to the real world without letting anyone on that ship know anything about the other Losties, or the location of the Island. Maybe they forcably took Mr Widmore's ship away from the captain? I dunno, but this is very revealing!

--

I will continue to watch the new season's episodes and make more observations if there are things I missed the first go-round.

-R.

And the verdict is...

Lost makes a pretty good showing in Empire's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, coming in at #5. Sadly all of us who are Alias fans can agree with the comment that "Only time will tell whether it's as clever as it seems," but it's nice to see the show so highly placed.

4.8: Meet Kevin Johnson

Yay I finally got to watch last week's episode! I'll tell ya, we have some very intuitive and smart bloggers on here. First Paul calls Michael out as the spy, then Robetron guesses that Widmore could be behind the 815 fake wreckage. Bravo! Katie posted that she's not completely convinced that is what REALLY happened instead of Ben staging the whole charade, and I agree, we can't trust any of the sources we've heard both tales from. Michael definitely went along w/ that story rather easily, but then again he had tried to shoot himself in the head only to have no bullet come out after Island-guy told him he couldn't die. Guess I'd be willing to believe that guy too...

So basically the entire episode showed that Michael's life has completely sucked since he got off the island. I agree w/ Robby that it was not great having the entire episode be a flashback, I'm a fan of the back and forth, but it was interesting to see why Michael ended up on the freighter working for Ben, the most manipulative SOB I've ever seen. Speaking of which, I agree that Ben set up Carl and mommy dearest to be taken out, poor Alex. She obviously thought it was the freighter people shooting at them, IDing herself as Ben's daughter in defense, but I'm pretty sure it was the Others doing Ben's orders.

I also like seeing old characters in the flashbacks, like Libby and Naomi, it's like a little surprise treat since our mindset is they're dead. Guess it will be another month before the next new episode, sigh. What shall we do till then folks?

Post here!

Hey all,
I'll be out of town Thurs-Sun (visiting my new baby nephew in NY!) so I won't be able to post a recap on this week's episode until early next week. For those who would still like to discuss what happens, please post here! I'll read through all the posts once I get to watch it and will post a recap including comments and questions in this thread. Thanks, and to all who celebrate it, Happy Easter! :)
-SRG

4.07: Ji Yeon

Ok I don't have much time but still wanted to put up a post because this was a great episode! First off, MAJOR kudos to blogger Paul who posted his theory two weeks ago that Michael was Ben's spy. It was no surprise at all to see the freighter janitor "Kevin" come out of the shadows at the end and see Des and Sayid's stunned faces as they looked upon their betrayer, Michael.

Well friends, we now know the identity of the final member of "Oceanic 6" is Sun. This episode was a bit confusing at first because we knew there was only one more survivor, yet the time flashes showed both Sun going into labor and Jin on his way to the maternity ward. I had a hunch that we were seeing two different time periods, which was confirmed at the end when Jin discloses his trip to the hospital is to represent his employer and earn some brownie points with a business associate, obviously in the past, while Hurley visits Sun and her new baby daughter, Ji Yeon, and take a trip to Jin's grave in the future. That last scene with her talking to his grave just broke my heart, and I'm sure part of it is because I have a personal association thinking about my sister who just had a baby last week and imagining her going through all of that without my brother-in-law. What makes it even more tragic was Juliette spilling the beans to Jin about Sun's affair, and him forgiving her and their loving reconciliation. He promised she'd never lose him, yet we see her facing a future alone as a single parent. I've wondered since we've started seeing the flash forwards if the rest of the 815 survivors somehow perished, leaving only the 6 survivors, or if they stayed on the island. I guess now we have our answer, but it begs the question of how did he/they all die??

Moving on to the freighter, there was some weird-ass stuff going on there. We learn the crew is going nutty one at a time, including a woman jumping off the boat covered in chains to ensure her sinking, and a mysterious blood stain on the wall that Kevin/Michael was ordered to clean up. The captain was surprisingly willing to talk to Des and Sayid, and relayed the story of finding the 815 black box along with ALL of the passenger bodies. He confirmed his orders come from Mr. Widmore, which took Des by surprise, and also told them the Ben is suspected of staging the fake plane wreckage. The captain asks the same questions we've been wondering... where did Ben get the money and resources to stage such a hoax, and where did he get that many dead bodies??

4.6: The Other Woman

Sorry for the late posting folks, let's get to it. It seems that last week's eppy with Desmond's time traveling to the past was a segue into this week's being a trademark flashback episode about Juliette. At first when she's talking to the therapist it sounds as though she got off the island and is discussing how it feels to be hounded by the public as a "celebrity" (possibly as one of the Oceanic 6). We soon realize that the scene is actually back from the time she first came to the island as their hopeful doctor. The story unfolds of her engaging in an illicit affair with Goodwin, the husband of her therapist, whose doomed fate was determined by Ben sending him to infiltrate the "Tailies" group. Juliette realizes Ben purposefully sent him to his death so she could no longer be with him, and when she confronts Ben about it he responds that "you're MINE" (sort of like a 3-year old but in a much creepier way). It's obvious Ben will stop at nothing to keep Juliette to himself, and she confesses to Jack that she fears for him since Ben knows of her feelings for Jack. I've been a Kate-Jack "shipper" from the beginning, so it just looked weird to me to see him kiss Juliette, anyway...

Mystery surrounds Dan and Charlotte since they silently left the beach on some secret mission. As it plays out, it actually does seem like they might be "good guys" since they neutralized the large container of toxic gas that could have killed everyone on the island. Ben tried to convince Juliette to kill them first, but it seems maybe he just wanted to save the gas for his own uses. He also played Locke into setting him free by showing him a video of Penny's dad beating one of the Others, claiming he's the owner of the freighter and an enemy of the island. It can't be a coincidence that Mr. Widmore is somehow associated since Des has been on the island, do you think he's trying to keep Penny from finding him? I can't figure out why else he'd be behind it all. The mini-cliffhanger is that Ben tells Locke who his spy on the freighter is, I think blogger Paul's theory that Michael's the spy could be dead on, maybe we'll see next week.

FYI

I missed the beginning of this week's eppy, so I'm going to finish recording it and watch it over the weekend. Please visit back in a day or so for a recap and discussion!
-SRG

4.5: The Constant

One word for this episode: trippy! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, flashing back and forth with Desmond's consciousness from 2004 to 1996 and back. Knowing every time it happened he was closer and closer to death from a brain aneurysm.

We learned for sure what was already hinted at; the island exists in it's own time portal where a day and a half amounts to only an hour or so in the "real world" (which makes me wonder if they've really been lost as long as they think they have). The reason for this is supposedly the island's abnormal magnetic properties, that can cause people to time travel if exposed to a large amounts of the magnetism. This happened at the end of season 2 when Des turned the island key to relieve the extreme magnetic force set off by not entering the computer code. His time traveling, which foretold of Charlie's death last season, became accelerated aftering being on the chopper that went through the storm front and came out in the "real" time. Desmond's memory from the last 8 years was suddenly erased and he had no idea what he was doing on the boat or who anyone was, including Sayid. Going back and forth between his time in the military and being in the sickbay on the freighter, Des had to make his way to Oxford to find the physicist Dan in 1996 and learn how to stop the time traveling. Dan said he had to find something (or someone) his consciousness could emotionally attach to in both time frames, and thus keep him in the present. This "constant" ended up being Penny (shocker), who he was finally able to call from a phone Sayid constructed on the exact date he promised her in 1996. They declared their love for each other and Penny swore she would find him as his power source ran out and the phone died.

For all of the excitement this episode contained, I was actually a little disappointed w/ the ending. I just wanted something more, somehow, I don't know, maybe it was a little too "Disney" for me. Considering the previous two episodes had awesome surprise endings this one was just kind of, eh... Next week's looks exciting though!

4.4: Eggtown

Ok, looks like ya'll are still interested, so let the blogging continue! :) This episode was AWESOME, for those who haven't seen it you prob shouldn't read this post because there will be SPOILERS and you don't want to miss the fun of being shocked!

I laugh at myself because I think I react to the surprises exactly like the writers intend. The first shock was the flashfoward of Kate where she demands her trial lawyer not use her son in the courtroom to gain sympathy. That made me sit up straight as my eyes widened questioning "what son??" I figured she must have had a kid we didn't know about before the crash, then it became clear that they were steering us toward believing she and Sawyer had a baby. To build character they had Jack testify on her behalf, which wasn't a huge surprise, but the boldface lie he told on the stand was. He lied about Kate nursing them back to health to make her look good, but why did he say they crashed in the water and only 8 people survived? We figure he doesn't want to visit her "baby" because he doesn't want to be reminded of her and Sawyer, but the last scene of the episode turns that around when we realize this "baby" is much older than we figured and says "hi mommy" to which she replies "hi Aaron." ... This led me to one conclusion: that something happens to Claire on the island, which is too painful for Jack to confront, and she makes Kate Aaron's legal guardian. It also took me back to last season's finale where she says to Jack that "he'll be wondering where I am." I figured she meant Sawyer or whatever guy she was with, but now I think she was referring to Aaron.

Some interesting thoughts to chew over, one of my coworkers (who I'll call CS) pointed out that all the flashforwards we've seen have shown the losties in their worst nightmares. Jack becomes a drunk just like his father, Hurley goes back to the nutter house where he swore he'd never go, Sayid becomes a killer which he never wanted to do in the military, and Kate gets stuck in one place for 10 years on probation and is a mother when we know she liked to move around and had no motherly intentions when talking to Claire. Speaking of which, do you think Aaron is considered one of the Oceanic 6 even though he wasn't born until after the crash? Also, the psychic told Claire she has to raise the child or there will be some nasty consequences, so what happens to him now that Kate is raising him? Lastly, what happened to Sayid and the helicopter??

Still interested?

Hey all,
I'm really enjoying this season of Lost and would love to hear everyone's ideas and theories, but this blog hasn't been getting much action lately. If you're all still interested in weekly recaps please let me know. Thanks!
-SRG

4.3: The Economist

I didn't get to watch this eppy until last night. I was told by friends it was a shocker, and they were damn right! In addition to a short recap (I'm assuming ya'll have seen it), let's talk about what we know so far and what new questions this episode raised.

In this episode's opening it looks like Sayid maybe got lucky in his fate, as we see him well dressed and playing at an exclusive golf club. We soon learn that he's not there for fun, but to murder a fellow player, a man somehow associated w/ the Oceanic crash. He's become some sort of hitman and we have no idea why or who he's working for.

Back on the island, part of Jack's crew goes to the Others' Barracks to get back Charlotte. Among other things, Sayid finds a hidden room in Ben's house with a bunch of passports and clothes. He and Kate are tricked into becoming hostages of Locke, though Sayid convinces Locke to let him and Charlotte go by giving him Miles for questioning. All the while Dan performs some strange experiment with the offshore freighter people, who launch a torpedo-looking thing right to their location. On the ship they read that it reaches them way before they receive it, and when they finally do the clock inside is a half hour ahead of the one Dan has. When Sayid returns w/ Charlotte, the pilot agrees to fly him, Desmond and Naomi's body back to the freighter. In the flash forward we see Sayid, who was shot by his lover while using her to get to her boss, stumble into an operating room. We hear the doctor's voice who's taking care of him, and eventually shockingly recognize him as Ben. Sayid says "they know I'm coming after them now" to which Ben replies "good."

OK, now for the questions/theories, etc! We now know 4 (or maybe 5?) identities of the rescued, and ill fated, "Oceanic 6."
1. Jack
2. Kate
3. Hurley
4. Sayid
5. Ben?
I question whether Ben is part of the 6 because he technically was not on the Oceanic flight. My theory is that he somehow gets off the island secretly and we still have two more 815 survivors that will also make it off. The odd thing is that Ben now comes off as some sort of a "good guy" and Sayid is killing these people to protect "them" who I'm assuming is the rest of the Oceanic 6. I also wonder how the bracelets come into play that both Naomi and Elsa were wearing...they somehow associate them w/ whoever Sayid/Ben are killing off.

On another note, it looks like the island is in some strange time dimension according to Dan's experiment. Why did the launch show up a half hour after it was recorded as landed? What other questions did you guys come up w/?

Woohoo!

I just heard on the radio this morning that the writer's strike is over, yay for a full season of Lost!! :)

4.2: Confirmed Dead

I have to give props to the writers of Lost. It amazes me how every season they come up w/ different ways to introduce new characters. In "Confirmed Dead," we get a unique glimpse at the not-so-distant past of four people as they find out about the discovery of Oceanic 815 under water with ALL passengers confirmed dead. These four people; Dan - a not-so-stable physicist, Miles - a communicator with the dead, Charlotte - an anthropologist who finds a polar bear skeleton in the desert w/ a Dharma Hydra collar, and Frank - a pilot who was supposed to have been on 815, all somehow end up on a mission to the island with Naomi, and we learn rescuing any 815 survivors is not their primary objective.

Jack and Kate happen upon the first of the quartet after their helicopter is hit by lightening and they parachute out over different parts of the island. Dan is wishy-washy to say the least about why he's there, and they get suspicious after they see he has a gun tucked in his belt. When they find Miles he's immediately hostile, pulling his gun on them and demanding to see Naomi's body to confirm Jack and Kate's story that they didn't kill her. Sayid and Juliette meet up w/ them in the forest, and they all find Frank...along w/ his undamaged helicopter. Frank realizes that Juliette wasn't part of the 815 flight roster and IDs her as a "native." This prompts immediate anger from Miles who demands she tell them where "he" is and shoves a photo of Ben in her face, thus explaining their true purpose in coming to the island.

Locke and his crew find Charlotte, who's quite friendly at first, but after realizing they don't want to be found she tries to run and Ben, who stole Karl's gun, shoots her twice in the chest. She survives since she had on a bullet proof vest, but Ben's attempt on her life confirms to the rest of the group that it's time to take him out. Locke is poised for the execution, and Ben in desperation, starts rattling off Charlotte's life story to the shock of everyone. He says he knows they're there for him, and explains his knowledge comes from his "man" on their boat.

So one big question is how could all the passengers from 815 be confirmed dead when we know for a fact many survived? Why was there a body in the pilot's seat that Frank identified as NOT being the pilot? Why have these people come for Ben, and is rescue a reality now that they have a working helicopter? Do we even want to see them rescued when we've had glimpses at their somber futures?

4.1: The Beginning of the End

Welcome to season 4 my friends! So who else was pissed at ABC for flat out lying about a "2-hour premiere?" Alright, now that I have that off my back, let's get to it. As many suspected, it looks like season 4 is going to show us flash-forwards of the Losties instead of flashbacks. This time we see Hurley's fate, where he's haunted by Charlie's ghost and perfectly happy to be back in the nut-house. One thing that struck me was when he was arrested he kept saying "don't you know who I am? I'm one of the Oceanic 6!" So this begs the question, who, other than Jack and Kate, are the other 3 that were rescued? What happened to the rest of them?? Charlie tries to convince Hurley "they need him" but we don't know who he's talking about and what they need from him, and when Jack visits him he asks if he's going to "tell", again we don't know what. Nothing like starting out a season w/ a handful of more mysteries to wonder about.

Back on the island, the Not-Penny's-Boat people are on their way to "rescue" everyone, but it's obvious there's something else going on. Hurley gets lost in the jungle and happens upon Jacob's house and a creepy-as-hell scene where the house appears no matter where he goes and Locke finds him. Locke is able to convince many of them that they are in danger from the boat folk, but Jack and Kate stick it out by the plane wreckage long enough to hear a helicopter fly over and encounter a parachuter who IDs Jack. Who are these people and what do they want? The next episode is called "Confirmed Dead" which is quite foreboding, any predictions?