I mean Dude can really see Dead people (Charlie, Eko, Anna Lucia, Jacob, Isobella maybe Yemi?).

While he was in the Psyche Ward, I thought he was just seeing things in his mind or perhaps the Island was showing him want it wanted him to see.

Now I firmly believe Hurley’s gift is “Dude Can See Dead People”

On a related but seperate note, if we assume MIB Scanned Ricardo and presented Isobella on the black rock (which I think is a first because most of MIB’s body take overs were of dead people on the island)…How was Hurley able to see Isobella on the Island if she had never been there before???

As for the story…first 1/2 hour was a bit slow for me considering we pretty much knew he was a slave on the black rock.

My hope and expectations were that they would do Richards back story of how he got to the Island quick (like Jacob at the end quickly wrapping up the Cork keeping evil on the island).

The story I was hoping to see was Richards timeline on the Island. We could have found out how the orginal others got to the island (did any blackrock people survive smokey), When and how Hanso got the Dharma people here. Why Richard endorsed Ben in Killing DharmaVille. Where the Temple Other came from. And as always more secrets of the Island. I thought Richard had the opportunity to have the most unique Island Centric story that would have answered a lot of questions about what happened since 1867.

But with that Pet Peeve, Good Episode, Out of this World Acting by Nestor. Heck, even the Real MIB this was the first time I got to see how creepy with his facial expressions and how good of an actor he is. Ashame Locke is getting all the Smoke time as the Original MIB is Great Also.

Either their choice was to dispose of the intercut time period structure they’ve had since the first season, or to try something different with it — the sideways timeline seems intriguing given the role that choice has had within the show, and seeing versions of the characters who made different choices in their lives has been satisfying for me as a viewer. It gives some sort of closure to the characters’ backstories to see Jack get over his daddy issues with his sideways-son, or Sawyer choosing to be a cop rather than a con man.

Now, execution is a whole other matter and I suspect many fans have a problem with that, but I think the sideways timeline idea is the perfect way to end out the series. IMHO, of course.

I actually love the sideways stories, much more than the flashforwards. Partially, I enjoy the game of figuring out which former castmember is going to show up in a cameo role, but also because it throws much of the established character background out the window and provides a new, interesting reconfiguration of the same people. I’m not sure how it’s going to end up, but I’m enjoying the ride immensely so far.

The scenes of Richard in chains dragged on a bit, but maybe that’s the point? There was a real “No Exit” feel to those scenes that helped sell the idea of Hell. So I’ll second Sean’s final par. there

One thing that dawned on me when rewatching this morning was that the manipulation of Richard might have gone much deeper than we realized. Still unresolved is how Richard communicated with Jacob during the 130 or so years between his first arrival and the Oceanics’ arrival. We know of the way that Ben (supposedly) communicated with Jacob — using the cabin, which was created by Horace post-1974 or so — and it doesn’t seem that Richard found that method to be particularly troubling. So, it looks, perhaps, like Richard was also duped by The Man in Black throughout the period that Ben was being manipulated by The Man in Black.

I wonder if this goes a long way toward explaining the Ben/Widmore conflict, as well as the real reason the Dharma Initiative was there. Widmore’s back, and setting up a sonic fence, so it seems clear he’s not in with Smokey — Ben was manipulated by Smokey during his time as leader of the Others (with, apparently, Richard in tow). If Widmore’s banishment from the island had to do with his discovery that Ben was actually working for Smokey rather than the Others, perhaps this makes Dharma’s role clearer: they were ultimately Jacob’s people, up to … something? We know that Jacob manipulated the Black Rock to come to the island (Captain Magnus Hanso), so maybe the link is now staring us in the face — his great-grandson Alvar Hanso’s Dharma Initiative was similarly manipulated/employed by Jacob. Who Widmore may be working with now.

With this said, then perhaps Ilana and her people have some link to the Dharma Initiative we’ll see in coming weeks. The “pieces” on the “board” of the game are clearly being organized for some big confrontation, and I suspect there will be some revelations soon that will unify a number of these strands.

Just more thoughts, thanks for indulging me. 🙂

This is one of my favorite two or three episodes of the series, and I think we got a fair amount of backstory here, I just fear that we’ve been so inured with the idea that nothing is what it seems that once we start getting unequivocal explanations, we’re prone to be suspicious of them. For now, I’m along for the ride and taking Jacob’s explanation quite literally — Smokey bad, island cork, Losties need to make the right decisions. The most intriguing thing for me was Smokey’s claim that he “took my body” — this immediately made me wonder if Jacob’s body was actually originally Smokey’s? This two-Aaron theory I’ve had could fit this, with this being both Aarons struggling over the same body (note, we did see the sideways timeline Aaron wink out of existence for a brief time during Ethan’s examination in “What Kate Does.”)

Great acting, great pacing, great writing, great episode.

As for my questions – no regrets, as we didn’t really talk about plot or current story issues. I didn’t want to brush up against spoilers (which they wouldn’t have provided, but it would have stalled the conversation). Gregg was definitely intrigued by my take on why fans have been lukewarm on the sideways stories though…