I loved the original scene–the rustling jungle, the snapping trees, the mechanical fifties-style “work break” whistle!

An easter egg I noticed: Hurley’s vision of Charlie swimming towards him ended with “They need you” written on Charlie’s open hand. (Clean-shaven Charlie said this to Hurley later).

Maybe someone could list the apparitions. Those I recall were on balance neutral: Jack’s father, Kate’s Horse, Walt, Hurley’s imaginary friend. OK, Locke’s father was not very neutral.

Have the apparitions served as lightning rods for our friends to release/overcome their sadness, fear, anger, betrayal, shame?

This week’s clip show narrator (Michael Emerson/Ben) confirmed that the island is a catalyst for our friends to confront unresolved issues.

To what end?

That doesn’t look like a human’s shadow. It looks like it is smokey. A quick wikipedia search shows that the word Abaddon is a version of the Hebrew word Avaddon, meaning “destruction”. Smoke Monster has caused its fair share of destruction. It would also explain Charlie as we have been given hints that the hallucinations happening on the island may be manifestations of the monster and with these island hallucinations more then one person can see them (ex the horse that both Kate and Sawyer saw) and they can also be felt, it would explain why the other mental patient was able to see Charlie. Could it be possible that whatever happened on the island caused the smoke monster to somehow escape the island?

Why did Locke apparently look smokey (”the island” he later says) in the eye?

Why was Ekko able to look at smokey once, but then later was killed? (He struck me as the only one to resolve his past.)

Why was Walt released? (If he truly was.) Could he channel the island’s power? Was he a threat to it? Did he come under its control?

Minutia like the white and black rocks (Season 1) may never be explained, but see a great symmetry in the story arc. Vic, I think a pivotal episode title answers your concern: Man of Science, Man of Faith. I think the show is a Mobius Strip of science fiction AND metaphysics.

Our friends have either tapped into, or have been victims of, this power. Characters from conflicted pasts materialize.

What do you do with a force that translates emotional energy into reality? The same thing Vulcans do with emotion. Harness it, isolate it, disable it. And if you have any sense, you HIDE it. (I think Ben is sincere about that, if nothing else.)

I’m just dissing it to lightin up things. Nothing personal.
(Don’t get me wrong I hate it) but ya know.
^
We all have our fav’s.
Hell I like Star Trek Voyager too.
And I own the Star Trek Nemesis dvd.

aaaaauuuuuuhhhhhh.

Plus, I recall hearing JJ Abrams say there is a definite end for the show on Opie & Anthony.

Either Charlie is a ghost, the mental patient was another delusion of Hurley’s which is why he saw Charlie or ol’ smoky is able to leave the island now.

And the preview indicted that the next episode will bring some people from the freighter to the island.

“I’m sure if they (the producers) don’t see cancellation coming the fans won’t get any closure.”
Yes, that’s why they’re finishing the show up in 3 more seasons. They aren’t going to come up with an ending, in that time frame.

For those who didn’t like Cloverfield because of it’s apparent incompleteness, welcome to Lost where the fabric of the story is slow-woven and the picture appears not sequentially, but as you stand back from it…and maybe blur your eyes just a bit. Then come back close and notice the little details. Like Jack’s tattoos.

I want to know this: What would ever happen to kind-hearted Hurley to turn him into the kind of guy ignore the calls of his friends (”They need you”)?

While I recognize the appeal, that is exactly what turns me off about the show. I watch more because I don’t want to miss something good than because I enjoy it.

Vic