One Guy's Down the Home Stretch

Staying with the now popular bullet/list form.

1. The wound on Jack's neck is likely a knife wound from... Smokey?

2. So Hurley, Sayid, Kate, Des, Sawyer, Miles, Widmore, Faraday, Charlotte, and Ellie will all be at the concert together. Ben is island aware. Does Locke become island aware when he can walk? How Does Jack intend to do that surgery in adequate time? Or is Jack really supposed to kill him on the surgical table instead?

3. "It's just a chalk line." Really Jacob? Did you say that to Kate just so she didnt think she was worthless? Or was it emblematic of those who find a purpose that is bigger than the island to them not being likely to take the reins? I vote 49/51.

4. Is Ben really that greedy and worthless? I say no. His redemptive arc in sideways land is too fruitful (getting with Rousseau!?!?!) for him to be totally diverging from it in island land- I think he's playing Smokey. Whether he is able to pull off whatever he's doing or not is a separate issue- here he's situated to get his wish- he can finally be a legitimate steward of the island. Jack will talk to him. Yay. But..will Jack really transfer the power to Ben? Perhaps Jack's tenure is to be brief. Ben truly does want to run the island, so maybe he is the guy for the job but....he's really an (amazingly acted) offensively evil character. TBD.

5. Did anyone else find the Jacob interaction with Kate/Jack/Hurley/Sawyer to be hilarious in that weird Lost Funny way? Awkward...

6. "Now you are like me." What the heck does that mean? Can Jack now grant unending life? It seems that he can find the source of the Light....and what else does "like me" mean? Can he make rules? What is the extent of the rulemaking power?

7. Did Jack really have a choice, or was Jack compelled? I could talk or write about this for a day...or 2.

8. Again, great nuanced acting by Ben. I enjoyed how he conceeded that the Smoke Monster was playing him "it was actually summoning me" while he was running the others and living in the Dharma burbs. Did Dharma know this too? Kinda puts them at cross-purposes- they have him gated out but can summon him? I can't really reconcile this.... There's more to be discussed here. Still, glad to see Ben & Locke back together, even if the dynamic is again, flipped on its ear.

9. Kinda an inauspicious end to Alpert, huh? Think he's dead? I say no.

10. I kinda thought Zoe was pretty pointless too. Was that more than a wink/nod from the writers? Perhaps there is something to the "you have to talk to Locke" for him to wield his power over you. Was this a hint? Will one of our characters be deafened and thus impervious to Locke?

11. What's Widmore whispering? How does Des serve as a failsafe? Maybe he is to be an anti- smokemonster by entering the Light/Source or maybe he is going to the Orchid to destroy the Island... Either seems plausible.

12. If Sayid said that Des was left in a well that they'd never seen before and sent Jack & Crew to find him, who threw him the rope that would allow his escape?

That's all for now...
-D