• While most folks I know were very excited about finally seeing a Rousseau flashback, they seemed a bit disappointed that that was all we got. I can only wonder that we got anything at all. Just as most STAR WARS fans subconsciously reject the prequels because, really, STAR WARS doesn't start until Darth Vader shows up in the Tantive IV stepping over the dead bodies of his men... so, too, LOST doesn't really start until 815 crashes on the island. Sure, I guess, it's neat to know Boba Fett is a clone of his dad, who, in turn, is the initial template for the Imperial clonetroopers, but, you know, it's not necessary.

• And that's how I feel about Rousseau and her team. We didn't learn anything about 1988; at best, we just had things confirmed. The "crazy French woman" had seen and heard all of that crazy stuff; that the smoke monster was a security system for the Temple, one of her crew had his arm ripped off, that everyone came down with a "sickness" that made Donald Sutherland at the end of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS seem like a kindly old uncle. I particularly liked that she told Sayid that she had removed Robert's firing pin so he couldn't shoot her, and then four years later, audience-time, we see that play out. That's cool.

• I finally got a good look at what it said on the van that Sayid was driving last episode when Dan gave Ben the dope on Hurley (Sayid: "Who's that?" Ben: "That's my lawyer."): it said "Canton-Rainier Carpet Cleaners." Ever since that "Hoffs-Drawlor" funeral parlor thing, I've been looking out for anagrams, and "Canton-Rainier" is pretty clearly "reincarnation." Hopefully, that's just a joke what with them carrying Locke's body around and his eventual reanimation, and not some overt reference to all the spirituality going on in the show.

• Been thinking about the random Walt appearances throughout the show, his cryptic messages, his fluctuating size and height, and why the Island dismissed Michael and doesn't seem to need Walt back. In the second season, when Walt had been kidnapped by the Others for tests, they sent him time-travelling throughout the show to try to help where and when he could. That was his role, so the Island doesn't need him back. He's done what he came to do.

• And I don't think Faraday is his own father, and you should all be branded perverts for thinking so. Time-travel doesn't work that way on this show, anyhow. He's Charlotte's father. Duh.

• If anyone doesn't think that's Sawyer and Kate in the skeleton cave, I submit to you the difference between Sawyer from Season One and his complete distrust of everyone in general, the Season Two Sawyer who didn't much like Jin when in the Tailies' pit in particular, and the abject joy Season Five Sawyer had when he saw his friend Jin still alive. "Well, how about that!" That's a dude who now thinks nothing of jumping out of a failing helicopter to give his friends a few more minutes in the air to find safety, and will probably not even hesitate to stay behind to flip the switch that gets his friends all safely home.

• I really liked that the usually stoic, manipulative, unflappable Ben lost his temper this ep. Screeching the reincarnation van to a stop, he seems a little hurt that everyone wants to kill him all the damn time. "If you knew what I've done to keep you alive, you'd never stop thanking me." Respect!

• Jacob is Deadman from another dimension, able to use other people's bodies to communicate. So Jacob is Dead Jack's dad, and Dead Locke, soon. This show is just great.

• I also think that the drive for survival and food and even shelter is instinctual, because here's what my 19 month old son did all by himself, just before I wrote all this for you: