It seems that Hydra Island is playing a larger role in the finale than I had ever considered. I'd pretty much forgotten about that second island.

Now it seems that the forces for good are gathering on Hydra. With Richard Alpert leading them it seems that Richard, Jack, Ben, Illana, Sun, Hurley, Lapidus, and Miles are all heading to Hydra. Jin is already there, as is Desmond. Sayid may stick around Hydra though we don't know yet. All we need is Sawyer and Kate and the mix is complete.

I'm going back to an old idea of mine, one that I've harbored since it was first mentioned ever so briefly in Season Three in the first of Ben's flashback stories. I still think that the currently dormant volcano that exists on the larger Island will play a large role in the finale.

I suspect the geography of the Island will become paramount in the next few episodes. The geophysicist showed Jin a map with electromagnetic pockets notated. Combine those electromagnetic pockets with a volcanic erruption, and you've got a mightly big force, one that could decimate the entire Island, or, kill, main, or do away with a lot of bad guys.

We don't know how the MIB can be killed or if he can be killed. If he is the embodiment of evil on Earth, perhaps he can't be killed, but just contained. We must have dark to balance light; they can't exist without the other.

So what is to be done with the MIB? Keep him on the Island is all that we've heard so far. Not kill him; not do away with him; just contain him. But how do you do that? I don't know, I just keep coming back to the volcano, which no one even thinks about or mentions except for that one brief moment years ago.

When Jack was talking with Sun and asking "Do you trust me?". He also promised to reunite her and Jin and get them off the island and held out his hand. He was acting very "Jacob-like". As much as I don't really like Jack I think he will be Jacob's replacement. I really liked this episode. Plenty of excitement!

When Jack was talking with Sun and asking "Do you trust me?". He also promised to reunite her and Jin and get them off the island and held out his hand. He was acting very "Jacob-like"....

I agree. There was a whole lot of shakin' goin' on. Locke was also doing that with Sun, extending his handing and wanting her to take it. Then she turned and ran. I was so proud of her.

In fact, MIB Locke likes to touch people, where the old Locke seldom did.

I found it interesting that after Sun got knocked unconscious, she could only speak Korean. Is she a bridge to the flash sideways world?

So what is to be done with the MIB? Keep him on the Island is all that we've heard so far. Not kill him; not do away with him; just contain him. But how do you do that? I don't know, I just keep coming back to the volcano, which no one even thinks about or mentions except for that one brief moment years ago.

The MIB is hardly the omnipotent badass that I had him figured for. I wonder if the longer he stays in Locke form the more he will become like Locke. Did you see the look on his face when he returned to the camp and saw everyone unconscious? Those are real human emotions he's demonstrating. He was aghast. Also a few episodes back the apparition of the little boy told him something he didn't like and he screamed " Don't tell me what I can't do!", a pure Lockism. He's not coming off as evil to me. Is it posible we have it backwards and Jacob is the evil one? Besides what we've heard from the Jacob camp what do we know about him? Not much.

Thinking back to last season, how was Ben able to summon the smoke monster when Keamy killed his daughter? It's not like they were playing for the same team. Is it possible Jacob can do the smoke monster act as well?

Thinking back to last season, how was Ben able to summon the smoke monster when Keamy killed his daughter? It's not like they were playing for the same team. Is it possible Jacob can do the smoke monster act as well?

I believe Jacob can be manipulative, I don't see him as malevolent.

I knew as soon as I saw the locked and protected door on the sub that dear old Desmond would be making an appearance soon, seemingly against his will.

I suspected as much also, but I've been surprised by so many things on this show that I don't give my suspicions much credit most of the time.

Desmond is special. "The rules don't apply to you," was Daniel Farraday's statement to Desmond. Because we were so focused at that time on time travel, it seemed to refer solely to Desmond's facility with time. However, on this show, it could also be that "the rules" could mean something bigger, something including time travel but perhaps not limited to that. I've always felt that Desmond was key to the Island, perhaps THE key.

It could be something bigger... or maybe that would be taking it too far. Sometimes it seems the writers go way out there and other times they just don't. Sometimes they say "dead is dead" or "whatever happened, happened."

I agree that Desmond may be THE key, though. Whatever is coming, I think we can be pretty certain that Desmond will have a critical role in it.

If they didn't have their little baby girl, I might agree. But with a life on the outside, and with their marital relationship playing so large in the LOST scenario, I have to think they will get off the Island to resume a happy life together with their girl.

On the other hand, we had the flash sideways this week showing an unmarried Jin and Sun with Sun in danger of losing her baby. So what does that mean?

Yeah, I don't really think Jin or Sun will be the new Jacob. I've just always though it would be neat if the number 42 was significant in the final outcome - a nod to Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which the meaning of life is... 42.

I'm beginning to think that either Jin or Sun is not going to survive the coming battle, though I really hope they will get their happy ending.

Of course, I'm still holding out a little hope that Locke - the real Locke - can somehow come back. Like maybe a loophole in the loophole means he isn't really dead. *sigh* I suppose I can accept it if he really was the doomed, tragic figure he appears to be at this time, but that's awfully sad.

The MIB is hardly the omnipotent badass that I had him figured for. I wonder if the longer he stays in Locke form the more he will become like Locke. Did you see the look on his face when he returned to the camp and saw everyone unconscious? Those are real human emotions he's demonstrating. He was aghast. Also a few episodes back the apparition of the little boy told him something he didn't like and he screamed " Don't tell me what I can't do!", a pure Lockism. He's not coming off as evil to me. Is it posible we have it backwards and Jacob is the evil one? Besides what we've heard from the Jacob camp what do we know about him? Not much.

And what about the extermination of all the Dharma people? Wasn't it "Jacob's people" who did that? Yes, it was. So what does that tell us about Jacob? At best, he was indifferent to that small-scale genocide.

I'm also not completely convinced that Jacob is the good guy and MIB the bad guy. I'm just waiting to see if we learn anything more about them before I make up my mind (if I ever do).

Thinking back to last season, how was Ben able to summon the smoke monster when Keamy killed his daughter? It's not like they were playing for the same team. Is it possible Jacob can do the smoke monster act as well?

Or is it possible that Ben thought he was listening to Jacob when it was actually MIB pretending to be Jacob all along? If that's true, then I have to feel sorry for Ben. Maybe he should have known better, or guessed, but we've seen how convincing MIB can be, so it's easy to see how he could have been misled.

I've read a number of books, heavens knows, FPW's among them, in which the underlying theory is that a big battle is being waged "out there" among the cosmos, and one of the key pieces of real estate being fought over is Earth. In some books, Earth is important because free will is always in play here.

While good or evil influences people on this planet, the ultimate choice of what each and every one of us does is up to us. We make the choice. No one ever MAKES anyone do anything. Thinking that way, that someone else made me do something, relinquishes any responsibility and assigns a greater power to another entity, whether it's your brother, father, mother, friend, or a smoke monster.

I believe that's the truth, that we are the captains of our own ship. I also believe that is a major theory in LOST.

While the MIB may be the embodiment of evil and Jacob may be leaning towards the light, I think they are more colored than just black and white.

MIB seems to me to be an entity solely out for himself. He is the embodiment of selfishness, and perhaps out of not giving a hoot and a hoorah for his fellow man comes ... evil. He can be called upon to take down the Frieghties, for instance, because it's something he likes doing, rather than doing it because it's helping Ben.

Jacob is someone who believes in the innate ability of man to make good choices. He's been around long enough to know that is often not the way it turns out. That's why he jumped at the chance to have Richard Alpert work with him because he, Jacob, cannot directly influence anyone. That seems to be one of the rules. Richard told Jacob if you don't get involved with them (men) then he (MIB) will.

It could be that Earth is a testing ground for free will. If left to their own choices, will mankind make choices to enhance the greater good or enhance their own agendas. The first conversation we saw between Jacob and MIB was about that. Jacob keeps wanting to give mankind another chance. MIB is convinced mankind is inherently up to no good.

So, with all this goodness and badness and free will being bandied about we still have some god awful things that have happened on the Island under the realm of Jacob, the Dharma Purge being primary. Did Jacob give the OK for that? Richard Alpert helped Ben achieve Ben's goal, that is, to become king of the hill and, also, kill his father. So does that mean the Purge had Jacob's tacit approval? Or was Jacob sitting back, spinning yarn, allowing man (Ben) to make his own choices, whether for the greater good or for himself. I think yes, that Jacob does sit back and watch things unfold after he has attempted to give guidance.

I think, as FPW has written and others, too, that these major forces at play trying to "win" this planet are not directly involved in the lives of little earthlings. The force for darkness may not be truly evil but may be just looking out for its own interests. The force for the light may be indifferent to the outcome but hoping that mankind works for mankind as a whole and not for the individual.

Live together, die alone.

The MIB is hardly the omnipotent badass that I had him figured for.

If he was omnipotent, why would he be stuck on the Island forever? I never thought he was all powerful, just very powerful, and very conniving and manipulative.

I wonder if the longer he stays in Locke form the more he will become like Locke. Did you see the look on his face when he returned to the camp and saw everyone unconscious? Those are real human emotions he's demonstrating. He was aghast.

He was aghast, but I read that as fury, someone was interfering, SUCCESSFULLY, in his plans. He was mad as hell. I don't think he gave a rat's ass about whether people were hurt or not.

Also a few episodes back the apparition of the little boy told him something he didn't like and he screamed " Don't tell me what I can't do!", a pure Lockism.

Yes,that is a direct quote from Locke which we've heard on many occasions. He was the first to say it. But many others have stated it, too, among them Sayid and, I think, just about everyone on the show over the last 5+ years. It's almost a mantra with these very independent people.

He's not coming off as evil to me. Is it posible we have it backwards and Jacob is the evil one? Besides what we've heard from the Jacob camp what do we know about him? Not much.

On this show, flips like that are entirely possible. I guess time will tell.