It's the depiction of Smokey by the Egyptians that got me thinking! (And then I totally neglected to mention it, ugh.) If the story is a series of repeating, revolving circles — and I really think it is — then there may well have been a little Apep and his mean mommy Hathor earlier in the island's history.

i have no clever subject woe
What if the smoke monster preceded everyone we've seen? That is, that the Island has always corked the monster at the same time that it has hidden the Magic Glowing Pool of Glowiness. The Smoke Monster did function, somehow, as a security system that the Others could summon. But when Ben…

@Zack Handlen: "reinforcing that the Jacob/MIB conflict is the same as most of the conflicts on the island—personal and deeply felt, with the worst choices often being made in the heat of the moment"
Really well-said. I was left gutted by the episode, by the fact that all this mythology and power came from petty…

The show concerns the life, the loves, and the sweet rustlin' chest hair of one Frank J. Lapidus.

And we're sending our love down the well…/All the way down!

I found Jack's "letting go" moment quite lovely. It elaborated on the changes he underwent in "Lighthouse" and while playing TNT roulette with Richard in that he explicitly invoked Juliet. To date, his moments of self-awareness have been solely centered on himself, but last night he changed that — and again when he…

My silly theory that Smokey is stuck in Locke's body in LA_X — a theory based entirely flimsily on the weirdness in "The Substitute" (Locke's pleased grin at meeting Ben) and "Dr. Linus" (Locke nudging Ben to stage a high-school coup) — got revived when Desmond ran him down.

I'm baffled why the existence of strong visual throughlines — in a visually-told story! — would in any way be "repugnant".

looking glasses aplenty
You know what I loved a lot? Not as much as DESMOND OMG, but — all the mirrored-doubling stuff going down. The episode starts with Des's eye, but it's the left, not the right one that's usual. Sometimes Desmond gets in the righthand side of the limo, as when not!Faraday taps on the window, but…

@istakirish: And the Island is somehow connected to multiple universes at once….
That would work with the various Dark Tower references and influences: the Island is at the hub/nexus of various universes.

I think it might be a mistake to talk about "Island Eloise" vs. "Sideways Eloise"; it seems weirdly possible, given her omniscience and role as time-cop (self-appointed?), that there's just one Eloise, and she's playing different roles in different realities. Kind of like The Others dressing up for the Losties'…

I keep thinking that the MiB might be in Locke's body in the flash-sideways. The only reason I have for this — and it's a damn flimsy one — is that creepy-ass smile he wears after meeting Ben for the first time (and then, in "Dr. Linus", his weird temptation of Ben re: taking the principal's job).

The rampaging, human-corpse-eating boar made him drop the nail. It was useful before that.