Man, that is a grim double feature.

He did seem to sober up pretty quick.
The turning point for Sawyer, for me, was in "A Shape of Things to Come." The survivors of the mercenary attack on Dharmaville are heading to the beach and Locke announces he and Ben are going to Jacob's cabin, and Hurley's coming, too, as he also saw it.
Sawyer angrily objects, but…

Smokie's reflection
I really, really loved that shot of Smokie outside Sawyer's house where we see it's reflection in the window.
Smokie always seemed like this rampaging behemoth in the early seasons but now we know he was skulking around, scanning, planning, weighing possibilities…

I thought it was supposed to be Smokie, hence the circle of ashes.

But if they were all candidates, why was Richard only sent to check on John at various points in his life. Was that just because John told him to? Was Richard acting independently of Jacob? That would actually fit with what we learned tonight, that Richard, too, was in the dark.

Oooooh, that's interesting, Slugworth. So now Blackie has to manipulate proceeding's so James becomes the protector.

Was anyone else moved at seeing a modern version of Locke that was actually happy (or close to)? That scene where Helen tears up Jack's card got me a bit misty.
And I ain't even drinkin!

"He broke the rules…"
I always thought Widmore's indirect killing of Alex represented some massive violation of cosmic proportions, but as the actual scale of the conflict ramps up, I'm starting to think it really was just a gentleman's agreement between Widmore and Ben. I can't see Jacob or Blackie giving two shits…

Well we don't know if the Ajira guys ash is the same stuff Ilana scooped up. Maybe real "Jacob dust" has even more powerful properties. Interesting idea, though. That actually lends credence to the thought that the kid is a newly reborn Jacob, ready to start the cycle again.

Last week there was a lot of speculation that the "infection" was Smokie's doing, but if that were the case then he wouldn't need to go around recruiting. Maybe the infection really does represent an as-yet unseen force, as was also suggested. The kid?

"Guess I better change my drawers."

Ben was only definitely on the island in the original timeline due to the intervention of the 06 and such. Without them, he likely never would have encountered the Others and could very well have been put on the sub.

Locke and his dad getting along would probably represent the most major shift in earth-2 we've seen yet.

"You can't kill him?"
Who, I wonder?
Sawyer?
Maybe it's one corpse to get on the island, and another to get off.

"…so what the hell, Kirk and a few of the guys beam down to check things out."
That's a pretty good description of Trek in general. Made me laugh, anyway.

Thunderdome!

Awright, awright…
Quit kidding around! What're you, a pair of comedians? Get back to work!

"Well I got a job at a grocery store to make some money and now here I am, 40 years later, completely unemployed."

I thought it was a natural progression for the character. It broke him out of his "I don't care about this job" mentality and forced him to take things seriously, for once, which was an interesting change. I'm curious to see if this will continue now that he's back as a salesman.

I think she's a fun addition to the show. I do think it's a bit of a stretch that the CEO would visit a branch for a day. Lord knows I've never seen my CEO in the flesh. Not entirely sure he actually exists.