I had the same reaction about the timeline, but the truth is we don't know how much time passed between Locke's meeting with Jack and his suicide attempt. His leg had healed enough to climb on top of a desk, so it should have been enough time for Jack to buy a fake shitty beard and some spirit gum.

One of them works for Widmore, the other one works for Ben. That's how the game is played.

In Evanston, Illinois, I once partook of the Margarita European Inn. You don't even need to blow out any letters.

The O6 get raptured off of the plane. They each are reborn in a pool of water, except Jack, who wakes up in a crucifix pose. That's probably Christian enough right there. Giving Locke thirty pieces of silver would've been pushing it.

Ben and Widmore are both evil, and they were both trying to help Locke return to the island, for the same reason: to ride in on his slipstream. I think Ben killed Locke because (a) he got all the information he needed out of him, and (b) Locke is much easier to manage as a corpse. A lot less whining, too.

What I expected to hear at the gravesite
Abbadon: Helen? She's an old maid, she never married.
Locke: WHERE IS SHE?
Abbadon: She's about to close up the library!
Locke: Nooooooooooooooo!

Drool at the prospect
When I first saw this 10 years ago, Kate Winslet looked uncannily like my fiancee (now my wife).

Y'know, Charlotte could have learned Korean by just going to school. I hear they also teach anthropology there.

And their villainous foil was, of course, The Taint.

I'd also like to point out to myself that DVD menus aren't made of plastic, so maybe I'd like to find a better place to discuss them.

How about long DVD menu animations that contain SPOILERS? I wanted to blow my 14-year-old nephew's mind by showing him Barton Fink. I pop in the DVD, and the first thing he sees is John Goodman screaming and a lot of fire. Whoever designed that, I'd like to show him the life of the mind.

Poor Locke
I think this episode has set up the possibility that Locke was never meant to be the leader of the Others. He plants the notion in Richard's head in 1954; the notion is reinforced when Richard sees Locke's birth two years later, as Locke predicted; Richard administers young Locke the test, and Locke fails,…