"I doubt Noah's jealousy will ever abate, but Alison could've shot back at Noah's crass "Are you fucking him again?"…"

Lindsay's reaction to being in the sidecar was also a callback to a conversation she and Edgar had last season about whether they exist only as Gretchen and Jimmy's sidekicks. She said, "If I’m on a motorcycle, I’m driving the motorcycle, not riding in that shitty side motorcycle thingie for poor people and dogs."

"The scene was a little surreal but given that the show might not get renewed it was probably deemed a nice shot to end things on if it wasn't."

Well as I mentioned, I didn't read it that way when I was watching it (although it did cross my mind that Kevin might die yet again during that final earthquake), but it was a little surreal when he entered the house and *every* single person that he cared about was gathered there waiting for him.

Overall, I think it was rather a lose-lose situation for Lindelof & Co. Bringing it up at that moment and place felt rushed and, as you wrote, a little like pandering - yet if they hadn't, many viewers would likely be complaining that Mary woke up but the "rape" was ignored.

" I found the very concise disclosure to smell a little too much like pandering to the audience, which is out of character with the rest of the show."

One interpretation could be that he bled out in the health clinic and only imagined John coming in to help him and get him home. It's not how I read it - but I can see how others might.

IIRC, last season his Dad was telling him that he was getting secret messages via National Geographic (that issue in particular). He took it away from his Dad and threw it in the trash.

Yep.

…and I was tempted to continue the "comparison" all the way up until he finally puts on clothes, but I thought that was probably overdoing it!

Here ya go:

That's true - and John's reaction to Kevin bringing up the "incident" made it seem as if there might be more to the story than originally seemed. I suppose we'll only find out if there is a 3rd season,

Yes, it was finally revealed in this ep. that he is, in fact, Erika's father - but they haven't fully explained what he did in the show yet (and Lindelof wouldn't clarify it in interviews since, if the show is renewed, it will be an avenue of further exploration). But Virgil used a male pronoun when referring to the…

B-?

While watching the finale, I recognized that Lindelof & Co. had reused the same footage of Kevin's "entrance" into the Underworld/Afterlife Hotel, and I appreciated the conceptual underpinnings - i.e. the notion that his second "death" begins as an exact repeat of the first: working both as metaphor and as…

Why do you think I put the phrase in quotes?

Yes it was.

"Celluloid - something to refashion Abby's nose?"

Yep, I did a double-take when I recognized Norton. He was so subdued he was almost unrecognizable :)

"I keep seeing commercials on my TV for a hypnotherapy clinic; I don't know why it's not used more often since it seems to be helpful for things like addiction (ding!) and weight loss."