I think Desmond did believe that following the flash exactly would bring him Penny.

Ben throws in the tease of Juliet's sister supposedly surviving cancer again, and having a son.

Ooh, this episode. We really start ramping up the Juliet story, and while LOST ultimately dropped the ball with characters like Juliet and Sun, this part of Juliet's arc is glorious.

Aw, nice link: too bad Hurley's not on the list. On the other hand, maybe it's better that the Island just sinks out of view of public consciousness?

It's not enough for Locke to have this gift that the Island has given him, he needs to share it with a community. But no one has come around to his line of thinking so far…

Oh, I'm so behind here.

Oh, this episode. So intriguing at first (beef in the fridge! cattle! horses! a snotty computer that cheats!) but in the grand scheme didn't do much. Blowing up the Flame was bad enough, but killing off Bea Klugh, just ugh.

watching these episodes also reminds me how much Kate is a part of it.

Re: Hurley's wealth, didn't he give it to his parents?

many of our fellow Lost fans saw this as his and the show's low point.

It's a copy in the same sense that the cookie-slave in White Christmas was a copy.

Sooner or later the machines will indeed "go dark."

I did think about the "cookie slaves" in White Christmas as well.

Greg was pure gold.

I think that happens in Stephen King's "Rose Madder" as well.

That was the impression I got, too; that he never even got to the simulation part. He brain-fried 0.04 seconds into it.

I definitely got future-romance vibes too. The guy in the other cell was clearly Lacie's type. ;-)

They were playing a game, in a sense: the first game that perhaps either of them had played in a long time, for their own genuine enjoyment rather than for social-media points. Notice that in the very last shot of Lacie's face, she's smiling.

It really was clever that neither of them stooped to racism or sexism. Very well played.

This is exactly it! The episode reminded me a lot of Babylon 5's "Passing Through Gesthemane," where the mind-wiped murderer doesn't even remember his crime, yet is targeted anyway purely for revenge.