Oh, yes, you've got Kate down pat. Good pick.

A powerful elegy, and a great pick.

You're right; the ones you mentioned are the only parents.

Ben is definitely coming around to some grudging respect. For instance, he chastises Jill for her smart remark about bribing Jack with pills.

a guy getting so lonely, he gets sick. … There could be a shelf life to ruling the Island

Hurley: He's "the guy who isn't even in the game," the game in this case being the two thousand year old wrangling between Jacob and his brother. Outside of one unexplainable assault by MiB (in "Dave"), he's largely untouched. Rousseau's traps don't go off under his feet. The bridge holds him. He makes it back…

Poor Sun. She knows she's having a bad time just a few weeks in, when she has that dismal conversation with Shannon and Claire in the caves, and believes that fate (karma, actually) is punishing her.

Yup, diagetic music is what the characters hear, as opposed to soundtrack, which is what we hear as background.

Naw, I didn't think you were shipping Hurley/Claire. ;-)

I wouldn't go so far as to say all conmen are sociopaths. More likely I'd say that Ethan's childhood was a nightmare, and that it scarred him for life.

"Shambala" is a slightly happier moment to me, because it signifies that things are getting better not just for him, but for everyone

Double posting because I want to talk about Ethan separately.

Oh, that deleted scene, "Claire's Vision." I love it so much, and hate that it got left out. You're right that Hurley's "seems like heaven" in "Something Nice Back Home" resonates more in light of "Claire's Vision."

I really don't get "Kate hate." She's critically important in the story; like Jack she book-ends the beginning and the end of the series, and Jack and Kate are practically joined at the hip narratively. Have tastes in female characters really changed that much since 2004?

I'm torn about the mobisodes. Unlike deleted scenes, they're canon, yet like you I don't feel that some of them add very much, while some deleted scenes (in my view) really needed to be included. For instance, most of Claire's characterization wound up on the cutting room floor.

It's taking me a long time to work my way through the soundtrack. I will always associate "Moving On" with Jack, because it's his death theme. In the part of "Moving On" where Jack is walking through the jungle, there's this piano base line that seems to go right along with his footsteps, and then it slows down a…

Some more random thoughts on the titles you mentioned.

Faith is a huge theme in LOST. Locke's faith is esoteric, based on secrecy and hidden "knowledge." Like many who delve unprepared into hidden mysteries, he ultimately gets burned (think "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" with a much worse outcome.) There really are dark forces out there, but Locke is fascinated with their…

Given that Locke and Cooper would have both been DNA- and tissue-tested for the kidney transplant, it's probably safe to say that Cooper is Locke's bio-dad.

What a coincidence, I just put all the LOST CDs onto my laptop, and am making playlists, starting with Hurley's music, as well as one for writing. Will come back and edit this when I get more time. What a great topic.