I disagree, but I have similar feelings about Zuleikha Robinson that I do about Michelle Rodriguez, so… somewhat biased initial read.

Obviously, things like taking Yemi's form and how "Dead is Dead" play out certainly do work with MIB-as-Locke. But it is clear that somewhere around the Dead Is Dead to Follow The Leader area, plans changed. If nothing else, Dead Is Dead sets the chess pieces in motion for The Other Side Of the Outrigger Scene…

I really love how most of Season One is spent building up Locke's mystique— which "Walkabout" really only adds to— just to shatter it in "Deus ex Machina". They really did play up the Locke Is Mysterious And Wise stuff throughout.

Mostly I think "Some Like It Hoth" works best being able to tie directly into interaction with Chang, which would have been harder to do in Season 4.

According to Lostpedia, Cindy and the kids are still alive when Hurley takes over. As are the rest of the defected-Others who left the Temple.

And that fits, with Ethan being the last baby born on Island before Aaron.

Chronologically. The timing only works if Tom goes there between "Stranger" and "Par Avion" to recruit Michael.

To clarify, I thought I'd be bored in S1 and S2 because, in my memory, so much of what those episodes were involved revelations, and in knowing those already, it would just be a slog to get through it. But it really wasn't.

Interesting.

The Ajira folks who aren't Ilana definitely seemed like they were going to pay off better than they did…

The strangest thing about Colleen's death is how she tries to talk down Sun, saying, "I know you Sun-Hya Kwon, you're not a killer…" and I thought, "Man, has EVERYONE in the Others read EVERYONE'S file from the plane?"

That was in regard to the Freighter Captain, right? Yeah, that didn't pay off.

Well, true. But I found it hard to buy the spin of, "Yeah, she was always meant to die this season." Especially when one episode dispatches the two actors who both got a DWI on the same night.

Actually, the Keamy/Sayid fight pretty clearly goes to Keamy.

Definitely an episode that gives a sense that the Others have a very rigid structure of rules and rituals. Later episodes still address this, but never to that same degree or in a way that expands it any further.

Mostly I think it would have worked better that Eko-as-Bentham (or Umberto or what have you) as a Mysterious Person Who Said They Have To Go Back. Locke was too known to the Oceanic 6, so people referring to the new name in "No Place Like Home" could have worked a lot better.

Both episodes that worked perfectly where they were, so that was a change for the best. Though they do stand out as the only "traditional" flashback episodes in Season 5.

It resulted in S4 being 14 episodes instead of 16. Apparently the main casualty is there was an intended Freighter Flashback episode that we never got.

Of course, Inman serving in the Gulf War and being in Dharma just doesn't work with the Purge. Even Lostpedia kind of throws its hands up about the timing.

Seeing how that line from the producers never came out until after Ana Lucia died, I never really believed it.