Ordering a full season of Lost and the other hit, desparate housewives. Has to be the biggest no-brainer of all time

That theory is way out there..but nothing is out of the question regarding this series.

I can't remember the rest.

That's why they're *extras*.

They are like the extra star trek folks that beam down with kirk and piccard. You know they are dead.

LOL, yeah, thank God for that.

I have to disagree with the people who called this a weaker episode, but I guess that is because I have enjoyed and been immersed in every episode way too much to be able to analytically rate it. This is a great show - the kind of TV show that makes me feel bad for the people who think they are too good for TV.

Did anyone else see the tattered rope (or mabe even bedsheets) hanging below jack when he was hanging off the cliff?

I thought it was part of the tree at first, then I rewound it. There appears to be something like tattered rope (looks like it broke) hanging below him and wrapped around a rock to his right.

did anyone else see this?

Naveen Andrews - Sayid (Iraqi)
Matthew Fox - Jack (Dr.)
Jorge Garcia - Hurley (fat guy)
Maggie Grace - Shannon (Selfish annoying girl)
Josh Holloway - Sawyer (jerk)
Malcolm David Kelley - Walt (Kid)
Yunjin Kim - Sun (Korean woman)
Daniel Dae Kim - Jin (Korean man)
Evangeline Lilly - Kate (Hot Chick)
Dominic Monaghan - Charlie (Hobbit junkie rocker)
Terry O'Quinn - Locke (Crazy miracle guy)
Harold Perrineau Jr. - Michael (Dad/Guardian of kid aka black guy)
Emilie de Ravin - Claire (prego)
Ian Somerhalder - Boone (bro of annoying girl)

My nitpick. On a plane from Austrailia -- only one survivor has an Aussie accent.

Why is that a nitpick? maybe everyone was going home? (to the states)

Well one still might expect more than 1 Aussie on the plane - either going to the US on business or taking a vacation themselves. I couldn't care less though.

American flag carrier? I've noticed on foreign flights served by both an American carrier and a national flagged carrier, that the American flag carrier is mostly Americans, maybe 3:1 ratio, and the foreign flag carrier is mostly that nationality. Other nationalities seem fairly equally distributed.

Called "red shirts" because in TOS they always wore red shirts. Someone else references this in an earlier posting. Trey and Matt make fun of this on South Park in season 2's "City on the Edge of Forever (aka Flashbacks)"...

In interviews, they've gone out of their way to mention regular cast members will be killed off, not just red shirts.

Bad idea, and exactly how the first rescuer got in trouble. She was a long way out and he didn't even reach her. Open ocean swimming is a bit tougher than pool. Get them a rope, a float or something. Personal rescue should be left to strong swimmers with water safety training.

More of a risk -- a paniced victim can drown you and controlling the victim in rough, open water is a lot tougher than calm water. A rescue can is strongly advised in rough water rescue. When I was younger, I renewed my Water Safety certificate three times, even though I never worked as a lifeguard. I would have been a little hesitant, although the water wasn't that rough, and I might have tried. I would tried to find some kind of rescue float though.

Oddly, she was a scuba diver. She should have been able to tread water for hours, and have the sense to swim across the rip current until out of it.

That's what I thought. Apparently all the characters we haven't met are lazy asses. Only Kate so much as tried to help Jack get back in.

The other thing that seemed a little dumb to me was Jack saying he didn't get more than 2 hours of sleep per night. Jeez Jack, are you afraid you're going to miss something, or are you having withdrawal shakes after all the tiny bottles ran out? After 6 days, I would think you could get a little more than a couple hours sleep when they haven't been doing much other than waiting for a rescue. I'm surprised that it's been 6 days already. I would've guessed 3 or 4.

And the guy the Dr rescued was a life gaurd and he got in trouble. I was surprised no one grabbed a seat from the plane, they are a flotation device after all.

Well, I'm happy to bring the meat.

That would be my guess- Jack turned his father in for being a drunk and a potential liability to patients and he ended up losing his license. Pops got pissed, went out binge drinking, and ended up on a plane to Australia for some reason.

Watership Down is a Richard Adams book about a group of rabbits whose warren is destroyed by a development plan. The rabbits hit the road to find a new place to live and encounter dangers to their tight-knit group. One of the dangers is another rabbit warren run by a totalitarian rabbit.

Perhaps there's another reason why the book's in there, but the overall story is sufficient for me.

Don't you know anything? Whenever anyone drinks alcohol on TV, they are automatically an alcoholic. Sheesh.

Ahhhhh... TRUE!!

Isn't that also the book they read in class in Donnie Darko ?
I remember they had a longer sequence with it in the deleted scenes on the DVD.

Ive seen DD a million times and I dont recall anything from Watership Down.

I also don't see this, I don't think how much he drank after his father died means he was an alcoholic.

This makes a LOT more sense, for an additional reason no one mentioned: what about all those prescription bottles Jack's Dad left in the hotel room in Sydney? There were several, a lot more than a healthy man that age would have. Yeah, the hotel manager's references to his father's "condition" could mean that he was a drunk, but it COULD mean that he was dying. Remember the "condition" that Locke had?

I don't think it's stupid, and that's what I thought also. If the island "cured" Locke, why couldn't it "cure" his Dad back from the dead? Jack looked REALLY shocked that there was no body in the casket (and there's no reason he would've paid to ship an empty casket, it costs a huge amount and he doesn't need the casket, he needs his Dad's remains), and when he flipped out and smashed it, I took it like he was flipping out 1)at his Dad, for whatever had happened or for dying and 2)at the circumstances, that his father's body was gone and maybe "roaming" the island.