After last night's episode I think it seems almost certain in my mind that the hostiles are the crew of the Black Rock and that the Island bestows eternal life at the cost of reproductive ability. And Jacob was dressed just like them in the flashbacks.

I'd like to know where the cabin is. It's interesting to note that on the blast door map it says that the nexus of Cerberus (Smokie) activity is centered around the Black Rock.

http://www.lostpedia.com/images/9/9f...a_stations.jpg

Also, just wanted to point out that in Judaism, angels are granted immortality but at the cost of the ability to reproduce. That's one of the reasons why in the Jewish apocrypha, when a group of angels procreated with human women, it was an abominable sin against God.

Yep, the Dark Territory. This is area CVIII for the Cerebrus system. It is also listed on the map as the "known final resting place of Magnus Hanso".

Now I'm convinced, thanks 12M.

Purgatory?......

Just kidding.

Watch the documentary on the first season DVD set. They said from the beginning that they had a plan and that it would only last about 5 seasons.

Jacob is John Locke's brother?


hmmm.............

That's who I'm going with. Magnus Hanso. Although I do think it looks a bit like Locke in that side-by-side.

I think when most people use the "I don't think they know where they're going" line they are citing a (I think) David Fury interview that said they knew what they wanted to do to a certain point, but there was a lot of other undecided stuff.

I personally do think that at this point they have the major highlights for the rest of the series decided upon.

Regarding Richard's age: I just figured he was one of the 'natives' that was mentioned in the flashbacks. Whoever they are they have been there longer than Dharma and obviously they don't age....

Eight freakin' pages and no one's mentioned that Ben's bunny makes its debut.

I'm thinking s/he's the true mastermind of the Island.

It could be Alvar Hanso as well. it depends if you follow the Slave Ship theory or the more recent Dharma theory.

In the Lost experience Alvar was held prisoner by his second in charge, Thomas Mittelwork (think Mittelos Bioscience). I'm thinking all of these other companies are probably fronts or members of some type for the Hanso foundation. (Dharma, Apollo, Mittelos, Paik, Widmore, ect ...) This would vibe with Richard and "the hostiles" and their purge of Dharma workers on the island.

What is interesting is that Richard Alpert has connections on screen to Mittelos Bioscience and looks damn similiar, younger, than Thomas Mittlework. I'm wondering if he could be his son or relative?

Funny you bring that up. I totally expected to hear Ben refer to his Bunny by it's real name, "Jacob".

Good point, that would make that bunny like 40 something human years. If that is the bunny they used to scare Saywer, It certainly doesnt appear to be 40 human years old. If animals have eternal life then they must not be able to reproduce either, or the island would be overpopulated with wildlife. What does it all mean?

Looks like next week will see a return from the long absent (don't worry, not a big spoiler, at least it doesn't seem that way to me)

If the Others are the Black Rock Crew, shouldn't they have British accents?

Probably, but the ship was comprised of around 40 people in the Brittish crew plus slaves. Either a lot of them died over the years, very possible given the death rate of the losties so far, or the hostiles are not related to the ship. I think everyone from the ship probably died long ago.

Man, you got that right! Please, ABC, spend a little less on catering or something and hire someone who knows how to make a good wig. This show's had a history of bad wigs, but last night's episode was a new low. Uncle Rico's was pretty bad throughout the episode, but the one Ben was wearing right before he went off in the van was really atrocious. He looked like he had Barbie doll hair.

Something that occured to me: are the flashbacks really flashbacks that the characters are remembering, or just a storytelling convention to inform the audience of their histories? Because if they're really supposed to be the character's memories, then Ben can somehow remember the time right before he was born.

Was Little Ben's rabbit a callback to the episode where Sawyer was convinced he had a heart bomb implanted in his chest, or was it a subtle "Harvey" reference? Jimmy Stewart has an imaginary friend who's a giant rabbit, Ben has what may or may not be an imaginary friend for a boss?

I've always thought of them as sort of a mixed-first/third person narrative, but that is a good point about how his birth was shown. Obviously the writers thought it was important for us to see, given the last few episodes, that Ben's mother died giving birth off the islandnot to mention "not in Portland".

It has never even crossed my mind that these people were 'thinking' these flashbacks when they were happening. Always considered it to be a storytelling convention as you said to let us know about the characters.

They're just for the audience, they're not memories, although they do obviously sometimes reflect what the character is thinking about.

When we see that Libby is in the mental hospital that Hurley is in, that's not his memory, but it's meant to be a surprise to the audience.

You know, in trying to set-up some ????'s for next season, I have to say the whole Jacob business couldnt have been executed in a more lame manner. Okay, maybe if there was an Elmo puppet sitting in the chair or something, but that whole invisible tantrum, voice from nowhere stuff would have made William Castle scream "That was cheap and STUPID!!!" at the Lost show makers.

One of the very few times I was not impressed with a scene on this show. Silly.

Agreed. I'm as big of a "Lost" apologist as there is, and even I thought that was kind of lame. Of course if plays out great in the long run, who cares.

That made me hate Ben even more, the little creep was willing to sacrifice his pet to make sure he could pass the "fence"! Couldn't he have thrown a stick or something, or was the thing only triggered for a living creature?