Yes, it was like a crazy man giggle.

No, and i'm going to assume it was an earlier ship given the differences in arrival. Jacob mentioned to Richard he had brought people there before, though they were all dead.

Finally now thats the LOST I been missing this season. Full of mystery and wonder. It also had the best moment with the "smoke" monster. the scene when it killed the ships crew, then came down stairs an just sat there was awesome, it was well done and scary. Now I am back into lost. I have been so disapointed in the show this season, this was the first really good episode.

Seems it was another ship since it looked like MIB and Jakob had not spoken in a long time during this episode

the real money is allocated for Smokey

all the other cg is 2nd rate

Yeah, Ricardo was great in this episode.

The MiB has stated that he was a man once, and that he had a mother. Now, he could very well have been lying, but I don't think it's as simple as him being "the devil."

No matter how you cut it, though, this episode sure was religiousy.

I thought it was a pretty great episode. Answered several very important questions, such as:

• How did the Black Rock get in island center? (typhoon)
• How did the statue break? (Black Rock destroyed it)
• Why doesn't Richard age? (made a deal with Jacob)
• Is Jacob or MIB lying? (MIB)
• Who is MIB? (Evil)
• Who is Jacob? (the gatekeeper of evil)
• What does MIB want? (to get released off the island)

I also thought the writing device of using Hurley with Isabella helped solidify the answer that Jacob is the one telling the truth and the MIB is the one who must be stopped. And I liked how Richard "found his redemption" by accepting Isabella's death and the fact that it wasn't his fault.

Also a teaser there that the Whitmore name goes clear back to Richard's day...probably to be answered in the next episode or so.

1.) Charles Whitman bought Richard's freedom. Related to Charles Widmore?

2.) Magnus Hanso was referenced as the captain, and his burial location is noted on the Swan blast door via Radzinsky. IMO Dharma mustr have known about the Black Rock being on the island, which is something never confirmed in S5.

3.) This episode makes me rethink the ALT. Perhaps it is not a reset, merely what happens if the cork is popped and MiB is set loose.

4.) I think this was the first time in the series that he is called the Man in Black on screen.

5.) I wonder if the wine jars relate to the anonymous filled jars in the cabin?

Well, Widmore and Riccardus were homies not too long ago until Ben gave him the boot from Beirut.

Did the last surviving officer say that the captain's name was Hanso?

Be careful here. I think it's safe to assume that the monster was playing Isabella's part while Richard was chained up, hence the reason he could see her at that time.

OTOH, the MiB was overlooking the Hurley/Richard conversation. We arn't 100% sure what the source of Hurley's ghosts are. For Example, Dave may have been the MiB trying to get him to kill himself. At that time Jacob had not touched Hurley yet.

yeah

Hanso has something to do with Dharma Initiative

i believe the copywrites on the DI films say Hanso on em

Dead people apparently get current wardrobes

The ship captain was a grnadfather or father of a more recent Hanso.

I 100% agree.

I don't think so. I think the Hurley/Isabella/Richard scene was genuine. It was immediately followed by the scene with Jacob/MIB that easily corroborated everything Jacob told Richard and what Isabella told Richard at the end.

Step back from the mysteries a second and look at the writing device the writers used here. The show was about Richard's redemption, which only would come once he could forgive himself. He received that at the end, and then they used that moment of redemption to punctuate the truth that the MIB must be stopped...and then followed that with a scene between Jacob and the MIB reinforcing the point.

I don't believe the writers are trying to mislead us with this basic point this late in the final season. They used this special Richard-oriented episode to answer this question, plain and simple.

But I remember hearing the siren/smoke monster jingle while she was still there...I guess he can make the noise just appear.

One has to wonder if the stakes are so high as to keep "evil" bottled up, why bother with bringing people to the "cork". Especially since people's free will seems to be the only way that Jacob could be killed thus allowing evil to escape. What does Jacob have to gain by bringing people to the island?

maybe it's not hell but purgatory - the garden of eden after Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden, Jacob and the MiB are really Cain & Abel, the smoke monster - the snake?

Wow. That may have been the best episode of Lost ever.

He's trying to convince him that men are not evil by nature

He can end the game once and for all and likely send the MIB to where he belongs = hell. The island is likely the median between hell and the earth and the point of corruption has to be proven for access while the proof of humanity is the countermove. This is like one big game and these 6 candidates are the last six in the game. However, speaking of the replacement this means that they could conceivably just continue to replace the gatekeeper but what a bitch it is to actually get a replacement. One thing that bugs me is that we were never really given the importance of the Temple and the rest of the hippies. Were we just to assume that they were as important as Richard but just never know why? A little insight about them would be nice.

Didn't Jacob say something about this in the scene with Richard at the statue's foot? Something about the fact that he brought people there because he needed to find someone who would be selfless, thus ending the evil for good? Or something like that? It sounded good at the time LOL.

EDIT: What dsa_shea said.

I'm pretty sure the "pop-up" airing of the S5 finale that aired in January did say it was the Black Rock...I know the Lost crew doesn't do those, so maybe the outfit who does them was full of crap and didn't really know?

I think the writers have been watching too much Twilight Zone....

The Howling Man

The story is told in a flashback by an American called David Ellington. Ellington becomes lost, is drenched by rain and seeks shelter in a nearby castle. Upon waking inside the castle, Ellington hears a wolf-like howl and goes to investigate. In the bowels of the castle he finds a bedraggled, but apparently cultured and intelligent man in a cell. the leader of the order, Brother Jerome, explains that the prisoner is not a man, but rather the devil himself. Jerome recognized him for what he was and imprisoned him. His actions have given the world five years of relative peace. Ellington waits until his guard falls asleep and creeps down to the cell to release the prisoner. When the prisoner exits the cell, he pins Ellington to the floor and begins to change, taking on the appearance of the devil with each step before departing the castle in a plume of smoke.