lost musings ... SPOILER ALERT!

Certainly, it's a little odd to start blogging about new episodes of a show in midseason, but I'm attempting to keep up here, so I'm doing this in the hopes that some other people will chime in and try to help me.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I started watching "Lost" in January, when I was looking for a show to fill the spring gap (note: "24" filled this gap from 2003 until midway through last spring, when things became so outlandish that even I couldn't muster the energy to care anymore. Let's just say I didn't weep when the show announced it wasn't coming back this spring -- I'd prefer to remember the show in its peak than what we saw last season.)
So I raced through the back episodes through abc.com and found the show to be superior to "24" in every way -- better writing, better acting and I couldn't see the plot twists coming a mile away (for example, this week's episode, but we'll get to that in a minute). And yeah, I should've come on board sooner, but my job makes it difficult to watch these shows on first-run and my inclination is to avoid shows when I hear people saying things like, "You've GOT to watch this show!" It's just a part of me.
(Side note: what's wrong with the Hooters advertising department? Were they saying to themselves, "Let's come up with the most irritating TV spot possible ... wait, let's bring in Vitale and surround with a group of laughing idiots doing bad Vitale impressions! And let's put an inexplicable graphic on the screen, just to complete the effect!" Does anyone making these commercials have ANY idea how to do their jobs? I'm perplexed beyond words.)
(Side note #2: seeing Bobby Knight slouched over at an ESPN desk is hilarious, and I have the TV on mute.)
Anyway, I'm all caught up now, and I generally catch the streaming online episodes on Friday morning. Which brings us to today.
(Side note #3): Spoilers are about to occur. If you are a viewer and haven't seen the show, stop reading now. Are you reading me? Stop reading now! Also, if someone can tell me how to insert a front-page jump right here, this sort of warning won't be necessary. Thank you.)

Here's the synopsis of the most recent episode.
Now ... to steal a line from Peter King, here's what I think I think after what I just saw

• I think the two flashes of Jin and Sun were two completely different time periods -- Sun's a flash-forward, Jin's a flashback. I think this because -- according to the posted synopsis -- Jin's grave says he died in the plane crash (which we know didn't happen). After watching the episode, I was under the impression Jin had somehow faked his own death and split with Sun, but that's because I don't speak Korean and wasn't paying close enough attention.
  
• I think that this means the Oceanic 6 is still missing a member ... UNLESS Ben is one of them. Personally, I don't think this is the case, but we'll get to Ben in a minute.
  
• I think we now know the following things about Ben Linus: a) he's somehow in control of an exorbitant amount of money; b) he's enough of a mastermind to stage the wreckage of a plane and to employ the use of 324 dead bodies that had nothing to do with the actual crash; c) he's dangerous enough that an entire crew of people came to the island with the express purpose of stopping him; d) it didn't work, because we know he was still ordering Sayid to kill people once this ordeal ended. All that to say ... this guy's a bad, bad dude.
• I think Michael's return was probably the least surprising twist thus far (although I saw the twist with Kate and Claire's baby coming about 15 minutes before it happened). Of course, at this point we have no idea why Michael would independently come back -- though, in flash-forwards, we've already seen that Jack and Hurley have independently expressed the notion that leaving the island was a mistake. Also, where's Walt? Last time we saw him, his apparition showed up to help Locke get out of the pit where Ben had left him. We know that Walt has some sort of super-natural abilities -- is he still flitting around the island or what?
• I think -- now that I know Jin's wasn't a flash-forward -- that Jin's wasn't the name on Jack's mysterious obituary.
  

• I think Sawyer didn't appear in this episode at all, and I'm a little disappointed.
  
• I still think Juliet isn't being completely forthright. While we're here, I think I'd pay-per-view one of those "chick fights" between Juliet and Kate. And I don't think I'm alone.
  
• I think I can't think of anything else at the moment. Please feel free to contribute. Also, TBL has its own bulleted list up as well.
  

wlh