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4. The Others:

* The Other who accompanied Kate is Aldo, guard from Room 23 (where Karl was brainwashed). Apparently he's been holding a grudge against Kate for knocking him unconscious three years ago.
* Deciphering the Others' hierarchy has been a goal of Lost fans ever since Benry Gale claimed that bearded Tom was not the leader. That was four seasons ago. One would think we'd stop running into people claiming to be in charge of the Others by now.
Tom, Ms. Klugh and Isabel were possibilities a long time ago. Stronger contenders included Charles Widmore, Eloise Hawking, Benjamin Linus and John Locke, who have all claimed to be the leader. And when finally it's looking like the guy with the real authority has been Richard Alpert (on Jacob's behalf) all along, Dogen appears. We need to see an Other org chart.
* Dogen's techniques were reminiscent of the scene at the Hydra Station (season 3), when Ben and Juliet tried to break Jack down and ''change his perspective'' in order to get him to save Ben's life by removing that tumor on his spine. The Others would like you to think they believe in free will (see: Lennon praising Jack this week for voluntarily coming to them), but it's a rigged game; they have no problem with telling half-truths, outright lies, or just plain nothing to get you to do what they want you to do. Which is interesting. The Others manipulate our Losties but make them think everything is their own idea. How can Jacob profess the benefits of free will if he and his group of Others have been guiding/ nudging/ guilting the Losties into doing things all along!? Technically, that's not free will.
* Notice how Aldo won't let Justin tell Jin about the Ajira flight. The Others seem to be prohibited from sharing info with the Losties because doing so might tamper with them in some way - as if it's absolutely necessary that the castaways either discover stuff on their own, or are denied info that they don't need to know, or don't need to know yet.
* Justin's cryptic last words to Aldo regarding Jin also seemed important: "He might be one of them." We already know Jin is on Jacob's list, and both Aldo and Justin should know it too. So what else does "one of them" mean? Is there an ultimate purpose these people need to stay alive in order to accomplish? Seems like it. Might be nice if someone shared that with them, though.
* Think back to season two, where Ms. Klugh was asking Michael to lure four of his friends to The Others' encampment. "Why don't you just get them yourselves?" Michael had asked her, to which Klugh replied "It doesn't work that way, Michael". The Others could've taken these people by force any time that they wanted, but for some reason they didn't. They even had three out of four of them at gunpoint, on the day Tom/ Mr. Friendly drew a line in the sand. Yet somehow, for some reason, they needed these people to come on their own. Just like Jack did this week.
* Now think back to season three, where Ben was trying to convince Jack to do his spinal surgery. "You want me to save your life?" Jack had asked him incredulously. "No", Ben responded. "I want you to want to save my life."
* A good theory! "Not only do the temple-dwellers need Sayid to effectively kill himself, but they need Jack to act as the accomplice. You could argue that Dogen used Jack because Sayid inherently trusts him, but that's not the sole reason. Jack, and Jack alone, must be the person who gets Sayid to take the poison. And the reason for this is simple: Jack must clean up his own mess.

Go back to last episode. Right before they dipped Sayid in the spring, Dogen says "Who did this to him?" Jack steps up and claims responsibility. "My fault. I didn't shoot him, but it's my fault." This seemed pretty out of place back then, but Dogen puts the same question to Jack right now. He asks again how Sayid got shot, and Jack tells him what happened. "So, he was helping you?", Dogen asks, very specifically. "Yes", Jack says again. And from here, two things become brutally obvious.

First, Jack has to be the one to give Sayid the pill. It can't be Hurley, it can't be Miles... because Jack was the person directly responsible, he must also be the one to clean up his own mess. This very line is used more than once in past seasons, and we've already seen the theory in action:

During season three, Ben tried to make Locke kill Anthony Cooper. He even made it seem as if it were some strange test he had to pass. The truth of the matter however, is that Ben couldn't kill Cooper for a much different reason: Ben wasn't the person who brought the man from Tallahassee to the island in the first place. He thought it was Locke, and therefore needed Locke to commit the murder. But Ben turned out to be wrong here, because it was actually Sawyer who had brought Cooper to the island - a manifestation of his intense desire to find the man responsible for the death of his parents. Even Locke realized this, when he somehow couldn't even bring himself to kill the man who had caused his paralysis. Instead, Locke lured Sawyer to the Black Rock, where he strangled Cooper."

5. Otherville:

* Sawyer in Otherville continuing to mourn Juliet. He even digs an engagement ring out the floorboards of his old house and, like Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes", he chucks it into the ocean. I loved Kate's disappointment. It's like she always thought that Juliet was Sawyer's consolation prize for losing Kate, but Sawyer really loved Juilet and has no romantic feelings for Kate at all at this point. Hahahahaha! She followed him thinking they were going to be a team but he seems to want nothing to do with her. Again, hahahahahaha!

6. Although, for me it was a boring-ish episode one blogger had an interesting perspective: It was an episode about people trying to ditch burdensome, painful baggage (like Kate and her shackles, heartbroken Sawyer and his ring) - or learning to embrace it (like Claire and her baby; like Jack and his failures/ accountability).


7. A fun theory from the web:

"Opening scene of last year's finale:

MIB: It always ends the same. They come, they fight, they kill, they destroy. It always ends the same.

Jacob: Yes but it only ends once. Anything before that is progress.

Here's the thought: The alternate reality is just one itteration of many alts and Jacob and Smokey can experience all of them. Jacob has the ability to leave the island and choose which alt universe or dimension he enters. Each one ends the same. No matter what he does to try to bring people to the island to save humanity it always ends up failing. But every time there is progress.

THE ALT OF SEASON SIX IS THE FINAL PROGRESSION WHERIN THEY SUCCEED IN SAVING HUMANITY.

This also means that the version in which we are currently on island is one of the failures so all of those people in that reality are doomed to fail and humanity will be destroyed. But this brings a whole new meaning to "it worked".

In each dimension the incident is what creates the alt reality. The entire first five seasons are us seeing the itteration before the final itteration. The one that finally made success possible.

"IT WORKED" MEANS THEY ALL FINALLY GOT THEIR DESTINY RIGHT.

Rewatching LA X and when Rose says to Jack "It's ok. You can let go now." You could take that as, "You can give in to youre destiny. We got it right this time."

Jacob believed they were making progress. Meaning there was eventually something he was trying to get right. He did, but he didn't understand what was happening until after he died. He had to die and the island had to not exist at all during these people's lifetimes for them to get their destiny right. The final solution to Jacob's ultimate goal was to take himself and the island out of play."