Super quick LOST thoughts...recap to come later

OK, first of all...I feel really bad about not doing a recap of last week's episode, so there may be one coming later this week.

Second...I hate it when my actual job interferes with my blogging schedule...what's up with THAT? But since I am ridiculously snowed under, these quick thoughts are going to have to be extraordinarily quick today...

- Sort of pertaining to last week, and I will address it if I do end up recapping "Recon"...I don't think Smokey/Man in Black has a "Mother". I think he was tapping into Locke's memories, like we've seen him do before, to come up with the best way to persuade Kate to trust him and join his team. He always knows the best way to get to people, and with Kate it's her "maternal" instincts towards Aaron.

- Kudos to my baby brother...Josh first told me two years ago, in a quote I have used often since, that "if we ever find out what the story is with Richard Alpert, we will know what the story is with the Island". Well, we now know Richard's story, and in the same episode we were told a huge chunk of the Island's story as well: The Island is the cork that keeps the malevolent evil that is Smokey bottled up.

One thing I will have to listen for on rewatch...Jacob didn't say that the wine in the bottle represented ALL the evil in the world, right? Just AN evil? Because there is obviously still evil going on in the LOST off-Island universe, even with Smokey bottled up.

- So...did Jughead loosen the "cork" when it sank the Island? Is there more malevolent evil in the Sideways world? Not that I have seen so far....I guess we're still relatively clueless about the relevance of the X timeline.

- I don't know if Titus Welliver (the Man in Black) and Terry O'Quinn have been working together, but their mannerisms and speech patterns were remarkably similar. If that was on purpose, then it's a very nice touch.

- Nestor Carbonell finally got an episode to showcase his formidable acting talents, and proceeded to knock it out of the park.

And, if anybody can find a .gif of Richard's laugh when Illana asked him what to do next, I would be eternally grateful.

Overall, this was a tremendous episode that combined great acting and story telling with a hefty dose of "answers" and show mythology. I was telling a friend of mine the other day (hi, Amanda!) that I felt like this season has been similar to chugging up that first hill on a roller coaster...I started with a ton of excitement, but as we've continued to climb I'm just ready to start the ride already. We are now halfway through this final season, and I get the feeling that this episode was our first peek over that hill as the coaster starts its descent into what will almost certainly be a wild, thrilling, and (hopefully) satisfying ride!