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Hmm. Ab Aeterno shows Richard lose his g/f and want her back. Was there much more to it than that? He was not horribly screwed over. In fact, people lose their partners all the time, to disease and what not. That is what happened to Richard. The pain of it didn`t grab me.

But this episode, about two brothers who are each others only friends in the world, and how one betrayed the other? That`s emotional. That grabbed me. I immediately want to know- a la the back story to Darth Vader- how did they get to be this way? They were once so close, how was all that lost?

For me that`s one of the deepest threads running through LOST. Who is the black smoke, and what does he want? That is the issue I said was addressed directly in this ep, perhaps the most important question so far, alongside- what are the powers of the island, and what does `it` want?

Also of course Jacob, and what he wants.

Other questions that are addressed (though not wholly answered) include how MIB became the black smoke. This process looks very similar to what happened to Saieed. Die, go into the holy water, come out forever changed. Granted Saieed didn`t become smoke- but he didn`t go straight to the heart of the power and get atomized.

As to evil existing, sure it does. But not in black and white shades. I think that is one of the biggest points of LOST. Nobody thinks they are evil, unless they`re crazy. They think that what they`re doing is right. Perhaps the Fmom thinks what she`s doing is right, but can anybody support her stealing babies and killing the mother? Likes wise with MIB, he`s only killing people he thinks are in his way, after he`s been dumped on by others all his life.

As to comparisons to The Other 48 days- I also very much liked that episode. I like these glances at the wider LOST world, seeing the story behind the story. Perhaps it`s the haikyo-explorer in me, but I want to know how things got to be the way they are. This episode showed that very well.

As to it being in season 5, or several episodes earlier- that wouldn`t have worked in the structure Damon and Carlton have set up. Their mystery requires that we don`t know these key points right up until the last moment. I think it`s wise. Seeing HRG`s and Sylar`s backstories in Heroes instantly neutered them both. Now though we`re rushign to the climax. It`s the perfect time to show us all the cards.

And still plenty of mysteries left.

Am glad I liked this episode.

I just think this episode of LOST was a classic momentum killer. After building no momentum at all for the WHOLE 6th season, 6×14 finally did, but that all came to a grinding halt with this allusion of an episode. LOST has done this repeatedly in its history, think of the ep titled something like “The other 28 Days” that killed a series premiere’s momentum, or the constant switching of on island off island eps, etc.

The real rules/answers that should be revealed, like why MIB needs to kill the candidates to get off the island, how he found the loophole to be able to kill Jacob, how he was able to take on Locke’s body, why he even needed to in the first place, etc, I would have preferred getting those answers instead of taking a whole ep this late in the game to show the motivation of why MIB wants to leave and does not like Jacob, which should have been done a season ago.

17 votes in the poll and only UK’s over three stars. My guess is no matter how interesting this ep may have been, it’s momentum killing-ness stops anyone from liking it. I may have loved this ep . . . last season.

The pain and anguish of the brothers did not grab me because they just introduced these child actors right now after 6 years. And really, Jacob and MIB have had very little screen time at all in the series. Jacob only existed as some demi-god like entity, so hard to feel any emotion toward him in the little time we have seen him so far, and when we did see him, since we had no idea of his role/importance/purpose seeing him get killed earlier was no real big deal. If we knew then the consequences of him getting killed, then I could have been like, “damn, they are all boned now.” Instead it was just Illaya some new character who has no trust built up with us saying stuff, etc.

I think this ep and the one before definitively shows us that there is evil in the LOST universe. Damon and Carlton said so themselves about 6×14, that they wanted to show MIB as being bad. The Fake Mother also painted basically all people has having something bad/evil in them, and that their quests to find that light cave would bring on a darkness for all people, even the (few?) good ones.

The episode did not answer a thing about the issues you said it address full on. No mention of the smoke, of Jacob’s cabin. The major thing it did do is reveal the motivation for why MIB wants to leave the island and for why he despises Jacob, which is important, but don’t think a whole ep right at this point should have been devoted to that. How about combining this ep and the Richard ep to do that all?

We don’t know the Fake Mother did wrong by MIB or Jacob yet. How do we not know she was right all along? Seems like the island was going along well up until that point. Maybe she was just trying to protect them as much as she could, hence making it so they cannot even kill each other. Locke was dead wrong about not pushing the button anymore. Jack seems to have been dead wrong about detonating the nuclear bomb.

Kind of surprised you can rate this ep 5 stars when you asked like 50 questions in your comment, and how can just the two remaining nights of LOST possible answer them all or in a sufficiently satisfying way? Some of those questions should have been answered in this ep.