Ok I haven't gotten through most of the comments but I kinda get the feeling everyone hated this episodes. Personally, I believe this episode is a foundation to what may become a religion in the Camp. Think about it, Locke, since season 1, has been sort of the faith behind Jack's reason. He openned the hatch because of faith, he believed the dark shadow wouldn't hurt him while everyone ran. Eko, drug lord turned priest, stared down the dark shadow, because he knew it wouldn't hurt him, and now Charlie....could it be he has been giving the ability to recieve prophesy? Not a far stretch when you factor in the fact the Island gave Locke his legs back, and Eko the chance of redemption from, what I can only believe, the guilt of not saving his brother. And the fact that Charlie now is an outkast strengthens this theory to me, most prophets have been hated for what they see, and prophesy always comes in vivid dreams that at first might not be explained. Come on, Charlie's weakness, heroin, concealed in a statue of Mary???
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't he a choir boy also?

Notice Eko didn't laugh at Charlie's dreams....

I doubt the Limbo and/or Purgatory solution to "What's it all about". I can see the writers pulling a sort of "The Prisoner"(1968) ending to it eventually. If that's a close guess, I see a final episode wherein someone(my choice would be Locke), wakes up on the plane, looks around and sees the usual cast, breathes a sigh of relief, right before the plane lunges and begins to break apart AGAIN! So it all becomes one big circle, ending where it all began, not ever really answering all the questions. Even better, he could then REALLY wake up and find himself in a mental institute, thrashing about, surrounded by concerned interns. You got to admit, it will be pretty hard to tie it all together, especially the recurring numbers thing, unless it's all the product of a deranged mind. Makes sense to me! Of course, everybody will be ticked off just like they were at Pat McGoohan after his final episode but by then it will be too late!!!

I actually enjoyed this ep. My sis and I have been waiting for a Charlie-centric ep for EVA! I will have to agree that it was strange and confuzing sometimes, but overall I liked everything about it! Even the video they did for "You all everybody"! That was HILARIOUS!!! =)

I didn't like this episode, but the point has been clearly made that there probably are some nuggets to lock away in your memory. The most important of these may be Eko marking the trees--I wonder what that is.

But my problem with the episode is, if the best part of an hour show is the fact they might have dropped a hint here and there, but the episode itself sucked, then--well, it sucked. I don't think it detracts from the series, but this episode sucked. I hate Charlie and I hope he gets knocked off somehow. Do you think that's how the writer's want us to feel about Charlie?

I am surprised by all the people who think Locke is a bad guy or is being set up as evil, despite what Jack has said about having a Locke problem. I think that Locke is so clearly a good guy that he may be the most central and most important character to the series. Locke, while clearly the man of faith, is also the voice of reason: (1) he points out that no one has the right to tell someone else what to do, which is clearly correct and goes against Jack's god complex and compulsion to fix everything (hmmm...Jack and a god complex--might have to explore that one some more), and (2) he is doing the right thing trying to get Charlie off of heroin, and he gave Charlie exactly what he deserved when he kicked his ass on the beach. It will be interesting to see where the character goes, but I would think it is a good/positive direction, not an evil one.

I again point out that at the Golden Globe acceptance speech, the acceptor described the show by saying, "This is a show about faith." With such a religious overtones to this and recent shows, I'm going to continue to watch this angle closely. But consider this among many other nuggets: one of the central concepts on the show right now is that they must enter the code every 108 minutes or something will happen. They don't know what it is, but they enter the code anyway. Sounds like an allegory of faith to me.

BTW, my theory on what would happen if they didn't enter the code? It would signal the "experimenters" that something was wrong and a whole fleet would show up to rescue them. By entering the code, they are continuing their own participation in the "experiment."

Lots of heavy religious symbolisms going on in Lost. This episode is pushing the religious theme more. I always felt that Claire, Charlie, and Aaron wre portrayed as the holy family. And the St. John story of baptizing Jesus was too obvious. I'm still waiting to see what makes Aaron special too. Lost is starting to remind me of Arthur Clark's "Childhood's End." Maybe the others some kind of caretaker society.

Try looking up Psalms chapters 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. Chapter 23 is obvious, maybe someone out there can find some meaning in the other chapters.

Does anyone have any theories about Mr. Eko marking the trees? Did he mark 4? Were those the same trees he examined after the fire when Claire interrupted him?

this episode was slower than ones in the past but i saw many clues. hurley and libby at the washing machines, when libby commented how they looked newer than other things in the bunker was very intresting. the tape on charlies fingers were back in the frist dream. they spelled out "fate". what does that mean? we hadn't seen tape on his fingers in a long time. also charlie had a good point when he said no one questioned the strange things other people had seen. locke had a dream about the drug plane. if everyone knew he used to walk and hasn't told about it would they still trust him? i don't.

i did like the way the episode toke but nobody is warried about michael.
I agree with the coment it says this season has been a mess!
but I stil love the serie.

I have to agree that this season has been quite disappointing. It seems like they have a couple of episodes that are interesting and that might go somewhere and then the next week it's dullsville. And I have heard they are already signed up for a third season. I really wish they would start making sense of all the topics they have created and move on because all the new episodes do not make up for all the reruns we get in return especially when the new ones put you to sleep. I don't need to see the deeper meaning of everything if I wanted that I would read a book. I wish they would just get to a point.

man, i have a bad memory. there are so many open plotlines, i forget a lot of them until i read about lost on the web. unfortunately, i feel most of them will remain open so they can extend this show for 10 seasons. is there a website detaling every open idea on the show? i'd like to see a list so i can check off stuff when they finally explain it!

After Vatican II, the RC church did away with the concept of purgatory.

It is interesting that the RC is the only religion with any active members on the island.