(S06E10) Knowing this was a Desmond-centric episode, I expected us to take a major step forward in understanding the beta-verse, perhaps even experiencing it in a whole new way. Ever since the explosion at the hatch, Desmond seems to experience everything a little differently, and he's always there with his finger on the truth, even if he has no idea what that truth was.

Parallels between alpha- and beta- were running rampant throughout this episode. Fisher Stevens even returned in the beta-verse, to serve as Desmond's guide as he did once before, when Desmond was trapped in time. We got beta-appearances by Charlie, Daniel Faraday, Charles Widmore and even Eloise Hawking. Every encounter was a further step toward confusion and understanding.

(S05E06) "We're not going to Guam, are we?" - Lapidus

Whether you've been prepared for it or not, Lost is becoming a very different show. I'm not bringing that up as a negative. I'm not bringing it up as a positive either. This is just the natural progression of what has become the most densely written sci-fi drama ever. Eventually, we were going to reach a point that just seemed utterly ridiculous even by Lost's standards.

Let me put it this way - for as far-fetched a show as Lost is (that isn't a bad thing), I've never really felt like I had to suspend my disbelief to buy into it. With this episode, I did.

(S05E02) "There's no calling my father off." - Penny

Everybody lies. Some people enjoy the thrill of getting away with it ... and then there's Hurley. While this wasn't a traditional flash-back/flash-forward episode with one character as the focus (hard to say if those will ever be feasible again), this was pretty much a Hurley-centric hour anyway.

As the plot progresses this season, it's going to be interesting to see who becomes important (and who becomes irrelevant) to the ultimate endgame. That being said, we learned one pretty important fact in this episode:

Without Hugo in the mix, "then God help us all."