Ok, divine justice and retribution, finally something I can understand!. So the island is a kind of "great white throne judgment" in which one must appear and give an account of what you have done. A play of morality, moral order and accountability. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. Whew this is a long way around to finally getting to the point.

Flyboy - I got a good laugh out of the link. Took me a second, but I eventually got it.

The ending blew me away. I saw it coming when Nicki was telling Paulo about the poison of the spider, but wow. And it looks like next week is back at Camp Others. We may not know Nicki and Paulo's fate for awhile.

BA - agree that Locke's comment that things don't stay buried will be prophetic - but I think both will live. And great catch on Locke watching "Exposed" - I totally missed that.

As for the island revenge theory, if true, Kate is in for a firey death.

What if Jack and John had not kept Ben's presence a secret while he was their prisoner? Would Paulo have recognized him and warned Jack?

I loved the way they tied in previous scenes and characters - fun episode.

It was a fun episode, one of the better ones they've had in awhile, IMO. I saw the whole Medusa Spider bite coming too. I kept telling my husband, they aren't dead. Then when Nicki opened her eyes....
I like the idea of devine retribution....Since Locke became paralyzed by his father, the island gave him his ability to walk again, Hurley went thru the curse and now he's beginning to have good luck.....interesting theory.

I'm not sure I'd count on them being back. Kiele Sanchez, who played Nikki, has been attached to the American version of Footballer$ Wives. Still, an interesting point about Locke foreshadowing that one or both may end up exhumed somehow.

If the island is exacting poetic justice, and that's a pretty good theory that's been bouncing around for awhile, why did Libby die? Or Boone and Shannon for that matter? Or Arzt, Joanna, and Steve? (In the case of the latter three, sans flashbacks we'll never know what their "crimes" were.)

Good stuff Angler. I was thinking that they would die and that would be the end of them, since the show certainly doesn't need two additional regular characters. But I can definitely see Sawyer getting second thoughts about the diamonds, or Vincent digging them up, espcially in light of Locke's statement.

I loved how they went backward and inserted them into the different situations, pretty cool. My only question would be, how is it possible that Sawyer wouldn't have noticed this beautiful girl walking around the island all of this time? But him continuosly asking 'who are you?' was funny.

Is it just me, or are the commercial breaks getting more and more frequent? I swear, at one point toward the end, there was three minutes of show between about eight minutes of commercials.

Every time that Sawyer has seen Nikki he's always asked who she was. Every time someone talks about her, he asks who she is. That may tie in later, either some link to his past or some island phenom.

I too agree about the commercials. I'm taping the episodes, and this season there are adds every ten minutes. Last night there was a three minute block of show and then ads.

Random, it's just a theory, but if it holds true, then we'll probably find out why some of them died. Artnz would be a great flashback. He's a junior high science teacher and yet he discovered 23 (one of the numbers by the way) new species on the island in just a short time. He was wasting his talents teaching.

He was probly a briliant genetic scientist who accidentaly created a frog-monkey hybrid, called a Frunkey...

One theory about why Sawyer couldn't remember Nikki is that Desmond has reset the timestream and edited out Rose and Bernard and swapped in Nikki and Paolo. For some reason (perhaps because he was on Alcatraz during the reset), only Sawyer hasn't synched up with the new reality.

At any rate, a possible Nikki return isn't entirely far-fetched, since Locke set up the "nothing stays buried" bit and a secret Sawyer/Vincent exhumation could be possible. Also, in her show-within-a-show, Expose, she was invited back for another season.

Additional speculation arising from this episode is that we are being signaled (through the device of Lando, of all people, being the evil Cobra on Expose instead of the good guy he's supposed to be on that show) to expect that one of the Lostaways may actually be the mysterious chief Other.

Also, an alternate take on the "island as punisher" theory is that the island is granting wishes. Remember that Ben said as much just previously, and Paolo had no sooner told Nikki that he didn't want the diamonds to keep them apart than we distantly heard the clickety sounds of the Island Monster, and Nikki was immediately injected with paralyzing spider venom. And then they were buried together, more or less. Wish granting AND punishment.

Am I the only one who thinks that Nikki and Paolo are the most non-curious people on the island?

Why wouldn't they go back and mention the plane or the hatch that they uncovered to everyone else? That just seems strange to me.

I figured they didn't tell anyone because they were afraid someone else would find the diamonds. They didn't want anyone else exploring the island until they had recovered their bag.

Interesting episode last night. Locke and Juliet switch places, Sawyer wants to become a leader, and Kate's mommy liked her loser husband more than Kate.

Interesting that the others don't know any more about Smokey than the Losties. Any theories as to what the flashes were?

And who trusts Juliet? I think I'm with Sayid on this. I'm not so sure that Ben didn't orchestrate this whole thing to get someone else into Camp Lost.

Since we have seen the next day at the beach, I am assuming Nicki and Paulo did not survive being buried alive. Wonder if they will ever revisit that.

Glad to see they are back on track with episodes and stories that hold my interest.

Waiting to see how Locke interacts with his father. But I don't understand why the Others had to abandon home. Juliet had the key the whole time with Kate, not looking good for her integrity.

I think the fact that Juliet had a key to the cuffs but didn't use it until her life was at stake is a clear indication that the whole thing is a set-up. Why were Juliet and Kate moved out into the woods, but not Jack or Sayid? I think Sayid and his "interagation techniques" will get to the bottom of that mystery.

Why were all four immobilized with canisters of mystery gas? Why not simply leave and leave them behind? Perhaps they didn't want the four of them to see the method of departure? But surely Juliet already knows this anyway. Why did it matter whether they were asleep or not. Why go to all the trouble of wearing gas masks and throwing gas cans? Seems to me....there are less troublesome ways to knock people out. Why did Juliet and Kate awaken so far ahead of Jack and Sayid? It was over night.

I think Juliet DOES know about the black cloud 'cause she certainly went into action, perhaps blowing her cover, retrieving the key and immobilizing then re-mobilizing the "fence."

But what in the world is the black cloud and yes, what were the accompanying flashes of light? I did not realize that Juliet and Kate were actually outside of the fence when they awakened and then came back IN to get away from the black cloud. Is the fence really to keep the black cloud out rather than unwelcome people?

Lastly, who IS Juliet, really? She's certainly accomplished in self defense....possibly martial arts. She's not as delicate as I had her pictured. What she did to Kate would take some intense training. More evidence that her presence is a set-up.

Interesting episode. The first thing that I thought when the flashes of light came was that the monster/someone was taking pictures of them??? It was cool to see the monster up close, and Juliet seemed awfully calm when it was charging towards them. She possibly knows more about it then she is letting on. Also, if Locke, Sayid, and Kate can chop down a tree to climb over the magic fence, wouldn't the smoke monster have figured-out that it could simply float over the fence??? Again, there is probably more to the story.

I'm curious as to why the Others would leave also, and where would they go. The sub was blown-up, but they have some boats, so they could have retreated to the smaller island I suppose. On one hand, I think that Juliet is a plant by the Others, on the other hand, I think that Ben knew that he had lost 'control' over her, and may have just wanted to discard her.

I'm not at all surpirised that Locke would join the Others, he has been Ben's target all along, and he loves the island life.

In which season was the episode where Sun and Claire were kidnapped?? Have they shown Cassidy and Sawyer before? And was it all in the same epidsoe? We missed one somewhere along the line, and of course that is the one they reference the most.

One more question how come blackie can't just go over the fence the way the losties did? It seems mobile enough to go up and over.

I think the black cloud has something to do with alien beings.....that would be an interesting twist.

Remember what we know about Ben, he likes to play mind games. I do think that Juliet was gased too as if you looked at both Kate and Juliet's faces, they had some sort of residue. I think Ben left Juliet because her usefulness was up plus he appears to have lost control over her. I think that the "Others" may have been watching Kate and Juliet.

Depending on how much the "Others" know about the monster, they may have some sort of electronic devices to defend themselves against it. Look at the fence.

As for as Jack and Sayid, if you noticed, there were two gas canisters where they found Jack.

I have seen a couple of interviews with the writers that say several clues have been given that will eventually explain the island. Two specifically were the skeletons Jack found in the caves in season 1 and the 4-toed foot statue at the end of season 2. Since the Others (if Juliet can be believed) know very little of Smokie and seem scared of it, I'm wondering if Smokie is a left-over from the skeleton's society.

Next week looks great - hoping Juliet sheds some more light on life at Camp Other.

I think that Juliet is involved with another of Ben's manipulations or cons. I think she may try to take Claire's baby, which was one of Ethan's tasks.

The smoke monster may be tied to the ground somehow, and may not be able to go over the fence. When Ecko confronted it in season 2, he was on the ground, while Charlie climbed a tree and wasn't bothered. This doesn't line up with the first episode though, where the pilot was yanked out of the cockpit.

Did you see the code Juliette put in? It was 1623, which are two of the numbers. Interesting.

I don't think Locke actually blew up the sub. That episode showed him climbing down into the sub, but the next time we saw him he was on the dock and was soaking wet. I think Ben showed him how to move the sub and he then blew up something else. If this is true, the others may have gone to the small island via submarine.

Ben evidently is done with Jack and is relying on Locke's "expertise" of the island's healing powers to help him walk again. Locke choosing to go with the others may mean his father is conning him again. His dad cons people, Ben cons people, and Sawyer cons people. At some point we will find the link between all three. My guess is that Locke's dad is the original Sawyer that conned Sawyers mom, and he's also a financial backer of the original Dharma project.

The others may have left because the communication hatch was blown up by Locke and the Losties now kwow of the barracks. Maybe the "Hostiles" now know how to get to the Others. Maybe the black smoke is controlled or was created by the Hostiles.

Can't wait for next week. Sounds like Sayid may rely on his "training" that he received from Desmond's hatch partner again.

Who will the flashback be of? Could it be Juliette or Sayid? Each has had a flashback this season. Jack, Desmond, Kate, Locke, Hurley, Claire, Paulo & Nikki have had flashbacks. Charlie, Sun, and Jin haven't, but have kind of faded out of the main characters.

I really want to know what happened to Rose and Bernard. I miss them.

Does anyone have any speculation on whether or not Michael and Walt truly got away from the island? I keep waiting to hear/see something about that....

Rumor has it that Michael will be back (either flashback or as a character) by the end of this season, but Walt is gone for good.

The last two episodes are showing us that on the island, you reap what you sow.

Paulo and Nikki had information that could've prevented a lot of grief for various people, but couldn't be bothered to share it because their focus was on the diamonds and themselves. As a result of their deliberate inactivity, Libby and Ana-Lucia were killed (Paulo knew that Michael was being used by the Others), Boone went to his death (because Paulo and Nikki kept the Beechcraft a secret so that Locke could play their freely without anyone intervening), and Sawyer, Jack, and Kate were kidnapped. Therefore it was fitting that what was needed in the end for this duplicitous duo to avoid their horrific fate was for someone to know what they had been up to and figure out that they were paralzyed, but no one had a clue.

Now, we see that Kate's mom chose the "bad" person (the step-dad) over the "good" person (Kate), and much woe has ensued from that. Similarly, Kate herself chose the "bad" boy (Sawyer) over the "good" guy (Jack), and trouble was quick to follow.

On another note, I wonder if at some point we will trace back to the Uncaused Cause--I mean, the Conman Prime. We have a bit of a chain where Cassidy was trying to con some random dude, after having been conned by Sawyer, whose family was previously conned by Real!Sawyer, who possibly was Locke's father.

I can't remember which was which....which was father, which was son. I think I remember directions being given as they sailed away into the sunset. Could it be that the directions actually led them to whatever place the "others" have now gone to?

Wow, I sure fell for her con. These Lost writers are sure geniuses. Why can't Juliette just be a nice lady?!?! AARRRGGGHHH!

yep, she had some evils glances last night; it was a very revealing episode with many questions being answered, eh? the show has picked up the pace and has gotten more interesting the last few weeks.