hmm, I never thought Ben summoned the smoke. I thought he recognized it was coming and new to get out of its way.

>>> It was especially frustrating to hear Richard say Jacob told him what the island was and have no one question Richard.
I said out loud "WELL?" waiting for someone to ask or for him to tell.

I felt that too but in hindsight he is probably just referring to how Jacob told him about the island acting as a cork to keep the evil out of the world. Which is kind of a silly test to ID Jacob because MIB knows about that metaphor judging by the wine bottle scene, but Richard might not know he knows.

I have absolutely given up trying to figure out what is going on with connecting the Flash Sideways and how it affects the island and vice versa. The reason I've given up is that IMHO they are writing this with a lot of latitude and a lot of slop as far as presenting a coherent causality goes. I think by the end so many things will have blown up and people died and people kissed that whatever revelation comes out on top will appear to make sense but probably won't make absolute sense with everything they have done. I think they made it impossible for the whole thing to fit a long time ago by doing too much of the writing more or less in the dark, not to mention keeping the actors in the dark.

Michael for example -- in an interview that was in spoilers but is no longer a spoiler because the scene has aired, he talked about how he got to apologize to Libby, and how emotional he got doing it. That tells me that he is playing it as Michael, as someone who committed murder under duress and cannot forgive himself -- not as MIB masquerading as Michael. BUT -- TPTB don't tell the actors more than they need to know.

Smocke throwing Desmond in the well seemed so bad that it left little room to think the ending will do a twist. I for one would prefer a twist. The only thing I'm clinging to is that when Richard asked Jacob a question upon first meeting him, Jacob got a really subtle but crafty evil expression around his mouth. So I still think Jacob is not all that good.

Geographical logic went out the window this episode. Setting aside the recognizable Hawai'i location, the logistics made zero sense for California. The FS is taking place in LA. That museum is in LA. Hurley is from LA. Santa Rosa is 1-2 hours north of San Francisco, or about a 7 hour drive from LA by I-5. I highly doubt a mental health facility in Santa Rosa takes its patients to LA to have lunch.

I understand they used Santa Rosa as home of the facility where Hurley went originally (and we saw Libby), which was where John Locke's mother had been. John Locke was from Northern California even though he ended up in Orange County at the box factory. And Hurley could have been referred up there for some reason, no problem. I dimly remember that when Jack went to see Hurley it was a bit of a trip. OK.

But now they just need to have Libby bump into Hurley, who is in LA, so they stick her in a van on a little day trip from a Santa Rosa facility and they don't even bother to address the fact that it's over FOUR HUNDRED miles between the two.

But it gets better. Hurley asks for permission to take her out for the day, and we see them at a picnic on a beach full of hardbodies in tiny bikinis and board shorts. Not only is Santa Rosa very much inland, but the nearest beach that's warm enough for people to dress like that would be Santa Barbara -- a 6 1/2 hour drive. They make the beach look like LA.

So basically they no longer pay any attention to realities of time and space in this thing. Santa Rosa is now adjacent to Santa Monica.