Also, if you don’t find the speculating enjoyable, and prefer to sit pointing at your TV week after week declaring how dumb it is or something, I think the matter of who is lamer is debateable.

They didn’t when they started, though, is the problem. They figured they’d just let it run and develop organically, like when authors talk about how “the characters start to tell you their story.” Which means that it rambled, and they introduced a ton of stuff to be cryptic that they didn’t have any intention of paying off.

The resolution they’re going to eventually deliver isn’t going to be as earth-shattering as they’d led people to believe, but there is going to be a resolution. And, most likely, still a lot of rambling and misdirection on the way to get there.

Jacob not being a real person is the best thing that could happen, but I’m just trying to fit a J person into the coffin. And the other alternatives would be even worse than having Jacob turn out to be a real dude. I guess it could’ve been Sawyer or Locke under an assumed name, or for that matter, any of the male castaways.

But I just got back home and watched the whole episode, and this time, it was at least a dozen kinds of awesome. The stuff that seemed perfunctory turned out to be paced well, the parts where they just seemed to be cramming all the plot resolutions they could manage turned out to be given plenty of set-up. And all the character moments happened in the first half. Even when you know what’s going to happen, it’s just damn good TV. You just have to watch all of it.

I still think that Charlie’s suicide was unnecessary; there are plenty of ways they could’ve gotten him out. I’m not buying the “it was necessary for his character arc” BS the producers are giving out. Still, I’m not complaining, because he’d gotten to be a useless character.

And also: I hate sounding like a HDTV snob, but I’ve got to say that watching it on a big screen made all the difference. The cinematography on this show is usually good, but in this episode it was just awesome. It really made the whole “epic exodus” thing work.

In any case, I think that’s what Jacob is. He once was real, but the island, or something, turned him into something more. Whatever he is, I just don’t see him as some dude who will eventually end up dead in some shitty L.A. loft.