LOST completely blew my mind last night. It was so completely screwy that I don't even know where to begin.

Someone help me out here. So upon turning the fail-safe key, Desmond:

a) Traveled back in time and is now reliving his past, all the while having full cognizance of the future happenings on the island.

b) Traveled back in time and is now reliving his past, all the while having full cognizance of the "past" happenings on the island. Instead of seeing the future as in example A, is he instead seeing the past of what happened on the island in a different reality than our own?

c) Desmond traveled back to a previous point in his life, and because of fate and determinism, will end up back on the island no matter what.

d) Desmond traveled back to a previous point in his life, and is reliving his life as if it were playing in a loop. He'll end up back on the island and will press the fail safe key again, and will be instantly transported back to a distant point in his life ad nauseum.

e) His flashback was truly a flashback, and that through his flashback, we learn that he always had the ability to see into the future. I'm not sure I buy this one, because how else would that explain Desmond seeing Charlie playing for spare change on the street...unless, there's more to Charlie's backstory than what we know.

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It seems to me that Desmond may be caught in some kind of weird deterministic loop, where in some Universes, he doesn't end up going to the island, and everyone dies, but as the creepy old woman said, "the Universe has a way of righting itself," so if he doesn't go to the island, the Universe reacts accordingly.

Or maybe the Universe is SO deterministic, that Desmond has absolutely no choice in the matter. Just as the man in the red shoes was destined to die in Desmond's flashback (flash_____?), Desmond is destined the be the person who turns the failsafe key and end up on the island.

The implications of last night's episode are vast. The creepy old woman is definitely an other, as evidenced by her showing up in the sneak preview for next week's episode. So this may imply that the ultimate goal of the Others may not be as bad as we may think. So the Others may be using questionable means to get there, but their ultimate goal may be "good." So maybe Ben was right, they actually are "the good guys."

Last night's episode also suggests that like Desmond, the Universe determined that Oceanic flight 815 crash on the eyeland.

But perhaps the most important implication is that maybe the Universe that the LOSTies live in is the Universe where they're "getting it right."

I think I'm through declaring that certain LOST episodes are my "favorite." At this point, they have so many brilliant episodes completed, that it's hard to make declarative statements that are definite. All I know is that I am enjoying the ever living hell out of this show right now. I can't wait to see what's in store.

my two cents