Here’s my standard disclaimer: If you have not seen the show, stop reading right here. Seriously. Because you will find out things that you do not want to know. And your right to comment “OMG!!! You TOTALLY ruined it for me!!11!!1!” has been rescinded, as usual. Onward…

1. How many people tried to adjust their TV volume when Kate was in the tree? My thoughts: “Wait, the part right before this was in regular sound…but maybe this is some kind of Lost karma…I wait like 5 years to see the season premiere and the sound conks out on my TV. Fabulous.” I wonder how many cable/satellite providers got phone calls. But it was a very cool way to describe what it is like to have your hearing temporarily blown out.

2. That is actually Kate (Evangeline Lilly) climbing in the tree, not a stunt double (for the majority of the shots, anyway). Her nickname on the Lost set is “Monkey” because of her ability to climb.

2. Come on, Lost, your CGI budget must be higher than that. The fish looked pretty real, I give you that…but they went by in like 2 milliseconds. The underwater island scenes…looked like CGI from 5 years ago. I understand you have a limited budget…and it was a great way to show the “alternate universe” of the island…but come on. (I do add the comment that I could never do the amazing work that CGI people do. Hopefully that cancels out any bad CGI karma I may have received from this comment.)

3. Anyone catch the pylons from Smokey’s fence in the underwater scene? (“Smokey” is the affectionate term for the Smoke Monster). But they seemed pretty close to the village. Maybe being underwater shifts everything closer together. Yeah, that’s it!

4. The Dharma symbol on the shark: This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a shark with a Dharma symbol. http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sharks My question is: Is this the same shark as before, or one of his cousins/siblings/parents/grandpas? (Like this actually matters. But hey, you never know…the shark could hold ALL THE ANSWERS TO THE LOST UNIVERSE!!) And I loved that there was a commercial for ABC’s “Shark Tank” show during the episode. Subliminal advertising?

5. Nice to know that in the alternate timeline, Jack is still needing two trial-size vodkas. The more things change, the more they remain the same!

6. Jack and Sawyer = the new Jacob and Smokey? Or Jack = the new Jacob? My guess is that the reason why the temple people wanted to talk to Jack was because he is not on Jacob’s list. Wasn’t there a comment about that in a previous episode? I don’t think Jack is on Jacob’s list because he *is* Jacob now.

7. Smokey, Smokey, Smokey…you are but a shadow of your former CGI self. What happened? Did you decide you were going for a more streamlined, minimalist look? Or is your CGI budget getting low? (See #2).

8. Locke’s (Smokey’s) eyes after he told Ben that he wants to get home….Creeeepy!! One of the reasons Terry O’Quinn is a great actor. His eyes spoke volumes.

9. I love how Lost is kind of poking fun of itself with the dialogue. It catches on that we’ve had more “Huh?” moments than the average TV viewer. Example: My paraphrasing of Jin’s explanation of the skeleton (Montag) with one arm in the cave. “Yeah, the Smoke Monster tore off his arm.” In the first season, everyone would have been all “OMG!!! THE SMOKE MONSTER!” Now, after all the crap they have been through, Hurley’s response is kind of like ours at home…”Oh, this is just fabulous.”

10. So that’s where Cindy and the kids have been hanging out. This does give us an idea of “where in time” the Losties are. The kids don’t look that much older from when Flight 815 crashed.

11. As usual, Hurley provides the comic relief for the show, and voices what the viewers are thinking.

Hurley, on seeing Sayid gurgling blood: “Oh God, this is gross.”

12. Hurley has either resigned himself to the fact that crazy stuff keeps happening to him, or he’s just become a go with the flow, rolling with the punches kind of guy. He’s already hallucinated people before (remember Dave?), so what the hey.

Hurley, after being told by Jacob that Jacob died an hour ago: “Sorry, dude. That sucks.”

12. You have to give credit to Hurley for knowing that ankh was in the guitar case and still lugging it around anyway.

13. The first aid box on the plane doesn’t have anything sharp in it because it is “regulation”. Hahahaaa. There goes the “aid” in “first aid”.

14. Jeff Fahey is a great actor. Just the way he said the Others “took me to a cabin…which they promptly burned….and brought me along with the dead guy in the box. They say they’re the good guys.” Those lines were delivered with a combination of “Whatever”, “I can’t believe this”, and “Do you believe this crap?”

15. Best name for Locke/Smokey: Smocke. http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/02/03/lost-episodes-601-602-recap-la-x/ The recap also has some great points about Smocke under “Smoke Signals”.

16. Was Desmond really on the plane, or was he a hallucination of Jack’s? Was he sent by someone or something to trigger Jack’s memory? And if Rose really was napping while Desmond was sitting there, she has a weird way of napping. She’s sitting straight up and even appears to be talking during the Desmond/Jack scene.

17. At first I thought Desmond was reading “Our Mutual Friend”, the book he had said in previous episodes was the last book he was going to read before he died. But it’s not. DarkUFO has a “Lost Books” section on his blog. Worth checking out: http://lostbooks.blogspot.com/

18. Hey, the guy in the cave (Montag) was reading a Kierkegaard book! Cool! Another Lost philosopher reference. So far I think they haven’t mentioned Heidegger yet…but hey, the season is still young, right?

19. Even in the “alternate universe/timeline”, it appears that people may still meet similar fates. The Marshall with Kate even gets bonked on the same place on his head, only this time Kate was responsible, not the briefcase.

20. My first reaction when the Marshall picked up the spring from Kate’s handcuff-opening tool: “Ewww…he’s picking that up off the PUBLIC BATHROOM FLOOR! Gross!!”

21. Does it seem like some of the show has become “make it up as we go along”? I know Ben was originally only supposed to be on a few episodes of the show…so I’m assuming the writers had to either alter a storyline somewhat or create a new one.

22. The “alternate universe/reality” scenes: Were those filmed at the same time as the scenes from Season 1, Episode 1? I’m guessing maybe not, since the actors do look a little older.

23. Artz and Frogurt (Steve) make a comeback. This to me was even better than Claire’s reappearance in the episode.

24. Now we know what the ash circle does. It keeps out Smokey. But you better make that circle pretty big, because Smokey can knock you out of the circle. And then you’re a goner. That Smokey. He’s a quick one.

25. Biggest sign we’re in an alternate universe/reality: Hurley, in response to Sawyer: “Nothing bad ever happens to me. I’m the luckiest guy alive.”

26. Was Hurley talking about Outback when he was on the phone at the taxi stand? It sounded like he wanted to buy into the Outback Steakhouse franchise. But maybe I just thought that because I was craving a Bloomin’ Onion.

27. Oh, of *course* Sayid comes back to life! What was I thinking?? **Smacks forehead with palm**

Tags: Desmond, Dharma, episode, Hurley, Jack, Jeff Fahey, Kate, LA X, LAX, Lost, Sawyer, Sayid, season, show, Terry O'Quinn