Finally an episode on the caliber of Season 1. Excellent and I am looking forward to re-watching it! :)

I love Sayid's character - so torn, tormented and complex. All of this flashback episodes have been great and this one was certainly no disappointment. Did Sayid truly torture her? Or was he giving her peace and saving himself? There was some stellar acting during that particular moment, my heart was aching was both characters at that point.

The contrast of Locke (clueless fool) versus Sayid (methodical and accurate) was made even more apparent in this episode. But really this "bumbling" Locke is almost going too far now. I am missing that air of confidence that was around Locke in first season (boar hunting), it is totally gone for me now.

Though I think Locke may have a saving grace - I think we he entered 77 that something else was alerted of the incursion. I am not convinced that's what blew up the Flame station - Ms Klugh or Mikhail could have signaled something to explode the station or perhaps whoever was alerted by the incursion triggered it. I think we might also find it's really "intuition" after all that's what Locke uses to guide himself and how they located the Flame station. I hope they save Locke's character and that he discovered something after hitting 77 that we will find out on a later date.

What was also interesting about that computer was the fact the communications to the outside world would appear to be down "since the sky turned purple."

Poor Sawyer no more nicknames for a week (what's that another 4-5 episodes probably?). I am going to miss them though you deserved to have your ass-whipped by Hurley. And did anyone else love when Sawyer looked at Niki and said "who the hell are you?" And calling Sun "crouching tiger, hidden dragon.". Oh I am going to miss Sawyer's quips. Sigh.

The only massive question this episode raised for me was Mikhail's story which Sayid thinks was bunk - but did it have some truth in it? The "hostiles" (others?) were on the island before the Dharma Initiative, and Mikhail said he was the last surviving member which could be true and he could have joined the hostiles.

I do think the hostiles/others were there prior to Dharma to now - it makes sense if you believe in Ben's genuine unfamiliarity with the Swan, the missing piece of the Orientation film in which Candle warns against any outside communication, and I'm sure there's more. It also clarifies Juliet's statements to Jack, they aren't actually "left over" members of Dharma but they seem to have occupied a lot of Dharma's things. But it would also mean the hostiles/others recruit people to come to the island.

One other thing we learned is that Ms Klugh was willing die for what she knew - so that no one discovers whatever the heck is going on the island.

Should Sayid have killed Mikhail? Or let Danielle do it? Is this going to come back and haunt him? It will be interesting to see where Sayid's map will lead them! :)

Good summary of the Easter Eggs on this episode from here http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

And the conversation in Russian as translated by Lostpedia.org:

Klugh: Mikhail! You know what to do.
Mikhail: We still have another way.
Klugh: We cannot risk. You know what to do.
Mikhail: We still have another way.
Klugh: We cannot risk. You know the conditions.
Mikhail: We have another way.
Klugh: They know us. We will not let them [unintelligible]. You know what to do. It is an order.
Mikhail: But we still have another way! (pause) I'm sorry! (shoots)