So I guess "LA X" was in fact 6x1 AND 6x2.
* I want to see what Ben is doing (presuming he's alive) in the alternate timeline. Really badly. And what caused the Island to sink in the alternate timeline? The bomb wouldn't sink the Island, and it wouldn't leave all of those structures standing--it had to have been something else.
* "LA X" was easily the second-best season premiere (behind only "Pilot", and there's no shame in that). Most premieres are mostly wind-downs from the finale, and "LA X" was too to some extent, but it also showed us things (like the Temple, and the fact that the Monster is Black Robe) that I suspected we wouldn't see until later in the season. It also felt a lot more connected than last year's two-hour premiere (intentionally so, I suppose, since it was a two-part episode as opposed to two separate episodes).
* I read three recaps at DarkUFO, all missing obvious things. I don't mean to pick on that site, but it just goes to show that the idea of LOST experts is silly. I miss things all the time and put my foot in my mouth in this space every week too. But don't let some jackass bully you into the notion that his crazy theory is correct. Chances are good that you pick up on a lot of stuff that he misses as well.
* Sayid is not Jacob. I don't have any proof, mind you, so feel free to think that's the case if you'd like. However, I think it would be too easy, and would negate the importance of Jacob's murder. If Jacob is to be reborn, I suspect it will only be after a healthy amount of intrigue over what it means to be a "candidate".
On a related Jacob note, Lennon asks Hurley when Jacob is coming to the Temple. This seems to be more evidence that it was not Jacob trapped in the cabin; he seems to have been free to move around the Island, and apparently leaving his statue base to head to the Temple would not have been unprecedented.
Why isn't the ash always around the Temple?
A possible explanation offered by Erika at DarkUFO: We saw that Rousseau's team was attacked by the Monster near the Temple, that it lured them into the crevice under the Temple wall, and that is where it (as Locke) led Ben to itself. The Monster seemingly lives at Jacob's temple--is this some kind of dualistic balancing act, and now with Jacob gone the Monster will be able to use its access to cause harm. Or perhaps, as hinted at by Ryan at Zap2It, the Monster guarded the Temple to keep new Island visitors from getting there and being exposed to Jacob (and that perhaps that is why the High Priest and the other Others were so eager to kill the new visitors--they might believe that anyone who could get past the Monster and to the Temple had to be working in cahoots with him.)
* I can't believe that people who have rolled with all of the crazy things that have happened on LOST over the years are balking at the idea of a parallel universe. You can think quantum mechanics is hokum, if you'd like, but parallel universes have a much stronger logical foundation than deus ex machinas do, and those have been on the show forever.
