The new recap is up at TWoP. In general, I don't think the Lost recaps have been very funny, but there was one bit in this one that cracked me up good. Also, this line gave me pause:

Back at his late-night fire, Jack's crying again. Behind him, a branch snaps and we hear ice cubes rattling. Huh: obviously this isn't just a hallucination -- there's something corporeal out there. These scenes sure make me hope the writers are awfully creative to come up with an explanation for all this stuff that doesn't seem like grade-A baloney.

See, I had pretty much the opposite reaction. I figured that the sound of ice cubes was supposed to be a tipoff that Jack was hallucinating. I mean, even if his father did come back to life, where in hell would he get ice cubes on the island?

From the camera crew?

Maybe it was in the bottles of Coca-Cola that the polar bears are drinking?

no kidding. That's kind of bullshit. People hear voices all the time. Aural hallucinations aren't often from lack of sleep though if I remember correctly.

BTW...what if Jack's dad is the monster. A shape-shifting monster.

I mean, even if his father did come back to life, where in hell would he get ice cubes on the island?

Maybe there's a hotel with an ice machine on the other side.

Right -- where the French people are laughing about the practical joke they played on the Americans.

You'd think that someone might propose doing a perimeter check of the island, at least.

There are probably a finite number of Ontological Mysteries available, falling in to three classes: the world is strange, or the people are strange, or there are strange people in a strange land.

My guess is that the island is last one. Jack was hallucinating the ice cubes (he is strange) the hallucinations were particularly vivid (the strangeness of the island at work.)

I'm reminded of The Forbidden Planet, with a lighter reliance on the Tempest paralells.

eta: Do I worry about a spoiling a movie made in 1956? Well, it doesn't hurt to whitefont:

There was a machine on the planet that magnified and made physical the impulses in a person's id. This manifested as a large invisible creature that liked to stomp on things and batter stuff down. My parallel from this to Lost is there may be some magical something on the island that works similarly.

Eek, Identity was the one of the first possible explanations I thought of. I actually wouldn't mind it, if I hadn't already thought of it... but since I have, I don't want them to do it. Unless it's all happening in Walt's head as a result of his three traumas in close succession. Maybe all the survivors are caught up in Walt's traumatized imagination; that could be fun. Derivative, but fun. Is there anything that isn't derivative?

I've got a theory, some kid is dreaming, and we're all caught in his wacky Broadway nightmare...

If it's Forbidden Planet , who's the innocent girl? Kate? Or is that taking it too far?

Interesting that "Kate" means "pure" when the character clearly isn't... unless it's a reference to her innocence of the crime she was accused of. I think the whole fake-arm-Kimble thing was meant to show us that she's innocent, otherwise why give the farmer a prosthetic at all?