And I got the idea that the plane Hurley was supposed to be on was the one flying overhead when his car broke down, so he'd have been last minute also.

That's what I thought too, but the ticket he showed the bitchy lady was for 815.

Huh. I could swear there was a mention of 417 or something non-ominous somewhere in there. Guess not.

Where did the motor boat come from that The Others had? How did they get gas?

From the BP station on the other side of the island ("You'd think something this big would have been discovered by now!"), along with Freaky-Ass Island of Doom Resort and Spa(tm), managed by Owen T. Other but owned by Sandals. It's part of their chain of castaway resorts, for those who want to get away from it all permanently!

At some point there must have been considerable technological resources on the island to build the hatch and whatever radio setup it is that's been transmitting for 16 years. A small boat with a large leftover gasoline supply isn't much in comparison to that.

If the security system is mechanical, its speed and accuracy in being able to snare Locke from a distance is pretty impressive. If the island itself is artificial and mobile, that's an engineering feat that I would assume to be beyond the current capability of the US government, let alone that of any government 16+ years ago.

Walt's creepy gifts and the apparent ability of the string of numbers to influence events implies either the supernatural or a level of technology capable of manipulating probability (which would essentially appear supernatural to a modern day observer).

Maybe I'm not snarky enough by nature, but I was just reading the TWoP forums, and there are some seriously pissed off people there. I don't know about anyone else, but I loved last night's finale, and I didn't expect *every* single question to be answered because, hello, no reason to watch next season then, right? I don't know -- I didn't think it was a waste of time at all.

There are a few things I'm still wondering, though, and hoping will get resolved next season, including:

Did Ethan take Claire, or Rousseau? Because Claire's extremely brief memory flashback showed her scratching Rousseau, yes? Does Rousseau know Ethan? Were they together in some way? Did I miss something?

What about the black and white theme? Was that a throwaway? The black and white stones where the victims from the old crash at the caves were found, the backgammon pieces, etc. Didn't that seem more important earlier?

From the finale, I'm most interested in:

Who the scary boat people are. Why do they have a boat, and gas? And guns? Are they the "Others"?

Why do they want Walt?

What happened between Walt and Hurley (at the airport presumably) that resulted in that thumbs-up look from Hurley?

What the hell is the InvisioMechaSaur thing?!

If the security system is mechanical, its speed and accuracy in being able to snare Locke from a distance is pretty impressive. If the island itself is artificial and mobile, that's an engineering feat that I would assume to be beyond the current capability of the US government, let alone that of any government 16+ years ago.

Mobile? Wow. That would be freaky. But yeah, there's a whole strange combination of technological and apparently supernatural forces that seem weird together. Or are highly coicindental.

See, I just took it as Hurley being happy as all get out that he made the flight, noticing Walt looking at him (the last passenger on the plane), and giving him the thumbs up because he was so glad to be there.

Maybe I'm not snarky enough by nature, but I was just reading the TWoP forums, and there are some seriously pissed off people there.

I don't know about seriously pissed off, since I never lent it my heart, but I did think it was a crappy finale that accomplished pretty much nothing that couldn't have been accomplished in a regular 46 minute episode. Then at least the pacing would have been great.

Walt's creepy gifts and the apparent ability of the string of numbers to influence events implies either the supernatural or a level of technology capable of manipulating probability (which would essentially appear supernatural to a modern day observer).

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke

ETA - meaning: Word to MattTBF

PS - I liked the ep because I had sufficiently adjusted my expectations to less than the "awesomely mind-blowing experience wherein all your questions will be answered" that TPTB promised. I think it should have lost about 20 mins of commercials and it would have fit into a 90 minute with no problem. That "secret scene" shit was.. bull. Still want to know what happened in it though. (Heh. Sucka!)

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke

Oooh! So true, too. I still don't get how, like, cell phones work.

I did think it was a crappy finale that accomplished pretty much nothing that couldn't have been accomplished in a regular 46 minute episode.

I guess I'm just a slut for the pretty. I'd rather watch two hours of Sayid and Sawyer and, yes, even Jack, than anything else. The pacing could have been quicker, but I didn't mind it as I watched.

I just took it as Hurley being happy as all get out that he made the flight

Yeah, could be. I was just having fun imagining what else it could be.

What happened between Walt and Hurley (at the airport presumably) that resulted in that thumbs-up look from Hurley?

Ah, but Hurley wasn't at the airport (without running) long enough to interact with anyone on that plane beforehand. I'm thinking that if the thumbs-up wasn't just a "Dude, I made it!" thing from Hurley (which I don't think it was, otherwise why would he just make it to Walt?), that there might have been a connection made between them somewhere in Sydney. We don't know why Hurley was in Australia, do we? I'm thinking we have some good flashblack material coming up next season.

Oh, and I'm with AmyLiz in that I loved last night's ep, and am also loving the lingering questions. If they provided too many answers last night, I would have been either seriously ticked off, or worried that the producers wanted to wrap things up before being cancelled.

Salon has their review of the ep up, and they had a few good comments:

Wait -- did the creepy jungle bird actually screech "Hurley!" as it flew away? Yes!

Hurley is the show's most endearing character, the most grounded, the least addled by murky personal preoccupations and regrets, so it makes sense that he's got the freakiest secret to keep.

Then there's the "monster." Is it invisible, or what? Why, as Karen Carpenter might ask, do trees shoot into the sky every time it stomps by? [Hee!]

Once upon a time, a month ago, these people were strangers, the [airplane] scenes seem to be telling us -- and they were nicer to each other then.

It would be weird, but appropriate if "Lost" turned out to be like "Deadwood," a story about the mystery of how people manage to live together given how maddening people can be. (The French woman, named after yet another famous philosopher, stands for the alternative, and look what it's done for her.) The finale's chief plot twist -- that the Others only thought they wanted Claire's baby, which explains why they tossed her back to Charlie after a few days -- made less of an impact than the trauma that resulted from it. Seeing Walt kidnapped from the deck of the S.S. Deathtrap while Michael, once so eager to give him away, looked helplessly on, was a heart-breaker. As dismal as that damn raft looked, it turns out there are worse things.