I liked most of the raft stuff, even if it did go on a little too long, but the Locke/Kate/Jack/Hatch guy stuff seemed worse than just wasting time, since they actually took us backwards and showed us scenes we'd already seen.

Pulling a bullet out of your shoulder with your bare hands and no painkillers is pretty badass.

Well, it certainly says something about the length of his fingernails. It's not like he's cleaning lint out of his bellybutton, you know?

I agree with a lot of EW's review of the ep:

''[T]reading water'' would prove to be the only note I really needed to make about the second episode of Lost's sophomore season. There wasn't much forward movement in ''Adrift,'' which may have been the ironic intention. If it was, then neat for Lost's clever, punny writers — but disappointing for at least this fan.

...All of the bitchy bantering took place while a hungry shark cruised around them or eyeballed them from below. Sometimes Michael and Sawyer seemed rather alarmed about the prospect of being eaten. Other times they seemed to forget that Son of Jaws was in the vicinity. On the whole, the scenes were unconvincing and anticlimactic.

...Even more disappointing was Michael's flashback story, which must rank among the poorest and most clumsily integrated flashbacks we've seen so far in Lost. Here's what we learned about Michael: nothing...I was really looking forward to learning something new about Michael. I didn't.

...''Adrift'' did, however, have its moments, and all of them were in the Hatch. True, not a lot of forward movement here, either...Terry O'Quinn (Locke) proved once again that he was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor Emmy — I loved the kid-in-a-candy-store look on his face when he stepped inside Desmond's underground abode; I loved his game attempt to play along with Desmond's creepy ''Are you him?'' questions (recalling ''Is it safe?'' from Marathon Man); and I loved the shadings and unspoken meanings in his hesitancy to press the execute button on Desmond's curiously old computer (''I haven't seen one of these in 20 years!'') after he was instructed to input a string of numbers all of us know to be Hurley's cursed Lotto digits. Thank you, Terry, and thank you, Locke and Desmond, for salvaging the first mediocre episode of the season. I only wish it hadn't come so soon!

Random observations and questions:

1. Your theory on the function of Desmond's computer: now.

2. Your thoughts on why Locke took off his shoes when he entered the Hatch: now.

3. Your reaction to my contention that Kate wiggling out of her bonds represented some of the best acting Evangeline Lilly has ever done on this show: now.

4. Your response to my suspicion that a multitude of drooling fanboys ''needed some time alone'' after watching Kate and her cleavage crawl through Desmond's air ducts: now

5. Hurley's numbers, when added up, equal 108. That number is also included in Desmond's mural. Where else have we seen 108 before?

6. Locke says that 43 people survived the crash. The deaths of Boone and Arzt take the number down to 41. Assuming that Walt isn't dead, and adding in the survivor that will be discovered in next week's episode (Ana Lucia), that bumps the number up to 42 — the last number in Hurley's Lotto string. Is my math fuzzy? If not, am I onto something? And if so, can you tell me what it is?

7. So, uh...what did one snowman say to the other snowman?

I've got the number of Flight 815 survivors that Locke's aware of (thus not including Ana Lucia) at 44 (48 minus the marshall, drowning vic, Scott/Steve, Boone, and Arzt, plus Turniphead), but 43 works if Locke's including Ethan (was he in the original count of 48? When did he first appear amongst the survivors?) among the dead.

7. So, uh...what did one snowman say to the other snowman?

According to this page, "Can you smell carrots?"

3. Your reaction to my contention that Kate wiggling out of her bonds represented some of the best acting Evangeline Lilly has ever done on this show: now.

I'm friends with a guy who is flexible enough to do this easily. In handcuffs. Now, if I had tried, I would have dislocated one or both shoulders.

5. Hurley's numbers, when added up, equal 108. That number is also included in Desmond's mural. Where else have we seen 108 before?

After Locke typed in Hurley's numbers and pressed execute, didn't the flip-numbers change to 108000?

Okay, well I'm apparently alone in still liking the show a LOT, and liking last night's episode specifically.

Okay, so Michael's flashbacks didn't give us anything new (except for the polar bear plushie, nice...), but I think it was meant to give some sort of character arc to what was going on on the raft, which was a whole lot of static nothing.

Of course, I think I'm one of three people who liked the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away, so somehow I have a pretty decent tolerance for nothing happening as a storytelling device. I also like Waiting for Godot.

Regardless, I'll be over here, liking the show, all by my little ol' lonesome.

A "nothing much" ep would probably work better later in the season, but this is only the second week--I want some info! And, if there are no answers to be had, at least some more questions! I think that they could have combined last week's ep with this week's and shrunk them down to a 90-minute extended episode, especially if they moved Michael's flashbacks to another ep (maybe when Walt returns?).

Okay, well I'm apparently alone in still liking the show a LOT, and liking last night's episode specifically.

t /chopped liver

but I think it was meant to give some sort of character arc to what was going on on the raft, which was a whole lot of static nothing.

Here's the thing though -- I felt the exact opposite. On the raft, we had the suspense of not knowing when they'd hit land, whether or not Jin was alive, whether or not Michael and Sawyer would start making out kill each other...it was awewome. Whereas the flashback didn't exactly tell us anything new. We already knew the broad outlines of what happened with his losing Walt, and I didn't feel like we got anything filled in that changed how we felt about that. I would have happily traded the flashbacks for more raft time.

whether or not Michael and Sawyer would start making out kill each other

I'm still trying to figure out whether Sawyer giving Michael mouth-to-mouth was a shout-out.

And if I weren't intrigued by Desmond, I totally would have stopped watching by now, I think.

Regardless, I'll be over here, liking the show, all by my little ol' lonesome.

Nonsense. I'm over there, too. I'm still liking it a LOT.