Okay, I watched the episode.

Two nitpicks: the accents were bloody awful. Also, the scene at the beginning on the helicopter - you can see the green screen! I don't just mean slightly - there's loads of it and it's bright green.

That said - it rocked. I can see exactly why it rated low (I suspect a portion of the audience was probably very confused), but it was very well put together. The 'constant' idea was wonderful, and the final phone call was nothing short of beautifully done.

Now I'm looking forward to the repeat. Lost is not a show I watch more than once, but the popups have made it fun to do so.

Me too, Laura! The popups are such a great way to get filled in on stuff missed, forgotten, etc. Also, using my mother as barometer as an average intelligent person, she has a really hard time following what's going on, and even hearing what is being said. [I think one reason why Donald Sutherland is so terrific on DSMoney is that he e-nun-ciates, unlike so many actors who are shooting for Sean Penn verisimili-mumbletude and just make people who can't hear what's going on quit watching. Hello, aging population!] The popups are invaluable for her, too.

I wonder if the ratings drop isn't due to Survivor. They get people away for the lead-in/pop-up show, and then people don't tune it. Or something. What a weird world it is when 12 million people watching isn't "good" though.

Somebody at TWOP pointed out that the whole Penny/Desmond thing was a tribute to The Time-Traveller's Wife.

I'm amazed that nobody pointed that out here given how often it was brought up in conjunction with Journeyman.

Heck, I loved that book and I didn't bring it up and I didn't really see it so much with Journeyman.

Somebody at TWOP pointed out that the whole Penny/Desmond thing was a tribute to The Time-Traveller's Wife.

Oh yeah, I do recall seeing a similarity there. I kept waiting for Daniel to tell Desmond he had chronodisplacement disorder.

I am still loving Lost. I crave it all week. What the heck is up with that?

I actually said to myself 'I'm really not that bothered this season' going in. And here I am, counting down the days until new episodes. It really is crack.

'Lost': A Desmond Fact-Check.

EW.com continues to have meaty Lost speculation (there's a small teaser/spoiler from Lindelof about what we'll find out tonight, but you can shut your eyes and scroll past the bold to get to the evaluation of "The Constant"). A lot of interesting thoughts about last week's episode, including this:

But here's a Big Question: since scoring Penelope's phone number, has Course-Corrected Desmond lived his life knowing that on Christmas Eve 2004, he MUST be on a freighter in the South Pacific in order to make a call to Penelope if he wants any chance of having a future with her? Lindelof says this is indeed a matter we should be mulling. Perhaps in the future, Lost will give us an episode that replays Desmond's backstory (getting the boat from Libby; killing Kelvin; meeting the castaways) from the point of view of this knowingness.

And especially this:

I tip my hat to Lost blogger Vozzek69 (at darkufo.blogspot.com) and some of my own readers for catching this one: It seems most likely that the time-travel illness that killed Minkowski is the same mythical ''sickness'' that killed The French Lady's fellow scientists wayyy back in the day. I really love this idea. I was never fond of the idea that ''the sickness'' was a Dharma hoax. It just didn't feel right. But this — this feels right. And if it is right, I love it even more for the way this answer was basically left for us to puzzle out, as opposed to having some dude explain it all to us. I expect that in the coming episodes and seasons, more Lost mysteries will be resolved this way.

Time travel solves everything! Those Adam/Eve skeletons? Time travel! The four-toed statue? Time travel! Global warming? Time travel!

What about the Polar Bears?

Time travel!

ETA: Profit!