With one bound, Jack was free

Here there be Lost spoilers.

Not much gets my butt out of a chair in front of the TV, cheering like I’m at the Superbowl. Hell, not even the Superbowl has that effect on me, come to think of it. Now, Hugo Reyes rocketing out of the forest in that VW minibus, that gets me outta my chair, whooping and cheering.

Other high points:

Sayid taking out one of his captors while (A) unarmed and (B) tied up.
Sawyer’s final dealings with Mr. Friendly = ’bout damn time.

Moments that filled me with dread:

Locke = Dude, if I told you the island wants you to die, would you just get on with it? I think the reason that Ben was so eager to let Walt off the island, and wanted to get rid of Locke, is that they each indicated that they had heard Jacob.
Ben still breathing by the end of the show: C’mon, if it’s good enough for “Tom”…at least Rousseau slugged the crap out of him though. I was just sorry Jack didn’t put an end to the little freak.
Charlie…it punched me in the gut that he doesn’t get to stay with Claire and help raise her baby. Present circumstances probably caused me to react more strongly to this than I might have otherwise.
Walt = WTF!??!?
The missing year on New Caprica = Okay, my brain hurts now, though I had a suspicion all along that it was flash-forward time.

Year 4-6 predictions/observations:

Locke takes Ben’s place as the island’s chief weirdo. (As if he hasn’t already…)
Mr. Alpert’s absence from the endgame of this episode is off-the-scale conspicuous. I suspect he’s in league with “the bad guys” – I don’t think he’s been in Ben’s corner for a long time, if ever. Probably, given how the Purge went, more scared of Ben than respectful of him.
Ben is the man in the casket – remember, he’s Mr. Tumor. It’s altogether more likely to be him than Locke.

And my biggie prediction:

From here on out, happenings on the island will be the flashbacks vs. the miserable present-day/future where Jack is a hirsute hydrocodone-hoarding alcoholic.

Okay, season’s over. Lay on with the season 3 soundtrack CD, Giacchino. It’s the only thing that’s gonna tide me over until the next season.