Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve written a LOST rehash, and a lot has happened. But I’ve been watching; I didn’t give up LOST for Lent.

So as far as Widmore is concerned, Desmond is the key to protecting the island and saving world. And Desmond is willing to follow whoever comes along with a good story, even Zombie Sayid, after he gets zapped in the electromagnetic generator thingamabob. (I generally leave the science and engineering to Engineer Husband.)

In fact, this entire episode had a bit too much science mixed up with love-at-first-sight for my tastes. And suicidal Charlie? Yuck! But it’s all part of the story, or the wrong story, that Desmond has to save them from —or something. Musician or scientist either one, I still love Daniel Faraday.

SIgnificant lines tonight:

Desmond to Charlie: “There’s always a choice, brotha.”

Eloise to Desmond: “What happened, happened.”

Faraday to Desmond: “What if all of this wasn’t supposed to be our life? What if for some reason we changed things?”

Questions (there are always questions):
Who is that George guy, the limo driver? I know we’ve seen him before in another life, but I can’t remember who he was. He’s kind of creepy.

Michael is coming back?

Who’s Penny Milton? Is that Penny’s last name in sideways world? Milton, as in John Milton, Paradise Lost?

If Widmore needs Desmond, why was he so mean to him in that other lifetime, back when Desmond was in love with Penny? Was that before Widmore knew he needed Desmond? If so, when did Widmore find out that he needed to make somewhat nice with Desmond?

In fact, the when question is getting more and more insistent. Who knew what when? And how does stuff “cross over” from one time stream to another, like the “Not Penny’s Boat” vision that Desmond had? I need a timeline in three dimensions. Or else they need to go back and put all the scenes from all the seasons in chronological order, according to time stream. For instance, Season 1-3 only shows the stuff that happened to all the island people if the plane crashed, but starting way back when they were all born or something, if their births like Locke’s and Ben’s were significant. No flashbacks, memories of childhood, or anything like that–just everything in order. And give us dates. I’ll never get it straight otherwise. (Which means I’d better be content to never get it straight at all.)

It looks as if, from the previews for next week, Hurley is going to take on the leadership role. I think that’s a great idea. I always thought Hurley, in spite of his somewhat superstitious fear of the numbers, was the only one who had any sense on the island. Jack and Locke always acted like a couple of sixth graders fighting over who’s King of the Island.

The blog What’s Alan Watching has some good ideas about tonight’s episode.