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To be fair, it makes sense for the castaways to be gripped by intense emotions, and I blame the show's long layoff for dulling my sensitivity. And for the record, I appreciate very, very much the whole concept of getting some somethin'somethin' from the ladies ifyouknowwhatI'msayin'. If I had one significant quibble with the premiere, it was Jack's self-righteous homicidal rage toward Locke for throwing the knife into Naomi's back. Doc Messiah Complex just found out he was going to get rescued. His primary emotional state should be off-his-rocker euphoria. Would there really be any available bandwidth on his grid for the kind of eye-for-an-eye rancor it takes to want to shoot someone in the face? I could understand if Jack wanted to pass the downtime waiting for the choppers by tracking Locke down and hauling him back to civilization to stand trial for murder and general rescue-jeopardizing nutbaggery. But that moment when Jack got his chance and attempted a point-blank execution with Locke's unloaded gun? Sure, it was hardcore cool, and kudos to Matthew Fox for selling it, but talk about overkill.

Like I said, just a quibble. And anyway, the episode wasn't really about Jack; it was about Hurley. And so, while Jack and Kate separately searched the jungle for a she-ain't-dead-yet Naomi (Wake up, Naomi — there's plot-contrivance work to be done...), and the French Lady dragged a hilariously snarky Ben around the jungle, Hurley got the news from Desmond that Charlie had died in the Looking Glass, effectively killing his happy, cannonball-splashing buzz. The despair that quietly drooped off his grizzled face was heartbreaking. With the spotlight of a premiere shining intensely upon him, Jorge Garcia totally delivered.

Through Hurley's L.A. and Island story arcs, ''The Beginning of the End'' delivered its most watercooler-worthy moments. Perhaps none was more momentous than his discovery of Jacob's cabin during his wayward trek through the jungle. (Or did Jacob's cabin find him? Apparently, the ghost shack is mobile.) Peeking inside a cracked window, our frazzle-haired hero saw a freaky sight: a shadowy figure kicking it in a rocking chair. I asked the instant-replay officials in my head to analyze the sequence, and they are convinced that the spectral entity was none other than Christian Shephard, Jack's corpse-MIA father, doing his best Whistler's Mother impression. And who am I to argue with the voices in my head? Season 4 Burning Question No. 2: Is Christian Shephard actually Jacob, or was Ghost Dad just keeping the chair warm while the Ben-directing Ghost Other was taking a wicked ghost whiz?

A perplexing poltergeist of a different stripe — and accent — haunted Hurley's flash-forward. One day while buying some snacks at a convenience store, Hurley spotted Charlie's spirit by the Ho Hos — the terrifying catalyst for his Camaro cannonball run. Of course, he kept this info from the detective assigned to his case, none other than Big Mike Walton, Ana Lucia's old patrol partner, who wins my award for Flashback Character Least Likely to Be Ever Seen Again. Admit it: When he called her ''gorgeous,'' you chuckled, right? Because I know how all of you just loooooooved old Dirty Harriet. But he was affecting — and an effective reminder of the provocatively wired interconnectedness of the larger Lost world. Might Big Mike become some kind of season 4 Sherlock Holmes, obsessed with cracking the secrets of the Oceanic Six? Season 4 Burning Question No. 3: Why can't the Oceanic Six tell the truth about their Island past?

NEXT: Touched by an angel


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