I was talking with a friend earlier today about the shows this season, and we agreed that they just keep getting better and better.

I mean, when we met the young Rousseau and found out Jin was alive last week, did you think this week could top it? Well, it did, imho.

Some Twitter friends and I were discussing our favorite lines from the episode, and there were two that really made us guffaw:

Miles: “He’s Korean, I’m from Encino.”

Ben: “I didn’t account for traffic.”

True Lost fans don’t need the context for those quotes to laugh again at them.

But those aren’t even what made last night so fabulous.

First off:

Charlotte:

Her deathbed conversation with Daniel was extremely illuminating, in that Lost sort of way, where you learn a whole bunch of info, but still don’t know exactly what it means.

We now know she grew up on the island, and I am 99.9 percent sure now that she is Annie, Ben’s childhood sweetheart. She seems much younger than Ben, but we know that time moves differently on and off the island and so that really doesn’t matter.

Why did her mother move her from the island? Did Faraday somehow convince her to leave and tell her daughter the island didn’t exist? We know he told Charlotte never to come back or she’d died.

Faraday seemed to be surprised by this, but I believe it hasn’t happened yet in his life. He hasn’t traveled back in time to Charlotte’s childhood. And despite his knowing you can’t change the past, he tries anyway, hoping against hope that this time it will work.

Now, it previously had seemed Faraday knew she was from the island, but it didn’t seem that way last night. Not exactly what the deal is there.

Charlotte’s death could, however, mean that Miles doesn’t have much time left. I’m pretty sure he’s Marvin Candle’s son and lived his first few years on the island, but was young enough when he left to have forgotten it. And it could explain why he’s able to talk to the dead. An odd power he has from being born there into the Dharma Initiative.

Locke:

As soon as he started climbing down into the well, I turned to my husband and said, “What if the island jumps to a time when the well didn’t exist while he’s in it?”

My husband immediately replied, “Well, I’m sure we’ll find out.”

A second later, the island jumped to a time when the well didn’t exist and Locke had broken legs.

Why is it that every time Christian Shepherd appears, I’m always completely startled? You’d think by now that I wouldn’t be.

So, it appeared Locke got the wheel back on its axis or whatever, and we know he gets off the island, so he did whatever he needed to do. I’m assuming that once he is brought back to the island, he will be alive in whatever way Christian Shepherd is.

I had a convo with another Lost fan friend about Locke and why Richard Alpert got so bent out of shape when Locke chose the knife over the compass when Alpert comes to visit him as a child.

But the thing is, the compass didn’t belong to Locke, never did. He only had it temporarily – not even a day, in his time. The knife WAS the right thing for him to choose; it was actually his, most likely.

Alpert didn’t realize this, however, because he hadn’t given the compass to Locke yet. He’d only received the compass from Locke a dozen or so years earlier, on the island. He only thought the compass was Locke’s.

So here’s a question – where on earth did this compass come from? It exists only in the time loop between Locke giving it to Alpert and Alpert giving it to Locke.

OK, I just realized that as I was typing it and I made my head hurt.

The Oceanic Six:

I knew Sun was going to go along with Ben and Jack if she thought there was ANY chance of Jin still being alive. Jack’s already in. Hurley’s getting out of jail in the morning, and I’m thinking it won’t be too hard to get him to go back, if Sun and Jack are going, and Charlie’s already told him he needed to.

So that leaves Kate, Aaron and Sayid.

Guessing that something happens to Kate, another threat relating to her ability to keep Aaron, to make her change her mind. Or does she just love Jack that much? Can’t stand the thought of losing both Sawyer and Jack? Or she realizes she can get Sawyer back?

So Sayid. What on heaven and earth are they going to tell Sayid that makes him go with them? I’m guessing we’ll find out next week, but I can’t fathom what that might be.

Question: Does Desmond go back with them? And what will Eloise Hawking’s reaction be when he tells her that Daniel’s on the island? Will that change her calculations? Will she freak out? Does she already know? TELLMETELLMETELLME.

Rousseau:

As for our favorite crazy French lady, here’s what I’m curious about: Did Smokey actually change Rousseau’s shipmates or did the combination of Smokey, her shipmates going under the temple and Jin disappearing into thin air drive her so bat-guano crazy that she just believed it?

Now, I know you’re going to point out that her husband tried to shoot her when she lowered her rifle. BUT, I posit, she’d already killed their other two surviving ship mates. Perhaps he thought she had been contaminated or made insane somehow and was truly trying to protect himself.

I am not convinced of that, but I also am not convinced that’s wrong.

Who else is loving the opportunity to see Rousseau’s backstory? And to see Smokey after so much time.

Speaking of Smokey, here’s something interesting: It dragged Locke into a hole in the ground, but let go. Not so this time. Why? Were Rousseau’s shipmates NOT supposed to be on the island, and were just a casualty of Rousseau’s needing to make it to the island so Alexandra would be born?

And was the hole in the ground a different one than the one Lock was dragged into? If it’s the same one, what happened to the temple?

Don’t even get me started on wondering what the temple actually is, because I’ve blocked that question out of my mind for fear that I might become as insane as Rousseau.

Jin:

Who else felt SO badly for Jin when yet another gun is cocked behind him?

I was so thrilled to hear Sawyer’s voice and know that he was OK, and finally had caught up with the other Losties.

I know Jin is convinced that Sun shouldn’t come back, but we know better. I wonder what he’s gonna do when he sees her again. On the one hand, he’ll be pretty damn happy. On the other, he’ll be pretty damn upset.

Question: Is it just me, or has his English REALLY improved quickly?

Also, how did Jin know that Charlotte spoke Korean? I have a vague recollection of some look exchanged between Jin/Sun and Charlotte back on the beach, but I wonder if I’m remembering something real or if I’m making that up? Anyone recall? And if that’s not the case, wtf?

UPDATE: OK, as one reader posted in the comments below and a friend e-mailed me on Facebook, Jin knew last season that Charlotte spoke Korean – Juliet brought Charlotte and Faraday, along with Sun and Jin to the medical hatch. Sun & Jin were speaking in Korean and Jin noticed that Charlotte smiled as they were speaking. (They were talking about how obvious it was that Faraday liked Charlotte.) Fast forward in the episode, Jin speaks to Charlotte — in Korean — and tells her that if she doesn’t make sure Sun is on the boat off the island, he will hurt Faraday.

Thank you both. I knew if I raised the question, less cluttered minds than I would recall.

That’s about it for now, I think.