I knew from some spoilers awhile ago that Ilana was going to die, but I didn’t know how.
I absolutely LOVE how Jack has faith now and that he is just going with the flow even though it’s hard for him.
I read that Jack and MIB will have a every interesting conversation, I’m guessing that, that scene will take place in the next episode, I can’t wait to see that scene!
I think the two things I’m wondering about the most right know is: 1. How will Locke getting hit by Desmond in the Flash-Sideways effect things? And 2. What is going to happen to Desmond! Desmond is in my top five characters so I really hope his story ends up good!

I’m really looking forward to Episode 15: Across the Sea , and I’m really, really nervous for Episode 14: The Candidate! Can’t Wait!

I can’t believe LOST is going to be over soon!

I kept expecting Michael to find an excuse to scream "WAAAAAALLLLLLLTTTTTTT!!!!!" Awesome that they explained the whispers finally. And it makes sense considering Boone's voice has been heard amongst the Whispers.

Love love love loved the Hurley/Libby stuff in the sideways flashes. So happy they found each other and are remembering knowing each other. And they got to have that picnic! Interesting to see Miles' dad at the start. Yet another character turning up who shouldn't be alive if this universe was spawned by the nuclear explosion. Both Desmonds are starting to creep me out, especially considering what Desmond did to Locke. If his mind is traveling back and forth across realities, does he not understand that wasn't Locke that threw him down the well and that's why he tried to kill Locke?

Ilana's death caught me completely by surprise. Reminiscent of Arzt, back in season one. Can't say I'm devastated she's dead, but I don't feel like we really got to know her. I wish we'd seen more.

exploded Ilana. I can't believe that, even after the whole Arznt thing, I was still shocked. I was literally saying to my brother just before it happen how come when she throws dynamite around she doesn't get dead, and then she did. It still made me jump, and laugh a little bit. Well done show. Although - slightly unnerving, we've now had a major character killed, if you considered Ilana major - not really sure what she did. And then Desmond!! Is he dead or just stuck down a well? His lack of fear was pretty creepy. At least now, in my books, Smokey is a bad guy for sure - you just can't throw Desmond down a well and get away with it!

And bye bye Black Rock! I don't know what to make of the Team Jacob spilt. I mean Hurley's brilliant, but bringing all the remaining candidates to Smokey can only end in tears. Plus, Richard, Ben & Miles are probably my three favourite characters, I just fear that they are going to be Team Dead. Have any of you thought that, since these guys are going to Hydra Island, that they might be the outrigger that the time travellers get shot by/shoot at? I think it's got to either be them or Widmore's lot.

As for the Whispers answer - yeay, we got an answer & it makes perfect sense to me.

Off Island. Ok, I'm glad Hurley's remembering and what not, but I was never a big Libby fan so I'm gonna move on to - Desmond ran Locke down! I was literally like 'what the heck just happened?' I don't understand - the only reason I can think of is that perhaps he'll be treated by Jack, and Jin & Sun might be in the hospital too?

Smokey doesn't have all the candidates, and can't leave just yet.

Hydra Island - Widmore has captured Desmond, probably where Des was shot following Ben's attack on Penny at the docks (Season 5). He says that he brought Des to the Island and will require a great sacrifice from him. Jin and Zoe pass a big wooden planked room on the way to the Generator Room. I don't think we've seen this room in the series before (but the staircase, or one like it) was seen in the LOST: Missing Pieces, 'Room 23' episode, where Juliet and Ben talk about Walt being too dangerous for them.
Widmore's crew prepare to do tests on Des. There's talk of EM fields (likely electromagnetic fields) and solenoids. One of Widmore's people, Simmons is fried in a freak accident as he tests the radiation levels of the solenoids. These solenoids look something like the electromagnetic coils of the Hadron Collider machine (I had to look up the name). This machine was/is being used by CERN scientists to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang.
Des is taken to the room with the solenoids. Widmore's crew ask Des if he has any metal objects on him. I guess they'd short-circuit the machine, or worse. Widmore pleas with Desmond to sacrifice something, otherwise everyone he loves will cease to exist. Jin wants to know why they need Des and Widmore tells him that he's the only person they know that has survived a catastrophic electromagnetic event (referring to the Swan hatch explosion in the Season 2 finale). He wishes to test him again, to see if he can survive something similar before he sacrifices something, or they will all die. This is crazy! Something big is going down on the Island. I'm guessing it involves Desmond, Smokey and large amounts of electromagnetic energy. The solenoids are turned on, they and Des burn with an intense white light, more powerful but reminiscent of the Swan hatch explosion and the Frozen Donkey Wheel, when it was used to skip through time (not unlike a scene in the graphic novel, Watchmen, where the scientist becomes Dr. Manhattan). What's going on here? Will Desmond be transported through time?

No.
He's floating through the clouds. Dead?
No.
Desmond is in the sideways reality, at the LA X airport!
Des continues the mirror motif by staring at his reflection at the Oceanic Airlines flight times. He encounters Hurley, then Claire. He doesn't seem to recognise him, either do they.
George Mikowski meets Des at the airport. He's his driver and go-to-guy. Mikowski was one of the crew on-board Widmore's freighter (Season 4). In this reality Des is single and works for Widmore. He has Widmore's approval. We discover Daniel Faraday is a musician and that Widmore's wife (Eloise Hawking?) is putting on a charity ball combo - dinner and classic/rock music - Drive Shaft (Daniel's choice). Widmore asks Des to baby-sit Charlie, leading up to the event. He goes to pick up Charlie but he seems to have a death-wish. They talk at a pub about love. Charlie describes 'spectacular conscious-altering love' and asks Des if he's ever experienced it. Charlie comes across a bit crazy. He tells Des that on Oceanic 815 he wasn't trying to kill himself, he was trying to hide his drug stash from the officer with Kate. Charlie says that while he was losing consciousness, after choking on the heroin, he saw a rapturously beautiful blonde woman and it seemed to him that he knew and had shared a life with her. Crazy. I think he's talking about Claire and that he remembers life on the Island. He says he's seen the truth.
In this reality Drive Shaft are hugely successful. Charlie wants Desmond to see the truth, so in a moment of madness, he wrestles the steering wheel away and drives the car into the ocean. The car sinks beneath the waters, while Des tries to escape and Charlie stays put. Des tries to save Charlie from drowning but Charlie doesn't let him in and places his outstretched hand against the car window. Desmond has flashing memories of his life on the Island when Charlie sacrificed himself for the Losties. The Island reality is bleeding more and more into the sideways reality.
Charlie knows the truth! Desmond gets an MRI scan at the hospital and the operator asks him to remove any metal objects he has on him, just like Widmore's lackey did in the Island reality before tying him to a chair between two solenoids. In the MRI machine, Des has more memories of his life in the Island reality, of Penny and Charlie (both his friend and his son). Des searches the hospital, talks to Jack, finds Charlie and gives chase. They talk and Charlie realises Des has had the same epiphany he had.
Desmond meets Eloise Widmore (nice hair) ask she and others prepare for her charity ball. She seems to recognise him for a fleeting moment and seems startled that he's there but she quickly hides her annoyance and shock and pretends to not have met him before. Des recognises Penny's name of the charity guest list. Eloise notices and changes her demeanour, she's very displeased that he remembers something of the Island reality and tells him that it's a violation (of what? the rules?) and that he should stop looking and be satisfied with his life. She tells him that he's not ready yet. Not ready for what? Des meets Daniel Widmore (I guess he's not Faraday because he's not a physicist in this reality). Daniel talks to Des about love and that he saw a red-haired woman in the museum and felt that he had loved her before. He's most likely referring to Charlotte!
Daniel has some memories of his Island reality life as a physicist, judging by the quantum mechanics scribbles in his notebook. He talks about the Incident (Season 5) and that he feels he's already set off a nuclear bomb that changed their paths. It was a hydrogen bomb but he was close. Daniel remarks that he believes this wasn't meant to be the life they lived.
Desmond meets Penny at the same stadium he met Jack at in the Island reality (Season 2). They shake hands and he faints.

Hydra Island - Desmond comes too and find he's still alive. Widmore and his crew are shocked but pleased that he's unharmed. Des now has purpose, vision, life and hope. He looks like he has a spiritual glow about him. Sayid arrives and kills several of Widmore's men, tells Zoe to run and asks Des to come with him. Des isn't fussed and follows.

LAX - Desmond comes too. Penny seems to have some distant memory of having met Des, who asks her out for coffee. Desmond has found LOVE! He asks George to get him the flight manifest from Oceanic 815, because he has something he wants to show his fellow passengers. I got a very Matrix-like vibe from this scene (Neo revealing to the Matrix inhabitants that they're enslaved in a manufactured reality and are living a lie). Penny and Des will head out for coffee. I wonder if Juliet and Sawyer will be there? I wonder if the Losties will have one giant coffee club reunion?

Additional thoughts/comments:
Widmore's talk with Desmond in the Island reality suggests there are two time-lines, one Island, one LA X. The Island reality includes life away from it, it's just that Season 6 has dealt with the sideways reality. If this is true that means we don't have the ALT-Widmore coming to the Island and that the Losties may be able to return to their real lives. I hope that's the case. If so, that's a huge relief.

This episode had a definite Matrix-vibe. The sideways reality seems more and more to me to be a manufactured reality (a purgatory of sorts) created from the promises of Smokey to the candidates, that of a life were a person seems to get their hearts desire but has no real life, soul. There is no truth. There is no unconditional love (because Smokey does not know the meaning of love). It seems that Des has the life he's always dreamed of and Widmore and Eloise etc. try to convince him of that. But what if that's not happiness but rather a method to pacify Des in this reality? To prevent him from recognising the truth? To prevent him from fighting back against Smokey and his constructed reality by convincing him that he should give up the struggle and just live the life he has been given? Just food for thought.

Also, Desmond may just be Jacob's loophole. If he can get Widmore to convince Des to his side, then the six candidates will join the wild card and do battle with Smokey. Remember that the number 6 is incomplete and that 7 denotes 'holiness' or 'completeness'? I wonder what happens if Desmond joins the MIB's side?

Sideways reality? What if everything in the Island reality ceases to exist if he leaves the Island because that would mean the Sideways reality over-rides the current reality and becomes Earth Prime?

Soo...Ilana!!! :'( I was really sad, cause while she was doing her speech, waving the bag of explosives around, I was thinking to myself how she was actually a really cool character and I really liked her...then...she blows up!?
The Hurley/Libby stuff was great, and somehow in the alternate reality I found it more believable then when it happend on the island. This may sound sort of insensative, but Libby is a pretty attractive woman and Hurley probably isn't going to be making the "Hottest Guys of the Year" list...so I felt like it was a bit...idk...as much as I was happy for him, and while I didn't think he was unattractive or that he should be paired with an unattractive girl, still...anyways. My point is that in this episode, them meeting and falling in love just seemed much more...normal, and not just "we need to find a hot girlfriend for Hurley"
Desmond running over Locke: ?!? As Booky said, maybe he's confused and thinks that Locke pushed him into the well...that would make sense. My brother thought maybe Locke is the smoke monster in the alternate timeline as well, but I pointed out that when we've seen Locke before in this world, he's been very "Lockeish" and not at all creepy or Smokey-ish...Another thought is that Desmond knows that the plane crash gave Locke the use of his legs back and is thinking this will do the same thing. Somehow I doubt this though, as Desmond's face thru the whole scene had this very secretive/creepy look on it. I think if he was doing the latter (giving him the use of his legs back) he would have looked like he felt a bit worse about running a guy over and practicly killing him in the process--and he didn't look the least bit sorry at all!

The Island: Is confusing! *sigh* While toward the end of the episode when the two groups converged, you could tell it's going to be interesting, otherwise they just seem to be going around in circles--"lets blow this up" "lets not" "lets go do this" "lets not" etc etc etc.

JACK!!! FINALLY! He is actually likeable now?! It really took him 6 seasons to learn that some things can't, and don't need to be, fixed? Finally...

I think Richard is acting like the new Jack

Looks like Ben's back to his usual cheery, optimistic self...

I like Hurley as a leader. He should have been the leader all along He just seems to be able to cut through the nonsense and drama that the other leaders (ahem, looking at you, Jack!) created...He doesn't waste time, he just gets to the point. He still has the "seriously, dude" attitude about him that makes him seem approachable. But he has a backbone, and you can tell he'll stick to what he knows is right. If only there were more leaders like him on Lost (and real life! )!

I was totally expecting Micheal to have some variation of "WALLLLT" or "my boy" and was actually slightly disapointed when his "favor" he requested from Hurley wasn't "keep an eye out for my boy".

sideways reality

sideways reality

Smokey's

When Flocke asks Desmond "do you know who I am?" and Desmond answers, "of course I do, you're John Locke"--on a few Lost boards a lot of people wonder if Desmond is right--that Locke IS Locke, and he's got people fooled into thinking he's the smoke monster. Or that Locke was the Smoke Monster all along (he did draw pictures of it when he was a boy), or that there is still some of Locke in Flocke currently. It is pretty far fetched but I could actually see it working, especially since when I was watching last week's episode, I kept thinking that Flocke was acting especially Locke-ish. I couldn't really pinpoint how, I just felt like he was "Locke" and not "Flocke". I did sort of think maybe he was trying to convince Desmond he was just normal old John Locke, but this theory is much more interesting All I know is there's something fishy about those two sentences. If Desmond really was clueless about the whole thing, he'd just have said "Locke" or "John". No need to be all "Of course I know who you are!" Also he had a sort of mysterious air about it and then Flocke threw him down a well, soo...

Several people wonder if Desmond is going to die before the show ends. Cue the tears!! This CAN'T happen, but I could sort of see it being so *cries sadly*

I absolutely love Jack! I always have but I love how he now has Faith.
I know about some major spoilers from the next episode, so I’ve got some mixed feelings about actually seeing it.
I’m so nervous for Desmond, I hope that Sayid did the right thing! I can’t wait for the next episode!!!

Oh...duh. I didn't even think of what Desmond doing having to do with what Charlie did. I suppose that's the most plausable reason. HOWEVER I'm still inclined to think there's something a bit "off" about it:
-Desmond looking quite pleased to be practicly killing Locke
-Flocke throwing Desmond down a well on the island

I don't know. It's just fishy somehow.

Oh, I don't think Desmond's dead. But I wouldn't be surprised if he does die before the end. The only reason I can see why he wouldn't is because I'm sure the show people know how much everyone loves Desmond/Penny and all...so they might want to give us a happy ending. Otherwise...

No, I thought the explanation of the voices was kinda copout. I mean, it made sense, but it wasn't very exciting. It was kinda like "really? it took you THIS long to tell us that?" Like, why couldn't we have learned it way back when?

"I have to wonder if the Man in Black didn't absorb a lot of what it meant to be Lock when Jacob died. Remember how Ilana said he couldn't change anymore? It's like he's picked his form and he's become Lock in a way." -- I'm confused Are you saying that Flocke doesn't seem to understand how to be "Locke", or that he has become like Locke? In relation to me saying that he seemed quite Lockeish and not very Flockish on last week's episode.