An opportunity taken

I can't say I should have known that Charlie was going to take one for the team because Lost so often throws in a whole new story line during the final few weeks so that fans have something to digest over the summer (which means that they totally forget about what happened). So, the "no waaaaay" moment happened this week instead of last week after I was all geared up to have Charlie alive in the clutches of the Other Women. Instead, the Looking Glass was full of great stuff: The One-eyed man ruthlessly doing his deeds, Desmond harpooning (yeah, seriously, HARPOONING) one-eyed man, Charlie talking to Penny, the tough-as-nails-how-have-I-even-lost-one-eye-man swimming out and threatening Charlie with the grenade, and Charlie saving Desmond by killing himself but keeps the presence of mind to deliver the important message. Brilliant! Who needs an island when you have the Looking Glass?

A bit ago, Kyle mentioned that Desmond was a great character and I kept thinking to myself, "Great? Interesting, but I dunno..." Well, I'm convinced now. His timely arrival and harpooining was classic heroic stuff. He seems heads above the other characters in terms of awesomeness (maybe because he hasn't done anything totally self-serving like everyone else...it must be the monk training). I think Hurley's making quite a case for himself as Awesome Guy #2. It's like that awkward romance with the psychologist was just a bad dream. It's like everyone who was on the other side of the island was a bad dream. I'm glad most are gone. Anyway, Hurley's reckless driving and then profound condemnation of Sawyer ("Dude, he surrendered") was great.

As for the flash-forward. BRILLIANT! That's great. I'm guessing the dead man that no one visited was Ben. I love to see Jack a broken man in a much more complex society than the Island.