"The Island Told Me" - 5x15: Follow The Leader

I've had my big, fat drink. I watched the episode. I'm ready to share my reaction.
So here's my reaction:
What the f***?!?!

Locke wants to kill Jacob?
Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate left the island?
Dan is really, truly dead?
Jughead has been sitting under the Dharma Barracks all this time?
Kate vs. Jack?

I really loved this one, though there's something about it...I just can't get a handle on what exactly the story was. Locke finally arrives at the Others' camp to tell Richard to tell time-traveling Locke that he needs to die to get everyone to come back to the island, because, well, that's what happened to get him to where he is now. And then he gathers all of the Others up on a little jaunt to Jacob's...where Locke is planning to kill him.
Jack and Kate are reeling from Daniel's death, and continue the argument they began last episode, even after the Others discover them hiding in the woods and Eloise puts them in her tent; Kate believes that whatever happened, happened, and Jack is a Faraday devotee and believes that they can erase the past three years if they just follow Dan's notebook. Jack finally admits that maybe he was wrong about Locke after Kate points out how he is full of crazy and very John-sounding. Kate questions why Jack wants to forget their last three years together, with the stress on together, but Jack tells her that there's been enough bad times to outweigh the good. Kate is none too pleased about his take on things, and proceeds to indignantly stare at him for a few scenes. Eloise asks them to tell the truth about what Dan told her - are they really from the future? Jack (if I remember correctly) spills it, and they go to a pool in the jungle with Ellie, Richard, and some unfortunate other Others. Kate refuses to go for a swim in the pool and starts to walk away to the consternation of the Others there, but before they can shoot her for walking away with their Others secrets, a shot rings out. For a split-second, we genuinely believe that Kate is shot, but it's just random Sayid shooting the two unimportant Others to save Kate. Kate does what she does best and runs away, while Jack, Sayid, Ellie, and Richard dive down into the pool, under which is a tunnel to....the Tunnels. In the Tunnels, which it turns out run directly under the Barracks and appear to be the area that Ben fell into when he encountered Smokey, Ellie uncovers the Jughead, which has been sitting there since 1954.
Radzinsky is smacking James around, trying to get him to say where Kate and the Hostiles have gone. He ain't talking. When Horace tries to get Radzinsky to ease up, he repeatedly says that he is now in charge...and Horace says nothing in response. Juliet begs Radzinsky to stop, which gives Phil an idea about how to get Sawyer to talk: he punches Juliet in the face. Sawyer gets his pissed face on. Marvin Candle, after finding Hurley and Miles in the jungle, where they admit to him that they are a) from the future, b) that Miles is indeed his son, and c) that Dan was right about needing to evacuate the island (this was a claaaaassic Hurley scene!), busts in on the fun to tell them that the island must be evacuated. Sawyer tells him that they need to get the women and children on the sub, and if he and Juliet can have a spot on it, too, he will tell them what they want to know. Radzinsky hands him a Dharma notebook and tells him to draw a map to the Others.
Juliet and James are led in handcuffs to the sub, where Miles and Hurley are watching all of the Dharma women and children getting on board, including young Miles and his mother. Miles sees that his father didn't really "leave" them at all; demanding that they leave was to save them. As Sawyer gets in behind Juliet, he stops, looks out at the island, mutters "Good riddance," and climbs down into the sub. He and Juliet are sharing an "I love you" moment when who should show up? Of course - everyone's favorite buzzkill this season - Kate! The sub takes off for Ann Arbor.
I think that's about it. It's not that there wasn't a story, but it just covered a very brief period. Though in that brief period, we were set up well for next week's big two-hour finale.
So for this episode, this is what I'm thinking:

Kate is LAME. What's her deal now? The only reason she doesn't want Jack to follow The Dan Plan and set off the Jughead is not because scores of people will be killed, but because it will erase her time with Jack, a man who she basically abandoned off the island and who really wants nothing to do with her. I'm sure she is at least one of the reasons why he wants to land in LA in 2004. When she gets into the sub with Juliet and Sawyer was just the icing on the lame cake.

I. Want. To. Kill. Radzinsky. With. My. Bare. Hands. Repeatedly, if possible. In fact, I'd kill him, carry his body to the Temple to resurrect him, and then kill him again.

Same goes for Phil. I'm content to have Sawyer and Juliet go to the "real world"...except that Sawyer won't be able to inflict lots and lots of pain on Phil before he kills him.

So Dan really is dead. They did the closing-of-the-eyes thing, so that's that. I can only hope he appears in flashbacks somehow. Otherwise, we've lost a really great character, played by a really great actor.

Ellie is pregnant with Dan when she kills him! If you listen carefully, when Jack and Kate are discovered spying on the Others and Ellie agrees to take them to the pool, Charles talks to her and mentions something about her "condition" while either he or she has a hand on her stomach.

I had no idea how Locke knew when his time-traveling self was going to appear by the drug plane...until he said, "the island told me." I get it, but I don't. Is the Island constantly talking to him? Did it "download" everything he needed to know all at once at some point? When? Or has Locke traveled more than we have been shown? Or has he known much more than he's let on all this time?

Tunnels! Underwater! Under the Barracks! This has been loooooong-theorized by fans - is this where the whispers are coming from? We've also seen this ancient underwater connection with the Smoke Monster - remember that to summon it, Ben needed to pull the plug on some sort of water pool.

Sayid returns from just aimlessly running around the jungle apparently. I have a feeling that he may not have much longer on the show...

How big IS that sub, anyway? I guess there probably aren't that many women and children in Dharma.

Why is every commercial during LOST about time travel? Tonight we had the consistently-annoying Mac commercials, specifically the one with a time machine, and a groovy Pepsi "Throwback" commercial.

And finally, my biggest "What the eff?" is why Locke is leading the Others to kill Jacob. Where did this come from? Why does he want to kill him (or it, or whatever Jacob is)? I have two theories on this, and neither one is all that good. One is that John wants to take total control of the Island because he feels that he is the chosen one. He feels that the Island has been calling him since childhood, and this is his time. The second theory, which I like a little better, is that Locke is being directed by the Island itself to kill Jacob. Maybe Jacob has been a bad element on the Island, and it needs Locke to get rid of Jacob. That's why it went as far as to raise him from the dead, something that even Ben was shocked by.

So there you have it, "Follow The Leader," the last episode before the finale. I've been thinking alot about how much I'm going to miss LOST at this time next year...but I'll save that for another time. For now, we are set up for next week. What will they do with the Jughead? Will Dan's plan work? If it does, will this season end with Oceanic 815 landing in LA on September 22, 2004, and our Losties getting off with no knowledge of each other? What will that mean for Season 6? Will Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate arrive in Ann Arbor, and will we see Dharma Headquarters? What will Marvin Candle, Hurley, Miles do? Will we finally see Jacob? So many things to think about.

That's all for now. I hope you all enjoyed the episode, and as always, I'd love to hear your comments here. Until next time, Good Luck, and Namaste!

Edit: Oh, and I forgot - Richard says in the opening scene that he saw all of the Dharma Losties die? As the kids like to say, WTF?!?!