Another important point: Mr. Faraday apparently has anterograde amnesia. Explains much of his behavior, why he was upset about news footage of the crash but didn't know why, and casts suspicion on his comment last ep that he "just met Naomi on the boat."

I truly dug the flexing wall when the tray hit.

I don't like the way they're turing Locke into a Col. Kurtz. He's slipped off the deep end.

On the bright side. I love Hurley's line...
"You totally just Scooby Doo'd me didn't you?"

My brain popped when they played Xanadu I was so happy and confused.

I love the "Enjoy your breakfast." line. Nice and evil from the man who thinks he has all the answers.

I have to admit I've thought about island tampons more than once watching this show.

VALIS is absolutely one of Dick's best novels. That's the significance. To Lost? Like many references just a cheap way to make fans believe everything means something and that the writers are brilliant. Of course, VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System), as an omnipotent god/alien, would provide a convenient and easy explanation for anything they can't ultimately explain away.

Valis is about how Philip K. Dick went slowly bonkers because aliens were beaming maybe-true, maybe-false memories and/or Gnostic Revelations into his head with a pink laser beam.

it's a wild book, notably for the fact that the narrator, Horselover Fat (a literal translation of the names Philip and Dick, from German into English) says up front that he's really Philip Dick, a science fiction writer but is using the false-narrator character as a way to get some perspective and then half way through forgets he's created himself as a character until the real Philip Dick show sup and reminds him that he's the author.

The Invention of Morel is about a guy who gets shipwrecked on an island where a crazy mad scientist was doing an experiment and now all the people are gone, replaced by holographic projections who go through a series of programmed acts. This doesn't stop the guy from falling in love with a holographic woman who resembles Silent Film star, Louise Brooks.

Valis is one of PKD's more "mystical" novels, part of the VALIS trilogy. In my opinion, some of his weakest works, as it shows a PKD that's gone irrevocably crazy.

It plays very heavy on the cold war/paranoia theme. A man (whose life is inspired PKD's own) is contacted by what he assume is some sort of space-entity which feeds him information to protect himself from a fascist exaggeration of Nixon and Regean ruling over the Unites States with an iron fist.

As with most PKD, it's pretty depressing, but is mostly full of the pseudo-mystico-bullshit that fermented into his head after years of drug abuse.

The whole idea of Valis may tie into Locke's communication's with the island itself and how he refers to the Island as a being. It may be that Locke or someone else can become a vessel, perhaps Jacob, used in communion to portray the island's intentions and dictation. Locke becomes the communication to the others from the Island's standpoint regardless of previous memories/feelings he is still a piece in the machine. This is why, as Locke has previously induced visions through his smoke hut ritual, he must commune with the island and find the required direction as caretaker. Unfortunately, Locke can get frustrated with inaction, but there maybe something delaying the interaction of the Island and himself. Also, the french novel The Invention of Morel is quite interesting if you read the plot synopsis included in the links below , both novels may shed insight as to probable LOST issues of time, immortality, and love. I felt this episode was the strongest we have seen for Kate's story and considering I greatly dislike her character, leads me to respect her storyline now that the future events are beginning to play out. Also not mentioned is the siginficance of the title "Eggtown". Now this could elude to the island itself and how there is a reverence and circumstancial issues with pregnancy, i.e. "Ovarytown". There is also a possibility that the "Eggtown" title is referencing a term from the depression era in the idea of cutting a deal and recieving and egg in return, something that will spoil quickly and are in abundance. In the episode there are numerous offers, Miles to Ben for example and why the specific 3.2 million? Awesome episode and the best of the season so far IMO.
VALIS:
[en.wikipedia.org]
and Morel, respectively:
[en.wikipedia.org]

I loved Valis. That said, can I remember much about it? No. My experience of Valis is much like the experience of a movie by the characters in Valis: they couldn't remember details even right after it, but they remembered it was extremely significant to them.

Aren't Jack and Clare siblings? And they just don't know it yet? I remember that was alluded to once, but I can't recall if it was actually confirmed. If that's the case, then Jack would be Aaron's uncle. So why doesn't he want to see his nephew? I suppose Aaron reminds him of Clare, who apparently is going to die at some point. Or they steal her baby.

My heard hurts.

They are infact half-brother and half-sister as Jack Shepard Sr. is their mutual father. There was allusion that Jack Shepard is still alive on the island and in episode 2 of this season, the supposed silohuette of Jacob in the cabin strikes a resemblance to Dr. Shepard. It has been confirmed that an original cast member will die this season, so what happens to Claire? Also, why does the story Jack tells in court describe 8 people in the cover up and not just 6? Perhaps, 8 get off the island and 2 die in the process, also does Aaron count as one of the Oceanic 6?

@neoshaman: It could be the Oceanic 6 plus Aaron, since being born on the island, he may not be counted as part of the six "survivors". Then that would leave just one person dead, MIA, or unexplained.

@Spiral: I would say he counts as one of the 6 just because last week they said we would get to see a new member this week.

Has future-Kate (nice house, BTW) told anyone she's not Aaron's bio mom? Is Aaron's true ID part of the O6's big lie? Either way, yeah, he wouldn't count as one of the O6, not being on the 815 manifest.

Locke is going a combo of Col. Kurtz and whatever his character's name was on "Harsh Realm". If he grows a mustache, it's all over.

Jack doesn't want to see Aaron because he's going to either be directly or indirectly responsible for Claire's death. And trust me, she's going to have to die after getting over Charlie so easily.

I hope they don't go all 10 little indians on the Lostaways and feel obligated to kill one of them off every season. Where are all of Ben's followers? They seemed to have completely vanished. I figured this would be the season that Locke would really start to unravel, I'm glad I got that one right.

Well, I guess they could subscribe to Ben's idea of birth control: just lock yourself up in Room 23 for some arty video and rave music. Its 98% effective.

Did anyone else notice, as Kate was entering the courthouse, an angry man yelling something like, "Why did you leave them there?" Could Aaron be Kate and Sawyer's baby, just named after original? Who really count as members of the Oceanic 6? Hurley, Kate and Jack, certainly... but the O6 are world famous, yet Sayid was not recognized either of his victims. I can't wait for next week!

A couple things I noticed last night:

1. It seems everyone believes Aaron is Kate's biological son - why would her mother so desperately want to see her adopted grandson?

2. Throughout the episode Kate's relationship with off island Aaron seems bittersweet. Anyone else think it felt sad when she came home to see him?

I have a sneaky suspicion that this isn't related to Claire - especially based on Kate and Jack's conversation at the end of the episode. Jack tells Kate he loves her and she invites him over, he wants to go somewhere else (presumably somewhere Aaron isn't.) Kate's response isn't so much "forgive yourself" though - it's more "accept me and Aaron."

3. Kate's the only one who's had a positive(ish) future so far. Sayid is an assassin and is clearly doing it under duress. Jack becomes a drunk desperate to get back to the island and Hurley is seeing things again.

Kate? She gets a walk on murder, arson and everything else plus she's named the hero of the Oceanic 6 - a title we're more willing to give to Jack. Despite these positive things she's still clearly distraught. The question is why?

_The Invention of Morel_ is by Argentine (not French) author Adolfo Bioy Cáceres. Cáceres was a friend of J. L. Borges, and a character in Borges' short fiction "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," which is about a decades-old conspiracy to make an imaginary world "real." _Lost_ fans should read both the novel and the story.

It does seem like Kate is pretending to be Aaron's biological mother, but I don't understand how she can get away with it. The government would have know she wasn't pregnant enough to show when they captured her in Australia so how could she have been far enough along in a pregnancy to give birth on the island? No matter how much I go over it in my head I can't get the timelines to work to make her having been the biological mother even close to believable.

@dijou: If that time shift on the island is real, that would explain it. Maybe if time passes slower for the people on the island than for the people outside of it, she would have had the time to get pregnant and give birth.

Kate was to be the real hero, because Jack was to die in the Pilot originally.

Perhaps Jack resents Aaron because he can't handle knowing his dad cheated on his mom? His nephew is living proof, and a constant reminder as adopted son (should he and Kate marry) of that transgression.

The pyschic probably told Claire, Don't let your baby be raised by an Other (not another). Considering their on an island with a gaint monster, the Other's camp might be best for a baby, and Claire was giving Aaron up for adoption. Maybe Aaron has powers like Walt, and best to keep him from Ben. Maybe seeing Kate on TV might make him use them, disasterously.

Could Miles be Ben's "guy on the boat"? Given how they made a point of illustrating their use of code words with the "Tell my sister I love her" bit from the previous episodes, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find the whole conversation between Ben and Miles to be full of encoded meaning.

@Bill2me: Do you have or even know any grandmothers? That right there should be an easy answer to question #1. Grandmothers are almost always psychotically interested in their grandkids. Unless they're damaged human beings.

Or she's worried that Mom will notice Aaron's drapes don't match Kate's carpet.