"...it only ends once..."

I had meant to blog weekly, after every new episode of Lost, but thus far this appears to have fallen by the wayside... ho-hum.

So, the final season so far, five episodes in;

• This parallel timeline is clearly there for a reason (everything happens for a reason, remember...?). But what that reason is remains a mystery. It's clearly not there as a "what if?" kind of aside, as there are clear indications of both timelines bleeding in to each other; I mean, you'd remember if you'd had your appendix out, wouldn't you? You'd have seen the scar every day of your life...
• Claire being claimed and acting all Rousseau makes me think that Rousseau was claimed, too, and that this, not the time displacement exhibited by Desmond and Minkowski, is "the sickness" previously mentioned. Now, I contend that by enterting the Temple, Rousseau's party got protected from the sickness (captured by the others and innoculated, perhaps?) and the sick person all along was Rousseau. (Or was it the businessman in his suit and tie?)
• The numbers return in force, both on the roof of the cave and on the contraption in the lighthouse. That contraption had space for 360 names, but there were clearly higher numbers on the cave roof.
• As for the Candidate; I'm going to call it now, and say that Sawyer will take over from Jacob as the islands protector. Unless the real Locke is somehow brought back to life in which case he'll take over. Or maybe there'll be a mashing of timelines and parallel Locke will take over. "Don't tell me what I can't do?"
• Sayid's an odd one. He appeared to die, but did not die. Dogen suggests he'd been "claimed" like Claire, and Miles keeps looking at him funny... something's clearly wrong there. I think we may find out this week what it is...
• In anycase there's a theory that the whole malarkey as to what's really going on with Jacob and the Man in Black (I really wish we could learn his name; I suspect that when we do it will be a significant name) is like a game of chess on an epic scale. Remember that in a game of chess that kings cannot take each other, and have their pieces do their work for each other. Smokey-Locke is getting his pieces (Sawyer, Claire, previously Ben) in to place, and Jacob is doing the same (Hurley, Jack). Whereas there is something going on between Ben and Widmore, this may be small potatoes in comparison to the Jacob/MIB feud.
• Oh, and seeing the skeletons in the caves this week is a definite precursor to the imminent revelation as to who they are...

Still, 108 episodes in, 13 to go... part of me can't wait until May 23rd (well, 24th...!), but part of me wants it to never arrive.