Main Rant:

Even though our heroes have a snazzy high-tech batcave right under the prison, and they know that something deeply strange happened there in 1963, they don't take the obvious step of surveilling the living crap out of the place in case something else might happen. And so the series begins with one of the prisoners waking up in THE FIRST PLACE THEY SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED and then wandering away, free as a bird.

Sub Rantings:

And do you really need a ticket to leave Alcatraz island? Do they have a lot of people taking private boats to the island and cheating them out of a return trip? What are they going to do if you don't have a ticket, leave you there?

And why put your headquarters on Alcatraz, besides it sounding like a cool idea? It's isolated, they can't get to their quarry quickly, it must be a pain getting good bandwidth, and everything and everybody has to be brought in and out by ship IN SECRET. And it's not like they're keeping a close eye on the scene of the crime (see first rant).

And why set up a convoluted and easily broken plot (old gun > gun store > room key on counter > security camera > hotel) to have a pet sniper (Who apparently hasn't heard of head shots) kill ONE of the anti-prisoner team. You've got 3 of them in one room-blow them up with a bomb. And I bet they never explain why notoriously poor order-takers are doing the Big Bad's bidding so willing and completely.

Extra points for the extra-peppy super-fast techno-whatever soundtrack

My Feelings:

Emotionally Satisfied.
Intellectually Screwed.

So yea, kind of mixed

Speaking of unanswered questions, how about some just from the finale?

1. Where did the sailboat that the MIB was going to escape on come from? Desmond's boat was left at Hydra Island. The Losties swan from the sunken sub, Widmore, Tina Fey, and MIB took canoes. OK, maybe MIB sails the sailboat back with the canoe in tow and then paddles to Othertown.
2. Why aren't Lapidus, Miles, and Richard concerned with leaving the Island on the right bearing? They have no idea that Desmond has done whatever the fuck Desmond did with the plug to the sacred hot-tub. As far as they know, the rules are the same: you can only leave the Island on one special bearing. And since the Frozen Donkey Wheel has been turned and the Island has moved, I think you assume that the old bearing no longer applies.
3. Who built the yellow-light pool? At some time in the past the pool didn't exist-how did that work?
4. My own personal obsessive peev: They didn't need to try to fly a crash-landed airliner out of a hand-built jungle airstrip. THERE'S ANOTHER BOAT: The Trawler .

Craig Ferguson 4/5/10A Late Late Show MONSTER beginning
The Bonzo Dog Band – Look Out, There's a Monster Coming (Google Search)

• All the Candidates have to go together-or die/get crossed off Wall
• Jin in the dark
• Jin/Sun not married-Why travelling together?
• Sayid is emotionless-but knows it's not right
• Why is Widmore interested in Jin?
• Why wasn't Flocke aware of Widmorians?
• Sun: Leave me alone (Togetherness and Aloneness)
• Sun sent to deliver watch (what he was told)
• Jin's here to shop? And her Father sent her alone with Sun even though neither speak English? Really?
• Did Flocke promise Jin he would reunite Sun and Jin? Flocke still doesn't give a good reason for Temple massacre
• FLOCKE: "Stay here. We'll be back in a couple of hours. I'll see what I can find out. But whatever happens, Sun, you have my word--if there's a way for you and Jin to be together again, if there's a way to save our people... I'll find it."
  Source: Follow the Leader
• Of course, that "if there's a way" gives him an out on the promise.
• Sun2 / Sun both planned run away
• Mirror in Sun's room
• Why didn't Flocke pursue Sun?
• Sun wakes up speaking Korean/Link to Sun2
• Flocke must not be in constant contact with his "claimed"
• Where were the grid-maps? On Hydra-why would they be there? Did Widmore take the maps when he was exiled?
  If neither, how did Widmore get the maps?
  How did Widmore know about the maps?
• Kate's name is crossed off on wall
  Source: Cliffside Caves
  Why is she no longer a Candidate? She's not dead, or "claimed".
• Flocke betraying Kate? He never promised her anything, even indirectly.
• If Flocke can't Smokey to Hydra, WHO KILLED AJIRA?
  They didn't look shot, means nothing - Darts, Plot Holes
• Mikhail Bakhunin - Both eyes, not Dharma, Not Other
• Sun lost her ability to speak English
• "Easy Friend, I come in Peace" - Flocke likes the word friend
• Still no name for Flocke
• Widmore lies to Flocke about Jin
• Richard believes Flockes story about airplane
• Richard destroying airplane contrasts to Locke destroying Submarine
• "Heart wants what the heart wants" - where have we heard that before?
• Tina Fey is a geophysicist.
• Widmore is sorry like Keamy is sorry.
• Widmore offers Jin what he wants, like Flocke
• Widmore says that if Flocke escapes everyone will cease to be. - "Ceasing to be" is a new description-pretty weird
• The Package is a "who"-my money's on Desmond
• Widmore let Flocke leave-hasn't got a way to kill him, at least not yet.
• There isn't much in that cooler in the way of food.
• Sayid's Robin-Hoodness only extends so far.
• Shit, Sun2 shot. Either we get a Flashsideways Major Character death or we're due a trip to see Dr. Jack.
• RED tomato, didn't have time to notice color cues in Flashsideways.
• Jack's taking on responsibilities beyond Jacob's needs
• No big surprise, Desmond's out of the closet.

Index:

• Scene By Scene
• Theories/Questions
• Recaps

Terms:

• T1: The timeline where flight 815 crashed on the Island.
• T2: The "flash-sideways" timeline where the Losties continue on to LA and the Island is underwater.
• Jack2, Kate2, Claire2. etc2: Characters in T2. T1 characters have no suffix.
• Flocke: The impersonation of Locke, presumably by the Man in Black, aka Esau, Jacob's Nemesis, The Smoke Monster.

Scene By Scene

All dialogue from the Lostpedia "Dr Linus" Transcript

• Sun: "Who's Dogen?" - Characters asking questions, I love it.

• Background Blackboard:
  Places to Locate
  • Ape***** (illegible)
  • Po River
  • Piedmont-Sardinia (aka the Kingdom of Sardinia - who's full name is "Kingdom of Sardinia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem, Duchy of Savoy and Montferrat, Principality of Piedmont". Possible reference to Others=Templars?)
  • Papal States
  • Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Interesting: revolt against foreign occupiers of an island)
  None of this means anything, but Dr. Linus would appreciate our interest in history. I never knew that Byzantian Christians reconquered parts of Italy.
• BEN: "It was on this island that everything changed. That everything finally became clear. Elba... is where Napoleon faced his greatest test. Because exile wasn't the worst of his fate. What was truly devastating to him was the loss of his power. Sure, they allowed him to keep the title of Emperor... but without any power it was meaningless. He might just as well have been dead."

  It's interesting to consider who this might be a reference to:

  1. Ben: Lost power, exiled OFF Island.
  2. Widmore: Lost power, exiled to the island of Great Britain.
  3. Jacob and Flocke might be exiled on the Island (Jacob voluntarily, he does leave) , no evidence so far that either were more powerful before.

• Napoleon escaped his island captivity.
• Red signs. Red screwdriver handles
• Ben2 is having sushi for lunch.
• Ben and Arzt never met in T1.
• Arzt2 spilling formaldehyde on his shirt mirrors Jack and Hurley getting Arzt on their shirts when he was blown up by dynamite.
• Instead of Ben manipulating Locke, here we have Locke2 motivating Ben2.
• Is Ben2 wearing the same glasses as Lennon?

• Miles echoes Ben's description of Sayid killing Dogen.
• Ilana: "Jacob was the closest thing I had to a father"

  This isn't good, considering the history of daddy-issues on this show.

• Lots of blue on the beach.

• This episode's mirror scene is Ben2 reflected in a microwave.
• A baseball game is playing on the radio (I don't see a TV).
• Roger2 is doing a crossword, yet another game like tic-tac-toe or solitaire.
• Ben2 and Roger2 where in the Dharma Initiative and went to the Island. What happened there and why did they leave?
• Roger is on oxygen, a possible reference to the actor Jon Gries's previous show "The Pretender", which featured a villain with a similar tank.
• In T2, Ben2 gives Roger2 a life-saving gas. In T1, Ben killed Roger with poison gas.
• Roger wonders what would have happened if they'd stayed on the Island. Would it have been T1?
• Of course Alex2 is in Ben2's history club. That's where all the daughters of French scientists end up.
• If anything, the characters in T2 are more closely linked than in T1. Is there some outside influence on their lives? We still don't know why the T1 characters are linked.

• Ilana is working off another list
• Six candidates left:
  1. Jack
  2. Hurley
  3. Sawyer
  4. Jin
  5. Sun
  6. Kate
• Let's assume Sayid and Claire are crossed off Ilana's list. Why does Ilana consider Sayid and Claire non-Candidates when Dogen didn't? Was Dogen forbidden to kill Candidates or those touched by Jacob?

• "Cheese Curds"
• Hurley doesn't want to go back to the Temple and doesn't want to look scared.
• JACK: "Where did you come from?"
  RICHARD: "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

  Richard just came from the Temple. He doesn't tell Jack this because he needs him to help kill him.

• Ben finds a "Booty Babes" porn mag, a fictitious book entitled "Benjamin Disraeli: Justice and Truth in Action", and a copy of "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok. "Justice is truth in action" is a famous quotation of Disraeli's.
• Lapidus didn't fly Oceanic flight 815 because his alarm didn't go off. Was this caused or an accident?
• Like Roger2, Lapidus wonders how different life might have turned out.
• Ben refers to "the Island still got you in the end". Does the Island bring people to it or does Jacob? Or do both?

• The East India Trading Company would have been in operation when the Black Rock last set sail from England in 1845.
• Red shirt on Alex2
• Alex2's mom (presumably Danielle Rousseau) works 2 jobs. We can assume that her father is out of the picture.
• Ben2 is not going to keep that promise to Alex2.

• We never see anyone at the beach argue Ben's case.
• Ben could write a check on that banana leaf, if he had something to write with.
• Does Miles have a tattoo on the back of his neck?
• Jacob was hoping Ben wouldn't kill him.

• Hurley and Richard have never met before-someone must have told Hurley about Richard's agelessness.
• I love that Richard knows what a cyborg is and Hurley makes him deny being one.
• Jacob gave Richard "a gift"; that's why he doesn't age.
• The Black Rock looks pretty good for a wooden ship that's been in a tropical jungle for 150 years.
• Great, Jacob talks to the fat guy-Richard's suckiest day just gets suckier.
• Richard has lost his faith in Jacob.

• Long set of Red books.
• Arzt2 marking in Red ink.
• Ben2's Red tie.
• Ben2 breaks his promise to Alex2.
• This is the last season: Arzt won't go along unless he knows what's happening.
• "Tree Crap" is a scientific term for "leaves and twigs".
• Arzt2's line, "Linus you're a real killer", provokes a flash of memory in Ben2.

• Richard probably arrived on the Black Rock, and has never visited it since.
• The shadows of slats on the floor look like a chessboard.
• Historically, the dynamite couldn't have come on the Black Rock. It last set sail in 1845 and dynamite wasn't invented until the 1860s.

  Is this just a screw-up or did someone put the dynamite there after the wreck?

• RICHARD: "What I'm talking about Jack is that...Jacob touched me, and when Jacob touches you... well it's considered a gift... except it's not a gift at all. It's a curse."
  HURLEY: "Dude, seriously! Let's go now!"
  JACK: "Why do you want to die?"
  RICHARD: "I devoted my life, longer than you can possibly imagine, in service of a man who told me that everything was happening for a reason, that he had a plan, plan that I was a part of, when the time was right that he'd share it with me, and now that man's gone so...why do I want to die? Because I just found out my entire life had no purpose. Now if I light this myself it won't work, but you can light it for me Jack. I made the fuse long enough so you'll have time to get out."

  Richard is as much in the dark as the Losties, always has been.

  Jacob touched all the Candidate Losties as well. What gift did they receive?

• "Let's Talk"- I laughed out loud at this. Jack wants answers.
• Too bad Jack did all the talking.
• It's not that Jack has faith. He's just figured out some of the rules; if Richard can't kill himself because he was touched, then neither can Jack.
• Richard is following Jack.

• Wow, that is one anal-retentive grave.
• LOCKE: "I'm gathering a group to leave this place for good. But once we're gone, someone's going to need to be in charge of the island."
  BEN: "Me?"
  LOCKE: "I can't think of a better man for the job."

  Once again Flocke doesn't quite state his promise clearly.

• Flocke offers Ben the thing Flocke thinks he wants most-power.
• Flocke apparently has telekinesis, or the magical equivalent.
• Is Flocke just using Ben to kill Ilana? What's with all the rigamarole? If Flocke wants Ben, why doesn't he just grab him? Or kill Ilana and grab him? There may be a rule-based reason or the writers just needed a way to set up Ben and Ilana's confrontation.
• Flocke shirt still has Sayid's stab-hole.

• Red Door
• Painting of green and blue - jungle and ocean?
• That is one crappy laptop.
• Crafty T1 Ben would have thought his blackmail plan out better and realized he had a weakness.
• Ben2 can't do what T1 Ben did and say that Alex2 means nothing to him.
• Principal Reynolds still has a problem-Alex2 will graduate and be beyond his influence, but Ben2 will still have the emails.
• Principal Reynolds call Ben2 "Doctor".
• Picture of the Island?

• Ben's little speech doesn't make much sense, but Michael Emerson is so good it doesn't really matter.

• "Ben's only redemption at this point lies in the fact that he himself was pushed and manipulated into the very role he's played. Benjamin Linus never chose to be leader, and unlike Napoleon maybe he never really wanted it. The metamorphosis he underwent at the temple came while he was an unconscious child, with no choice given to him whatsoever. He usurped power from Charles Widmore out of necessity, in an effort to raise a daughter who Widmore admittedly would rather see dead. Unknowingly, Ben's upbringing as a Dharma-brat also influenced his decision to move everyone to the barracks... a decision, in hindsight, that would disconnect him from the island at the most fundamental of levels.

  String all of these things together, and the sum total of Ben's existance has been engineered since childhood. He's been given very few choices, other than the one he himself later points out: the death of Alex. Ben confesses to choosing the island over the life of his daughter, and honestly admits to his mistake. His pain and sorrow are genuine, and so is his regret."

  Source" Vozzeck69

• Ben is the first person to turn down Flocke.

• Ben2 still has a hold on Principal Reynolds, as long as he doesn't push it too far.

• What is Lapidus doing lighting a fire while it's still daylight?
• Miles dug up the diamonds in the short time Ben was gone?
• Ilana's doesn't get hugs.
• Widmore is back.

Questions/Theories/Hairbrain Predictions

• Lots of choices for Ben:
  
  Alex2/Promotion
  Kill Ilana or not
  Flocke or Jacob
• Ben has come to terms with himself and earned a little redemption - so he'll probably die soon.
• Why is Jacob looking for replacements?
• Is Jacob's gift always agelessness? If so, it must have limits, or Jacob wanted Jack to get appendicitis.
• Jacob touched Ben when Ben stabbed him.
• Is Widmore the person that Jacob said was coming? Probably

• "Things I also loved: Jack fucking with destiny with the stick of dynamite. He's always been the dude who believes in free will and in this single moment it's almost like he's hacked into destiny's operating system to his own advantage. Couldn't help but think of the exchange from season one: Jack—"I don't believe in destiny." Locke—"Yes, you do. You just don't know it yet." I think he Jack might believe in a certain type of destiny—one where he's not meant to be blown up. I'm looking forward to Destiny Jack taking on Team Evil with the idea in his head that he's kind of invincible."

  Source: The 'Lost' Council of Nerds
• We're The Alt

• So will we ever learn why women couldn’t carry babies to term on the island? Isn’t that the whole reason Juliet was brought over by Dharma in the first place?—Jean B., via e-mail

  Lindelof says the show is not going to specifically state why, however, “we feel like we’ve given you the empirical data so you can figure it out for yourself.” Hmm… a little more help please for the clueless? “Clearly Ethan was born on the island in 1977,” continues Lindelof. “That’s the last baby that we know of who was born on the island. And then something happened between 1977 and when our show takes place in 2004 (when Claire arrived eight months pregnant) where it’s been a long time since women have been able to have babies on the island. What might have happened between those two points that could have created fertility issues?”

  Source: DarkUfo/TV Guide

  Give me a fucking break. We're supposed to be able to deduce what happened between 1977 and 2004 that caused the pregnancy problem? It's a magical Island ruled by a mysterious demi-god; It could be goddamn anything-the Incident, Ben usurping Widmore, the Purge, Hurley travelling back in time and cooking ham.

• It seems strange that Dogen knew that the MIB/Smoke Monster could appear as a dead person but Richard and Ben didn't. Jacob could have made MIB killing him a great deal more difficult if he shared this information. To me this is either evidence that even being killed by Ben is part of Jacob's plan-or a plot hole.

Recaps

• No Fishbiscuitland this week
• Things I Noticed - "Dr. Linus", by Vozzek69
• 'Lost' recap: Lessons Learned, by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)
• 'Lost' (recap) mystery solved! Your missing Jack/Richard/Black Rock analysis!, by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly)
• The 'Lost' Council of Nerds
• Key Points from "Dr. Linus", by Filmfodder
• S6Ep7 - Dr. Linus, by Long Live Locke
• Lost Friday - "Dr. Linus.", by The CDP
• Choosing and Being Chosen in “Dr. Linus”, by The Sanatorium
• Thoughts on Dr. Linus... , by Eye M Sick
• Initial Thoughts: Dr Linus, by Gitsie Girl
• Marc Oromaner’s Lost In Myth: The Lesson of “Dr. Linus”─What About You?
• 'Lost': Ben attempts to atone for the past and save his future in 'Dr. Linus', by Ryan McGee
• LOST: “Dr. Linus”", by Kulturblog
• Doc Jensen: Island of 'Lost' Souls?
• SPOILER ALERT: Mini-Recap & Discussion Post for “Dr. Linus”, by The Ack Attack!
• The Crosshairs of Destiny: "Dr. Linus" - Recap, by Robz888
• Principal Purpose: Culture and Meaning in LOST 6.07 “Dr. Linus” , by Pearson Moore