It wasn’t Desmond. Someone in my group thought it was him, and we replayed it-- they guy doesn’t look anything like Desmond.
Don’t know if any of this has been discussed but The Wife just sent me an email with some questions from TV Guides recap of last night:
Myself, I didn’t notice the logo on the shark.
People tend to fixate when bad things happen. I could certainly understand it, and in fact I was wondering if Michael was going to blame Sawyer when it happened, as Sawyer insisted in firing the flare though Michael didn’t want him too. Seems like a natural reaction, especially when they were doing the flashbacks of what Michael went through when his girlfriend took their son to another country and he wasn’t going to get to see him again (seemingly). I kept going ‘bitch!’ last night and annoying The Wife…not because Mikes GF wanted to move to another country and help her career, or even that she wanted to take her son with her, but because of the guilt trip she put him through, the whole scene of the lawyer grilling Mike about how good a father he’d been (to paraphrase ‘do you know what your son’s first words were? Do you know what his favorite toy is? Where were you at such and such? Not a very good father, are you??’). That kind of guilt/sacrifice bullshit always sets me off.
-XT
Hmmm, I assumed the raft-goers were meeting the Others on the shore, but maybe those of you saying they are the tail section are right. They could have seen Jin wash up on shore and assumed he was one of the Others, that is why they tied him up. Jin wouldn’t be able to understand them or explain since he can’t speak English, so maybe now that Sawyer and Mike are there they will find out about the tail section. That doesn’t fit in with my initial thought that Jin got to shore ahead of them by clinging to the boat, though, because then he would presumably be with the Others and Walt.
Those of you who can do a screen shot from Tivo, can anyone confirm that none of them on the shore are the same people we saw on the boat capturing Walt? I think the boat people are the Others and the people at the end of this episode are not. The others who have Walt are one place (by the black smoke?) and now the raft goers are someplace else.
Good idea about Desmond waiting for his replacement. My first thought was he was waiting for Jack, but I don’t know why or how he would know Jack was coming.
I thought it was a good episode , but I agree that the Michael flashbacks weren’t necessary. I didn’t learn anything about him or his story I hadn’t figured on already.
The symbols surrounding the word “Dharma” are from the chinese “I, Ching”. However the trigrams have little meaning when configured in that fashion. When stacked in a hexagram they have very specific meanings.
Disagree…thought the flashbacks went well showing why Michael was in such distress, pretty much in total shock and completely irrational. Certainly we knew that he must have gone through some of that by assumption, but it worked well (for me) showing the flash backs and then him on the raft…made the story fit tighter together (and of course explained somewhat the polar bear thing I suppose…or at least deepened the mystery).
-XT
Yes, well I thought they did fit in well enough with the episode and it is always interesting to see a bit of backstory played out. Usually you get an ‘aha’ moment from the flashbacks though that wasn’t here this time. Maybe I am just impatient and want to use all the time allotted each episode to answer some of my frickin’ questions! 
Thanks! (just wanted you to know I appreciated it, it just took me a long time to get back to this thread!)
Here’s a good look at the mural. Creepy.
Okay, the promo from last week lied to us! It said, “Next week, the fate of ALL the survivors will be revealed”. Except we still don’t know what’s going on with Walt…
I didn’t see the logo on the shark – what scene was it in? Was it in the scene when Michael shot it (when the fin surfaced)? It was pretty dark on my TV, and that’s the only place I recall part of the creature beind above the water. Or was it some other place?
I didn’t see it either…hoped one of you caught it. I have it on DvD from last night and plan on going back to take a look tonight unless someone else finds it.
-XT
They show screencaps right here (scroll down).
They also have spoilers for the next two episodes, if you are inclined to click on them. It’s clear which they are though so you don’t accidentally do.
And don’t worry. I missed the symbol on the shark too.
All choco-gasms are nice Sam Hell aaaaall of them 
Predecessor ? I like it … when he got off the island and told people what went on there … they locked him up ?
There was a shot of the shark swimming underwater, it was quick but as it goes by you can spot it on the side, near its tail. It is not on the fin that shows above water.
Plus, this gave them an excuse to give his ex-lady some more screen time. Yowza!
Yes, but how the eff did he get there?
I thought the joke that Michael put in the card was the penguin joke-- black and white and red all over.
He’s wet, speaking backwards, and has acquired a phobia about buttons.
Well, my first thought last week at seeing a wet Walt was that he had drowned and was appearing “dead” to Shannon. This might mesh with the fact that his character isn’t shown in any promo photos. Anyone else?
But Desmond asked Locke if any of the survivors were sick. Maybe the front section doesn’t contract any sickness, but the back does and they go all paranoid and the like.
Why did Saiyd look at Charlie funy when he said the Crazy French Lady had a lost wingnut? Did Saiyd see Charlie pick up the statue?
Remember that theory we came across last week based on an obscue French book that uses the numbers? We all thought it was BS. Here’s the apparent proof that it was BS.