Our chief villain, Ben, also looks great -- so genuinely bloodied, swollen and bruised you can feel his pain. The first shot of him tied to the tree is a tribute to "Lost's" makeup team. He looks miserable -- but not beaten, if you know what I mean. Shortly there after, Rousseau makes crystal clear what had already been hinted at last season. Alex is not Ben's daughter, in the strict biological sense. No doubt the matter of who Alex's dad really is will come up at some point in the Great 48 of the next three seasons.

Hurley's exchange with Bernard about the "cannonball" is swell -- even the slo-mo shot of him running and jumping into the ocean works. The generous helpings of fan-fave Hurley in this episode seem to be at least in part an effort by Lindelof and Cuse to signal to the "Lost" faithful that they took the complaints of last season to heart...dude.

Was it my imagination or was there a fleeting musical quote from the "Magnificent Seven" theme as Hurley, Sawyer, Juliet, Sayid, Bernard et al grab their guns and head out to warn Jack, after realizing the potential threat posed by their "rescuers."

Another treat: At the mental hospital where Hurley was parked after his arrest, and who should walk into the scene but Capt. Daniels from "The Wire." Did Hurley get in trouble in B-more after winning the lottery? Actor Lance Reddick is fantastically steely and creepy, and my goodness what did they do to give his eyes that reddish-yellow tint. He looks demonic as he demands to know: "Are they still alive?" Oh what a web they're weaving....

Back to the island. Just as the cast of "Apocalypse Now" was instructed to "never get out of the boat," Hurley by now should know by now to never fall behind the group when they're trudging through the jungle with guns and torches. Hurley's encounter with the freaky cabin has a definite "Pyscho" touch with the quick shot of what appeared to be a gaunt man (Jacob?) in a rocking chair. Sheesh, even as I write this I'm looking over my shoulder with goosebumps rising. My husband thinks I'm nuts.

There are so many more twists in this opening hour. A highlight is the appearance of dead Charlie. He looks better than he did in life. He's at peace, somehow, behind those tinted shades. We'll have to wait a bit longer for our reunion with Michael, however. Harold Perrineau is listed in the credits of this seg but doesn't appear.

Jack looks handsome, if haunted, in his suit back in civilization as he visits Hurley in the mental hospital.

"Checking to see if I was gonna tell?" Hurley asks -- even after apologizing to Jack for bailing on him in favor of Locke's group back in the day.

Back on the island, the scene where Claire learns that Charlie's dead is heart-wrenching indeed. Josh Holloway has grown tremendously as an actor during the run of the series so far. He telegraphs so much just by the pained look on Sawyer's face as he watches her get the news from Hurley.

I'm so sucked into the story by the last few minutes of the episode that the sight of the helicopter actually makes me jump. Can it be true? Are they getting rescued right then and there?

How'er we gonna wait another week? OK, that's disingenuous because ABC did service journos with the second episode too. No spoilers here on my watch, if I can help it, so let's just say that seg 2 takes the mystery to new heights, and depths. Which only makes it harder to wait patiently for episode three.