Lost - Jughead

What I Liked:

--I did think how they slowly revealed the group had traveled back to 1954, and the revelation of the young Charles Widmore, was extremely well done. I'm excited to see where this goes and how it relates to everything that happens in present day.

--Locke telling Sawyer that he'll give them a 10 minute head start to save Farraday, and walking fearlessly through The Others' camp. Locke has his up and down years, but this one looks like it's going to be his best since Season 1. There's a focus to his character that hasn't been there in a long time, maybe ever. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that the mystery of the season revolves around him and the circumstances of his "death".

--Desmond and Penny raising their son, Charlie(!), in a boat. That's priceless. I wonder when he turns six, if they're going to send him to a school...of FISH! Okay that was a bad joke.

--That the writers are able to effectively take a break from the whole Ben/Jack/Kate/Sayid/Sun/Hurley storyline. One of my gripes about Heroes is that they try to fit too many storylines into one episode, so there's no coherent flow to the 1 hour story. I couldn't tell you what my favorite or most hated episode of last season was, because every episode just blends together into a haze. It's like living through sophomore year of college again. Same thing with 24, although the real time aspect forces them to do things that way. With Lost, they have such a big cast, and so many strong stories going on at the same time, they're able to concentrate on just one or two storylines per episode if they need to.

What I Didn't Like:
--I still don't have a handle on this season yet, mostly because time travel stories are confusing, and if you sit there and think about it too much, you can lose your mind. Maybe it's risidual bitterness from how awful Heroes turned out to be. I am willing to be patient, because Lost is notorious for starting out a little slow and confusing, and then having it all come together in the end.

--Daniel Faraday admitting that he's in love with Charlotte in order to save them, and Charlotte saying that he didn't have to say that, and Daniel saying that he meant every word. Too cliche. Faraday is a good character, and maybe it's because I haven't rewatched seasons 3 and 4, but I don't get why we should care about what happens to Charlotte. From a story standpoint the cliffhanger had to be the group traveling back to present day, with Charlotte twitching on the ground, presumably because of the buried hydrogen bomb. But the more effective "Wow" ending would have been the reveal of young Charles Widmore.

--There isn't anything interesting about Sawyer, Miles, or Juliette going on. They're just there. As far as I can tell, Rose and Bernard could have been the ones accompanying Locke, Charlotte, and Faraday and it wouldn't have made a difference except there wouldn't have been as many funny nicknames tossed around. Hopefully those guys will be given more important stuff to do in the next few episodes.