3x01, "Tale of Two Cities"

Overall: not as good as last season's stunning opener, but very good nonetheless. As Doc Jensen at EW points out, this Jack flashback recontextualizes his trip to Sydney. It was him trying to REDEEM himself and not just a desperate try to save his father. Asking about whether his ex-wife was happy and not about the real identity of the man who stole her away from him shows how much he's moved on and grown since crashing on the island.

You probably couldn't have started off Season 3 any better than those first five minutes. They were so good in fact that The Fuselage crashed and has not come back online since.

Stuff backed up by the scene:

*The Others did not expect nor did they cause the crash (though Henry Gale's immediate response that there may be survivors indicates he knows a thing or two about the Island and it's mysterious ability to save crash survivors).

*Henry Gale is most definitely the leader of The Others.

*The Others live on the Island and not elsewhere on a nearby island, underground or underwater.

Other stuff backed up by the rest of the episode:

*The long rumored underwater hatch indeed exists. This was first theorized by people wondering where the cable that led to Danielle's old home connected to if you followed it back into the water.

*There's indeed a zoological station where the polar bears came from.... and it had dolphins, too! (And apparently the polar bears are smarter than Sawyer!)

*The Others are the remnant of the DHAMRA Initiative.

*Elizabeth Mitchell, lover of Angleina Jolie in the legendary Gia, lover of Kerry on ER, is now a full-time cast member on LOST... and hotter than ever! Whoo-hoo!

*Kate doesn't look that bad herself.

*The sixth DHARMA Station is The Hydra. The other five then are The Swan, the Pearl, The Flame, The Arrow and the Staff. The Door was a ruse.

*If I heard correctly Henry Gale's real name is Ben.

*Biggie Easter egg: The song playing on the radio as Jack stalks his soon-to-be ex-wife is the same song Sayid and Hurley hear when they fix their radio on the beach in Season 2. This is interesting because that cute but seemingly pointless scene was included in the latest LOST recap special. Why include such a scene when you're trying to compress nearly fifty hours of show down to 45 minutes? Well, at the end of that scene Hurley wonders where that music is coming from -- it sounds old. Sayid says radio waves at the frequency they picked up bounce off the ionisphere and could be coming from any place. Hurley then chimes in, "Or another time.... just kidding, dude."

Just kidding? Now we know it was a song from a flashback... Hmm....