Dear lord, that was the single greatest "season finale" that I've seen in the last five years. :)
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!
- those first five minutes with Jacob on the beach were incredible - I'm quite amazed that they showed more of Jacob in this episode than I thought they would (enjoyed his visit to Hurley the best), but who/what exactly is he, why does the Man in Black want him dead, what's with all the Egyptian art/themes... god, this is going to be frying my mind till 2010.
- who the hell is this Man in Black? What is his relationship to Jacob? Why does he have to find a "loophole" in order to kill him? I'm really hoping the Island doesn't turn out to be some God/Satan/Eden/Angels/etc-type of situation, but after this episode... I really don't know anymore.
- "ille qui nos omnes servabit" roughly translates to "the one who will save us all."
- the Jack/Sawyer fight was a long time coming and for the most part I enjoyed it, but this whole Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet thing really needs to be done with (I had hoped that Juliet would've disappeared from the show completely after her fall, but after the last 5 minutes, I kinda now doubt it)
- so John Locke really did die at Ben's hands and the Locke we've been watching for the last 5-6 episodes is really the Man in Black posing as John Locke in order to get Ben to kill Jacob. Granted, it makes for one amazing mindf*ck moment at the end, but I'm going to be pissed if Locke is completely gone from next season.