Answered questions

Are the producers of Lost having mercy on us for all of the confusion of the end of last season that they are actually starting to answer some questions and not merely raise more?  Things are far from clear, but they certainly made some connections.  I was so intent on the story line last night that I almost didn't realize until the end of last night's episode that we didn't see the Oceanic 6 at all.  

As for answered questions, I guess we know now why Richard Alpert visited Locke when he was a young boy; Locke told him to.   Charles Widmore is far more involved in the Island and it's crazy time travel tendencies than was apparent at first.  He was an Other at some point, how they/he got there is still not clear, but he once lived there, and he was the one behind Daniel's research.  Daniel is definitely far more than a meek scientist.  He had some pretty dangerous research going on and wasn't afraid to try it out on a human who is apparently now very sick.  Oh, and he recognized the woman on the Island who brought him to the bomb ("Ellie" I think), is that his mom (I'm thinking Mrs. Hawking has to be his mom, right?)?  The H Bomb and the freakish tendencies of the Island are somehow tied together (the H Bomb needs to be buried and last episode we saw the Dharma people almost tap into something radioactive when mining underground).  

I loved seeing Desmond stand up to Charles Widmore.  I thought it was interesting that Widmore didn't like that Desmond was possibly involving Penny in the mix with Daniel's mother.  

Still lots of unanswered questions, but I like the feeling that I was actually making some connections during last night's episode.