Please allow me to introduce myself. My name's Sonya, and DocArzt graciously invited me to contribute to his blog. To date, I've mostly been spinning my Lost theories and observations in private and over on the Lost tribe at Tribe.net, and acting like I know more than them because I read blogs like this one and the also excellent DarkUFO.
There are already many fine recappers posting here and elsewhere, so I'm not going to duplicate their efforts. But Lost being the thick, rich stew that it is, sometimes little elements get overlooked, especially when they're not part of the episode's "A-story". So, for my first contribution to Doc's space (and therefore to all of you) I'm going to focus on the more neglected items from each episode as they air, and expound on some of the possibilities I think they open up for the future.
Also, since there have been two episodes back since the strike-induced hiatus, I'm going to give you all a twofer this week. So, let's start with "The Shape of Things to Come"...
"Shall We Play a Game?"

OK, now, admittedly the "Risk" sequence in "The Shape of Things to Come" has been picked over, but as far as I've seen, no one else has contextualized it quite right. All the focus has been on some of the spoken lines, such as Hurley's "We're all gonna die" or "Australia's the key to the whole game!", and to me that's missing the forest for the trees.
Hurley here is also complaining to Sawyer that "This is exactly what he (Locke) wants--to fight amongst ourselves." And, in a larger context, this episode also introduces us to the notion that the fight over the Island between Ben Linus and Charles Widmore is a game of sorts...that there are rules which govern the "players".
Now, if there's one thing that we've learned about John Locke starting in the pilot episode, it's that he's good at games. He sucks at reading people, but wow, can he ever play him some games. He teaches Walt backgammon, is dubbed "the colonel" by his strategy game buddy at the box company in Tustin, enchants a child with the intricacies of Mouse Trap, beats the snot out of the chess game at the Flame station in "Enter 77", and now looks to be dividing and conquering Hurley and Sawyer at Risk.
Locke has also been flailing around trying to determine what the Island wants him to do since he caused the implosion of the Swan at the end of Season 2. Once he realizes the nature of the game and is able to glean enough of the rules from Ben, look to Locke to somehow enter it as a new challenger and manage to get the better of both Ben and Widmore. His purpose will be clear...to free the Island from both of the men who wish to possess rather than serve it.
One further observation about Locke, games, and the nature of the show. Think back to the "Pilot, Part 2", and Locke's speech to Walt about backgammon..."Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark." Black and white has subsequently been a recurring visual motif and narrative theme on the show. Lostpedia even has a page dedicated to this theme that points out all occurrences of it in the show so far.
The trouble is that the dualities of black and white, light and dark, good and evil, they only exist in games and stories. In the real world, everything's relative and there are only the proverbial shades of grey. So, even if Locke manages to enter and "win" the "game", it will likely just be another instance of his having been manipulated once again--this time by the Island itself--and another chance for John Locke to have to concede that he "was wrong."
It's also going to be riveting television. Next up, "Something Nice Back Home"...
"I Just Work Here!"
In the midst of all the sturm und drang between "Jate" and "Jacket" in "Something Nice Back Home", it was easy to overlook some very small but very important interactions involving the original Freighter Four (FF hereafter) of Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, and Frank. After all, with the exception of Charlotte's Korean conversation with Jin, and Miles' sudden interest in Claire and Aaron, their parts in this episode were of the "blink and you'll miss 'em" variety.
But big things do sometimes come in small packages.
The first big take-away from everything we heard from these four is that they're just as scared of Keamy and his men as Ben or the other Losties, if not more so after having spent time with them on the Kahana. Whatever Widmore has the mercenaries doing, I think it's clear that the FF want no part of it. They each have their own agenda on the Island and, much like the rescue of the survivors of Oceanic 815, Widmore's ends are "not their primary objective."
Frank's heroic gesture of hiding Sawyer, Miles, Claire, and Aaron from Keamy's men and Daniel & Charlotte's attempts to insulate the Losties from the insanity of Widmore's mission both try to protect the Losties from a force they can't hope to beat. And Miles' concern for Claire and Aaron is the first care of any sort we've seen the Island's resident ghost whisperer show for any human being outside of himself.
It's become clear that each of the FF has wanted to find the Island and/or the DHARMA Initiative for quite some time--Daniel for his time experiments, Frank to unravel the cover-up around the crash, Miles to engage in a little old-fashioned extortion, and Charlotte out of professional anthropological/archeological interest in Island and DHARMA history.
That Widmore was willing to send them to this unique location for his own ends was a faustian bargain they were willing to make in exchange for their help with the poison gas, and probably for other reasons we don't know about yet. (Miles' special talents, for example, haven't really come into play for Widmore yet.)
But for all that their paychecks are signed by Widmore, I think that the actions so far of the FF indicate that they'll end up siding (and, in the long term, integrating) with the Losties. Daniel has shown over and over again that he doesn't want to lie to Jack and the others. He has done so, but my reading of him so far is that it was as much out of a desire to protect them as to pursue any of Widmore's ends. He knows that the more the Losties know about the Island in general and Widmore's plans for it in particular, the more danger they're in.
So does Charlotte, whose gruff, "play it close to the vest" exterior and treatment of Daniel masks the childlike wonder we saw on her face in "Confirmed Dead" when she first realized that she was actually on the Island she'd clearly been chasing for some time.
The integration of the FF with the beach camp as Widmore's freighter mission degenerates further into chaos will be the key to both the Losties' and the audience's greater understanding of the Island, since we're obviously not going to be privy to whatever Locke learns from Ben. As the FF teaches the Losties about the Island, and as the Losties teach the FF how to survive there, so will the audience be taught.
And, one final observation...Frank Lapidus is going to have an heroic death at the hands of Keamy's men, mark my words. He's shown a willingness to deceive the mercs on behalf of the Losties, and his goal of finding the truth about Oceanic 815 has been achieved. Oh yeah, he's also the only one of the FF who's only a recurring guest star rather than credited series regular. Of course, I hope I'm wrong about this as I really like both Jeff Fahey as an actor and Frank as a character, but this is where all the signs about him point for me.
Thanks for reading and I'm very much looking forward to shining a little light on whatever gets neglected in this week's episode, "Cabin Fever".

Here are some more Marvel/Lost cross-overs uncovered by the nimble-eyed Sindol.  First up is yet another Fantastic 4 image, note the 6 on the steps?

And how about this mysterious craft from the Xmen?


Here is the complete collection of Sindol's finds so far: