Holy answers....

This episode of Lost was the installment fans have been waiting for. It depicted John Locke's life in the sideways world of 2004 and it showed us Fake Locke recruiting Sawyer in 2007, telling the sullen, angry, drunk castaway that he can reveal why he's on the island. Let's get right to what we learned from each timeline...

- IN 2004: Locke is engaged to Helen and seems to have a good relationship with his father. He tried to go on a walkabout and got turned away, just like in the original timeline.

- After getting fired from his job at the box company, Locke met Hugo in the parking lot, who said he also owns a temp agency and Locke should go there for a new job. The woman in charge there was Rose, who has terminal cancer. She gave John a speech about accepting who he is and the state he is in.

- Locke ends up working as a substitue teacher and meets a fellow teacher at the school named Ben Linus.

- IN 2007: While walking to whereever it is Fake Locke wants to take him, Sawyer is left alone in the jungle when Fake Locke spies some blonde kid (Sawyer sees him, too) and runs after him. This is noteworthy for two reasons:1. Richard runs out and tells Sawyer to go to the temple b/c Fake Locke wants to kill him and his friends; 2. Fake Locke tracks down the kid (Jacob?) and is told, "You can't kill him."

- When Fake Locke returns, he acts (or is it not an act?) as if he didn't ever run after a kid and he and Sawyer continue on to... a cave. It appears to be where Jacob lived and it's where Fake Locke reveals a number of answers:

• Sawyer and all the castaways recruited have been "candidates" to take over for Jacob and "protect the island." From what? Fake Locke says: nothing. That's what Jacob never understood.
• Jacob assigned everyone a number. They are scrawled on the ceiling and walls of the cave. The remaining castaways alive in 2007, with the exception of Kate, have corresponding numbers that are: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.
• Fake Locke wants Sawyer to leave the island with him and go home. Sawyer's response, as the episode cuts to black? Hell yes.