Wow. So much went on tonight I know I'm going to forget something. The episode begins with the aftermath of the shooting. Libby did survive, but is very close to the death. Henry is gone, and Michael, of course, says it was Henry who did the shooting.
We see Eco on the beach, and he is having a dream with Ana Lucia in it. Eco is told to help Locke.
At the hatch, Eco asks Locke to come with him to chase after Henry, but once they get out, Eco says they need to find the question mark. Locke has obviously lost his faith, and Eco needs to know him out to prevent him from returning.
We see a bit of Eco's past back in Australia. He is asked to investigate the supposed death and resurrection of a young girl. When he talks to the doctor who examined the child, the doctor plays the audio tape of the autopsy. I don't know about you, but that was scary. You hear him talking about the autopsy and as he beings to cut, the girl screams bloody murder. Chills - big time.
Eco and Locke camp at the plane crash location in the middle of the island. Eco climbs up the cliff and see nothing but lush green trees, but when he turns back to tell Locke, he sees that the question mark was burned into the ground with salt. They start digging and find a new hatch. This time they only need an axe to open the hatch (lucky them).
Ok - now for the big news. They get into the hatch and a find a room with tv monitors and two comfy looking chairs. Locke turns on a few and finds one that shows Jack back at the Swan hatch. They find an orientation video and when they watch it, we find that they are at the Pearl hatch. Their job is to watch the other hatches and report everything they do.
So yes - everything is an experiment. The numbers - it's just a task for the people to do. Locke is extremely shaken by this, but Eco talks about faith and how he feels there is a purpose to all of this. Now - I didn't quite by that. Personally I wouldn't push the dang button again, but Eco feels that it is important.
Back at the Swan, Libby expires. Her last word is "Michael", but Jack thinks she is just asking about him.
In the last Eco flash back, the girl that had supposedly died (turns out she just had hypothermia), tells Eco that she saw his brother while she was unconscious.
Holy crap. You would think with so much revealed I would be happy, but now I feel like I have about a million questions in my head.
Questions: If the people in the "sub" hatches didn't know they were being observed, who drew the map with the question mark in the middle in the Swan hatch? We know something went wrong, the Incident (well, that could be a lie), but did the people being observed turn on the watchers?
If these are just experiments, what are the guns for? I mean, sure, maybe Hanso is just Evil (tm), but that seems... I don't know. Too simple. Also, experiments don't answer how Locke got his legs back, or how the numbers seem to be have an impact outside the island. It doesn't explain the deadly black smoke, or how the island seems to draw planes and boats.