That episode of Lost, on the other hand, sucked. The events depicted were approximately 25% of what a good episode would have been, stretched out to fill the whole hour.

The episode exposes the narrative shortcomings of the flashback gimmick through a pointless revision to Michael's backstory, which in the end leaves everything exactly as it was before. Worse, they literally ended the Jack/Locke/Kate/Desmond/hatch plot in precisely the same spot as last week's cliffhanger. With precisely the same shot. Very poor.

I still want to know just what's the deal with the damn hatch, though.