Daniel, I'm sorry your mother is such a creepy bitch

Eloise Hawking, you are.... I'm not sure what you are, but I'll tell you what you're NOT: a good mother. First you have sex with Charles Widmore (okay, I'll give you that one--he's a rich man, you'd be set for life), then you have a baby with him, then you raise your son to do his daddy's dirty work knowing full well the fate that awaits him, and then you kill him! Wtf, lady? You are definitely not up for the mother of the year award.

Aside from confirming my creepy bitch theory, we found out a lot in last night's episode of LOST.

1. Eloise was an Other/Hostile on the island. Why didn't this ever cross my mind? I remember someone named Ellie being on the island in the 1950's during the Jughead debacle, but why didn't I put two and two together? I'm very mad at myself for not figuring this out earlier.
2. Charles Widmore finally admitted to being behind the fake Oceanic 815 crash. We all knew he was responsible (at least I assume that was a given?) but now it's confirmed. I still want to know how the Oceanic 6 were explained if all [dead] passengers were accounted for on the fake flight.
   
3. Widmore is Daniel's father. I imagine finding that out is a little like finding out Darth Vader is your dad, but also that Hitler is your uncle.
   
4. It seems that Eloise is somewhat of a clairvoyant. (CLAIRE, WHERE ARE YOU?!) She seems to be able to see into the future, as evidenced by her comment "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what will happen," and the fact that Daniel accused her of knowing what would happen if he came back to the island and sending him anyway. And there's that whole underground Looking Glass station in Los Angeles.... C-R-E-E-P-Y.
5. As a completely random aside, do you think Claire's name has anything to do with the clairvoyance thing? Are Christian Shepard and the island training her to be the next Eloise? Is that why she's been missing all this time?
   

I don't know about you, but hearing Daniel explain how the energy from the hatch/Orchid/Swan set off the chain of events that led up to the 815 crash really helped me understand it better. Observe:

• Some sort of accident occurs at the Orchid
• This leads to the hatch being built around it to keep the energy at bay
• A button is pushed every 108 minutes so that... I don't know what pushing the button does exactly, contain the energy? Release small amounts of it so the world doesn't explode? Who knows.
• Desmond (who, if I remember correctly, found the island by chance on a sail around the world) somehow joins Dharma and winds up being the only person left to push the button.
  
• Desmond fails to push the button
  
• Oceanic 815 crashes
• The Galaga freighter is sent, carrying Charlotte, Miles, Naomi, Lapedus, and Daniel

Daniel has hypothesized that despite not being able to change the past, he can prevent all of those things from happening by using the buried Jughead bomb to destroy the energy being emitted from the Orchid. How this will work is beyond my time-space continuum understanding, but supposedly humans are the variables in changing the past and it can somehow happen. My question is, what good is it preventing the plane from crashing if they're all still stuck in 1977? Or will the island let them time travel back to the future? (HA!) Also, why is the energy emitted from the Orchid so damn powerful? What kind of energy is it? How is it created? Tell me, Island. TELL ME!!

Other random observations:

• Did anyone else raise their eyebrows when Kate, Jack and Daniel started shooting at the Dharma dudes? I did NOT seeing that coming.
• I laughed out loud when Sawyer said to Daniel, "Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy." And when he called him H.G. Wells.
  
• When Sawyer said to Jack, "I belonged just fine here until you showed up, Doc," my mind immediately yelled, "FIGHT!" I definitely see a showdown coming between Jack and Sawyer in the near future. It's been a loooong time coming.
  
• I almost shed a tear when Daniel saw young Charlotte on the swing and told her to leave the island. I see a reunion of sorts happening between them (obviously when Charlotte is not 6 and if Daniel isn't dead) if and when the energy from the Orchid is contained. Ah, so many variables!
• Jack: You need a gun to talk to your mother? Daniel: You don't know my mother." Hilarious!
• I smiled when Penny said to Desmond in the hospital, "I thought I lost you." The power of the pun.
  
• I wanted to punch Eloise in the face when Daniel looked up at her after she shot him and said, "You knew. You always knew this was going to happen. And you sent me here anyway."

One last random prediction: Juliet is or will become pregnant. That whole having babies on the island thing will definitely pop up again. I just have a feeling. Also, where is Danielle Rousseau? We share a name, I had to ask.