It's the beginning of the end (and it's good stuff)

Theory 1: Charlie is a manifestation of the island, using a friendly guise to try to lure Hurley back in.

Theory 2: It's all about the time travel and simultaneous realities. Some version of reality still has a Charlie in it, and he is powering over to the reality where he doesn't exist ('cause if he ran into himself, all worlds would explode, or something like that. Haven't we learned anything from our Dharma films with multiple rabbits popping into view?).

Theory 3: It's just a hallucination. Nah. Don't buy that for a minute.

As for Jacob's cabin: This time around, the figure in the rocker looked a LOT like Christian Shepherd. I wasn't surprised that it popped up necessarily -- it doesn't seem to be a literal physical place, it can probably pop whenever and wherever desired -- but it is curious that it manifested to Hurley. Why is Hurley being invited to the freaky cabin of mystery? Is Locke so in with the in crowd now that he showed it to Hurley? (Just providing some food for thought. If I knew what was going on, I would be posting spoilers, not speculation.)

Another interesting element in this episode was the showdown between Locke and Jack. Locke, as shown by the unloaded gun, never intended to hurt Jack. But now Locke knows that Jack is plenty willing to hurt him. I would see this as a dramatic demonstration of a deepening darkness in Jack. He's as fanatical in his own way as Locke.

The funniest line of the night, quite surprisingly, came from the once-mighty Ben: "With your permission, Jack, I'd like to go with Locke." Ha! Way to get in on the ground floor of a new team to play mind games with, Ben! From evil mastermind to comic relief: on Lost, you just never can tell.