Apparently, tonight's episode of "Lost" is going to use a device with Desmond's flashbacks that has "never been used before, and never will be used again," and will blow our minds. The teaser clue about it, according to this Entertainment Weekly thing from today is:

"Riddle me this — When is a flashback not a flashback?"

Maybe when it's a premonition? Some kind of foretelling of the future. Either that, or it's in an alternate universe, perhaps.

Last week's episode was riddled with black hole references, so now there is all sorts of speculation that the island is a black hole, or at least "the electromagnetic anomaly beneath The Hatch was a black hole," and that "the Button inside The Hatch was regulating the awesome energies radiating from this black hole/anomaly." So, when the sky turned purple due to the Button not being pushed, it was the Hatch imploding.

And therefore, Ben couldn't get off the island because, well, it's a black hole.

Then again, the EW piece also points out that to think of the island as a black hole is kind of simplistic, and that maybe it's not an *actual* black hole, but is just very similar to a black hole; "a 'region of space-time' where 'the laws of physics no longer apply.'"

Now, how much the Others know about this, how much they are linked to the Dharma Initiative, how long they've been there (besides Juliet who told us in the last episode), etc. etc. etc. remains to be seen.