I SAW IT ON TV: Lost season 5 finale

So just got through the big season 5 finale of Lost last night...

What did everyone think?

I thought it was really good, and while some of it was a bit obvious, there were still cool moments, and of course headscratchers!
SPOILER
Locke's dead in the cliffhanger, again?!?
So who is the living Locke?
The final scene in the foot with Jacob they reference the loophole, from the opening scene, where Jacob's on the island with another man, who apparently wants to kill him, if only he could find said loophole.
So who was that man? (and what did I recognize him from, it's driving me batty... and I'm too lazy to IMDB it...)
What is this loophole?
What is Jacob?
And how is this man Locke, or vice versa.
I mean, we know it's all something to do with Egyptian gods, or some such, but I'm no student of anything outside comics and pop culture.
So is Jacob an Egyptian god of life/death (I know this was speculated, as to what Egyptian stuff was in play for weeks)?

It was kind of neat how Jacob was there giving a "little push" at the moment of crisis for all of our cast...
How?
And to what end?

Who are these self proclaimed "good guys" with their shadow of the statue talk?

And, are we really going to see the cast back on flight 815 and landing safe at LAX next season?
Or is that a red herring?
Seems to me, if they do put the cast back together, on the other side of flight 815... it's ripe for that proposed movie there's been talk of in the past.
Then the cast could have some reason to find the island or some such.

But if that's where we are at the start of the final season, where do we go from there?
If that's not where we are, what does Juliette's detonation bring?

2010

Good stuff.

Thoughts??

I posted this over on my DeviantArt journal last nigte, so check over there for some discussion... HERE

Also, you can check out the always stunning breakdowns by Doc Jensen on EW.com HERE
And The Beat does a recap with lively discussion each ep HERE