I think the whole thing was such a blow to Locke and all he had been believing - he had already been losing faith in the island, and this discovery was a nail in the coffin. He didn't seem to want to stick around more than he had too, but there is obviously more to the Pearl station that needs to be questioned - like where the sir-tube-sucker thingy goes. (They should stick a lit stick of dynamite in there and see what blows up! lol)

As a side note, the clue on the www/sublymonal.com website involved old 80's looking TV screens... hmmmm, odd how they matched perfectly the ones in the Pearl station?

Wow. This episode was amazing.
I was hoping that the tv's recorded aswell, i guess they have to find out another way. Poor Libby

What are everyone's thoughts on if the "?" on the blast door map and the Pearl station are the same place? Because I don't feel that they are...I honestly don't think that the design that Eko saw on the ground was a question mark; he even said it was a circle, which would match the Pearl logo. And I guess I always expected the "?" location to be something more than just an observation station; I guess now I'm thinking that wherever those sucker-tube things go, that would most likely be the "?" location.

And weren't there six locations around the "?" on the map? And since the Pearl is station 5, I'd guess that the Pearl is one of the unlabeled ones on the right side of the map.

What does everyone think?

True, but don't you think they would put an observation station in the middle of everything. I think it's the most important station.

it can't be that important, or else someone would be manning the station...

seriously, though, I'll just be disappointed if that is all the "?" is...that huge hand-drawn hidden map with a big "?" in the middle, and its just an unmanned observation post...kind of a let down...

I was let down too- the tape mentioned the "barracks" and I guess I expected the ? to be the center of Dharma's action not the "research" action.

There are 9 monitors, which match with the number of stations minus the pearl and the question mark.

The Swan was monitor number 7.

There must be many cameras in each station. Why would Dr. Whitman tell the observers to report everything that occurs, no matter how minute or unimportant it may seem, if the only camera for that station was in the kitchen?

Dr. Whitman also said "After the end of your eight hour shift, proceed to the Palla(?) ferry which will take you back to the village." This might suggest that there were 3 shifts working in The Pearl. Is the village on the island or somewhere else?

The Pearl didn't seem to have tunnels connecting it to other stations.

Echo saw a circle (pearl) from the cliff.

Any thoughts?

I was wondering that too, especially after Locke put the map in there and pressed the button. If the Pearl is still in use and reports are still being sent, then someone on the other end would know that someone was in the Pearl station.

Do we know for sure that events are not being recorded? This was only their first visit. Maybe they'll go back and find more. And what was all that stuff that Ecko stuffed in this bag?

This ep left us with a lot of questions, that's for sure.

__________________
Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate.

Eko stuffed the printed reports of the button pushings in his bag. Did anyone notice if there were other numbers confirmed, like numbers from other stations or something?

__________________

Yeah, but they werent THE numbers... they were: 416020[56]-[86] (the last two digits changed everytime). Times the button was pushed?? whoa!

Also, I slow-moed the quick flashes at the beginning, in Eko's dream - there is one scene of him with the black smoke, and the face in the smoke is very clearly Yemi, his brother. Crazy!