Did anyone else watch the repeat of "Ab Aeterno" on April 27? If there was ever a Lost episode I wanted to see with those helpful green boxes, that was it. Sure, we may have already known that those four granite toes belonged to a statue of Taweret, the Egyptian goddess of protection, birth, and fertility, but it’s nice to see it in writing. I’m tired of Googling what I think I heard them say; there’s only so many hours I can spend doing that calling it "work."

As a warm-up to tonight’s final mythology episode, "Across the Sea," which Lost producers say will reveal the back story to Jacob and the Man in Black, here are a few reminders from "Ab Aeterno":

—Richard came to the island on the Black Rock, which was captained by Magnus Hanso — great-grandfather of Alvar Hanso, a financial backer of the Dharma Initiative (according to Lostpedia).

—The Black Rock was sailing on March 22, 1845, from Portsmouth, England, to the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) when it shipwrecked. Magnus Hanso’s first mate kept a journal—the same journal Charles Widmore bought at a Southfield’s auction in 1996, in the season 4 episode "The Constant." Does this journal help explain Widdy’s motivation to be back on the island? Could the first mate have survived long enough to record island secrets that we still don’t know?

—The white stone, an "inside joke between Jacob and the Man in Black," is a symbol that Jacob beat MIB in a particular situation…and, theoretically, a show of the battle between light and dark, good and evil, etc. Because by now, we know that Smokey/MIB is pretty damn evil.

—Smokey came to Richard as his wife, Isabella—which means that Smokey can take the form of anyone who’s dead, not just characters who died on the island. With that said, if you see Hurley talking to a dead person, and a living person shows up and can’t see who Hurley’s talking to, then he’s probably not chatting with Smokey.

And as a final treat: two sneak-peak trailers of tonight’s episode. I watched them (couldn’t resist): one features the little blond boy, and the other shows what I presume to be Jacob and the MIB’s mothers. They’re not particularly revealing—more a tease than anything else—but watch at your own risk. I can’t wait to find out why MIB has mommy issues…and at least we know that they can’t kill off any more of our favorite characters during a mythology dump.

I hope.