There was absolutely nothing there that could not have been obviously inferred from what we heard in the past, aside from the scenes with Jacob explaining things to Richard and talking to Smokeguy. You could have had a five minute teaser at the end of the episode where Jack stares down Richard's suicide attempt. All we got out of that slow-moving and redundant story was that Jacob thinks he's protecting the world through the island, and Smokeguy just wants to get off, and is willing to do anything to do it, as if we didn't figure out that from last season's finale and things in this season.

The overall storyline did not advance even slightly in this episode, aside from Richard recovering from an apparently unnecssary and now irrelevant crisis of faith, which, with only half a dozen or so episodes left, does not seem like the kind of thing the writers can afford to do. When the show ends with so many mysteries unresolved, I think a lot of fans are going to be mighty pissed that entire episodes like this were frittered away filling in blanks for the really really dense, who can't conceive of something unless they watch it play out. And as far as THAT is concerned, an awful lot went on behind the scenes, didn't it? Was that a ghost like Hurley or Miles can communicate with (each in his own way, of course) who came to Richard in the hold, or was it like the apparitions of Yemi and Alex to Eko and Ben - namely, Smokeguy trying to sway him to his purpose? What was he/it up to, anyway? Killing off everyone so he could better sway the most desperate person left to do his bidding? Does Jacob have some means of rendering a person immune to Smokeguy's killing, or was Smokeguy simply hoping Richard would some day be turned? If Jacob CAN convert people and protect them from Smokeguy by doing so, he's kind of a dick for not doing more of it, no? And if he can't, why doesn't Smokeguy send the whole crew after him? Why wipe out everyone else so he has to bet it all on a single assassin?

Finally, in last season's finale, didn't the Black Rock approach the island in broad daylight under clear skies?