Everything about this episode was great, with the exception of the two big super secret scenes that the powers that be and the internet refused to spoil. So whether or not you liked the episode depends on how you took those two scenes.
For me, the scene with "Jacob" was much less than I'd hoped for, and the final scene between Ben and Locke was a lot more than I was expecting.
One thing we did get out of this episode, is that Ben is completely psychotic, so regardless of what else is going on around him, he's not to be trusted, nor should we expect him to give a full accounting of what's "really" happening.
The internets are buzzing because there are images of "Jacob" in the scene in the cabin if you freeze frame. So Ben may not have been talking to an empty chair after all. Maybe he was talking to a ghost (but who's ghost? Black Rock pirate, Christian Shepard, alternate universe Locke?). Or it was just part of the hocus pocus; an illusion to help Ben sell his long con. After all, spiritualists are capable of all sorts of very convincing displays during a seance. Doesn't mean they are real.
I'm starting to think that the point of Lost is not that there is an ultimate reality that will be revealed to us by 2010, but that there are cons big and small. Sometimes you're a thief, sometimes you're a doctor, and sometime you're a wizard. Regardless, your stock and trade is in the willingness of people to believe whatever story you're telling them is absolutely true. This is the way of the world, according to the show, so long as you ignore the man behind the curtain.
The fun of the show is our willingness to believe that Lost has answers to ultimately meaningless questions like "who is Jacob?"
