Is it my imagination or have we learned a lot more in the past few weeks than is usual?

After re-watching this season from the very beginning, I feel as if the show
has accelerated faster than this time in seasons 1 & 2. It is as if the story
is unfolding at a faster rate than we are used to.

I can remember earlier in the season when we were not getting enough
answers at the rate we wanted and you could almost feel the frustration
in the posts.

Now it seems like the answers are coming pretty fast. I am very satisfied
with the story and I feel this is going to be the best "end of season run" for the entire show.

Any insights and comments from ya'll?

They do seem to be ramping things up.

I agree. The show has just been getting better as the season goes along. Season 2 had a great end arc, but I think this season will definitely top the last in that department.

However, I would hope that this isn't the best end run of the whole show; the last batch of episodes of the last season better be the best of all!

I think we are learning things FINALLY right?!!! They owe it to all of us. I think they have given us so many new questions this season that answering some old ones is the least they could do!

Maybe we are learning all these things because they are reaching the conclusion? Personally I wouldn't have wanted to know more before this. It seems perfectly timed to my IMHO.

THe time where the show could endlessly throw questions at us viewers are over. Throwing up big questions and mysteries without giving answers worked for two seasons, but pushing this along for another season would only have frustrated the viewers. It was just the right time for some answers, and it's not as if there were still a lot of questions left. I think slowly, the show is starting to wrap things up.

I absolutely agree, and I don't understand all the kvetching about supposedly getting answers at a snail's pace. Perhaps people are getting frustrated because the web is getting more and more tangled, and it's hard to trace the skeins and figure out what's really going on, what's important and what's not. But think how much more we know now than at the end of Season 2, when all we'd seen was puzzling hillbilly Others. Juliet's book club was the VERY FIRST SCENE of Season 3--followed immediately by an information-rich reprise of the crash.

I think we're almost to the top of the first hill on the roaller coaster. Season 3 will end at the peak, season 4 will be the down hill rush and some twists, and Season 5 will be the little bumps at the end with the photo finish. :)

I am also thinking that we will learn everything before the finale and then
watch the characters deal with all that is known. At least that is the pattern
in most shows. We learn all the secrets and then watch how the
characters respond to the truth.

I think that from here on end, our viewing experience is going to be
quite different from anything in the past. Different meaning better - as in more better.

I've liked how the answers have come throughout the series. Questions are posed early on and answered when appropriate to the plot. I think that is the Catch 22 (no pun intended) of having planned story arcs. The writers can set up interesting questions and scenarios knowing they will be played out further down the road. Unfortunately, this frustrates a lot of viewers used to question, then answers. new question, then answer, etc. One example from this season that I've discussed before is the mystery of the cable. This was introduced back in early season 1 (Solitary). Now that we know what the cable is for (Enter 77), it is obvious that this answer really could not have come any sooner. We needed to know about the Flame Station, which meant we needed to know about DHARMA and all the stations, which meant we needed to know about the hatch, which meant Locke and Boone had to find the hatch. I don't really know how they could have explained it back in season one before we knew all this other information and have it still make sense. Yet, by introducing it so early, it is clear they had at least a plan for this particular plot point (sonar becon). Anyway, just my 2 cents. I have been loving this season more and more as it has progressed. Questions and answers :)