I think the pendulum was put in afterwards.
I found it a bit slow, the opening was great, with its riff on the very first episode, but the rest of the episode just seemed like filler to get to where it started from.
I hope there was a co-pilot on that plane, because if the losties and Frank just vanished from the plane, and the rest of it stayed up there, then suddenly there is noone flying that plane.
It probably did crash though since the airline was the same one that Sawyer and Juliet drank the water bottles from the new wreckage on the beach.
Mr Mexican probably will feature, as otherwise why have him, he seemed more than just an extra.
I think Ben might have been fighting with some of Widmores hired goons, or possibly Syied beat him up, in a fight that Ben set up so cops would see, and arrest Syied, then deport him to guam, thanks to some false documents that Ben set up showing Syied as a fugative from guam.
Then again he might just have been trying to put eye drops in a four year old.