I liked it a lot, too. Considering that we already knew the end result, and that all they had to do was fill in the details to show us how they got to that result, they still managed to included some surprises and unexpected things.
You see, the problem is that that's not "all they had to do." You (or I, anyway) can't excuse a messy, almost entirely bland episode simply because it set the bar so low that it couldn't do anything but clear it, even if clumsily. A lack of ambition or entertaining goals isn't an excuse for a lack of entertainment or well-plotted, well-staged drama. Simply having to "fill in the details" is garbage. That's not good TV--it's a cop-out, and it's a way to cover up a lack of riveting ideas.
The Season 2 finale was, for me, easily the best single episode in the history of the series. The Season 3 finale was very good, but hardly great, until the last 10 minutes, when it helped people to forgot how much time had been sort of wasted, over the last 70 minutes, by giving them something so shocking that it was of course going to be the only thing they could remember. A good episode, but I don't think it holds a candle to the jaw-dropping Season 2 finale. The Season 1 finale was a stunner, I thought. Much better than the good Season 3 finale, as a whole, and a hell of a lot more suspenseful (as were several of the last few episodes) than just about anything the show has done, subsequently. For me, the Season 4 finale was an on-screen abortion.
The best part was knowing (as I think most people did--didn't need spoilers to figure this one out, even if you hadn't been sure, by the time the episode started, as they gave it away two minutes in that whoever told Jack to lie was the one in the coffin...sigh) that Locke is dead. If he stays dead, I'll be back on board forever, with this show. Hot shit, do I hate that boring-as-fuck, dreadfully written character. Quinn's not a bad actor, I guess, and I feel for the guy, having to deal with laughable plot devices like an evil, con artist father who steals your kidney, randomly pushes you out of a window, and paralyzes you, or the maleficent orange farmers of doom. Ugh. Kudos to the guy for trying, but I'd rather not have to see anything like that, ever again. The effort, in this case, simply isn't enough. One-trick pony--seem desperate/hurt, smirk, shrug, and say something about destiny, and you're John Locke in 99% of the situations, on this show. I cried, earlier this season, when the gun whose trigger Jack pulled was empty. Oh, that sucked!