The flashbacks in the first two episodes were completely worthless too. We learned that Jack has alcoholic-daddy issues, and a marriage that ended badly, and that Sun has gansta-daddy issues and cheated on Jin, and that Jin was 'forced' to do bad things by Sun's gansta-daddy. That's it, no new info.
IMHO, those episodes are missable. Last night's was good, though.
Jack, in particular, really got gypped on flashbacks. I'm still ticked off about that.
Granted, he hasn't lived about thirty lives in the past, like Locke apparently has...but they could have given him better flashbacks!
If I wrote Lost...
So Jin wasn't "healed" by the island like Locke and whatshername? Sun really did cheat with the hotel guy?