I remember seeing a similar scenario (the "deceased" observing his own funeral
from a hiding place) when I was a child in a movie with Jackie Gleason
called "The Poor Soul." Back then, I actually found it sad!

Was that supposed to be a real cake they baked at the end for the party?

The ending is so nice; there seems to be so much happiness there.

Even though Thurston had a "common bellyache" according to the Professor,
I've always still felt sorry for him. Having an attack of something
perhaps like gastroenteritis on a deserted island with no doctor would be
unnerving I would think.

Thurston gave the railroad to the Professor even though it was losing money?

I like the fact that Lovey comments on Ginger's "lovely throat." It's nice to
see a woman, especially one interested in status, not being catty.

The whole thing about the "old boar" is so funny!

Where did that boar come from and was it the only one? Strange.

Do you think they made more punch after Gilligan finished it?

I recall the first time I saw this episode as a child. I honesty thought the castaways were trying to do away with Mr. Howell!

Being ill or injured on the island would indeed be scary. The Professor isn't a doctor, and there's no hospital, no penicillin...no wonder the Skipper was terrified when Gilligan fell from the tree in "A Nose By Any Other Name."

I firmly believed that the castaways let the old boar go in the end. Nobody was too keen on doing him in, and nobody was talking about the nice spareribs at the party. It would be unnerving to think there might be more wild boar on that island: they're very dangerous! But Gilligan later tells Kincaid that there aren't any, so maybe that poor old boar was the last of his kind.

Gilligan's "punch drunk" scene is hilarious. He is being quite the scalliwag!

The Skipper shows true leadership in the funeral scene. As you say, Im, there's a tremendous sense of family closeness in this episode, in both this scene and the ending party.

This episode was prophetic and sad in that Jim Backus was the first of the cast to die.