Lost Watch: I Miss Hurley

The second episode of season 3 of "Lost" didn't blow my nuts off the way the season premiere did. It wasn't a bad episode, but the main problem was that it was a Sun and Jin centered story. It was probably the best Sun and Jin episode since season one, but to me, they are the least compelling characters among the main survivors. Maybe I just feel that way after last season's group of Sun and Jin stories that did nothing to advance what we understood about them. Episode 2 certainly filled in some questions we have about them- but honestly, Sun and Jin's issues are probably the questions I'm least eager to find answers to. Plus, I'm starting to miss the other survivors. I'm glad that episode three is supposedly about the main group. I just miss poor ol' Hurley.

That said, there was plenty of good stuff in this episode. Sayid's hard-ass yet ill conceived plan to wait for the Others and "kill all of them but two," using one of the two to show the other why he should cooperate showed just how far off the rails ol' Sayid has gone. I love Sayid, and want more from him this season. I feel like he became a lost character for all of season 2, moping around about the loss of Shannon. Maybe I'm being harsh, because he supposedly loved her. But while I was celebrating the death of the most annoying character in the history of the show, a death that was basically demanded by the show's audience (as opposed to her brother in law's death, which Locke creepily described as "demanded by the island,") Sayid was moping. If he could have, he would have locked himself in the hatch with some Elliot Smith records and drank whiskey, crying himself to sleep. Anyway, I'm just trying to say I wanna see more Sayid this year, and see Sayid kick some serious ass again.

The stuff with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer hanging out in Other-town was interesting too. Kate and Sawyer were forced to do hard labor, moving giant rocks around. Clearly, what they were doing probably had no purpose other than giving the Others something hard for their prisoners to do. Sawyers sudden kiss of Kate followed by his bad ass yet failed escape attempt was probably all part of the Others'' designs- they are certainly manipulating them psychologically, but it's not yet clear to what end. When Kate and Sawyer are thrown into their cells later that night, they discuss the fact that Sawyer thinks he can take the guards, the next time he has a chance. Then the rug is ripped right from under us again when we realize that Ben- the head Other, or at least highest ranking among them that we know of so far- is watching them through a monitor, and hearing their every word. Spooky.

The best scene in the episode is the very last one. Ben comes into Jack's cell, and finally introduces himself properly. He tells him that he's lived on the island his whole life, and by choice. Jack doesn't believe him, telling him that he would have left if he could. Ben then rattles off a group of facts that happened in the outside world recently- remember, the plane crashed in 2004, and the survivors have been their only 69 days. When Jack doesn't believe that the Red Sox won the world series, he plays a tape of the last game for him. It's the first evidence Jack has seen of the real world in over two months, and it kind of overwhelms him. So a few fan theories are smashed- that the island exists in some kind of bubble, like a giant snow globe, and the theory that there has been some sort of apocalyptic event, and that the people on the island are the only left on Earth. Or are these theories really dead? Those clever writers- and Others- could spin things around again. But for now, it seems that there is an outside world, and Ben promises Jack that he will send him home if he cooperates "when the time comes." When you see Jack's face staring at the last out of the Red Sox World Series, you can tell that Ben has got him.

Just what is he going to ask him to do? Whatever it is, it'll probably be totally fucked, but we'll just have to wait to find out- hopefully we'll have an answer before the show's long hiatus.