Lost Watch: Jacked

Episode Title: Something Nice Back Home
Air Date: May 1, 2008

It seems like it's been awhile since the masterminds behind "Lost" gave us an episode about how Jack is a control freak martyr more obsessed with helping others than helping himself who is totally incapable of happiness... but they corrected that mistake last night with the latest episode. I was beginning to forget all that, what with all the amazing character reveals about Benjamin and mind blowing plot twists that have advanced the story in amazing new ways in the last few weeks.

Alright, I'll stop complaining and try to think of "Something Nice Back Home" as a moment for all of us fans to catch our breath after the roller coaster Ben To The Future episode from last week.

Jack gets sick and, just like Jack, tries to pretend everything is fine. When Juliet presses him, she discovers he needs an emergency procedure to have his appendix removed. Jack, being a stubborn control freak, insists on staying awake for the surgery, and wants Kate to sit in on the procedure and hold up a mirror... to make sure that Juliet is performing the procedure right. But even Jack can't take it, and they put him under and make Kate leave. Jack, unsurprisingly, survives.

The most intriguing part of the on island drama, which feels like the kind of conflict that would have happened early in the show's run, before they got so deep into the mythology, was when Rose tells Bernard she's worried about the reason that Jack got sick... because, as she says (and knows from personal experience,) people get better on the island, not sicker. Has Jack "angered the gods" as Bernard puts it? Or is the island pissed at him for trying to get the survivors off of it? Also worth noting are the scenes between Jin and Sun and freighter people Charlotte and Daniel. Jin realizes that Charlotte can speak Korean after he sees her listening to them, and he tells her that she must get Sun off the island when the helicopter comes back... or he will hurt her friend Daniel, who she clearly has feelings for (despite his weirdo crazy scientist nature.)

The more interesting part of the episode was the flash forwards, where we learn that Jack and Kate are living together... and seem to be deeply in love (and doing it a lot, heh heh.) The flash forward even starts with Jack reading to little Aaron... from "Alice in Wonderland," no less. But Jack and Kate's seeming domestic bliss can't last for long, because, let's face it, it's Jack Shepherd and Kate Austen we're talking about here. Besides the flash forwards clearly take place between Kate's trial episode, when she insisted that he has to be able to deal with baby Aaron if he wants to be with her, and the first flash forward episode featuring crazy, unconvincing beard sporting, pill popping Jack. Last night's episode begins to show how well adjusted post island Jack became that out of his mind Jack.

Jack visits Hurley in the mental institution, who tells him that Charlie visits him often... and that he has a message for Jack, that "you're not supposed to raise him." Hurley's spooky warning is an echo from the creepy psychic who gave Claire the same warning in season one, that only she can raise her baby, and proves the writers are finally starting to tie every little story string together. Even though he tells Hurley to take his meds, Jack is clearly shaken by Hurley's words... and his warning, that "someone is going to visit you soon."

Jack proposes to Kate, and she accepts, but we know that's not gonna last... he still has yet to become crazy bearded Jack who hangs out at the airport and flies around the world on Oceanic planes "hoping they will crash." He starts to become suspicious of her when he overhears her on a phone call and she seems to be lying about who she was talking to.

Jack really starts to lose it when Hurley's promise about a visitor comes true... when Jack sees his dad in the hospital waiting room. Jack, afraid that he is truly losing his mind, asks a fellow doctor to write him a prescription for anti-depression meds... and so Dr. Jack Shepherd's love affair with pills begins.

After much badgering, Kate admits she was fulfilling a promise to Sawyer, which obviously pisses the good doctor off, and leads to the end of their domestic bliss... and the beginning of Jack's new found fondness for alcoholic beverages. The nasty breakup fight ends with Kate telling Jack she doesn't want him around "her son," which Jack angrily responds to by saying "your son? He's not even related to you!" So obviously Jack has figured out that Claire was his sister... making Jack Aaron's uncle, which explains a lot why he was so hesitant to accept him in order to be with the woman he loves.

And what of our Claire-Bear? In the episodes "B" story (or "C" story, depending on if you count the on island and flash forward stuff as "A" and "B" stories... I'm going to stop being a screenwriting structure nerd and move on....) Sawyer, Ghostbuster Miles, and Claire carrying baby Aaron are heading back to the beach after deserting team Locke. Not much happens to them on their little journey... Sawyer protectively tells Miles to stay away from Claire, and they hide in the bushes when the mercenaries who attacked Ben in last week's episode walk by. But the episode ends with some juicy Claire stuff... her father (and Jack's father, let's not forget, who is supposed to be dead, let's not forget that either,) shows up in the middle of the night. In the morning, Sawyer wakes to discover Claire and Aaron are gone... and Miles tells him that "they wandered off into the jungle" When Sawyer asks why he let her go off in the jungle alone, Miles tells him they weren't alone... that she was with someone she called "dad." Sawyer runs to the sound of a crying baby... and discovers an abandoned Aaron sitting under a tree.

Claire seems pretty much gone with the wind at this point, and her mysterious disappearance will probably not be resolved by the time the Oceanic 6 leave the island, seeing as her baby leaves and she doesn't.

So, we're left with an episode that is a bit slower, and a bit heavier on character development than it is on plot and story (though there is plenty of good set up stuff.) Maybe we didn't need another Jack episode, but it was interesting to see Jack and Kate finally make a go of it as a couple... and to see them predictably fail at it. And from the promos for next week's episode, it looks like we're finally really going to get to meet Jacob, the one guy Ben claims he takes orders from, so there's really no reason to worry about the state of "Lost." Though I probably don't need any more reminders that Jack is a control freak martyr more obsessed with helping others than helping himself who is totally incapable of happiness. I think that base is well covered at this point.

Lost Watch: Unleashing The Proverbial Beast

Episode Title: The Shape of Things to Come
Air Date: April 24, 2008

Wow.

Seriously, wow.

Last night's episode of "Lost" was mother effing epic.

I'm going to split the three different parts of last night's out of this world episode, because damn, a lot happened. A friendly game of Risk (in which Hurley cryptically tells Sawyer and Locke that "Australia is the key to the game,") is interrupted when Charles Widmore's mercenaries attack Locke's camp in an attempt to bring Ben in. Sawyer runs to rescue a sleeping Claire from one of the houses, running into a group of non featured characters... who all get picked off one by one. Note to any characters who want to survive on "Lost..." if you have a speaking role, your odds of survival are much better.

The mercenaries reveal that they are holding Ben's daughter hostage, and threaten to kill her if he doesn't come out. Talking to the lead mercenary over a radio, Ben told him he wouldn't come out, confident that they were bluffing and would never shoot his daughter.

Then they shoot his daughter.

A stunned and hurt Ben uses the last bit of defense he can on the surrounding assault team.

He calls out the smoke monster.

Let me repeat that: Ben calls out the smoke monster.

Seriously, ol' smokey is apparently like an attack dog that Ben can use whenever he feels like it. Which means he lied about not knowing anything about it when Locke asked him.

After smokey takes out the mercenaries- because guns are very ineffective against a monster made of smoke, Ben stops to "say goodbye to his daughter."

Locke's team runs into the woods, where they hope to find Jacob's creepy ghost cabin. After all the insanity, Sawyer decides he's finally had enough of Locke's crazy man shenanigans and decides to head back to Jack's camp with Claire, Aaron, and Hurley. But Benjamin and Locke won't let Hurley go... because he is the only one who can find Jacob's cabin. Hurley mans up and says he will stay with Locke and Ben to avoid anymore bloodshed, and Sawyer touchingly promises to kill Locke if he hurts even one of Hurley's curly hairs. And Locke's response, after a bit of a beat, is priceless... he looks Sawyer in the eye and says "fair enough."

Back on the beach with Jack's crew, things get tense when a body washes ashore on the beach. It turns out to be the doctor from the freighter, whose throat has been slashed (clearly he didn't heed his own warning about "not pissing the captain off.") Jack wants an explanation and gets Daniel to use the broken satellite phone to transmit a signal to the ship in morse code... and then Daniel tries to lie about the freighter's mysterious response. Unfortunately for Daniel, old Bernard knows morse code and calls him on the lie. When Jack asks if the freighter crew ever had any intentions of bringing the survivors back from the island, a freaked out Daniel admits that they never did plan on rescuing them, giving legitimacy to Ben's claims that the crew plans on slaughtering everyone on the island once they have Ben in their possession.

Oh, and Jack is getting sick... which is clearly going to lead to an episode where somebody who isn't a doctor must operate on the doctor. This kind of story turn seems a bit lame, considering all the game altering twists and turns in the last episode, but hopefully the writing team is going somewhere with the subplot.

Anyway, on to the last but certainly not least of the three parts of the episode... Ben's flash forward. The first time we see him, Ben is waking up in the middle of the Sahara Desert, where he quickly kills two men on horseback who discover him. He heads into town and checks into a hotel (where he is a preferred customer who travels under an alias,) and asks the desk clerk the date... and needs to confirm the year.

So somehow Ben got off the island and ended up right smack in the middle of the desert... but is unsure of the year. More time travel stuff, it looks like.

Ben arrives just in time to show up at a funeral... for Sayid's dead wife. Turns out Sayid finally found the woman he had been searching for before he crash landed on mystery island, married her, and less than a year later, had to bury her. She was murdered, and Benjamin claims he is at the funeral to find the assassin who killed his wife. He shows him a picture of a man who was seen driving away right after Sayid's wife was murdered in Los Angeles... at the corner of La Brea and Santa Monica, which is just three blocks from where she was killed. And also my exact neighborhood, which is spooky/ awesome.

Ben tells Sayid that he got off the island using "Desmond's boat." Now, waking up in the middle of the desert probably implies that he didn't use a boat... but Desmond may have something to do with it, since it seems like Ben might have jumped through time somehow.

Sayid, angry and mournful, helps Ben track down and kill the assassin... then asks Ben who is "next" on his list. Ben tries to talk Sayid out of helping him, telling him it's "not his war," but Sayid insists, telling him he has nothing to live for other than avenging his wife's murder. Benjamin finally relents, but when walks away from Sayid, he smiles his evil Ben smile. And we witness how another one of our poor islanders is manipulated by Ben Linus.

At the end of the flash forward, Ben sneaks into Charles Widmore's hotel suite, where the two men finally confront eachother face to face. Ben tells Widmore that he "changed the rules" when his men murdered Alex. Widmore tells Ben that "everything you have you took from me," implying that Widmore was probably behind the Dharma Initiative work that Ben disrupted... by murdering anyone who worked for them. When Widmore asks Ben if he's going to kill him, Ben tells him that "both you and I know that I can't do that." Ben then promises to hunt down Widmore's daughter and kill her as revenge... that's right, Benjamin Linus has a personal vendetta against Desmond's true love, Penny. Widmore tells Ben that he'll never find Penny, while Ben tell Widmore he'll never find the island... and the game is on.

So why can't Ben kill Widmore? What are these "rules" Ben speaks of that Widmore broke? How far back does their association go? How the hell DID Ben get off the island? And just where does one buy food for your pet giant smoke monster anyway?

This was an episode where the patience of "Lost" fans really paid off, as mind blowing reveal after mind blowing reveal added up, all of them building to what promises to be an absolutely explosive finale where more than one of our favorite islanders will probably not make it. It was a fast paced hour with tons of new information that left fans with even more intriguing questions than ever, and most excitingly, it really did hint at the shape of things to come for the show now that the writers have the freedom of knowing just how long the show will go on and that they have an idea of where their endpoint is... we're gonna get more and more answers as the show goes on. Which will lead to more and more questions.

Lost Watch: In The Future, When All's Not Well

Episode Title: Eggtown
Air Date: 2/21/2008

So another week, another last minute blog post about "Lost" before the new episode airs. You should have seen what it was like when I wrote essays in college. I started one fifteen page term paper the night before it was due. And got like a B+ or an A- on it. ANYWAY. On to last week's Kate-centric episode.

On the Island, We Learned
-Kate needs some info from the Asian Ghostbuster guy.
-Locke has become batshit crazy.
-Benjamin is still fucking with his head all over the place.
-Asian Ghostbuster guy wants to talk to Ben
-Kate springs Ghostbuster and takes him to Benjamin
-Ghostbuster asks for $3.2 million to lie and tell his employers Benjamin is dead
-Benjamin says yes and tells him he can get the money (hmmmm...so Benjamin is even more than just a guy whose lived on the island forever, as was made clear by the amazing Sayid episode.)
-Bat shit crazy Locke kicks Kate out of their weird little suburban island community because he's losing control of his minions

And in the future, we learn:
-Kate is on trial for the crime she committed before they landed on the island.
-Her mother decides she won't take the stand against her daughter...and asks to see her "grandson."
-Jack testifies on Kate's behalf, telling a cooked up tale of eight survivors of the Oceanic crash- leading one to speculate that two of the "survivors" died before Jack and co. became the Oceanic 6, and one of the dead is probably Claire
-Because Kate's "son" is none other than Claire's baby, little Aaron.

Woah.

And, oh yeah, the helicopter with Sayid and Desmond on it heading for the freighter?
Missing.

We're already halfway through the initial eight episodes of this shortened by the Writer's Strike "Lost" season. Thank god the producers have promised five more episodes after the initial eight, with a four week break between episodes. But seriously, thanks a lot writers. Was your residual fight really as important as a full season of "Lost?"

(Yes, it was.)

Lost Watch: The New Hotness

Episode Title: Confirmed Dead
Air Date: 2/7/2008

I hate to short change my Lost post, but it is Thursday as I write this, and the next episode is on tonight...and there is also an Indiana Jones trailer to discuss. Being a geek is fucking exhausting.

Episode 2 of this shortened season was completely kick ass. We got quick intros to our four new islanders, all of whom seem interesting, complex, and not the bad guys out to kill everyone Ben claimed they were. But they might be working for bad guys out to kill everyone.

And why was Ben so intent on keeping them off the island?

Because the fuckers came there for him.

Oh shit.

Ben's storyline is getting more and more intriguing with every episode of "Lost." His baiting of Sawyer was so great because you knew Sawyer realized he was being manipulated into beating him up even as he did it. Brilliant shit.

Meanwhile, John Locke is trying to act like a leader...and quickly learning Jack's job is not so easy. As Jack said towards the end of season one, (I'm paraphrasing because I'm far too lazy right now to actually look it up,) "I think we've got a John Locke problem."

Mr. Ghostbuster, with his weird dust buster paranormal communication machine thing, is about to blow the roof off the house with the whole Jacob thing too.

And tonight's episode is supposed to be a Sayid story. Fuck yes.

Lost Watch: Like, Woah

Episode Title: The Looking Glass Air Date: 5/23/07

There's just so much to talk about.

"Lost's" third season finale was an absolute stunner. Everything is different after last night. And now we're supposed to wait nine months until we get a new episode? It's just not fair.

So, the most important thing we learned last night? They get off the bloody island. At least Jack and Kate do, and probably Claire and her baby, if Desmond’s vision was accurate (as Charlie’s death would imply.) And we learn all this through an all new “Lost” storytelling device. In what has been described as a "game changer" by the producers, last night's Jack flashbacks were not flashbacks at all...they were flashFORWARDS.

Our first clue of this is when we see a depressed, suicidal, alcoholic, pharmaceutical addicted Jack with a very fake beard flying on an Oceanic Airlines flight, then stumbling around LA, a lost soul with nobody to turn to. He reads a newspaper clipping about a dead man and breaks down in tears, leaves a distressed voicemail, then steps to the edge of a bridge, ready to kill himself. Until a car crashes behind him, and Jack has to go back into hero mode, saving a woman and her eight year old child from the burning wreckage.

Immediately, this doesn’t seem like the Jack Shepherd we’re used to. Jack’s an alcoholic? Just when in his past did he become like his dead (or is he?) father? But the writers don’t let us in on their storytelling trick just yet.

Jack also attends the funeral of…someone. He is the only mourner who shows up, and doesn’t ask to view the body. So who is the deceased? We’ll get to that in the end…sort of.

On the island, in the “present” (or past now?) the showdown with The Others is imminent. Sayid, Jin, and Bernard (of all people) stay behind to blow the tents when Ben’s goons show up as the rest of the survivors head off to the radio tower to shut off Rousseau’s distress call, while Charlie is being held prisoner by some a couple hot Lesbian Others in the underwater hatch.

So yeah, a lot is going on.

When The Others show up, the plan almost works perfectly…almost. Sayid and Bernard hit their targets and blow two of the tents. But Jin misses, tries to run to closer to get a better shot, and is captured. Sayid and Bernard try to run and fight, but both end up surrendering.

The big survivor party sees that only two of the planned three explosions went off, and Kate wants to go back to the beach to help their captured friends, while Jack insists on pushing forward.

In the underwater hatch, Charlie tells his captors that the survivors are heading to the radio tower and that he is there to turn off their jamming signal. They radio Ben, who is surprised to hear them “break radio silence.” Apparently, the rest of The Others believed the two women were no longer on the island and that the underwater hatch was flooded and inoperable. Ben sends the eye-patch sporting Russian to the hatch to investigate, and decides to go to the survivors and “talk them out of” turning Rousseau’s distress call, and allows Alex, his daughter, to join him.

A shaken Sawyer, who is still upset after the events that went down in “The Brig” a few weeks ago, decides to go back to help Sayid, Bernard, and Jin, even though he is unarmed. Kate wants to go too, but he doesn’t want to bring her. Jack is worried about allowing him to go unarmed, but Juliet volunteers to join him and tells them that there is a hidden cache of guns that they can arm themselves with before they head back to the survivors’ camp…after Juliet kisses Jack passionately, raising more than a few eyebrows.

A distressed Kate doesn’t understand why Sawyer wouldn’t let her come and Jack explains that, duh, it’s because he’s trying to protect her. When Kate asks why Jack is sticking up for Sawyer, Jack tells her “because I love you,” in a matter of fact admission that Kate had to have known all along.

Poor Hurley, feeling left out and unsure of himself, asks if he can come along with Sawyer and Juliet. Sawyer tells him he’d be useless and get them killed, in an honest moment that cuts Hurley deeply but had to be said anyway. And oh yeah, Juliet admits that there is no gun cache…she only told Jack there was so he would let them go help their friends.

So the stage is set for three epic showdowns, none of which disappoint.

Ben meets up with Jack and the two of them have a little chat. Ben tells Jack that if he uses the Satellite Phone, the people he summons to the island will kill everyone. He tells him Naomi works for a group of people who have been trying to find the island, who will ruin it. Jack (with reason) thinks he’s bluffing, so Ben radios in to Tom, who is holding the three survivors at the beach hostage, and tells him to kill them if Jack doesn’t relent. Jack won’t budge and hears three gunshots, thinking that he’s doomed his friends to three bullets through their heads.

Meanwhile, Desmond wakes up in the boat above the underwater hatch, with a whopping headache and Charlie’s goodbye note to Claire in his pocket. Before he has time to think what to do next, Eye Patched Russian guy starts shooting at him, so he dives down and enter the underwater hatch. Charlie tells him to hide before his captors catch wind that he’s there, but then Eye-Patch shows up. Charlie informs him that Ben’s been jamming any radio signals to the mainland through the hatch, and Eye Patch decides to radio his boss to decide how to deal with it. Ben convinces him that he’s doing the right thing, and tells him to kill Charlie- and the two unsuspecting female Others.

Eye patch shoots the chicks, but before he turns the gun on Charlie, Desmond pops out and shoots him with a harpoon gun. One of the dying Others tells Charlie the code to stop the jamming signal- the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” tapped into the keyboard (it was programmed by a musician, she says with her last breath.) So Charlie gets to have his big moment and turn off the jamming signal, which will finally get the survivors home. He taps the Beach Boys classic in the keyboard, the yellow light turns off, and a signal comes through…from Penny. An excited Charlie asks Penny about Naomi and the boat off the island, but she tells him that she doesn’t know anything about a boat…Naomi and her crew were not hired by Penny. Before Desmond can talk to his lost love, Charlie sees a terrible sight through a porthole…Eye Patch survived the harpoon through the stomach and is holding a grenade up to the hatch window.

Charlie locks himself in before Desmond can enter, the porthole blows, and water begins to rush in. Thinking quickly, Charlie scrawls a message on his hand and puts it up to the window, telling Desmond that it’s “not Penny’s boat.” Then he dies.

This is a “Lost” first…an original character and fan favorite is killed off. Yeah, they killed Shannon and Boone off…but nobody liked those characters anyway. Charlie’s death is hard to take, and Dominic Monaghan’s performance last night was the best he’s given in the series’ three year run. Charlie Pace, you will be missed.

Back on the beach, Sawyer and Juliet are trying to figure out how they’re going to take out the Others who have their friends at gunpoint…until Hurley zooms in, driving the Dharma VW bus into the action. Hurley! He hits one of the Others with the car, while Sawyer sneaks around and knocks one of them out with a branch. In the scramble, Sayid kills one of them with his legs, Jack Bauer style, and Sawyer takes Tom’s gun. When Tom surrenders, Sawyer still kills him, telling him “that’s for taking the kid.”

Hurley radios in and tells the survivors that they saved their friends and loved ones, a relief to Jack who believes he allowed them to die. At the same time, the jamming signal is off, and Jack and crew turn off Rousseau’s distress call.

We have cell phone reception, people. As Naomi tries to make the call with the satellite phone, she suddenly falls down dead.

Guess who? It’s none other than Mr. John Locke, who was summoned out of what would have been his grave by none other than Walt, or a figment of his imagination in the form of Walt, or the smoke monster in the form of Walt, who tells him “you’ve got work to do, John.”

Jack picks up the phone, and Locke points a gun at him, telling him he’s not supposed to make the call. Jack stands strong, telling him that “I’m done letting you keep us on this island.” Locke relents, unable to shoot Jack, and a desperate Ben yells out “you don’t know what you’re doing!” But the call is complete, and the man on the other end of the line tells him they are coming. And soon.

Cut to the last scene of the “flashforwards.” Jack meets up with someone at the airport…it’s Kate. A distressed Jack tells her that he’s been flying all the time with his “gold pass” that Oceanic gave him, hoping that the plane would crash and take him back to the island. He tells her that “we weren’t supposed to leave,” and that “we have to go back.” Kate leaves, saying she has to go back to “him” (Sawyer?) and leaves Jack to his misery.

WOAH.

So at least Jack and Kate got off the island, and presumably a lot of the survivors have. Charlie’s sacrifice has made it possible for the survivors to be rescued…but the people it’s not clear if the people on Naomi’s boat are the ones who will be doing the rescuing. And a haunted Jack clearly has decided that coming back to the real world was the wrong move…that Locke, and maybe even Ben, were right the whole time.

Mindblowing. The finale implied that “Lost” may be done with the flashbacks, and the “flashforwards” might just be the new way the show will tell its labyrinthine story. Which sounds amazing to me. I can’t wait to see where this baby goes next.

As always, the episode has raised a whole lot of new questions. Who was in the casket at the funeral that Jack attended? He said he was neither family nor friend of the deceased, and nobody else showed up. When he asked Kate why she didn’t come, all she said was “why would I?” So who was it? My money’s on Michael. He betrayed the survivors and murdered two of them, so why would they go to his funeral? But it always could be Ben, or even Locke. His bizarre behavior would imply that not many people like him much anymore. And if he had to leave the island, he might be inclined to kill himself. This would also explain Jack’s guilt and remorse for leaving the island.

And what about Jack talking about his father as if he’s alive in the future? Christian Shepherd is dead. How can Jack tell the hospital’s new chief of surgery to bring his father down and see if he’s drunker if he’s dead? And how can Jack try and get prescriptions for drugs from his father if he’s dead? Did Jack come home to another timeline where his father never died? Is he just delusional at the point that he asks about him?

What are they going to do about Ben? What is Locke going to do? And who the hell did Jack talk to on the phone…are they coming to rescue the survivors…or slaughter them?

Anyone who doubted the show, anyone who turned away from it, gave up on it…it’s time to come back. The show is better than it’s ever been on every level, and it’s time for you to come back to “Lost.” If you thought the show had lost it’s way, you’re wrong. Just get over your fanboy pride and get back on the “Lost” train.

Season 3 ended with a note perfect episode. It was exciting, funny, emotional, and satisfying on every level. Almost every story beat planted earlier in the season has paid off, including the seemingly stupid VW bus episode. The only thing that didn’t pay off was the “Jack’s Tattoo” episode…everything was working in their favor last night to the point that I thought it was going to be the key to killing the smoke monster. The confidence in the storytelling on the show at this point is astounding, and I can’t wait to see how they bring the show to a close over the next three seasons. I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but I really think they’re going to pull the whole thing off and actually have satisfying ending for loyal fans. If they can equal what they achieved last night, then “Lost” is going to go down as one of the all time great shows.

Nine months is a long time.

Lost Watch: Ghosts in the Machine

So that’s why the still have the flashbacks.

After weeks of showing back-stories that don’t actually reveal any new information about the show’s main characters, this week’s “Lost” was a Ben Linus-centric episode, and it delivered, hard style.

The first thing we learn, right off the bat, is that Ben has been lying to everyone about being born on the island. He was born in Oregon (near where Juliet was flown to when she was first recruited…hmmmm) and his mother died in childbirth. The man who pulled over to help Ben’s panicked father ends up getting him a job on the island, working for the Dharma Initiative…as a “workman” (or janitor, which Ben’s daddy doesn’t take well at all.) The creepy little boy version of Ben sees his mother, or his mother’s ghost, or the black smoke monster posing as his mother, or whatever it is…and follows her out into the woods. Where he meets the slimy Other Richard, who looks like he is the exact same age as he is in the present- and this is supposed to be twenty something years earlier. Richard tells little Ben to be patient, and that he can join what The Dharma bums call “the hostiles” and we’ve been referring to as “The Others.” Cut to a few years later and Ben gets his chance, murdering his father while the rest of the hostiles murder the Dharma people, and then take over their little suburban town. So now we know how they came to live there, before Kate, Sayid, and company crashed the party.

The flashbacks were nice, but there’s no time like the present, and the new episode proved that rule to be very, very true. Locke shows up with his father’s dead body slung over his shoulder and demands answers. When Ben tells Locke that he’s not really the man in charge, that he takes orders from a man named Jacob, Locke demands that he take him to the real head cheese. Ben tries to weasel his way out of hit, but Locke has alpha maled his way into the hearts of the rest of The Others, so Ben agrees, to save face.

Meanwhile, back at the survivor’s camp, the crud is hitting the fan hard as Sawyer brings back the recording that Locke gave him that proves Juliet is still communicating with Ben. When everyone finds out about the injured parachutist, the group wants to know why nobody told Jack. An angry and intense (is there any other kind) Jack shows up and decides it’s time to talk. He admits he knew The Others were coming to take the survivor’s pregnant women folk. And that he was waiting to tell everyone until he had figured out what to do. Then, in super dramatic Jack fashion, he tells everyone “I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.” Thus setting up what might actually be an interesting Jack flashback season finale, and not, y’know, the boring story of how he got his tattoo while banging a weird Thai chick during a vision quest.

When Ben takes Locke to “Jacob’s” hidden cabin, there is nobody in the room. Ben begins to coverse with an empty chair, and for a minute I thought the writers were gonna go all Norman Bates with us and have Ben tell Locke “a boy’s best friend is his mother.” But then Locke hears a hoarse voice creak out “help me,” the room starts to move and vibrate, and Locke realizes, “crap, we might actually have a real ghost giving Ben orders.”

“Lost” easter egg fun fact…go through the scene where the cabin is going crazy to find a couple frames where you can see a man sitting in the previously empty chair.

After Locke’s creepy close encounter, Ben takes him to the pit where all the Dharma Scientists were gruesomely deposited after they were gassed by the hostiles. He tells Locke that he made a choice to join “the original natives of the island” (funny most of The Others seem pretty, I dunno, Caucasian, to be native Islanders) and that he was smart enough to do so and not “end up in that pit.” Then he tells Locke that’s what makes him smarter than him as well- and shoots him.

Ben asks the wounded Locke what Jacob said and tells him “I had to shoot you, because you could hear him.” Clearly, Locke is too powerful, or as everyone thinks he is, “special” to let Ben keep him alive. He’s a threat to his power.

So going into next week’s season finale, we have a new, huge mystery on our hands. A ghostly figure gives Ben all his orders? And Locke can hear him? I don’t wanna give anybody any spoilers, but I don’t think Locke will die. In fact, hopefully we’ll see him swoop in next week, Han Solo style, and save our survivors from the upcoming Other attack. And if Locke gets there in time, he’ll probably replace Ben as the one the Others look to. Once Ben’s is out of the way, maybe there will be more communication between the Hostiles/ Others and the survivors. Because no relationship can survive without communication. And then maybe we can go even deeper into the island’s mysteries.

With this week’s announcement that “Lost” has a set enddate (which means the writers can plan things out in advance and not stall their storytelling for fear that they won’t have enough material to make it into season nine or something awful like that,) this week’s amazing episode, and promises of a great season finale, “Lost” is on fire.

Lost Watch: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Episode Title: One of Us Air Date: 4/11/2007

Juliet joined the survivors at their camp last night on “Lost,” and her arrival gave loyal viewers a glimpse at trouble brewing down the road.

As predicted, Sayid wanted answers out of Juliet, while Jack protected her from his torture-happy ways.

Turns out Jack was wrong.

The flashbacks were used cleverly on “Lost” last night, a rarity for the show these days. We got to see more of Juliet’s backstory, more about her journey to the island. We got to see why she was motivated to get back home- her sister, who was dying of cancer, has become pregnant because Juliet has discovered a way to make her fertile. But when her cancer returns, Ben promises he can cure it- if Juliet agrees to stay on the island.

And somehow, he keeps his promise.

Last night’s episode also provided much needed hints as to what she was doing working for The Others. She was trying to figure out why women were unable to give birth on the island, why their bodies reject their children if they are conceived there. Turns out Claire was the first person to have a child on the island without dying, and Juliet believes it was because her baby was conceived elsewhere.

Which is probably bad news for Sun.

Claire gets sick after Juliet first arrives, and Juliet tells Jack she can help. She explains that she is sick because way back in Season one, creepy Ethan was injecting her with a drug that would help the baby survive, and that Claire is going through withdrawal from the drug. She tells Jack that Ethan left supplies in the jungle that can save Claire’s life. Though her story makes very little sense, Jack trusts her and lets her help.

Sayid and Sawyer follow her out to the supplies, finally confronting her for the answers that Jack doesn’t seem to need. She shames the former con man and Iraqi interrogator into letting her go so she can help Claire, but it turns out that they might have had a good reason to force information from her.

In the last scene of the episode, Juliet’s flashback take us to right before last week’s episode- to Ben planning how she will manipulate her way into the camp of the survivors, how she will make it look like she has been left behind by The Others along with Jack, Kate, and Sayid. Ben even mentions that the “implant” in Claire has been activated, and that it will make her sick soon…which will give Juliet a crisis to avert and help her gain the trust of the survivors. Though Juliet has a conflicted look on her face, she still agrees to go along with Ben’s plans.

And then he tells her “see you in a week.” Jack needs to stop being such a decent guy and trusting everyone. It's obviously not a policy that is helpful at this point.

One of The Others is in the survivors’ camp, and we don’t know why. Clearly, something bad is coming for our survivors. Is Juliet going to kidnap the pregnant Sun? Will The Others finally make it clear to everyone exactly what they want? Will we find out what Juliet meant when she said “if you knew everything I knew, you’d kill me?” Does her conflicted look she will betray Ben? Did he read everything her face meant and not care?

The episode was a clever precursor to things to come. A few questions were answered and most of Juliet’s true motivations were revealed to us (though it wouldn't be "Lost" if everything became crystal clear) through good use of the flashbacks. And the questions that were not answered were covered up well through Juliet’s refusal to give up too much to Sayid, who at this point is as frustrated with the lack of solid information about The Others as the audience is. Juliet even addressed Jack’s lack of need for questions and asked him why he didn’t need to know more about her. Jack’s unsatisfying answer is that when the submarine blew up three weeks ago, he saw the look on her face, saw that she wanted to get off the island as much as anybody else, and that makes her one of them.

Maybe asking people questions would be a smart habit for Jack to take up. If he was a bit more curious about her, then he might not be leading everyone into trouble as quickly as he has been.

The last few episodes have felt like a slow climb before the big drop on a roller coaster, and it seems like we are close to the top. Like any good rollercoaster, “Lost” will probably follow the rule that the slower the climb up, the faster and steeper the drop down. Hold on tight, because it’s gonna be quite a ride.

Lost Watch: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Not Knowing What the Hell is Going On

Episode Title: Left Behind Air Date: 3/4/2007

A pretty standard episode with a few interesting elements, last night’s Kate-centric “Lost” didn’t reveal too much that we didn’t already know about the Others, the monster, or Kate’s back story, even though major portions of screen time were spent on all three subjects.

The most interesting developments from the episode last night came from The Others abandoning their idyllic Other-town. Before they left, Locke came in to say goodbye to Kate, because he was going to somewhere with them.

That’s right, John Locke has joined team Others. We’ve always known that something was going to snap with him, but now he’s gone off the deep end and disappeared with the show’s main villains as they withdraw further into the island. At least the defanged and whiny Locke is gone. That guy sure hasn’t learned from his constant mistakes, but I’m sure that going off with the Others will have no terrible consequences.

The other big development from last night was the fact that they left Juliet behind along with Jack, Sayid, and Kate. Juliet did betray Ben when she told Jack to let him die in surgery, and was trying to leave on the submarine with Jack. But did they really leave her with the survivors because she was banished from the Others or is this just another one of Ben’s many manipulations, with Juliet meant to infiltrate the group?

Juliet already admitted to one deception last night- after spending time in the jungle handcuffed to Kate, and evading the big ol’ smoke monster all night, Juliet admits that she was the one who handcuffed them together, to try and win Kate’s sympathies after being abandoned by the people she’d spent the last three years of her life with.

Juliet does a pretty poor job of ingratiating herself with Kate after bringing up Jack, which leads to a vicious fight between the handcuffed women. For a few minutes, “Lost” devolves into a women’s prison picture. I had to check the credits to make sure Quentin Tarantino wasn’t behind the episode, because it felt a bit like a self conscious B-movie homage for a moment there.

When the women get back to Other town, Juliet chases the smoke monster away by activating the big metal security fence. She tells Kate that they don’t know what it is, but know that “it doesn’t seem to like our fence.” When they reunite with Jack, Kate apologizes for her part in ruining his hopes of leaving the island, but he seems more concerned with Juliet than Kate by that point.

Burn.

Jack decides it’s time to head back to camp with the rest of the survivors, bringing Juliet along. Sayid seems displeased, but Jack insists, because she was left behind, just like them.

Which means Sayid is gonna go all Jack Bauer on Juliet next week and interrogate the sh#t out of her, hopefully finally revealing a lot more about The Others than we already know.

Kate’s flashback story was weak- she wants to talk to her mother even though she is heavily guarded by US Marshals trying to arrest her. She enlists the help of the woman Sawyer conned in one of his flashbacks almost two seasons ago. Yawn. I just hope these connections that all the Survivors have actually add up to something and are not just “cool coincidences.”

The “B story,” (as it’s called in the TV biz,) took place back at the survivor’s camp with Hurley telling Sawyer that the group was planning to take a vote on whether or not to banish Sawyer from camp. Sawyer is convinced to act nice to the rest of the survivors, talking to Claire about the baby, helping Desmond hunt for boar, and cooking up a nice meat roast after the hunt. The whole time Hurley is talking him through it, acting as like the angel in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” if the angel was trying to tell Jimmy Stewart to stop being such a jackass to everyone.

After Sawyer has won over the crowd, Hurley admits that he made the whole banishment vote up to teach him a lesson- that most people are looking to Sawyer to be a leader and that he needs to stop acting selfishly. Hurley owned him, proving again that he's the real GURU of the island. The slightly amusing subplot ended with one of those weird, slo-mo montages set to a bad pop song that “Lost” resorts to once in awhile, with a smiling Sawyer learning that, aw shucks, it’s okay to be nice.

Overall, “Left Behind” was more of a transitional episode, setting stuff up that should pay off nicely in the next few weeks. It will be good to see the whole crew (sans crazy Locke) back together again for the first time this season, and it will be really nice to see what Juliet has to reveal about The Others- and if she’s really been banished or if she’s still working with them. And maybe there will be more awesome catfights between her and Kate.

One can dream at least.