LOST

The Opening: The opening sequence, for me, was another of those holy shit! moments this show does so very well. We have seen Kate drive away from Jack so many times now, when those brake lights went on I almost jumped out of my seat.

The Casket: Now we know it was John Locke in the casket all along. This was not a shocker—he was always a likely suspect and one that made sense—but that scenario seemed less likely once we learned he was not one of the Oceanic Six. Why Jeremy Bentham? Because “John Locke” is already officially dead, and it was Locke who was so very adamant that the truth about the island and the crash be covered up. Of course he would use a pseudonym…but why that particular one?

The Explosion: Poor Jin. And, yes, poor Michael too. It is hard to feel sorry for a guy who is the cold-blooded murderer of two innocent women, but Michael did all he could to redeem himself. And that one final act of staying behind so Jin could make the ill-fated sprint to the helicopter—that was heroic. The explosion was tragic…but what significance is there to the last second appearance of the suddenly omnipresent Christian Shepherd? I think it is more than likely that neither Jin nor Michael is dead in any traditional sense you or I would recognize. Jack’s father has been dead since the show began, and he gets as much screen time as anybody.

(And while we are talking about the explosion of the freighter, what about the dozen or so crew members who were also on deck as Jin ran to the helicopter? Or the nameless/faceless passengers Faraday brought along with Sun and Aaron on his first trip out to the ship? Didn’t these people fall victim to the same fiery death—with the only difference being that no one even considered making room for them on the helicopter? I’m just sayin’.)

The Badass: How badass is Sawyer? Let us count the ways. Nah, that would take too long. Let us name two. First, as my roommate Tony noted at the time, it would have taken a mere mortal man hours to cut through a set of handcuffs with only a hacksaw. Sawyer did it in minutes. And then the plunge from the helicopter to save Kate—who among us didn’t get a little choked up? Of course it would not be LOST without another question: what did he whisper in her ear right before jumping? Presumably it was not, “I’m going to take my shirt off, swim back to the beach, get drunk on Dharma Rum and bang Juliette.”

The Fight: How about the heavyweight tussle between Sayid and Keamy? It would have been better without the Vince McMahon-esque non-ending—who shoots a guy wearing Kevlar in the back and expects him to die? I said out loud, as it happened, “SHOOT HIM IN THE FUCKING HEAD!” Did anyone listen? Nope.

The Nuthouse: Hurley had more than his fair share of visitors at the asylum this week. We got to see the return of Walt, whose growth spurt liability is now an asset given the new flash-forward-rather-than-back aspect of the show. (Any kid that age would change considerably over the three plus years that seem to have passed between the crash and the now-present.) Sayid knows how to make an entrance, pausing only to shoot a guy outside before paying a late night visit. And Mr. Eko…it would have been good to see you again.

The Climax: Moving the island. Um…what? I think it is safe to assume that if we had followed Ben forward after he turned that wheel we would have seen him again wake up in the desert, a scene we glimpsed earlier this season. And with the knowledge that “Bentham” reported to everyone that “a lot of bad things” happened on the island after the departure of the Oceanic Six, we can pretty much surmise that moving the island is how Locke ended up back in the United States as well. He saw Ben go through the early steps and witnessed the results. Presented with a desperate situation later on it is logical to assume Locke would try to duplicate the feat in hopes of again saving the island. But what exactly was that feat? What could cause an island to “disappear” in a flash of light only to presumably reappear somewhere else?

And what of his death? Sayid reported that “they are calling it a suicide” in regards to Bentham/Locke’s death—almost certainly implying that it was anything but a suicide. Does that mean John Locke is destined to fall victim to a murder in season five?

The countdown to next season begins. Let us all hope there is no labor strife to again fuck things up.