**SPOILER ALERT! If you don't want to know what happens, don't read any further.**
Do you know what I would love to see? The offices of the writing staff for Lost. Is there a giant bulletin board somewhere that keeps track of what happens to whom, and when? I bet that place is a smorgasbord of post-it notes, thumbtacks, maps and calculators. And Advil.
It was another informative episode tonight (that's two in a row--I'm not sure my heart can handle much more). It started with Jack in the jungle, the opening scene from season one...no, wait...he's looking for Hurley...am I in a time warp? Is it 2004? Is my nose bleeding? NO! They're back at the island for the second time. Well, buckle my seatbelt, our plot is actually moving forward. This is getting good.
We learn that Mrs. Hawking and her crew have been hanging out in a bizarre laboratory with a giant swinging pendulum that searches for The Island. I think I may have missed a few important plots elements at this point, because I was distracted by the way all the characters walked right around the pendulum perfectly gracefully, and I wondered when it was going to knock someone over. PLEASE, WHACK BEN!
Mrs. Hawking (sort of) tells Jack & Co. how to get back to The Island. It involves--surprise!--an airplane. Mrs. Hawking presents Jack with John's suicide note, which he does not immediately tear open in search of answers, thus enforcing my frustration at these Losties' insufferable lack of curiosity. Why, WHY doesn't anyone just ask good questions? "Hi, Mrs. Hawking, seeing as how you just asked me to plummet to earth for the second time in my life, may I ask exactly what your affiliation is with the Dharma Initiative or Charles Widmore or Oxford's Society Of the Time-Traveling Rabbits?"
Moving forward, we are introduced to a new character, Ray. Excellent. Because I really didn't think that there were enough characters, relationships and storylines involved in this show, and I was hoping they could shake things up a bit. *Cough.* It turns out that Ray is Christian's father, and merely the keeper of the shoes, and he is not, perhaps, that important after all. Although, so help me, if he shows up in a Dharma VW bus at some point this season, I quit.
Still moving forward, we learn that something awful has happened to Aaron, and Kate doesn't want to talk about it. "Don't ask me, Jack," she says, and Jack--of course--doesn't ask her. Hello, insufferable lack of curiosity, there you are again.
(This has nothing to do with anything, but may I just point out here that the Boost Mobile commercial with the woman with three-foot long armpit hair really may signify the end of western civilization as we know it?)
We learn, finally, the significance behind Christian Shepherd's white tennis shoes, and we learn that Ben has some "loose ends" to tie up. Could it be (please, no) that he made good on his promise to Charles Widmore that he would someday murder sweet Penny as payback for Alex's death?
Our friends board an airplane (Ajira Airways, click on the name for the "official website"). Jack finally rips into the suicide note (and we learn not a blessed thing, although the previews for next week tell that John is about to join Lost's ranks of the undead).
The episode ends with Jin getting out of the old Dharma VW bus, which we know was destroyed around the time of The Purge. So Jack & Co., it appears, have arrived at The Island about 10 years ago. Will they be involved in the purge? And if they were, wouldn't they have remembered it and not been as mystified by this strange island in the first place?
Best line of the night, spoken by Hurley when the plane hit turbulence: "Dude, you might want to fasten your seatbelt."
So, what did you think?
