SPOILER ALERT! Don't read any further if you don't want to know what happened.
From the start, tonight was shaping up to be a Smoke-Monster-centric episode. I was pretty hopeful, thinking maybe we'd get, I don't know, a Smoke Monster flashback. As in, the Smoke Monster sitting in a bar in Sydney having a beer with Sawyer. Or the Smoke Monster in 1947 having rebellious issues with his Smoke Monster Daddy.
Alas, there was no flashback, but we did learn what the inside of the Smoke Monster looks like, and it is--are you ready for this ground-breaking piece of information?--gray and smoky.
I'm glad we got that all cleared up.
(Actually, that scene reminded me of the scene in the movie Twister when Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton got hoisted up into the tornado and finally saw the inside of a funnel cloud, and it was very surreal and it sucked the pants right off them. May I just say how thankful I am that Benjamin Linus kept his pants on?)
Where was I? Oh yes, the Smoke Monster. We did confirm what has been evident before, which is that the Smoke Monster has some sort of connection with everyone who has ever died on The Island, leading to my reassertion--mark my words--that we'll be seeing Charlie, Shannon, Ekko, Boone, et. al. before this thing is over.
Ben Linus continues to be a curious character, committing horrific acts while showing signs of tenderness. Instead of killing Danielle Rousseau, as he was assigned to do, he spared her and took baby Alex. And though he was bent on killing Penny, he seemed to have second thoughts when he saw her little boy. I don't think I'll be inviting him to babysit my kids anytime soon, but it's nice to see the occasional glimmer of humanity in him.
(Did you stand and cheer in the scene in which Desmond defended his family by beating the ever-lovin' bat-snot out of Ben? Because I stood and cheered.)
I am a little puzzled by Ilana, the woman who escorted Sayid onto the Ajira flight. She originally seemed like a minor character, but tonight it appeared she had some inside information. Who is she? Who really sent her to The Island? She spoke about "what lies in the shadow of the statue" (presumably this statue), but I wonder what she means?
Here are a few more points to ponder:
Who was it that banished Widmore from The Island for "breaking the rules"? Jacob?
Do you think Ben will honor Alex's instructions to follow John Locke? I'm thinking that if you kill someone and then they come back from the dead, shove you into a wall and give you specific instructions, you MIGHT want to take it seriously.
Did anyone else miss Jack, Kate and Sawyer? I found myself wondering what our friends were up to in 1977, other than listening to The Carpenters and wearing bad pants.
When Ben told Danielle to "run from the whispers", was he protecting her, or messing with her?
I'm having a hard time choosing a Best Line Of the Night, because John Locke had some great zingers in his scenes with Ben, including:
"I was just hoping for an apology."
- and -
"Then I'm sure the monster will understand."
- and -
"No sense in me dying twice, right?"
- and -
"You just make friends everywhere you go, don't you?"
But the winner for tonight was Frank Lapidus, who had this to say: "As long as the dead guy says there's a reason, then I guess everything is gonna be just peachy."
I love it.
What were your thoughts about tonight's episode? If you're blogging Lost over at your blog, feel free to leave your link in the comments section below.
