SPOILER ALERT! If you don't want to know what happened, don't read any further!
Actually, that spoiler alert isn't entirely accurate. Because I actually watched the dang thing, and I'm still scratching my head. (Perhaps we were supposed to be helped by tonight's title, which was "Whatever Happened, Happened." Oh. Well, that clears things right up, thank you.)
Tonight the Lost writers appeared to attempt to throw their confused viewers a bone. The befuddled conversation between Miles and Hurley was a classic, as the two of them hashed over the mechanics of time travel. "That was really confusing," said Hurley. No kidding, dude.
Miles attempts to explain that "time isn't a straight line anymore," though I will admit that scene only left me more confused, not less. I'm beginning to feel an uncomfortable suspicion that this whole time-travel thing is snow-balling out from under the writers, and somebody better stop that snowball, fast. Here's hoping somebody in that writer's room has a plan.
I am not entirely sure I understand Kate's eagerness to help Ben. She didn't seem especially concerned about the time-travel ramifications of Ben dying--were her motivations entirely altruistic? Perhaps they were, but considering her complicated history with Ben, that confused me a little.
Here's what we DID learn tonight:
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Aaron is back home with his grandmother, which is not especially surprising. I think Kate did the right thing. We also learned, interestingly, that Kate's primary motivation for coming back to the Island is (she says) to find Claire (who, remember, may or may not be a ghost, sitting in the creepy cabin with Christian Shepherd).
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Sawyer really appears to be a changed man, and his role reversal with Jack is an interesting plot twist. Suddenly we see Sawyer making sacrificial choices for the people he loves, and we see Jack making questionable ethical decisions. Hmmm.
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Lastly, it appears that we've confirmed Charles Widmore is calling the shots for the Others/Hostiles, when the man with Richard said "You shouldn't do this without asking Elly (her?). If Charles (him?) finds out..." We knew from a few episodes ago that Charles was on the Island a long time ago, but I don't think we had confirmation so far that he's still operating in an "official" capacity. Or maybe we did and I'm more confused than I realized.
Tonight's episode ends, cryptically, with Richard taking Ben into the temple (does the Smoke Monster have some healing powers?). It looks like next week will be an especially Ben-centric episode, and perhaps we'll have a few more answers.
By the way, I linked to it earlier this week, but for an interesting theory, check out TimeLoopTheory.com. It's the first theory I've seen that can actually account for all these strange loose ends. Interestingly, I read another theory on the message boards and it nearly made me throw my laptop across the room: what if the whole thing is one big giant time loop, and the series ends with the crash of Oceanic flight 815. Because, seriously, OH MY WORD.
Last thing, in case I haven't mentioned it enough:
BRING BACK DANIEL FARRADAY.
--Thank you.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on tonight's episode. If you're blogging about it at your blog, feel free to leave your link in the comments section below.
