Originally from DarkUFO.com.  Found on http://amazingexgirlfriend.blogspot.com/2010/08/lost-cartoon-poster-with-95-characters.html

The Best and Worst of the entire series of LOST.

I love LOST.  Rewatching the show this summer was a areal treat and I was able to find surprises throughout and to analyze situations and characters in a different light.  I am anxious to get this out because I may try and do a LOST fan fiction that I have been thinking about before school starts up in mid-August.

The list of the episodes in order from lowest to best will hopefully get completed soon as well.

Best and Worst Episode:  I am saving these for the complete list of LOST episodes.  My choices are not uncommon among other lists of the same.

Best Character:  Ben Linus.  So many choices.  This could legitimately be Locke or Jack or Desmond or Kate or Hurley or Sayid.  Ben, however, goes through such a dramatic shift in his character over the years and suffers such pain and loss because of his commitment to the Island only to be rebuked by Jacob…Michael Emerson really brought so much humanity to what could have been a one-note villain that LOST would not have been the same without Ben.

Worst Character:  Achara.  She made no sense.  She was the reason Jack had tattoos but it was nonsensical. She appeared in one episode and never heard of again.

Biggest Waste of a Character:  Matthew Abaddon.  He should have been an huge character, but he just never got his feet under him and he was dispatched way too easy.  He went from a mysterious enigma to a true waste of time.

Best couple:  Desmond and Penny.  This really became the heart of the show.  By the time we reached the Constant, I wanted this couple to get together more than anyone.  They were magical and perfection.

Worst couple:  Nikki and Paolo They were one of the bigger failures of the show, even though I loved the episode Expose where they met their fate.  They were a response to some criticism that the background members of Oceanic 815 never had any story.  So…we got Nikki and Paolo.

Most tragic couple:  Jin and Sun.  Easy.  They were separated most of the time.  They wound up dying together in Widmore’s sub, never to see their daughter again.

Best Death:  Charlie Hume.  There are a lot of great choices here too but none of the deaths had the impact on the show as Charlie’s demise in season three.  Charlie’s sacrifice was all done to get Claire off the Island.  And she does leave.

Biggest Surprise Death:  Dr. Leslie Arzt.  He was supposed to be at the Black Rock because he knew how to handle dynamite.  Since Hurley had to pick pieces of Arzt out of his hair several episodes later, Leslie must have been exaggerating his abilities.

Best Character Centric episodes:  Desmond.  Every flashback episode for Desmond Hume was a great hit.  His story was vital to the story of LOST and showed us what a wonderful character Desmond was.

Best Quote:  “If we can’t live together, we’re gonna die alone.” -Jack Shephard.  This quote was reused multiple times and even comes into play in the finale.  There were a lot of great quotes, but this one really informed on character (Jack) and plot.

Best Season:  Season One.  This was a real tough choice as well as Seasons two, four and five had to be in consideration, but the elite first season really put this show on the map.

Worst Father:  Anthony Cooper.  On a show with tons of characters with daddy issues, Anthony Cooper is easily the worst.  He threw his son out of an 8th story window and crippled him.

Best Father:  Pierre Chang.  Although Miles did not know, Dr. Chang sacrificed his happiness with his wife and son to save them from what was going to happen on the Island.

Worst Mother:  Eloise Hawkins.  Yes, she sent her son, Daniel Faraday, to the Island knowing that he would go back in time and that she would unknowingly shoot him.

Best Mother:  Cassidy Phillips.  She got pregnant with Sawyer, but there is no evidence that Clementine was anything but wonderfully loved and taken care of.

Best animal:  Vincent.  Another no-brainer here as Vincent makes the entire series and is involved in the first scene and the final scene.

Best Tail Section Character:  Mr. Eko.  I would have liked more with Mr. Eko, but he was clearly the most interesting and compelling character to come out of the tail section.

Best Freighter character:  Daniel Faraday.  I really love Miles too, but Faraday was the most interesting and important character to come off that freighter.  He led us to understand the time travel as well as played a huge role in saving Desmond.

Best Actor:  Terry O’Quinn.  O’Quinn was always brilliant in his performance as John Locke or the creature that took John Locke’s place.  While there were other great actors on the show, O’Quinn gave the consistently most layered performance.

Best Actress: Elizabeth Mitchell.  I hated Juliet for a long time, which is what we were supposed to do and then when we needed to love her, Mitchell turned it around.  She broke your heart when she died and melted it again when reunited with James.

That’s all I have.  Episodes will be next…

The final season.  You know, I liked this final season more on this watch than I did the first time. Maybe it was because I knew what the flash-sideways world was so I was able to look at it like it should have been looked at.  I did not have my own preconceived notions or expectations about what was happening that I was able to enjoy it more.  I also saw some new things that I missed the first time through.

Best Episode:  The End.  I don’t care what anybody says, The End was an emotional thrill-ride that was as satisfying as could be.  If you wanted them to list off all the answers that you don’t understand in a big exposition drop, then you’re gonna be disappointed.  If you want an awesome conclusion to the story about the Oceanic 815 survivors started six years prior, then you probably loved it like I did.  Runner-Up:  Ab Aeterno

Best Flashback:  Richard, Ab Aeterno.  Richard’s story finally told was the best flashback, forward or sideways of season six.  It confirmed a lot of the speculations that we had about Richard and it told a wonderful romantic story as well.  Runner-Up:  Across the Sea

Best Performance:  Terry O’Quinn.  Terry O’Quinn was remarkable all year long as he was now playing a new character and there were moments where he was spectacularly chilling.  There were other times where he seemed like our old friend Locke.  He played the layers to this villain whom you understood since the moment you found out who he was.  Runner-Up:  Josh Holloway

Biggest Jerk:  John Locke/Man in Black. I think it has to be because, it the end, he tried to murder the entire group by blowing up the submarine and he succeeded in killing Sayid, Jin and Sun.  Runner-Up:  Charles Widmore

Best Death:  Sun and Jin.  This one was a heart-breaker, but beautifully done.  Sun and Jin had been separated for most of the last two seasons, off the Island to across time.  They reunited and then, before you knew it, they were drowning.  Such a tragic end for the Kwons.  Runner-Up:  Jack Shephard

Biggest Surprise: Desmond hits Locke with his car.  Desmond is our hero.  He is here to help everybody…wait…what are you doing???  Stop!  Desmond plowing down a man in a wheelchair seemed to be going opposite of what he had intended. Yet our sneaky Scot apparently knew what he was doing.  Runner-Up:  Sawyer’s a cop?

Funniest Moment: Ilana blows up.  Like Dr. Arzt before her, Ilana needs to be more careful when handling dynamite when the Island is through with you.  Runner-Up:  Frank Lapidus reactions

Best Moment:  Everyone meets at the church. The final scene where the group gets together and gets ready to move on is a beautiful ending for these characters story.  Everything built this season to this moment and it big not disappoint. Runner-up:  Jack gives the Island to Hurley.

That is the season 6 review.  I plan on doing a season 1-6 review and expand it a bit and I will be listing the LOST episodes from worst to best as well.

Thanks to Vincent, Jack did not have to die alone.  I hadn’t thought about that until this rewatch so the heart of the scene really hit me even harder.

There was a lot of backlash against “The End” because of the fact that it did not come right out and answer every little question that the series posed (although I could argue that MOST if not almost all of the questions can be answered from what we know) and because some people did not understand the ending.

It became popular to say that the Island was a purgatory and that all of the Oceanic 815 passengers died in the original plane crash.  People used the final scene as evidence since they were all dead there.  These people did not watch this show very closely or had preconceived thoughts that could be altered.

In the finale, Christian Shephard specifically said that everything that happened, happened.  He said that the people were dead, some before Jack and some long after Jack.  That seemed clear to me.  They did not die in the plane crash and everything that happened from season 1-6 actually happened.

The confusion comes from people not understanding the flash-sideways world.  Christian answered this as well when he said that this place was a place they all made up together to find one another.  It also seems that some of them can spend longer times in the flash-sideways world because they are not ready to move on.  It would take some of the sting out of Jin and Sun’s death if they were able to spend time with Ji Yeong in the flash-sideways since time is not an issue here.

If you understood what happened, it was a beautiful ending to a story that was about the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.  It was not a story about the Island or the mythology of the Island (though that was used to tell the survivors’ stories).  The story was what happened to the survivors and that was covered very well.

The battle between Jack and Smokie ended quicker than I expected, but it was emotionally compelling,and Kate getting a chance to “saved you a bullet” was a nice call back to earlier in the episode.

Everything with Hurley and Jack was heart-wrenching.  Jack knew what was going to happen and Hurley could not accept it (even though I think he knew as well).

I had a memory of a scene that I missed in the rewatch of the finale.  I remember Richard noticing that he had a grey hair forming.  My memory was this happened on the Ajira airplane, but I missed it in the rewatch.  That was one of my favorite little character moments so I hope it didn’t get edited out.

It was awesome to see the group reunited in the church afterwards, though I wondered about Miles and Faraday and Charlotte.  At least Miles should have made the cut as he spent three years in the Dharma Initiative with Sawyer and Jin.  Helen was not there with John Locke, but most of the memories with Helen came from the flash-sideways.  No Mr. Eko or Ana-Lucia (although it was nice to see her in the flash-sideways as the cop willing to take Hurley’s bribe money).  Lapidus wasn’t there either.

The heart of the Island with the giant cork was a bit hokey, but a lot of science fiction can be hokey.  It is more of a figurative metaphor than anything else.  It is the last thing that Jack needed to do for the Island.

The End was a beautifully written and acted episode and a fitting conclusion to the best show on television.  I am always so disappointed when people claim that LOST fell by the side in its later seasons.  If you have patience and if you understand what the show is about, there is so much here for you to love.  I had a hole in my heart for years after the show ended and I was reminded how wonderful this was watching these episodes over the last month or so.

Namaste

Some really great character moments as the show barrelled toward the finish line.  We get a new Island Protector and we find out why the other candidates had to die.

Kate was very emotional when she confronted the ghost of Jacob about the reason Jin, Sun and Sayid died.  He did not make excuses or platitudes.  He did not dodge the question either.  He admitted to his mistake, the one that he has been trying to fix ever since.  It was the mistake we saw happen in “Across the Sea” where Jacob sent his brother down the hole to the heart of the Island and the Smoke Monster was created.  Jacob knew that the Monster was going to try and find a way to kill him and that he would one day succeed, so he had to find someone to replace him.

He claimed that Kate’s name is scratched off the wall simply because she became a mother (to Aaron), but that meant nothing more than a chalk mark on a wall.  He said the job was hers if she wanted it.  I liked how straightforward Jacob was in this moment and one wonders how well things would go if he had been as straightforward as this for his entire reign as Island Protector.  He did learn the secretive and manipulative manners from Mother and he would not have had any other examples.

Sawyer got mad at Jacob for playing with their lives and Jacob responded with the fact that none of the people he brought to the Island were happy or knew where they were.  They were lonely and lost and Jacob gave them an opportunity to find themselves and their purpose on the Island.

Jack stepped forward and agreed to take on Jacob’s responsibility and there was a ceremony with water from the stream.  Jacob repeated the “Now you are like me” line that Mother used.  Hurley said he was just glad it was not him, a line that even on my first viewing way back when, I took as foreshadowing.

While Ghost Jacob was doing his thing, John Locke arrived in New Otherton and crushed the heck out of Richard, knocking him into the jungle.  Dead?  Ben immediately took his place at Smokie’s side answering any question he wanted to know.  Specifically, where was Charles Widmore.  Widmore and Chloe were hiding in Ben’s closet and Ben was happy to share.

Locke went down to the hidden room with Ben, killed Chloe immediately and started asking Widmore questions.  Apparently, Jacob had returned to speak to Widmore recently and told him how to find the Island, refocusing his cynosure.  He was now concerned with Locke instead of Ben.  Locke told Widmore that if he did not tell him everything, the first thing he will do off the Island is kill Penny.  As Widmore was whispering to Locke, Ben shot Widmore to death saying that Charles did not get to save his daughter.

The whole situation with Charles only brought back the memories of Alex and her fate.  Miles had run into where Richard had buried her as they returned, causing him to pause.  Ben thanked Richard for burying her.

Desmond got out of the well apparently because when Locke and Ben arrived t kill him, he was gone.  Locke was happy though because he decided he was going to use Desmond to help destroy the Island.

This is one of those totally divisive episodes of LOST that I loved.  “Across the Sea” was a great origin story of the Smoke Monster and it lent us a look at Jacob and his brother, along with the crazy Mother.

Allison Janney starred in this episode as Mother.  A woman who was already on the Island as the Protector when a ship crash landed on the shore and a pregnant woman came stumbling into the jungle. Mother helped the woman give birth to twins- she only had one name, Jacob- and then Mother killed her.

We saw how the Man in Black and Jacob developed over the years.  The Boy in Black discovered that he was from another land after conferring with the ghost of his birth mother.  He was already curious about what was out across the sea.

Jacob and the Boy in Black discovered the others from the ship and went to Mother.  Mother took them to the heart of the Island, the glowing light.  She said it must be protected above all else and that one of the boys were destined to take her place as protector of the Island.  On the way, she told them that they could never hurt each other.

The Boy in Black decided to leave and he wanted his brother Jacob t go with him, but Jacob refused and they started to fight.  The Boy in Black left to go with the other people.  Jacob stayed with Mother.

Mother eventually took Jacob and made him protector, despite Jacob not really wanting the job.  After drinking some wine, Mother said “Now you and I are the same.” Mother stopped the Man in Black from building the donkey wheel.  Then she went and killed the other people.  The Man in Black, angry from the betrayal, stabbed Mother with a knife (without letting her speak) and she died, thanking him.

Jacob arrived and was angry at his brother.  Jacob took the Man in Black to the light and knocked him out.  Mother had once warned him never to go down in the hole because that would be much worse than dying.  Jacob threw him into the water and it took him into the hole.  A few seconds later, the Smoke Monster roared from the hole.

Jacob found the body of his brother nearby and he took him and Mother to the caves and set them inside.  That made Mother and the Man in Black the skeletons that were found in the first season, Adam and Eve.

A major question in this episode… how did Mother kill all of those other people?  I believe that she was able to do that because she was already a Smoke Monster. She spoke about that hole being worse than death because she knows first hand.

Plus, if the Man in Black was the Adam skeleton, that means the Man in Black that we have been seeing since is actually not Jacob’s brother.  This means though that apparently the rules still apply as the Man in Black was unable to kill Jacob on his own.  However, Smokie retained the memories of the Man in Black which makes one wonder if he has all of Locke’s memories as well.  How about Christian or Yemi?  There is evidence that might support that as a fact.

Sure there are plenty of questions raised by this episode, but they’re the type that do not require an answer.  I actually like the uncertainty better.

Why is there so much hatred over this episode?  I think some probably hated the placement of the episode, the third to last episode of the series.  That is important though with how much the heart of the Island will play in the finale.  Some people hate when episodes raise questions and do not answer them.  I already said that does not bother me.  I can come up with solutions for everything.  I think some of the answers that were presented were just not the ones people wanted or that they disagreed with.

Any way, I really enjoyed “Across the Sea” and look forward to the final three hours of LOST.

*cries*

*sob*

*sniffle*

The death of Jin and Sun was absolutely traumatic and yet beautiful.  Jin refusing to leave the side of his beloved Sun even one more was heartbreaking.  The imagery was gorgeous and yet horrible as the last picture we had of these two were being pulled apart.  Ji Yeon is now destined to grow up never to know her parents.

Wow.  I remember never expecting this.  After so much time apart, doing everything imaginable to reunite with one another, the show gave us an episode to see the Kwons together only to literally blow them apart.

The Kwons’ death tells us one thing.  The Man in Black/Locke is not the hero of this story.  He is ultimate evil.  He planned out getting all remaining candidates together on the submarine so they could kill each other.  The bomb was the perfect way to do it.  Jack knew that nothing was going to happen, but everything this season was leading to this moment.

We already saw dynamite fizzle away with jack around it back with Richard.  Jack totally believed that this bomb would be no different.  He had complete faith that the Island would not let them die…or that Locke was unable to do it himself.  Jack inferred, reasonably and correctly so, that if Locke could have killed them all, why hadn’t he done it already?  I have no doubt that the bomb would not have gone off if they had let it run down to 0:00.

The problem was that Sawyer had his hands on the wires, and the last time he trusted Jack with a decision of this magnitude, Juliet died.  Sawyer went ahead with Jack’s crazy scheme with Jughead, and it cost him the love of his life.  Sawyer wasn’t going to do that again.  By pulling the wires, Sawyer effectively was the person killing the candidates, not Locke.  Technicality but it feels like technicalities are vital to the Island and to Jacob’s rules.

Sawyer’s actions do give Sayid a chance to redeem himself from his trip to the Dark Side.  Sayid’s noble sacrifice reminded us all of one thing.  Despite the terrible things that Sayid had done over his lifetime, deep down he was a good man.  It is something that Sayid has been trying to reach since day one on the Island and with his final sacrifice, he was purged of his wrongdoings.

Remember, Sayid had not chosen to go to the Dark Side.  He had been shot and dipped in the Temple pool, which had been corrupted by Jacob’s death.  Sayid was literally infected by the Man in Black and it took him a long time to find his way out of the darkness.  Sayid’s choice was not, “I’m going to sacrifice myself and then I’ll be redeemed.”  Instead, it was “I am expendable because I am already dead inside” and by that, he becomes a hero again.

Jack, Hurley, Kate, along with an unconscious Sawyer, wash up on the beach in the lowest moment for all of them perhaps in the entire series.  They feel defeated and are grieving the loss of three friends (Lapidus is not dead yet!).

Such an emotional powerhouse of an episode that showed us the true extent of the characters, especially the Man in Black.  Last post I talked about how the Man in Black was honest and forthright and hated secrets.  Well, toss that all out the window because he is the monster that we always thought he was when the first sounds of the monster echoed across the beach.

If only we had an episode that told us the origin of the Man in Black…..

It was late last night that I watched this episode.  I had done it without writing the “Everybody Loves Hugo” post either because things are coming to an end and I am excited about the next episode.  That means these cliffhangers are doing their job.  If it hadn’t been so late last night, I would have gone on to the next LOST episode.  I almost did it anyway.

The interactions between Jack and the Locke/Man in Black are wonderful, and almost complete opposite of the conversations once held between Jack and our real John Locke.  Fascinating how much faith the “Man of Science” has in the Island now in comparison to before.

John seems completely reasonable about just wanting to leave the Island.  He is also very much straight forward with people and tells it like it is.  He is not in for secrets (although he does have his share).  This is very anti-Jacob and most likely that is the reason why Locke/Man in Black is that way.

We got the reunion of Jack and Claire, twice.  Once on the Island and once in the flash-sideways.  This is the first time that the brother-sister pair saw each other since the reveal came out.  It surprised me that Jack was willing to leave Claire behind when the big jailbreak happened, but I liked that Claire decided to follow along and showed how hurt she was by their betrayal.  Having Kate talk Claire down was a nice touch as well.

Jack and Sawyer had one more run in on the boat, and Jack decided that he needed to stay on the Island so, in a moment that mirrored Sawyer’s leap from the helicopter, Jack jumped from the boat and swam back to the Island, once again confusing Kate to no end.

And then….. FINALLY….

Jin and Sun are reunited.  After many seasons and 30 years of time travel, Jin and Sun are in each other’s arms again.  It is short lived as Widmore’s forces showed up and apparently received orders to execute the group, but that does not make the moment any less sweet.

With the war now under way, and Widmore’s bombs being tossed toward Locke’s group, John is able to save Jack and get him away from the shelling.  One wonders where the kids are (still with Cindy?)

“You’re with me now” John said eerily.

As I said, I would have watched another if the time had not been so late and I am very excited about revisiting the final four episodes of the series.

The show is into overdrive right now as things are speeding along to the finale.

We get a flash-sideways for Hugo, the most successful businessman in the flash-sideways world.  He donates to charity.  He buys businesses and provides jobs.  He is a sweetheart that receives awards galore.  Everybody loves Hugo.

But Hugo’s mother wants him to have a girlfriend.  She’s never happy.  Setting Hugo up with a blind date leads to a chance encounter with a distinctly out to lunch, figuratively and literally, Libby. Libby has memories of Hugo from another time and she was hoping that he had the same memories which would make her not crazy.  Hurley did not share the memories and Dr. Brooks redirected Libby back to the van to return her to the institution.

Hugo can’t get Libby out of his head so he goes to see her.  She seems considerably less cray-cray in this conversation than at the restaurant so Hugo asks her out on a date.  They wind up on a beach having a picnic, a picnic they did not get to have on the Island and they share a kiss, which triggered Hugo’s memories.

Hugo’s flash-sideways was a sweet one, with Desmond floating around keeping an eye on them like a guardian angel.  Of course, Desmond is anything but a guardian angel for Locke as he runs him down with his car after school one day.

Before leaving the flash-sideways world I want to have a shout out to Samm Levine, actor and former Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion and Team Champion, who made an uncredited appearance here as Mr. Cluck’s worker.  It was cool to see a younger Samm Levine show up on LOST.

On the Island, Hugo was starting to show some real chops as well.  It is important to know that Hurley could be a person who takes over for Jacob.  He has never been one to lead the group, always blending into the background.  Here, Hurley is taking steps to be in charge.  At first, the information came form the dead- as Hugo sees and converses with Micahel, but eventually, Hugo makes his own choices.  Even Jack is following Hurley.  Hurley blowing up the Black Rock so Richard cannot use the dynamite on the airplane was a shocking moment as was Hurley’s decision that their next move was to go see Locke.  In grand LOST fashion, any decisions by leaders tends to split the group in half and Richard, Miles, and Ben take off on their own.

Michael, by the way, is stranded on the Island as a ghost, and he explains that the whispers are the restless spirits of the Island.  This explanation did not feel right, though I do like the idea that Michael is still being punished for his crimes.  The whispers always seemed to have something to do with the Others so there felt like there needed to be something else.  Perhaps the Others always stirred up the restless spirits because a bunch of them are from the Dharma Initiative and the Others were responsible for their deaths in a mass murder moment.

And there was an intense stare down as Jack and Locke come face to face once again.

Lots of other cool/shocking things this episode too:

• Ilana blew up in a very Arzt manner.  It was a perfect ending to a character that never felt like she belonged.  Ben’s comment about how the Island was done with her was chilling as well.
• Locke tossed Desmond down a well.  Locke certainly looked nervous around Desmond, whereas Desmond seemed perfectly calm.  That calmness, the lack of fear, really spooked Smokie.
• The Island boy continued to taunt Smokie.  Desmond can see him as well.

I love Desmond-centric episodes.  They never fail to be awesome.

Desmond is such an important character in the world of LOST that when he was dragged out of that locked room on the sub, you knew things were going to pick up.

Of course, throwing him into that electromagnet turbine sure seemed an easy way to make this trip to the Island a short one for everybody’s favorite Scot.  However, Desmond showed once again that he was special, shaking off the blast as if it were nothing.

Whatever Widmore’s plans for Desmond are, it seemed that Des doesn’t mind any more.  The flash-sideways world, including his meeting with Penny, apparently has bolstered his confidence.

Love is becoming a major theme in this flash-sideways universe, and it is somehow connected to death.  Charlie’s near death experience on the plane led to him seeing flashes of Claire.  And Desmond’s car crash, thanks to Charlie, made him start remembering some important details.

But shaking hands with Penny, his constant, sent Desmond right back to the Island and the “real” world.

So when Desmond came back to consciousness with Penny, he had some kind of epiphany involving the others on the Oceanic 815 and he wanted a list.

It was great seeing Charlie and Daniel again this episode.  They have been missed.  It also seemed as if that tricky Eloise (Hawkins) Widmore knows more than she is letting on.

So now with Sayid having Desmond, who knows what is coming next.

It always seems that LOST follows up an exceptional episode with an average to below average one.  It happened with The Constant, Flashes Before Your Eyes, The Man from Tallahassee and now it has happened with Ab Aeterno.

“The Package” was a story following Sun and Jin in the flash-sideways world.  Couple of interesting tidbits.  They are not married.  Keemy and Mikhail are connected.  We find out how Jin got in that freezer.  Keemy was supposed to kill Jin for Paik (and Jin thanked him for it).

On Island, Sun hit her head running from Locke and she suddenly forgot how to speak English.  My guess is that her slash-sideways world was bleeding through here, but it felt like a bit of unimportant, maybe even lazy writing.

Jin is snatched by Widmore’s group, apparently to show him pictures of Ji Yeon.  Widmore wants more than that.

Locke has a confrontation with Widmore.  Widmore seems to be on Team keep Smokie on the Island, but I can not see him as a hero.  Especially after they bring out a drugged up Desmond from the sub.  Kidnapping?

Sayid told Locke that he feels nothing.  No anger.  No joy.  Nothing.  Almost as if he is dead.

Richard came back and told the group that they had to destroy the airplane to keep the Smoke Monster on the Island.

It felt like a place holder of an episode, that just dropped a few ideas and put things into place for what is coming.

One of the best LOST episodes of the series features the long argued back story of the ageless one, Richard Alpert, once known as Ricardo.

Ricardo started his story at Tenerife, Canary Islands in 1867 with an adult aged Ricardo trying to save his dying wife Isabella.  We now know the age of Richard Alpert.  Ricardo, a poor man with little means, scraped together everything they had and went on horseback for a doctor.  He was told in no uncertain terms that he did not have enough money for the medication Isabella needed.  In a struggle over the medication, the doctor is accidentally killed.  Ricardo rushes back to his wife with the medication only to fins that he was too late and she had died.

Ricardo was sent to prison and was going to be hanged, but when it is revealed that Ricardo was teaching himself English, he be came more valuable and he was given to a ship’s captain to travel to the New World.

Ricardo was chained with the other slaves in the Black Rock, which gets caught up in a storm and crashes onto the Island, right through the statue of Taweret.

The Smoke Monster eventually showed up and killed the Black Rock crew (not before Captain Magnus Hanso stabbed all of the slaves with his sword…except Richard, of course.

The Man in Black attempts to manipulate Richard with visions of his dead wife Isabella and he sends Richard after Jacob with a knife using the same instructions that Dogen had told to Sayid when he sent him after Locke.

Richard does not come even close to killing Jacob as he is easily disarmed.  Richard believed that he was dead and they were in Hell, repeating a fan favorite theory about the Island.  Jacob repeatedly dunked Richard’s head into the water on the beachside until Richard claimed to want to live.

Jacob would make Richard immortal and use him as a second hand man for years.

Present day, we know that Richard had lost his faith in Jacob and had seen his life as a wasted time, becoming suicidal.  He left he beach to go and join Locke’s group, but Hurley followed him.  Richard was mad that Hurley came up to him, but Hurley was talking to Isabella.

The scenes between Richard and Isabella were beautifully done and really helped to understand the character of Richard.  Richard had always been a enigma since his introduction but this laid everything out for him.  Isabella is able to refocus and save Richard from doing something stupid.

Who knew we really all wanted a Sawyer-Miles police procedural?

The flash-sideways made us take a look at a different path that Sawyer could have taken.  There was not much different about our favorite redneck except that fact that he is a police detective here instead of a con man, partnered up with Miles.

I would watch Sawyer and Miles as LAPD Detectives.  It just sounds awesome.

Meanwhile, Island Sawyer is paddling the boat over to Hydra Island, by request of Locke, for recon.  And lo and behold, there was Charles Widmore.  setting up sonic pylons like those that surround the barracks.  Plus, the remainder of the survivors of Ajira 316 are all dead.

Sawyer worked out a deal with Widmore to bring Locke to him so he could kill him.  On the other hand, Sawyer is setting John up as well.  His plan is to let the two of them kill each other while he and Kate escape on the submarine.

By the way, there is a locked room on the submarine that they trotted Sawyer past that obviously contained something important.

This episode also included Claire jumping Kate and trying to stab her to death.  Locke stopped Claire from succeeding, but the entire situation shook Kate.  Locke told Kate a story about his own mother, who was crazy, in order to point out that Aaron now had a crazy mother, and to imply that Kate needed to be aware of that.

Recon was more of a set up episode on the Island, though Sawyer-Miles detective show would be a hit.

Again, the flash-sideways has given us a chance for these characters that we have loved for so long to take one of their flaws and improve upon it.

This week it is Benjamin Linus, the consummate villain of LOST.  However, Ben Linus has been reduced from leader to beaten down lackey.

And int he flash-sideways, Dr.Linus was given a chance to redo the biggest mistake in his entire life, figuratively.  Dr. Linus discovered from his student Alex Rousseau (yep, that Alex) that the principal of the school was having an illicit affair with the nurse, Linus found evidence and intended on blackmailing him to resign as principal and recommend Dr. Linus for the job.

Substitute teacher John Locke suggested that Linus should be principal because he cared about the school and the students more than the administrators did.  Linus was attracted to the power and moved forward with the plan.  We know Ben has always desired power and he would do practically anything for it.

However, the principal had a ace up his sleeve. When Ben approached him with the blackmail, the principal said that if he went through with this, he would torch a recommendation to Yale that Alex Rousseau had asked him to write.

Alex had already expressed to Ben how much she needed to get into Yale and she worried that she would never make it because of money.  She needed a recommendation from a former Yale graduate.  She made this seem like life and death for her.

So here Ben was again.  He could push forward with his own plan to hold on to his power at the figurative cost of Alex’s life or he could give up his power and save her life.

This was just like the literal Alex and Keemy situation where Ben had chosen to hold on to his power, leading to Alex’s execution.  It is a brilliant juxtaposition by the LOST writers to be able to place Ben back in that situation again.

Of course, Dr. Linus chooses the better path than Ben Linus did, and Alex gets her recommendation.

Meanwhile on the Island, we have two people facing internal crises.  Ben is being forced to dig his own grave by Ilana, who found out that Ben was the actual person to have murdered Jacob.  The second person was Richard, who was looking for a chance to die and he was enlisting the help of Jack.

Ben was approached by Locke and he offered Ben control of the Island after Locke and his group departed.  Richard ran into Hurley and Jack and led them to the Black Rock and away from the Temple, where everybody was dead.

Ben took off into the jungle after a gun (told to him by Locke) with Ilana in pursuit.  Richard brought Jack inside the Black Rock and pulled out a stick of dynamite.  Richard said he was unable to kill himself but he needed Jack to do it.

Ben got to the gun and got the drop on Ilana, but he did not shoot her.  He only wanted to explain.  Jack agreed and lit the dynamite, sitting down next to Richard.

Ben explained about how he had made the decision to choose the Island over Alex and how much he regretted that, but how Jacob didn’t even care.  Ben said he was so angry.  He had sacrificed everything only to be tossed aside.  Jack told Richard that he knew that dynamite wouldn’t explode because Jack was important and had been brought here for a reason.  So Jack was willing to sit there and let it blow up. believing that it would not.

Ben told Ilana he just wanted to go to Locke because he was the only one who would have him. Ilana said that she would have Ben.   Jack closed his eyes and the dynamite fizzled out.  Jack snarkily said, “You wanna try another stick.”

The performances in this episode were out of this world.  The scene between Ben and Ilana is one of the best of the series, and Richard’s off-balance behavior was the best we have seen Nestor Carbonell as the never aging Other.

And the fantastic episode ended with another reunion scene of Jack, Hurley and Richard arriving on the beach and having everyone happy to see them.  Ben stood back out of the way, still the outsider with more to prove.

And then there was a sub with Charles Widmore approaching the Island.

The Others meet their end at Sundown.

The infected Sayid delivered them a message from Locke.  Come and join him, leave the Island or die.

This was after Sayid attempted to stab Locke in the chest with a dagger given to him by Dogen.  Locke reacted very calmly to the assassination attempt, simply explaining to Sayid that Dogen had sent Sayid here intending on Locke killing him.  Locke, instead, made a deal with everyone’s favorite Iraqi.

Sayid delivered the message and promptly found Dogen.  After a few minutes of learning about Dogen’s deal with Jacob, Sayid grabbed him and drowned him in the same pond that they “saved” Sayid in.  Follow this up with a quick slash of Lennon’s throat, and Sayid had completely gone evil.  The look Sayid gave Ben a few minutes later told the story remarkably well.

Thankfully, Ilana, Frank, Sun and Ben arrived just in time to rescue Miles.  Kate went to find Claire, but she realized that Claire is a bit nutso.  It was not before Kate had told Claire that she had Aaron and had raised him for the last three years.  Kate walked out with Sayid and Claire to Locke’s people, which turned an eye from the old Smokie.

The Temple was devastated by the Smoke Monster and the bodies were scattered everywhere.

The flash-sideways were okay this episode, focusing on Sayid and his attempt to be a good man.  Sayid’s plight was echoed both in the flash-sideways and the Island, and in both instances, Sayid failed in his attempt.  I would guess that we get more Sayid in flash-sideways since he found Jin bound and gagged in the freezer after he dispatched Keemy and his foolish men.  Sayid is clearly the biggest kick ass character on this show.