By Jonathan Weichsel
Fancast.com
Lost officially returns with Kate looking hot at the beach. She smiles at Jack, and Jack smiles back. It’s a nice warm opening to what will be a dark, dark episode. We see Jack taking pills. Are these antibiotics, as he says, or is this the beginning of his later addiction? Bernard calls for help. A dead body! Ah, now the show is really starting. It’s a bald guy. Do we know him from a previous episode? He looks familiar. Daniel says it’s the Doctor. Remember him? He took care of Minkowski. Wonder how his throat got slit…
Now Sawyer, Locke, and Hurley are talking about something very, very important. Ha! It’s a callback to Locke’s days playing RPG’s. Alex’s kidnappers force her to turn off the fence, but I guess she has time to send her father a distress code, because just then Ben’s phone rings and the voice at the other end tells Locke “Code 14 J.” Ben says it means “They’re here.” Ah, and now the flash forward. Ben wakes up in the Sahara desert, looking cold, dressed for the cold in stylish Dharma gear, and shivering. Ben uses his superior brains and agility to kick the butts of some Arabs who accost him… And now we’re back on the island where Ben is busy manipulating Locke.
Meanwhile, Jack is interrogating Daniel and Charlotte about the body. Back to the other’s camp. While Ben and Locke go nuts barricading themselves in, the new and improved heroic Sawyer is running about trying to save Claire and whoever he can. So far he doesn’t seem like a very effective hero, but let’s give him allowances. After all, he is new to the craft. Anyway, the people he warns to stay inside all get shot, and then a missile destroys the cabin where Claire is. And back to the flash forward. Henry is in Tunisia now. He looks a mess. He tells the concierge his name is D. Moriarty. If you remember, this is his alias from the episode “The Economist.” He asks the concierge the date, and indicates he is unsure of the year. Is Ben unstuck in time like Desmond? Or has he merely been in the desert to long? At any rate, for those of you trying to piece together the future chronology, the date is October 23, 2005. And then he sees Sayid on the television saying that he only wants to bury his wife in peace.
[Lost interviews.]
Back on the island, Ben explains his plan to Locke. Only Locke can talk to Jacob, but only Hurley can find him. Sawyer, digging through the wreckage, finds Claire. She asks for Charlie, then Aaron. Sawyer brings her to Ben’s cabin. Ben and Locke are too cowardly to let them in, so Hurley smashes a window for them. The doorbell rings. It’s Miles. The bad guys (as if there are any good guys) have given him a walkie talkie.
Flash forward to Iraq. It is the funeral of Sayid’s wife… and Ben is there. How did Ben get to a funeral in Iraq that he saw on TV in Tunisia? Is this more evidence that he is unstuck in time? Sayid, thinking Ben is a reporter, attacks him. Ben tells Sayid how he got off the island, all about Widmore, and about how this guy Bakhir, who works for Widmore, killed his wife. Sayid buys all of it.
On the island, Martin Keamy has a gun to Alex’s head. Ben thinks he can bluff his way out of this one, but for once he miscalculates, and Martin shoots Alex in the head. Notice the cruel irony here. Danielle and Carl both told Alex that they loved her, and then got shot. Ben tells Keamy that Alex means nothing to him, and then she gets shot. Ben’s pain here just seeps through the television set into our living rooms. All he can say is, “they changed the rules.” Ben locks himself in a back room and opens a secret stone passage way.
In Iraq, Ben is following Bakhir. Bakhir confronts him, and then Sayid shoots Bakhir. Sayid says he has no life now, and wants to join Ben. Ben tries to talk him out of it, but then relents.
We’re on the island again. Ben, taking on his leadership mode, is instructing everybody what to do. The house starts to shake. The smoke monster crashes down on everything. Trees are ripped from the ground, people are consumed, but Ben still takes the time to say goodbye to his daughter in one of those touching moments that Lost has always been so good at.
In Jack’s camp, Daniel is able to send a message in Morse code to the freighter. He gets a message back, and is caught in a lie by Bernard, who knows Morse code. Oops. Daniel is forced to admit that they never planned on rescuing anybody. Strange… the real message says that the doctor is all right. Jack is suddenly in pain.
Meanwhile, Locke is mad that Ben lied about not knowing anything about the smoke monster. Sawyer wants to take Claire, Aaron, and Hurley back to Jack’s camp. Locke pulls a gun on Sawyer. They need Hurley. Hurley, always adverse to confrontation, agrees to go with Locke and Ben. Sawyer warns them not to harm a hair on Hurley’s curly head.
Ben is in London now. He confronts Widmore. Ben accuses Widmore of murder. Widmore, using Ben-like logic, says that Ben is the murderer. Widmore tells Ben that the island is his, and that everything Ben ever had he stole from him. Ben tells Widmore that although he can’t kill him, he is going to kill his daughter, as revenge for Alex. It is implied that both men are searching for the island, but are hopelessly lost.
