LOST - You go, Smoke Monster!

Now that is what I am talking ‘bout.  That was a full-on, flat-out awesome episode of LOST.

“The Shape of Things to Come,” this week’s 100% all-new episode, was significant in several ways.  As previously mentioned, it was awesome.  It was also the first episode the LOST team produced after the WGA strike.  This latest installment was co-written by Brian K Vaughn, who has written a number of fantastic comic books, including the epic Y: The Last Man.  Another major character (and three redshirts) was killed this week.  And the best part of all?  The return of the Smoke Monster!   Somebody give me a hell yeah!

As with the other episodes this season, the story unfolds in Island Time (the present) and in the Oceanic Six Timeline (the near future).  On the island, Jack’s posse finds the corpse of the doctor from the freighter, who has washed up on the beach with his throat cut.  Jack’s impatience with their guests from the freighter grows, as does the pain in his belly – or more accurately, his appendix.   When Daniel contacts the freighter via Morse code on the busted satellite phone, the Freighter Folk tell him that the doctor’s fine.  More space/time wackiness, no doubt.

Speaking of space/time weirdness, in the flash forward we find out how Ben Linus got off the Island.  Actually, we don’t find out how he got off, but he sure didn’t take a boat.  Ben wakes up in north Africa with a wound on his arm, wearing a Dharma parka.  Ben figures out where he is, but is a little confused about when he is.  He makes his way to Tikrit, Iraq, where he hooks up with Sayid and introduces him to Ishmael, employee of Charles Widmore and the guy who killed the love of Sayid’s life.  Sayid returns the favor by emptying a gun’s worth of bullets into Ishmael, and then signs up with Ben for more killing.  At least Sayid is doing something he’s good at.

Back on the Island, Keamy and the mercs from the freighter attack Locke’s group.   Those guys don’t screw around – they cap three survivors and fire an RPG into the bungalow where Claire is staying, and that’s just for starters. 

Sawyer was in total Hero Mode this episode.  He doges bullets and risks his life to save Claire, has a gunpoint stand-off with Locke to protect Hurley, and pretty much avoids acting like a jerk for the entire show.  I kind of like it when selfless man-of-action Sawyer shows up.

You know who I don’t like?  Keamy, the lead mercenary from the freighter.  That guy is pure evil.  He holds Alex at gunpoint in an attempt to flush Ben out, and when Ben refuses to cooperate, Keamy executes her with a single shot to the head.  Didn’t see that coming.

Despite Ben’s assertions that Alex means nothing to him, he’s deeply affected by her death.  It’s time for the nuclear option – the Smoke Monster.  Ben enters a subterranean chamber with weird carvings on the wall – Sawyer thinks he’s bailed on them – and returns shortly covered in soot and dirt.  I don’t know what he did exactly, but the end result was the Smoke Monster shows up and makes a meal out of the mercs.  I guess Ben was lying to Locke when he said he didn’t know what the thing was, eh?

I’m a huge fan of the Smoke Monster.  It’s my second favorite character on the Island, right after Sayid.  We haven’t seen ol’ Smokey at all this season, so it was a real treat to see the mysterious entity return in style, tearing up trees and people.  I loves me the Smoke Monster.

Alas, Keamy apparently survives the Smoke Monster attack, because there he is on the promo for next week’s episode.  Also coming up:  Jack gets appendicitis and dies!  Or not.  As one of the Oceanic Six, Jack’s survival is pretty much a given, so there’s not a lot of suspense there. 

Since this is LOST, this episode presented even more puzzles and mysteries to mess with our heads.  There is one thing that is bugging me – Charles Widmore sounded like he had an Australian accent this week, but in the past he’s always had a British accent.  Am I just imagining things, or is that correct?  If it were any other show I’d just chalk it up to a goof, but this is LOST, where even the most minor things have some greater significance.  Right?

--Dave Campbell

Comments

[Kevin]

I wasn't quite as enamored with the episode as Dave was but it was still pretty decent.

Also, go BKV go!

[Tyler]

Sawyer can outrun bullets. It's science.

I thought that whole sequence was ridiculous. I have a high level of respect for the show, but that whole part where the redshirts got sniped, but then the mercs can't hit Sawyer, then Claire survives an RPG seemed like it was straight out of a bad '80s TV show. Terrible.

With that said, the Smoke Monster totally made up for everything. The Smoke Monster needs his own show.

[Richard Jones]

Yeah, Dave. I agree with you. Charles Widmore didn't sound like he had an English accent this week. It did sound more Australian. I was just hoping that the mercs could actually hit the broad side of a barn ( i.e. Sawyer), but it turns out that they can't really see straight.

[Hot_Pie]

That sequence of Sawyer running from the bullets reminded me of the scene from "Commando" with Arnie, in which he uses a rose bush to protect him from projectiles and harm.

[David D. Campbell]

Yeah, I liked how Sawyer tipped over the picnic bench to shield himself from all those high velocity rounds. On the Island, all picnic benches have a layer of titanium plating in case of gunfire.

[Rachael. W]

I was actually curious about something and you never mentioned it.

The Rules.

Ben continously mentioned that they had broken the rules. What were the rules?

And when Ben was in Charles' pad, Charles says "Are you here to kill me" and ben says "You and i both know that i can't do that" Which i think has something to do with the rules.
What do you think.
:D

[Paul O'Regan]

"Charles Widmore sounded like he had an Australian accent this week, but in the past he’s always had a British accent. Am I just imagining things, or is that correct?"

Well, Alan Dale is Australian, so there's that. I don't think he sounded Australian this episode, but his British accent did sound different to his previous appearences. He's appearing in Spamalot in London at the moment so it could be the accent he uses in that.

[David D. Campbell]

I think I may be overthinking the whole accent thing...

Rachael, I was wondering the same thing about Ben and Widmore's rules. Maybe they were both on board the Black Rock when it shipwrecked and now they are immortals like in Highlander and they've been playing a game of cat and mouse for centuries. Just throwing that out there.

[Mike Tattoo]

“He changed the rules” + “What are you doping here?” = what I think the next gamechanger will be. Not sure if I can articulate it any better than that, but just like how the flashforward changed the rules of what you thought the flashbacks were, I think Ben is going to flip some of the basic physics of the show.

Also, did you notice that when Ben asked him when he started sleeping with a bottle of scotch next to his bed and Charles replied “Since the nightmares began.” In such a way the it was implied that Ben knew exactly what he was talking about. I think they are alike, be it like immortals ala Highlander, or time travelers. Also, did you notice that Ben seemed to teleport into Iraq. There weren’t any footprints around him and there was steam rising from his body and then he turned around and threw up. All the classic symptoms of teleportation or time travel.

[chuckc]

There are classic symptoms of teleportation or time travel?

I'm going to webmd.