Lost: 3-in-1

This is not a review, nor a summary. This is my reaction. Please comment with your own reactions.

'Twas a mixture of laziness and writer's block that resulted in the neglect of my Lost column. After waiting so long for a Richard-centric episode, I had nothing to say once my wish had been granted. The following weeks episode produced more of a reaction, but I just couldn't bring myself to skip the "Ab Aeterno" column. And now yet another episode has come and gone and I'm still dreading that damn entry. Here goes nothing...I guess.

Ab Aeterno

Without a doubt, Richard has been the most mysterious character in the incredibly overwhelming cast of Lost. No matter where (or when) the show took us he never appeared to age. It was intriguing at first, but then I made the mistake of reading theory sites and my fascination waned. In fact, when they finally shed light on his story all I could think was, "Yep, saw that coming."

To its credit, the episode was gratifying as hell. Even if I wasn't surprised to find out that Richard was a slave on the Black Rock, it was nice to finally have that confirmation. The one part of the episode that struck me as odd was when Richard and Jacob met. Up until that point, Jacob had been depicted as "nice guy." Now the writers have him beating the shit out of Richard, and I'm as confused as ever. I know Richard had the intention to kill him and all, but so did Ben, and he just let that happen! Whatever, Lost. Whatever.

The Package

Along with the advent of "The Package" came the startling realization that Zoe was here to stay. That's right--in a series with no shortage of characters to hate, Zoe is second only to Kate. My reason for disliking Zoe is really stupid and superficial, but I don't give a damn. You see, every time TVGuide.com wrote about her they used this ridiculously unflattering picture or her running from Sawyer. Now every time she's onscreen all I can think about is that picture.

Thankfully, this episode wasn't about Zoe; it was about Jin and Sun. Keeping with the new tradition of having the flash sideways show an alternate life of the characters, this episode asked the question, "What if Jin and Sun weren't married?" The answer, of course, is that they'd still be banging each other. The only difference is that Sun's dad is pissed off about it this time, and hires Douchey McDouchebag to kill Jin. It makes me wonder if that was the plan in the original time line as well. Guess we'll never know.

Meanwhile, Evil Locke has a plan to fly the Ajira plane off the island, but he needs all the candidates for it to work. I'd be more concerned with the lack of a runway, but maybe evil smoke monsters can make planes fly just because. My favorite part was when Evil Locke implied that Claire could kill Kate once they got off the island.

We also found out that Desmond was, in fact, behind the locked door from the Sawyer episode, but we'll find out more about that in...

Happily Ever After

I'm going to make a bold statement: This is the best episode of the season. My enjoyment came as a shock considering that I thought "The Constant" was only okay. Then it dawned on me that Desmond's flashes aren't what made the episode good, it's what was contained in said flashes. In "The Constant" he was getting yelled at by a drill instructor, breaking up with his girlfriend, and pissing off Charles Widmore. In this episode Desmond was Charles Widmore's fucking assistant! The inclusion of Charlie was great too, especially since he was acting like a crazy person the whole time.

The other wonderful thing was that they finally began tying things together with the flash sideways and the...I don't know, flash now?...when Desmond talks to Daniel. For a while, I was just watching Lost to watch Lost, but this episode has reinvigorated my excitement for the series. It also helps that next week is a Hugo episode.