The Revelations:

• Jack decides to operate on Ben
• Kate learns about the two islands
• Locke sees “Lift up your eyes and look north” written on Eko’s stick.

The Plot: The episode focused mainly on Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, but we did catch a quick flashback of Eko’s funeral. Just prior to the funeral Sayid and Locke have a discussion about the Big Black Smoke thing.

While Kate and Sawyer are working, Alex comes running out with a slingshot and makes the most of it before she is captured.

Jack tells Ben he will not operate on him and that he’ll enjoy watching him die, and that will be right soon. Pickett begins eyeing Sawyer again, and Juliet tells Kate that unless Jack operates, Sawyer will die. She then leads Kate to Jack, and there is a nice reunion before Kate begs for Sawyer’s life. Jack again refuses.

Emotional Kate climbs over to Sawyer’s cage and admits she loves him and they sex it up.

Jack hears a voice on his intercom and finds his door open. Down the hall, another door is opened leading to the video chamber, which happens to have a monitor on the naked Sawyer and Kate. Ben comes in and Jack says that he’ll operate for his freedom.

During the operation, Jack slices into Ben’s liver giving him a hospital hostage of sorts. He uses this leverage to free Kate and Sawyer.

The Flashback: Kate marries a Miami police officer and tries to have a normal life. She even calls the US Marshall to beg for her life. The Marshall says she can have it, but only if she stays put. She can’t stay put and winds up admitting everything to her husband before drugging him and running.

The Review: **1/2

The flashback was totally pointless. It was boring and didn’t add much to Kate’s character. The only thing to really gain from it was that she can’t stay still and truly trust anyone, well until she gives herself to Sawyer.

Most of the episode was pretty dull. It only got interesting when Jack sliced into Ben, and that was the last quarter. I did dig the note on Eko’s stick and am anxious to see where it leads.

Admittedly I was thoroughly distracted during this episode. My parents came home in the middle of it and asked me a ton of questions. They don’t watch it but decided to start quizzing me on it while it was airing. Then my cousin came by and kept asking about my notebook (on which I write my show notes.)

From the Alex show, there were some cryptic conversations that make it sound as if she made it to the second island on her own. Seemingly there is another way across other than by boat or the submarine. Perhaps Kate and Sawyer will find the way.

I suspect Locke will indeed look North and find the island. If they realize what they are up against, perhaps they will revolt and get somewhere.

This was the last episode until next year. The interim show, Daybreak looks interesting. If it is I’ll keep up with it here.

New Revelations:

• Desmond sees the future
• Sawyer did time in prison
• Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are on a second, smaller island

Plot:

Desmond is the new Locke.

At the beginning of the episode, we see him approach Claire and tell her that she needs to move while he fixes her roof. Claire and Charlie look at the roof but see no problems with it. Desmond then borrows a golf club from a character we haven’t seen before and creates a big giant pole with it. The club is at the top and has an electrical wire attached to it, stretching to the sand below.

Towards the end of the episode, Hurley and Desmond are talking, and Desmond asks Hurley to step back just as the storm hits. Claire, Charlie, and the baby are soaked under the roof and a bolt of lightning strikes the golf club, causing damage to itself but no one else.

I say again, Desmond is the new Locke.

The second island is the new hatch. Each season there is a single mystery that captures our attention for the duration. Last season it was the hatch and those numbers, this season it will be the second island.

In captivity we see the Others dragging a very injured Colleen past Sawyer and Kate. Sawyer uses this distraction to plan a means of escape. He uses his oddball food distributor to create a puddle of water outside the cage, hoping someone will step in it allowing him to use the electrocution device to knock out an Other and him to escape.

Ben, having watched this plan on the video, comes to Sawyer, and allows him to try the plan, but the electrocution has been turned off. Ben then beats Sawyer and drags him away. Inside several Others strap Sawyer down and stab a needle into his heart.

When Sawyer awakens Ben shakes a rabbit to the point of death. He tells Sawyer that the rabbit had the same heart injections, which stops the heart beating when it gets too excited. Sawyer now has a heart monitor and is told that if his rate goes above 140 he will die. It is also threatened that if Sawyer tells Kate about any of it, she will be given the same treatment.

Meanwhile, Juliet asks Jack (who is forced now to watch cartoons) to help Colleen, as she is dying. Jack tries to heal her, but she is too far gone, and without a defibrillator, he can do nothing but watch her die.

This displeases Colleen’s husband, Pickett, who rushes outside and beats Sawyer to a pulp. He repeatedly asks Kate if she loves Sawyer and only stops the beating when she admits she does.

Inside Jack is handcuffed to the table holding the dead Colleen until Juliet frees him. While there, Jack asks about the X-rays he saw on his way in. It appears this person’s spine has a large cancer on it, and Jack asks who it is he is supposed to save. (In next week’s preview, it appears it will be Ben.)

Outside, Kate learns that she can escape her cage by climbing through the bars at the top. She does so against Sawyer’s wishes and then attempts to free Sawyer. He begs her not to and tells her to run. They argue over Kate’s “love” while Sawyer continues to refuse to tell her what happened to him. In the end, Kate climbs back into the cage.

Later, Ben takes Sawyer to the top of a mountain where he explains to Sawyer that the heart problem was a lie conceived to make Sawyer obedient. He then takes Sawyer to the top of the mountain and shows him another island. That island is the one where all the survivors are, while he is being held on this smaller “Alcatraz.”

The flashback sequence consisted of Sawyer being in prison for one of his cons. While there a woman shows up claiming she has had Sawyer’s child. Sawyer feigns disinterest but later proves he has a heart.

Sawyer also learns another convict has ten million dollars stashed away. Sawyer earns this man’s trust enough to learn where the money is and then uses this information to buy his way out of prison. By telling the feds where it is, they release him early and apparently give him part of it in return. This money he has deposited into a band for his daughter.

Rating: ****

The Sawyer heart injection was one of the most intense moments of the series. This season they’ve been making the Others out to be decent, if terribly mysterious folks, and this moment put them right back to total evil territory.

I was quite relieved when it turned out to be fake as I was already tired of the monitor. It was a good gag to have the warning beep go off when Kate was changing clothes, but then to have the monitor register the same amount when Sawyer was getting beaten was ludicrous. I began to fear they would be using this device continuously throughout the series, and I knew that would be quite irritating.

Desmond becoming some sort of mystic psychic is quite interesting. I hope it doesn’t diminish Locke’s role as the same, but his character could prove to be quite fascinating.

Jack starting to help the Others as the doctor could go either way for me. It kind of ticked me off at first, because I felt that Jack would be so pissed off at them by now that he’d use it as a bargaining chip. But the doctor in him seems to be winning, and perhaps he is beginning to feel no other choice but to cooperate. We’ll see how it goes in the upcoming weeks.

I was reminded during the preview that they have actually only been on the island for two months. Being the third year for viewers it is easy to forget the actual timeline is much shorter, making the situation slightly less desperate.

Overall I am still growing tired of the constant tension and begin to wish there was a conclusion coming. However, the show still has me hooked and the tension sure is exciting.

In lieu of giving a scene-by-scene run down of this week’s episode, I am going to point you to Wikipedia’s episode guide, which gives the plot details in full. Instead, I’ll give some brief feedback on what I thought about the episode.

What a difference a week makes. For last week’s season premiere, I was waiting with bated breath. All summer I couldn’t wait until the new season premiered. This week I hardly gave it a thought, and nearly forgot about it entirely.

I have to say that I am finally starting to tire of the entire program. This has nothing to do with this week’s episode, for it was a good one, but rather I am being worn down by the perpetual non-reveal. Every time they give us a hint at what it might all be about, they add in another half dozen mysteries. I can’t really blame the show for this, for if they gave us the hard facts the show would be over. It’s just beginning to feel like the perpetual state of blue ball that was life before love and I’m finding myself ready for some celibacy.

This may pass, as it has been a rough week personally and my general malcontent may have soured the show for me for the moment. I’ll continue to watch and we may find that next week I’m right back into the fold.

The two big reveals tonight were some background information on “Henry Gale” who is now known by his real name, Benjamin Linus. He tells Jack that he has lived on the island his entire life, posing a lot more questions about who the Others really are, and what their purpose on the island actually is. The other reveals also involved Ben as he informs Jack that if he cooperates he will be set free and sent home. To make Jack believe he shows him a television set and plays a piece of last year’s World Series with the Red Sox winning the pennant.

Big reveals for sure, but again it only reveals enough so that we ask even more questions about what’s going on. I have always felt that Lost can only conclude in ridiculousness. I cannot fathom how they will manage to end the series in a manner that will satisfy everyone and not be cheesy. I tend to hope they end it sooner rather than later as it will only become more impossible as the series continues.

I very much enjoyed the Sun backstory with her cheating on Jin with Jae Lee. Sun has been one of the few characters without a miserable back story and we begin to see her past is none too sunny.

It’s also interesting to see Sawyer be sweet to Kate without any of his obnoxiousness dirtying it up. It is as if seeing Kate in a situation she can’t get out of, polishes his feelings for her.

The one scene that bothered me was when Sawyer gets the gun off of the one guy, but puts it back down when Juliet threatens Kate. It is the second time Kate’s helplessness has turned the upper hand on the castaways, and in this case, it felt almost false. If Sawyer had really had the rifle it seems more like him to have started shooting and sorting it out afterwards. But maybe that’s just me and my callousness.

Again it was a good episode and I enjoyed it immensely. I hope that my feelings are fleeting and that once my personal life is sorted out a little more, I’ll continue to love the show. I do wish they’d give us something solid that we could lean upon instead of this continual barrage of whispers in the dark.

I have been anticipating tonight since the season two finale ended. I haven’t been this excited about TV since … well, ever. The season three premiere of Lost was like some crazy primitive religious rite. Fans and friends have been hyping it up for months. I was literally shaking with anticipation.

And then it began.

There are people in a house discussing a book. Who are these people? This must be a flashback. I had heard the new season was going to focus on The Others, so maybe this is a flashback to one of their early lives. The discussion gets heated and then there is something. An earthquake.

The house shakes; the people move close together, near support beams. The shaking stops and they run outside. It is a lovely looking place, with bright sun, and blue skies, like the suburbs of paradise. Then someone, a worker or someone, pops out from underneath something. Is that Ethan?

Holy crap it is. This must be Ethan’s back story. But no, there’s Henry Gale. This must be the aftermath of the explosion from the end of last season. What’s that in the sky? It is a plane — crashing.

It’s Flight 815; we’re seeing the crash from The Others’ point of view. Immediately Gale orders The Others to investigate and specifically tells Ethan to pretend he is a survivor.

Bam, commercial. Wow! That’s all I can say. Even my wife is impressed and she has totally lost her Lost momentum this summer.

After the break, we see what The Others have done to Kate, Sawyer, and Jack. Kate is in a large cinder block building with Zeke telling her to take a shower. She is defiant as ever but does take the shower only to find her clothes missing and a new girly dress in its place.

Sawyer awakes in a cage. It looks like something out of a whacky circus and there is an unknown man in the next cage. Sawyer uses his usual charm to question the man but gets nothing but silence in return. Amongst a variety of odd gadgets located in the cage, Sawyer spies one marked with a fork and knife. Pushing it, he gets only a warning. Pushing it again, the strange man warns him not to do it again. Sawyer does and is electrocuted.

Jack awakens in a small windowless room with one wall made out of a strong invisible plexiglass-type substance.

Commercial number two, WTF? We’re 14 minutes in and already at commercial number two! Last season was bad enough with commercials every 10 minutes, now we’re down to seven? Those bastard network executives.

After the break, we’re back to Jack and now he’s pulling on some chain trying to escape. A woman enters and offers him food. Jack refuses, playing the strong, stubborn Gandhi.

Kate is taken to the beach where she has breakfast with Henry Gale who tells her he wants her to have a pleasant memory because the next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.

The unknown man in the cage next to Sawyer breaks free and lets Sawyer out. They run but are quickly captured by the woman who has been talking to Jack. Zeke makes the other escapee apologize to Sawyer before being taken back.

Eventually, Sawyer manages to figure out the series of levers to push and the food button now releases a doggie bone (with the word Dharma on it) and some more dry food, plus a stream of water. While eating, Kate is brought to the now-empty adjacent cage. Sawyer, obviously moved to see Kate plays it straight and is kind to her. He even tosses over his doggie bone for food.

Meanwhile, Jack finally gives in and accepts the food offered by the woman. She forces him to sit in the corner so that she can open the door and bring the food. As she opens the door, Jack runs for her and manages to subdue her with a sharp object. They leave the room only to find more doorways. Stopping at one Jack tells the woman to open it.

She refuses saying she’ll die if she does. Henry Gale comes in stating she’s right. Jack doesn’t listen and opens the door. Immediately, a flood of water pores in. Gale closes an escape door in the woman’s face letting her and Jack fend for themselves. They escape by pressing an emergency button and the woman knocks Jack unconscious.

I should mention the flashbacks for this episode involved Jack and his ex-wife. It is during the moments when she has filed for divorce and Jack realizes she has found someone else. Jack has gone crazy with jealousy and begins doing things to find out who this man is – calling all the numbers on her cell phone, berating her about it and even accusing his father of knowing something, if not being that man.

Once things are cleaned up from the water, the woman begins telling Jack she knows everything about him. She begins telling him all kinds of things she shouldn’t and couldn’t know by simply paying attention to him on the island. Jack asks her about his ex-wife and is told she is happy. Then, Jack finally fully accepts submission and food. As the woman is about to enter, Henry Gale tells her she’s doing a good job and we fade to black.

It was a great episode. Lots of good emotional pull with the back story, a great introduction to new mysteries involving The Others and what exactly they are doing, and plenty of ‘Oh My Gosh’ moments. I do kind of wish they had spent a few moments with our friends on the other side of the island, but the teaser for next week showed we’ll be seeing plenty of them.

Strangely, though I immensely enjoyed the episode, I feel a little letdown. It is probably the down from a big high, but it feels strange knowing what happened after so many months of speculation.

No worry though; I’ll be back up next week when episode two airs.