Lost: What They Died For

Subtitle (by me): The Lost writers dust off their hands and get down to business.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Well, that was a nice, brisk episode, wasn’t it? It answered a bunch of questions, officially christened Dr. Jack as the new Jacob, and pretty much set up the story for the next episode, our finale on Sunday.

A few mysteries: Why the heck did Ben revert to Big Bad Ben? Granted, he didn’t do much lying (I’m pretty sure Smokey would have conned to that) — unless of course he simply is trying to get Not Locke’s trust so that he can have a hand in bringing him down. Does Ben really just want to have the Island wholly to himself? (A theory floated at Slate: Ben becomes the new Smokey to Jack’s Jacob. I like it!)

Is Richard dead? I vote for yes only because Lost is weeding out characters it doesn’t really need. And it doesn’t really need Richard; he’s done his job. On that note, did Not Locke really need to slit Zoe’s throat? That seemed needlessly cruel.

Who the heck let Desmond out of the well? Did our candidates do that before their big conversation with Jacob? If so, why didn’t Desmond tag along? Widmore (RIP, BTW)? Sayid? Why would he have told Jack that Desmond was in the well, then?

Why the weird English lady voiceover previewing the finale? Was that Ms. Hawking/Widmore?

Once more, despite all the moments that were Jack-, Locke-, and Ben-centric, I think Henry Ian Cusick as the Zenned-out Desmond Hume stole the show. He all but rubbed his hands together when Sawyer escorted him into that jail cell. And his little aside to Hurley about Ana Lucia: “She’s not ready yet”, was a nice little laugh. I sorely want Desmond to be the hero of the whole shebang because he’s become my all-time favorite TV character, starting back at “Flashes Before Your Eyes”.

I think the rest of the now-former candidates are toast. I wonder when they are going to figure that out.

I also think that Not Locke is going to try to throw Desmond down that well in order to destroy the Island. Notice how since he learned of Desmond’s role as a fail-safe, leaving the Island isn’t going to do anymore — he’s going to destroy it.

Five days until the finale. I cannot wait.