SPOILERS AHEAD

* “Hello, Lost viewers! It was great to have you swing by last week. This week, we’ll be shifting gears and focusing on characters you like doing awesome things like turning into smoke monsters, grabbing machetes, scaring the shit out of Immortal Guy in Eyeliner, climbing down Indiana Jones rope ladders, explaining the origin of the Numbers, and listening to Iggy and the Stooges. Meanwhile, in an alternate reality, we’ll show them being well-adjusted, becoming besties with their archnemeses, and marrying Katey Sagal.”

* In other words, ohhhhhhh maaaaaaannnnnnn that was outstanding.

* Because we’re so used to how Lost works structurally and in terms of the roles of the characters, shifting those things around really makes an impact. Normally this takes the form of flipping the “flashback/forward/sideways” switch. But they can do it with how the characters are behaving as opposed to how they used to behave, too. And in this episode they did that twice: First by taking Richard, whose primary superpower has been inflappability, and showing him absolutely frantic and terrified. Instead of striding up calmly to whoever we’re following, this time he sneaks up wild-eyed and panicked, and runs away mid-sentence like Tony Soprano seeing the Feds approaching across the snowy backyard. Second they do it by showing Ben actually admit that Locke shits bigger than him, going so far as to finally end his ruse about Locke’s death. Not about Jacob’s death, of course–let’s not get crazy here. But still. You do those two simple things and all of a sudden it’s like wow, new ballgame. The show even made reference to something similar diegetically, with Sawyer picking up on Fake Locke because Real Locke always had a tinge of false bravado to him. Say what you will about Real Locke, but that bravado ain’t false.

* Locke’s flashsideways was deeply, deeply satisfying, wasn’t it? The second I saw him in a big suburban house instead of a crappy apartment, I figured Katey Sagal would be returning, and that was wonderful to see, especially when it became apparent that they had a healthy relationship. But what really made it click for me was when he fell off the ramp and onto the front yard: Instead of throwing his usual rage-filled tantrum about his lot in life, he just grinned as the sprinkler kicked in, in a good-natured “man, ain’t that a kick in the head?” kinda way. Turns out he was still struggling with the same compulsion to prove himself capable of things he’s incapable of that we’ve always seen from him, but the struggle was less severe and damaging to him, and he was ultimately able to walk away and move on.

* The kicker to the sequence, of course, was when he meets Benjamin Linus, European History teacher, at which point I was literally holding my arms aloft in triumph and cheering. Terry O’Quinn’s magnificent smile at the very end–the look of a man who knows he’s just met someone who’ll be a great friend, which really does happen from time to time–is one of my all-time favorite Lost moments, full stop. This is what I’m talking about, man.

* The Island storyline was rad, too. I want to focus on the cave scene because I think it’s the first time we’ve ever seen little recap-style flashbacks presented to us while characters continue to speak in the flow of the narrative. Am I right? This technique is straight outta Murder She Wrote, or Wadsworth telling us how it was all done during the various endings of Clue. In other words? ANSWERS!

* I couldn’t help but think, even after they showed that the Numbers originated with Jacob’s list of people, of how Cuse and Lindelof have said that viewers will continue to demand that they drill down deeper into them, like a kid repeatedly asking “Why?” until you’re saying stuff like “Because God said ‘because'” or whatever.

* Why only one Kwon? Why no Austen? Were these just the 42 front-section passengers of Oceanic 815, or are they 42 people drawn from all sorts of groups–the Tailies, the Others, Not Penny’s Boat, Ajira, Widmore’s Army unit, Desmond, Dharma, etc.?

* Jumping back for a sec, if Locke’s on good terms with his dad, what happened to his spine?

* Fake Locke/Man in Black is obviously an unreliable narrator, but I didn’t get a whole lot of cues that he was not to be believed in this case. Maybe Jacob will turn out to be a straight-up White Hat, but the “rival puppetmasters with pawns in the middle” theory of Lost seems a lot more thematically resonant with what’s actually happened on the show.

* Sawyer joining forces with the MIB is like Wolverine going to work for Magneto.

* I’m totally buying it, by the way. Great new positioning for that character, and perfect for his inevitable heroic self-sacrifice.

* Who is the mysterious kid? I think everyone probably thought “Young Jacob” at first, especially when it seemed like Richard couldn’t see him and he just disappeared. But Richard wasn’t facing that direction, and he could have scooted away while Fake Locke was looking at Richard instead for that brief moment. Sawyer could see him, after all, though who knows what that means at this point. I started wondering if he’s some Walt-style superpowered real-live kid currently hanging out at the Temple or something. Was he that kid they kidnapped from the Tail Section, does anyone know?

* I’m also thinking that this is where Walt’s importance will lie. I’m more confident than ever that we’ll get a satisfying answer for both him and the importance of childbirth and the lack thereof on the Island.

* Lapidus is priceless. Special to Kiel: Screw Hurley, that’s your mom’s audience-identification character.

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