here’s a weird motif in the episode. The first full minute or so is dedicated to Frank Lapidus retrieving a few beers from the fridge on Penny’s ship. Later on, a not inconsiderable amount of screentime is spent on Mr. Reyes making a sandwich in preparation for Expose. Finally, we get a P.O.V. shot of Hurley microwaving a hot pocket, with memorable results. Did Jack Bender forget to pack a lunch?

Events are less convoluted this time around, owing to the heavier focus on the Oceanic 6, but the plot continues to speed along. Hurley is in focus here, although like many Season 5 episodes with this structure, the character focus is diluted compared to seasons of yore. We see that the effect of lying for the past three years has taken some toll on him. And there are a few laughs to be had, particularly when he summarizes the show in about 50 seconds. Of course, Mrs. Reyes fulfils her one hilarious line per season quota.

“Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?!”

Jack goes off to pack for the island… that would make a good episode… but winds up having to treat Sayid. It transpires that Ben has some allies on the outside, one of which is Ms. Hawking (I was stunned… after I went to Lostpedia to remember just who the hell she was). Kate and Aaron meet with Sun. I forgot to mention it before, but it’s so strange how Sun seems to assign blame for Jin’s death to Ben but not Widmore. “Ben, how dare you be target of Widmore who sent a deranged mercenary team after you that also killed my husbant. I’m siding with Widmore!” (Not that she shouldn’t want Ben for a multitude of other reasons though.)

Ah, Season 5. Stories in which characters time travel are tricky. Stories in which time traveling characters are bound by predestination rules (i.e. Whatever Happened, Happened) are trickier still. NOW try incorporating these time traveling characters into backstories that have already been described or even depicted in flashbacks, and try claiming that they were always a part of it. And try to keep all of this up for seventeen episodes on top of that.

And Season 5′s challenges don’t stop there. Think about the ambition of the season. You have to juggle between the characters on the island and the characters in Los Angeles, two different time periods and locations…for five episodes. Then you have to transition to what is almost a different story entirely, one that has to juggle a 1977 thread, a 2007 thread, and all the usual flashbacks in between. That is a lot of ground to cover.

That’s why I can’t help but get a little annoyed when people are outright dismissive of Season 5. Considering the constraints they were under, that Damon, Carlton, and the Lost writing staff managed to keep the season on an even keel is astounding. I hate to see a season with so much obvious and painstaking work put into it get dismissed because people might object to the idea of time travel in Lost (or whatever they didn’t like about it). Because when I examine the season as a whole and see the sheer scope of the thing, I feel like it’s really well constructed.

But nobody likes overviews. Let’s get to tackling everything Season 5, one episode at a time!

I don't know what it is. I'm halfway through #MadMen Season 3, and I'm 'shipping Peggy and Peter pretty severely. I want them to do it again #
I have been waiting a long time for #Dexter Lumen sex. #
Did Don really just call Betty a whore? That's rich. Too bad the term "manslut" didn't exist in 1963. #
Just finished #MadMen 4.04. The Peggy-Peter longing look through the glass doors in the closing minutes … gahhhhhhhh. #

Everything has converged and we’re on a linear path to the big finish. Begin Part 3!

The first act is just chaotic. With Keamy dying, that light turning green, the helicopter landing, and Jin seemingly caught in a massive explosion, it’s the most exciting stretch of the whole finale.

About Michael’s fate: I didn’t like this at first, but I realize now that I felt a lot worse for Harold Perrineau than I did for Michael. Guy was gone was for a season, and was clearly excited about getting to return to the show in a series regular capacity, only to be featured in a handful of episodes and isolated on a boat away from fellow cast mates. But still this arc for Michael, brief though it is, hits the right notes and addresses the loose ends with his character (Though I would have loved it if Cynthia Watros had come back to do the “You can go now” moment). Sure, the character could have had some interesting material if he had made it to the island and been involved in Seasons 5 and 6. But the only scene we didn’t get is another moment between him and Hurley, which Season 6 provides. Off you go Michael, you saved Desmond’s life, Desmond has a key role in the Smoke Monster’s defeat, so take solace in the fact that your sacrifice was not in vain.

Round 2! Let’s see what kind of mischief those WACKY Lost characters get up to now!

Flashforwards first! Part 1 gave us the beginning of the Oceanic 6′s descent into unhappiness, Part 2 jumps ahead three years and begins setting up the Season 5 status quo. The writers make the interesting decision to add on to the already iconic “We have to go back!” scene from last years finale. And now we’ve got the name Jeremy BENtham to keep us guessing through the next two hours.

The other flashforward gives us Matthew Abaddon’s second visit to Hurley in the asylum. Oh hold up… that’s Walt. Wow, really? Ok then. The real point of this scene is to reinforce the idea that BENtham made the rounds before dying, but there’s also an opportunity for Hurley to lie to Walt (and the audience) about what happened to Michael. Which continues to make this THE most tragic relationship on the show, Michael’s sacrifice may never be known to his son. Well cheer up Walt, your 32nd birthday is right around the corner!

Going into the finale, it’s really strikes me how there’s so much still to resolve. We know there’ll be a conflict with the mercenaries, an only marginally successful attempt to escape on the freight, a journey to go move the island, and all sorts of character arcs to resolve in between. And every member of the Oceanic 6 still has gaps in their off island futures to fill in. I’ve been looking forward to it a lot. Let’s get ready to tackle There’s No Place Like Home, one hour at a time.

At this stage, it is on, and every character has their mission. Part 1 doesn’t have any amazing or even hugely notable moments in and of itself, it mostly concerns itself with positioning and repositioning characters, leaving them all on the brink of the big conflict to come in Parts 2 and 3. But the storytelling is deft and the material is always involving. Jack and Kate take the sat phone and go looking for Frank, running into Sawyer and Miles on the way. Sayid arrives with the boat, and Faraday begins shuttling the Losties out to the freight. Locke, Ben, and Hurley thread in about halfway through, signalling someone (Richard?) and arriving at the Orchid. Richard then finally reemerged on this island with his famous calming aura, and takes Kate and Sayid prisoner. And Jin and Sun arrive at the freight, meet with Michael and Desmond, and discover a bomb on the boat. I think it’s the first episode of the season to not neglect any characters or locations (except Claire, who is still talked about plenty in both timelines), but every appearance is designed to move the story ever closer to its climax. It’s all handled very well.

Chalk this up as another episode I like more the second time around. In this post strike block, we had the action oriented episode that quickly heated up the war between the Losties and the mercenaries, the character oriented episode that quickly fleshed out the flashforwards, and a three part paradigm shifting finale dead ahead. It was my belief that this would be the mythology dump episode, an answer filled bonanza that would not have existed if not for the strike. Instead, we got an episode that was basically Locke having a series of cryptic encounters with a vertiable who’s who of mysterious Lost supporting characters.

In retrospect, there actually were plenty of tidbits of information, but Richard, Horace, Abaddon, and Christian do not sit Locke down and spell things out for him. You not only have to read between the lines of what they say, but you have to wait for Season 5 and 6 to give these strange meetings context. Now we know that Richard only comes by with his test because of the meeting with the adult Locke, not because he personally sees anything special in John. Horace shows up in the present, almost certainly the Man in Black spoonfeeding Locke another clue about where the cabin is, and confirms that the Dharma Purge was only 12 years prior. Abaddon, who spookily seems to have knowledge of Locke’s destiny, is someone we now know works for Widmore, a man who does in fact know about Locke and his future on the island. And of course, there’s Christian Shephard sitting in the cabin, someone who is in fact not speaking on behalf of Jacob, but the Man in Black in disguise continuing to manipulate Locke in his master plan. To say nothing of the unexpected appearance of a remarkably blase Claire, who may or may not be in the process of being claimed.

Something Nice Back Home isn’t at the level of most Season 4 episodes. It’s memorable for being the only forgettable episode in a string of memorable episodes. Sooo… let’s see what the hell happens in this one.

A drawback for me personally is that a lot of my top tier characters are offscreen. Locke, Ben and Hurley have branched off, and Sayid and Desmond have long since left Team Jack, leaving only Sawyer and Juliet to provide awesomeness (in a brief scene with Charlotte, Jin steps it up too). And I’m still not sure if this appendix stuff was necessary, aside from the subtext that the island is punishing Jack for wanting to leave. It seems to me as though the writers rightly thought that there had to be at least one episode in this three hour stretch leading up the finale that focused on Jack’s camp, but this forced them to whip up a little artificial drama. Something tells me that Jack is going to survive, eh guys?

At least the appendectomy (appendicitis?) allows us the long awaited return of Jackface, as he wants to stay awake and control his surgery! For some reason, Juliet indulges this ridiculousness, and it takes her until about 15 seconds after she begins the surgery before she realizes it’s a horrible idea. “Kate, hold the mirror. No no no, make the incision here. What do you mean you want to knock me out? Kate, I want you to see this, where are you going with that mirror? Get that chloroform away from me. Kate, get the **** back here!”

I have discovered something about myself. Want me to give a 10/10 rating to an episode of your show? Have the cast locked down in a hostage situation for the full hour. That Christmas episode of Chuck where everyone is held in the Buy More? Boom, 10/10. That 24 episode where terrorists break into the White House? BOOM! 10/10! There was an episode of One Tree Hill where everybody was locked down because a kid brought a gun into school? I’ve never even seen it! BOOM, 10 out of mother ****ing 10! So I’m predisposed to love Lost’s big lockdown/hostage situation episode, especially since it’s Ben Linus centric, but let’s go through the motions of a review, shall we?

From the moment in which Ben declares “They’re here,” you can feel the overall season shifting into the end game. The pacing is frantic as Sawyer and Claire, the two characters whose survival is not guaranteed, both come under assault by Keamy and the mercenaries. Awesome moments abound, my favourite of which involves Hurley smashing a window to save Sawyer and Claire, even though Ben has a shotgun on him. The entire sequence with Alex held hostage is nervewracking, and the visual of the smoke monster charging into the camp and wreaking havoc (though strangely failing to kill) Team Locke’s attackers is immensely satisfying. Even initially silly things like the mercenaries failing to shoot Sawyer despite unloading entire magazines at him, and Claire’s unlikely survival of the R.P.G. are revealed to be carefully considered plot points on second viewing.

Season 2 opens and Peggy has her name on a door. I approve. #MadMen #