Episode 9: The Shape of Things to Come

Welcome back! After a brief hiatus LOST was back in full swing last night with the beginning of their 5 episode streak until the finale at the end of May. So just to keep you in the loop, LOST is airing four more episodes, making the total for season 4 to 13 episodes. However, they added an extra hour on to the finale so technically we get an extra episode! Okay so before I get to my ten points, a quick recap of last night's awesome episode:

The episode opened with a tender moment between Jack and Kate, her watching him on the beach and him smiling back. Jack then made his way to a tent to take some meds after telling Kate he has a stomach bug. They discuss the freighter situation and Jack reassures Kate that he isn't worried about Desmond and Sayid and that they are coming to rescue them. All of a sudden a frantic Bernard is screaming for help and the crew runs out to the water to discover a dead body floating up to shore. Cause of death: slit throat.
We then are transported to Tunisia where we find Ben just waking up in the desert in a Dharma parka, a little wounded and disoriented. He is approached by two men and through a series of awesome kicks and brutal murder, Ben acquires their guns and horses. He rides off to a hotel in Tunisia and checks in as a preferred customer under a different name. He inquires about the date, October 23, 2005, and watches on the TV, coverage of Sayid at his wife's funeral.
Back on the island, team Locke is killing time playing some Risk when the phone rings. It's Alex typing in a security code into the fence. They inquire with Ben what the code 14-J means and Ben goes into insta-panic. Sawyer goes to save Claire, Hurley, and Aaron while Ben and Locke secure the house. Ben tells Locke he needs him to go with him to Jacob and get more instructions after this. 3 losties come out of the house and immediately get shot as Sawyer is trying to reach the others. He manages to get Claire after her house is blown up and join the others back in Ben's house, despite Ben's efforts to keep them out.
We flash forward to Ben off the island taking pictures of Sayid and one mystery guy at Sayid's wife Nadia's funeral. Sayid notices Ben up on the roof and mistaking him for paparazzi, he attacks Ben. Once he realizes, Ben explains to Sayid who he is after. Ishamel Bakir, an employee of Charles Whidmore. He tells Sayid how this man is responsible for Nadia's death. This then prompts Sayid to join team Ben and when Ben is following this man, he lures him into an alley where Sayid is waiting and Sayid executes Ishmael and then informs Ben that his life is over and he will help Ben terminate the people responsible for Nadia's death.
Back on the island, Jack and the other beach losties discuss the man they found on the shore. Daniel Farraday tells them that he was the ship's doctor and he has no idea what happened. They manage to fix the satellite phone to communicate via Morse code with the ship and Daniel says that the ship told him that everything is fine and they are coming in the morning. unlucky for him, Bernard understands Morse code and tells the group what the message really said which was "what are you talking about? the doctor is fine." Jack forces Daniel to admit that they were never going to rescue them. Shortly after this Jack collapses, looks like it's more than a stomach bug for Jack.
Back to team Locke in Othersville, Keamy from the boaties shows Ben that he has Alex held captive. He threatens to kill her unless he comes out. Ben tries to bluff them out by saying he stole Alex as a baby and doesn't care about her but he shoots her in the head. Ben is shocked and mutters something about "he changed the rules" and goes through a secret door. Moments later he reappears, tells everyone to head for the tree line when he says to. The smoke monster comes out of the woods and completely destroys the boaties. The crew then runs for the woods where they split up. Hurley willingly goes with Ben and Locke to find Jacob's house so that they others can return safely to the beach.
Flash forward to Ben off the island, we see him entering a hotel late at night. The penthouse suite belongs to Charles Whidmore. Ben surprises him in bed. Whidmore pours himself a glass of whiskey while they talk. Looks like Whidmore is mad that Ben stole his island and Ben is mad that he changed the rules and his daughter was killed. Ben assured Whidmore that he would hunt and kill his daughter, Penelope, then come back for him. Looks like Ben is looking for Whidmore's daughter and Whidmore is looking for the island.

1. Okay so first of all, Jack and Kate. Extremely tender moment between them in the opening scene. Clearly it made me very happy. This is a sign of good things to come. Clearly in the scenes from the next, a sick Jack is being tended to by Juliette and he forcefully says "I want Kate". Juliette cannot be trusted, nor can she get between Jack and Kate. I was very happy with last night's episode in regards to these two.

2. So we find out that Ben and Whidmore not only know each other personally, but they have some sort of game going on between them. There are apparent rules which Whidmore seemingly broke when Alex was killed. This relationship perplexes me. I understand why they are enemies, seemingly because Whimore was in control over the Dharma Initiative and when Ben initiated the purge, Whidmore lost control over the island. Ben is fighting to keep the island his. That much i understand. But what I can't really grasp is how the two can have rules to this game and what the heck are they? You can't kill my daughter? I don't know, that seems a little odd. If Whidmore wants the island back, why can't he go after Ben's daughter? But I'm scared for the Desmond Penny relationship!!! I love them!

3. Did anyone else feel Ben channeling Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men in that end scene? Creepy! I love Ben more and more as a character. He's so damn creepy and you can love him and hate him all in the same episode. I'm wondering if there i more to him that we don't know as far as how the island affects him. It seemed like in the beginning when he woke up in the desert, he was gasping for air. Maybe, somehow like Desmond, he can time travel. That's how he gets on and off the island so much. Also, his parka had the name Halliwax on it. This is the name that Marvin Candle used in one of the orientation videos ... just another Dharma connection.

4. So Bernard was pretty kick ass when he knew Morse code. Totally shocked Daniel Farraday. So that brings us to the question of why was he lying. I know they all supposedly work for Whidmore, who is the one we think is covering up the plane crash. So if he covered it up, clearly he wouldn't have his boaties coming to rescue the losties. So basically Daniel and Charlotte are kind of screwed with whatever they were trying to do.

5. So Jack has appendicitis. I figured that was it. Something life threatening but easily fixed. I mean I'm no doctor but i think that as far as medical procedures go, this isn't too tricky. So looks like Juliet is going to have so save him being the only doctor on the island besides Jack. But from the previews looks like Jack still doesn't trust Juliette and wants Kate to help him. Ugh Juliette is the WORST!!!

6. So Sayid married Nadia. That warms my heart. But the whole time I was thinking, what about Shannon? She died what, like two months ago not even? Quickly forgotten apparently! That being said, I do love the Sayid/Nadia love story and was happy to hear that he finally found her and married her. I'm assuming that story will be a Sayid flash forward. But in this episode we learned that Sayid joined up with Ben as a result of her death and his need for revenge. Makes sense. If the whole reason he was on the plane was to find Nadia, and then after he found her only to have her taken away by the island, I would be pissed too. I liked this episode in that it answered a lot of our questions. Who controls the island, why Sayid joined Ben, etc.

7. Honeslty, the whole Alex, Karl, Rousseau deaths, a bit shocking. The death toll for season 4 lost is pretty high. I'm really shocked at Ben's actions prior to Alex's death. It made sense for the show, Ben can't be caught yet, and the only way they would not kill Alex was to have Ben surrender, and that wasn't going to happen. I'm just surprised Ben thought he could reverse psychologize Kearmy. he seems like a pretty tough dude. Also, very sad that the last thing Alex heard was how her dad didn't love her.

8. Smokey - So big reveal, Ben controls smokey. That was a crazy scene when Ben called smokey to attack the boaties. It was scary. So as far as what it is, clearly a weapon of some sort. How you can make a weapon like that, looks like for now I'm defaulting to magic as the answer. Also the lair that Ben went in to in his house to call smokey, he obvio had to crawl into a small space, sort of reminiscent of Desmond having to crawl underground for the reset button for the hatch. So smokey is a part of the island and Ben has control over it.

9. I loved Sawyer in this episode. Playing the big protector. Although, I find it hard to believe that the boaties, who had sniper guns and surrounded the camp managed to miss Sawyer. I mean come on. Also that Claire's house was blown up but she was okay. That was some serious explosives. All that aside, loved how Sawyer wanted to protect her, Hurley, and the baby. I think they are playing up his good side so everyone loves him and in the finale they will kill him to gain maximum sympathy.

10. So Ben and company are off to get more instructions from Jacob. Hurley is the only one who knows how to get there. Not sure how that ties in. Maybe Hurley is like Miles, he can see dead people. And maybe that's how he can see Jacob. Jack and company are about to get scared when Jack gets ill, and then we get to see Kate and Juliet duke it out for his affections, with Kate obvio becoming the clear winner.

Woohooo can't wait until next week!!!