Not in Portland

Tonight's return of Lost was a definite improvement over where the last few episodes from the fall had left things, but I still think the show isn't quite back to "firing on all cylinders."

Seeing a bit of Juliet's back story was very interesting. (And not just because it put yet another cast member from Deadwood on the show in a minor role.) As with Desmond's flashbacks which ended season two, it was a nice change of pace to see another way of getting to The Island other than the plane crash. It was a little easy to see ahead of time the direction the flashbacks were taking, but it is nevertheless a powerful piece of this character that she carries the guilt of having wished someone dead and had it come to pass. And yet, Juliet clearly hardened up a lot to get to her present demeanor, which I think leaves plenty of blank spots in that intervening three years to fill in. Which is good. Juliet does not seem to be a character like Claire, with no interesting backstory left to tell after just one episode focusing on her.

Still, I was missing the bulk of the castaways this episode, and I'm very hopeful that Kate and Sawyer's escape means we'll now be seeing more of Locke, Sayid, Sun and Jin, Charlie, Hurley, etc... the frankly more interesting group (to me).

And speaking of interesting, there was one particular revelation this evening that sparked my curiosity. I'm often content not to dwell upon possible solutions to the Big Mysteries of the Island. But when it comes to big mysteries of the characters there, I take notice. The news that Ben is Alex's father is particularly strange when you look back on season two. We know Rousseau (aka "The French Woman") is Alex's mother. Presumably, she knew who the father of her child was. But remember, she is the one who originally caught Ben in one of her traps, and turned him over to Sayid in the first place. Does this mean she knows more than she let on before? What exactly was her thinking in handing Ben over to be tortured?

I suppose another possibility is that Alex was lied to about Ben being her father, but that seems a far less dramatic storyline. But again, this is all mystery about character and not hatches and magnetism and so forth, so I found it far more compelling.

Now we'll see if this is the start of a new momentum for the show, and if things keep improving in the weeks ahead.