Enter 77

A fairly good episode of Lost tonight; the best since the Juliet episode, at least. It focused on Sayid, and as usual, his flashback was an emotional and engaging one. It's possible this "torture is bad, mm-kay?" sentiment was a calculated reaction to all the flak Lost and 24 have been getting on this issue lately, but the motivations didn't really matter -- this storyline was really solid.

In the present, well... it seemed to be "one step forward, one step back." Which, I suppose for those dying for answers, was an improvement over the "one step forward, twelve steps back" of most episodes this season. From a purely thematic standpoint, we had a full season already of "station with computer in it," so the Flame just couldn't possibly have been meant to last. And the second you saw that shelf full of Dharma binders, packed full of information that would have actually explained things? Yeah, you knew the Flame was going to live up to its name by the end of the episode. (What is this thing Locke has with destroying Dharma stations?)

But at least the little hunting party has indeed found their way of getting to where they want to go. Forward momentum in the narrative seems likely from here.

Then there was the fluffy little ping-pong side plot with Hurley and Sawyer. Pretty fun. I can't decide whether seeing more of the game would have been better, or whether it wasn't really necessary. It's probably just the urge to see Sawyer taken down a peg that makes me wish to have seen more, when really, we all got the point from the opening serve we did get to see.

And yet, as fun as it is to see Sawyer lose, I'm not sure I'm happy he actually lost this bet. No nicknames for a week?! On Lost, that could be something five or six episodes without any Sawyer gems like "Zorro" or "Avalanche" or "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon." That frankly sucks.