The Shape of Things to Come

Lost was back on the air tonight, and back in the quality form it's had for almost every episode this season. At the risk of repeating myself, this was another episode that had the perfect cocktail of what makes a great episode of Lost.

On the dramatic front, there were very powerful, emotional moments revolving around the characters. We've never seen the character of Ben in places like this before; first, truly terrified at the coming of the strike team; then, truly lost and without a plan to deal with them once they arrived; and ultimately, grief stricken at the loss of his daughter. We also saw how that loss will begin to impact his future.

We learned a very sad chapter in Sayid's future, that he actually succeeded in finding the woman he was searching for for years, only to have her for too short a time and then lose her. (And perhaps the subtle implication that Ben may have actually orchestrated her death just to press Sayid into his service.)

On the mystery front, the trend continued of starting to close off an existing question or two, only to raise new ones. We learned that Ben has a means by which to (at least in part) control the smoke monster.

But we also learned that Ben and Widmore's feud goes back a long time, that it had apparent "rules of engagement," one of them apparently being they're unable to kill one another.

There was the suggestion that there's a way to teleport off the island, a means that might involve time travel, hinted by Ben's arrival in Tunisia at the start of the episode (and mirroring the discovery of the polar bear there by Charlotte in an early flashback this season).

The mystery of the island's time distortion deepened, as a washed up body was found dead that apparently has yet to die back on the freighter.

In all, it was another episode that left me very excited to watch the next installment.