"The Package"

Hey folks, I'm sleepy, so I'm going to save the full blog treatment for another night.

But I enjoyed this episode tonight for several things:

- It felt like the very last ever place-setting episode of LOST. You know, the eps where it seems upon first watch that the whole point was to move people into place for the action that will take place later? I think we're done with that now.

- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this ep featured the whole cast. In these days of budget cuts and deals where actors don't all appear in all episodes, this felt like a refreshing time spent with everybody. Especially with that big not-entirely-unexpected reveal at the end, the gang's all here.

- And most of the characters had good little moments in their interactions with others... Ilana and Ben in particular made me laugh, and Jack and Sun were quite moving together. I'm coming around to new Jack (city) and I definitely like him a lot better now that he's taking on more of the old Locke role.

- Flocke did seem to hint that my friend AJ's dream could come true, and Kate may face some danger down the line. :-)

- The Sun-Jin story is both touching and frustrating. I can't believe we had an entire Sun-Jin ep and they didn't reunite! That better make it just that much more amazing when it does happen. And just when it was seeming that they would have a happier LA X storyline - sweet, flirty love - her father intervenes, hires Keamy to kill Jin, and ends up with pregnant Sun being shot in the stomach. That can't end well... and with only a handful of episodes left will we even be able to close the loop on all of these sideways stories? We have to learn if Sun lives or dies.

- Widmore is an enigma. Good guy? Bad guy? He's Ben's opponent.... but that doesn't mean either one is necessarily good or bad. And he's definitely anti-MIB/Flocke. So maybe he is still Jacob's man and he just hates Ben for usurping his power and position.

- Widmore and Jin was quite touching -- Penny's dad may win me over if he keeps doing sweet (yes, manipulative, but also sweet) things like letting Jin see pictures of Ji Yeon.

- Keamy has always been super-scary... but Keamy talking about true love may be his creepiest moment yet.

And, the most interesting interchange, I thought, was when Widmore and Flocke were face-to-face, speaking across the pylons.

Flocke asked Widmore if he knows who he is. Widmore replied, something like: "Well, I know you're not John Locke. Everything else I know about you is myth, ghost stories, and jungle noises in the night." Very interesting... so Widmore, and we may assume his era of Others, never really encountered the MIB. I bet they still encountered Smokey, but this was their first time speaking.

And when Widmore refused to let Jin go to Flocke, Flocke's response: "A wise man once said that a war was coming to this Island. I think it just got here."

Let's hope! I'm ready for some real action, starting next week!

-