"The Brig"

Wow! That was a fantastic episode of LOST! May sweeps has definitely begun! After tonight's episode, I can't wait for the rest of month!

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

Where to begin with this episode? We finally got to see what Locke has been up to since he saw his father bound and gagged on the island five episodes ago. Granted, it was only eight days in island time, but I have been looking forward to this episode since Locke uttered, "Dad?" For the sake of storytelling, we didn't get all of the answers right from the beginning of the episode, but I loved the pacing and reveals throughout the episode. Of course, some of the things that people said may not be the whole truth, but I still feel like I learned a few things.

The biggest reveal of the episode is what many people have been speculating, myself included, for quite some time: Locke's father Anthony Cooper is the same man that conned Sawyer's mother leading to the murder/suicide of Sawyer's parents. The way that Locke got Sawyer to follow him into the jungle and allow Sawyer to learn the truth was fantastic! Once Locke locked Sawyer in the brig of the Black Rock with Anthony Cooper, I knew things were going to get intense. The conversation between Sawyer and Cooper was very powerful. Where Locke could not kill his father despite all that Cooper had done to him, Sawyer was capable of taking care of "Tom Sawyer." Throughout the whole episode, Cooper was insistent that they were in Hell but I don't think that to be the case. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Meanwhile, back at the beach, Desmond, Charlie, Hurley and Jin tried to figure out what to do with the parachutist, Naomi. After last week, I was pretty sure that she was an Other and was telling lies. However, when the gang confided their secret in Sayid, Naomi told more about herself, her mission and Flight 815. She claimed to work for a company hired by Penelope Widmore to search at a specific set of coordinates in the Pacific Ocean for Desmond. She left from the deck of a ship 80 miles from the island and that when she saw the island, the instruments on her helicopter went haywire. She also said that the wreckage of Flight 815 was found in a 4 mile deep ocean trench off the coast of Bali. A robot submarine was sent down and sent back images of all the passengers dead. I think that it's totally plausible that the found crashsite was faked by Dharma, the Hanso Foundation and/or the Others. If what Naomi says is true, this is not Hell but an actual real world island that is hidden from the world for some reason.

Sayid of course attempted to fix Naomi's satellite phone and got power back but could not find an available channel. That's about the time Kate found out about what was going on and decided to share the info with Jack, whom nobody wanted to let in on the secret. In the conversation with Jack, Juliet said that they should tell Kate something, but Jack said that she was not ready yet. This is so suspicious, I really think that Jack did get some kind of brainwashing while he was with the Others. Thankfully, before Locke and Sawyer parted ways at the Black Rock, Locke gave Sawyer the microcassette recorder that Juliet used in D.O.C. to leave her message for Ben. This should come into play very soon and Juliet deserves all the repercussions that are sure to come of it.

Finally, the last scene of note was the one in which Richard Alpert gave Locke the Sawyer file. Before giving him the file, Alpert talked of some of the Others feeling that Ben was not the leader they wanted. I have to wonder if this is truly a sign of the rival Others that the producers have mentioned in the Official Podcast or if this is just more head games and manipulation. Like everything else on LOST, only time will tell. But I can't wait! Next week should be very exciting and very revealing. I love where this season is going, I only wish it didn't have to end so soon!

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