What I'm Watching -- Lost Episode 19, "The Brig"

LOST is officially back on track. After a horrendous start to the year with their six-episode "mini-season" back in the fall, as the season finale approaches, LOST has really found a groove, and tonight's Episode 19, titled "The Brig" was one of its best episodes ever.

Following John Locke and explaining where he's been during the last week he's spent with the mysterious "Others", the show finally connected some of the dots that have been hanging out in space during the past two and a half seasons. A few episode back, when Locke's father mysteriously showed up on the island, prisoner of Ben and the Others, it was a shocking moment. Not so shocking, but, pleasantly logical and satisfying, was the revelation that not only was Anthony Cooper Locke's estranged father, but he was also the original "Sawyer", whom our Sawyer has been chasing after since he was a boy. And that revelation played out perfectly throughout the episode, as Locke convinced Sawyer that he had "Ben" tied up, waiting to be killed by Sawyer, when in truth it was his father, whom Locke knew (thanks to the Others playbook on the island castaways) was the original Sawyer. The fact that Locke's dad was the man who led to Sawyer's father's suicide (and murder of Sawyer's mother) made a lot of sense in the broader storyline of the show, and fits with the puzzle the producers and writers have been putting together since the early days of the show.

Not only that, but the mystery of the Others continues to get more and more interesting. Is Locke really healing Ben? And if he is, why is Ben seemingly pushing Locke away? And is there dissension in the Others camp, with some wanting Ben to taken down, or was it all a ruse to get Locke to kill his father, one way or another? Ben is such a fascinating character, and through him, it really looks like we are getting a much broader understanding of the island (and next week, a Ben flashback, seems to give us even more answers into the origin and power of the island, a story we have been waiting almost three seasons for).

And Locke's dad seemed to confirm Naomi's story that Oceanic Flight 851 crashed with all aboard dead, but with the producers saying time and time again that the answer to "where are we" is not "purgatory", one has to think the answer lies with a ruse of "The Others" making sure nobody looks for the survivors. That's my theory anyway.

And then their's the whole Jack-Juliet storyline. It certainly seems like Jack and Juliet either knew about the woman who parachuted in to look for Desmond, or they had some other scheme cooking. Juliet seems to be a mole, but maybe she is really working with Jack. In either case, next week's episode seems to lead to a camp "town hall meeting" where these grievances will be discussed, and even perhaps answered. There certainly seems like more there than meets the eye.

"The Brig" was a great episode of LOST, and continues the hot run the show is on. With only a few episodes left until the season concludes, things are getting more and more interesting and even a few questions are being answered, and as a LOST fan, that's all we can ask for.