Lost S05E12

If “dead is dead” then how come all those dead people keep coming back to life?

Ah, questions, there’s always more questions. But also this episode and whole barrow full of answers. We find out:

• How Widmore first met Ben.
• How Ben stole Alex from Danielle.
• How Widmore and Ben became enemies.
• How Widmore left The Island.
• Where the Smoke Monster lives.

Cool. So is the entire story arc dominated by a personal argument between Ben and Widmore? Is it all about normal people trying to control The Island? What’s clear is that Ben is nasty, really nasty. Trying to kill Penny for revenge perfectly sums up his character. I loved Locke’s smugness and Ben’s irritation, Locke deliberately winding up Ben was funny.

In the end we didn’t find anything else out about the Smoke Monster, only that it lives in an Indiana Jones style temple beneath a load of hieroglyphs. See Lostpedia for an attempt at translating them. Who knows what it really is, maybe it doesn’t matter.

A couple of great woah moments this episode:

• Ben shooting Caesar. Out of the blue, just like that. Another character bites the dust.
• The ending. What?! So it appears that some of the people on the new crashed plane are not what they seem. Or were they pretending to be on the plane? Are they returning to reclaim The Island? Or are they Widmore’s people? Arggh, can’t wait to find out.

Layers are being piled on whilst the foundations are being slowly explained. There’s a pay-off in this show now, more than ever every moment is loaded with revelation and explanation and mystery. It’s addictive and exciting and extremely entertaining.