I disagree. Jack's motivated by a need to fix things, to apply justice, to have things be "right". It could well be that a planet without Ben might seem to Jack like a "fix".

There's no doubt that for Jack a planet without Ben would be a "fix" but I still don't think he would kill Ben if he agrees to help him. If he was stupid enough to not see that Juliet has a hidden agenda, then perhaps I could see him killing Ben, but Jack won't be easily manipulated. Not to mention the fact that he isn't a cold blooded killer. He could have left Sawyer to die after he was shot - which undoubtedly would have made his life on the island easier - but he didn't.

-Tamerlain

So who's left from the tail section? Bernard?

I too think Juliette is playing Jack, and I really like Mondak's theory.

My initial thought was that Juliette is making a Power play against Ben, using Jack as a tool, and planning to discard him when she's accomplished her goal.

My reasoning? I'm thinking back to Sawyer's observation that Juliette is definately cold hearted.

Yep. The Last Tailey.

So what's the over-under on him? 3 weeks?

Nah! Bernard!? No, he's here to stay. He and Rose are so sweet! And he hardly takes any risks at all--I mean, building a giant SOS sign? How likely is it he'll get killed doing that? Much less risky than, say, blowing open hatch doors and wrestling polar bears, or walking innocently into living rooms where co-opted Michaels are killing Anna Lucias....

Well, I gotta say, at this point, it seems like the tailies were kind of a lame plot device and generally a waste. Every important, interesting one was killed off so freaking fast, and with so many unanswered questions. Libby makes her bizarre appearance in the asylum, Sawyer and Anna Lucia hook up and Ecko doesn't really get to do much of anything except for get killed by the black smoke. There was a lot of potential for future plots with all of these characters, and they've all been wiped out, so what was the point of it all?

Lots of time was spent with these characters. We got flashbacks for them, we spent time watching them and for what? AL and Libby's deaths provoked the assault on the Others, so I guess that was important, but in having them die there went a lot of the conflict that had been present in Season 2 between the Losties. Where did Ecko's death get us? How did that resolve the character? It all seemed a relatively unpolished attempt to get rid of a character, and I can't quite figure out why they did it.

Jack's in a pickle. That's about all there is to it. I'm inclined to agree that he won't kill Ben in a botched surgery. Jack isn't a killer, and it would fly in the face of literally everything that being a doctor stands for. At heart, Jack is still a doctor, and I have a very hard time believing he'd betray that core value.

Word is, they did it because Adawale requested to be written out of the show. It's not entirely clear why, but the blogosphere notes that both of his parents died within the last six months, and he may be wanting to spend more time with his family.

Evidently it was a surprise to the producers, but they did their best with it--and actually used it to resurrect one of the show's original boogeymen, the smoke monster. New theory: Smokey uses hallucinations to lure in its prey?

They were all drugged, remember? They were unconscious when The Others brought them to the island ...

See this is popular as ever. Although i lost interest quite a few episodes ago. Like 24 thought it was brilliant to start with , then made another series then another.

.. Oh yeah.

Well then, I think Hydra connects the two islands because that'd be cool!

Incidentally, anybody remember the line that an unnamed Other used to tell Benjamin about Colleen's being shot? It was a throw-away line with a BIG tip-off in it. I was just reminded of it the other day. Anyone?

Finally watched this one last night. I though Jack is totally getting played by both Julliette and Ben. He is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. They both know what buttons to push on him, and I think he's torn, but trusts Ben less. Jack will do it, just because it's his nature to "fix" things.

Ben stated to Jack, in one of their various conversations, the reason he gets along with Juliette is because she looks similar to his ex wife. Now, I am not sure where Jack stands at this point, but he is screwed either way, like Frosstbyte stated in the third paragraph. If Ben dies during surgery, then the others will kill Jack, but if Ben survives, he will still be their hostage.

I think the smoke mist monster is not a hallucination, but morphs into whatever the person is thinking about during that event. For example, when Eko was thinking about his brother, the smoke monster used this energy and formed into Yemmy.

Dammit... I just copied over the tape...

Please indulge?

Oh, dude. It was a total throwaway line--so much so that I missed it until I was reminded of it last week, and thought "oh... YEAH!"

Colleen and her team have gone to the beach, she's been shot by Sun.

A woman comes running up to Ben and says:

"The sub is back. We have a problem."

The sub is back...

Oh yes... the sub.

My kid sister freaked out on that one.

I was expecting a sweet mini season finale, but it was a decent episode. I just thought it was strange that the others didn't find it odd when they found Kate snuggling with Sawyer in the early morning. You would think they would know they were being watched from Sawyer's plan of shocking Ben, which failed. Sawyer almost was owned, but Jack took over the situation by cutting an area within Ben's neck.

Even though I have to wait three months, I still want to find out what happened to Desmond and what Locke will see in the North.

I was wondering the same thing, perhaps the other's island that Sawyer and Kate are on? Assuming there is even one...

I guess I can wait 2 months for 16 straight episodes..

I imagine they'll see the other island. Unless this is the start of a completely new storyline, I think they're being led towards Jack and co's rescue.

Looking across the water towards the prison island, I wonder if they'll give us a view of the mysterious construction project. An airstrip?

One question:

Was the girl with the sling-shot Rousseau's Daughter or a different disgruntled Other?

That was Alex Rousseau.

This week's episode really put this whole season so far into perspective for me. Remember when EVERY episode had as much going on as this one? When EVERY episode ended with the sort of cliffhanger this one had?

I've been willing to play along with this season even though it hasn't really, IMO, been bringing the goods. This episode, I realized while watching it, is the exception that proves the rule.

They're going to really have to pick up the pace in the second "chunk" of the season if they want to keep me. I love Lost, and I have for two years, and I'm sure I'll tivo it and watch it for as long as it's on, but you know... my heart may not be in it.

I'm ready for less Hostages and Others, and more of the Losties that seem to have been forgotten.

Good ploy by Jack - I was convinced he wanted off the island because he saw Kate with Sawyer and was ready to leave them to fend for themselves.

The Others killed Alex's boyfriend apparently? That's going to be interesting. Pretty good bet that she'll end up with Kate and Sawyer once they start running.

I'm disappointed that the season is over for 2 months, but I'm pretty excited for the next 18 episodes.

-Tamerlain

I think I'm not liking this season very much... I don't like the surgery storyline, it doesn't make much sense. I initially thought the tumor x-rays were faked, and this was all just some game Ben was playing. But now it turns out that it's real... so are we to believe that this was the best plan Ben could come up with to get Jack to perform surgery? That is *really* hard to swallow. And are we to assume that the plan began with Ben being held hostage by the Losties during last season? Seriously? All this, when all he probably had to do was just ask? That's a bit much. And I still don't understand why Jack and co. are so complacent in all this... you'd think they would realize how much sense this doesn't make.

And most of all, this storyline isn't very "Lost" like... where's the mystery and mystical feel to it all? The surgery storyline isn't making any more sense than the more mystical ones did, but you could forgive the mystical ones because they at least provided a cool atmosphere for the show.

Also, were Kate and Sawyer actually doing anything productive with the breaking of the rocks and stuff? I got the impression it was all just busy work. But now we're to believe they're building something "big?" But they have no idea what it is... hmph.


And the "sub"... is that something that's been referenced to before? I forget.

Strictly speaking as Lost fans, are any of you watching and enjoying Daybreak, its midseason replacement? I sure am.

I'm not looking to start a Daybreak discussion here, but am curious as to whether ABC's scheduling gamble is paying off with you. Are they keeping your attention on Wednesday nights, or have you found something else to do?

Not me. The previews for Daybreak weren't interesting to me, and it looked like it was going to hold a pale candle next to Heroes, so I never started with it.

Well..I'm not much into lost this season, its gotten way too...um...well, its getting even more odd and far fetched then lost used to be. too many others, with houses and guns and stuff and things and more stuff. It's gotten to the point where I'm half expecting to see William B. Davis lurking in the shadows smoking a cigarette at the end of every episode.
Anyone catch that reference without Google? I've met him in person too, nice guy.
As for Daybreak, I'm watching it. seems interesting so far, at least something changed, that was un-expected...

Last night there was a "Lost Moment" promo on during a commercial break for Daybreak. It went as follows:

Jack wakes up during the daytime in an outside Polar Bear cage. It's may be a different one from Kate and Sawer's because during the ensuing footage you don't see a second cage across, only forest.

There's about 15 Others standing around outside the cage and they're all clean scrubbed and well dressed; as if from a Lands End catalogue shoot. None of the main Others are there and I presume these ones are from the village.

Jack angrily confronts them and demands to know why they are here. A woman calmly states that they are here to "watch". Jack then recognizes her as a stewardess from the plane(!!) named Cindy. He asks her how she got here what is she doing, and she replies enigmatically that it's not that simple. >Snap to Black.

I can't wait until Feb. 7th :)

What in the philadelphia flying fuck ever happened to Claire's back story??? She was pregnant and went to see a psychic who totally freaked out at her unborn baby.

What in the philadelphia flying fuck ever happened to a lot of back stories. We know more about characters who are dead and/or gone (Michael, Ana Lucia, Eko) than we do about the vast majority of the characters that kept me interested through the first and second seasons.

The short answer is those characters didn't have as good major plot hooks and, presumably, didn't have the same amount of audience interest as the people we seem to be seeing week after week. One of the first season's greatest assets was the balance between all of the characters. This season in particular seems to have sent that idea packing.

http://duggmirror.com/television/LOS..._be_Cut_Short/

(Sorry for the dugmirror link, the original is hopelessly digg'ed right now)

Rumor is ABC is begging LOST to come back on the air earlier than advertised to make up for the gaping black hole in their lineup where Daybreak used to be.

I've watched this since season 1. I'm just about done with this show, it has more story lines that the fucking wwf and none of them make a lick of sense. I've been trying all years to follow it, and my wife loves it, but I just cant stay interested

The actors on Lost appear to be having bad luck. Josh Holloway was robbed at gun point while at his house (back in May?); Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros were pulled over for DUI's, and now Evagenline Lilly's house was destroyed by afire.

Who is next?

i wouldn't exactly call DUI's bad luck...that's just stupidity on there part!

This is a horrible idea. The ONLY good thing about this season was the promise of an uninterrupted string of new shows in the Spring. If they start earlier, there will just be more stupid gaps to deal with.

Not necessarily. They could shift the whole "second season" forward a few weeks and have the finale a couple weeks ahead of the rest of the season.

Yay! It's back on Wednesday!

This break has been too long and I think they're going to have lost a lot of viewers because of it. As big a viewer as I am, I had to be reminded when it was returning. The whole break just spoke of bad planning to me.

I just barely remembered that it was coming back on Wednesday; has anyone seen any commercials reminding viewers it is coming back? It could be that I don't watch much TV, but I don't recall seeing anything announcing the big return.

Hooray, Lost has returned!

I really enjoyed this new episode. I'm glad that Sawyer and Kate are free, yet look forward to Jack's interaction with the newly subdued Others. Now that Ben has been cured and their hierarchy has been shaken, I believe they will return to being secretive, rather than adversarial for the time being. I hope to gain more insight into their operations through Jack even as the show returns focus to the other Losties back on the main island.

I also liked the implication of Juliet's predicament, that the Others are as much prisoners on the island as the Lost.

Oh yes. Juliet's Ex husband getting hit by the bus was awesome. Did you note that their corporation was "Mittleso" or something. I think the Hanso Foundation is no more. Ooh, these Mittlewerk guys are dangerous.

I hate the new time change because I get up so early.

I enjoyed the episode, but I'm really starting to wonder if any of the old questions are going to be answered before new ones are introduced. I'm hoping that with the escape of Kate and Sawyer, the series will start focusing more on some of the other characters.