You guys ready for the big reveal? The con artist formerly known as Henry Gale has a real name… and it’s Ben. Seriously? That’s the big secret? Oh boy, it looks like we’re in for yet another frustrating season of “Lost,” especially since tonight’s highly-publicized premiere was such a complete washout. Sure, the writers blew everyone away with an amazing opening sequence – which revealed that some kind of private community exists just on the outskirts of the island, where all of the Others lived before the plane crash – but aside from that, it was pretty much slow goings for the rest of the episode. Not only was most of the episode relatively uneventful, but the hour was plagued with so many commercial breaks that I didn’t even feel encouraged to pay attention.
Jack was chosen for the first flashback of the season (big surprise), and I can comfortably say that it was one of the worst in the show’s history. We learned a little more about his divorce from wife Sara and her assumed secret relationship with Jack’s father, but it turned out to only be a silly misdirection on the part of the writers.
A majority of the episode dealt more with what happened to Jack, Kate and Sawyer after they were captured at the end of season two. They’ve all been split up and placed in to different rooms. For Jack, it’s a dungeon-like hatch, but at least he gets a pretty girl (new character, Juliet) to talk to. She’s obviously been assigned specifically to Jack – maybe because she resembles his ex-wife, or maybe because they’re going to hook up later down the road. Whatever it is, Jack sure isn’t making it easy for the Others, and after taking her hostage, opens a door that he’s specially told not to open. The result? A giant wall of water that begins to flood the room. Nice going, doctor. His control of the situation doesn’t last long, however, and before you know it, he’s back in the room he started out in. Only this time, Juliet seems a little more willing to cooperate. First off, she doesn’t seem to mind telling him that they’re inside one of the many other hatches the island. This one is called Hydra because, well, it’s underwater. She also discloses the secret behind how she knows so much: they have a folder on him. What? That’s almost too ridiculous to discuss, so I’ll simply move on.
Kate’s incarceration isn’t quite so bad. She gets a shower, new clothes, and even a fancy breakfast with the head honcho. When asked why she was being treated as so, however, Ben simply replied: “The next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.” Let the controversy begin, but I personally think that it has something to with grooming her to become a model citizen of the community – i.e. official baby maker.
Sawyer, on the other hand, definitely gets the worst of the bunch. He’s subjected to living in a zoo cage (at least we know where all those polar bears came from), and while it doesn’t take him very long to figure out the puzzle required to get food/water, well, it’s not exactly what you’d call quality. It’s a fish biscuit, or the zoo equivalent of a big ‘ol Milkbone. Yummy! At least he gets to dream of Kate while he rots in monkey hell…
