LOST: Thoughts on “Man Behind the Curtain”

Well, if nothing else, things certainly are moving forward.

Jack and Juliette finally gave up the ghost and explained what they were up to, which was…(drum roll).

We haven’t decided yet.

Wha?  Seriously? This weeks-long drama leading up to whether or not Jack has turned to the Dark Side is revealed to be a profound lack of decisiveness, and htis coming from the guy who always has a plan in his back pocket. I’m all for the “who’s good, who’s bad” scenarios, as this is a lot of what the show is about for me, but you have to offer a more satisfying reveal than “we we’re being secretive because we didn’t know what to do.”

I’ll go ahead and get my other gripe out of the way while I’m at it. Though I thoroughly enjoyed learning how incredibly bad Ben really is, I was hoping for more than a “Daddy was a drunk” explanation. Come on, give us some big revenge plot, or a major pathology he developed on the island, perhaps because he’s trying to use the island’s powers for selfish means. But what we’re left with is Dharma beer and dad’s crappy janitor job as the culprits behind the baddest villain in the first three years of the show.

All of this having been said, i really did enjoy the episode. I thought the explanation about the elimination of DHARMA was excellent, especially since we know in the backs of our minds that there are some people still manning the stations. We also begin to understand why they wore quarantine gear, seeing that their associates had died suddenly. Evidently they didn’t know they were gessed, but instead suspected an outbreak of some kind.

I was also happy to finally get to “see” Jacob, who I have assumed was the man behind the curtain. However, having him be invisible was a little bit annoying. I’m hoping the next couple of weeks will explicate this further.

My predictions are these:
Locke will live. he’s too cool to kill off. unless his contract didn’t renew, he’ll make it back. he has a special healing connection with the island, which would explain this, though I expect Jacob will come to his rescue, so he can in turn help him, as was Jcob’s plea to Locke in the first place. Aparently Ben is holing him captive or something.

My other prediction is that Eko will show back up in the next couple of weeks. Maybe htis is the way Jacob will manifest himself to Locke. I also think that we’ll see the return of Michael and Walt, and that their return will explain much about the special properties of the island. In an article I read recently, the creators/producers say we’ll learn a lot about what the island is this season, though we’ll have to wait (of course) until the last five minutes of the finale.