The Shape of Things to Come

Lost returned with a bang with The Shape of Things to Come last night. The episode covered a ton of information and raised many more questions.

Jack's Illness...The Sickness?
The episode starts off with Jack looking through the medicine suitcase and taking some antibiotics. He claims he's taking them for a stomach bug, but I had my doubts. At first I was thinking that this was when his pill-popping days started, but screen caps online show that he really was taking antibiotics. Could Jack be catching the sickness?

From what we've seen previously, Mikowski and Desmond experienced the sickness off island and began jumping through time. But what if someone on island gets it? Would it start out as a stomach bug? These theories likely won't hold up, especially with the trailer for next week's episode hinting at appendicitis for Jack.

"When" is a Relative Term
Bernard and Vincent discover Dr. Ray's, the freighter doctor, corpse washed up on the shore. He has stitches on his cheek and his throat is slit. Faraday tells them that he was on their boat and was fine when he last saw him. Jack asks when was that? Faraday replies that when is a relative term. So what is this all about? More on this topic in a bit.

Australia's the key to whole the game
When Sawyer, Hurley and Locke are playing Risk at the Other's barracks, Hurley mentions that Australia's the key to the whole game. Is this a clue related to what's happening on the island? It's right after this scene that Alex enters the emergency code in the sonic fence and Code 14J is repeated on the telephone when Locke answers, so they didn't get a chance to finish their game or elaborate on Australia.

Traveling Man
Ben wakes up in the Sahara Desert and looks surprised to be there. He is wearing a parka with a new Dharma logo on it and the name Halliwax (one of the aliases used by Dr. Marvin Candle of the Swan orientation video). Was Ben transported there? Is this how the Others are able to travel from the island? Remember, Charlotte found a polar bear in the desert and many speculated that it was teleported there as well. Also, in the Orchid video, a rabbit is teleported around the room, causing Candle (using the name Edgar Halliwax) to freak out.

If Ben is being teleported off the island, is he also traveling through time? When he arrives at his hotel, he asks the date, including the year. So what year did Ben travel from? What events are taking place on the island when he leaves? Is this just after the raid by Keamy's men that we saw in this episode? Later in the episode, Sayid questions him on how he got off the island and Ben says that he used Desmond's boat and took a plane after.

Sayid Jarrah at Your Service
One of the fans major questions was answered when it was revealed that Sayid was able to find Nadia when he left the island, and they were married. But with this being Lost and knowing there's always a twist, Nadia was murdered by one of Widmore's men. The question arises, as Sayid asks, why would they want to kill her? With Sayid being part of the Oceanic 6 and not working for Ben when he gets off the island, why would he and Nadia be a target. Is this part of Widmore's plan to find the island. Does he torment any of the rest of the Oceanic 6?

After Nadia's murder, Ben reveals who killed her and Sayid seeks his revenge by killing the assassin in what looks like a set up conjured up by Ben. After the murderer is killed, Ben wants to part ways with Sayid, but Sayid says that he has nothing to go back to and joins up with Ben's cause. Of course this was Ben's plan the whole time and you have to wonder if Ben wasn't really behind Nadia's murder. He keeps claiming to be the good guy, but the more we see of him (killing the two guys in the Sahara Desert for instance), the more he looks like he's capable of anything to get what he wants.

Changing the Rules
Keamy threaten to kill Alex if Ben didn't come out the house and Ben called his bluff. Unfortunately, Keamy wasn't bluffing and he shot Alex in the head in front of Ben. Ben's first response was the he changed the rules, with he being Charles Widmore. So what are these rules? When were they set up? What kind of history do these two have together? Was the rule that they couldn't kill each other's family? The show is changing direction and we'll see more of the Ben/Charles relationship and history in the near future...like later in this episode.

Ben's Room & Smokey
So Alex is killed and Ben rushes off into his secret room. He goes for a secret door in the room that has drawings and hieroglyphics all over it. He comes back moments later and his clothes and face are dirty. He tells the others to run out of the house when he says to. Then the house starts shaking and we hear the Smoke Monster returning and it is P.O.ed, big time. Everyone runs out to see an even bigger Smoke Monster than we've seen before and it goes straight for Keamy and his men. It throws them around like it did Mr. Eko and Ben just looks on.

Questions abound after this scene. What kind of control does Ben have over the monster? He claimed he didn't know what it was and Locke calls him out on that here. Is it locked in that room? Does it share the same feeling as Ben because it really looked angry this time? Also, where did Ben go while he was in the room. Is that the teleportation room (or Orchid station)?

The Body Count
This episode didn't shy away from killing off people. There were deaths galore throughout The Shape of Things to Come -- Dr. Ray, Alex, 3 Losties in Othersville, Keamy's men by Smokey. I started to wonder if there's going to be anyone left on the island after the Oceanic 6 get off. With all the killing taking place, there won't be many people left in the end.

Everyone's lying about something
Miles said this line to Michael as he boarded the boat in Fiji, and it looks like this is a definite truth about the freighter crew. They're all liars. When Faraday used Morse Code to contact the freighter, he lied about what they replied. Faraday said they didn't say anything about the doctor, but your friends are fine and the helicopter's coming back in the morning.

Bernard saved the day by being able to understand Morse Code. The actual message said, "What are you talking about? The doctor is fine." This ties back to Faraday's comment about "when" being a relative term discussed above. Is it possible that the doctor that washed ashore is from the future and in present off island time, the doctor is fine and walking around the freighter? I don't know how this will be explained, but it wouldn't be a surprise in the world of Lost.

Then there's the big revelation for Jack and the beach camp. After pressing Faraday, Jack gets him to admit that they were never planning to take them off the island.

The Split
Locke's camp split after the raid of Othersville. Sawyer, Clair/Aaron and Miles are heading back to the beach to meet up with Jack's camp. Hurley was going to go, but Locke and Ben need him to help locate Jacob's cabin. Guns were pulled and words were exchanged, but in the end, Hurley doesn't like to ruffle feathers so he agrees to stay with Locke and Ben. Sawyer tells Locke that if Hurley gets hurt, he'll kill him.

We know from Hurley's flashforward that he gets off the island OK. But he regrets going with Locke. I think this is the starting point for that regret. The raid on their camp was bad and some of the "extras" got killed, but I think something's going to happen to Claire and/or Sawyer on the trip back to the beach and it's going to weigh on Hurley big time. Either that or he'll regret finding Jacob's cabin for Locke and Ben. What is up with these two anyway? They go from sworn enemies to teaming up in a matter of minutes. Locke always had an affection for the Others and deep down, he's right where he always wanted to be, at Ben's side.

Ben/Charles
The episode ends with Ben sneaking into Widmore's Penthouse apartment. He's there to deliver a message, you killed my daughter, I'm going to kill yours -- Penelope. Fans gasped when Ben threatened to kill Penny. How does he not know that Penny has been searching for the island as well because of Desmond? Just when it looked like there would be a happy ending to the Desmond/Penny saga, Ben is thrown in the mix. Widmore's reply is that he'll never find her. So where is Penny? Does Widmore have her locked up somewhere?

There was a lot more to this conversation. These two certainly have a history. Ben asks Widmore when he started sleeping with a bottle of scotch by the bed and Charles replies when the nightmares started. So were these two friends at one time? Charles comments that everything Ben has, he stole from him and that he knows who Ben is, what he is. So is Ben more of a what then a who? The other big reveal is that Ben can't kill Widmore. Is this the same as with Michael not being able to kill himself? Is the island keeping both Ben and Charles alive? What's their purpose? What work do they have left to do?

What is Charles' tie to the island? He tells Ben that the island is his, always was and will be again. So Widmore has been to the island before? What does he mean the island is his? Was he one of the first to find it? How old is Widmore anyway? Could he have been part of the original group on the island or was he there when Ben was brought to the island. Could Widmore's affection for Black Rock be because he was part of the Black Rock crew?

Man, this last scene brought Lost to a whole new level. We thought we were getting answers, but it raised hundreds of more questions. I see the dynamic of the show changing. It's going away from a show about rescuing the 815 survivors to now the history of the island and the Ben/Charles war.

Next on Lost: Something Nice Back Home
*Photos from Lost-Media.com