The Good:

It may not have seemed that special on the surface, but I freakin' LOVED the opening sequence that folded in Locke's scenes during the climax of the "This Place is Death" episode with their effect on remaining castaways. As we get closer to the endgame, I hope there's more use of this narrative device.

Hey, it's the statue! OK, I can cross that off my list of the show's long-forgotten people, places and things. Now, I can focus my time and energy blogging about the whereabouts of Vincent the dog.

Aaaaaand, now we have an answer to the whole "how could it be three years later off the island" conundrum! See, Lost writers…you don't have to throw a zillion red herrings out there and jerk your viewers around. We'll agree to suspend the right amount of disbelief, if you agree to answer questions in a relatively timely manner.

I've done my fair share of Sawyer bashin' over the years, but the handling of his ascension to leadership was terrifically written. It had all the right subtleties from Juliet's insincere endorsement of Sawyer's "back to the beach" plan to Miles' dynamite "…didn't get enough flaming arrows…" cynicism.

Was it my imagination or was Faraday nowhere to be seen in the "three years later" scenes? I am, however, amused by the notion that the crazy old man version of Faraday who Charlotte says warned her not to come back to the island might actually be the crazy (relatively) young version of Faraday.


The Bad:

Didn't one of the two Dharma drones who knocked on LeFleur's door look like Steve Zahn's character in National Security? Christ, that was a bad movie.

We're eight episodes into the season and still hearing those tired "WHENever" and "WHEN we are" quips. I'll stop bashing this just as soon as the writers put away the time-travel plot sledgehammer.

Motor Pool Juliet? Seriously?! For three years? Come on.

M'man Movie Joe and I disagreed on this point: He dug the execution of the Sawyer/Juliet relationship, while I found it forced, contrived and any other word synonymous with cramming two characters together just so ANOTHER love triangle, uh, angle can be born when Kate returns to the island.

We've established that Juliet knows the fate of the Dharma Initiative. Ben wipes everyone out. History's been written. So, how come the icily unemotional Juliet opts to attach herself to this small, close-knit community and stay on the island? You'd think this would be a topic of conversation at some point during those 36 months.

Worse line reading of the week: Sawyer's "You'll do great! I know it!" pre-delivery encouragement to Juliet or Sawyer's "three years ago, I knew a girl…" soliloquy? Answer: push.


Verdict: Best episode of the season, so far. The "good" was strong enough to easily beat down and asphyxiate my quibbles. For the first time in the show's run, the Sawyer character has been given some depth and, more importantly, a purpose. Lord, I can't wait until Kate finds out that he's traded up or when Jack is all, "OK, here's what we're going to do…" and Sawyer cuts him off like, "Read the jumpsuit, son: HEAD of security. I'm runnin' this…" Hurry up, next episode!