LOST RECAPS

Previously on Lost: Miles and the freighter gang came to the island to find Ben and kill everyone else; Michael “KJ” Dawson was outed as the spy on Ben’s boat; Keamy & Co. was poppin them thangs; Ben sent Alex, Karl and Danielle to the Temple; snipers shot Karl and Danielle; and Alex bragged about being Ben’s daughter…show-off.

Now it’s back to the beach, where Kate’s having a bit of a wash, baring a shoulder to accompany her come-hither look to Jack.

Oh, you two. It’s a shoulder fetishist’s field day. Who knew they were such a big part of the audience?

Unfortunately, Jack can’t go get some of that right now. He heads into the tent and grabs some pills. Kate follows close behind, straps back up - sorry - but hair let down. She asks what he’s taking. “Antibiotics,” says Jack. “I just got a…a stomach bug.” Riiiight.

Kate recommends some crackers because they always make her feel better. Like after you kill people, Kate? Those are some good crackers! They share a laugh, but then it’s serious time - where the heck is Sayid and them? Jack’s not worried, his gut says they’re getting off the island. “I thought your gut was sick?” LOL KATE YOU ARE HILARIOUS.

And it gets even better from here.

Enough flirting, lovebirds - Vincent’s barking and Bernard is yelling. A dead body washes up on shore. It’s Ray, the doctor from the freighter! And his throat is slit.

Jack notices our boy Daniel Faraday’s expression and calls him out. “Do you know who this is?”

“He was on our boat. He’s the doctor.” We knew that already.

Cut to Hurley: “We’re all gonna die.”

Sawyer: “Calm down, Chicken Little. The sky ain’t fallin’ just yet.”

Ooh, what are they talking about? Risk, of course. They’re playing the board game Risk. Fakeout! That might have been funnier if we didn’t have 48 WEEKS OFF since the last episode. “I can’t believe you’re just giving him Australia. Australia’s the key to the whole game,” says Hurley to Sawyer about Locke. Is it? I never played Risk.

The camouflaged snipers lead a blindfolded Alex through the jungle. They put her on her knees. We see they’re at the smoke-monster-stoppin’ fence. She pleads that they be nice to the baby. They’re not into babies, apparently. “Turn the fence off.” She does. Rut roh.

Back at the Honeycomb Hideout, Locke picks up the ringing phone: “BEEP! Code 14J…Code 14J…Code 14J…” Who is it, asks Hurley? Locke’s like, I think it’s for Ben.

Meanwhile, Ben’s tinkling the ivories. Locke barges in. Sawyer shuts the door.

Locke confronts Ben: “What’s Code 14J?”

Guess it’s not the “Ice Cream Social” code.

Ben asks where Locke heard it, and before Locke can even get the sentence out, Ben lifts up the piano seat, takes out a shotgun and has his hand on the pump. Nice pacing! Maybe we should have a writer’s strike every season and cut out a few eps to keep things moving along.

Sawyer thinks Ben is about to shoot him, but instead he hands Sawyer the shotgun, to everyone’s surprise. “We need to get to the other house,” says Ben. “It’s easier to fortify and it’ll have better position on the tree lines.”

Locke doesn’t know what he’s talking about. “What are you talking about?”

“They’re here.”

Eerie noises. Commercial break. Then we return with one of the best visual sequences ever on the show.

Ben’s got some heavy breathing going on, which in any other context would be disgusting, but in this context is awesome, because he appears to be worn out by your friend and mine, time travel! And if you love time travel like I love time travel, you’ve crapped your pants to the point that both legs are chock full of the sweetest crap imaginable. And we’re not even ten minutes in! O Happy Day.

So Ben’s in the Sahara Desert, but unlike those polar bear bones, he’s still alive. He gets up slowly, then vomits up something weird, then looks down at what appears to be a nasty gash straight through his coat. As he struggles to his feet, two men ride up on horseback.

Did Ben travel back to the set of Spies Like Us? Too soon to tell. They shout at each other and prepare to shoot him. “Wait, I can explain. Do you speak English?” No reply. He tries another language, then another, but no dice. One guy gets off his horse, takes Ben’s jacket off and pats him down while the other keeps his gun on him. Isn’t anyone going to ask why he’s wearing a parka in the desert? I guess not.

The search turns up something hard in Ben’s pants. What? It does. Ben takes it out. What? He does!

Then, while distracting them with the universal language for “What, this old thing?”, Ben breaks out a nice little move that involves extracting his curious little weapon, hitting one guy with it, taking his gun and shooting the other guy!

After watching the dead guy fall off his horse, Ben turns the gun on guy #2, who pleads with him like a wuss: “Surrender! Surrender!”

No love from Ben. “Oh, so you do speak English?” He delivers the ol’ gun-butt-to-the-head beatdown, ties dead guy #1’s headwrap around his wounded arm, then rides out on one of the horsies. Yee-haw!

The curious crew of Locke, Sawyer and Ben walks briskly to the other house. Ben explains that Code 14J is an early warning system to indicate that someone tripped the panic switch at the fence. “How long did you guys debate among yourselves whether or not to ask me why the phone rang?”

Locke wastes another second thinking. “Five minutes.”

“Well,” grimaces Ben, “so much for our head start.” Okay, but there’s still time for sarcasm?

Sawyer says he’s gonna grab “Frenchy and the kids” - still got it - but Ben says he sent them away. “Away where?” Ben doesn’t say. “Whatever,” snarks Sawyer, “Claire’s still sleeping, I’ll grab her.”

“There’s no time!”

“I’ll make time.” Time to cock back the hammer!

Ben tells Locke to stay close to him, “Because the people who are coming wouldn’t risk hurting me.” Interesting. What does that mean? Maybe Ben just wants company.

We return to the beach, where the one boring storyline this week slowly develops. Jack asks the freighterers if they know anything about the throat-slitting. Fine when I last saw him, says Dan. Which was when? “When? When is kind of a relative term.” Ha! Tiggy Tizzly Tibbledy Tiddly Time Travel Yall.

Juliet changes the subject, because even the actors are bored with this scene. “Any luck fixing the sat phone?” Dan says no, the mic’s busted. Bernard’s like, yeah, but you could still use it as a telegraph, right, dumbass? Dan stutters about 9 volt batteries and I almost die from boredom, because the rest of the show is just Too Damn Good this week, and it feels like someone just flipped the channel during the best part. As everyone leaves out of fear that this will bore them to death, Jack calls Bernard back.

We don’t see their conversation, though, because it’s back to the good stuff! Hurley holds Aaron while Ben and Locke barricade the doors with bookshelves. Hurley asks how Sawyer’s gonna get back in. “He’s not,” says Ben. What?!

Sawyer is running around outside looking for Claire. Hey, flannel shirt guy, you seen Claire?

Flannel shirt guy’s like, Huh? What’s the gun for? No time for small talk, because the shooters are here - and they don’t suffer bad dressers gladly!

Sawyer shoots back at the unseen assailants, who take out another poorly dressed extra for wearing unfashionable light-blue jeans. Sawyer keeps shooting and telling people to get inside, but a third poorly dressed extra catches a bullet. They won’t kill Ben, but a guy in a pink shirt and camo shorts? I think that’s what they call “justifiable homicide.”

Sawyer runs this way and that and shoots some more. He turns a picnic table over and hides behind it as he shoots back and yells for Claire. Gangsta! Then the shooters blow the house up with a rocket launcher or something.

Sawyer screams. “Claire!” Cut to MORE COMMERCIALS.

And we’re back. As is Ben.

Ben goes to a hotel and asks for a room. The woman at the desk asks if it’s his first time in Tunisia.

Interesting Ben face! “No,” he says after a pause. “But it’s been a while.” Some day we’ll all look back and say, Ahhh, THAT’S what he meant. But for now, we can only wonder. He checks in as a “preferred guest…Dean Moriarty.” She finds his name and seems taken aback, even frightened. Then things get interesting.

“Today’s date is…?”

“October 21st.”

“2005.”

“Yes, sir…2005.”

It’s 2005! And if the content of my pants is any indication, I do believe we just had another wonderful indication of time travel - INTO THE FUTURE! Lost is back.

On the way to his room, Ben notices something on the TV.

What’s new, Sayid? “I just want to bury my wife,” he says. Oh. Sorry about that.

Ben’s got a case of the crazies.

And then there’s Aaron.

Hi Aaron! Hugo surveys the damage outside as Ben and Locke stack more stuff in front of the door. Locke wants to know what’s up. Shock and awe, says Ben. “They’re trying to frighten me into surrendering.” Locke wants to know why he needs to survive. “Because there’s only one person who can help us now and that’s Jacob. And we have to go to him together.” Locke says he doesn’t even know where the cabin is. “I know,” says Ben, “but Hurley does.” Nice!

Meanwhile, Sawyer looks through the rubble and poorly dressed corpses for Claire. He finds her! But she’s dead.

I mean alive. She’s alive. Saved by good fashion sense. She’s a bit shaken up, though, calling Sawyer Charlie and asking for Aaron.

Back in the house, Hurley puts Aaron down in the back and runs to the front - no small feat - when he hears Sawyer yelling at the door. Ben has his gun drawn and is not feeling the door-opening plan: “You don’t want to do that.” Hugo shows he’s smarter than anyone gives him credit for by picking up a chair and throwing it through the window to let Claire and Sawyer in. Yay!

Sawyer asks why they were shooting at them. Ben says they were just killing people to make Sawyer angry and to get him to run into the house and expose Ben. Sounds like a plan, says Sawyer. There’s a knock at the door. Sawyer looks out and gives Locke the nod to open it. It’s Miles! Who let you out, playa? “The people who gave me this.” He has a radio. Lots of radios this week. “They want to talk.” Ben looks surprised. That’s what people do on radios, Ben! Duh.

Now we’re in Tikrit, Iraq. It’s a funeral procession for Nadia. Ben has a cool new outfit on.

He climbs up a roof and puts a big ol’ lens on a camera. He photographs this guy with his cool camera.

Then he takes a picture of Sayid.

Oops! Sayid sees him, maybe. Ben ducks out of sight and tries to escape, but Sayid tackles him, thinking he’s a Oceanic-Six-lovin’ paparazzo. But it’s not.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to find the man who murdered your wife.”

They stand up to have a little chat.

“How did you get here?”

“I came across the Syrian border. It’s really not as difficult as you might have - “

“How did you get off the island?”

“Your friend Desmond had a boat, remember? The Elizabeth.” Playa please. “I followed a heading to Fiji. Then I chartered a plane.”

“Why now?”

“You remember the name Charles Widmore, don’t you? The man who tried to convince the world that your plane was at the bottom of the ocean?”

“What does it have to do with me? With Nadia?”

We go into Mission Impossible mode, as Ben shows Sayid the picture of the guy from the procession, but it’s not the picture from the procession - it’s from a traffic camera at La Brea and Santa Monica. Sayid says that’s where Nadia was killed. Ben nods as if to say, “I totally got you now, sucka.”

“Why would these people want to murder her?”

“I don’t know,” says Ben, not at all convincing from our perspective. “But they did.”

Back at the house, Miles tells the boys about the Freighter Fellows, how he thought they were just security to escort Ben back to the mainland. “Sounds like you’re not going to collect your 3.2 million dollars.” Zing.

Miles tells Ben to take the phone and talk to them, but Ben gets self-righteous about how his people will die for the island blah blah blah. “It’s your daughter!” Ben snaps out of it and takes the phone.

“Hello.”

“Am I speaking to Benjamin Linus?”

“That’s right.”

“My name is Martin Keamy. I’m an employee of Charles Widmore.”

Sawyer asks who Widmore is, and Locke says, “Later.” This episode has a great mix of serious tension and well-timed comic relief, deftly written from all angles.

Keamy gets Ben to come to the window and talk face-to-face.

Where’s Chris Sabian when you need him?

Keamy tells him to put his hands on his head and come out, and that no one will be hurt. “You and I both know that once you have me, there’s nothing to stop you from killing everyone else on this island.”

Keamy reveals a creepy smile. “What kind of guy do you think I am?”

Benkipedia replies, “Martin Christopher Keamy, former First Sargeant, United States Marine Corps. Served with distinction from 1996 to 2001, but since then, you’ve worked with a number of mercenary organizations, specifically in Uganda. So I know exactly what kind of man you are, Mr. Keamy, and we can dispense with the formalities.”

“Okay, Ben. You got it.” Keamy lets out a whistle, and…um…uh-oh.

Party foul! I’m never inviting Martin Christopher Keamy to anything again. “Get your ass out here right now,” he says, in all his creepy glory. “Or I’m going to kill your daughter.”

Ben thinks for a second. “I’d like to present a counterproposal.”

“I’m listening.”

“You and your friends turn around, go back to your helicopter. You fly away and forget you ever heard of this island.”

Keamy is not feeling the counterproposal. Also, he is a total whackjob.

“Tell your daddy goodbye.”

“Dad! They’re serious. They killed Karl and my mother.”

“Alex, I have this under control. Everything’s going to be okay.” Yeah, when Chris Sabian shows up, maybe.

She’s weeping into the radio: “Please, daddy! Please, please…”

Keamy has the radio back: “You have ten seconds, Ben.”

“Okay, listen…”

“Nine…”

“She’s not my daughter…” Paging Chris Sabian!

“Eight…”

“I stole her as a baby from an insane woman…she’s a pawn, nothing more…she means nothing to me.”

“I’m not coming out of this house, so if you want to kill her, go ahead and do it - “

*POP*

Wowwwwwwww.

Keamy goes hard, eh? I don’t think anyone saw that coming, on either side of the TV screen. Shooting Alex and then just walking away? Why? Wow.

After the break, Sawyer and Locke discuss their next move, but Ben is still in shock. This is a side of Ben we have never seen - and we’ve seen a lot of different sides, going back to the Henry Gale days. This is completely new. It’s scary, perverse and totally awesome.

“He changed the rules,” says Ben.

Locke is confused, as usual: “What? Who? What rules?” I love ya, Locke, but you’re an idiot.

Sawyer persuades Locke to give Ben up, which gives Ben just enough time to make a beeline for - his secret back room! He slides the door down behind him before Sawyer or Locke can pursue. Ben pushes his rack of suits open dramatically.

He pries open a metal door.

Holy moley! It’s some Temple of Doom, hieroglyphics-type business. He pushes the heavy door open and walks through with a crazy expression on his face. Lost being Lost, we don’t get to see what’s behind the door just yet, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s not just additional suits.

Now we’re back in Iraq, where Ben’s sippin’ tea and trailing the dude who supposedly killed Nadia. (I say “supposedly” because Ben has been known, on occasion, to twist the truth for his own purposes.) Ben follows him through a market, but the dude turns the tables and - before you can say Indiana Jones and the Time-Traveling Slight Fellow - has a gun on Benzino.

“Who are you, and why are you following me?”

“My name is Benjamin Linus.” The dude seems to know the name. “And I need you to take a message to Mr. Widmore for me.”

“And what message is that?”

The message, apparently, is that Sayid is about to unload a whole clip o’ bullets into the dude.

Ben: “That should do it.”

Ben tries to bounce but Sayid won’t let him. Actually, it turns out that Ben’s just getting his reverse psychology on. “We’re finished here, Sayid. Turn around and walk away. Mourn your loss, get on with your life.”

“I have no life. They took it from me.”

“Go home, Sayid. Once you let your grief become anger, it will never go away. I speak from experience. This is my war, it’s not yours.”

The reverse psychology is working. Sayid moves in close: “I spent the last eight years of my life searching for the woman I love. I finally found her and I married her. Then I buried her yesterday. So don’t tell me this is not my war.” Ah, but you’ve time traveled, what, two-three times, tops? Step your war game up.

Sneaky-ass Ben looks up, as if Sayid is the one persuading him to do something.

“Benjamin? Who’s next?”

“I’ll be in touch,’ says Ben, who turns and walks away.

Ah, the creepy smile creeps over his creepy face! What a lil’ white devil you are, Ben Linus.

Back in the house, Sawyer is banging on the door, but to no avail. Then Claire reappears, “A bit wobbly, but I’ll live.” Miles says he wouldn’t be too sure about that. Ha.

And guess who’s back!

“Excuse me, James.” Boy, is Ben dirty. What’s that all about?

“EXCUSE you?” Sawyer is awesome. “What were you doing in there?”

Ben’s not only back from the dirty back room, he’s back in full effect. He tells everyone to run from the house, then, when he gives the order, straight for the tree line. You mean toward the guys with guns, asks Hurley? “No,” says Ben, “we want to be as far away from them as possible.” Well, that’s a relief!

Then the house starts shaking like crazy.

And then this happens.

Hooray for the smoke monster! He flies in from over the trees, lets off a few electrical-looking flashes and rushes past the house.

“Okay, outside! Outside, now!”

They all run outside.

Locke: “What did you do?!?!?!”

Hurley: “Did you just call that thing?!?!?!”

Ben doesn’t answer, of course, because even he seems amazed at Smokey-Smoke doing the damn thang. And “the damn thang” includes resisting gunfire, swooping down to grab the gunman and pulling him back into the darkness.

They all run off to safety, except for Ben, who stays behind: “I have to say goodbye to my daughter, John.” So she is his daughter? Or perhaps, if not his biological daughter, this indicates that he did love her like a daughter.

Ben weeps a lot, and it’s sad. But it’s also Ben, so you know there’s hell to pay.

Even sadder is the next scene back on the beach, because of how lame it is. Dan sends a message, gets a message back, says everything’s hunky-dory with Sayid and them - but Bernard knows Morse code, and the message was that the doctor is fine. Sure, that’s an indication of time-shifting between the island and freighter, but we already got plenty of those. And who wants a little fart of foreshadowing in this scene after we all enjoyed such a happy, heavy trouser-soiling in the previous one? So Jack confronts Dan about whether or not they were ever going to help them off the island, and - cue dramatic music, cut dramatic music - Dan says no. Oh, and Jack’s still sick, really sick. But you knew that already too! So let us never discuss this necessary-yet-pedantic scene ever again.

Back to the cool crew! Sawyer tells Miles his “chopper buddies” ran that way if he wants to catch up. “Yeah, I think I’ll stay with you guys for…for now.” Miles is great. A rustling is heard in the darkness. Fortunately, it’s just Ben.

“I’m sorry about your daughter,” says Locke.

“Thank you, John.”

“That being said, you lied to me. You told me you didn’t know what the smoke monster was.”

Ben is unrepentant. “You can ask Jacob all about it when we go to the cabin.”

Sawyer’s turn: “Hang on - Jacob? Who the hell’s Jacob?”

“He’s the man who’s gonna tell us what to do next, James.”

“You know what? I’m done with all this.” Preach! “I never should have followed you wackos in the first place. I’m going back to the beach and Claire and the kid are coming with me. You good with that?” Yeah, she’s good with that. “Come on, let’s go. You too, Hurley.”

Not so fast. Ben and Locke exchange a knowing glance, and Locke pulls a gun on Sawyer. “Hugo stays with us.”

Two can play at that game - Sawyer pulls his gun out, too. “Not a chance.”

Hugo protests, but Locke’s not having it: “I’m sorry, Hugo. We need you to find the cabin.”

“He ain’t goin nowhere with you, you crazy son-of-a-bitch.” Tell him!

Hurley interrupts: “Stop! Put the guns down. I’ll go with Locke.”

Sawyer: “Hugo!”

“It’s okay, Sawyer.” He turns to Locke. “Please, put your gun down.” He does. Then to Sawyer: “You too.”

“You don’t have to do this,” says Sawyer, a pained expression on his face.

“You guys go back to the beach. I’ll catch up sooner or later.”

Sawyer gets in Locke’s face. “You harm so much as one hair on his curly head, I’ll kill you.” Awesome! But not awesome, because everyone splits up and goes their separate ways. But awesome, because we’re due for some more cabin.

We rejoin Ben off the island.

Ben enters a hotel. The bellhop stops him. “Good evening, sir. may I help you?”

“Oh, yes. I’m here to see Mr. and Mrs. Kendrick in 4E.”

“At this hour, sir?”

“They’re expecting me. Feel free to call up.”

Ben reaches in his pants for his pocket weapon. What? He did!

“No need, sir. Good night, sir.”

No need for a bit of the ultraviolence, either.

So Ben gets on the elevator and pulls out another tool, this time to pick the lock that will get him to the penthouse suite. It works. He gets off the elevator and enters a darkened room. Sneaky, Ben! Sneaky.

Ben faces the bed and speaks.

“Wake up, Charles.”

Widmore!

“I wondered when you were going to show up.” Do these guys turn up in each other’s bedrooms often? Because they sure are casual about it. “I see you’ve been getting more sun.”

“Iraq is lovely this time of year. When did you start sleeping with a bottle of scotch by the bed?”

“When the nightmares started.” He pours a good, stuff drink. “Have you come here to kill me, Benjamin?”

“We both know I can’t do that.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’m here, Charles, because you murdered my daughter.”

“Don’t stand there looking at me with those horrible eyes of yours and lay the death for that poor girl on me, when we both know very well I didn’t murder her at all, Benjamin. You did.”

“No, that’s not true.”

“Yes, Benjamin, it is. You creep into my bedroom in the dead of night, like a rat, and have the audacity to pretend that you’re the victim? I know who you are, boy. What you are.” What is he? “I know that everything you have, you took from me.” What did he take? “So once again, I ask you - why are you here?”

“I’m here, Charles, to tell you that I’m going to kill your daughter.”

“Penelope, is it? And once she’s gone - once she’s dead - then you’ll understand how I feel. And you’ll wish you hadn’t changed the rules.” What rules?

“You’ll never find her. That island’s mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again.”

“But you’ll never find it.”

“Then I suppose the hunt is on for both of us.”

“I suppose it is. Sleep tight, Charles.”

*GUHBBWWOHHNNNGGGGGGGGGHHHGHHH*

What an episode!

I must confess, I didn’t think much about this ep’s title until now, mainly because I was salty about waiting so long for it. But we really do have an exciting new perspective on the shape of things to come. What! We do! And only a week to wait for what’s next.

I’m so happy, only one thing can express it right now…

So now what? Get a look ahead with the ABC promo trailer and Sneak Peek video clips from Episode 10: Something Nice Back Home.

Share your thoughts about this ep, and where you think things are headed next, in the comments!

See you soon.