What I’m Watching: Lost

Lost: Season 6, Episode 4 “The Substitute” (B+)

Yes. This is fantastic, and it’s just what this season should have been, making me feel infinitely more confident about how these final episodes are going to turn out. It doesn’t mean that every episode is going to be great, of course, since this part of the story is clearly much more interesting than Dogen, Jack, and crew, but at least there’s something to look forward to and this stuff is inarguably awesome. What’s especially satisfying about this installment is that it confirms that the flash-sideways device can truly work well and is absolutely worth pursuing. Having all of the characters appear in the alternate version of 2007 and meet each other is truly cool, and seeing Rose, Ben, and especially Hurley introduce themselves to Locke. It’s so interesting to see what a different man he becomes, and Terry O’Quinn delivered his finest performance in a long time in this episode. The notion that both realities will echo each other and everyone will be brought together is a fascinating one, and that makes me extremely excited once again to watch this show. I love the title of this episode, which I knew referred to Locke because it was his body that was substituted for Christian Shepherd’s body on the plane, but the fact that he became a substitute teacher as well was pretty terrific. On the island, Locke running around with a surprisingly agreeable Sawyer and showing him the list of all the candidates was pretty interesting, and it’s worth noting that Kate was not on the list, though if Jin is in fact that Kwon listed there, it can be assumed that the candidate for some reason has to be male. Seeing Richard scared out of his mind with his eyes nearly popping out of his head made the gravity of this situation far more intense, and that creepy young blond child telling Locke that he wasn’t allowed to kill him creates a whole new layer of potential excitement. Basically, the fact that this is more of a direct examination of the island leadership role without the interference of countless new Others means that we’re getting closer to unearthing the truth and things are a whole lot more gripping. I’m also very pleased with the new odd grouping of Ilana, Ben, Lapidus, and Sun. The sight of Ben wearing an undershirt while he was digging the grave was quite strange, on a humorous note.