Discuss the good and bad about the episode. If you totally loved the episode or totally didn't love the episode and do not wish to discuss the pros and cons, please visit the Loved it or Didn't Love it threads.

OK, I guess I'll go first.

I think had the scene with Jacob not been so... campy (I'm not sure that's the right word but it's late and I have to wake up in five hours so...), I would have enjoyed the episode a lot more.

Liked:

Harry Potter... er... I mean young Ben. I just have a thing for dysfunctional family stories and children of alcoholics. (Christian is still way cooler though)
Locke not being gullible for a change.
The Dharma skeletons.
Seeing Dharma in its hayday
The "Village"-esque sequence of the truck passing by in the intro.
Juliet
Jack as the new Saddam. Only hotter. (He gets to make decisions cause everyone's been turning to him for decisions and piling their BS on him from Day 1. End of story.)
Juliet :dog:slapping Sawyer and Sayid... again. Can't help it if I like her.
Kate having a spine.


Didn't Like:

Ben talking to that chair
Poltergeist Jacob (those were the big ones)
Naomi being everyone's darling out of the blue and part of the family after what... two days? Because she's got a rescue ship. OK then.
Locke going ape**** on Patchy. So random.
The Highlander rip off.
That the show is getting increasingly convoluted and not the good kind of convoluted either.
That the story is being dragged out and shown to us in previews ("Not yet" last week, "time to catch up" this week)

The air went out of the ballon when we saw the empty chair..blew apart when that flash of a person appeared...and I think my head exploded when Locke got shot.

Not sure how I feel about this one yet...Alpert not aging was really interesting. The Purge was almost Jonestownish...Ben's father was a moron...that made me mad the way he treated him...

Wow...strange.

I liked all of the "815 camp" parts. While I'm not crazy about Jack's continued arrogance, entitlement and secrecy, I was happy that it looks like everyone is starting to be on the same page. And I'm kind of excited to see them actually come together and FIGHT. I also don't mind the way the Juliet situation played out. They could have dragged that out for much longer, and I'm happy to see it resolved basically right away.

I did NOT like almost any of the Locke/Ben/flashback scenes. They didn't make ANY sense, and they were completely boring. Locke was supposed to go off to find "answers," but instead all we got was a LOT of wasted time and then Locke (possibly?) dead. Great. I wish they could have left ALL that stuff out and given us more beach scenes. For once, the B-plot was much more exciting and interesting than the A-plot.

I refuse to comment any further on "Jacob" than this: :rolleyes:

Looks like this is the place for me after this episode. I thought the acting in general was fantastic as usual, Michael Emerson was amazing. I enjoyed the flashbacks, and the 815'er stuff was good as well.

The Jacob reveal was stupid, the invisible man? Give me a break. They should have either had nothing be there and have him be a complete figment of Ben's imagination, or have had him be an actual guy. No way Locke is dead either, TPTB don't have the balls to kill him for one, and two they'd have given him a more epic, and more conclusive death scene than that.

Everything was great EXCEPT "Jacob".........Im totally let down/confused(enough that Im posting! LOL and I NEVER post!!)

I totally thought it'd be Degroot or Alvar Hanso etc etc ..........SOMEONE totally jaw dropping thatd there would be a worldwide squeal of "OMG!OMG!OMG!" but alas-no.

I know screencaps have been done showing someone/thing was there but I still feel like it was just Ben talking to himself which is a major boring,predictable letdown .

With all that said Locke getting shot WAS a jaw dropper as I wholeheartedly expected it to be Ben in the bottom of the pit with a bullet wound.

Don't really know what to say about this epi. Agree the Ben fb were boring, I felt sympathy for him, but his dad didn't deserve to be murdered. Ben is a freaking sociopath. And the Jacob scene. DH said "oh look, Jacob is a poltergeist." Big let down. I really hope tptb redeem this one. I want to see Jack punched in the face. I want to see Naomi contact her boat with that fancy radio. And I want to see Ben's eyes bug out even more when he sees Locke walk up with "Jacob" and tell him he's the new sheriff now. Can't imagine that the finale is going to be all that satisfying.

Yeah, I agree with most of what's been said here. I had hoped for an episode that kept me on the edge of my seat. But I reclined quite comfortably on my sofa throughout. Didn't hate it, but it wasn't one of the best of episodes.

So we now know that Ben is a liar. That's news?
Locke's quest for truth and enlightenment ends in a pit of dry bones. That's depressing.
Roger Work Guy, aka Ben's father, was an unsympathetic and poorly developed character. That's poor writing (the acting wasn't great, either).
Jacob is a character right out of Dickens, complete with rattling chains. That's been done.
Mikhail's lame excuse for not really being dead. That's concocted.
Jack and Juliet are suddenly a united front. That's inconsistent.

But ...

I hope I can hang on long enough for the answers I really want. TPTB of late like to compare their show to Harry Potter. I quit reading Harry Potter after the fourth book -- completely lost interest as the plot got convoluted and the characters changed. I can see this happening with Lost. I find myself wondering if it will be worth another three seasons with a wait of eight months in between.

It's funny how almost 90% of the voters in Rate this Episode topic gave it 8 or higher (which means, to me, that the vast majority of viewers really, really, really enjoyed the episode as a whole). And here all we see is people complaining...

Well, I can't speak for the other people who have posted here, but I did not rate it 8 or higher. Obviously I am not one of the "vast majority". Can't please everyone.

It's funny how almost 90% of the voters in Rate this Episode topic gave it 8 or higher (which means, to me, that the vast majority of viewers really, really, really enjoyed the episode as a whole). And here all we see is people complaining...
See? Im not getting people complaining per se....just(once again) feeling a tad frustrated with things not fleshing out as we may like them to (C'mon its Season 3 and I still find myself nearly in tears searching for answers to simple questions/mysteries from Season One?? ARRRGGHHHHH)
I myself would rate TMBTC an 8 or 9.
I enjoyed seeing Dharma in its "heyday",learning more about Ben and seeing Juliet exposed(I STILL dont trust her as far as I could throw her) *HOWEVER* the Jacob reveal was a letdown ALTHOUGH as I stated ealier it was,to a certain degree,"made up for" by Ben shooting Locke as I TOTALLY 100% smugly convinced myself that after meeting Jacob it would be Locke shooting Ben.
Good eppie overall just didnt give me (some of)the answers Ive been looking for!!!
(but then again I think I say that after nearly every eppie!!! LOL)

Good but just not good enough. This was THE episode to get some info on dharma & the backstory. Instead we got the same old daddy-issue. Lame. The shack scene was as creepy as it was annoying.

Was expecting more from this episode. No seriously.

For the remaining eps, they are jus gonna be on Lost lines.

Hurley: Dude, sucks for you. (that you is me)

So, what we learned from the episodes when piecing it together with the other episodes:

-On the island, things that desperately need to be resolved or that deeply haunt someone can become real, if the person seems strongly connected to the island in some way. From the way we see it, people less strongly tied can get 'random' visions a la Kate's horse; but apparrently Locke could summon Cooper, and now it can be assumed that women in general cannot give birth without dying due to Ben's extreme lack of confidence and guilt in that he killed his mother during childbirth.

-Someone, somewhere is going to have to call some copyright infringement agencies so that lost uses it's own ideas sometimes. That Jacob scene was laughably ripped.

-On the island, things that desperately need to be resolved or that deeply haunt someone can become real, if the person seems strongly connected to the island in some way. From the way we see it, people less strongly tied can get 'random' visions a la Kate's horse; but apparrently Locke could summon Cooper, and now it can be assumed that women in general cannot give birth without dying due to Ben's extreme lack of confidence and guilt in that he killed his mother during childbirth.


DAMN I like that idea! It explains why all the rest of the Others seem so dismissive of the pregnancy issue (Alpert calls it a "novelty"). they know it's just because of Ben's neurosis and once he's out of the way the problem will disappear. I wonder if that might also have contributed to why a faction of the Others want him deposed?

This is my first post on The Fuselage. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to post. Most of you have some very good ideas and your analysis has helped me put together some ideas about this show. After last night's episode, I wanted to post in the hope that perhaps someone can shed some light on some burning questions I have.... First let me preface this by stating:

1. I have accepted the fact that the characters will never act logical on this show. If they did act logical, they would have been off the island weeks ago. Therefore, I don't look for answers when someone or something doesn't act logical.
2. I believe TPTB when they say that the answers we seek on this show will be based in reality and this show will not end with someone waking up, they are not all in hell or purgatory, etc.....

Having said all that, I ask you the following:

1. Why would Ben only shoot Locke once, and in the gut at that, being fully aware that the man has remarkable healing powers? I'm not asking this out of sarcasm, I'm asking it as a legitmate question. If everything Ben does has a purpose (as we have been led to believe up to this point based on all his previous actions where nothing he has ever done has been pointless, he has always had a goal), what purpose does this act serve?
2. Why would Jack not tell the rest of the survivors about the plan of the others to raid their camp? If Jack always has the best interests of the camp in his mind, and as a doctor is sworn to eternally helping others, what is the explanation for this behavior?
3. How did Locke know that Sawyer would kill his dad? Did I miss somewhere that Locke could see the future? If Sawyer didn't kill his dad, Locke's entire plan falls apart. That seems to big of a risk for him to take. So what certainty did Locke have?
4. If Locke did indeed kill his dad when he was chained to the column, how would that have changed things? In other words, what was Ben's contingency plan if Locke did kill his dad? Surely Ben had to take into consideration that Locke might actually do it, so what purpose did that act serve in the big picture? Obviously short term this proves to Ben's people that Locke is just a man, and whatever ideas they had about him are false and simply not true. But long term, what is the meaning of this?
5. How come Juliet didn't get grilled like there was no tomorrow when the survivors found out she was a mole? I simply don't understand this lack of questioning her. And it has nothing to do with the characters not acting rationale, this is simply basic human behavior. Someone finds out there is a traitor in their camp, they are bound to demand answers to their questions. So even on this island, where nobody asks for rationale explanations to completely irrationale and unexplanable events, how come they don't grill her? What is the point of this behavior?

All in all, I think this episode graded out at an 8 for raising questions, and graded out at a 4 for answering them. Nothing big was revealed other than Ben is a sociopath with a hidden agenda as opposed to some man who is out to serve the greater good. I give that reveal 4 points. No other points were earned because nothing else was revealed that answered any pressing existing questions. We knew the Dharma project died out due to some unnatural event, which was Ben and his crew exterminating them. I don't think anyone cared how they died out, we knew they did. Yes it was nice to know but at this point it wasn't NEED to know.

There are many things, 3 seasons into this show, that I NEED to know. I am grateful to TPTB for providing many NICE things to know, but now is the time to start giving me NEED to know information.

If anyone has some ideas regarding my 5 questions I give you thanks in advance.

Hello, I just have this to say

"Welcome to Lost"

Not that you are a newcomer to Lost rather welcome to the lost world where the realization dawns upon you "Is this why I got hooked so maniacally to Lost?"

I think that I liked this epi, but I'm not really sure yet. It was a huge relief to know what happened to the Dharma folks, as it's always been a big question in my mind. So that's one question down, and fifteen or more big questions yet to answered.

Ben's backstory was very compelling; it's easy to have a lot of sympathy for his plight as a child. What happened, though, to his friend (I think her name was Annie). Was she killed off, too? And even though Ben's father was a jerk (an alcohilic and he blamed Ben for his mother's death) did Ben's father really deserve to die? The idea of getting 'revenge,' and often in a deadly manner, seems to be a recurring theme on Lost.

Even though the scene with the phantom Jacob was a bit hokey, I liked it anyway.

I thought this was one of the best episodes yet. The whole Jacob scene gave me cold chills. Then Locke getting shot, I couldn't believe it. GREAT EPISODE!!!

The only thing I can think about this episode now is that young Benry did remind me of Paul (Dano).