(S03E03) Wow, I don't even know where to begin... get comfortable, because I'm gonna end up writing a lot. Spectacular. Although, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised because this episode just continued the up and down trend established last season. A few so-so or mediocre episodes and then we get this. The other day, while writing this Dexter post, I said that there's no reason why Lost can't feed us viewers a whole ton of info and clues (you know, keep us entertained) while at the same time, leave us on a note that makes us want to do something wildly inappropriate like punch a child or at the very least, knock over your TV set. This was one of those episodes. It's over, it was good great, but we're still in the dark... so what did we learn?

A Locke-centric episode. Always my favorite ones. But we hadn't seen Locke at all this season thus far. As Charlie quipped when he saw his bald compadre, he didn't call, didn't write. You get the idea. But Locke is back, as is Desmond (who was butt-naked by the way, but I'll get back to that) and it seems Eko is the only one MIA after the hatch explosion. It's gone by the way. The hatch is now a big ol' crater.

So Locke has returned. He just woke up... it was very Terminator-ish. He just opened his eyes and stood up. Like he was re-born. All that was missing was that electrically-charged purple bubble. Only problem? He can't talk. So, with some help from Charlie, Locke built a little hut (or a "sweat lodge"... something from his past), lit a fire in it, ate some mashed up paste (what was that stuff, some of Charlie's smack?), and began to hallucinate. So who shows up? Boone! Now I knew Ian Somerhalder was going to be back, but I didn't think it was this early in the season. Very nice surprise. It makes sense though, that in Locke's mind, Boone is the voice of the island.

The following scene was very cool and it reminded me a little of that weird British Lost promo. Boone, wise dead spirit that he is now, pushed John through an airport terminal in a wheelchair, telling him what needed to be done. There's the explanation of your episode title. It was cool though. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were being inspected by a TSA employee... Ben (aka Henry, aka Benry)! Very telling of their situation. The lasting visual? Hurley as the airline ticketing agent. He's the one who can tell you where everyone went. Hats off to the writers, well done scene. All the metaphors made perfect sense.

John grasped one mission from Boone's preachings though: Save Eko. Back to reality and as I said earlier, John has been re-born as the knife-wielding bad-ass that he is. It's hunting time, which is the reason for his flashbacks. We picked up with John after he was betrayed by his father and he had left his potential wife, Helen. Not sure how long it's been, but now he lives with some sort of commune that grows peaches and marijuana. But they're his family and they seem to accept him for who he is, until he brings home a friendly hitch-hiker that happens to be an undercover cop. Nothing new there though -- story of John's life (or should I say "Johnathan's" ... anyone else notice the name on his firearms registry?). He's used to getting betrayed. He could have killed that cop; the hunter mentality was in him. Only the island lets him live that life though.

Using those tracking skills, Locke found Eko trapped in a cave with a second polar bear. He saves the priest's life. OK, wait, back to the flashbacks. Anyone else think that the stand-off in the woods with the cop was going to lead to John's leg issues? For about 10 seconds, I really though Locke was going to take a few shots in the leg(s). But he didn't. OK, enough with the flashbacks.

At one point, Locke and Charlie found Hurley (on his way back from The Others' dock) in the woods. Then they split up again and Hurley found the very naked Desmond. Observation number one? Desmond looks ridiculous in Hurley's giant tie-dyed T-shirt. Observation number two? Something is up with Desmond. He talked about some kind of speech that John made about saving Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Hurley was completely confused. As he should have been because John didn't make that speech until he and Charlie got back to the beach with Eko. But Desmond knew about it beforehand. So it seems he's gone all John the Baptist on us and now he's some kind of prophet -- sees or hears things before they actually happen. Except only Hurley knows about it.

Parting thoughts. Anyone else put off by how they introduced Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro) and Nikki (Kiele Sanchez)? It was just weird to me, how they were there and knew everybody. Last year, introducing the Tailies was easy because they were their own group and they merged, so to speak. But Nikki and Paulo have been part of the 48, there since the crash. To have contact now seems odd but I'm sure it'll be fine after we get some more info on them.

Also, what significance does the hatch have if it can be blown up and nothing seems to happen? Desmond and Locke seem permanently changed by it, and I'm sure Eko will be when he wakes up. However, if pushing the button was so important, I feel like more should have happened post-explosion. Additionally, other than Desmond's theory, can we be sure that his error is what caused flight 815 to take a nosedive? I'm thinking no, and his new psychic(?) abilities give him some insight as to what really happened.

Another random point: Eddie, the undercover cop in Locke's flashback had a "Jeronimo Jackson" T-shirt on. Wasn't that the name of one of the bands that was in the hatch's record collection? Nice little tidbit from the writers. Too bad all of the records are probably a melted pile of plastic goop now.

And finally, I normally don't pull funny quotes from this show, but I lost it when Hurley dropped this one.

Hurley (in complete disbelief of Desmond's explanation for being nude): "So, like, the hatch blew off your underwear?"