(S06E14) That was a big one, and yet still I'm not sure which side I'm supposed to be rooting for. Team Widmore says they're the good guys, but they certainly don't act like it in how they interact with the cast. Meanwhile, MiB-Locke acts more like the good guy with our main cast, but does some pretty questionable things otherwise.

By the end of the episode, it's pretty clear which side of the fence MiB-Locke is on. A little more murky is whether or not whatever Widmore is trying to do is the right thing to do, nor what our intrepid heroes should do next.

The Flash-sideways timeline picked up events shortly after we left them, with characters converging still in the hospital where Jack performed surgery on Locke's back. We find out how beta-Locke got injured, and it's not at all a familiar story.

BETA-VERSE 2004

Assuming beta-Locke didn't like to beta-Jack, that means the differences in this universe to ours is even more profound. One of Locke's biggest hang-ups was that he didn't have a relationship with his father, and that his father kept screwing him over.

Perhaps it's a bit of cosmic kharma, but this time around, it was beta-Locke that totally screwed up his father's life. His paralysis came from a plane crash; one he'd convinced his father to go on shortly after Locke got his pilot's license.

It explains his reluctance to allow Jack to give him the treatment that might see him walk again; he's not done doing penance for his sin.

Even though it was a brief scene, it was jarring to see Cooper, Locke's father, in a catatonic state at the nursing home. The man was so vivacious in the alpha-verse -- he was just a shadow of himself.

The music box Christian gave to Claire seems a parallel to the broken one Danielle Rousseau had in her camp on the island in the alpha-verse, though it is not the same music box. That one was fixed by Sayid. Beyond that, I can't seem to recall the significance of it.

The music box connects Claire to Rousseau in a weird way, which seems appropriate in that they shared similar lives while on the island. Both lived in a strange primitive camp while their child was being raised by another.

There was no progression in Desmond's mission, whatever it is, nor did we spend any time with Sawyer, Kate or anyone else not in the hospital.


ALPHA-VERSE 2007

I wonder if there is a significance in the fact that beta-Locke is punishing himself for past deeds. Could, perhaps, MiB-Locke be doing the same thing? He follows the "rules" established between him and Jacob.

Also, beta-Jack told beta-Locke that he was a "candidate" for the treatment that could cure him, and that's a pretty significant term to be throwing around, considering what it means in the alpha-verse. Could alpha-Locke somehow come back and be the candidate or was it a hint that alpha-Jack is the candidate in the alpha-verse, and he'll be facing off against MiB-Locke for the next eternity.

If only trusting Jack before hadn't led to Juliet's death, Sawyer may have been more willing to trust him now when there was a ticking bomb in front of them. It looks like Jack did indeed figure out what MiB-Locke was doing all along, only to have Sawyer play right into MiB-Locke's hand when he pulled the wires.

There was no bomb until Sawyer did that, because MiB-Locke cannot directly set anything up that might kill a "candidate."

We got to see that Sayid may be emotionally dead, but he doesn't appear to be something completely different from who he was, which was nice. He was determining how to diffuse the bomb, and then he sacrificed himself to give the others a chance at survival. That's the act of a true hero, not to mention leaving Desmond alive and telling Jack where to find him.

There were hints that bodies would drop as we closed in on the series finale, but I didn't expect so many. Sayid is surely dead after that explosion. Lapidus, while we didn't see him die, is likely dead as well.

What was a little more unexpected was the 'Titanic' death of Sun and Jin. After having just been reunited, wherein Jin learned more about their child, their love was put to the ultimate test.

I was a little surprised that Sun didn't play the child card on Jin to get him to save himself. After all, they do have a child still alive out there somewhere, and the safety and welfare of that child should be the top priority of Sun in that moment of her life.

That would have taken away from the romance of Jin electing to stay and die with her, rather than continue living without her ... like he's been doing for years now. I get what they were going for there, but it was a little convenient the way they were dispatched so handily.

If MiB-Locke's goal is to get the "candidates" to kill one another, he's doing a great job. Now it doesn't matter which Kwon the list meant, though that also means we'll never know. Looks like you got away without answering yet another question, boys!

With the submarine toast now and headed for a deep grave (how far away did they get that it could sink that low?), the only hope of leaving the island for everyone still there is the plane. Leaving on a plane would be symbolically appropriate as that's how our original survivors got there.

There's still the matter of how the alpha- and beta-verses will connect, and we've only got three more weeks to figure it out. Who will survive and how will it end?

[Catch up now with clips and full episodes of 'Lost' over at SlashControl.]