TV-Reviewed

“The Shape of Things to Come” happens to be one of my favorite episodes from Lost’s fourth season. This was one of the few episodes which could be considered to be action-packed thanks to the assault on the camp.

Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus, Terry O’Quinn as John Locke

Keamy and his band of commandos took on Locke’s camp, blowing up a house and killing numerous background actors and then Ben’s daughter, Alex. This was a shocking scene. I’ve seen this episode numerous times and Ben’s reaction was perfect. He was utterly shocked by what happened. And then his statement of “he changed the rules” really threw me. I assumed at the time that he was referring to Charles Widmore, but what rules?

Even though we knew previously that Ben used the death of Sayid’s wife to recruit him, it was nice to see this portion of the story spelled out, or filled in, however you want to put it. I enjoyed some of the acting here and there’s something refreshing about seeing Ben in charge of things. He’s not really run things in a while (on the island, I mean), but that changed during the episode once Alex was killed.

I always suspected Ben knew more about the so-called smoke monster than he led John Locke and others to believe, but I was blown away by that scene in which Ben essentially sicks the smoke monster on Keamy and his fellow mercenaries. That was amazing to see. The special effects of Lost is really terrific sometimes.

That scene towards the end of the episode which had Ben confronting Charles in his penthouse was very interesting. Ben said he would kill Penelope because Charles changed the rules. Again, what rules? I understand it’s not nice to go after family and all, but since when did these two sit down and has out a list of rules?

Alan Dale as Charles Widmore

Anyway, one of the other interesting things that happened took place on the beach. Daniel’s been lying and it’s not clear why. It took an outing by Bernard for him to confess that they weren’t tasked with rescuing the Oceanic 815 survivors. I loved Bernard’s involvement. I enjoy him being involved in the show. He’s not some frail, old man, incapable of doing anything. He helped with the Morse Code and even dragging the freighter’s deceased doctor out of the ocean. Lost is doing well for itself when all of the characters are involved.

Rating: 8.6