With only four episodes left until the series finale, Lost fans should feel a palpable tension hovering in the air; every Tuesday is one week closer to the date that one of the best television shows of all time signs off for good. Each moment from here on out is important, even the seemingly pointless dialogue between supporting characters. Tonight’s episode was an anomaly. It had all the great elements of a Lost episode, had tense moments that reminded me why I curse the television every time the show cuts to a commercial and some great acting courtesy of Terry O’Quinn, Henry Ian Cusack, and Matthew Fox. However, it also had the misfortune of being one of the last episodes of Lost to air, meaning there was more plot points crammed into this episode than an entire season of Damages (well, perhaps that’s an over-exaggeration, but the episode was bulging at the seams with different scenes focusing on different characters). Thankfully, the writers found a way to focus on each group of characters an equal amount, but I couldn’t help but feel as if Lost was suffering from the same virus that “V” is, cramming in as much material into forty minutes as humanly possible.
Tonight’s episode was called “The Last Recruit,” and the writers keep their cards held tightly to their chest, not revealing the eponymous recruit until the last few moments, and even then, there’s no definitive proof that this person was actually the recruit. Seeing as the episode descriptions for Lost are purposely vague, I tend to be blind going into a new episode of Lost, which is just the way I like it. Before spoilers and teasers swept across the internet and infected audiences around the world like a bout of swine flu, the experience of watching a television episode meant not knowing what was going to be happening from episode to episode, and that’s what this entire season of Lost has felt like. Tonight’s episode picked up exactly where last week’s left off: Jack and Locke have a little chat alone, where we are given confirmation that Locke has been impersonating all sorts of dead people, including Jack’s dad. We also learn that Sun and Locke are heading to the same hospital, where Sun seems to recognize Locke. The episode bounces back and forth between the alternate universe and the Island, where the characters continue to collide with one another.
