It's not the worst, but on the other hand not one of the better either. I can definitely see what they were trying to do with Nikki and Paulo, there were lots of people involved in the crash, yet we had only seen the "core" people do things. I thought the ending of Exposé was quite good, but otherwise two characters I didn't really care for, and the episode didn't do much plotwise either.
It's alright I suppose. Not bad, but not one of the better either.
Also, Elite.. interesting how we both rank Season 2. I can see your view, personally there were lots of things that made me love it, like the whole Dharma-question with the Swan station, Ben Linus and his appearances in the second half, also seeing more of Tom Friendly and the Others. Also some Mr. Eko stuff.
Anyhow, time for another update:
6. The Shape of Things to Come - Season 4, Episode 9 (Ben-centric)The first season 4 episode to appear on the list. Now you're thinking "will there be more season 4 episodes?" and I'll just say this, you'll just have to wait and see.
Season 4 of Lost sticks out because it's the shortest season of the tv-show, only having 14 episodes. This season being shorter than the others is both good and bad, the good thing is that we have less filler episodes, and more stuff is happening. On the contrary, some things felt perhaps a tiny bit rushed. Nothing major, just the impression I had. Still, the season was really good, and for most people it was the best since S1 or S2.
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The Shape of Things to Come" is a Ben-centric episode, and the second Ben-centric episode chronologically. In the flashforwards, we get to follow what happens to Ben right after he has moved the island, which happens in the finale of season 4. (so we haven't actually seen it yet) He wakes up in the Sahara Desert, wearing a winter jacket. When two armed men shows up, he kills one of them and knocks the other one unconscious, and takes one of their horses. He then rides to the nearest village. Later we get to see Ben in Iraq, attending the funeral of Sayid's now dead wife, Nadia. When Sayid confronts him, he tells Sayid about a man that is responsible for killing her. Sayid proceeds to kill this man, and Ben later recruits Sayid as an assassin. Later we get to see Ben in London, showing up at Charles Widmore's place. Ben says that he wont kill Charles, but instead kill his daughter, Penny, in retribution for what happened with Alex. Just before Ben leaves, Charles says that the island is his, and that he will take it back.
Back on the island, the corpse of the doctor on the freighter washes ashore. When Faraday calls the freighter it is revealed that the doctor is actually fine, and when Jack push Faraday for answers, he reveals that the freighter was never sent there to pick up the survivors at all.
On the other side of the island, the gang of mercenaries led by Keamy has Alex held hostage. When they're taking her to Dharmaville, she sets off a silent alarm that warns Ben, Locke, Hugo and Sawyer that the mercenaries are coming.
When the mercenaries arrive, Keamy says that unless Ben walks out of the house, he will kill Alex. When Ben tries to negotiate, Keamy kills Alex, leaving Ben shocked. Shortly after this, Ben rushes into a hidden room where he summons the Smoke Monster, which kills most of the mercenaries, with the other running into the forest.
The episode ends with the group splitting up, and Ben, Locke and Hugo going to find Jacob.
With the risk of sounding repetitive,
Michael Emerson is just brilliant in this episode. Ben is a character used to getting what he wants, being very good at manipulating other people. The scene where he tries to negotiate with Keamy, and Keamy kills Alex comes as a surprise. I was quite shocked myself, normally in a situation like that (in a tv-show), the "good" person always manages to save the person held hostage, but in this case it goes wrong. The flashforwards are interesting, but it's only now afterwards that I realize how interesting they were. We get to see Ben wake up in the desert, but it's only after seeing the S4 finale that we understand that this takes place just after he turns the wheel.
It was also really interesting to see when Ben summoned the Smoke Monster. That "device" or whatever you want to call it was always interesting, because it made me wonder about it's purpose. What was it? Why was it there? We didn't really learn more about it, I believe they revisit that hidden room once more or so (or am I wrong?) but nothing more than that. Would have loved getting more information about it, but I guess it remains one of those interesting mysteries.