Lost: The Shape of Things to Come

Welcome back to the Lost recaps! After a multi-week hiatus, the popular island drama/mystery has returned to airwaves to confuse us once again. But this time, we have video from the show! I know. We are very cool.

What happened

At the beach, Kate flirted with Jack by going strapless. Jack likes it, but, he would like to not have stomach pains even more. The doctor from the boat washes onshore, dead, with his throat slashed. Faraday makes a morse code radio (?) and asks the boat what's up with the doctor being dead. Faraday tells people that the boat said that the helicopter would rescue them in the morning. Bernard, knowing morse code, said that Faraday lies, that the boat people say the doctor is fine. (I think his corpse would beg to differ.) Jack, upset at Faraday's lies, asks him again if they were intended on taking them off the island. Faraday finally answers: "No." This makes Jack so angry you can practically see his ulcer growing. And Charlotte stares on.

At the barracks, Locke receives a phone: "Code 14-J." This is Alex's signal for telling the others that she is captured and they are all in danger. (She sent it using the fence deactivation code.) A bunch of extras who I never knew were ever at the barracks die, while Sawyer gets to play Jack Bauer and dodge about three hundred incoming bullets. The boaties have a grenade launcher, which they use ONCE and only once, to blow up Claire's house. Claire is fine, BTW. Like, extremely fine. After some psychological warfare, the boaties kill Alex. Ben is visibly upset.

So Ben goes to his secret room, where there is another door to ANOTHER secret room. (!) Except the Secret Room2 seems to be older, a cave perhaps. It seemed to have markings, maybe? Does Ben have his own DHARMA station? Anyways, Ben emerges looking dirtier, and more confident. (Dirtier = more dirt and soot.) Ben stays calm as Smokey the Island Monster comes roaring into the village and kills the boaties - and only the boaties. Team Locke guesses that Ben can summon the monster. Sawyer, Claire and Aaron leave for the beach, while Ben and Locke take Hurley to go find Jacob's cabin and get some answers.

In the future, Ben is a international spy. We seem him travel to the Sahara, Tunisia, Iraq and London. Isn't chromakey a wonderful thing? Ben wakes up in the Sahara, with a wound on his arm, wearing a winter DHARMA parka. He seems very confused as to what he is doing there. Later, in Iraq, he spies on Sayid, who is mourning the death of Nadia. It seems Sayid had recently met up with her again, married her, and then she died. That... sucks.

Future Ben has Sayid kill a man who Ben says killed Nadia. Said man works for Charles Widmore, the man Ben says is the show's ultimate villain. It works. Sayid wants to partner up with Ben, unaware that he's becoming one of Ben's pawns. Ben then pays Charles Widmore himself a visit. But we've got a video of that for you.

The questions

- Ben seemed confused as to why he was waking up in the Saraha like he did, and he also asked what the date was at the hotel. Even the year. Is Ben... a time jumper?
- Is the doctor really dead? Are the boaties lying when they say he's fine? Or... are their duplicates of the doctor?
- Did Bakir really kill Nadia?
- When Sayid tackled Ben, he yelled something about "why do you spy on me," but then was very surprised to find out it was Ben. Who was Sayid referring to?
- Did Ben get off the island the way he said he did?
- What is the Secret Room2?
- How did Claire survive a house explosion with little to no visible injuries, and is walking straight? What kind of magical contract did Emile de Ravin sign to defy our expectations for TV explosions?
- What relationship does Ben have with Smokey?
- Where is Penny?
- Are Ben and Widmore looking for the island?
- Why can't Ben kill Widmore?
- What were these "rules" that were changed?

Video: Ben and Widmore face off for the first time:


Next week

"Something Nice Back Home," 10 p.m. ET. Jack's appendix bursts, leaving Kate and Juliet to take care of him. Who will he thank first? Also, team Sawyer encounters something wrong while making their way back to the beach.