It's been quite a while since I've posted anything about LOST, so I thought I'd get back to it with some of my thoughts on everything that's been happening on everyone's favorite mind-f*ck of a show.

After the 6 episode mini-season at the on-set of season 3, I have to say that I like that the show has settled down a little bit and that we're getting to see all of the characters come back into the fold.

I particularly liked Hurley's episode, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead." As much as I love a good mythology advancing storyline, Hurley's episode really hit home why I've come to love the show so much. It was mysterious, sure, but it really made me love these characters all over again. And to be quite honest with you, I'm not so sure that Hurley's episode was all that devoid of island mythology. If the "eyeland" can cure John Locke's legs and make Sun conceive, then who's to say that the island couldn't start that VW bus? And who's to say that Hurley didn't actually end up breaking his curse? Can't wait to see.

The starting of that bus and the joy ride that followed may be one of my top 20 favorite moments of the entire series, btw. The look on Jin, Sawyer, Charlie, and Hurley's faces was priceless. But the topper was the wonderful mood that they were all in when they got back to camp. Gotta love a good Hurley episode.

Know who else you gotta love? Sayid. The man can do no wrong in my eyes. If I was trying to stay alive on that island, I think I would have hitched my wagon to Sayid. He seems to be one of the only people on the island who is actually trying to keep everyone together and on the same team.

His episode, "Enter 77" was pretty intense. One of the great things about LOST is that we almost always get to see our protagonists in compromising situations of their own creation. In "Enter 77," we got to see Sayid, a self-confessed torture for the Iraqi Republican Guard, get his comeuppance when one of his torturees found him out in England.

At first, I was a little peeved that John Locke would have left the hostage alone while he went and played chess. It seemed very unlike John Locke to make such a significant strategical error. But after last night's episode, "Par Avion," it seems that there was more than meets the eye with John Lock in "Enter 77." Seems that he was not only playing chess, he was securing some plastic explosives for himself. And if the preview for next week's episode is any indication, we're in for a bang of a good time.

As I've always said, the show really centers on John Locke for me. And if "The Man From Tallahassee" delivers in the way that the preview says it's going to, we're in for quite a treat.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I still have a few more things to say about the recent episodes.

One of my favorite things about LOST is just how freaking weird it is. I can list any number of examples about its weirdness, but last night's episode provided one of the strangest sights yet; Jack playing catch with Mr. Friendly. It's just very surreal that Mr. Intense Jack would have...well, I'm not sure what's going on with Jack. I guess we'll have to wait and see. All I know is that the sight of him playing catch was creepy in a very "What the hell kind of relationship do Jack and the Others have at this point" kind of way.

I like that the Others have regained their creepiness factor in season 3. For a lot of season 2 and the beginning of season 3, the mystery about the Others had vanished quite a bit, and I began to wonder if they truly were the bad guys we all thought they were in season 1.

Well, that question has all but dissolved at this point. Not only are the Others just flat out creepy, they're becoming quite the ultimate villain at this point. This isn't to say that I think all Others are the same in their badness, but as a whole, this is one messed up group.

LOST works best when the viewer is able to take a step back and view just how creepy all of this would be. When I take a moment to think about how screwed up it'd be if I were stuck on a deserted island which didn't turn out to be as deserted as originally thought, and is instead inhabited by a cult of mysterious people who seem to be capable of doing whatever they please at any given time, it just flat out freaks me out. I'm glad to see season 3 getting back to this sense of paranoia and being closed-off.

I thought the scene last night where Mikhail was calling his captors by their names was top notch and brought the above point home. Just how nuts would it be if you were stuck on an island where some cult leader had made a list with everyone's name on it, and that this group seemed to know more about you and your lostaways than you knew about yourself?

That's all I got for now. I can't wait for next week, though I'm sure that most of the episodes from here on out our going to be pretty intense!

my two cents for this Thursday