Sorry it's taken me so long to get this one written, but I felt like I had to watch the episode twice to make sure that I'm correct in my assertion that "The Brig" is the best episode of LOST that they've had yet.

As you know, I'm a huge Locke fan. IMO, it's his show as much as the the original Star Wars trilogy is Luke's saga. Because as much as I may love all of the minivan re-starting and Jack's dad issues, I really am hyped about Locke's connection to the island. More on this later...

But beyond Locke, I have to say that Sawyer has become one of my favorite characters on the show. For 2 seasons, Sawyer was this seemingly chilled to the bone guy who seemed too hardened by the events of his life to ever be capable of loving someone and being loved, so it was a nice surprise to see that below all of Sawyer's hard exterior, he's basically that scared little boy that hid under the bed as his parents murdered one another.

But of course, this was never more obvious than in "The Brig" when Sawyer/James finally came into contact with Sawyer/Cooper. I have to tell you, the moment Sawyer realized who he was in the room with may be one of the best moments of the series for me. Josh Holloway played the scene perfectly and should receive an Emmy nomination for it.

The interplay between the two Sawyers was better than I could have even imagined. Because what made the confrontation great, and what made this episode great, was that it intertwined Locke and Sawyer's storylines in a way that propelled the two characters into the next phase of their journey.

For Sawyer, he's finally reached a sense of conclusion about one phase of his life and seems now ready to begin the next phase of his life as the person he was on the path to being before his father murdered his mother and killed himself. One way or another, Sawyer's going to be a different person now, and I for one can't wait to see where it goes.

...But I'm a tad bit nervous. Characters who come to an understanding about their life and come to closure about their life choices seem to have short life spans. PLEASE don't kill Sawyer! Not when he's just become a 3 dimensional character.

As I said earlier, this is Locke's show. And perhaps my all-time favorite Locke moment came at the end of the episode when Locke replied to Sawyer that he wasn't going back to infiltrate "the Others" and was instead on his "own journey." For me, it's like the moment of "The Empire Strikes Back" when Luke defies Ben and Yoda by forging his own path back to Bespin in effort to save his friends. It's just beautiful myth played out on prime time ABC.

I think there's more to this story yet, including something that I've wondered about since season 1. In season 1, Locke's mom said that Locke had no father and was immaculately conceived, only to be told later by Locke's CON MAN dad that he was Locke's father. So now I have to wonder, was Locke's mom telling him the truth? If so, the LOST mythology has gone to a new level.

What.the.HELL. is Jack up to? Jack's a funny character when you view him objectively. He's ALWAYS on edge. He's ALWAYS got something going on in that smart brain of his.

People, it's Lord of the Flies time. Everyone on the beach seems paranoid of one another. For storytelling purposes, I absolutely love it. It's almost heart breaking to hear everyone turning on Jack, though I can't say I blame them. The season finale this year is going to be incredible, and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. You know that Jack's going to have some incredible plan, or that he's harboring some secret about the island, and I think it's leading up to a pretty big reveal of some kind. What that reveal is is anybody's guess, but man, the LOST writers and producers have ratcheted up the suspense to 11.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we get to finally learn who Jacob is. According to LOST producers, he's going to be as instrumental to LOST as "the Emperor" was to the Star Wars series. I have my own theories on Jacob. Guess we'll find out soon...

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One more word about the final 51 episodes, I found it extremely cool that the LOST producers have said that they've entered the "answer revealing" mode of the series now that they're 60% of the way there. They've even said that some of the biggest answers may come sooner than you think.

It's pretty neat that the LOST seasons are going to be about the same length as seasons on HBO. It'll work well for two obvious reasons a) it'll give the writers more of a break between seasons to flesh everything out and b) it'll cut out (some of) the filler episodes. Can't wait.

-Matt