This is what storytelling on television should always strive to be like. Not since Babylon 5 has there perhaps been so much good payoff for all the long hours invested in watching a dramatic series.

We finally, finally got Richard Alpert’s backstory in “Ab Aeterno”, this week’s episode of Lost. And it did not disappoint! I would even say that this was the best character-centric origin story since Ben’s episode “The Man Behind the Curtain” in Season 3. Maybe even since “Numbers” all the way back in the first season.

Something I couldn’t help but catch: Tenerife was the location of one of the worst airline disasters in history. Was that something intentional on the part of the producers, to have Richard start out his life there? Anyways, what we have is a good man who was caught up in a tragedy composed of complete assholes: first that despicable ...

“Ab Aeterno”, this week’s episode of Lost, will presumably – at long last – give us the story of Richard Alpert: the man who doesn’t age.

And this installment is apparently so important that it will broadcast six minutes longer than most regular episodes.

Bear that in mind and set your DVRs accordingly!...

Last week’s episode of Lost, “Dr. Linus”, I’ve watched again five or six times from the DVR and it keeps getting better and better.

So maybe that’s affecting me somewhat, but I thought that “Recon”, tonight’s installment, was a bit of a step down. That’s bothersome because there are only about ten hours or so left of this show’s run to tie up all the loose ends. But I’ll maintain faith in showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof: Lost has surprised the bejeebers out of us before. It’s only fitting that it keeps doing it up ’til the grand finale.

Anyhoo, “Recon” wasn’t the best of the Sawyer-centric episodes, but I found it fascinating all the same, and the flashsideways-es have finally begun to grow on me. We’ve seen Sawyer the con-man who was on Oceanic 815 when it crashed. “Recon” gave us Detective James Ford: the “Sawyer” that ...

So all this past week I’ve been inwardly bemoaning how this show needs to ratchet things up with ten regular episodes left before the series finale.

And then showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse bring us “Dr. Linus” (an episode directed by Mario Van Peebles, by the way), which was totally off the chain already for 59 minutes and then in the last 30 seconds…

Charles Widmore has returned.

That can’t possibly be a good thing. Looks like that hella war for the Island is about to kick off bigtime.

Best. Season Six. Episode. Yet.

Which is what I had expected, since it was pretty obvious from the title that this was going to be a Ben-centric installment of Lost. The episodes focusing on Michael Emerson’s character Benjamin Linus have been some of the strongest of the show’s entire run. I wasn’t disappointed at all. And in fact, this ...

That was hella AWESOME!!! From the bare-knuckle slug-out fight between Sayid and Dogen, right up to the last few minutes of this extra-long episode (something we haven’t had since Season 2).

But did anyone else feel a little let down about the “answers” that had been promised all this past week for “Sundown”? What questions got answered? The one about Dogen’s baseball? Or what the Man in Black is? Not really blown away in that department…

…but this was still a solid episode of Lost and the final moments were a heart-pounding ramp-up to… WHAT?!? I got the sense that payoff for the past five years is going to begin in earnest next week. Producers Cuse and Lindelof have no choice. This is near the top of the ninth inning. And they’ve been pulling white rabbits out of their hat for too long.

Now it’s time for them to pull ...

Did that one get called, or what?

So 108 and 23 played a huge part of “Lighthouse” toward the end of the episode. But what’s Jacob game here?

I’m starting to get a bit impatient about the flashsideways-es. This episode was in my opinion the best single-character centric look at the other timeline, and in spite of himself Jack is a terrific father. But what is the purpose of this other reality… and why are we seeing it at all? Questions abound and the clock is ticking down on opportunities to explain that and the bajillion other mysteries left on Lost.

I’m beginning to think that “Christian Shepherd” on the island was the Man in Black all along, and Claire sided with his camp as long ago as “Cabin Fever”. Sure seems that way, the way Claire introduced Jin to “my friend”.

So is that the explanation for the ...

Reason #1: it’s airing on February 23rd.

Reason #2: this will be the 108th hour of Lost since the show first began airing in fall of 2004.

With 23 being one of “the numbers” and 108 being the sum of the numbers, good money is on tonight’s episode – titled “Lighthouse” – will wind up being rather monumental. Many keen Lost fans noted that last week’s “The Substitute” aired on the eve of Ash Wednesday.

Lost at 9 tonight. Expect the usual post-episode reaction and thoughts afterward on this space 🙂...