So, Lost went “Through the Looking Glass” [Full Review of Last Night’s Episode] to tremendous effect: the show hasn’t had this much buzz since the first season, and the contrary voices are suddenly few and far between (Even Matt over at Be Something has seen the light again). One of the things that Lost has always thrived on is questions: questions of its future, questions of the island. And, well, we’re now left with a fairly big one to ponder.

Where do we go from here?

The largest source of disagreement that I’ve seen is over what structure the show takes in the coming years. Here’s the two most plausible, in my view, options:

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It was inevtable: after weeks of high-octane drama and intense backstories, Lost has finally had what could be described as a slow episode. “Greatest Hits” followed the story of Jack and the rest of the castaways preparing for the arrival of The Others, which had its timetable moved up much to their chagrin. And, based greatly on its structure, the episode has officially done it: they’ve broken the streak of kickass episodes. Why? Well, since Charlie developed his own Top Five list, I figure I should only do the same. Thus, without further adieu…

The 5 Reasons Why “Greatest Hits” Broke the Streak

5. Charlie’s Life Still Seems Inconsequential

Look, I liked Charlie better in this episode than I have in weeks, and I actually thought it was a strong arc for the character. His trip down memory lane was perhaps his least offensive set of flashbacks yet, and it added some needed depth to his character (although not enough to match up with drug addict Charlie which was much more compelling). The problem is that such an emotional arc required me to care…and I don’t. I don’t care if Charlie lives or dies, and although he becomes more important at episode’s end I just wasn’t getting the sense of loss the episode was asking of me.

4. A Lack of Inner-Castaway Tension

Things smoothed over too quickly between Jack and everyone else, even though Sayid is clearly still at odds with him. There was a lack of drama in their proceedings outside of their rush to prepare for the Others’ arrival, and the result was a rather conflict-free scenarios. People seemed to accept the Juliet thing far too easily, and we never really got to see anyone’s emotional reaction to things. I would have even liked to see some romantic triangle stuff, as it would at the very least have been something more diverse and interesting compared to the rather dull series of characters we had paraded in front of us (It was nice to see Rose and Bernard back, though).

3. The Lack of The Others

I’ve argued in the past that the first six episodes of this season were not a complete failure because they allowed us to understand and engage with the world of the Others. I believe that those episodes have allowed for the last series of episodes to be that much better, because we start to believe Ben and Juliet, specifically, as real characters. We’ve become as tangled up in their pasts as we have that of Jack or Sawyer or Locke, and I think that it’s been something fresh and interesting about them. While we’ve spent three seasons with Charlie, we’re just getting to know Juliet and Ben…and then we got nothing about them in this episode. We spent all of “The Man Behind the Curtain” learning titillating clues about who The Others are, and then we see them for only a minute the next episode. That’s a problem, and one that’s tough to ignore.

2. The [Mostly Absent] Looking Glass

I put this here not because it was a negative part of the episode, but rather that it never really got a chance to be a part of the episode. I know that I personally was keeping in the back of my mind that Juliet had mentioned some sort of event taking place at the station found underwater down the beach, but it just seemed to take a backseat too much of the time to Charlie’s journey as opposed to his end goal. It was clearly the real jumping off point (Next week’s finale is titled “Through the Looking Glass”), and I couldn’t help but be impatient for them to return to it as I watched the rest of the episode. That resulted in even more annoyance with the above three problems, and further struggles to match the efforts of previous weeks.

1. Dude, Where’s Locke?

We have no idea what happened to Locke. Terry O’Quinn took the episode off, apparently, and the result was just a brief scene of post-gunfire Ben to satisfy our curiosity as to what happened to our favourite character. Seriously, Lost, you can’t do this to me. The episode certainly set things up for the finale (“Beach goes boom!”, “Looking Glass = Occupied”), but what about Locke? I had admittedly forgotten about him by the time we first saw Ben mid-episode, which shows that the beginning of the episode wasn’t terrible by any means, but once I realized he was missing…I was pissed. I feel like I did back when we finally returned to the beach earlier this season after spending so much time with The Others. I felt like it was good to be back, but part of me longed for what I left behind. I guess you could say that, for me, the greatest hits have changed, and I want more of Locke, Ben, and the mysteriously un-aged Richard. And I want to know what the hell happened to Locke, damnit!

Next week, Lost heads “Through the Looking Glass” for its two-hour finale. What will we learn about Jack that we haven’t learned already? Can the finale regain its momentum heading towards an apparently show-changing end? And who exactly are the people guarding the Looking Glass? We’ll find out at 9pm EST next week, when Lost has its third season finale.

For a recap of the episode’s major moments, click on the link below.

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