3x10, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead"

And thus a new entrant into the Top Ten (well, almost).

Yes, the title was a spoiler.

Hope -- it's funny how much I missed it. LOST's first season in many ways was about hope. Each episode someone seemed to find some sort of resolution or at least a direction of growth that pointed to a resolution. Season 2 had the meta-storyline of The Button which shifted the hope conversation into one about faith: how does one maintain hope in the face of contrary evidence? While I've enjoyed Season 3, it has been a relentless psychological mindfuck. (And should we expect anything less from The Others?) We needed some sunshine, and this eppy was it.

From the first scene, we knew what would really be weighing Hurley down: the memory of Libby. Everything that came after that was just a stand-in for that loss. Worse was the seeming inevitability of everyone around him dying. Charlie telling him Desmond's prophecy didn't surprise him, just further confirmed for him what he come to accept his own fate to be.

*Fate, free will, destiny, faith -- a lot of the major themes were played around with in very subtle ways. We've been set-up to believe the NUMBERS are cursed and there's nothing that can be done about them. Father issues tend to be major factors in each character's backstories, usually resolving with the father or father figure abandoning his son or daughter. Here both LOST "traditions" were teased and subverted. Even Charlie staring death in the face as the DHARMA Bug plunged down the hillside ended up being a life affirming moment rather than just another case of fate and destiny having its way. Is that all we need to really change our bad fate: to stare it in the face and dare it to bring it's worst?

*The bug was everyone's escape: Sawyer getting away from Kate, Jin getting away from Sun's pressure to learn English, Hurley getting away from the memory of Libby and Charlie avoiding his fate. Brilliantly executed. Bringing everyone back to camp, newly restored, just emphasized that. Everyone, except of course for for Sawyer.

*Kate/Sawyer -- another brilliantly executed bit. Right when you think they'll make up they don't... they're just not like that.

*It's interesting that Hurley's bad luck didn't hold. In the Lost Experience online game from the summer of '06, it was made clear the NUMBERS are universal constants factoring into The Valenzetti Equation, a formula that predicted the exact time the world would end. Basically: yeah, dude, the NUMBERS are cursed. So, Sawyer, you are wrong: hope lives on this Island. Indeed, was the Island selected by Alvar Hanso, The DeGroots and The DHARMA Intiative because it is the ONLY place on earth hope definitely lives, the last chance to change the Equation and save mankind?

*Time: oddly enough the weird Time stuff going on may be reflected in the DHARMA beer still being drinkable after all these years. Either that or Sawyer has a senseless tongue and iron stomach.

*Was it just me, or did the Push the DHARMA Bug scene remind anyone of Little Miss Sunshine?

*Poor, Roger. I kept thinking this was a reference to the Amazing Screw-On Head. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future we see Roger's backstory crossed with someone else's only to know he would go to The Island and die while transporting recylcing.

*I need to compile a Top Ten of the eppy's best lines... but there were so damned MANY of them.

NEXT WEEK: The Sayid-centric "Enter 77"