The hiatus is over! After suffering for a few weeks, our favorite show is back tonight, hopefully picking up from the carnage of where we left off. The last thing we saw was Danielle and Karl getting gunned down by an unknown assassin and Alex begging for her life. It’s been a while since I watched an episode not knowing who’s centric it’s going to be…which really adds to the mystery of the upcoming episode.

01:10 Oh yeah…Kate’s getting nekked in the opening shot. This is already my favorite episode EVER!

03:07 Crap…Ecklie’s dead. I guess Grissom needed him back in Vegas. I thought they were 80 nautical miles from the island…that’s a long way to drift.

04:11 Locke’s camp really has settled into their new digs, play board games as though nothing was going on.

04:40 Keamy’s got Alex…that settles that little mystery. And he’s with a bunch of them. They got all those people on the helicopter? Apparently, she’s sent a warning code b/c the bat phone rings in Ben’s house.

06:25 I guess this is a Ben flash, since he just woke up in the Sahara Desert. Forward or back? And what is that strange Dharma logo on his jacket? I don’t think we’ve seen that one before. Ooooh with the Halliwax name on the jacket too. Looks like he’s been shot too.

09:17 If your best chance of survival is to trust Ben, you’ve got yourself a major problem. And do the Others have a code for everything? Apparently everything except theres-a-man-in-my-closet-with-a-gun-to-my-daughters-head.

10:56 Ooooh…redshirt gets a line…and is immediately shot! LMAO

11:13 A redshirt massacre…they’re dropping like flies. A lot of extras just lost their regular gig.

11:45 Hmmm…as much as it would please me, I seriously doubt if Claire was in that house. They wouldn’t kill a major character offscreen…this isn’t No Country For Old Men, not that I’m still bitter about that one.

11:50 Ben’s in Tunisia, which is where Charlotte found that polar bear. I’m getting the sense that this if a flashforward.

12:48 Confirmed…October 24th, 2005, which is about 10 months ahead of when we are on the island.

13:14 Future Sayid wants to bury his wife in peace? What’s that all about? Huh?

14:01 Yes, they need to go to the cabin. I love Jacob’s cabin. If I was an invisible spirit and had a cabin on a mysterious island, I would want mine to look just like Jacob’s. I would definitely keep it a little tidier though.

14:20 Crap…Claire’s alive, but delirious…as usual.

16:11 Yes! A Mile’s sighting. I love how he just walked up and rang the doorbell like he was the Avon lady.

16:34 Ben’s now in Iraq…no doubt to find future Sayid.

18:34 Hmmm…apparently Nadia was Sayid’s wife who’s now dead. He didn’t waste anytime once he got off the island. He gets off island around, say, January, and by October, he’s married. Widmore’s people are killing off Oceanic Six relatives and loved ones? Pure evil…

24:08 R.I.P. Alex. I don’t know what to say now. That was pretty brutal. I’m not sure if Ben was believing what he was saying or if he was just trying to convince himself of it. In either case, he was in a no win situation. Pretty shocking series of events right there. This is why I love this show. No other show would have gone there.

25:32 Ben just opened up his secret room, closed a secret barrier, and opened up a secret door within the secret room! A little overkill if you ask me. Wild stuff going on in this episode…

26:40 Ben is being held at gunpoint by the Iraqi dude who killed Nadia. My money is on Sayid saving the day and killing this dude.

27:03 Too easy!

28:30 Hmmm…wry grin by Ben makes me wonder if he set up Sayid to work for him. You never know with Ben. I’m still saying Widmore is responsible for Nadia’s death, but there’s a lot of doubt in my mind.

29:40 LMAO…did Ben just summon smokie? This is beyond cool!

30:19 LMAO…smokie just fucked up all the freighter dudes! That may have just been the greatest thing I’ve ever seen…other than that video of the dog who used a small raft to get a ball in the middle of a swimming pool. That was pretty fucking cool too!

31:27 Poor Ben. You don’t often see him in this state. He’s always in total control, so you have to feel for the guy.

32:39 Thankfully, Bernard knows Morse code and calls out Daniel on his lie.

33:48 No, Jack, they’re not taking you off this island. And something is wrong with him…I should clarify, something is physically wrong with him.

35:55 Tense scene between Locke, Ben, Sawyer, and Hurley. Sawyer, Claire, and Aaron are heading back to the beach camp while Locke and Ben need Hurley to find Jacob’s cabin. So, now there are three groups. How is it that Ben and Locke have lost the ability to commune with Jacob, yet Hurley, who doesn’t even know anything about him, knows how to find him? So confused…

41:11 Wow…so much to digest in that final scene. Everything Ben has he stole from Widmore? Obviously, there is much more backstory there and Widmore isn’t just some random dude looking for the island. Ben knows him well…and now since Alex is dead, he’s going after Penny. And how is the island lost again? Why can’t anyone find it?

Amazing episode…which you would expect from a Ben-centric episode. Future episodes are set up, Locke’s group has divided, end of the Barracks, Alex’s shocking murder, the origin of the Sayid-Ben alliance, Daniel’s lies are exposed, Jack is sick/hurt, Ben-Widmore feud has escalated with an unknown backstory still to be told, future threats on Penny’s life…that’s a lot to get from one episode. You can’t get much better than that.

9 out of 10 coconuts