Lost: 'What They Died For' Review

After this latest episode of Lost, I'm struck by the fact that the show only has 2.5 hours remaining. Not everything is going to be explained, and some fans are most definitely not going to be happy. This doesn't bother me quite so much after this week's "What They Died For." The writers are telling their story, the one they want to tell, and it doesn't appear, at least at this juncture, to be pure fanservice. I can't wait to see how their vision ends.

But, I digress. On to "What They Died For." I was more than a little concerned at the beginning of this episode, especially coming off of last week's "Across the Sea," which I felt was misplaced in the season. Turns out I was wrong on both counts. "Across the Sea" set up "What They Died For" beautifully. And what's more, this week's episode showed enough forward momentum (or at least as much as a penultimate episode which exists to set up a finale can) to make me genuinely excited for this Sunday's finale.

"What They Died For" packed a lot of information and a lot of movement into a short time frame, even if the plot advances were sporadic. A major complaint from fans this season has been that Lost has spent too much time wandering in circles. That definitely wasn't the case tonight. The writers remained a little cagey, and played plenty coy in places, but the major reveals and answered questions more than make up for that, and fans should feel confident about the way Lost will wrap up.

"What They Died For" had some issues to be sure. The dialog in places, especially in the early scene with Jack stitching up Kate and the way too on-the-nose conversation between alternate-universe Ben and Rousseau, was heavy-handed and literal to the point where it was almost insulting to the audience's intelligence. But then again Lost tends to ditch its subtlety when it doubts itself.

The good in "What They Died For" far outweighs any clumsiness. It really seemed like everything was beginning to come together this week (but make no mistake - this is a set-up episode), from the alternate timeline and the reveal that Hurley is as aware as Desmond to the appointment of the new island protector, Jack (as if there was any doubt from the beginning of this Candidate stuff). We also found out why the Candidates were chosen, and were able to witness the triumphant return of Ben's duplicitous evilness. Ben's recent disuse was made up for tonight wonderfully, though I think everyone more or less predicted that he would be killing Widmore as soon as he could. I had forgotten how much I missed Ben's scheming, and New Otherton itself, for that matter.

Most refreshing of all tonight was that Lost was relatively straightforward and upfront with its answers. Whether that will continue through to Sunday night's "The End" is yet to be seen, but "What They Died For" gives me hope.