They're back!

Yes, I'm talking about our way-too-cool-to-miss-the-first-two-episodes characters known as John Locke, Mr. Eko, and Desmond, brotha. (Does he have a last name? I'm pretty sure they mentioned it in the Season 2 finale, but I forget, so somebody let me know.) Of course, as a penalty for giving them all so much screen time, we had to deal with a week away from our love-triangle-in-captivity known as Jack, Sawyer, and Kate (a triangle which Others seem to be trying to force Jack out of, perhaps so that Sawyer and Kate can get busy with it to give them another newborn baby to steal?)

Anyway, this episode belonged to Locke, although I must say (pun alert!) that its depiction of Desmond was the most "revealing". (Ho, ho. Okay, now I'm satisfied.) Seems that all three of the men stuck in the Hatch blacked out, but they ended up in very different circumstances: Locke found himself lying on the forest floor (in a nice homage to the series' opening shot of Jack) unhurt but suddenly mute; Desmond likewise on the forest floor, but instead of mute, stark naked; and Mr. Eko, caputred by a polar bear. Yeah, you read that right.

It was kind of a "what the...?" moment when we found out about Eko's plight, but then, the whole episode garnered that response, at least as soon as Locke and Charlie played charades and Boone showed up. And man, I miss that guy. He was a somewhat underutilized season one character, but he is missed (and kudos to Ian Somerhalder for being a good sport and returning). I also liked his little dig at Locke, referencing a line to Jack in the first season finale: "After all, John, I was the sacrifice the island demanded," he deadpans. Nice.

Allow me to be coherent for a moment for the people who haven't seen the episode: Locke, going back to his weirdo-meditation-man persona, builds a hut and drugs himself so that he may "talk to the island". The island manifests itself, I guess, in the form of Boone, who walks Locke in a dream through a metaphor-filled airport: a married Charlie and Claire, playing with Aaron; Desmond as a pilot; Jack, Sawyer, and Kate getting their baggage checked by Henry/Ben; and so on. (I also liked Boone's little hints about future story arcs: concerning Charlie and Claire, he says, "No, they'll be fine...for a while.") The acid trip ends with Boone revealing that Locke needed to save Eko.

So while Locke hunts for Eko and the polar bear, with Charlie in tow for comic relief, Hurley returns as well, and kindly lets Desmond borrow a massive tide-dyed shirt. When Hurley asks what to do about the captive Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, Desmond offhandedly responds that Locke will take care of it; he said so in his speech. What speech, Hurley reasonably asks, and Desmond looks confused before shrugging it off.

The kicker, of course, as I predicted (yeah, I'm awesome...no big deal), is that Locke does make a speech telling everyone he'll figure out a way to save the trio -- after Desmond makes his comment. This neat little moment redeemed an episode that could've been a bit hokey, and opens up the question: what happened to Desmond in between turning the fail-safe Hatch key and waking up naked in the woods? Lose some clothes here, gain some fortune-telling power there...

One final question, though: what's up with Paulo and Nikki? You know, those two new characters who pretended they had been on the show all along? I'm all for bringing extras into the forefront and mining the thirty-odd extra survivors for new characters; personally, I think they should give more lines to the other survivors in general (R.I.P., Arzt). But don't you think their introduction was a little bit...awkward? Sure, reason says that our main characters have interacted with these people before, and the series just didn't show it, but to have Nikki say things like "We need Jack!" and "When were you going to tell us this, Hurley?" seemed completely out of the blue. You're not fooling anyone; while Jack and Hurley were having fun in the hatch, you were on crappy cancelled shows like Related. How about being introduced in a more inconspicuous way, maybe like coming up to Locke and saying, "Hey, I know I've never talked to you, but do you mind if I help you on your rescue mission?"

I really hope there's a point next week where Hurley stops everyone and goes, "Hey wait...who the heck are you?"

Till then...