It's here, and just like that...it's gone.

No, I'm not talking about the monster, the hatch, or Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's career security. I'm talking about Lost as a whole. In their interest to cut down on the number of momentum-killing repeats, the show will run at least sixteen episodes straight through from February until May. However, that means we are now treated to a lengthy hiatus after just six episodes. If only it had been eight...or ten...or fifty-two. C'mon, guys, just work a little harder. Pssh.

Actually, I really liked this episode. (Except for those boring Kate flashbacks -- a waste of Firefly's Nathan Fillion.) Going into it knowing that nothing would be resolved helped a little, but I was impressed with how they brought everything to a head so swiftly.

First things first: I feel pretty bad for all of the original actors not named Matthew Fox, Evageline Lilly, and Josh Holloway. How many lines has Claire had this season so far? And the subplot with Locke and Sayid post-Eko-death was just plain weak. What, two scenes, Locke sees a weird inscription on Eko's stick, and they're done? And where the heck have Sun and Jin been since the second episode?

Then again, they're all on a hit TV show and shouldn't be complaining. This is the first real structural problem the writers have had keeping every character relevant, and with a cast that's hovered around fourteen regulars, that's not bad.

Anyway, back to the episode at hand: Jack was being a bit of a jackass, no? Once again, I'm sucked into the awesomeness of Ben. So watching him, quite plainly, ask Jack to save his life, was compelling. I felt sorry for the guy. I mean, there's always the wonder that he's playing with everyone's heads, but this time he has a spinal tumor and will die if not helped. He was visibly shaking, telling Jack he'd get him whatever he needed to do the surgery. He's putting himself out there...

And Jack shoots him down.

Which leads me to my main complaint of the episode: I feel the writers meddling too much. They want to give away who the Others are, but not yet, and not so fast, so they stop Jack from saying what I'm fairly convinced any sane person would say:

"Fine. I'll operate on you. But only if you tell me WHO THE HECK YOU PEOPLE ARE."

Makes sense, no? I'm usually one to support the writers in their desire to withhold answers, but when its at odds with logical thought, the seams start to show a little bit.

Ah, but Jack did realize he could use Ben's surgery as a bargaining tool! And wouldn't you know, he choose the most dramatic and dangerous way to do it: essentially, a high stakes game of Chicken. Ben puts his trust in Jack and goes under the knife, and a few seconds in, Jack ruptures something or other. It's all good, because there's about an hour window until the damage is irreversible, and Jack is using that hour to try to secure his friends' safety.

Well, at least Kate. He saw her and Sawyer snuggled up together on the monitors after their little roll in the cage (more on that in a second), so who knows if he still wants Sawyer to survive. And yet -- his little dangerous stunt did (at least temporarily) save Sawyer's life! (I'm choking on irony.) "Pickett", a.k.a. The Other Who's Kind of a Tool, was about to finally kill Sawyer for vague reasons involving the death of his girlfriend which Sawyer had nothing to do with, but no matter, because Jack came through on the walkie-talkie just in time. (I especially like the nicely circular touch of having Jack reference his and Kate's first conversation; how things have changed, yes?)

Unfortunately, Kate failed to tell him, at least before February, that they're not on the same island as their old castaway friends. Whoops. I am rather curious to see how they'll all get out of this one.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: Sawyer and Kate had presumably very smelly but nonetheless totally hot sex. (In the daylight with video cameras! As a close friend suggested to me, maybe the Others just run a hidden-camera porn business.) This only supports my theory that the Others only brought them in order to get Kate impregnated -- notice how Pickett only went after Sawyer after they did the deed?

Thoughts on the show's return in February? I just hope Ben survives, because really, he's ridiculously cool either way. He's a good man underneath a web of mystery? Awesome. He actually is as dangerous as Juliet says (even though I totally believe she's the dangerous traitor, not him)? Awesome. Until then.