Man, what a great title. "The Man from Tallahassee." It's mysterious and important sounding. It also took its name from the whopper of the episode's big final twist. Although it was easy to predict a few minutes beforehand -- Ben wasn't exactly being subtle -- it shakes up the foundation of the show fairly heavily, or at least takes us a big step closer to understanding the island. Locke's dad is on the island. In the flesh.

Is this just another type of mysterious appearance from the past, like Jack's vision of his father, or the horse that Kate saw? What is going through Locke's dad's head right now? All these questions...

This came at the end of a stellar episode of Lost, which I'm happy to say has been nearly continuously excellent since its low-rated return in early February. It's a pity the media has decided to rag on the show thanks to its diminished ratings and the fact that it's no longer as "hip" as a newer show like Heroes, but for those of us who've stuck with the show, it's been very good to us after the ill-advised six-episode fall run. (By the way, the show's ratings have steadied quite nicely after their initial dip post-hiatus. It still doesn't get numbers like it did in the first and second seasons, but the past six episodes have all posted nearly identical numbers, meaning that it's no longer losing viewers; everyone who followed it to 10pm is sticking with it.)

Anyway, enough business talk. Let's get to the plot. Here are some things I either learned or were reinforced to me over the course of the episode.

1. I guess Jack's not brainwashed. I guess. That was certainly what Kate thought at the end of the previous episode, in which Jack was found playing a happy-go-lucky game of catch with Tom, who, may I remind you, used to be known as The Crazy-Creepy Guy Who Kidnapped Walt. Turns out Jack is just appeasing the Others by playing the nice guy until he can leave the darn island on the submarine. I never really assumed he was brainwashed per se, although I stand by my assumption that Ben has always intended to slowly pacify Jack until he didn't think the Others were "bad" anymore. Heck, Ben told Jack that himself back before the surgery.

2. Ben is a sneaky bastard. Or, Locke is forever doomed to be the sucker. So Locke finally revealed why he had been acting so weird to Sayid and Kate, and why he had brought along the dynamite to Othersville: he was never after Jack, he just wanted to blow up the submarine. (He wants everyone to stay on the island because it "brought them here for a reason" and healed his legs, remember?) He told all this to Ben, who was able to contain his delight until after Locke went ahead and did it. See, Ben didn't know what to do with Jack: letting him go home would be a sign of weakness in front of his people, but killing him would be going against his word -- which would make his people distrust him. Now that Locke destroyed the only means of departure, Ben doesn't have to do either.

This, in my eyes, was a huge reveal of what kind of guy, exactly, Ben is -- a leader with a keen focus on his people and what he needs to do to stay in charge. To be honest, I think it somewhat diminished Ben as a character -- he went from creepy and unsettling to just plain power-hungry. Still, it was sharply illuminating for more than just that reason. Ben admitted to Locke near the end of the episode that he didn't know how Locke's connection to the island worked, and he seemed just as clueless about the "box" the Others seemingly possess. (A box, remember, was only Ben's way of explaining it to Locke -- I wonder what it really is.)

What I'm getting at is that Ben, and the Others, don't know the secrets of the island any better than the castaways do. In other words, they're a "surface mystery" -- not a part of the otherworldly aspects of the show. From a structural standpoint, I've noticed the show is very keen on creating season-long story arcs, answerless though they may be. I remember co-creator Damon Lindelof once said that the Others would be the focus of season three in much the same way the Hatch was the focus of season two. Does that mean they'll fall by the wayside in favor of the "deeper" island mystery by season four? Pure conjecture, sure, but it makes the focus of season four seem all the more tantalizing. Will we delve into the nature of the mysterious Jacob? How about the Black Rock? Or the smoke monster? Is Jacob the smoke monster? Or my personal favorite -- is Jacob one of our beloved castaways who doesn't even know it? (And no, I have no idea how that would work, either. But it might involve time travel.)

I could ruminate like this for hours. Onto the next bit...

3. Wow, so that's how Locke ended up in a wheelchair. His dad, con man extraordinaire Anthony Cooper, pushed him out of a freakin' window. Locke plummeted eight stories to the ground below and, as he told Ben, "felt my back break." I read somewhere online that said Locke's survival wasn't plausible, which is BS of the highest order -- I once saw a documentary about a guy who survived a 100+ foot free-fall. I don't know how worse your chances get when you land on your back, but it's called artistic license, folks. You're watching a show with a smoke monster in it.

Anyway, the details: Cooper was about to marry a woman when her suspicious son dug into his background a little bit, found Locke thanks to the kidney transfer, and showed up to ask Locke if Cooper was on the up-and-up. Instead of just telling the poor kid, Locke lied and later went to confront his dad himself. Bad move -- the kid soon ended up dead, and when Locke went to ask Cooper if he had done it, Cooper pushed him out the window. Wow. Everybody knows the guy's a complete jackass now, but I didn't quite believe he was that capable of murder.

Turns out we may get to find out plenty about his psyche now, because somehow he's on the island and in the Others' captivity. Again, Ben said he got there by coming through a box in which anything you wanted to appear, would. Just think about the possibilities that has for the show. Also, anybody want to bet that Locke, his dad, and Othersville won't be in the next episode at all?