When it comes to answering the many great mysteries of Lost, last night’s episode didn’t do much. What it did do, though, was give us a character-driven episode that belongs on the show’s highlight reel.

Read on for thoughts on last night’s episode and the final three episodes of this season.

Who’s story is this?
Though there are many characters on the show and most of them have had at least a flashback or two – heck, Rose and Bernard had flashback last season and we haven’t even seen them yet this year – there are obviously characters who are more key than others. And my question is, if there’s one central character in this story, who might that character be? Ben? Jack? Desmond? The mysterious Jacob? It’s interesting that three seasons into the show, this can’t be definitively answered. After last night, though, we’re obviously meant to think that one possible answer to this question is Locke.

“We’re the good guys, Michael.”
Last night Ben told Locke that to complete his journey and fully join The Others, thus learning the full secrets of the island, Locke would have to let go of his past, and that meant killing his father. Ben has asserted before that The Others are the good guys, and I’m inclined to believe that sooner or later we’re going to see that’s true, at least from a certain point of view. But what kind of “good guy” encourages you to kill your parent? Or is this just the full application of the eye-for-an-eye philosophy The Others seem to uphold?

Sawyer goes Princess Leia on Cooper
Locke couldn’t bring himself to kill Cooper, so he went back to the castaways, dangled a carrot in front of Sawyer, and led him back to the Black Rock under the guise that Ben was waiting there. Once they reached the ship, Locke led Sawyer to the ship’s brig, then barricaded him inside with Cooper and let nature take its course. I wasn’t sure Sawyer was going to go through with it since Hurley helped him get a bit of a personality makeover this season, but once Sawyer realized Cooper was the man who conned his mother, that character growth went out the window. Cooper mocked Sawyer, and Sawyer responded by wrapping chains around his neck and choking the life out of him. It was shocking and ugly, even if it did make me think of Princess Leia killing Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.

Locke: The Ultimate Narcissist?
But we do see that Sawyer’s not the same person he was when he arrived on the island, because he’s a complete mess after killing Cooper. I don’t know about anybody else watching the show, but this was the first time I found myself hating Locke and viewing him as at least something of a villain. He’s done this kind of stuff before – he was, after all, at least partially responsible for Boone’s death – but after last night’s episode, he strikes me as the perfect person to join The Others. Thus far, only Ben comes close to being such a narcissist.

We Don’t Know Jack?
There are clear lines of division forming on the beach. Hurley, Jin, and Desmond decide they can’t trust Jack given his time with The Others and his closeness to Juliet. They bring in Sayid, who very reluctantly tells Kate about Naomi, the parachutist in the tent. Kate then runs to Jack, who refuses to leave Juliet’s side, so Kate tells him about Naomi and then tells him that nobody trusts him anymore. And here’s where we get the big tease of the episode. Juliet tells Jack, “You have to tell her,” and Jack refuses. In the trailer for upcoming episodes, Sawyer’s playing the recording of Juliet telling The Others about Sun’s pregnancy. Juliet, you’re about to be busted. But this makes we wonder…

Who’s in charge here?
Did Locke steal the recorder, or did Ben give it to him? We don’t know definitively. More importantly, we saw further evidence of The Others not completely sold on Ben’s leadership. Or at least, that’s what Richard would have us believe. Of course, Richard giving Sawyer’s file to Locke may have been Ben’s idea, but there’s another intriguing option just under the surface, and that has to do with one the season’s big mysteries:

Who is Jacob?
The Lost team has promised that we’ll know the identity of Jacob by the end of the season, and it makes sense for it to be revealed next week. I think the odds are that Jacob is going to be someone we haven’t seen before, but what if that isn’t the case? If we have seen Jacob before, my money is on the big reveal showing us that Richard is Jacob. Maybe that’s why Richard goes to Locke behind Ben’s back. And maybe it also explains why Juliet semi-jokingly tells Richard that she wouldn’t be able to work for him unless her ex-husband was hit by a bus, and a few days later, Juliet witnesses that very thing happen.