That would be Episode 5 of Season 4, titled "The Constant".
With the utmost of respect and admiration for dK's own Jeff Lieber, first writer and creator of this outstanding television series -- whose original storyline was changed dramatically and revamped with a new team ABC selected to develop it further, leaving Jeff uninvolved in the subsequent series that's aired to date, I just have to say that notwithstanding that whole authorship complexity, I think LOST is the finest novel ever translated to celluloid, regardless of whether distributed on TV or on a theatrical screen.
Only it wasn't a novel. It's one of the most complex character puzzles I have ever seen, in any media form. It has had an exquisite structure, character-driven writing, and plotting that -- well -- crosses multiple dimensions.
It was expressly written as a 5-season fully contained story, start to finish, and practically every component of every episode has had impact and significance to multiple events, past and future, as well as to the thrulines of each "lost" character.
I've been blown away by it... It makes Godfather Part 2 -- one of my favorite films of all time -- somewhat small, by comparison, in this respect only: Never have I seen before LOST so many characters all elaborately impacting a narrative with such complexity, moving in time, past, present, and future. For me that's extraordinary because Francis Coppola, as a writer and director, has been and remains one of a handful of directors who can manage such a huge canvas -- and expertly fill it with perfection. Bernardo Bertolucci is another, particularly with his epic film 1900.
I don't have a specific point to make in this diary. I just felt like capturing these feelings somewhere where there is a wide spectrum community of users, who are amongst the smartest people I know (the dK community).
For those who follow the show, you will perhaps relate to what I am saying; for those who don't, it will read as foolishness. That's okay with me.
The complex character development & plotting of LOST has been meticulously laid out and assembled, apparently, across this 5 year arc, with Season 1 performing a specific purpose, Season 2 introducing a whole new set of characters, season 3 introducing yet another new set of characters, and now, in Season 4, yet another. To manage all of that complexity and not have the thing topple over makes it, to me, a piece of art, far beyond simply a dose of entertainment weekly.
Tonight's episode revealed a large chunk of the mystery that ties the entire cross-time tapestry together. And the show was expertly crafted and ultimately very satisfying as it, once again, throws an entire new dimension into the works. I say terrifying because, as with any great story, one gets invested in the characters (otherwise it's not a great story), and tonight's episode was, for me, very disconcerting. I hope the story's resolution, next year, will pay it all off... because there's a fork in the road right here: It either continues to astound, peeling the onion back even further, and further still, to reveal a central truth or core that has great meaning, or it has now crossed the line into which it could play into an enormous disappointment.
Given the quality of the writing, and stewardship of the story to date, I'm hoping for the former.
A postscript: for anyone who has been intrigued by the story, but has heard "it's just too complicated to jump into at this late stage", that's partially true. But there are two remedies that could enable newcomers to the show to still enjoy it in real time from now, til its conclusion next year:
The first is obvious: rent the DVDs from prior seasons and, as John Amato at Crooks & Liars likes to say, "power thru them"... Or, second, to the credit of some very fine editors who pulled it all together, ABC released a a recap episode* (iTunes Link), at the start of this season, which was amazingly thorough yet condensed into 42 minutes (without commercials). This recap episode is called: Past, Present, and Future -- and you can download it on iTunes -- it costs $2 -- well worth it.
*The link will open a browser window, which will open your iTunes application, and go to the correct page for downloading. If there are problems, go to TV Shows > Lost > Season 4 > Past, Present & Future.
http://phobos.apple.com/...