Well we’re only on a brief break until the approximately five additional post strike episodes start to air in late April, but I have to say I can’t wait. Since we’ve come back this season the introduction of a post island life for some and how we all get there is quite a nice shakeup. And of course keeping the focus on fan favorite original Losties doesn’t hurt. It also makes us more willing to be interested by a bit of the new. But seriously the way they keep introducing new mysteries while almost resolving the old is as infuriating as it is interesting.

So where are we at since last we spoke? We learned that there is a definite difference between time on and off the island, the repercussions of which we have yet to fully see. We watched Desmond’s consciousness get hijacked on the transition off the island via chopper to his life in a different time, or vice versa. Desmond is a little more susceptible to things since he got all blown up in the radioactive hatch, resulting in his future flashes among other things. So past Desmond met past Science guy from “not Penelope’s boat’ and through contacting his beloved Penelope via a macgyvered ship phone, grounded himself again. And we were a little choked up at their loving call, she’ll find him! And maybe she will, because we also learned that it is Penelope’s dad’s boat.

We also got a little more info on Juliet. She’s apparently quite the hussy and was having an affair with unhappily married Other Goodwin (who went and joined the tailies, and was of course eventually killed). This all came out as we met the scorned wife who tried to warn her, for Ben, that the boat people were off to hit the lethal gas (that Ben had previously used to kill the dharma folks for the Others). Though the boat people don’t have the best diplomatic skills they did in fact deactivate the gas. And of course Juliet wasn’t the most forthcoming about all the info since she was all preoccupied as we learned that Ben had a big thing for her (because she looked just like “her”?) and was responsible for her Goodwin’s death. So now she’s worried about Jack since she has feelings for him, though how long has Goodwin been dead for? Hussy. (Does the island heal inner wounds as well, Hurley lost Libby, Claire lost Charlie, Sayid lost Shannon… hmm if this is love I fear for the next island couple…)

So no one trusts Juliet including Sun who not long ago found out she was pregnant and if she doesn’t get off the island she should be scheduled to die in her second trimester. But does she believe her? When asking if the boat people were going to rescue them Science guy had to admit it wasn’t his call. So Sun decides to get away from them and go visit Locke’s group, but Juliet feels so strongly that she shouldn’t leave and risk not getting off the island that she outed Sun’s pre island affair. But Jin forgave her and said he’d always be with her, which as we learned through flash forwards is the kiss of death. Sun joins the Oceanic 6 off island and has a successful birth, which we are delighted about until we find her visiting Jin at the cemetery.

And while the island whatnot is going down, Desmond and Sayid met some boat people, apparently hired by Penelope’s dad to track down Ben. Boat people have the black box to the wreckage of the supposed Oceanic 815 with all the passenger’s corpses accounted for. And they at least implied that Ben was behind it. And if you recall Ben has someone on the boat. Michael’s back! Turns out he and Walt got off the island, and were living under assumed names of course. He fessed up to Walt about his shenanigans to get them off the island and he wasn’t forgiven (killing Ana Lucia and Libby and of course generally turning on his friends). When given the opportunity to save the island folks and try to redeem himself a little, by none other than the Others. So after a couple of failed suicide attempts he boarded the freighter and is responsible for its sabotage (being told that these folks staged crashed Oceanic 815 and will kill everyone left on the island after getting Ben). Sayid couldn’t let Michael the traitor be and turned him in to the boat people.

Oh and Ben is of course manipulating Locke and he’s hanging with that bunch of folks out of confinement by sharing all he knows… which so far isn’t much. And he sent his ‘daughter’ off to theoretically join the Others in safety but her boyfriend and her mother both seem to be gunned down in the middle of the jungle leaving her alone with the unknown shooters.

The list of questions brought about are endless but here are a few of my top new ones:

• Who are the bad guys?
• Who is behind the big cover up and staging the fake plan,  Ben, Penny’s dad, soemone else?
• How did the Oceanic 6 (Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sayid, Hurley, Sun) get chosen, forced, allowed or whatever to leave?
• Who are the two unsurviving survivors?
• Who was the guy in the coffin?
• Is anyone besides Ben of the non Oceanic 6 islanders hanging around off island in the future?
• Was that Walt back on the island or was Locke hallucinating?
• What’s up with Jin’s death? Is he really dead?
• What happened to Claire? And why is Kate pretending to be Aaron’s mom?
• Are people still on the island and if so who and why?
• What the hell is Ben doing off the island controlling things? And why is Sayid working with him?
• What’s up with the passing of time and how much time has passed? (did Walt’s grandma say they had been gone for two months? before he got on the freighter in fiji…?)
• What turns Jack from “Not Going Back” guy to “We Have to Go Back” guy.
• How and why is the frickin’ island controlling their lives?