The Little Prince

LOST LESSON NUMERO UNO: Always pay attention to the "Previously, on LOST..." segments. They will provide all your answers.

Or maybe just MOST of them. Because, honestly, after seeing that, who DIDN'T know that it was going to be Claire's mom hanging in the hotel room? (Maybe it was just me, but that hotel looked an awful lot like the one in which Locke met up with his dad way back when...) But, as usual, LOST threw out the red herring to throw us off the scent. (Ew. Scent. Fish. Bad metaphor, Clegg!)

So anyway, last night's "The Little Prince" gave those of us who were about to start bleeding our brains out our noses, too, time to slow down and figure out WTF (what the frak) is going on. Charlotte came to, only a little worse for wear after her face plant last week, but was ultimately joined by both Miles and Juliet later in the episode in the nosebleed department. The castaways also did their fair share of time jumping last night: their transfer from 1954 jumped ahead to by 50 years to 2004, about a month after their crash landing on the island to the night Boone died, Aaron was born, and Locke was demanding answers from the Hatch. After hearing screaming in the jungle, Sawyer trekked ahead to investigate, only to peep in on Kate delivering Claire's little bundle-o-joy. After his somber peep show, the castaways jumped to a point in time after the O6 left the island. Someone else seemingly has shown up, however, as indicated by an Ajira Airlines water bottle stowed in the outrigger they stumbled upon on the now-reappeared beach camp. Then, whilst rowing said outrigger to the Orchid station, where Locke wants to see what's what, they jump again back to 1988, when 16 years old and pregnant Danielle Rousseau and her band of merry scientist men are shipwrecked on the island.

Through all that, the castaways have realized the need to talk it out. (I swear, some of the moments between people last night could have made for some serious therapy sessions.) Locke and Sawyer dwell on the past, and how it has affected their present/future, and ultimately, (as Sawyer later tells Juliet) what's "done is done." Daniel seems to know more about Miles than he's letting on: after Miles reveals that he, too, is bleeding from his brain, Daniel lets on that Miles has (most likely) been to the island before, providing more fodder for the message boards that Miles is Marvin Chang's baby, and was born on the island. Juliet and Sawyer have a heart-to-heart, after which she, an island-dwelling Other for years on end, starts nosebleed-ing, too. My question on that is this: Was her feel-good convo with Sawyer the thing that started her decline? We all know that their relationship is moving toward expanding the love triangle on the island, but after Sawyer pretty much professes his undying love for Kate, does that start to unravel constant-less Juliet?

Meanwhile, the O6 are getting along just swimmingly. And by "swimmingly," (do I get extra points for using it TWICE?!) I mean totally not so. Kate tries to strike a bargain with the lawyer (who has made a stunning recovery from his death by chemical-plant insecticide on last week's 24!) out for her and Aaron's blood, Sayid has his hands full trying to avoid another dose of horse tranqulizer darts, Hurley's kickin' it in a bright orange jumpsuit, Sun's playing babysitter (remind me never to leave my child with a vengeful, pistol-toting woman who's going to let him loose on the candy in the mini-bar and plop him in front of the TV) to Aaron while Kate stalks the lawyer, and Jack's busy trying to make Kate trust him again, while almost cluing Claire's mom in on something (namely, that that famous kid is her grandson!) about which she has no clue. Fast forward to the end, and all the above mentioned folks (with the exception of Hurley, of course) meet up on the docks of Long Beach with the world's winningest master manipulator, Ben. Kate (finally) puts two and two together and realize that it's Ben siccing the law on her, then the camera cuts to Sun, clutching her chocolate-box pistol ready to bust a move.

The show closes with answering a burning question: JIN IS ALIVE! YAY! Though, he must not understand as much English as he thought, because did that woman just say her name was DANIELLE ROUSSEAU? I have to admit, although I totally knew it was Jin floating all Leo-like before the shipwrecked crew flipped him over.

Overall, a good let's-talk-this-out episode, but after last night, I'm ready for some more mind-blowing action next week. Bring it, LOST, bring it on.