It's not very often when Lost's flash story doesn't concentrate on a single character, as it did this week. In fact, the sideways reality features many of the characters in equal part and it was the highlight of the episode. I must say that lately, I'm enjoying the alternate story more than the happenings on the island. Take the sideways events this week, for instance. So much happened at such a breakneck pace that it seems like the writers realized they're running out of racetrack. We got Desmond bringing together Claire and Jack at their father's will reading. Jack could hardly handle the news that she's his half sister, but didn't even have the time to process this info because he was called to the hospital to perform surgery on...John Locke, who got hit by a car by Desmond. After looking in a mirror (as everyone seems to do in the sideways universe), Jack realizes he knows this man. This line is a bit misleading, though. I don't think Jack is remembering the island at this point, he's simply remembering Locke from the plane.

Sun, on the other hand, is remembering Locke from the island. She and Locke were wheeled into the hospital at the same time and she recognizes him, horrified. It turns out that Sun and her child will be safe after being shot; a shooting which caught the attention of Sawyer and Miles. Sawyer has to cut short his interrogation of Kate to go checkout the site of a blood bath at a restaurant. They pull some video and realize the man they're looking for is Sayid. By the end of the episode, they catch their man.

On the island, Jack and fake-Locke have a talk where fake-Locke tries to convince Jack to leave the island with him. He even confesses that he took Christian's form all that time ago. Jack is unsure if he should leave with fake-Locke, but Claire tells him he has no choice: once he let fake-Locke talk to him, which was all she wrote. This isn't the first time fake-Locke's power of persuasion has been described. Is it for real or simply an excuse upon which characters can blame their poor decisions? Hmmmm.

Not Quite The Same Man

During a long march, Widmore's crew shows up and demands Desmond be returned, otherwise it will rain mortar shells. Locke rejects this notion after the henchmen give them a deadline and leave, saying, "Well, here we go." Indeed. War is brewing. After that, fake-Locke tells Sayid to kill Desmond, who is sitting at the bottom of a well (maybe he should call Sting to dig him out). Before Sayid could carry out the deed, Desmond appeals to Sayid's sense of devotion to Nadia, asking him how Sayid would explain to her that she was resurrected? Sayid thinks about this, yet then we later see him tell fake-Locke that he killed Desmond. Does anyone out there believe this for a moment? I surely don't. I don't even think fake-Locke is buying it.

During this clandestine meeting between fake-Locke and Sayid, Jack, Sun, Kate, Hurley, Frank and Sawyer sneak off to find a boat that they'll take to the other island to Widmore's people and try to get off the island via his submarine. Claire followed them and is causing trouble. That's when Kate makes amends with her for raising her child and Claire comes aboard; something Sawyer didn't like too much. Once the boat's off, Jack has a bad feeling about all this. Taking a very John Locke position, he realizes that perhaps they're meant to stay on the island, and that the island isn't done with them yet. Perhaps fake-Locke wants them off the island so badly because he's afraid of what they'll do should they stay. Sawyer is having none of this kind of talk and kicks Jack off the boat. Jack swims to shore to be collected by fake-Locke just as mortar shells fire down all around. It looks like everyone's killed except fake-Locke and Jack. "You're with me now," fake-Locke says. Ominous! Sawyer and crew show up on the other island, where Sun and Jin have a tearful reunion, only to be told their deal with Widmore is off. There truly is no honor among thieves.

I'm sure fake-Locke knew that Sayid didn't kill Desmond. He's not so stupid as to believe this guy at face value. But why then didn't he verify the body? Equally perplexing is Jack and company's escape. Part of me feels that fake-Locke knew they were planning something like this and gave them the opportunity to sneak away. Why would he do this? Maybe because he's most interested in Jack and could take or leave the others. Maybe he knew that by letting him go off on his own, he'd eventually come back of his own will, thus giving ownership of his will to fake-Locke. I don't know…I'm just throwing ideas out here.

And keeping with fake-Locke's duplicitous nature, is he really the one who impersonated all those people? He claims he did so to help Jack, for instance. But nothing in his character suggests he'd take someone's body for benevolent reasons. The only times we've seen the smoke monster take a form was to exploit another person…not help them. Something weird is going on.

Another question: does Desmond know what he's doing in the sideways reality? I refuse to believe that bringing Claire to the lawyer's was a coincidence. I think Desmond knows so much about the island life that he's orchestrating everyone meeting up in some way for some unknown purpose. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks the coincidence is a bit weird. When Sawyer was interrogating Kate, he mentioned that it was odd that they met again. Yes, it is odd. Hopefully the other characters will soon latch on to these coincidences. Maybe they'll all get in a room together and realize that the same thing is happening to all of them. Or maybe not.

There are five episode of Lost left and I think plot and mythology are going to be revealed at an heretofore unseen speed, so settle down and turn on the subtitles on your TV feed so as to not miss a single word. Every utterance could be pregnant with meaning by now.

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