"The Lie" episode review

The second episode of Lost's penultimate Season 5 premiere, "The Lie," was in effect a sort of test run for the show. With the new storytelling style adapted by the Lost team, first previewed by the show's viewers in "Because You Left," the first of the two episodes shown as part of the long anticipated season premiere, many were left uncertain as to whether Lost would still be able to focus on a single character and his or her personal perspective while still effectively telling the particular episode's story. "The Lie" effectively provides an answer to this sentiment of doubt and unsurity with a resounding "Yes."

Without further ado, a recap of the episode followed by assessment ratings:

• There's a flashback of the Oceanic 6 + Desmond and Penny + chopper pilot Frank Lapidus onboard the Penny's boat the Searcher following their rescue. Jack leads the discussion as to how and why they should lie about the whole ordeal. Hurley has reservations about the whole plan of lying but is basically pressured into it and outvoted. Appealing to Sayid in particular, Hurley protests on the basis of his moral objections, to which Sayid regretfully can not, or will not, support him. Hurley makes it clear to Sayid, in a very bonechilling scene of the likes which we are not accustomed to usually seeing with Hurley, that he'll remember Sayid's lack of support and even goes as far as to say "someday, you're gonna need my help, and I'm telling you right now, you're not getting it." Yikes.
  
• The on-island Losties are attacked by a hail of flaming arrows. Ongoing Lost community joke Neil "Frogurt" takes the brunt of the attack...to the chest.
  
• Jack and Ben part ways as Ben figures out where to keep Locke's body while the two recruit the rest of the Oceanic 6 (and possibly others who made it off the Island?...) for their return trip to the Island. In the meantime, Jack is instructed by Ben to pack a suitcase with anything he might want to have for the rest of his life while Ben takes Locke's body to a butcher's store, where he talks to a woman named Jill. Ben asks her to hold Locke for safe keeping for the time being.
• A very uncertain Kate and her "son" Aaron, on the run, are contacted by Sun, who asks the two to meet her at a hotel...on the 31st floor. A very ominous Sun recognizes Kate as "the kind of person who makes hard decisions when she has to" but at the same time forgives her for her decision to abandon Jin, a decision which Sun says saved the lives of those on the chopper who would have died along with her husband had they not left when they did.
• Hurley, in the middle of taking an unconscious, drugged Sayid to his parents' house, is pulled over by a police officer who is revealed to be none other than dead tailsection Lostie Ana Lucia! She asks Hurley what the hell he was thinking driving like such an idiot and tells him that he needs to pull it together. She tells him he has a lot of work to do and specifically warns him not to get arrested. The conversation ends with a very eery yet bogus statement by Ana Lucia: "Oh yeah, Libby says hi."
• Hurley's dad covers for Hurley when the police show up, asking about his whereabouts, and suggests that Hurley take his friend to a hospital, to which Hurley staunchly refuses. Hurley's father takes Sayid, instead, to Jack, who is successful in reviving him.
• Hurley confesses to his mother that everything the Oceanic 6 had said, the whole story, was a lie.
• Ben visits Hurley at his home and asks him to come with him to meet up with the rest of the Oceanic 6, saying that they all want the same thing -- to go back to the island. Hurley does the exact opposite of what Ben asks (advice given to him by Sayid) and instead runs outside and turns himself into the cops who have been staking out his house. Ben watches this unfold and is obviously irked with this complication.
• Sawyer and Juliet, lost from the rest of the group in the wake of the attack, encounter a trio of armed military men who, in an attempt to extract information from their hostages, are ready to take one or both of Juliet's arms via a machete. Instead, Locke happens, and the tables are turned.
• The final scene shows a woman making calculations involving advanced quantum physics formulas on an old school black chalkboard, surrounded by an otherworldly pendulum of sorts and an old Dharma-esque research computer bearing the Dharma logo. She finishes her work and heads upstairs from what feels like her "secret lab" to a candlelit room in a church or something of that nature. Ben asks the woman, who is revealed to be Ms. Hawking, if she has had any luck. She says she has to which Ben responds that he's having some difficulties. She unempathetically expresses to Ben that he only has 70 hours to accomplish his task and that he'd better get on it, or else "God help us all."
  

Story/Narrative - The story is told surprisingly well with the obvious main center of attention being on Hurley. Ben is portrayed as still holding back some pieces of information from the Oceanic 6, and one can't help to think that he has an alterior motive which he hasn't as of yet let on to. A dramatic ending affirmed the predictions of many of us as we waited for the hooded woman to reveal her identity. 5

Lost Theory/Mythology - While you definitely get the feeling that The Others' have a very extensive off-island network, we kind of already took that for granted, so it wasn't exactly a huge revelation. There's obviously going to be a lot more revealed about the true role and identity of Ms. Hawking in following episodes but not yet. This episode mainly just gave us a taste about several aspects of the show that will undoubtedly be explored in further detail in the weeks to come. 3

BAMF moments - While the flaming attack on the on the on-island Losties should have been and probably still ranks up there as one of the most intense sequences in Lost history, I felt like it was lacking a certain intensity that it should have had... Maybe it's just because I was expecting it because of those damned teaser Season 5 promotional videos. ;) 4

Overall Score - (5 + 3 + 4)/(3) = 4