"The Man Behind the Curtain" (Season 3, Episode 20)

Oh. My. God. After 65 episodes, this show can still knock my socks off. Forget The Numbers (3 teams to extract Sun, 4 o'clock on Ben's watch) and The Colors (red convertible, blue bow on Ben's birthday present), this blog entry is all about Jacob. If you blinked, you missed his moment of visibility. If you did see him, then you saw what appeared to be a shaggy-haired, bearded . . . Locke! Don't believe me? Go back to your DVR and freeze frame the instant after Ben is thrown against the cabin wall. I think we are definitely dealing with parallel universe/space-time continuum/Back to the Future territory here. If Jacob is Locke, perhaps this is why John could not see him(self). Is this why the Others are so in awe of Locke? Is this why Ben told him that "Jacob feels the same way about technology as you do"? Locke was the first to look the smoke monster in the "face" and survive. He's always been in tune with the island's rhythms from when it's going to rain to sensing its significance. I predict the final scene of the finale will be a close-up of Jacob and we will clearly see it is a version of Locke. That would have me tuning back in nine months when Season 4 starts in February 2008.

Best Line - "So when do we leave?" Locke to Ben after pummeling Mikhail.

Did You Notice?

• This was a great opening. A heavily wooded area. A woman in jeopardy as she gives birth. Someone running while ominous music plays. How could this be anywhere but the island? Not even close.
• Ben was born outside of Portland, the same city where Juliet thought she was being taken when recruited by Dr. Richard Albert.
• Ben serves the same whiskey as Penny's father and Locke's dad.
• The casting of young Ben was spot on.
• "Namaste" is a conventional Hindu greeting and how Dr. Marvin Candle (who makes yet another appearance again using only his right hand) ended the orientation film that Locke and Jack watched in the hatch.
• What kind of a name is Horace Goodspeed?
• Annie offered Ben an Apollo candy bar.
• Well now we know the origin of Roger "Work Man" and the cause of his death.
• Ben's dad makes Alec Baldwin look like Father of the Year.
• Did Alex think Locke would need the gun against Jacob or her "father"?
• Ben's infatuation with bunnies goes back to his childhood. At least this time, he wasn't shaking the heck out of it as he did in front of Sawyer.
• Just who are these natives/hostiles/original inhabitants of the island?
• The appearance of Ben's dead mother is not unlike Jack's dad showing up after he died.
• Young Ben and Annie were on the same swing set that Sayid was handcuffed to when he was captured.
• The whispering voices were heard when young Ben saw the vision of his mother, then again when he was in the jungle after turning off the sonic fence.
• What was the material that encircled Jacob's cabin that Locke examined? Was it ash from the island's volcano? Residue from the smoke monster? Something to keep Jacob from leaving the cabin?
• Was that the same Richard Albert who found young Ben in the jungle as is currently on the island? If so, he hasn't aged much. Is this why Ben asked him "You do remember birthdays"? Are the island natives not human? Possibly a race whose life span is much longer than ours? Was this why Richard told young Ben to be patient? Could they possibly only have four toes on each foot like the statue from the Season 2 finale?
• Ben appeared to hear and speak with Jacob, but why was the whisper "Help me" not heard by him but by Locke?
• I wonder what happened to Ben's childhood friend Annie? Was she one of the bodies?
• Will Locke's gunshot wound heal like the bite from his dad? Or is one of the five predicted casualties due by the season finale?

Previews - "Greatest Hits" is the penultimate episode of the season. Will Charlie die? Too predictable. I'm guessing either Sawyer, who has come to terms with his real Sawyer issue, or Desmond, who will no longer be able to warn Charlie of when he will die. Then, in two weeks, it's the rumble in the jungle with the two-hour finale, "Through the Looking Glass". It airs an hour earlier at 9:00 p.m. EST. It will be preceded at 8:00 p.m. by "Lost: The Answers", a recap show.