Lost - "The Shape of Things to Come"

What Aaron Liked: The opening sequence was all kinds of dynamite – particularly the wide-eyed reactions to the old-timey telephone ring and Ben's immediate leadership-seizing moment when he pulled that automatic weapon from the piano bench. Hey, it's another Ben-centric story? Approved. ("Oh, so you DO speak English?") The big ol' gunfight, though disappointingly clichéd, at least provided a welcome break from all the talky-talky that's consumed Camp Locke this season. And, I'm glad to finally see the "trust" issue, which I've long been b*tching about, addressed. Sawyer and Claire's refusal to follow Locke and Ben in their search for Jacob was overdue, but good to see. Ditto for the clumsily-written "Morse code conundrum" ("He's lying!")

What Aaron Didn't Like: This was a weird little episode. It moved in fits and starts, without ever building on the momentum that the first few minutes created. The Ben flash-forward kind of petered out towards the end for me as the connect-the-dots that explained the origins of his future relationship with Sayid felt contrived and way rushed (even though, this episode was taped before the writer's strike whacked five episodes from the season). Similarly, the final scene with Charles Widmore was just…"eh". I guess Ben raised the stakes, or whatever, but the whole "it's my island…no, it's MY island" motivation isn't any less creaky. As mentioned above, the shootout sequence was formulaic and lazy (especially, the unintentional hilarity of three anonymous survivors getting sniped, one-at-a-time, out the front door). Oh, and Lost writers: while I'm not one of the Lost fanatics that charts all of the abstract clues from week to week, would it kill y'all to make the dialogue a little more subtle than Hurley's "Australia is the key to the whole game" groaner.

Verdict: The sheer awesomeness of Michael Emerson carries an uneven outing this week. I've enjoyed the absence of Jack and Kate in recent episodes, but with one month to go until the finale, it appears that we'll be ramping back up with…them.