The re-emergence of Danielle Rousseau coupled with Aaron’s sudden fever and rash causes Claire to become determined to recall suppressed memories from her abduction. Libby, the conveniently placed psychologist on the island who is commonly believed to be one of “the others,” assists Claire in a hypnotherapy session that yields enough memory recall to keep us all guessing, but enough to send Kate and Claire of into the jungle with a pistol commandeered from Sawyer.

As if Ethan wasn’t creepy enough, a needle-wielding Ethan fixated on Claire’s unborn really ratchets up the creep-factor. We learn that Claire spent the duration of her abduction holed up in an underground facility chock full of Dharma Initiative symbols, vaccines, and a beardless Mr. Friendly. Ethan and his otherly friends built a room to house Aaron after extracting him from the heavily medicated Claire. In a subtle nod to last season’s "Raised by Another" we find that the others have even taken into account Claire’s bizarre request that the person who raises her child know a very specific tune.

While our three feminine heroes spend their time tromping through the jungle, hatch developments begin to unfold in regards to Henry Gale. Everyone’s favorite Wizard of Oz reference continues to crawl under everyone’s skin, and even manages to pique the interest of Mr. Eko, who takes a break from chopping down “X-marked” trees to confess his sins to Gale.

Why does Eko, a man who has unflinchingly stared into the eyes of the island’s smoke monster suddenly feel it necessary to confess to someone as pathetic as Gale? Could it be that he has learned something about Gale’s role on the island while staring into the smoke monster? After all, it seemed to be processing information about Eko and his past, so who is to say that he didn’t glean some information as well?

Speaking of literary references, Locke drops another potentially loaded nugget into the Lost canon when he offers Gale Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Could the text have something to do with the island and its inhabitants?

Let’s examine. On one level, Dostoevsky’s novel deals with themes of patricide and complicity; on another it delves into a spiritual examination of moral struggles between themes of faith and free will. If this doesn’t sound relevant then you’re watching the wrong show.

Determined to find the vaccine needed to cure Aaron, Claire and company finally arrive at another hatch-like bunker hidden below brush and tarps. We learn that this once teeming medical bunker is now abandoned and in an utter state of decay. Claire fails to find what she was looking for, but manages to recall being saved by a teenager with blue eyes, whose description seems remarkably similar to Rousseau’s missing daughter Alex.

In what could be one of the most complicated pieces of evidence, Kate finds a fake beard and theatrical glue stashed away in a locker with Mr. Friendly’s knit cap. Immediately this suggests that the façade of the others as stranded island dwellers is nothing more than an elaborate ruse. But why put the Dharma logo on the theatrical glue?

With each answered mystery come more questions, just the way fans of the series like it. Claire fails to find the vaccine, but Aaron’s fever and rash fade regardless. The only one who seems to be finding anything of real use on the island is Henry Gale, who manages to not only get under Locke’s skin, but to push buttons well enough to send him into a tantrum at the close of the episode.

In two weeks: It looks like we are going to have another two weeks of re-runs before we get any more new episodes, but what is on tap looks promising: Jin possibly pregnant, Sayid on the edge of killing, and Anna Lucia off in search of Gale’s balloon. All of this, and Michael, Walt, and Desmond still have yet to resurface.

Congrats ABC, we are all on the edge of our seats.
 

Mario Anima