First, a little history lesson from European History, 3rd period:

“And it was on this island that everything changed, that everything finally became clear. Elba is where Napolean faced his greatest test, because exile wasn’t the worst of his fate. What was truly devastating to him was the loss of his power. Sure, they allowed him to keep the title of Emperor, but without any power it was meaningless. He might just as well have been dead.” Oh Lost. I see what you did there.

I seriously enjoyed last night’s episode of Lost, and was thrilled both that it was a Ben-focused episode, and that it broke this season’s on-again-off-again trend. It’s so satisfying to watch Dr. Linus struggle with his desire for power and choose the right course of action, and then even more meaningful to watch him make the same decision back on the island. Who knows whether island Ben is in earnest about joining Team Jacob or whether this is just another one of his deceptions, but Michael Emerson sold Ben’s weeping collapse so well that I want to believe him.

The Dr. Linus flash sideways story worked not just because of Michael Emerson’s awesomeness, but because so much of what happened to Ben in this alternate world had enormous meaningful reverberations with his story on the island. It was great to watch Ben get it right with Alex this time, but it was also fascinating to watch him care for his sick father (rather than, you know, murdering him with poison gas), be manipulated by John Locke, manipulate Artz in turn, and especially, be passionate about doing his work as well as he could. Maybe Ben has always been about doing his job to the best of his abilities, but we never had a clear enough sense of what that job actually was to see that side of him. The school setting also proves to be a fertile place to carry out some of these themes outside the special rules of the island. Power grabs and manipulation are believable inside school politics, but there’s also the added humorous twist of rampant pettiness (possibly my favorite bit from “Dr. Linus” is Artz’s demand for a new parking spot – not the one under the maple tree, the one next to it).

Ben’s redemption narrative aside, the flash sideways also contained some clues about the nature of this side of the narrative that went beyond the “hey look, it’s that guy!” techniques of the previous episodes. We already knew that the island does exist in this timeline, but it’s been underwater for a while. Thanks to Ben’s dad, we now also know that the Dharma initiative existed, that Ben and his dad were on the island working for Dharma, and that in this narrative, something made them leave. These hints, combined with some nice clues dropped by Richard Alpert in the Black Rock, made “Dr. Linus” feel like a worthwhile character development story that also got the ball rolling on some answers about the island. Double the pleasure.

And speaking of poor, long-lived Richard, the more we learn about Jacob and the role he plays in people’s lives, the less I am convinced that Team Jacob is the best place to be. If, as has been suggested around teh Internetz, Jacob and Smokey are not good and evil but something more like destiny and free will, my instinct would be to side with the men of science. Ben’s decision to turn away from the leader who made him kill his daughter suggests that there’s something to be said for free will, and Richard is less than pleased with whatever his eternal life has brought him thus far. On the other hand, Smokey was hardly a saint at the temple, and Sayid’s been transformed into his own evil doppelganger. It will be fascinating to see where Charles Widmore falls once he finds a place to dock his submarine, and I can only hope that Desmond and Penny won’t be too far behind.

A great episode, and one that I hope bodes well for the rest of the season. One last question, though, that I do hope will get answered soon: what the heck happened to Sawyer?