The last few episodes of Lost have been great, but are we seeing more filler than usual?

Every scene in a story must do at least one thing: Advance the plot, reveal information about character, or provide exposition/backstory essential to the audience. It can be argued that adding to a thematic might also be on the list, but it alone doesn’t make a scene interesting or necessary.

There are a handful of really important moments in Maternity Leave that I see playing out, and they probably take up single lines on paper.

Zeke, aka Mr. Friendly, tells Ethan that “he” isn’t going to be happy with Claire being brought to the medical facility before Aaron’s birth. Is “he” Alvar Hanso? Also, everything The Others do amongst themselves appears good, purposeful and within the boundaries of their project.

Danielle’s daughter Alex is beautiful, as there are no ugly people in the world of Lost.

Claire asks Sun if she’s a mother. The answer is no, but we’ll see how this plays out in Sun’s next flashback (tomorrow night?). Missing children, family deaths, parental issues are all over our castaways, and they remain tremendously effective in allowing viewer identification with the characters.

Kate discovers Zeke’s costume makeup, but who will she mention it to first: Jack or Sawyer? Locke?

Locke’s breakdown under the questioning of the prisoner in the hatch is something I’ve seen coming for a long time. It’s no coincidence that Locke appeared with black and white pupils in Clarie’s dream. I think there’s one more Locke flashback in this season and it’ll have a dark ending much like these past few episodes.

A lot of the season two episodes ask us how far we’d go to accomplish our goals. I think most of the episodes answer the question without judging the characters outright. Even The Long Con doesn’t necessarily say that Sawyer or Charlie is “evil.” Maybe at the very least Sawyer is honest about his nature?

The way I write isn’t too different from most people who write about Lost. I never missed an episode during season one, but season two finds me in a night shift on Wednesday night.

This puts me in a bind, not unlike the bind in which Ryan and Jen of The Transmission found themselves. I love to get things up in a timely manner, but much like a missed exercise routine, it’s hard getting back in gear.

No, I haven’t been ignoring your messages and thoughts about my scrawls. I’ll have a system in place shortly for those wanting to exchange links and do the affiliate thing.

Keep sending those spoilers to me as they’ve been greatly appreciated. It’s almost impossible for me to read all the forums out there and it’s great when people send me the best of the best.

I’m downloading the latest episode from the iTunes Music Store as I write this, so rest assured you’ll get more rambling thoughts on Lost from this prose writer.

The literary device of subtext is a beautiful thing. When executed properly you understand a character’s true motives even though his dialog may explain otherwise. An easy example of this you might remember from grade school when you mercilessly teased your childhood sweetheart. Saying I love you might have sufficed, but where’s the subtext in that? Imagine a story where everyone said exactly what they meant. Boring, no?

So when Sayid says “I am a torturer” are we witnessing bad writing?

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Confidence games are Sawyer’s trade. Whenever emotions run high people are bigger marks for con artists. And so it’s with great amusement that Sawyer recognizes his opportunity for revenge amidst otherwise peaceful circumstances.

You’d think that after a month of mayhem the castaways would realize that Sawyer only does things for himself, but then you realize that only Boone, and possibly Kate have seen or sensed the worst of Sawyer. Even Sayid was given a reprieve when the two crossed paths after the Iraqi tortured the hillbilly.

Revenge is best served cold, when victims least suspect it. Or in this case, when viewers least expect it. Coming into season two I saw Sawyer being used by the writers as comic relief often breaking the tension of scenes involving the “tailies.” Thankfully the writers have seen fit to stay true to the characters we met during their first month on Craphole Island.

Are we entering the Lord of the Flies phase of Lost? Or is it more like Animal Farm?

Both are stories about failed utopias, which I think is ultimately what Lost is about. More on that later.