This week on Lost, war and death arrive on the Island, and more answers are revealed. Dan Farraday finally tells Jack the truth. Sayid pledges his fealty to Ben. Sawyer steps up to protect his friends. And Ben comes face to face with his arch nemesis, as the rules that govern their conflict are irrevocably changed forever.

This is how you write a goddamn television show.

Spoilers follow.

The week opens with Kate taking her shirt off on the beach and a suspicious-looking Jack giving her a wave. She follows him into a tent to find him taking some white pills out of a bottle.

“You got a prescription for that?” she asks.

“Yeah, I wrote it myself,” Jack replies.

He claims that the pills are antibiotics for a stomach bug, but we know that in last season’s game-changing flash forward Jack was writing himself prescriptions for hillbilly heroin.

A few moments later, a body washes up on the beach. It’s the doctor from Widmore’s freighter. His throat has been slit.

Meanwhile at the Barracks, Hurley, Sawyer and Jack playing a friendly game of Risk. Australia, as everyone knows, is the key to the whole game. At the same time, the mercenaries bring Alex to the sonic barricade and force her to disable it.

Back in Ben’s house, the phone rings. Perhaps concerned that it’s a telemarketer or the Fraternal Order of Police calling to intimidate them into donating to this year’s Policeman’s Ball, Locke hesitates to pick it up. His curiosity gets the best of him, however. A robotic female voice on the other end repeats: “Code 14-J” over and over again.

“I think it’s for Ben,” Locke says.

Elsewhere in the house, Ben is playing the piano. Locke barges in demanding to know what “Code 14-J” is. Hearing the code makes Ben so excited that pulls out a concealed sawed of shotgun.

Flash forward. Disoriented, clad in a Dharma parka and bleeding form a bullet wound in his right arm, Ben awakens in the middle of the Sahara desert — Tunisia to be exact. It appears that he may have just traveled through time and space, but the show offers no concrete proof of this. A couple of refugees from the Raiders of the Lost Ark set approach on horseback and search him for weapons. Ben takes them out with cold professional precision.

Tying his wound off with one of their turbans, Ben commandeers their horse and heads off towards the horizon.

Back in the past/present, Ben, Locke, Sawyer and Hurley head to a better house to barricade themselves in. As Sawyer trudges off to find Claire, Ben insists that Locke stay close to him. If he wants to live, he says, Ben is his best chance.

On the beach, Jack makes the official medical diagnosis that the Boat Doctor’s throat was slit. Nice work, Jack — where did you go to medical school, again? Farraday’s satphone is still broken apparently, but Bernard has the idea that they can use it to broadcast Morse code to Widmore’s boat. Kate suggests that Farraday salvage some parts from the plane wreckage. Even three years later, Oceanic 815 is still the gift that keeps on giving.

Desperate to find Claire, Sawyer encounters one of the other 815 survivors who went with Locke — the mercs take him out almost immediately, splattering blood on Sawyer’s best shirt. Then a few other faceless survivors stupidly head outside to see what the commotion is, but they get shot down too. Using his pistol to fire off some covering shots, Sawyer heads over to Claire’s house.

Unfortunately for him, the mercs are packing an RPG (that’s “Rocket Propelled Grenade” for all of you non-Call of Duty 4 players), and they use it to blow up Claire’s house!

It’s at this point that Tina pointed out that we haven’t even gotten through the opening credits. It seems like a half hour has passed, but we’ve only gotten through the first 15 minutes.

During the commercial break, there’s an amusing advertisement for credit cards where an elephant sits on a car. The way it’s shot, there’s some implication that the elephant may also be relieving himself on the car. That may just be wishful thinking on my part.

Back on Lost, Ben arrives in a hotel in Tunisia. He tells them that he’s a preferred guest, and that he’s listed under the name “Dean Moriarty,” Sherlock Holmes’ arch nemesis.

He asks the girl at the front desk what the date is — joking with her about clarifying the year. It’s October 21, 2005. This means we’re definitely in the Oceanic 6 timeline. Ben notices Sayid on an Arabic cable news program — he’s getting in a car, saying that he just wants to bury his wife in peace.

Flashback to the past/present. Ben, Locke, Hurley and Aaron notice that Claire’s house has been blown up. Ben says that the only person who can help them now is Jacob and that Hurley is the only person who can find the cabin.

Outside, Sawyer discovers Claire in the rubble of her house — fortunately she’s still alive. Picking her up, he screams for the others to open the front door of the house. Hurley moves to pull back the barricade, but Ben and Lock suggest they’ll shoot him if he does it. Hurley smashes out the window instead, and Sawyer and Claire climb inside.

Sawyer wants to know why the mercs are shooting — Ben explains that they’re killing people to make the 815 survivors angry so that they’ll throw Ben to the wolves. Surprisingly, the front doorbell rings — it’s Miles. He’s been released from the boathouse by the mercs, and they’ve sent him with a radio and a message — they want to talk.

Cut to commercial. Apparently BBC America sprung to run an ad for Robin Hood during Lost – pretty cool. I’m definitely going to give this show a chance now. It looks like they’ve taken the “Robin Hood” myth and attached a Buffy-esque sense of humor. Maybe this is the team the BBC should hire to helm Torchwood next year?

Flashforward to Tikrit, Iraq. It’s Nadia’s funeral, and Ben has arrived just in time to watch the funeral procession. Sayid’s role in the other flashforward is starting to make sense now — it appears that he found and married Nadia after returning from the Island, and that his wife has been murdered. The idea that he’ll come to work for Ben doesn’t seem so far-fetched, anymore.

Ben takes position on the roof of a house above the procession. He notices a mysterious man watching the funeral. Pulling out a camera with a telescopic lens, Ben takes the man’s picture and notes Sayid’s position with the mourners.

Heading out of the building, Ben is waylaid by Sayid, who is surprised to learn that Ben has been following him. Ben explains that he took Desmond’s boat to get off the Island. He also tells him that a man working for Charles Widmore killed Sayid’s wife. Sayid wants to know why Widmore’s people would murder his wife.

“I don’t know,” says Ben earnestly. “But they did.”

Knowing Ben, the discerning viewer has to suspect that this is a lie. At this point I’d say it’s just as likely that Ben killed her.

In the past/present, Miles tells Ben that the mercs have taken Alex hostage. Reluctantly, Ben picks up the radio.

“Hello,” he says.

“Am I speaking to Benjamin Linus?”

“That’s right.”

The head merc explains that his name is Martin Keamey, and that he’s an employee of Charles Widmore. If Ben doesn’t turn himself over, Martin claims he won’t kill anyone else.

Ben calls him out on the lie.

“What kind of guy do you think I am?”

Apparently, Mr. Keamey was once a distinguished member of the U.S. army, but after leaving in 2001, he became a mercenary and did some bad things in Uganda. Is there anyone Ben doesn’t have a dossier on?

Martin whistles for his goons to bring Alex out. They throw her down to his feet, and he puts a gun to her head. If Ben doesn’t come out, he’s going to kill her.

Ben offers a counterproposal that Martin and his friends leave and forget they ever heard about the Island. As enticing as this is, Martin isn’t buying it. Maybe Ben should have offered $3.2 million instead?

Martin hands the radio to Alex and tells her to say goodbye to Ben. Martin gives Ben ten seconds before he kills her.

Ben tells him that Alex doesn’t mean anything to him — that she’s not really his daughter, that he stole her from a crazy woman, and that she’s only a pawn. Unswayed, the head merc casually shoots her in the head and walks away. Ben is in shock. For once it seems like the puppetmaster is completely out of control. I can’t say this will be a good thing for our heroes.

Cut to commercial. I don’t know about you guys, but you couldn’t pay me to drive one of those ugly new Ford Focuses. Yuck.

Ben is still in shock while Locke and Sawyer debate what to do. They’re both convinced that the mercenaries will kill all of them.

“They’ve changed the rules,” Ben says, and then pushes past the others, locking himself inside his secret room. We learn that the secret room has another secret room — one with a stone door that looks like something from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — and for the record, that’s two Indiana Jones references in one review. Could this be the “magic box” that summoned Locke’s father?

Flash forward. Ben is trailing Widmore’s man in Tunisia, but the man gets the jump on him.

“Who are you and why are you following me?” he asks.

“My name is Benjamin Linus,” says Ben. The man clearly knows who he is and is somewhat troubled to leanr his identity. “And I need you deliver a message to Charles Widmore for me.”

Sayid emerges from the shadows and shoots Widmore’s man, emptying his clip into him. He continues to pull the trigger even after he’s out of bullets.

“That should do it,” says Ben.

It’s at this point that Sayid makes the case that he’s now an ally in Ben’s war with Widmore. Ben tries to convince him not to join up with him (or perhaps employs reverse psychology to do the opposite). Sayid tells him about how he had been searching for the love his life for eight years, finally found her and married her, only to have her murdered by Widmore. It’s time for revenge. And I have to say, that after the shooting of Alex and learning of Nadia’s murder, I’d like to get a piece of that bastard myself.

“Benjamin,” says Sayid, “who’s next?”

Ben replies that he’ll be in touch. Walking away, Ben gives a little smile of victory. For some reason, I’m reminded of the end of Casablanca — this looks to be the start of a beautiful friendship. Or perhaps a deal with the devil. Now Sayid’s role as an assassin makes complete sense. Anyone who says they don’t explain anything on Lost really doesn’t have the right to an opinion.

Back in the present, Ben emerges from his Batcave with a sense of purpose. He tells them that they are going to go outside, and that when he gives the order, they are to run as fast as they can to the tree line.

“Towards the guys with guns?” asks Hurley.

No, they want to be as far away from them as possible. Suddenly the house starts to shake as if from an earthquake. Like a giant snake, the Smoke Monster sweeps through the remains of Othertown. Inside the woods, the mercs lamely fire their weapons as the monster kills them. One of them manages to escape, and just as Sawyer raises his weapon to drop him, a smokey tendril emerges from the jungle and pulls him back in to his death. At this point I’m clapping and cheering. Go smoke monster!

Ben sends Locke and company into the jungle, while he goes back to say his last respects to Alex. He closes her eyes tenderly and weeps at her side.

Back on the beach, Farraday has managed to turn the satphone into a telegraph and gets a message back from the boat. He tells Jack that they didn’t exactly say what happened to the doctor, but that they would be sending a helicopter tomorrow to get them.

“He’s lying,” says Bernard. Apparently, Bernard knows morse code. This reminds me of the time in college when this Ecuadorian girl I knew was talking trash about someone in class. The thing was, though, that guy spoke Spanish, too. The lesson here is that there’s no such thing as a secret code, particularly when that code is over a century old and used to be the standard for all telecommunications.

Bernard tells them the true response: “What are you talking about, the Doctor is fine.”

At this point, Jack freaks out — just like the audience, he’s sick of all the lies. He takes Farraday by the throat and asks him if they ever intended to take them off the Island.

Finally, Dan tells the truth. “No,” he says.

As much as I liked Farraday in “The Constant,” I think it would totally fair for Jack to beat him up and torture him a little. Too bad Sayid’s on Widmore’s boat, otherwise maybe we’d get even more information out of him.

At this point, Jack breaks down and begins to clutch at his side. Is he having oxycontin withdrawl, or is there something else wrong with him? Maybe his stomach virus wasn’t a clever ruse?

Back in the woods outside Othertown, Ben tells Locke that they’re going to see Jacob to find out what to do next. Sick of dealing with the insanity of Locke and Ben, Sawyer insists on taking Claire, Aaron and Hurley back to the beach. Locke and Ben counter by pointing guns at Sawyer and telling him that Hurley goes with them. To avoid bloodshed, Hurley decides to go to Jacob’s cabin, assuring Sawyer that they’ll meet up again soon.

“If you hard so much as one hair on his curly head … I’ll kill you,” Sawyer says. For all his attempts to be aloof and selfish, it seems that Sawyer now cares very deeply for his friends. In some ways, I think he cares more than Jack.

“Fair enough,” Locke replies.

Flash forward. In London, Ben arrives at Widmore’s apartment building and lies his way into his penthouse. It’s now that we begin to learn the scope of the conflict between the two. He wakes up his nemesis for a little heart to heart.

We learn that Widmore believes the Island is rightfully his — that Ben is an interloper who stole it from him. Perhaps this means that Widmore has a greater connection to the Hanso Foundation than previous suspected? Also, Widmore sleeps with a bottle of expensive scotch beside his bed because of nightmares. Is this evidence of a guilty conscience, or something more supernatural involving the Island?

Ben confronts him about Alex’s death, but Widmore claims that Ben is Alex’s true murderer — that he knows what Ben really is, and that everything Ben has he took from Widmore.

Ben then reveals his reason for coming — that in retaliation to Alex’s murder, Ben has decided he’s going to kill Charles’ daughter, Penelope. Charles tells him that he’ll never find her.

Ben retorts that Charles will never find the Island.

“Well, I guess the hunt is on for both of us,” says Widmore.

“I suppose it is,” says Ben. “Sleep tight Charles.”

Lost.

Wow, where to begin — this episode is proof positive that Lost is absolutely the best written show on television. We now understand the scope of the war between Benjamin Linus and Charles Widmore, and that Ben’s claim that the Widmore crew was sent to kill all of them wasn’t far from the mark. We also now know why Sayid is working for Ben, and that Ben can at least influence if not control the smoke monster.

The thing about this show is that everything makes sense. The character motivations, the explanations for long-seeded mysteries, everything. Other shows reveal answers to mysteries that seem flat, like they came up with the idea last week. The way Lost plays its cards, though, you really do get a sense of a longterm plan. Granted, I don’t think this plan was in place until the last third of season two, but that’s more than you can say for other shows (cough cough … X-Files … cough).

We have now reached a moral gray area where Benjamin Linus, long considered the villain of the show, may in fact be the tragic hero — or is he? Perhaps Widmore is the true hero. Or maybe they’re both villains? There’s something to be said about moral and ethical complexity.

And there was so much great character development — Sawyer has really come into his own, risking his life to save Claire. He’s come a long way from the nasty, bigoted and selfish con-man we met back in season one. His concern for Hurley and Claire is completely genuine and well-played by actor Josh Halloway — these people are his friends, and he loves them and wants to protect them. In many ways, Jack Shepherd is a brittle, shrill leader, but Sawyer has proven a greater capacity for empathy and self sacrifice. We still don’t know what his fate will be — and specifically why he is not one of the Oceanic Six — but whatever it is, it can’t be good. Let’s hope the Island has need of him for a few more seasons.

With Jack, I’m beginning to wonder if his oxycontin addiction is something that started on the Island — either from medicating his own pain, or as a way of dealing with the stresses of leadership. In any event, it appears his mysterious illness will be front-and-center next week, whether or not it’s his oxycontin addiction or something else entirely.

It’s not every show that makes me care so much for its characters, but Lost has done just that. After everything the Widmore crew has done this season — all their lies, and then the coup de grace of the mercenary attack on the Barracks — I’m as ready for blood and revenge as Sayid.

My intense need to see the next installment is but one of many reasons that I give this episode a perfect 5 out of 5 Walts: