This week focuses on two of Lost‘s best characters — Desmond Hume and Daniel Farraday — producing one of the strongest individual outings since last year’s “The Constant.”

I’m writing this one from memory, so some of the events may be a little scrambled.  Spoilers follow.

The episode opens with Desmond somewhere in Asia rushing through a village in search of a doctor.  Penny is in labor, and there seems to be too much blood.  Fortunately, he finds the village doctor who comes back to their sailboat with forceps in hand and successfully delivers their infant son.  Perhaps it’s the fact that I have a potentially terminal illness, or maybe I’m just a big softy, but I found myself quite emotional that Desmond and Penny have gone this far.  Of all the characters on Lost, Desmond most deserves this sort of happiness.

Flashing forward a few months, Desmond and his young son (with a lion’s mane of Hume hair) sit on the deck of the ship, watching as an island takes shape on the horizen.  Desmond remarks on what a special place it is — it’s the island of Great Britain, where the best part is in the north, Scotland.  He’s come home apparently to deliver Dan’s message to his mother in Oxford.

Meanwhile, on Dharma Island, uniformed soldiers capture Miles, Dan and Charlotte after having overheard Sawyer’s call that everyone meet up at the creek and begin to take them back to their base.  It’s still unclear as to the identity of the assailants — are they U.S. military, Others, or something else?

Elsewhere, Juliet, John and Sawyer try to interrogate their captives, but with little luck.  We learn that they were armed with an M1 Garand, the U.S. military rifle of choice in the World War II era and in the early 1950′s.  The two captives begin speaking in a language that sounds vaguely European — Juliet identifies it as Latin, the secret enlightened language used by all Others.  These two are the Others of the past.  She asks them if Richard Alpert is among them — this is enough to convince one of them to agree to take them back to their camp, but the other doesn’t trust Juliet and company.  He breaks the neck of his compatriot and runs off into the woods.

John, however, refuses to shoot him.  Sawyer is enraged — why wouldn’t he take the shot?

“Because they’re my people,” John says.

The Others who have Dan and company seem to be under the impression that they’re representatives of the U.S. military who have invaded the Island.  Dan, who takes on the role of the leader, plays along , pretending that he and his friends are a team of government scientists — he later reveals to his people that lying is the only way they’ll stay alive.

It turns out the U.S. military force that landed on the Island and were repelled by the others left behind an armed hydrogen bomb that they were going to use for testing.  Daniel assures Richard that he can disarm it.   To prove his honesty, he swears that he would never let something bad happen to Charlotte, whom he loves (although Charlotte’s current medical condition, which includes nosebleeds and bad headaches, doesn’t appear particulary strong at th emoment).  This seems enough for the Others, who send him off to the bomb under the skittish eye of a young British woman brandishing an M1 Carbine.  200+ hours of Call of Duty is certainly good experience for identifying vintage and modern weapons on television shows.

The Other who escaped from Locke’s party arrives in camp, and relays his captivity, while avoiding any discussion of what happened to the comrade he killed.  The Others believe that they let him go so they could track him, but the cocky young Brit is certain that the old man in charge wasn’t much of a tracker.  Heh.

Back in England, Desmond returns to Oxford, but can’t find any record that Daniel Farraday every worked in their physics department or even existed.  Before he gives up, though, he heads to Farraday’s old laboratory which is marked “Closed for Fumigation.”  Going inside, he finds the remnants of Farraday’s work, the rat maze, as well as a photo of Dan with a striking English woman.  Just as he seems to be on to something, a custodian shows up and asks him what he’s doing there.  Desmond manages to learn that Farraday’s existance was covered up after he performed an experiment on a young woman that ended badly.  The custodian gives him the woman’s name and address, and Desmond is off on his investigation.

Back on the Island, John, Juliet and Sawyer observe Dan being marched off into the jungle.  Juliet and Sawyer try to get Locke to come with them to save him, but he refuses — he’s going to see his people.  He has a mission of his own to uncover.

The Other Girl leads Dan to a rickety wooden scaffold that holds an H-Bomb (named “Jughead”) pointed straight at the earth.  Dan seems to recognize her — but can’t quite place who she is.  My suspician is that she is Dan’s mother, but we won’t find out the girl’s real identity this week.

Dan climbs the scaffold to inspect the bomb, but suddenly retreats — the casing of the bomb has cracked, and radioactive material is leaking out.  The best way to deal with it, he says, is to seal it up with lead and concrete and bury it in the Earth.

The Other Girl is incredulous — how is he so sure?  Well, he explains, he’s from fifty years in the future.  And the Island is still intact then — so this nuke does not go off.  But something tells me it might in Season Six.

Back at the Other camp, John Locke bursts in demanding to see Richard Alpert.  When Richard comes out, he explains that Jacob sent him.  He then goes on to give Richard the compass and explain to him that he needs his help to get off the Island.  The Other soldier who escaped Locke earlier in the show clearly doesn’t trust him, but Richard silences him by saying: “Pipe down Widmore.”

“Widmore,” Locke says.  ”Charles Widmore?”

That’s right.  Huhm — now that was unexpected.  Widmore used to be an Other.  The war with Ben is starting to make a lot of sense …

Back in the Oxford, Desmond goes to visit the girl that Dan apparently injured in an experiment.  Meeting her sister, he learns that the young woman “comes in and out,” but at this time, her mind is definitely out.  This is very similar to the phenomenom that effected Desmond and Minkowsky back in Season Four.  

The sister is furious with Dan for abandoning her to go back to the states — and explains that if it wasn’t for Charles Widmore caring for her sister, she would get no regular medical care.  Desmond also learns that Widmore has been funding Dan’s research for many years. In regards to Dan’s mother, this is a dead end.  There’s only one other place that Desmond can go.

Jump ahead a few hours — he bursts into Widmore’s office, demanding access to Farraday’s mother’s address.  He refuses to tell Widmore anything about Penny, or where they’ve been hiding.  Widmore reluctantly gives him the name and address of Farraday’s mother, but tells him that she may not be happy to see him.  Also, he tells him to keep Penny out of this — obviously fearful of Ben’s promise from last season.  Desmond barges out with information in hand.

Back at the sailboat, he tells Penny that he’s done — that he can’t continue on this quest, that he just has to let it go.  But she knows him and knows he can’t just leave people in peril — she agress to go with him to LA to find Farraday’s mother, but asks him to promise never to return to the Island.  He agrees, but one wonders just how truthful he’s being.  He might have no choice but to return.

Through the course of this scene, we also learn that Desmond’s son is named Charlie.  There’s something comforting and wonderful in that fact — Charlie enabled Desmond and Penny to get back together, and by naming their son after him, it somehow heightens the sense of Desmond being the quiet hero of the show.  That’s the kind of thing that honorable characters do, and there are no characters on Lost more honorable than Desmond Hume.

On the Island, Juliet and Sawyer manage to disarm the Other Girl and rescue Farraday, who isn’t so sure that he wants to be rescued.  While in the Other camp, John explains to Richard that he is the future leader of the Others.  Richard is incredulous, explaining that their leaders are selected when they’re children.  John asks him the year — 1954 — and tells him that he will be born two years later in 1956.  Richard should come visit him.

As we all know, Richard indeed will visit him in 1956.  

Just as he begins making progress on how to get off the Island, the flash of light appears and our castaways are flung to another time period.  The Others and their camp all vanish.  After this jump, Dan notices something terribly wrong with Charlotte — she bleeds from her nose and collapses.  Could these jumps be killing her?  Is she a child of the Island being killed by being in such close proximity to her birthplace?  He cradles her in his arms, unsure if she’ll live or die.

Lost.

Lost continues to be the best show on television — and as mentioned in my recent BSG review, its plot and world are well-planned and realized.  All the pieces of the puzzle make sense, such as Richard visiting John in the past, or Charles Widmore having been a member of the Others in the 1950′s.  One knows that the bomb, “Jughead,” would not have been introduced if it wasn’t going to be a plot point later this season or next.  And not in the ultimately hackneyed way that Baltar used the nuke he acquired on BSG.

With Desmond and Dan in the spotlight, we also get to spend more time with Lost’s two most compelling characters.  It’s a testimony to the quality of the show that two characters introduced to the cast later in the series can carry an episode and make it one of the best.  More please.

With very few complaints, “Jughead” gets a perfect five out of five Walts.