"The Brig" is absolutely brilliant and really one of the most satisfying and memorable pieces of television I've ever seen. While the beach camp story wallops forward leading into the now inevitable confrontation with the Others Locke gets Sawyer and Anthony Cooper in the same room for one of the most emotionally explosive and fascinating scenes in the entire series. The on-island flashbacks are the best of their kind, revealing the bare essentials of Locke's character and developing his controversial (among fans) relationship with Ben.
All the drama is nicely balanced by a healthy dose of humor in the episode. The beach camp story is generally far lighter in tone than the pitch-black brig scenes (bar the hilarious cameo by Rousseau) and the flashbacks, but there's some especially good comedy in this episode. You simply have to love Hurley and Jin's late night interaction with Sawyer while they were guarding the tent Naomi was in. As expected from a Damon Lindelof/Carlton Cuse script even the potentially bad sections are written very well. The closest thing to a flaw in this episode is Kate's snitching, but it really hasn't bothered me at all on repeat viewings, and the emotional impact of the episode is strong enough to overcome it anyhow.
Director Eric Laneuville is up there with Jack Bender as far as directors on this show, and on TV in general, actually, go, and there's some especially beautiful shots in the flashbacks, and a real maturity to his approach in shooting the brig scenes. The performances are absolutely phenomenal as well, this might be Josh Holloway's best episode and the rest of the cast don't disappoint either, especially Terry O'Quinn's beautifully understated performance. There is such a haunting sadness to his behavior here which works far better than an exaggerated display of anger or tears would have.
All the drama is nicely balanced by a healthy dose of humor in the episode. The beach camp story is generally far lighter in tone than the pitch-black brig scenes (bar the hilarious cameo by Rousseau) and the flashbacks, but there's some especially good comedy in this episode. You simply have to love Hurley and Jin's late night interaction with Sawyer while they were guarding the tent Naomi was in. As expected from a Damon Lindelof/Carlton Cuse script even the potentially bad sections are written very well. The closest thing to a flaw in this episode is Kate's snitching, but it really hasn't bothered me at all on repeat viewings, and the emotional impact of the episode is strong enough to overcome it anyhow.
Director Eric Laneuville is up there with Jack Bender as far as directors on this show, and on TV in general, actually, go, and there's some especially beautiful shots in the flashbacks, and a real maturity to his approach in shooting the brig scenes. The performances are absolutely phenomenal as well, this might be Josh Holloway's best episode and the rest of the cast don't disappoint either, especially Terry O'Quinn's beautifully understated performance. There is such a haunting sadness to his behavior here which works far better than an exaggerated display of anger or tears would have.