Season 5 has had its share of slow spots and questionable choices, but now that it's approaching the finish line it seems to have gotten back on the right track. Following the usual formula of most penultimate season episodes, "Follow The Leader" divides the action among multiple different groups of characters: in the past, Jack & Kate (and a surprising old/new arrival) at the Others' camp setting the plan to detonate the H-Bomb in motion, Sawyer & Juliet captured by the Dharma security people, Jin, Hurley & Miles trying to escape, and, back to the present, Locke making his first decisions as the new leader of the Others, while Ben stays in the passenger's seat. Locke is more mysterious and cryptic in this episode than he has been since early Season 1 (symbolically, he first appears with a dead boar on his shoulders), and Terry O'Quinn's performance is (as usual) outstanding. This episode also marks the first time we actually see an event we had already seen (the Locke-Richard encounter, from "Because You Left") play out exactly like it had before. This reinforces the "time loop" theory, but before you declare that war over, consider also that the 2008 Richard tells Sun that he saw Jack, Kate and Hurley die in the past. If he wasn't lying, and if the time-traveling business doesn't continue in Season 6, that means that either things will change, or that the last LOST season will have no Jack, Kate or Hurley. Which of the two do you consider the most likely? With questions such as these, plus possible revelations about Jacob, the season finale is shaping up to be exciting, unpredictable and, needless to say, mind-twisting. ***1/2 out of 4.
Review of Follow the Leader
