The month-long hiatus caused by the writers strike is over and Lost returns to season 4 with an explosive episode. Episode 9, titled The Shape of Things to Come, is centered on the invasion of the island village in the current time and the events that cause Sayid to start working for Ben in the flash forward.
This is one of the most thrilling episodes of the entire series, and may turn out to be the center upon which the whole series arc turns. There are gunshots, explosions, a shocking character death, and the smoke monster’s biggest scene so far.
The island action starts off with John, Sawyer, and Hurley playing a game of Risk in Locke’s cabin, while Hurley holds baby Aaron in his arms. Hurley berates Sawyer for losing Australia, saying that it is the key to the whole game. (Is this a reference to the Island’s importance?) At the same time, Ben’s captured daughter Alex is forced to turn off the security fence guarding the village. She types in code 1623, which apparently disables the fence but also starts a phone ringing in the cabin. When John picks up the phone, he hears a recorded message reporting “code 14-J.” After some discussion, they report this to Ben, who tells them it means that they are about to be attacked.
Ben, Locke and Hurley (along with Aaron) hole up in Ben’s old cabin while Sawyer rushes out to find Claire. What he finds instead is a hail of gunfire that drops a background character, then two other background characters who each try to help him. Sawyer rushes to Claire’s cabin only to see it blown up by a rocket. Amazingly, Claire survives this with no visible injuries and the two of them make it back to Ben’s cabin.
A calm drops over the village for a few minutes and then, improbably, the doorbell rings. It is Miles with a walkie talkie and a message that the invaders have Alex. Keamy holds Alex at gunpoint, demanding that Ben come out. Ben refuses and tries to talk Keamy out of killing his daughter, even going so far as claiming that killing Alex would be pointless because she is nothing more than a pawn to him. Keamy proves this wrong by shooting her dead.
Ben is stunned, seeming unable to grasp the fact that he has lost control of the situation and finally claims that, “He changed the rules.” Then he darts into his secret room full of fake passports and foreign currency and opens a second secret door that reveals a stone door covered in symbols that look like heiroglyphics. He disappears inside and returns moments later looking dirty and a little troubled, but very determined. He says something is about to happen and when it does they need to leave the cabin and run for the trees.
The ground starts to shake and the smoke monster pours out over the treetops, larger than it’s ever been shown before and clearly enraged. It darts back into the trees where the invaders are hiding and gunfire erupts but it is clear that Keamy’s team has no chance. One mercenary rushes out of the trees only to be captured by a smoky tentacle and dragged, screaming, back into the foliage. Locke and his friends run for the trees as Ben takes a moment to say goodbye to his daughter, apparently oblivious to the monster raging yards away from him.
In the jungle, Sawyer and Claire decide it’s time to return to Jack’s camp. Hurley wants to go with them but is forced at gunpoint to stay with Locke and Ben. They need him to guide them to Jacob so he can tell them what to do next.
On Jack’s side of the island, we see that Jack is having some kind of pain in his side and he is taking pills that he claims are antibiotics. Then a body washes up on shore with its throat slit open. Daniel says it is the boat’s doctor.
Daniel gets the broken satellite phone to work as a makeshift telegraph and sends a message to the boat asking what happened to the doctor. When the reply comes back, Daniel says that they aren’t sure about the doctor but everything is fine. Bernard shows the useful skill of knowing Morse code and says that the message actually was that they don’t know what Daniel is talking about; the doctor is just fine.
In the flash forward, Ben shows up in the middle of the Sahara desert wearing a parka with a bloody gash in one sleeve and the name tag Halliwax stitched onto it. (This is the name that “Marvin Candle” used in the Orchid video shown at ComicCon.) He breaks out some Jason Bourne-like moves on the two horsemen who come across him and then makes his way to Tozeur, Tunisia.
Ben now travels as name Dean Moriarty, a name which seems to scare the desk clerk at a Tunisian motel. She is further concerned when he asks the date (October 5th) and then confirms that the year is 2005. Ben then sees a television report showing a grieving Sayid taking his wife to burial.
Ben meets up with Sayid in Tikrit, Iraq. Sayid married Nadia after returning from the island but she has been killed. Ben says the man that killed her is named Ishmael Bakia and is there in Tikrit watching Sayid. The two of them create a trap to kill Bakia. After Bakia is dead, Ben then tells Sayid he should walk away and not get involved in the war Ben is starting. Sayid just asks who should be killed next, which is exactly what Ben wanted to hear.
The final scene shows Ben in London, sneaking his way into Charles Widmore’s penthouse apartment in the dead of the night. Widmore wakes up and the two of them have a revealing talk. Ben tells Widmore that he changed the rules and is responsible for Alex’s death, but Widmore says that Ben caused it himself. Then Ben says he means to kill Widmore’s daughter Penelope (who is also Desmond’s fateful love Penny) to avenge Alex. Widmore says Ben will never find her. Widmore goes on to say that he is going to take back the island that Ben took from him, to which Ben replies that Widmore will never find it.
The title for this episode is very appropriate. It clearly spells out the shape of things to come in this series.
