Weirdest. Episode. Ever.

I can't believe it, but I think I loved last night's episode. This DESPITE.....

--LOST using a format they never have before, taking two relatively new characters and filling in different points in LOST history with them, kind of like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. A total gimmick, but I liked it.

--LOST using a shot I had never seen from them before. The POV shot of Nikki coming out of the jungle when she staggers and falls, slamming into the sand with her. Weird, but cool.

--LOST not using "previously on LOST" instead beginning abruptly with the slammin' hot Nikki in the strip club. My first thought: "oh shit, the fanboys are going to LOVE her now!!!"

--Lando fucking Calrissian.

--Establishing Nikki as a young up-and-coming actress who also moonlights as a confidence (wo)man with her South American trash boyfriend Paolo. Also, we're to believe a hit show in the US (although never specified) shoots in Austrailia?

--LOST using not one, not two, but three people who have already died on the show? Boone, Shannon and Artz?! All in one episode for no real apparent reason.

--The overall macabre nature of the episode. From Charlie cheekily referring to Artz blowing up, to the significance of exotic spiders, to the last shot of Nikki's eyes bursting open, I was wondering if LOST superfan Steven King wrote this episode. So much craziness had happened I half expected one of their hands to burst up out of the ground like some zombie movie.

--did I mention, Nikki is fucking HOT. Paolo too, for the ladies, and I love how they worked in his "toilet still works" line, this time with added significance.

Pete