The seemingly unrelated storylines of the main timeline and the alternate timeline are rapidly coming to a head.  In fact, it looks like all the pieces in both stories are nearly in place for a triggering incident that will set the fires that burn and rage for the rest of the season.  And our very own James “Sawyer” Ford is posed to sit and watch it all burn, with that smarmy smile on his face all the while.

Let’s get this out of the way right up front, though: this episode was rife with HoYay.  I don’t read Lost fanfiction or anything, but I’m willing to bet that, after this week’s episode, there’s already been a major spike in Sawyer/Miles slash.  That’s just my (inexpert) opinion on the matter, but you all know I’m right.

So, we’re back in Juxtaposition City in the mirror universe (still no sign of a Bisexual Dominatrix Kira yet), where Mr. Ford is a cop instead of a criminal, and a comically bad liar instead of the smooth-talking charmer we know and love.  And he’s partnered up with Miles again (I promise I’m done with my jokes on that), which again serves to show that, as much as this new reality is different, so much of it is still the same.  Of course, that means that the all-consuming quest to find the original “Sawyer,” Anthony Cooper, is alive and well also.

When the concept of the alternate universe was first introduced, one of the first things I decided (for myself) was that, in this new timeline—if there was any justice in the world—Charlotte and Faraday were off someplace boning each other nigh-constantly as karmic reward for the total cosmic screw-over they got in the original timeline.  Well, clearly, that isn’t happening, but we do at least see the return of Charlotte, who—weirdly enough—probably would have been a good fit for James if he hadn’t (in her own words) blown it.  We get a very real moment where she outright rejects his attempt at an apology and literally slams the door in his face.  This “no second chances” stroke is a nice antithesis to the concept that the alternate timeline itself appears to embody.

By the end of this particular episode, though, we’ve run back into the fugitive Kate again.  Helen’s words to Locke suggest that his relationship with Anthony Cooper is a good one.  Sayid has found an abducted Jin, and Jack is having some sort of cognitive dissonance with his new existence.  Are the dominoes in the alternate timeline about ready to fall?

Meanwhile, in the original timeline, Claire tries to stab the shit out of Kate, while Sayid looks all with all the casual interest of someone sitting on the couch thinking, “Oh, hey, this is the episode where Troi loses her empathy powers.”  The Man in Black comes to the rescue, though, and delivers the most epic bitchslap ever.  Not a proverbial one, either. Hot damn. The fallout from this eventually leads to the most awkward hug I think I’ve ever seen on television, with a tearful, crazy Claire crying all over a bewildered, gun-toting Kate.  (Sorry, ladies; the guys get the monopoly on homoerotic moments this week.)

The Man in Black assigns Sawyer a secret mission, with a purported objective that neither Sawyer nor the audience believe for a second.  We take a brief trip through Hydra Island’s own version of memory lane before we come across a pile of dead bodies, along with Zoe, who reminds me of a weird cross between Laura Roslin and Liz Lemon. After a brief round of “Con the Con Man,” it looks like Sawyer is about to get the upper hand when a large group of armed folks leap forth from the jungle and put the kibosh on all that.

It’s Widmore’s team, come to set up sonic barricades and bring some kind of epic showdown with the Man in Black.  Sawyer is brought to see Widmore himself (getting a brief glimpse at a Tantalizing Mystery Chamber™ aboard the submarine).  Sawyer strikes a double-crossing deal with Widmore to betray the Man in Black, then goes back to the Man in Black and plays the double-double-cross card, because he’s just that awesome.  He then reveals to Kate that his big plan is basically to just have everyone else fuck each other over, and then attempt to escape amidst the chaos.  Honestly, given what all has been going on with the Island and various loyalties, I can’t really fault that plan.

There are a few weird things about this episode.  For one, there’s a strange emphasis on people repeatedly stating that they know that John Locke is dead, and that they know that the being masquerading as Locke is not, in fact, Locke.  Seriously, I think we get that exchange like seven or eight times this episode.  Is this supposed to be for the benefit of the audience or something?  Hey, writers: I guarantee you that anyone who’s halfway through the final season of Lost is paying attention.  Get on with the episode.

But anyway, it really does look like the pieces and players are in their respective places.  Next week, we finally get our real close look at Richard, who for a long time running now has clearly been the big secret-keeper and x-factor for the show.  And we do still have some new mysteries.  For instance, who killed the rest of the Ajira 316 survivors?  Was it the Man in Black?  What’s locked up in Widmore’s submarine?  An abducted Desmond, perhaps?

Once the big revelations come, I think it’s all downhill in a frenzied rush towards the climax, or at least I hope it is.