Lost!

[Ghoulish Delight]

I'm holding out hope that an episode like this is just the result of the writers not being able to figure out how to partially reveal their full intentions in interesting ways that do not spoil the interesting ending, rather than evidence that they don't have an interesting ending. Perhaps it's too optimistic, and perhaps the fact is that they don't seem to be demonstrating the writing skills to keep things both shrouded in mystery AND interestingly thought provoking. But the show still holds plenty of potential to end up somewhere interesting. The good thing I can say about this episode is that while it didn't reveal anything remotely thought provoking, at least it didn't trash the potential for surprising and interesting answers.

ETA: Well, I might sort of disagree with myself on that last point. It did kinda collapse the uncertainty cloud on some of the more interesting possibilities. "Maybe MIB isn't the smoke monster at all, maybe there's an even more interesting explanation." Nope. "Maybe MIB isn't really trying to leave the island, that's just part of his game." Nope. "Maybe smokey is really the island's protector and Jacob is full of sh*t!" Nope. It seems like all the episode did was confirm the most mundane of possible scenarios.