So, once again, the people behind ABC's action drama 'Lost' manage to throw another curveball at their audience. This time, even though there's very little real forward movement in getting Jack out of Otherland, we do find out some interesting tidbits about the new characters we love to hate, Paulo and Nikki.
The best part is, from the looks of it, for all those who truly aren't fans of Paulo and Nikki, your day has come. The episode, which is really more of a Nikki flashback than anything else, starts with her running breathlessly through the jungle and burying something. She then runs into Sawyer and Hurley playing ping-pong on the beach, and then faints. Sawyer and Hurley rush to her aid, she says something unintelligible, and then within seconds, she seems to be dead. Hurrah!
The flashbacks we see before the crash show us that Nikki is an actress, finishing up a guest spot on what looks to be a strip club/mobster drama starring Lando Calrissian himself, Billy Dee Williams. Despite leaving the show, she is in the midst of a torrid love affair with the older director of the show. One day, they're eating breakfast in his beautiful house in Sydney, when the director, a man named Zuckerman, introduces Nikki to his new chef: Paulo. He then gives her a beautiful diamond bracelet, but before celebrating can commence, he quickly dies from what looks like poisoning, courtesy of...Paulo and Nikki, who obviously know each other. They go into a safe and find...something. As we find out later, it's safe to assume that this something is the same something Nikki buried at the beginning of the episode.
Meanwhile, Sawyer and Hurley have decided, along with Sun and Charlie, that Nikki said that Paulo lies before she died. They search for Paulo and guess what? He's dead, too! Of course, seeing as neither of them have any wounds on them, the circumstances are incredibly mysterious.
The flashbacks continue for Paulo and Nikki as they cope on the island, and try to search for the bag containing the something they stole from Zuckerman. In doing so, they also encounter Boone and Shannon (who reappear for a few minutes, mostly just reenacting scenes from first-season episodes), Jack, Locke, Charlie, Claire, etc. Mostly, though, they are concerned primarily with finding the bag. They get a hint from, of all people, Ethan Rom that some of the luggage is in the jungle, not just on the beach. So Nikki asks Dr. Arzt (another returning dead guy) about trajectories. He's only too happy to comply, but not after educating Nikki about a new species of spider he's found on the island, the Medusa spider. Foreshadowing...
Meanwhile, as Sawyer and the rest of the gang search through Paulo and Nikki's tent to figure out any clues, they find something shocking: a walkie-talkie that looks marvelously just like the ones The Others have. Sawyer surmises that the two dead folk worked for The Others. Also mentioned during this scene is Sun's abduction from last season. She points out that it would seem likely for them to be involved with the Others, even if they live far away; how could they have kidnapped her otherwise?
Of course, they didn't work with the Others. One time while Nikki and Paulo were searching for the bag, they found, along with the plane that killed Boone, the tunnel and ladder down to the Pearl Station. Paulo's curiosity gets the best of him and, one time by himself, he goes down and checks out the camera-laden station, only to eavesdrop on Juliet and Ben (dressed in his Henry Gale costume) watching Jack in the Swan Station. In the meantime, Paulo gets himself a walkie.
Things get messier in the present when two things happen: while investigating, Hurley finds out from Desmond that earlier that day, Sawyer (who has so far seemed to not even know who Nikki and Paulo are) had a big argument with Nikki; the other thing is that Charlie, guilt-ridden, admits to Sun that he was the one who abducted her last season, but that Sawyer was behind the idea, so he'd get the guns back. She looks pissed, but doesn't say anything to Charlie.
At first everyone doubts that Sawyer and Nikki argued, but when Desmond is brought in, suspicions are high. They confront Sawyer, who admits that he did have an argument with her, as she wanted one of the guns for an unexplained reason. He then says that he followed her as she buried something (though the timeline would prove that a bit shaky). He unearthed it, and gives a tiny pouch to Sun: it's diamonds.
Meanwhile, in the last flashbacks, we see when Nikki and Paulo were in the Pearl Station with Locke, Eko and everyone else. Remember how Paulo had to go to the bathroom, of all things? Yes, I know it seems minute, but apparently, he was taking the diamonds for himself, not going to the bathroom. After we see this flashback, we cut to the day of the present action. Nikki and Paulo are by themselves on the beach, and Paulo lies that he's glad the bag was never found, because it could have torn them apart if they had found it. After he leaves to get them breakfast, Nikki finds some interesting clues that lead her to realize that Paulo is a liar, just like Sawyer and Hurley said.
We then see the argument between her and Sawyer, that Desmond spies; for once, no lying on Sawyer's part. She, heatedly, asks for a gun and he denies her. They bicker and she walks off. Later that day (only 8 hours before things went down), she leads Paulo into the jungle and tells him she knows he has the diamonds. He tries to deny it, but Nikki has a surprise: the female Medusa spider Arzt had. She throws it at him and it bites him in the neck. As Paulo starts to get sick, Nikki reveals that the Medusa is so-named because it paralyzes whoever it bites. Paulo apologizes for lying, saying he wanted to stay with Nikki and thought the diamonds would tear them apart. Nikki feels bad, but it's too late. The female spider, in letting out its pheromones, attracted many of the males on the island, just as Arzt said they would. And so, Nikki is bitten.
Before we get to the chilling end, Sun finds Sawyer at the gravesite and confronts him with the truth about her abduction. Sawyer apologizes and Sun gives him back the diamonds. He's cheerfully surprised that nothing else happened, and then she punches him. Deservedly so. Finally, after we see Nikki's point of view of the first few minutes and what she really said (she said she was paralyzed), we see Sawyer and Hurley start to bury Paulo and Nikki. Just as Nikki wakes up from her paralyzed state (which ends after 8 hours). And so, these two are dead. Or are they?
Interesting episode of 'Lost.' Definitely another unique show, and one that answered a few good questions. But, how about we just go straight to the big answers from now on, hmm? Hopefully, next week will start that new trend.
