From a creative standpoint, Lost is the classic example of a show that has become a victim of its own success.

Remember when the series premiered, and Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams hit the interview circuit? They told a story about how the early drafts of the pilot script had the character of Jack as the lead, just as he is now...except he was slated to DIE before the end of the pilot. (If memory serves, they wanted Michael Keaton for the role.)

In other words, they were going to establish themselves as the ultimate in anything-can-happen drama by building up a major character as the star of the show, then bumping him off before the end of episode one. It would have been a gutsy move.

Instead, Jack became the show's actual lead character, and Matthew Fox was cast. As the show became a cult phenomenon and a genuine ratings player, the focus slowly shifted from its early ensemble feel to a more traditional "star" vehicle for Fox, and to a lesser extent, Evangeline Lily as Kate and Josh Holloway as Sawyer. They became our Luke Skywalker (Jack has serious daddy issues, too), our Princess Leia, and our Han Solo.

By this point in season three, episodes spotlighting Jack, Kate and Sawyer (and to a lesser extent, Locke) have become about as revealing as the endless parade of Data and Worf-centric episodes that padded out the seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Oh, come ON. Don't roll your eyes at me. I know you're a Trekkie. Or a Trekker. Whatever. Cowboy up and stand proud!) Because they are the "stars," they get the screen time, and suddenly characters that were an intrinsic part of making the show successful from the beginning are relegated to occasional guest spots at best. (I bet Dominic Monaghan is kinda kicking himself that he followed up Lord of the Rings with this show, where these days he's lucky to get a scene or two every three or four episodes at best.)

Last night's "The Glass Ballerina" avoided the Big Three entirely, instead providing another piece to the backstory of Sun and Jin. After last week's Jack retread (he's stubborn, we GET IT), it felt like a breath of fresh air. It doesn't hurt that the show's casting director assembled one hell of a group of castaways from the start, so Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim really deliver in their powerful scenes of betrayal, adultery, and loss.

This is the kind of flashback material that still draws me in--an unilluminated portion of the past of the castaway, with plot or character content that sneakily weaves its way into the "now" time on the island. In "The Glass Ballerina," we have Sun conspiring with Sayid to fake out Jin. He thinks they're out and building a signal fire to attract Jack's attention; in reality, Sayid has some serious pipe-hitting nasty plans for the Others, who are his real targets.

Meanwhile, in the flashback, Sun struggles with a much bigger lie--an affair with the continental son of a hotelier, conducted while Jin is out beating the snot out of deadbeats for Sun's father. There's no question Jin and Sun's connection is built on some kind of true love, but it's a relationship constructed on lie after lie; Jin continues to hide the most horrifying details of his "business" with Sun's father, Sun sneaks off to sleep with another man while Jin is doing all those horrifying things just to remain in Daddy Sun's good graces, who himself maintains a thin facade to "protect" his daughter from his ugly business. And Jin continues to keep his true roots hidden, afraid that if he's discovered as the lowly son of a fisherman, he will not be worthy any longer to remain with the love of his life.

It's a thick stew, and the writers, actors and director bring it to a fast, simmering boil that seems to head exactly where you think it's going--Jin is too noble to kill, so he forces the guy out of the country instead--until it veers left, HARD. That body slamming on the hood of Jin's car was a VERY satisfying moment, a reminder of just how good this show can be when it's firing on all cylinders.

Meanwhile, back on the island, action ticks onward. Out of the whole shebang, a few moments actually resonated this episode--Sun's panicked shooting of one of the Others on the sailboat was another classic jarring Lost moment, and the Sawyer/Kate kiss really did come from nowhere and had a romance and sweep to it that was completely unexpected. That whole little scene--where Sawyer seems to be his dirty old self and flirts with Juliet, then he dumps out the water like the jerk he is, then he looks over at Kate and seems to realize he was an ass for dumping the water when she desperately needs it, and THEN he sweeps over to kiss Kate before laying the smack down on the Others who rush to punish them--very nicely done, and a tight bit of acting from Holloway.

Which brings us to the final scene, the Jack and Benjamin/Henry encounter, and the Boston Red Sox. The plot details of these endless twists upon twists have sorta stopped having any impact; I'm way past the point where a line of dialogue could have me shouting at my TV and jumping around the living room in a state of gleeful shock. I'm starting instead to appreciate the mechanics of the revelations. Case in point: Michael Emerson continues to knock the ball out of the freaking park in EVERY scene he occupies, and his approach to Jack in this episode's final moments is especially sinister.

Then there's the vehicle the writers use to convey the "shocking truth" to Jack--that these Others actually do have regular contact with the world beyond the island, which means they may indeed possess some mechanism for returning the castaways back to that world. Matthew Fox earns his big-time TV star salary here with a priceless reaction to the Red Sox win that's way more intense than the actual "OH EM GEE" of the reveal itself.

Does that make sense? In other words, Lost is still worth watching IN SPITE OF the top-level nonsensical "mysteries" continuing to bleat from the writers' room over in SoCal. Instead, the whole becomes greater because its individual incredible parts--the acting, the dialogue, the pacing.

Which is why this show will probably continue to suck me in, long after I've stopped caring about the smoke-and-mirrors mysteries and long after I've stopped drawing a paycheck from these fine people for bullplopping about it every Thursday morning for a couple hours.

iTunes Links:

Lost Series
Lost Season 3
"The Glass Ballerina"