Before we reach the end of the series next year, I hope we get some explanation for why the Others don’t want other people on the island. Why are they “hostile”? Why are they on the island in the first place? Other than the technological differences (VW buses versus horses), they don’t seem all that different from the Dharma Initiative. They both crave information from each other, yet tend to greet interlopers with violence and demands rather than questions. We know the Others ultimately wipe out the DI — so there’s no hope of any kind of peaceful coexistence there — but what will be the fate of the Others in 2007 and beyond?

It appears that will be determined by Mr. John Locke.

As you might expect, “Follow the Leader” was about leadership, specifically how one acquires a leadership role and what he or she does with that power once in possession of it. As demonstrated in this and previous episodes, authority rarely goes unchallenged on Mystery Island. While Eloise Hawking is killing her future son Daniel, Charles Widmore discovers Jack and Kate lurking in the woods. Once they are dragged into camp, Eloise picks their brains about Daniel, whom she realizes is from the future. Jacks tells her about Daniel’s plan to detonate the nuclear warhead and, you know, put everything back the way it’s supposed to be or something. Kate abhors this plan — people will probably die and worse, she and Jack will never meet — but Eloise agrees to take them to Jughead, despite Widmore’s protestations.

Jack has been the leader of the Losties since the beginning, and though he seemed relieved to not have that responsibility in the Dharma village, there are just some parts of our nature that cannot be changed. Jack makes decisions. He’s not a follower. And Jack decides he wants to blow up the nuke even though it’s buried underneath the village. Kate follows for awhile, but can’t tolerate it when Jack talks about changing the course of the future as his “destiny”. The word carries too many shades of Locke, and so Kate bolts (but not before Sayid appears out of the jungle and shoots one of the Others).

Sayid has no qualms about changing the future. He believes he’s already done it, in fact, because as far as he knows, Benjamin Linus is now dead. Kate breaks the news that she rescued Ben, and Sayid makes a mental note to strangle her as soon as it becomes convenient. In the meantime, Sayid joins Jack, Eloise, and Richard Alpert on their journey toward the bomb.

And I know I mentioned this last week, but it still bugs the hell out of me: if whatever change they’re able to make actually stops their plane from crashing, then it also means they won’t have ever journeyed back to 1977. And if they never travel to 1977, then they won’t be there to blow up the bomb! Surely someone will figure this out before long, won’t they?

Back at the village, Radzinsky has basically staged a coup, and is torturing Sawyer and Juliet. He wants to know the location of the Others’ camp. Sawyer — selling out his former friends in order to save himself and Juliet — finally agrees to give up the location in exchange for their safe passage on the submarine. Dr. Chang has finally been convinced that Daniel was telling the truth about the electromagnetic discharge, but with Radzinsky calling the shots, the best he can arrange is to get the women and children off the island. This provides the completely predictable explanation for why he abandoned his wife and baby Miles. Of course we don’t know for certain that the map drawn by Sawyer is accurate, but he seemed too defeated in that moment to not tell the truth. Where just a few weeks ago he was enjoying his comfortable DI life, now he’s sick of it. “Good riddance” he says to the island as he slumps down into the sub.

Radzinsky’s tenure as leader of the DI will be a disaster, of course, and he’ll spend his last days living in the Swan station pushing the button and drawing maps on the blast doors. Just like Idi Amin.

The third leadership situation this week puts us back in 2007 with Locke and his merry band of post-Dharma Initiative Others. Locke walks into the Others’ camp carrying a dead boar, proclaiming, “I brought dinner.” After brushing off Richard’s questions about, you know, where the hell he’s been for the last three years — and after pulling off the neat trick of sending Richard to provide first aid for a time traveling Locke recently shot in the leg by Ethan — Locke demands to be taken to see Jacob. And not only that, he asks everyone else to come along too (much to Richard’s chagrin). When Ben asks Locke what he plans to do, Locke drops this bombshell: he’s going to kill Jacob.

I have speculated previously that I thought Jacob was actually Jack, trapped in some kind of interdimensional vortex or something metaphysical like that. That still may be the case, and I’d like to think it is. But when Locke says he wants to kill Jacob, I don’t think he means it literally. During his speech to the Others, he asks if any of them has seen Jacob. I believe he means to “kill” Jacob by demonstrating that he doesn’t exist. Kill the myth of Jacob. And yet if he does that, it will probably be the least Locke-like thing he’s ever done. Maybe he really is different now.

The island is still speaking to him though. So at least he’s not giving up all his faith. I do hope, though, that he’s wrong about Jacob (or that I am), because I’ll be disappointed if that’s all just a big hoax. But it was interesting to me how eager the Others were to follow Locke. Who has been leading them over the past three years? Richard? Probably not, since … well, that’s never been his job. If Locke’s quest to destroy Jacob (whatever that means) doesn’t go the way he hopes, what will that say about his destiny? Will the Others still follow him? I don’t know, but maybe being dead for a week causes you to lose some of those incidental worries.

By the way, if I’ve never said it before, I want to mention how much I enjoy Nestor Carbonell as Richard. What a wonderfully underplayed performance week after week. I’ve come to really enjoy that character, and I’ve never been more intrigued about his true identity.

I thought this was the most solid episode of Lost since “316″. It gave us three strong, thematically connected storylines, and left me anxious to see the resolutions to all three. I don’t have much interest in the Sawyer-Kate-Juliet triangle. I do kind of want to know what the hell happened to Rose and Bernard. It’s been three years! Where are they?!

I feel properly prepared for next week’s season finale. I don’t know if they’re going to give us another game-changing plot twist in the form of an altered crash-free timeline, but though it doesn’t seem reasonably possible, I’m curious to see how it plays out.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Best exchange of the night: Chang quizzing Hurley on his age in an effort to prove he’s a time traveler.

CHANG: “So you fought in the Korean War?”
HURLEY: “…There’s no such thing?”

Before I get into dissecting this week’s offering, I want to take a moment to explain a theory I’ve been developing about the nature of the island and its many inhabitants (and would-be inhabitants). In particular, I’ve been wondering about the significance of all the Egyptian imagery and considering the possibility that the island exists within the realm of Egyptian mythology. But the more I think about it, the less I’m able to discount all the allusions to other religions and philosophies. Christian Shepherd. The DHARMA Initiative. Rousseau. Locke. Locke dying and being resurrected three days later. Jacob. Benjamin. The Virgin Mary statues. Locke sending Boone on a vision quest (and then taking one himself). And when you get right down to it, the central conflict between Jack and Locke: science vs. faith.

Miles speaks with the dead.

I’ve begun to wonder if — at least on an allegorical level — the show is about opposing spiritual ideas fighting over ownership of paradise. Who has claim over the Truth? Christianity, Buddhism, science, New Age mysticism? Man, that’s sure an eternal struggle (and like the island, a constantly moving target). And the island both saves people and kills people. It separates them into different groups. Some try to harness its power. Others defend it against…the impure? And lastly, some unfortunate souls have been cast out entirely.

 I toyed with the idea early in the series that the island was actually the Garden of Eden. And though I’m not prepared to rule that out completely, I’m now more attracted to the idea that the island is religion incarnate. Maybe those are the same thing.

I also came to the conclusion a couple of weeks ago that Jacob — mysterious man in the cabin with an unexplained relationship to Christian and Claire — is actually our own Jack Shepherd! I don’t know how Jack (which is usually a nickname for John, but I suppose could also be one for Jacob) becomes the apparent ruler of Mystery Island, or what brings him to go back in time again and enter that strange, alternate plane of existence Jacob seems to be on. But I’m going to spend the rest of the series looking for clues that back up my theory. And as Jason Kramer pointed out to me when we discussed this, it would be wonderfully ironic if prototypical “man of faith” John Locke had actually been putting his faith in Jack all along.

As for this week — I wasn’t really waiting with baited breath for a Miles episode. I suppose it’s necessary sooner or later to explain what the hell he’s doing on the show, and I found the episode entertaining enough. I suppose there are two noteworthy revelations I should mention:

1. Pierre Chang (aka Marvin Candle) is Miles’ father. Duh. We figured that out months ago. But I think we can also infer at this point that Miles will have some role in separating his father from his mother (and infant self). Whether he does this to protect them or for some other reason, I don’t know. If nothing else, we know now that being in the same vicinity as your past self does not cause the space-time continuum to rip apart.

2. The guy who was with Ilana when she clocked Lapidus in the face tried to stop Miles from going to the island aboard the freighter. This guy is decidedly anti-Widmore, but it’s hard to believe he’s working for Ben. So how many sides are there to this thing?

I think we’re about to start barreling toward the season finale. Roger is going to want to know where his son is, and someone is going to discover that Phil — and by the way, I can’t get past the fact that Jimmy Barrett has apparently quit doing comedy to work for the DHARMA Initiative — is missing, along with one of the security tapes. As Juliet said, “Here we go.” Things are about to fall apart quickly for our Losties.

And the return of Daniel means…? If nothing else, he’s probably the only person who will be able to get our beloved castaways back to their own time. Or at least get everyone back in the same year.

There were some tense moments this week — I was impressed by Matthew Fox’s subtly growing menace in his scene with Roger Linus — but all in all, this seemed to be about setting up the end of the season. Not a whole lot to talk about, except, “Oh my God, what do you think is going to happen when they find out about … ?” My favorite moment by far, however — and probably the funniest of the season — was Hurley writing The Empire Strikes Back. You know, to make it easier for George Lucas.

Did you know that Empire is all about how parents and children should talk rather than fight with each other? See, with Lost you get action, suspense, laughs, and insightful critical analysis of beloved motion pictures.

Comment away, but please no spoilers for future episodes.