"I'm Not Through Here, Jerry. I'm Gonna Keep On Investigating. This Thing is Like an Onion. The More Layers You Peel, the More it Stinks."

***SPOILER ALERT******
Well, we are getting closer to answering the questions we've been asking lo, these many episodes. This week's installment of Lost featured a flashback that took us back to that fateful day a fortnight ago, when Michael left the group (locked in the armory) in search of Walt. Between the flashbacks and the "current" story, we learned a great deal about what happened to Michael while he was gone, and what motivated him to do the horrific things he has done since he returned. As for us viewers, we learned a few things, and, of course, raised some new questions:

1. Michael wasn't lying when he described the Others' camp. From the flashbacks, we could see why Michael would genuinely believe Zeke and Company to be a bunch of burlap-clad renegades living in tents with minimal firepower (of course, it also appears that Michael's description of the camp was the only truthful statement he made since returning to our castaway friends.). Okay, so if Michael did see what he described, and we also know that the Others wear elaborate costumes that give the appearance they are a bunch of wacky hillbilies, are we now to believe the Others would go so far as to create an entire fake campground with at least a dozen of them running around in burlap just to mess with Michael's head?

2. Walt is alive and (at least physically) well, though not exactly wecoming his new Others-overlords. From what I could discern, the Others have been doing some type of intensive study of him. Walt complained about being put through"tests," about which the mysterious black woman said"we're not going to talk about that." Walt also said that "these people are not what you think they are," but we already knew that. What have they been doing with Walt?

3. The Others have a particular interest in four of our favorite castaways: Kate, Jack, Hurley and "James Ford" (I chuckled when Michael didn't recognize Sawyer). Why these people and nobody else? Why not Locke, of all people?

4. We met some new Others and saw some old friends--In addition to the bearded man a/k/a "Mr. Friendly" a/k/a "Weird Beard" a/k/a "Zeke", we saw the mysterious black lady, the young guy whose name I missed and the woman we all know as Rousseau's daughter, Alex. It also appears that Alex is still sympathetic to our friends, and even concerned about Claire and the baby. Who is the mysterious black lady? Could she be "him"?

5. So, Sayid is the only person hip to Michael's scheming. I found it a little hard to believe that Jack would cede control of the plans to confront the Others to Michael so easily. However, maybe Jack's confidence has been undermined by his realization that he was completely wrong about (F)Henry. Either way, it seemed obvious to me that Michael has been behaving irrationally. Then again, I got to see Michael gun down two innocent hotties in the hatch, so I guess that I would have reason to be skeptical, huh.

6. Is there any chance the Others will really let Walt and Michael go free if Michael delivers them the Fab Four? Will they really give him their little boat? I sincerely doubt it.

7. Speaking of boats, from where did that boat appear at the end of the episode? It looked like a relatively small vessel, not something that would be sailing around in middle of the South Pacific. My personal theory is that it has something to do with Desmond, whom we have heard will be appearing in the 2-hour finale.

BTW, for the third Wednesday in a row I was out doing some drinking prior to the show, so my memory is once again sketchy. Still, I thought it was another excellent episode. The writers seem to have caught fire during the home stretch.

***Update: The Entertainment Weekly recap is available here.

In other TV news, America has once again spoken, and this time it is Elliot Yamin who was sent home from the American Idol finals. However, unlike most recent Idol exits where everyone debates the merits of the loser's elimination, most people actually felt positive about Elliot finishing in third place and gave him his due. This is probably because Elliot was such a long-shot to begin with (with his bad haircut, bad teeth, uncomfortable stage presence) from such humble beginnings (Yamin noted last night, "I'm just a counter clerk at a pharmacy. I've been waiting my whole life for a shot like this.''), that we were all glad to see someone get so far on vocal talent alone. According to FOX, the votes were split almost exactly even among the three contestants, with 33.06% going to Elliot and the two other contestants receiving 33.26% and 33.68% (we do not know whether it was Taylor or Katherine who garnered the additional 0.42% of the votes). Entertainment Weekly is skeptical of this, but assuming for the moment that it's true, then I would like to proffer this conspiracy theory: Tuesday night, my wife felt Elliot could use some help, so we both tried to call all three of the 866-numbers available to vote for Elliot on our Verizon cell phones, only to receive a recording telling us Verizon cannot complete the call. Could it be that knowing Idol is sponsored by Cingular, Verizon is preventing us from calling? Could it be that the Idol producers wanted Elliot gone in favor of the more charismatic Taylor and sexier Katherine? Could our votes have given Elliot the 0.20% he needed to get over the top? How many other people were blocked from voting for their Idol favorites Tuesday night? Could the whole thing be a mind-game being played on us by The Hanso Foundation or The aforementioned Others? This whole thing Stinks, I tell ya!

Finally, speaking of things that stink, the Mets lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to the Cardinals, wasting a gem of a pitching performance by Steve Trachsel. To add insult to injury, the final outs came with the bases loaded in the top of the 9th, when Jason Isringhausen struck out David Wright and got the ice-cold Cliff Floyd to ground out to first. Very depressing.