Lost: Cuff Love

So, last night's Lost! Let's delve into the good (Sayid!), the bad (that submarine CG!), and the setup for next week's finale. What important questions do we expect will get answered -- or, in the Lost tradition, partially answered in a completely bizarre, additional-question-inducing way?

How does the handcuffed love triangle of Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate get off the submarine and back onto the island? As the season's penultimate episode, "Follow the Leader" did what Lost is so good at doing right before a big season finale: it split its characters up into strange groups that are so far removed from each other in geography and intent that you wonder how they'll ever be reunited. The most intriguing group to me was the angsty romantic trio aboard the departing submarine -- for a moment, after the submarine left the island, I actually was flabbergasted that three regulars might be heading back to the 1970s mainland. Luckily, the promo for next week's episode showed them all back on the island, hangin' with Jack. Thanks, ABC marketing!

What happened to Lost's FX budget? Speaking of that submarine ride! We got such a nice glamour shot of Sawyer looking back at the beautiful island cliffs with scorn, and it was followed almost immediately by some mega-questionable CG work as the submarine submerged. Couple that with the occasionally iffy smoke monster graphics a few weeks back, and I'm starting to get a little worried. Guys, if you can't break the bank on special effects every week, at least obscure these sequences a little by setting them at night, in a sandstorm, from far away. Don't dwell.

What lies in the shadow of the statue? I used to think this would be a mundane thing like The Temple or, I dunno, some really cool treasure chest, but the more this question is asked (and the fact that it hasn't been answered going into the finale), the more I think it's got to be something really WTF-inducing. When Miles confessed in his flashback that he had no idea what lay in that shadow, he was told, "Then you're not ready to go to the island." Does that indicate that it's something one must be emotionally prepared for? Or might it involve Rose, Bernard, some SPF 30, and a hidden waterslide park?

Who shot at Sawyer's outrigger back in The Little Prince? Most of the Locke storyline in this episode was devoted to wrapping up some loose time-travel ends from earlier in the season, and this is one of the few big ones remaining. Back in the fourth episode, Sawyer and his bloody-nosed posse time-flashed to a strange point in the future, where they found a spare outrigger (and an Ajira Airways water bottle). While taking it out in the ocean, they were shot at by another outrigger before they flashed out of danger. I'm assuming the dangerous Ilana is one of the shooters (probably on her way to the waterpark) and that we'll get the other side of the story in the finale, but who else was with her?

Where's Sayid been? Is Naveen Andrews cool with just stone-cold chillin' off-screen for half the season? Sayid's unexpected return was one of this episode's high points -- after all, he's been MIA for four episodes. Perhaps the producers let Naveen Andrews have some off-island time to deal with his real-life custody battle, since we know how Andrews is the most vocal cast member to complain to the press when he's little-used on the show. Let's give him some more to do in the last season, OK? Hey, the producers have already paired him with Jack going into the finale -- we can think of a few unconventional ways to keep the Jack/Kate love triangle flame burning...