Lost - Flashed Back

Exposé

Well, we all wondered where Niki and Paolo came from? Everyone hated them already and wanted them dead. You got your wish, and we haven't even gotten to the first commercial break yet!

We flash back to the beginning, plane crash and all, and we get to see different points of views of previously known times, and we get a revival of the dead Boone, Shannon, Artz, and Ethan again! Welcome back to Lost! As we trace Niki and Paolo through their days until their sudden mysterious death, we get a semi refresher update of everything that has happened so far, with some bonus extra material thrown in to fill in more gaps.

Niki was an actress playing a stripper on a Baywatch-like show called "Exposé" filming in Australia, and she was sleeping with the director, only to have Paolo, the new chef and her secret lover, kill him so that they could steal something precious that only the director had a key to. A key he hung around his neck. They manage to steal the item and are off on Oceanic 815 where they bump into Boone and a screaming Shannon at the airport.

After the crash, they survive amongst everyone, including Artz and they meet Ethan.

It's fun watching everything from a different point of view, basically from the "rest" of the survivors. Meanwhile, Niki and Paolo are scheming to find the bag with the lost 8 million dollar loot they stole. Paolo finds it and hides it in the toilet at The Pearl hatch and overhears Ben and Juliet giving slightly more info of their intent before they captured Jack. Paolo rescues the lot again when Locke and co. went exploring again, which explains why Niki and Paolo volunteered back in that episode in the fall.

Meanwhile, in current time, Sawyer is accused of killing Niki and Paolo, when Desmond reveals that he saw Sawyer have an argument with Niki right before their death, despite Sawyer claiming he didn't know them. He hands Sun the loot, a bag full of diamionds. Charlie reveals to Sun that him and Sawyer had kidnapped her and led her to believe it was The Others.

12 hours before this, Niki finds out that Paolo actually found the diamonds, seeks revenge using one of Artz collections of poisonous spiders, but gets caught herself in the web she weaved and is paralyzed herself.

The survivors bury them but we see that Niki is still alive... OMG...

That was a fun (and shocking) episode that was probably as stand alone as Lost could ever be, yet weaved in little tidbits in between. Kinda like the DVD extras to help explain a movie. Still, highly entertaining, though they had Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santoro join the cast all for that? Was that the plan from the start? Though with all the set ups, almost seemed it was since it seems to all work out, at least based on casual viewing.

Between Friday Night Lights, American Idol, Degrassi: TNG and this, what a great entertaining night! When did Wednesdays get back it's glory? And I still haven't even watched Bones yet.