LOST: Moving the Pieces

I am usually fairly patient with LOST. People complain that the story moves very slowly and that things don't happen in certain episodes. I respond that the show builds over the course of a season, and little things that are not important in one episode come back later to be very relevant. However, this is the final season, and (as of the time I'm writing this), there are 5 episodes (taking the finale as 2, because it is 2 hours) left. I'm starting to get a tad impatient.

Did things "happen" in "Everybody Loves Hugo"? Most definitely. Ilana died when she overzealously dropped a bag containing Black Rock Dynamite. Titus tossed Desmond down a well after realizing that Desmond has no fear left. And Ben, Miles, and Richard split off from the rest of their group when Hurley convinced everyone else to go talk with Titus' camp. And in the alternaverse, Hurley and Libby were (re)united, while Desmond, in an attempt to give Locke a near-death experience, ran him down with a car. But it was another episode with very little actual plot momentum.

Like I said, I would be much more ok with this if we were not in the final season. There are so many story elements to wrap up that I am worried that things will get rushed in the final episodes. I love that this show knows that character development is important, because it is. But sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing, and I feel like LOST doesn't always know how to balance between character and plot.

Oh well. I'm sure that, once the season is over and I know this episode's place, I will be able to see it in a different light.

Up next: Jack vs. Locke...