Say WHA!?

Oh boy. Only Lost would have the balls to hype up the reveal of perhaps the most important character on the island, only to present to us an empty chair. There was no funnier scene than Ben talking to an empty chair and Locke looking at Ben as though he had lost his freaking mind. Locke looked at Ben like he wanted to say "I'm sorry, psycho says what?"

And boy, it was such a great "Psycho" moment (only with Jacob as a father rather than mother figure). It was such a fun episode, and so outrageous, in a good way.

But back to what the hell is going on. You woulda thought Ben really had lost his mind, except I think for a split second there actually was a shot of someone in the chair when Locke started using the flashlight? Can anyone confirm this? I'm going to check my DVR when I get home. Also, someone was clearly using telepathy or something to shake the room around.

My humble thoughts: assuming Jacob is real, I think Ben's got him imprisoned in there. When I first saw the gray stuff surrounding the house that Locke picks up, I thought it was gun powder, but now I'm thinking it might be some sort of ritualistic fence keeping Jacob from leaving the area. This makes sense with his "help me" to Locke. It seems like he's some kind of spirit that Ben has tied to a chair. I think his conversation with Jacob was made up -- not that Jacob wasn't speaking, but I think Ben was making up what he was saying (why would Jacob be mad that Ben brought Locke if he wanted Locke to help him?). I think that's all part of the show so that Ben can tell people that Jacob is an angry person that controls them all -- when, in truth, Ben IS the man behind the curtain because he actually controls Jacob.

Two episodes left! With the finale being a 2-hr Jack-centric episode called "Through the Looking Glass." There's a clip show in between the last two, but after a series of great episodes, I can't be too mad at them for taking a week break.