Thursday's episode is entitled "The Shape of Things to Come."

So just what happens? According to TV.com (because ABC.com's Lost page was having errors tonight):

Jack tries to discover the identity of a body that has washed ashore. Meanwhile, Locke's camp is attacked by Ben's adversaries.

Well, that sounds like an episode that can't use.

I'm just wondering if the title is an allusion to H.G. Wells 1933 future-history novel of the same name.

I don't know if I can make predictions about this episode. There's just too much happening and too long a break between episodes to ramp up my prognostication.

So I'll have to narrow it down.

From what we see in the video I posted earlier this week, and the general buzz surrounding the episode, Locke's camp will be invaded. What does this mean exactly?

• Ben will get medieval on the guys from the freighter. No, not like telling someone to handle the problem, actually rolling up his sleeves and getting his hands dirty.

• Someone will die. Someone important. I don't know who.

• We'll finally found out what "The Temple" is. Sure, Ben doesn't really feel a connection with the survivors of Flight 815 and he feels slightly abandoned by his own people, but that doesn't mean he won't use the temple to save himself -- and Locke and company, as well.

The war is just beginning, though, so it could take episodes for any of this to happen.

One thing we know for sure: It's going to get crazy from here on out.

First, who keeps a shotgun in their piano bench?

"Code 14-J" apparently is called into Ben's home when someone punches a special code into the fence, as Alex just did -- at gun point -- to let the soldier's from the freighter into the Others' compound.

Ben reacts by pulling out a nasty-looking shotgun from his piano bench.

Intense.

Also in this segment, we see freighter's medical officer washed up on shore in the first segment of the show -- his throat slit, stitches marking up his cheek. I have a feeling that there is something sewn into his mouth.

Yeah, it's a disturbing thought, but Locke's treatment of Miles -- holding him hostage with a live grenade in his mouth -- may be some kind of foreshadowing.

Great moment of faux-drama, by the way, with Ben, Locke and Hurley playing Risk.

I feel like all drama from here on out will be real.

-- Cody Switzer

Ben just woke up in a fur-lined parka with a bloody wound on his right arm in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

The parka bears a patch of some DHARMA program I didn't immediately recognize.

There is no way that the DHARMA people can't teleport.

Unbelievable.

Sawyer goes to get Clair. Clair, Hurley and the baby join Locke and Ben, locking Sawyer out. One generic survivor of Flight 815 dies, then another.

Sawyer fights off the freighter forces, hiding in the jungle.

He shoots, ducks, shoots, ducks, shoots, ducks -- then comes the rocket launcher.

The bungalo Locke, Claire, Ben, etc. were in explodes.

There is no way they aren't in an underground bunker connected to the bungalo. Locke has to survive through this, Ben tells him. And to do that, Locke has to stay close to Ben at all times.

"If you want to live, I'm your best chance," Ben told Locke.

So they can't be dead.

But as for Sawyer, laying in the grass as the freighter troops shoot from the woods...

DEATH COUNT: II (at least)

I'm going to need some help filling this out in my mind.

First, we see Ben check into an African hotel as "Dean Moriarty" -- literary allusion -- on Oct. 25, 2005. Sayid is back and on television. What day is it on the island, now? Are we forward or backward in time? Obviously forward in storyline, but backward in timeline?

I was also wrong before, everyone wasn't in that bungalo that blew up, just Clair.

Miles just bust into the room and said "They want to talk."

What kind of negotiations are they trying to make? I bet they are ransoming Alex, or trying to trade her for Ben.

It's a combo flashback between Ben and Sayid (regular reader, participant, coworker, guest star Andrew Kochirka told me about this earlier this week).

Apparently, Widmore and company are behind the murder of Sayid's wife. That's why we've seen Ben and Sayid in earlier episodes working together to kill of Widmore's people.

Also, is Ben lying about how he got to Iraq?

I think so, what do you think?

Ben isn't in control anymore.

The proof: his daughter is dead because he refused to come out of the bungalo he is hiding in.

When I title this entry "the coldest, most shocking moment I can remember," I don't just mean on this show, I mean that I've ever seen on TV.

Ben more-or-less let's her die, thinking that Keaney (sp) will just let her go. He doesn't, and he disavows her before she is shot, saying that she is just a pawn, and that she stole her from a "crazy woman" when Alex was just a baby.

It's a big moment in the show, a big turning point in Ben's character and a moment I can't believe happened.

Check out that cinematography, too -- extreme close-ups of Ben's reddened face.

Ben is shocked.

I don't know why -- that his daughter is dead or that he isn't in power anymore.

All he says: "They've changed the rules."

He disappears behind a wall and into another room, leaving everyone else behind in the bungalo.

Cut back to Iraq: Ben Linus is stalking Widmore's man in the Middle East. The man follows him and corners Ben. Sayid shoots him in the back.

Sayid demands that Ben allow him to join "his war," because they've taken away everything he cares about -- his wife.

"Benjamin, who is next?" Sayid said.

"I'll be in touch," Ben said.

A major revelation in the second half of this segment: Ben has some amount of control over the smoke monster.

He apparently goes in the back room and calls it to take out the freighter's mercenaries.

It comes roaring in -- with a sound curiously similar to the monster from "Cloverfield," J.J. Abrams other project -- and takes out the mercenaries.

Has Ben always had control over the cloud of smoke? Is this only for special occasions? Why was it flashing bursts of lightning? Was it bigger than before?

We also see Ben show real emotion as he says goodbye to Alex.

Faraday interprets a morse code message about the doctor, saying that everything is fine and that the helicopter is coming back.

Bernard interprets the message for what it really says: "The doctor is fine," whatever that means.

"Were you ever going to take us off this island?" Jack asks.

"No," Faraday said, responding to Jack. "No, no."

Jack then doubles over with pain, holding his stomach.

I have a strange feeling he is being poisoned. I don't know about you.

And Locke is willing to kill Sawyer to make sure he comes with him.

Or, at least he'll threaten to kill Sawyer.

Why have Locke and Ben fallen out of favor with Jacob?

This week's episode -- for all of it's unbelievable developments and shocking moments -- ended on yet another huge question.

( SPOILER ALERT: If you have not watched this week's episode, do not click the link below to read more. Actually, don't read anything here, because I'll ruin it all for you. Go watch the show if you would like to be surprised. )