LOST recap: Two for the Road

Holy shit.
Well, they certainly gave Harold Perrineau something to work with this time, right?
This is why I go out of my way too avoid message boards and other potential spoilers. If I'd had any notion that Michael was going to turn that gun on Ana, and that Libby was going to bite it along with her, I wouldn't have had the moment of complete slack-jawed surprise that I did tonight.
With Michelle Rodriguez's legal troubles, it's not a big surprise they wrote her off the show. Just this week, when the story of her sentencing came out the show's producers said they could work around her absence.
Yeah, by putting a freaking bullet in her! (Yahoo UK had it right, though.)
They even made her last episode revolve around her drinking problem. Was tonight's episode just one long intervention for Michelle? Or a 'Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out'?

Just when I was starting to like Ana-Lucia, too. I'll say this much for Ana, now that she's gone. She provided for us two of the best episodes of the season, Collision and now Two for the Road. This was a remarkably well directed episode, in terms of pacing and performance. Paul Edwards, who previously did the just OK What Kate Did was behind the camera and he gave us a tight, engrossing episode even before the gut-wrenching final minutes.

I love having John Terry back as Jack's dad, even if it was a bit far-fetched that he'd meet up with Ana and whisk her away for a Lost Weekend in Sydney. But, really, what else was Ana doing? What else did she have to live for? This episode was, more than anything else, about the guilt that Ana kept wrapped around herself, guilt that finally killed her.

Ana didn't just jump Sawyer, she essentially raped him, because she used her sex as a form of control, as the only power she had available.
More revealing is how she reacted to Sawyer when he yelled, "Go on, GET!." Ana was just a stray dog, whimpering around with her tail between her legs, occasionally snarling or biting but really no danger to anyone but herself. Michelle Rodriguez did a great job tonight, she was believable and sympathetic. I'll actually miss her on the show, something I could have never predicted her first few episodes this season.

So: Is Michael a bad guy now? Is he a mole? Is he infected with the 'sickness' that Rousseau's always going on about? He was clearly conflicted right up until that last minute, when he pulled the trigger, and horrified when Libby walked in, and he had to pop her, too (Ana was really almost a mercy killing). And Edwards gave us a nice long moment after the shooting to absorb what had just happened. I hope in the last few episodes of this season Perrineau gets a chance to shine, and I also hope that he survives the season because suddenly Mike's interesting again.
Was he possibly doing this because it was the only way they'd let him have Walt back?

LOST is all new until the finale. Everything changes now. One huge question I have: What evil shit are the Others doing that makes someone turn this violently?
This was sweeps television as it should be.

LOST Episode 2:20; Two for the Road: A+