What up, dog?

Ah, Holy Week: when our thoughts turn reflective, when we think about Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, and when our favorite prime time sci-fi mystery dramas mix Egyptian mythology with strong Christian allegory.

There’s no better time of the year.

We were promised that Ben would atone for his sins this week, and that’s exactly what we saw. It was a revealing and complicated episode that gave us a small glimpse into what might be the origins of the island and the root of the Ben Linus-Charles Widmore spat that’s stretched on — violently — for decades.

And we got to see hieroglyphics that included the Egyptian protector god of the dead, Anubis (at right).

The seven-year-old me — the one going to church every Sunday and checking mythology books out of the library every Tuesday — was geeked by the entire episode.

So I’m changing my review this week to go point-by-point.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

POINT 1: Ben’s actually a human being.

For all of the conniving and scheming that Ben Linus has done over the course of the show, we get a view of him as a human being in this episode, wrestling with the guilt of killing his daughter. To further humanize Ben, we see him and a young Ethan kidnapping Alex and letting Rousseau live, in a human move.

When he returns to the camp with the baby, Charles Widmore — who, it turns out, was the leader of the hostiles/others for decades — tells him he should have killed the child. He refuses. He raises her. He pushes her on a swing. Later, he’ll shoot a man point blank with a sawed-off shotgun (in this episode). All is well.

POINT 2: All is not well with Charles Widmore

He was the leader of the hostiles/others, and Ben exiled him for breaking the “rules of the island.”

He seems like he was a jerk when he was leading them, anyway.

Ben may have been in the right in kicking him off.

POINT 3: The island once had Egyptian inhabitants.

We know now that some Egyptian or post-Egyptian culture lived on the island.

Underneath “the temple” where Ben goes to be judged, we see walls covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics, including a carving of Anubis holding out his hand to a mean-looking lightning bolt — we can assume it’s the smoke monster — above the grate where the monster comes from.

This adds to some theories raised about the four-toed statue.

POINT 4: John Locke = Christ figure

After Ben is judged by the smoke monster, Alex appears to him and tells him to follow John Locke, no matter what. She just wants her dear old dad to do one thing: Trust Him. Or, I mean, trust him. Lowercase. Sorry.

If you didn’t think that John Locke was the “savior” before, think long and hard about Holy Week. Here’s the savior check list.

• Died for sins
• Comforter of the lonely
• Guide to the lost
• Rose from dead
• Taught lessons

POINT 5: That bounty hunter who captured Sayid mightbe more than the bounty hunter who captured Sayid.

She’s looking pretty intense these days. What was in that big metal case she kept pounding on?

What did you think of the episode? Post a comment below.