Make no mistake: ‘The Candidate’ is a sucker punch to the gut.

‘The Candidate’ is the most brutal episode of ‘Lost’ ever shown. In a series where you become very much attached to the characters, and dedicate a fair amount of time to it, you are bound to be moved or disturbed by certain moments. But when the show hits you with not one but three major deaths in an episode, and you have a certain amount of commitment to the series, it’s bound to have a visceral impact that the producers are hoping for.

And have they ever hit the mark.

But aside from the gut-wrenching moments (more on that later), the best compliment I can give ‘The Candidate’ is that the script doesn’t waste a single scene. Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso’s script is sharp; the pacing is spot-on and the way the plot unfolds, peeling back layer after layer of intrigue and plot misdirection, works beautifully.

The flash sideways is full of little gems: Jack need to discover why Locke won’t have the surgery is a deceptively simple storyline, but each step along the way deconstructs his notions: Locke’s father’s state, the truth behind Locke’s paralysis, and the guilt they share as a result of their fathers.

A wonderfully subtle nod to how the parallel universe inverts the character dynamics: Jack’s parting words to Locke (“I wish you would believe me”) echoes Locke’s final message to Jack in the main timeline.

In the regular timeline, the pace has increased to Grand Prix proportions. The complex game between Widmore and the Man in Black/faux-Locke reaches critical proportions. Faux-Locke’s nature is left unambigous: he is absolutely evil. And in the face of such evil, we witness three major character deaths.

Sayid’s death was the most unsurprising; his death was one of redemption, saving all he could in a final moment of sacrifice. Most disturbing about his death was the abruptness with which it occurred.

But then there is the death of Jin and Sun, the most brutal in the entire series.

Considering how these two had only just found each other after a couple of seasons apart, and what they had gone through together throughout the show, their final moments together – and the expression of their love for one another – are possibly the most emotional we’ve seen in ‘Lost’.

Take into account that now their daughter is an orphan, and this scene just completely messes with you. The follow-up scene, with Hurley, Kate, and Jack on the beach mourning their friends only adds to the emotional impact (particularly Jack, as he stares at the sea, trying to make sense of what has happened).

And it is that scene with Jack staring at the sea that perfectly exemplifies where we are in the story.

We are in that dark place, that situation where everything looks hopeless for our heroes.

And ‘The Candidate’ does a perfect job of getting us to this moment.