I've reached a comfortable level of Zen with Lost. During last night's installment, "The Substitute," which certainly qualifies as a great episode, I was never confused even though, as usual, nothing was really explained or even explainable. And I'm finally fine with that.

A lot of Lost recaps you read (including some in this series) will frustratingly say, "Lost creates more questions than answers." Sure, but that's like saying, "NBC is ruining the Winter Olympics because no one likes to watch delayed sports," or, "The end of Disney's The Black Hole makes absolutely no sense," or, "after being on the air for 12 straight years, advertisements for Shutter Island will finally be coming to an end this week." These are all things we already know. And this is where my newfound Zen takes hold: I mean, do I really even want answers? I'm fine with more questions—they seem much more comforting.

Any episode that focuses on John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is always better than one that doesn’t. Regardless of the fact that he technically died two seasons ago, he has become the heart of the Lost just as much Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) is the heart of the Ghostbusters. And what a happy Locke we find in this new, alternate timeline of 2004. He's downright pleasant. He still has Helen in his life. And not the random customer-service-operator Helen—the flesh-and-blood version played by Katey Sagal. How do we know this is a different John Locke? When the name of Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) is dropped in conversation, Locke replies, "Yeah, nice guy."

Do you know who else has discovered a level of Zen comparable to mine? Sawyer. Back in the not-so-happy present, on the island, the Smoke Monster, disguised as the deceased John Locke, reveals himself to our slightly intoxicated anti-hero, who's been drowning his sorrows to Iggy Pop's "Search and Destroy." (Thanks iPhone Shazam!) Fitting. Sawyer, after six seasons of this I've-seen-it-all bullshit, simply doesn't care anymore. As Sawyer explains to Smoke Monster-Locke, "I don't give a damn if you're dead, or time traveling, or the Ghost of Christmas Past. All I care about is this whiskey." Replace whiskey with a pint of inexpensive American light beer, and Sawyer and I finally have something in common.

Circa 2004, Happy-Locke winds up getting fired from his job for completely blowing off a week of meetings on a company trip to Australia—which, actually, seems like reasonable grounds for termination. But that doesn't get this John Locke down. He takes a job as a substitute teacher, and just happens to work alongside one Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson), who teaches European History. This version of 2004 has to be a perfect world because, in a perfect world, of course Ben Linus is a European History teacher. It really does suit him much better than his alternate-universe job description: "diabolical leader of nomads."

Meanwhile, Smoke Monster-Locke has a surprise for Sawyer: a cave covered with names. We learn that each name is a candidate to one day run the island and each has a corresponding number assigned. The names: Locke, Reyes, Ford, Jarrah, Shephard, Kwon; the numbers, respectively: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. This revelation led to perhaps my favorite dialogue in the series’ history, when Sawyer responds, "That'd be Jack Shephard?" and "That's Hugo [Reyes], right?" Granted, Sawyer was probably still drunk, but the chances seem low that the scribbles refer to Cybill Shepherd and current New York Mets shortstop José Reyes (whose number is 7, not 8).

I happened to interview Terry O'Quinn, who plays John Locke, last week. Between questions about this episode, I asked him if the Lost storyline confuses him. "Not really," O'Quinn replied. "I don't try to tie it all together. It's above my pay scale to puzzle it all together." These are wise words. I would assume his pay scale is well above mine, which really makes me question why, Zen or not, I'm spending so much of my time trying to make these puzzle pieces fit.