Lost you should be better than this

I may be overreacting but I think tonight's episode of lost made things much easier on me.  No longer will I need to catch every episode or download it ASAP for reviewing.  I still have an interest in the show but it's been significantly downgraded. 
As a soap opera fan I have a pretty liberal suspension of disbelief but Lost is really pushing it with it's characterizations.  Locke who has admittedly always been naive and easily controlled has sunk to new depths of stupidity that drastically out weigh his impressive survival skills and the intrigue of his mysticism.  He finally believes that he has the upper hand with Ben and the only thing he cares to know is who Ben's man on the boat is?  Why does Locke even think the name will mean anything to him?  And there are so many more important and interesting questions that Ben has the answers to, at least as far as John knows.  I understand that it's for the sake of drama that Locke can't ask these things and have them answered but in that case they shouldn't have put Locke and Ben in that situation in the first place.  And since the answer came off screen they could have had Locke ask better questions instead of making him into a bumbling fool. 
As for Ben they keep giving us evidence of what a crazy manipulative bastard he is.  He keeps screwing people over and using his power to control others and yet no one has decided to take him out.  How many killers are on this island and none of them have set there sights on the dangerous psycho who seems to be controlling everything. 
And Juliet needs to learn to use that gun.  She's been held against her will for years and all this crazy shit has gone down.  maybe when Harper shows up it's time to shoot her in the knee and demand to know how Ben got orders to her.  And once Charlotte and Daniel were finished maybe keep the gun on them and demand to know exactly what they know, how they know it and why there are there.  But hey when you can ignore obvious danger and go flirt with Jack, I guess the choice is easy.  You won't be manipulated by Ben anymore, no only everyone else on the island can pull your strings now. 
When a show trashes characters and relies so heavily on sloppy storytelling to maintain suspense it's a lot easier for me not to care.  Don't be confused by my blogging at midnight, I definitely care way less than I did last week.  I've never been a bitter fan when it comes to lost (except about too much Jack airtime) but tptb managed to drive me away a fair bit with this crap episode.  I'd be more appreciative if I thought I'd use my new found free time for something better but I'll likely just fill it with more soap operas.  Maybe I'll go re-watch the Des/Penny phone call from last week and see if I can forget all about tonight.