J.J. Abrams has long professed his love of “The Twilight Zone” and, while he didn’t write this week’s episode, you knew this had to have his stamp of approval.

Creator Damon Lindelof has said that some characters only exist to serve other characters, and that seems to be the fate of Nikki and Paulo.

On one hand, we had the little “Zone” homage about how this wicked couple pays dearly for their crimes. On the other, we have another view of the events that have unfolded since the crash.

But what I thought was the most significant scene was between Ben and Juliet in the hatch, monitoring Jack and plotting how to get Jack to do the surgery on Ben.

Paulo knew that Jack, Kate and Sawyer would be kidnapped by The Others. Interesting.

Nikki stumbles out of the jungle, falling down in front of Sawyer and Hurley

In any event, the episode ended in typical “Twilight Zone” fashion with the two getting buried alive - a just punishment for two murderers.

And now we’ll find out how Sawyer, and Charlie, will pay for their role in kidnapping Sun after Charlie confessed all to Sun.

Sun slaps Sawyer after finding out he is the one who kidnapped her.

Next week, Sawyer gets slapped with the reality of being selfish, while Kate and Juliet spend some quality time together.

The week after, Jack returns to the Lost tribe and brings Juliet with him.

I don’t trust Juliet, and I think she’s still playing a game on Jack with the help of Ben. But maybe that’s just me.

Let’s discuss.