Coming as the resolution to the storyline regarding Claire and Charlie's abduction by Ethan, which was the focus of "Raised by Another" and "Homecoming", and to a lesser extent "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues", which concentrated on the search for Claire and Charlie, season two's "Maternity Leave" is one of the most plot-driven episodes in the entire series and really does suffer from a lack of depth which keeps it from being the potentially amazing episode it could have been, and it really ends up being as annoying, over-the-top, and poorly-realized as season one's "Homecoming". It's basically the writers' room completely geeking out and forgetting that they're not writing a daytime soap.
The only episode scripted by Dawn Lambert and Matt Ragghianti, who have no other writing credits to their name on anything else. They're not good writers at all, and given a plot and storyline which are fairly solid and good resolutions which offer some great answers and interesting questions and turn it into a middling, half-baked experience. Even series regular director Jack Bender isn't on form here, with certain scenes constructed poorly at best and the transitions used to cut to the 'flashes' to Claire's time at the medical station are fairly annoying, especially the BOING sound. Ugh.
Actually, the scenes with Eko and one or two inspired moments within the main story are the only things keeping this episode afloat, as the rest of it is a noisy mess of screaming, average to terrible exposition, poor dialogue... The design for the DHARMA medical station is phenomenal too, and quite creepy.
The problem with "Maternity Leave" is that it's more fun to talk about than it is to watch, really.
6/10