one homework between me and freedom*

The trouble is, I don’t know how to do it. And it’s one of these advanced classes where the professor essentially wrote the book on the subject, or more precisely, he’s still writing it, so there’s really no where to turn for help—no clues on the web or in other books, and there’s no one really to ask aside from my professor. I know enough to know that my work is wrong, but I’m at loss with regarding to how to come to the right solutions, so do I:

1. Just sheepishly hand the homework in tomorrow as is
   
2. Ask the professor for help
   
3. As I hand it in, make some comment to the effect of—well I’m not really sure what I could say to justify my incompetence…
   
4. Stay up all night working on it, and tomorrow morning find myself in the same position I'm in now except a lot more irritable and tired

Darn. MIT prevails. Though I will graduate (fingers still crossed), I’ll still leave here feeling inadequate.

*well one homework and editing a design report, but the editing task is trivial.