Travel last week prevented me from watching "Catch-22" until yesterday, so we might as well just combine them.
Desmond gets all future-y again, as the writers tease every viewer by pretending Charlie dies (although you're a total sucker if you fell for that one). (Incidentally, was this first scene directed by Quentin Tarantino? Gory violence and a totally random argument about a foot race between Superman and the Flash? What the fuck?) Desmond somehow convinces Hurley, Charlie and Jin to go tramping into the jungle after something he won't tell them about, narrowly saves Charlie, and in the flashback, we see that he's used to totally copping out of his problems. The parachutist Desmond thought was Penny (as though a rich girl like that is going to be doing her own parachuting) turns out to be someone completely unknown to us, but she does know who Desmond is and has his picture, so it seems pretty clear she was sent by Penny, as we finally start to follow up on the last scene of the Season 2 finale. In the B plot, the writers continue to pretend that Kate is carrying a torch for Jack. I'm starting to care even less about this than about the Charlie/Claire relationship.
In this week's episode, Sun finds out that pregnant women are pretty much hosed if they got pregnant on the island. Thanks to Jin's miracle island sperm, she did. Uh oh. Juliet ultrasounds her, then sneaks back in to leave a tape-recorded message for Ben, though she accidentally hits stop before telling him of her hate for him. Glad we cleared that one up. Presumably this is supposed to set up the resolution to a future conflict wherein Juliet picks the side of right despite the Others' coercion, but we'll see how that goes.
In the flashback, Sun's mother-in-law is even bitchier than the average mother-in-law, demanding 100 grand to spare Jin the shame of discovering that she was a prostitute. This inspires Sun to research Jin's family history, meeting his father, who is totally cool with being considered dead. Those Koreans are really concerned with appearances, man. We also see that Sun was basically responsible for Jin having to become the bad-type he was in the first season flashbacks (although it was really his mom's fault, so whatever), but if you think about it, it's not really all that important now. The only thing that we really get out of the flashbacks is seeing that Sun is willing to go through a fair amount for Jin, though some consolation that is now.
In the B plot, we go back to Desmond and crew. Lady Parachutist is dying of a punctured lung, but then Mikhail shows up (WTF?) and saves the day. Or at least her. He tries to steal the satellite phone that doesn't work anyway and gets caught by Jin, but Desmond still lets him go per their agreement that if he saved the parachutist Desmond would let him walk. So dead people just get up and walk around now? I know the island has healing powers, but that seems sort of extreme.
Parachute girl wakes up and talks to Hurley. He anxiously asks if she's there to rescue them and reveals that he was on Flight 815, to which she replies that that's impossible, because the plane was found and there were no survivors. Uh..... huh?
Next week: Locke recruits Sawyer to kill "Ben" - do you really want to give me odds it's not actually his dad?
I have to say, over the past month or so I've probably enjoyed Lost as much as at any point since I gorged on the first season nearly two years ago. Let's see three more episodes of this, guys. You can handle that, right?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
s3e16: One of Us
AKA "Everybody Hates Juliet." Not that we can blame them.
Nice to see some stuff get resolved, or at least answered. We find out what Juliet was on the island to do, and some of what the Others were doing (although we still didn't really get a good sense for why, or how they manage to extend their tentacles so far - if they're not affiliated with Dharma, how do they manage all the mainland stuff?). We also found out about the Claire/Ethan business (thanks, helpful over-explanatory-for-newer-viewers flashbacks!). Frankly I think we were still left with more questions than answers about the Others - including, what are they hoping to use Juliet for, as we find out in a "gotcha" end scene that Ben and Juliet apparently planned the whole thing. Drew thinks Juliet is pretending to go along with Ben but won't really, and I think that may be right, but Ben thinks she is, and she did the first part of it. I thought it was a good episode up until that last scene, which kind of bugged me.
The teaser was all, "ZOMG last five episodes FTW," so let's do a quick bit of consideration.
1) We know Kate and Sawyer get down, AGAIN, so it's also likely that the writers make some attempt to hook Juliet up with Jack. This seemed to be the plan at the start of the season and then not much was really done with it.
2) Sawyer goes apeshit on Locke. So, why? Does Locke do something first? Does Sawyer think that Locke can get him something? Is this Sawyer actually taking some sort of "leadership" role? This will go a long way towards determining Sawyer's character, possibly for the rest of the show's run.
3) A helicopter? Sure sounds like it, but that barely makes sense, unless the Others have one stashed away. Which I guess is possible. The teaser gave us the old "salvation/annihilation" dichotomy, and based on a gun going off and what looked like some big jungle spear or trap, it's probably the latter. Also, I don't believe anyone but the Others could get a helicopter to the island, so, yeah.
4) Though we didn't see any hints of it, I gotta think the monster comes back. So far this season it's killed Eko and taken photos (I guess?) of Juliet and Kate, both of which are too weird for it to be left alone for another whole year. That could be one of the big late-season reveals. Although do you buy Juliet's claim that "we don't know what it is?" This means that Ben doesn't know what it is, and he's lived there for what, 40 years or so? Whatever the monster is, it sure seems like a bit of technology and certainly not a kind that existed in the 1960s. And how long has the "fence" been there? I don't know, the whole thing seems a little plot-holey to me.
5) Someone probably dies. The writers love killing people for little reason, but this is a good spot (as good as it could be) to bump off someone and have it be somewhat meaningful. I hope it's Charlie.
Nice to see some stuff get resolved, or at least answered. We find out what Juliet was on the island to do, and some of what the Others were doing (although we still didn't really get a good sense for why, or how they manage to extend their tentacles so far - if they're not affiliated with Dharma, how do they manage all the mainland stuff?). We also found out about the Claire/Ethan business (thanks, helpful over-explanatory-for-newer-viewers flashbacks!). Frankly I think we were still left with more questions than answers about the Others - including, what are they hoping to use Juliet for, as we find out in a "gotcha" end scene that Ben and Juliet apparently planned the whole thing. Drew thinks Juliet is pretending to go along with Ben but won't really, and I think that may be right, but Ben thinks she is, and she did the first part of it. I thought it was a good episode up until that last scene, which kind of bugged me.
The teaser was all, "ZOMG last five episodes FTW," so let's do a quick bit of consideration.
1) We know Kate and Sawyer get down, AGAIN, so it's also likely that the writers make some attempt to hook Juliet up with Jack. This seemed to be the plan at the start of the season and then not much was really done with it.
2) Sawyer goes apeshit on Locke. So, why? Does Locke do something first? Does Sawyer think that Locke can get him something? Is this Sawyer actually taking some sort of "leadership" role? This will go a long way towards determining Sawyer's character, possibly for the rest of the show's run.
3) A helicopter? Sure sounds like it, but that barely makes sense, unless the Others have one stashed away. Which I guess is possible. The teaser gave us the old "salvation/annihilation" dichotomy, and based on a gun going off and what looked like some big jungle spear or trap, it's probably the latter. Also, I don't believe anyone but the Others could get a helicopter to the island, so, yeah.
4) Though we didn't see any hints of it, I gotta think the monster comes back. So far this season it's killed Eko and taken photos (I guess?) of Juliet and Kate, both of which are too weird for it to be left alone for another whole year. That could be one of the big late-season reveals. Although do you buy Juliet's claim that "we don't know what it is?" This means that Ben doesn't know what it is, and he's lived there for what, 40 years or so? Whatever the monster is, it sure seems like a bit of technology and certainly not a kind that existed in the 1960s. And how long has the "fence" been there? I don't know, the whole thing seems a little plot-holey to me.
5) Someone probably dies. The writers love killing people for little reason, but this is a good spot (as good as it could be) to bump off someone and have it be somewhat meaningful. I hope it's Charlie.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
s3e15: Left Behind
Plot: the righteous among the Others are called up to Heaven in the Rapture, but Kate, Sayid, Jack and Juliet find themselves... no? Okay, let me start over.
Plot: the Others, plus Locke, take off, leaving only Jack, Sayid, Juliet and Kate. Juliet takes Kate into the jungle and handcuffs them together, apparently in a Benry-like ploy to get Kate to like her (PS: It fails miserably). Meanwhile, Flashback Kate teams up with Sawyer's baby's mama to ask her (Kate's) mom why she called the cops. The answer? Because Kate blew up her damn husband. Wow, mystery solved! That's some nice sleuthing, show! I assume we're supposed to feel bad for Kate here, but I really don't. And if we're not, why exactly are we wasting an entire backstory on it? Whatever. Sucked. Also, enough with the cutesy coincidences. I know Kate's never going to find out the connection between Sawyer and Cassidy, so it doesn't matter, it's just the writers having a laugh. Okay, we get it. People are connected, blah blah. It just feels gimmicky to me, especially when it's never paid off. The thing with Sawyer meeting Jack's dad? Paid off. Ana Lucia meeting Jack's dad? Uh, not so much. Can't we learn from this, guys?
The B plot, in which Hurley convinces Sawyer to be nice to everyone for about two hours, was pretty skippable. It's hard to see this Sawyer lasting (especially when, as the teaser shows us, Juliet's arrival gives him an excuse to be all pissed off next week), so it was kind of a throwaway plot. It was all right, particularly the Hurley-Sawyer moment at the end when Hurley tells Sawyer that he needs to lead them, and the little montage, but eh.
The only really good thing about this episode was that we got another tantalizing glimpse at the "monster." It appears to be a giant photo booth.
Plot: the Others, plus Locke, take off, leaving only Jack, Sayid, Juliet and Kate. Juliet takes Kate into the jungle and handcuffs them together, apparently in a Benry-like ploy to get Kate to like her (PS: It fails miserably). Meanwhile, Flashback Kate teams up with Sawyer's baby's mama to ask her (Kate's) mom why she called the cops. The answer? Because Kate blew up her damn husband. Wow, mystery solved! That's some nice sleuthing, show! I assume we're supposed to feel bad for Kate here, but I really don't. And if we're not, why exactly are we wasting an entire backstory on it? Whatever. Sucked. Also, enough with the cutesy coincidences. I know Kate's never going to find out the connection between Sawyer and Cassidy, so it doesn't matter, it's just the writers having a laugh. Okay, we get it. People are connected, blah blah. It just feels gimmicky to me, especially when it's never paid off. The thing with Sawyer meeting Jack's dad? Paid off. Ana Lucia meeting Jack's dad? Uh, not so much. Can't we learn from this, guys?
The B plot, in which Hurley convinces Sawyer to be nice to everyone for about two hours, was pretty skippable. It's hard to see this Sawyer lasting (especially when, as the teaser shows us, Juliet's arrival gives him an excuse to be all pissed off next week), so it was kind of a throwaway plot. It was all right, particularly the Hurley-Sawyer moment at the end when Hurley tells Sawyer that he needs to lead them, and the little montage, but eh.
The only really good thing about this episode was that we got another tantalizing glimpse at the "monster." It appears to be a giant photo booth.
s3e14: Exposé
I managed to get my eyes shut just in time to miss all the spiders, in case you were wondering.
As usual, when characters die we have to suddenly have a flashback for them, so basically Nikki and Paulo are given backstory only to be killed off. It's essentially a mini-morality play within the show; the plot isn't advanced at all, the ending (in which Nikki and Paulo are buried alive because, thanks to spider bite paralysis, they appear dead) is pretty twisted, and the whole thing is a total dead end (no pun intended). They basically just chose the two most expendable characters who had been given names before this point and whacked them for no real reason other than it probably seemed cool when they thought of it. But with the tedious "what goes around comes around" lesson, it was like this episode was written by the Others. Nikki and Paulo are not good people; Nikki and Paulo go bye-bye. But really, who gives a shit? Not me. I guess it was an interesting mystery but it was one wholly invented for this episode. If the writers are going to solve mysteries, maybe they should work on ones that anyone actually cares about.
Now I'm kind of mad. And I didn't hate the episode while I was watching it (even if it was a contrived excuse to get Daniel Roebuck another paycheck), but the entire principle behind it is kind of pissing me off. Next time, solve a real mystery. Jeez.
As usual, when characters die we have to suddenly have a flashback for them, so basically Nikki and Paulo are given backstory only to be killed off. It's essentially a mini-morality play within the show; the plot isn't advanced at all, the ending (in which Nikki and Paulo are buried alive because, thanks to spider bite paralysis, they appear dead) is pretty twisted, and the whole thing is a total dead end (no pun intended). They basically just chose the two most expendable characters who had been given names before this point and whacked them for no real reason other than it probably seemed cool when they thought of it. But with the tedious "what goes around comes around" lesson, it was like this episode was written by the Others. Nikki and Paulo are not good people; Nikki and Paulo go bye-bye. But really, who gives a shit? Not me. I guess it was an interesting mystery but it was one wholly invented for this episode. If the writers are going to solve mysteries, maybe they should work on ones that anyone actually cares about.
Now I'm kind of mad. And I didn't hate the episode while I was watching it (even if it was a contrived excuse to get Daniel Roebuck another paycheck), but the entire principle behind it is kind of pissing me off. Next time, solve a real mystery. Jeez.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)