I'm not even sure how to recap this one, since it involves a lot of time-jumping of Desmond's consciousness between 1996 and 2004 - or really, it involves Desmond's consciousness being knocked back to 1996, and then that 1996 consciousness jumping back and forth between 1996 and 2004. God, I'm already confused.
The episode starts without a "Previously on Lost" bit, which I found curious. Frank is flying the helicopter directly towards a large storm cloud, following the bearing that Daniel insisted he stay on. They make it through the storm okay, but Desmond appears to get jolted and no longer knows who Sayid is or where he is. He bounces back to 1996, where he is in the Scottish army, and gets in trouble for the lapses he experiences when he comes back to 2004. The freighter people are upset that Desmond and Sayid have been brought to the ship; Desmond is taken to sick bay and told to wait for the doctor. There, he runs across Minkowski, who has been having the same problem - which, he reveals later, was caused by going too close to the island. Meanwhile, Sayid calls Jack to discuss the situation; despite Daniel's suggestion that Jack and Juliet's perception of how long the helicopter has been gone may not match the reality, it certainly seems that traveling through the cloud has also propelled the helicopter in time, as Sayid comments that they took off at dusk but they land on the freighter around midday.
Daniel gets Desmond on the phone and tells him to seek out Daniel at Oxford back in 1996, giving him some information so that '96 Daniel will be convinced. '96 Daniel is working with radiation, which is hinted to have given rise to his later memory problems. He shows Desmond how he can transport the consciousness of a rat forward one hour so that it can learn how to run a maze in the future, then come back and apply it in the present. However, a short time later the rat dies. '96 Daniel explains to Desmond that he needs a constant in his life in both 1996 and 2004; otherwise, he will keep jumping back and forth until his brain overloads and he dies. Not long after this, Minkowski does just that in 2004. Desmond realizes that Penny is his constant; not knowing how to reach her, he manages to find Total Bastard Mr. Widmore, who is all smug assholishness as usual. But, confident that Desmond can now do nothing to win back Penny, he gives Desmond her new address. Desmond goes there and convinces her that if she gives him her new phone number, he will not call it for eight years, until December 24, 2004. She does so, then asks him to leave.
In 2004, Sayid manages to get the radio up and working again, and Desmond calls Penelope, fortunately reaching her. This grounds him back in 2004, as they profess their love and Penny tells him she'll do everything she can to find him. Back on the island, Daniel looks at a note in his journal - presumably from his 1996 self to his 2004 self - saying that if anything happens, Desmond will be his constant.
All in all, a pretty crazy episode, even more so than "Flashes Before Your Eyes." It doesn't tell us a ton about the problem, though. It seems that the storm is some sort of island barrier, and that people exposed to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism - hence, Desmond, and presumably Daniel later - have "side effects" when passing through it. This doesn't do anything to suggest what the deal is with time, however; as I mentioned earlier, it seemed like we were getting the answer when Daniel started talking about perception being different than reality - except it didn't seem like perception was different from reality, or at least, while the trip only did take 20 minutes, it covered a day's span of time both for the people on the island and the people in the helicopter. It's just that the people in the helicopter didn't really have to sit through it. This then returns to the issue of the missile from a couple episodes ago, which should have made it to the island in about 30 seconds but instead took 31 minutes, or ~60 times as long. Thus, a flight that should have taken maybe 20 minutes took 1200 minutes - or 20 hours - instead? Ultimately, though, I'm not sure how much effect this is going to have on the ability of anyone to get off the island; indeed, given what we know about the future, it seems like the answer is "Not a whole heckuva lot." Given that Ben seems to come and go from the island all the time, it can't be that big a deal, can it? Still, if the writers introduced it, there has to be something to it, I think, so I'll withhold judgment for now. Reading back in this blog reveals that nearly all of my guesses have turned out to be wrong, so I'd hate to make an assumption like that.
With that in mind, I'm more convinced than ever that Michael is Ben's man on the boat; someone had to open the door for Sayid and Desmond, and Minkowski comments that they have a "friend" on the ship. Since it's unlikely to have been Frank, doesn't that leave someone who knows Sayid and Desmond? Michael could also have been the one to sabotage the radio, preventing contact with the mainland, although that's not really uniquely identifying. Still, we know he's coming back - can you think of a more plausible way?
Oh, and how about Ecklie as the doctor? I wonder if Marc Vann gets tired of being cast as snotty authority figures all the time.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
s4e04: Eggtown
I'm not a big fan of Kate episodes. In fact, aside from "Exposé," this episode was probably the worst overall since s3e06, "I Do," which was - surprise! - a Kate episode. Frankly, the writing just wasn't very good - the "surprises" were all forced in by a clunky writing style that required the characters to talk unnaturally around names just so we could hold for the big reveal at the end of the episode which a lot of people, including me, had already guessed anyway.
Locke's group is living in the Barracks and Locke has actually assumed a sort of Ben-like role, which I assume isn't an accident. But he doesn't know what to do next, a fact that Ben - held captive in Locke's basement - taunts him over. Meanwhile, Kate wants to know what Miles knows about her. Locke won't let her see him, so she tricks Hurley into revealing the location. Miles agrees to tell her what he knows if she gives him a minute with Ben. Kate finds out that Ben is under Locke's watch, so she uses Sawyer to lead Locke down to the boathouse where Miles is kept; Miles is gone, moving with Kate back to Locke's, where they break in and find Ben. Miles asks Ben if he knows who Miles is and who he works for; Ben confirms this. Then Miles asks for 3.2 million dollars to lie to his boss and tell him Ben is already dead. He gives Ben a week to come up with the money. When Ben asks why Miles thinks Ben has access to that kind of money, Miles barks, "Do not treat me like I'm one of them!" and gestures to Kate. Miles then confirms for Kate that the freighter people know she's a fugitive. Locke returns and banishes Kate from the compound, then sticks a grenade in Miles' mouth so he can't talk. Sawyer offers to keep Kate under his protection, but she acts weird and ends up leaving for the beach.
At the beach, no one on the freighter is answering, so Jack and Juliet have Charlotte call the secret line only to be used in emergencies. Regina says that the helicopter - which left the previous day - has not arrived. Worried, puzzled looks are exchanged.
In the future, a rather annoying Kate is on trial for her various crimes. Jack is called as a character witness and tells the story of 815 as it was apparently agreed upon - he does say that the plane crashed on a deserted island, but that only 8 people survived the crash, with only 6 making it back to civilization. When asked by the DA if he loves Kate, he says, "Not anymore," though he later claims to her that that was a lie. (Dammit, Jack!) Kate's mom, still alive, is wheeled in to be the star witness, but even though Kate treats her pretty bad, she ends up refusing to testify. Kate gets off with time served and ten years' probation. At the end of the episode, she invites Jack back to her house to see her son, but he won't go - and it becomes pretty clear why, as Kate greets her son with a "Hi, Aaron."
(Astonishingly, there were a huge number of dipshits on the Lost message board insisting that Kate said "Eric," even though the fact that there was a big reveal at the end of the episode should have made it clear that the baby was Claire's even if Kate's pronunciation of the name was a little muddled. This also explains Jack's reluctance to see the baby - whether he knows by then that Aaron is his nephew or not, surely being reminded of whatever happened to Claire is something he wants to avoid.)
By far the most interesting parts of the episode were the fact that the copter hadn't reached the boat (or was claimed not to have), which will be addressed in next week's episode, and the Miles/Ben conversation. The fact that Kate has Aaron in the future is interesting, but Kate's behavior in both the present and future was so generally annoying that I just checked out on her parts of the episode, which was most of it. To say nothing of the fact that I would consider myself a Jack/Juliet shipper and the future seems to make clear that that isn't happening. Bah.
Locke's group is living in the Barracks and Locke has actually assumed a sort of Ben-like role, which I assume isn't an accident. But he doesn't know what to do next, a fact that Ben - held captive in Locke's basement - taunts him over. Meanwhile, Kate wants to know what Miles knows about her. Locke won't let her see him, so she tricks Hurley into revealing the location. Miles agrees to tell her what he knows if she gives him a minute with Ben. Kate finds out that Ben is under Locke's watch, so she uses Sawyer to lead Locke down to the boathouse where Miles is kept; Miles is gone, moving with Kate back to Locke's, where they break in and find Ben. Miles asks Ben if he knows who Miles is and who he works for; Ben confirms this. Then Miles asks for 3.2 million dollars to lie to his boss and tell him Ben is already dead. He gives Ben a week to come up with the money. When Ben asks why Miles thinks Ben has access to that kind of money, Miles barks, "Do not treat me like I'm one of them!" and gestures to Kate. Miles then confirms for Kate that the freighter people know she's a fugitive. Locke returns and banishes Kate from the compound, then sticks a grenade in Miles' mouth so he can't talk. Sawyer offers to keep Kate under his protection, but she acts weird and ends up leaving for the beach.
At the beach, no one on the freighter is answering, so Jack and Juliet have Charlotte call the secret line only to be used in emergencies. Regina says that the helicopter - which left the previous day - has not arrived. Worried, puzzled looks are exchanged.
In the future, a rather annoying Kate is on trial for her various crimes. Jack is called as a character witness and tells the story of 815 as it was apparently agreed upon - he does say that the plane crashed on a deserted island, but that only 8 people survived the crash, with only 6 making it back to civilization. When asked by the DA if he loves Kate, he says, "Not anymore," though he later claims to her that that was a lie. (Dammit, Jack!) Kate's mom, still alive, is wheeled in to be the star witness, but even though Kate treats her pretty bad, she ends up refusing to testify. Kate gets off with time served and ten years' probation. At the end of the episode, she invites Jack back to her house to see her son, but he won't go - and it becomes pretty clear why, as Kate greets her son with a "Hi, Aaron."
(Astonishingly, there were a huge number of dipshits on the Lost message board insisting that Kate said "Eric," even though the fact that there was a big reveal at the end of the episode should have made it clear that the baby was Claire's even if Kate's pronunciation of the name was a little muddled. This also explains Jack's reluctance to see the baby - whether he knows by then that Aaron is his nephew or not, surely being reminded of whatever happened to Claire is something he wants to avoid.)
By far the most interesting parts of the episode were the fact that the copter hadn't reached the boat (or was claimed not to have), which will be addressed in next week's episode, and the Miles/Ben conversation. The fact that Kate has Aaron in the future is interesting, but Kate's behavior in both the present and future was so generally annoying that I just checked out on her parts of the episode, which was most of it. To say nothing of the fact that I would consider myself a Jack/Juliet shipper and the future seems to make clear that that isn't happening. Bah.
Friday, February 15, 2008
s4e03: The Economist
It wouldn't be a Lost episode if we didn't have one question answered - usually the one that most people had already guessed the answer to anyway - and five or six more pop up.
On the island, Sayid makes a deal with Frank that if he returns Charlotte safely, Frank will take him off the island on the helicopter. Sayid and Kate, armed, and Miles head off to find Locke. Meanwhile, there seems to be some dissent in Locke's camp, as Hurley isn't sure that keeping Charlotte as a hostage is such a good idea. Locke attempts to travel to Jacob's cabin, but when he finds the ring of powder, the cabin is nowhere to be seen. Hurley, perhaps remembering when he saw it move, looks nervous and suggests that maybe they just took a wrong turn. Locke continues to lead the group to the Others' barracks.
When Sayid and Kate find the barracks, Hurley is tied up in a closet, saying he was left behind by Locke. It turns out to be a ruse, however; Sawyer guards Kate (although she is armed and he appears not to be) and Miles is taken somewhere that we don't see. Kate asks Sawyer why he doesn't want to leave the island and he points out that there's nothing for him in the US, then asks why Kate wants to get off given that a prison term is likely all that awaits her. Sayid is captured by Locke shortly after discovering a hidden room in Ben's house full of clothing, international passports, and various currencies. It's pretty obvious now that not only can Ben get off the island, he likely does so all the time. Sayid and Ben are held in the game room; Ben won't disclose his man on the boat, and Sayid admits to Locke that he doesn't trust the "rescuers" any more than Locke does. He still wants to get to the boat, and trades Miles for Charlotte to fulfill his deal with Frank.
Meanwhile, Daniel has been doing an experiment in the clearing where the helicopter is. He has Regina (from the boat) send a rocket with a clock inside of it. When the rocket finally arrives, the clock is found to be roughly 31 minutes behind island time, which Daniel describes as "not good." He cautions Frank to fly out on the helicopter on the exact same bearing on which they flew in, no matter what. Sayid and Charlotte return, with Kate apparently electing to stay behind and Miles having been traded. Juliet comes back from the beach with Desmond, who demands to know if Daniel and Frank know Penelope Widmore, given that Naomi was carrying her picture. They claim not to, but both look uncomfortable before doing so. Desmond decides to go on the helicopter. Sayid goes as well, and when Charlotte, Daniel and Jack all decide not to go, Sayid suggests that Naomi's body be the third person they carry. The helicopter flies off over the ocean.
In flash-forward, we see Sayid on a deserted golf course in the Seychelles. A man pulls up to him and offers to bet that he can hit the ball closer to the pin with his choice of club. When Sayid discloses that he is one of the Oceanic Six, the man gets nervous and, though he wins the bet, attempts to leave without collecting. Sayid reveals that he knows the man's name (Mr. Avellino) and shoots him dead. Later, Sayid is in Berlin, where he fakes a casual meeting with a German woman, Elsa. Sayid falls for her although his job is to mark her so that he can use her to track her employer, who she claims is an economist. When her employer contacts her, Sayid tells her to stay away, but she shoots him in the shoulder and seems like she was actually spying on him the entire time; he manages to kill her, though he is upset about doing so. In the final scene, Sayid goes to what appears to be an animal hospital to meet his boss... who turns out to be Ben. Ben reminds Sayid that the last time he thought with his heart instead of his gun, something bad happened, and states that Sayid must continue working for him if he wants to protect his friends. Sayid says that now the people on Ben's list will know he is coming after them. Ben stares at him and says, "Good." Logo.
This shakes things up rather a lot, doesn't it? When we saw Jack and Kate meet, or Jack and Hurley, I think we all assumed that the people whose secrets they were keeping were the people on the boat. And maybe they still are? But at least one of the people who gets off the island is in direct contact with Ben, and what's more it becomes apparent that Ben has some travel secrets that we don't know about. There has been speculation among the fans that Locke didn't actually blow up the submarine, but I'm not sure I buy that - given Locke's mental state at the time, it doesn't make sense that he would have a desire to fake blowing it up. So Ben likely has still another way off the island. The time issue, of course, is also a big one, although 31 minutes isn't exactly the difference that many have been positing.
The WGA strike is over and we're getting five more episodes this year. Supposedly, it will run seven, then a six-week break, then six more. So we've got four more to go before the break. The three episodes missing from this season will go into future seasons. Damon Lindelof has said that the storytelling is going to get very compressed in the five new episodes so as to end Season 4 at the same point as it would have; this might not be that bad a thing, frankly. Five new jam-packed episodes? Works for me. Better than nothing, which is what we might have gotten had the strike lasted another month.
On the island, Sayid makes a deal with Frank that if he returns Charlotte safely, Frank will take him off the island on the helicopter. Sayid and Kate, armed, and Miles head off to find Locke. Meanwhile, there seems to be some dissent in Locke's camp, as Hurley isn't sure that keeping Charlotte as a hostage is such a good idea. Locke attempts to travel to Jacob's cabin, but when he finds the ring of powder, the cabin is nowhere to be seen. Hurley, perhaps remembering when he saw it move, looks nervous and suggests that maybe they just took a wrong turn. Locke continues to lead the group to the Others' barracks.
When Sayid and Kate find the barracks, Hurley is tied up in a closet, saying he was left behind by Locke. It turns out to be a ruse, however; Sawyer guards Kate (although she is armed and he appears not to be) and Miles is taken somewhere that we don't see. Kate asks Sawyer why he doesn't want to leave the island and he points out that there's nothing for him in the US, then asks why Kate wants to get off given that a prison term is likely all that awaits her. Sayid is captured by Locke shortly after discovering a hidden room in Ben's house full of clothing, international passports, and various currencies. It's pretty obvious now that not only can Ben get off the island, he likely does so all the time. Sayid and Ben are held in the game room; Ben won't disclose his man on the boat, and Sayid admits to Locke that he doesn't trust the "rescuers" any more than Locke does. He still wants to get to the boat, and trades Miles for Charlotte to fulfill his deal with Frank.
Meanwhile, Daniel has been doing an experiment in the clearing where the helicopter is. He has Regina (from the boat) send a rocket with a clock inside of it. When the rocket finally arrives, the clock is found to be roughly 31 minutes behind island time, which Daniel describes as "not good." He cautions Frank to fly out on the helicopter on the exact same bearing on which they flew in, no matter what. Sayid and Charlotte return, with Kate apparently electing to stay behind and Miles having been traded. Juliet comes back from the beach with Desmond, who demands to know if Daniel and Frank know Penelope Widmore, given that Naomi was carrying her picture. They claim not to, but both look uncomfortable before doing so. Desmond decides to go on the helicopter. Sayid goes as well, and when Charlotte, Daniel and Jack all decide not to go, Sayid suggests that Naomi's body be the third person they carry. The helicopter flies off over the ocean.
In flash-forward, we see Sayid on a deserted golf course in the Seychelles. A man pulls up to him and offers to bet that he can hit the ball closer to the pin with his choice of club. When Sayid discloses that he is one of the Oceanic Six, the man gets nervous and, though he wins the bet, attempts to leave without collecting. Sayid reveals that he knows the man's name (Mr. Avellino) and shoots him dead. Later, Sayid is in Berlin, where he fakes a casual meeting with a German woman, Elsa. Sayid falls for her although his job is to mark her so that he can use her to track her employer, who she claims is an economist. When her employer contacts her, Sayid tells her to stay away, but she shoots him in the shoulder and seems like she was actually spying on him the entire time; he manages to kill her, though he is upset about doing so. In the final scene, Sayid goes to what appears to be an animal hospital to meet his boss... who turns out to be Ben. Ben reminds Sayid that the last time he thought with his heart instead of his gun, something bad happened, and states that Sayid must continue working for him if he wants to protect his friends. Sayid says that now the people on Ben's list will know he is coming after them. Ben stares at him and says, "Good." Logo.
This shakes things up rather a lot, doesn't it? When we saw Jack and Kate meet, or Jack and Hurley, I think we all assumed that the people whose secrets they were keeping were the people on the boat. And maybe they still are? But at least one of the people who gets off the island is in direct contact with Ben, and what's more it becomes apparent that Ben has some travel secrets that we don't know about. There has been speculation among the fans that Locke didn't actually blow up the submarine, but I'm not sure I buy that - given Locke's mental state at the time, it doesn't make sense that he would have a desire to fake blowing it up. So Ben likely has still another way off the island. The time issue, of course, is also a big one, although 31 minutes isn't exactly the difference that many have been positing.
The WGA strike is over and we're getting five more episodes this year. Supposedly, it will run seven, then a six-week break, then six more. So we've got four more to go before the break. The three episodes missing from this season will go into future seasons. Damon Lindelof has said that the storytelling is going to get very compressed in the five new episodes so as to end Season 4 at the same point as it would have; this might not be that bad a thing, frankly. Five new jam-packed episodes? Works for me. Better than nothing, which is what we might have gotten had the strike lasted another month.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
s4e02: Confirmed Dead
We get our first-ever four-way flashback - five-way, even - as we see what Daniel, Miles, Charlotte and Frank, the four people on the helicopter that Daniel dropped from at the end of the previous episode, were doing before they got to the island. The episode starts by revealing the plane in a trench off Bali, as Naomi mentioned at the end of last season. Daniel, watching footage on television, is upset, though he's not sure why. Miles, we find out, is a kind of exorcist or ghostbuster - oddly, he manages to be both legitimate and a bit of a con artist at the same time. Charlotte is an anthropologist who finds a polar bear with a Dharma collar in the Tunisian desert. Frank is a pilot who was, apparently, supposed to be piloting Flight 815 when it crashed, and recognizes that something is off about the wreckage. The four are gathered together to bring in Ben; the team is headed by Naomi, who describes it as "covert ops," and headed by Matthew Abaddon, the sinister guy claiming to be from Oceanic who talked to Hurley last episode. Why exactly they want Ben is not revealed (shock!), although it appears that most or all of them don't even know. Their professions are somewhat telling - anthropologist, physicist, psychic/exorcist; presumably, as Abaddon says, each is intended for a specific purpose in terms of what they might come into contact with on the island.
Speaking of on the island: so Jack and Kate meet Daniel, who is kind of fidgety. He admits that rescue is not concern #1, but they go after Miles' transponder signal before he can say what concern #1 actually is. Miles is the exact opposite - on edge and aggressive, pointing a gun in Jack's face right away. That's because he thinks they killed Naomi, though, due to her final message which was apparently a code. He makes Kate take him to Naomi's body so that he can confirm her story, which he does, doing his ghosty thing, I guess. Then Juliet and Sayid pop out of the jungle and disarm Daniel and Miles, putting the survivors back in control of the situation. They go to look for Charlotte, but Locke has put her transponder onto Vincent and turned him loose to throw the pursuers off (I successfully called this as soon as I saw how fast the transponder signal was moving); instead, they find Frank after he shoots off a signal flare. Frank reveals that he was able to put the helicopter down safely. Miles attempts to call the boat, but George is suspiciously unavailable. Juliet tends to Frank's head wound, but when she tells him her name, he knows - from having read the manifest many times - that she wasn't on the plane. Miles freaks out and demands to know where Ben is, admitting that the freighter is there to look for him.
In the other group, Sawyer has taken to pummeling Ben as a way of withstanding Ben's mind games. Locke says it's important to keep Ben alive, but after they find Charlotte, Ben attempts to kill her; luckily (?), she's wearing a bulletproof vest. Ben explains that he knows the people are here for him, rattling off Charlotte's bio to prove it. As we go to Lost logo, Ben states that he has an insider on the boat.
Clearly, other people are aware of the Dharma projects. But how is that possible? Is this Dharma, or a related offshoot of the Hanso Foundation, coming to exact its revenge on Ben and the natives? And how did a fully-preserved and buried polar bear skeleton wind up in the Tunisian desert? The hint we got last summer about time travel definitely seems to be creeping more into the plot.
What's up with the plane off Bali? Part of a cover-up? (Assumedly, yes.) Who's masterminding this cover-up? Based on the little we've gotten from him, I don't think it's Abaddon, so that probably leaves someone we haven't met yet - another possibility being Dharma/Hanso, trying to distract so no one finds the actual island. But Abaddon can't be both Hanso and not Hanso.
And who, pray tell, is the insider on the boat? I'll give you my guess: Michael. We know he's coming back this season, and given that his name has already reappeared in the opening credits, it's probably going to be soon. There's clearly been more contact between the island and the outside world than previously revealed - where else would that photograph of Ben have come from, since it's clearly pretty recent? So perhaps Ben made contact with Michael somehow (sometime during Season Three in island time), knowing that people out there were looking for him?
Rumor has it the writer's strike will be ending in the next few days. I wonder if there's any chance of more episodes getting produced for this season - could they possibly write and film the remaining eight in a three-month period? Wishful thinking, I suppose. But would they really go 8-24? Any chance of 12-20, even? We'll see.
Speaking of on the island: so Jack and Kate meet Daniel, who is kind of fidgety. He admits that rescue is not concern #1, but they go after Miles' transponder signal before he can say what concern #1 actually is. Miles is the exact opposite - on edge and aggressive, pointing a gun in Jack's face right away. That's because he thinks they killed Naomi, though, due to her final message which was apparently a code. He makes Kate take him to Naomi's body so that he can confirm her story, which he does, doing his ghosty thing, I guess. Then Juliet and Sayid pop out of the jungle and disarm Daniel and Miles, putting the survivors back in control of the situation. They go to look for Charlotte, but Locke has put her transponder onto Vincent and turned him loose to throw the pursuers off (I successfully called this as soon as I saw how fast the transponder signal was moving); instead, they find Frank after he shoots off a signal flare. Frank reveals that he was able to put the helicopter down safely. Miles attempts to call the boat, but George is suspiciously unavailable. Juliet tends to Frank's head wound, but when she tells him her name, he knows - from having read the manifest many times - that she wasn't on the plane. Miles freaks out and demands to know where Ben is, admitting that the freighter is there to look for him.
In the other group, Sawyer has taken to pummeling Ben as a way of withstanding Ben's mind games. Locke says it's important to keep Ben alive, but after they find Charlotte, Ben attempts to kill her; luckily (?), she's wearing a bulletproof vest. Ben explains that he knows the people are here for him, rattling off Charlotte's bio to prove it. As we go to Lost logo, Ben states that he has an insider on the boat.
Clearly, other people are aware of the Dharma projects. But how is that possible? Is this Dharma, or a related offshoot of the Hanso Foundation, coming to exact its revenge on Ben and the natives? And how did a fully-preserved and buried polar bear skeleton wind up in the Tunisian desert? The hint we got last summer about time travel definitely seems to be creeping more into the plot.
What's up with the plane off Bali? Part of a cover-up? (Assumedly, yes.) Who's masterminding this cover-up? Based on the little we've gotten from him, I don't think it's Abaddon, so that probably leaves someone we haven't met yet - another possibility being Dharma/Hanso, trying to distract so no one finds the actual island. But Abaddon can't be both Hanso and not Hanso.
And who, pray tell, is the insider on the boat? I'll give you my guess: Michael. We know he's coming back this season, and given that his name has already reappeared in the opening credits, it's probably going to be soon. There's clearly been more contact between the island and the outside world than previously revealed - where else would that photograph of Ben have come from, since it's clearly pretty recent? So perhaps Ben made contact with Michael somehow (sometime during Season Three in island time), knowing that people out there were looking for him?
Rumor has it the writer's strike will be ending in the next few days. I wonder if there's any chance of more episodes getting produced for this season - could they possibly write and film the remaining eight in a three-month period? Wishful thinking, I suppose. But would they really go 8-24? Any chance of 12-20, even? We'll see.
Friday, February 01, 2008
s4e01: The Beginning of the End
We're in full-on flash-forward mode, as the show opens with Hurley in a drawn-out car chase; as he's dragged away by the cops, he screams if they know who he is. "I'm one of the Oceanic Six!" So right away we know that only six people got off the island, and we already know who three of them are (Jack, Kate, and now Hurley). Suspicious, to say the least. Anyway. Hurley ends up getting grilled by Ana Lucia's old partner; he claims not to have known her or even met her. (To be fair, the cop's description was a little vague had Hurley only met her in passing. "Dark hair, gorgeous?" Well, there isn't anyone else like that on the island!) Hurley was running because he saw something in a convenience store and fled from it, but he won't say what. The cop ends up offering to commit him, which Hurley gladly accepts. Then he receives a visit from a sinister dude who claims to be a representative of Oceanic; he offers to put Hurley up in a swankier mental hospital. Hurley sniffs out the dude as not really from Oceanic; the guy asks what happened to everyone else. Hurley freaks out and the guy takes off. Later, Hurley is sitting outside when a fellow patient tells him he's being stared at. The starer turns out to be - bum bum bum!!! - Charlie. Charlie tells Hurley he has to go back to the island, but Hurley doesn't want to listen. He closes his eyes and counts to five, and Charlie vanishes. In the final bit of flash-forward, Hurley gets a visit from Jack, clearly not yet the bearded freako of last season's finale. Jack is mostly there to make sure that Hurley isn't going to tell people about... well, it's a secret for now, clearly, but it's obviously the same sort of deal alluded to in the finale (when Jack tells Kate he's sick of lying). The fact that only six people made it back when we know there are dozens alive is, after all, suspect. Hurley says to Jack that he doesn't think they did the right thing. Jack tells Hurley they're never going back to the island; "Never say never, dude," Hurley calls after him.
Back on the island in "present" times, Naomi crawls into the jungle as she thinks Locke hit her with the knife on behalf of the whole group. Kate convinces her otherwise and Naomi conceals the true nature of her injury from the guy on the boat before dying of it, but she manages to fix the signal first and another guy (Jeremy Davies with an oddly island-looking beard) parachutes in at the end of the episode. Before that, the news is broken to everyone that Charlie died and that he revealed that Penny was not connected to the boat before doing so. While walking through the jungle, Hurley stumbles across Jacob's house, where it appears Locke may have been having a conversation; it looks like Hurley was able to see Jacob. When everyone finally meets up, Jack jumps Locke and tries to kill him, but Locke's gun isn't loaded. Sayid and Sawyer still have to pull Jack off Locke. Locke repeats Ben's talking points that the people on the boat are not there for anyone's benefit, but of course people aren't exactly queueing up behind him. Then Hurley gives an impassioned speech about trusting Charlie's final message, and he decides to go with Locke (although when talking to Jack in the flash-forward, Hurley apologizes for going with Locke); subsequently, so do a lot of people, including Claire and Sawyer. Jack also relinquishes Ben to Locke's charge. And then, again, Jack and Kate are hanging out at the fuselage piece in the jungle when Jeremy Davies parachutes in. Jack seems wary; I don't know if it's supposed to be that he's having second thoughts about the whole boat thing, or because Jeremy Davies is kind of creepy-looking (Upham, you bastard!) and has a weird beard going.
I was watching online (sadly, I have class Thursday nights now and my TV isn't working with TiVo at the moment, so I have to watch it Friday online and hope no one ruins anything in the interim) so I didn't get to see the "Next time on Lost," so let's start a new feature wherein I pose the most interesting questions this episode left us with:
1. Charlie admits to being dead and he seems to vanish awfully quick when Hurley closes his eyes, but if he's a hallucination, how did the other patient know that he was there?
2. What kind of deal (or something?) was struck, and why did only six people make it back? If only six were allowed back - we can assume that everyone else is not dead as Charlie states that they need Hurley's help - what happened to the rest of them?
3. Who the fuck is on that boat?
4. Why does Hurley apologize for going with Locke, especially when he seems at that point to fall into the camp of "shouldn't have left"?
There's plenty more, of course, but there always is. I'm really looking forward to this season, although I wish that goddamn writer's strike would just end already so we aren't held to eight episodes. I don't think there's been a bad Lost episode since that stupid Nikki and Paolo one, and if you don't count that since it barely had anything to do with anything, there hasn't been a bad one - bad is maybe kind of strong, but certainly "lesser" - since that "teaser" six-episode block at the start of last season. 16 episodes a year is going to suit this show just fine, methinks.
Back on the island in "present" times, Naomi crawls into the jungle as she thinks Locke hit her with the knife on behalf of the whole group. Kate convinces her otherwise and Naomi conceals the true nature of her injury from the guy on the boat before dying of it, but she manages to fix the signal first and another guy (Jeremy Davies with an oddly island-looking beard) parachutes in at the end of the episode. Before that, the news is broken to everyone that Charlie died and that he revealed that Penny was not connected to the boat before doing so. While walking through the jungle, Hurley stumbles across Jacob's house, where it appears Locke may have been having a conversation; it looks like Hurley was able to see Jacob. When everyone finally meets up, Jack jumps Locke and tries to kill him, but Locke's gun isn't loaded. Sayid and Sawyer still have to pull Jack off Locke. Locke repeats Ben's talking points that the people on the boat are not there for anyone's benefit, but of course people aren't exactly queueing up behind him. Then Hurley gives an impassioned speech about trusting Charlie's final message, and he decides to go with Locke (although when talking to Jack in the flash-forward, Hurley apologizes for going with Locke); subsequently, so do a lot of people, including Claire and Sawyer. Jack also relinquishes Ben to Locke's charge. And then, again, Jack and Kate are hanging out at the fuselage piece in the jungle when Jeremy Davies parachutes in. Jack seems wary; I don't know if it's supposed to be that he's having second thoughts about the whole boat thing, or because Jeremy Davies is kind of creepy-looking (Upham, you bastard!) and has a weird beard going.
I was watching online (sadly, I have class Thursday nights now and my TV isn't working with TiVo at the moment, so I have to watch it Friday online and hope no one ruins anything in the interim) so I didn't get to see the "Next time on Lost," so let's start a new feature wherein I pose the most interesting questions this episode left us with:
1. Charlie admits to being dead and he seems to vanish awfully quick when Hurley closes his eyes, but if he's a hallucination, how did the other patient know that he was there?
2. What kind of deal (or something?) was struck, and why did only six people make it back? If only six were allowed back - we can assume that everyone else is not dead as Charlie states that they need Hurley's help - what happened to the rest of them?
3. Who the fuck is on that boat?
4. Why does Hurley apologize for going with Locke, especially when he seems at that point to fall into the camp of "shouldn't have left"?
There's plenty more, of course, but there always is. I'm really looking forward to this season, although I wish that goddamn writer's strike would just end already so we aren't held to eight episodes. I don't think there's been a bad Lost episode since that stupid Nikki and Paolo one, and if you don't count that since it barely had anything to do with anything, there hasn't been a bad one - bad is maybe kind of strong, but certainly "lesser" - since that "teaser" six-episode block at the start of last season. 16 episodes a year is going to suit this show just fine, methinks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)