Bizarre episode. With the exception of "Henry" telling Locke that he came to get him, 95% of it seemed to be distracting filler designed to keep you blissfully unaware of the ending. Do I have to be suspicious of any backstory that doesn't feature Jack or Locke from now on? Because whenever they kill a character, they always make that character the flashback. Because I like my flashbacks to be wholly, 100% pointless.
Of course, Ana Lucia has always been kind of a dead-end character - her presence on the island didn't really give us much. Even when they threw Jack's dad into the mix, it didn't do a whole lot to make her backstory anything other than self-contained - the same of which was pretty true for Shannon and Boone. Characters like that only exist to affect other characters - Boone affected Locke, Shannon affected Sayid. Ana Lucia - I don't even know. Sawyer, now that they got down? Jack, because that's what Jack does? Nobody, because we all hated her?
The Libby thing is even weirder. Is the goal to turn Hurley into a ball of rage? Would that even work? And why bother establishing the beginnings of a backstory for Libby if you're just going to kill her off? It's like they filmed the rest of the episode and then Rodriguez and Watros drove drunk and the producers were like "Quick, just kill 'em both." Except this episode was probably filmed after that happened.
Anyway, I was at least partially right about Michael - he has to be a tool of the Others somehow. He kills "non-good-person" Ana Lucia, then shoots himself superficially, making it look like Henry shot him and escaped - and this also allows him to stay among the castaways in their confidence, the most effective mole yet. As Drew pointed out, his story about two dozen Others living in tents doesn't really jive with the whole "they aren't really jungle people" thing, which we've already seen. So he's clearly just telling the kind of story that will lead everyone else right to the slaughter - or rather, the metaphorical slaughter, since I guess the Others want some of the people for certain reasons.
As silly as some of this stuff is getting - the Ana Lucia/Jack's dad backstory was pretty ridiculous and appears to have been ultimately pointless in the extreme - the show as a whole probably has me about as hooked as it ever has, because I just have to see where this is all going. Eko presumably does not die next week, so what saves him in that fall? Isn't next week the one where we're scheduled to learn about the door, or is that two weeks? Either way.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
s2e19: S.O.S.
Damon Lindelof recently gave an interview where he described the season's first 19 episodes as the "calm before the storm" of the last five, which might help explain why tonight's episode was pretty blasé. The A-plot and flashbacks recognize the fact that Bernard and Rose are the only major characters not seen in flashback until this point (Libby has never had her own episode, but it's arguable how major she is as a character and she was in a Hurley flashback anyway), by showing that they actually haven't known each other very long. Which I guess explains why they don't get along or seem to have a tremendous amount in common. Whatever. Then we find out that Rose used to have terminal cancer and the island healed her, and she has a little moment with Locke where they basically exchange knowing nods, because Rose remembers seeing Locke in his wheelchair in the airport. Oh, and Bernard is really annoying for the whole episode, bossing everyone around for his S.O.S. sign which Rose hates. When Bernard realizes that Rose wants to stay, he states it very specifically for the two people who couldn't tell from the rest of the episode. "You don't want to leave? Because you think the island fixed you?" Thanks, Bernie.
Also, Alma noted that Bernard's bottom row of teeth are pretty terrible and snaggled. And this guy is a dentist? But let's be fair: maybe he's a dentist in a town with no orthodontists.
In the B-plot, Jack goes to see if the Others will trade Walt back for "Henry," even though "Henry" says they won't. The Others don't show up, but after some Jack and Kate semi-flirtation, Michael does, in a fairly predictable ending.
In the C-plot, Locke can't draw the diagram from the blast door, but then he does.
Next month, probably, on Lost: Michael says the castaways could totally take the Others. "Henry" suggests that that might not be the case when he apparently kicks Ana Lucia's ass despite being tied up; the question is, if he could escape like that at any time, why didn't he before? And some gun-having shenanigans are going down. Fun fact: in island time, Michael's only been gone, like, two weeks. Oh, and you can bet there'll be more with Locke's diagram, though possibly not in the very next episode.
Anyone else wonder if Michael isn't exactly what he seems? He's been gone for a while. Okay, I guess it's exactly like the old Michael to charge into the Others' lair, guns blazing. But maybe he's being used as a lure somehow, even if unknowingly. Someone is supposed to die in the final five episodes - would they finally go with a true "major" character (Jack, Locke, Sawyer, Kate) or would it be someone on a bit more of the fringe (Charlie, Ana Lucia, whoever)? I'm guessing the latter. Guesses as to the inevitable season-ending cliffhanger? I say it probably involves discovering something big about the Others, like some sort of headquarters, or an airplane tarmac, or something. (Speaking of which, shouldn't Jack have been a little more fazed by the revelation that the Others are playing dress-up? Maybe he just didn't believe Kate.)
Also, Alma noted that Bernard's bottom row of teeth are pretty terrible and snaggled. And this guy is a dentist? But let's be fair: maybe he's a dentist in a town with no orthodontists.
In the B-plot, Jack goes to see if the Others will trade Walt back for "Henry," even though "Henry" says they won't. The Others don't show up, but after some Jack and Kate semi-flirtation, Michael does, in a fairly predictable ending.
In the C-plot, Locke can't draw the diagram from the blast door, but then he does.
Next month, probably, on Lost: Michael says the castaways could totally take the Others. "Henry" suggests that that might not be the case when he apparently kicks Ana Lucia's ass despite being tied up; the question is, if he could escape like that at any time, why didn't he before? And some gun-having shenanigans are going down. Fun fact: in island time, Michael's only been gone, like, two weeks. Oh, and you can bet there'll be more with Locke's diagram, though possibly not in the very next episode.
Anyone else wonder if Michael isn't exactly what he seems? He's been gone for a while. Okay, I guess it's exactly like the old Michael to charge into the Others' lair, guns blazing. But maybe he's being used as a lure somehow, even if unknowingly. Someone is supposed to die in the final five episodes - would they finally go with a true "major" character (Jack, Locke, Sawyer, Kate) or would it be someone on a bit more of the fringe (Charlie, Ana Lucia, whoever)? I'm guessing the latter. Guesses as to the inevitable season-ending cliffhanger? I say it probably involves discovering something big about the Others, like some sort of headquarters, or an airplane tarmac, or something. (Speaking of which, shouldn't Jack have been a little more fazed by the revelation that the Others are playing dress-up? Maybe he just didn't believe Kate.)
Thursday, April 06, 2006
s2e18: Dave
In the B plot, we learn for sure that the counter doesn't really do anything when it hits zero. Sure, we get all that blue light, but that's it. Of course, "Henry" could be lying about that (and Locke says he doesn't believe him), but would anyone really be surprised? I always thought it was more or less implied that the button didn't really do anything and Dharma just wanted to see how long people would push it if they were told it did something but not what. It also would seem that the Others are not connected, at least not directly, to Dharma, which is much more interesting. "Henry" also insinuates that some unknown power keeps the island hidden from outside eyes, perhaps suggesting that, indeed, the only people who end up on the island have a purpose there. But what that is... who can say. Of course, since it would potentially offer all kinds of answers to devote a whole show to an interrogation of "Henry," the B plot only gets about ten minutes of screen time.
In the A plot, Hurley goes all Tyler Durden on us. The fact that "Dave" wasn't real was so telegraphed, I called it before we even saw Dave in the hospital; just the way Hurley and his doctor talked about him made it pretty clear where things were going. Still, it was somewhat interesting to watch Hurley struggle with his inner demons, even if at this point in the season I'd have preferred some more plot. I almost feel like this episode existed more to rule out a potential conclusion - the "it's all in someone head à la St. Elsewhere" finale - than anything else. Dave's explanation of the numbers wasn't unconvincing, but you knew they weren't going to go that way in the end - certainly not this early - so it more comes down to Hurley trying to convince himself that the numbers aren't a freaky island mystery. But I guess they still are.
Speaking of freaky mysteries, so that's where Hurley knows Libby from. Of course, this doesn't mean she was never a clinical psychologist, and if Hurley could be released then so could she. She could end up being a crazy Hurley stalker, but that doesn't make much sense, and she certainly doesn't seem unhinged at this point. I guess we'll see. Or maybe we won't! This has all the makings of a "plot point that doesn't get resolved until next season."
And speaking of plot points that need to be resolved, next week Jack goes into the jungle trying to trade for Walt, though "Henry" claims that the Others won't be buying. Then someone (was it Jack?) gets caught in a net.
In the A plot, Hurley goes all Tyler Durden on us. The fact that "Dave" wasn't real was so telegraphed, I called it before we even saw Dave in the hospital; just the way Hurley and his doctor talked about him made it pretty clear where things were going. Still, it was somewhat interesting to watch Hurley struggle with his inner demons, even if at this point in the season I'd have preferred some more plot. I almost feel like this episode existed more to rule out a potential conclusion - the "it's all in someone head à la St. Elsewhere" finale - than anything else. Dave's explanation of the numbers wasn't unconvincing, but you knew they weren't going to go that way in the end - certainly not this early - so it more comes down to Hurley trying to convince himself that the numbers aren't a freaky island mystery. But I guess they still are.
Speaking of freaky mysteries, so that's where Hurley knows Libby from. Of course, this doesn't mean she was never a clinical psychologist, and if Hurley could be released then so could she. She could end up being a crazy Hurley stalker, but that doesn't make much sense, and she certainly doesn't seem unhinged at this point. I guess we'll see. Or maybe we won't! This has all the makings of a "plot point that doesn't get resolved until next season."
And speaking of plot points that need to be resolved, next week Jack goes into the jungle trying to trade for Walt, though "Henry" claims that the Others won't be buying. Then someone (was it Jack?) gets caught in a net.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
s2e17: Lockdown
Just when you think Locke leads the show in bad-ass-ness (though mostly since we haven't had much Eko for a while), we get an episode like this, which features the typically emasculating Locke backstory, plus restores to Jack much of the bad-ass-ness he lost over the first whiny half of this season and gives Sayid a pretty awesome moment at the end of the show.
Can it really be considered a surprise that "Henry" is an Other? Probably not. The writers teased us on this one as much as any plot point all year, but he was always a little too dramatic, too good with names, too manipulative of his captors to just be some guy who crashed in a balloon. I had thought even after last week's teaser that it was possible that "Henry" had simply seen the balloon and built a story off of that; recall how convinced Sayid was that "Henry" would remember the depth had he truly buried his wife with his bare hands. He also had that number sequence a bit too down pat too quickly, didn't he?
But the real question now is this: just who are the Others? Are they a true part of the Dharma Initiative? I honestly can't say for certain just how much we learned about Dharma in this episode, although the apparent parachute of food and the lockdown of the hatch (not to mention Henry's evident ability to reset said lockdown) suggest that there is plenty of Dharma oversight on the castaways.
If the whole thing is just a bizarre social experiment, the lockdown certainly could have been intentionally triggered to give Locke a clue - that strange map, which appeared to me to be a drawing of various bunkers all over the island and a suggestion that they all had connections to a central point of some sort. The Others seem to have taken pains in the past to keep the castaways from getting too curious about certain things, though, so why they'd intentionally provide such a big clue now... I don't know. But then, there are a lot of things I don't know.
One important clue came from the teaser, where "Henry" cries that "He'll kill me" if he tells anything about his people. This is presumably the same "him" who is referenced in "Maternity Leave" when Zeke and that other guy are talking outside the room where Claire is being kept. Zeke himself appears to be the chief Other when they make outside appearances, so presumably this overseer is the big man in charge of either Dharma or whatever else might be going on.
I continue to feel that Dharma is not a sufficient explanation for all that happens on the island, though, and the film's concern with "incidents" would appear to be proof of that. Perhaps Dharma itself is part of a larger, more mystical connection - which might explain the various appearances of the numbers. Dharma may be working with the castaways they were given, but it still seems unlikely that they could have been responsible for bringing them all there in the first place. The various crossovers in flashback - Hurley owning Locke's company after winning the lottery, Sayid meeting Kate's not-quite-dad in Iraq, Shannon's father ending up in Jack's OR, Sawyer meeting Jack's dad in Australia (the only of these coincidences to date that the castaways are aware of, and done really, really well in a first-season episode) - cannot possibly have been driven by Dharma unless Alvar Hanso is also God, and it seems equally beyond their scope to have picked a few people and then tracked down a bunch of others to whom they were peripherally connected (at best) and then somehow made sure they were all in Australia at the same time.
We should only have five or six new episodes left this season (especially if the finale is two hours again, which seems quite possible); I'm hoping for a ton of fun new revelations. "Locke sees the map" is probably this season's "Locke finds the hatch" in terms of being used for a large section of the mystery plot in the final few episodes, but that's just a guess; the unmasking of "Henry" will surely contribute as well, unless Sayid actually just blows him away in the first five minutes next week.
Can it really be considered a surprise that "Henry" is an Other? Probably not. The writers teased us on this one as much as any plot point all year, but he was always a little too dramatic, too good with names, too manipulative of his captors to just be some guy who crashed in a balloon. I had thought even after last week's teaser that it was possible that "Henry" had simply seen the balloon and built a story off of that; recall how convinced Sayid was that "Henry" would remember the depth had he truly buried his wife with his bare hands. He also had that number sequence a bit too down pat too quickly, didn't he?
But the real question now is this: just who are the Others? Are they a true part of the Dharma Initiative? I honestly can't say for certain just how much we learned about Dharma in this episode, although the apparent parachute of food and the lockdown of the hatch (not to mention Henry's evident ability to reset said lockdown) suggest that there is plenty of Dharma oversight on the castaways.
If the whole thing is just a bizarre social experiment, the lockdown certainly could have been intentionally triggered to give Locke a clue - that strange map, which appeared to me to be a drawing of various bunkers all over the island and a suggestion that they all had connections to a central point of some sort. The Others seem to have taken pains in the past to keep the castaways from getting too curious about certain things, though, so why they'd intentionally provide such a big clue now... I don't know. But then, there are a lot of things I don't know.
One important clue came from the teaser, where "Henry" cries that "He'll kill me" if he tells anything about his people. This is presumably the same "him" who is referenced in "Maternity Leave" when Zeke and that other guy are talking outside the room where Claire is being kept. Zeke himself appears to be the chief Other when they make outside appearances, so presumably this overseer is the big man in charge of either Dharma or whatever else might be going on.
I continue to feel that Dharma is not a sufficient explanation for all that happens on the island, though, and the film's concern with "incidents" would appear to be proof of that. Perhaps Dharma itself is part of a larger, more mystical connection - which might explain the various appearances of the numbers. Dharma may be working with the castaways they were given, but it still seems unlikely that they could have been responsible for bringing them all there in the first place. The various crossovers in flashback - Hurley owning Locke's company after winning the lottery, Sayid meeting Kate's not-quite-dad in Iraq, Shannon's father ending up in Jack's OR, Sawyer meeting Jack's dad in Australia (the only of these coincidences to date that the castaways are aware of, and done really, really well in a first-season episode) - cannot possibly have been driven by Dharma unless Alvar Hanso is also God, and it seems equally beyond their scope to have picked a few people and then tracked down a bunch of others to whom they were peripherally connected (at best) and then somehow made sure they were all in Australia at the same time.
We should only have five or six new episodes left this season (especially if the finale is two hours again, which seems quite possible); I'm hoping for a ton of fun new revelations. "Locke sees the map" is probably this season's "Locke finds the hatch" in terms of being used for a large section of the mystery plot in the final few episodes, but that's just a guess; the unmasking of "Henry" will surely contribute as well, unless Sayid actually just blows him away in the first five minutes next week.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Ach, I'm bad at this
Timely updating, that is. But here I am on Wednesday night, at least... I just have two episodes to discuss.
"Maternity Leave," the Claire episode, was interesting in a number of ways. First of all, it's the first episode to provide flashbacks that don't leave the island (the only other episode that messed with the main format was, of course, "The Other 48 Days," which had no flashbacks at all unless you count the entire episode). And those flashbacks did tell us a number of things about the Others. The second main thing was that this gave us, by far, our biggest clue about the Others ever. It basically gave us all the info we'd never gotten and then some. Among the things we now know:
1. The Others have some sort of medical facility, or at least they had one. Whatever it was, they were evidently capable of breaking it down in pretty short order.
2. The Others are, well, not the Others. They don't live in the jungle, they don't dress in loincloths, and they don't have real beards. (But they do have plenty of spirit gum.)
This second one is by far the most interesting to me. So if the Others are actually just some dudes in a building, where did they go? Is there a secret tarmac in the middle of the jungle that they use to jet back to Ann Arbor? And does the fact that they only appear to the castaways in the guise of jungle people (when not pretending to be castaways themselves) mean that they are part of some big sociological experiment? And if that's the case, what do they really need with Aaron, or Walt, or anyone they took? (Of course, the answer may well be "nothing, we're just seeing how people react." There's no way the Dharma Initiative is the whole story here, though.)
Meanwhile, Claire reaffirms her title as "Shrillest, Most Unpleasant Character on the Show." I know she's gone through a whole bunch of stuff, but she was always pretty obnoxious.
Speaking of Claire, weird Charlie appearance in tonight's episode, "The Whole Truth." He just gets to hang out with Sayid? I know Sayid is Captain Forgiving (see: Ana Lucia), but Charlie's outcast period sure doesn't seem to have lasted very long.
In the A plot, Sun thinks she's pregnant, and then she is. I really enjoyed the story; we got to see a lot of how Jin and Sun relate to each other and I liked Jin's emotional side coming out more. (His "Daddy-o" realization was really well done too, I have to say. I'm a sucker for little polished moments like that.)
In the B plot, Ana Lucia convinces Sayid (and Charlie) to go find Henry's balloon. Meanwhile, Henry acts as ominous as possible, which of course means he isn't an Other. Stupid TiVo cut off right as Henry has poured some Dharmios and is starting his ominous talk. Alma filled me in on the last minute or so, which was basically exactly what you'd expect - Henry finishing his dark "if I were an Other it would be so totally bad for you guys" spiel and then immediately giving a cheery "But I'm not, hooray!" Then I guess the teaser shows that the balloon is there.
So how is Sun pregnant? Well, there are a couple options.
1. Miracle baby! This one just seems silly, but stranger things have happened on this show. (Well, maybe nothing as strange as immaculate conception.)
2. Jin! Doctors aren't infallible.
3. Baldy! Come on, they were totally setting it up like Sun was going to do it with him. Her look of vague apprehension while hugging Jin could have been "I was lying about not doing it with someone else," though it could have been many other things as well. The one thing that I wonder about here is, not being a woman, I'm not intimately familiar with the potential timeline. Sun's been on the island around two months now - could she really have been pregnant the whole time and only finally noticed it now?
Well, yet more mysteries to unravel. I wouldn't expect anything less.
"Maternity Leave," the Claire episode, was interesting in a number of ways. First of all, it's the first episode to provide flashbacks that don't leave the island (the only other episode that messed with the main format was, of course, "The Other 48 Days," which had no flashbacks at all unless you count the entire episode). And those flashbacks did tell us a number of things about the Others. The second main thing was that this gave us, by far, our biggest clue about the Others ever. It basically gave us all the info we'd never gotten and then some. Among the things we now know:
1. The Others have some sort of medical facility, or at least they had one. Whatever it was, they were evidently capable of breaking it down in pretty short order.
2. The Others are, well, not the Others. They don't live in the jungle, they don't dress in loincloths, and they don't have real beards. (But they do have plenty of spirit gum.)
This second one is by far the most interesting to me. So if the Others are actually just some dudes in a building, where did they go? Is there a secret tarmac in the middle of the jungle that they use to jet back to Ann Arbor? And does the fact that they only appear to the castaways in the guise of jungle people (when not pretending to be castaways themselves) mean that they are part of some big sociological experiment? And if that's the case, what do they really need with Aaron, or Walt, or anyone they took? (Of course, the answer may well be "nothing, we're just seeing how people react." There's no way the Dharma Initiative is the whole story here, though.)
Meanwhile, Claire reaffirms her title as "Shrillest, Most Unpleasant Character on the Show." I know she's gone through a whole bunch of stuff, but she was always pretty obnoxious.
Speaking of Claire, weird Charlie appearance in tonight's episode, "The Whole Truth." He just gets to hang out with Sayid? I know Sayid is Captain Forgiving (see: Ana Lucia), but Charlie's outcast period sure doesn't seem to have lasted very long.
In the A plot, Sun thinks she's pregnant, and then she is. I really enjoyed the story; we got to see a lot of how Jin and Sun relate to each other and I liked Jin's emotional side coming out more. (His "Daddy-o" realization was really well done too, I have to say. I'm a sucker for little polished moments like that.)
In the B plot, Ana Lucia convinces Sayid (and Charlie) to go find Henry's balloon. Meanwhile, Henry acts as ominous as possible, which of course means he isn't an Other. Stupid TiVo cut off right as Henry has poured some Dharmios and is starting his ominous talk. Alma filled me in on the last minute or so, which was basically exactly what you'd expect - Henry finishing his dark "if I were an Other it would be so totally bad for you guys" spiel and then immediately giving a cheery "But I'm not, hooray!" Then I guess the teaser shows that the balloon is there.
So how is Sun pregnant? Well, there are a couple options.
1. Miracle baby! This one just seems silly, but stranger things have happened on this show. (Well, maybe nothing as strange as immaculate conception.)
2. Jin! Doctors aren't infallible.
3. Baldy! Come on, they were totally setting it up like Sun was going to do it with him. Her look of vague apprehension while hugging Jin could have been "I was lying about not doing it with someone else," though it could have been many other things as well. The one thing that I wonder about here is, not being a woman, I'm not intimately familiar with the potential timeline. Sun's been on the island around two months now - could she really have been pregnant the whole time and only finally noticed it now?
Well, yet more mysteries to unravel. I wouldn't expect anything less.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Previously on failure to update
Five episodes go by without comment here, and it would have been more if not for the month-and-a-half break over the holidays. Woof. So let's recap it all and hopefully this will jumpstart the thing again.
s2e10: The 23rd Psalm
Eko gets even more bad-ass, as his backstory reveals that he used to be a big time gangster who took over for his priest brother - and evidently did the legwork to be a serious priest himself, renouncing his old ways - after the latter was killed while trying to stop Eko from flying a bunch of drugs out of the country. The drugs? Heroin in Virgin Mary statues. Charlie? So busted. Meanwhile, Locke teaches Michael how to shoot a gun, the prelude to the terminally obnoxious Michael leaving the show for a number of weeks. Way to be, Locke!
s2e11: The Hunting Party
Michael goes all nuts and takes off in search of Walt; this is the last time we've seen him up to the present. Jack charges after him with Locke and Sawyer in tow. They run into the Others, who prove both their numbers and their mystery by lighting a bunch of torches. We also confirm that the guys on the boat who took Walt were definitely the Others. Meanwhile, Jack's backstory establishes the breakup of his marriage - essentially, Jack thinks he can help everyone, so he ignores his own wife while trying a risky surgery on an old Italian guy. The guy dies but his daughter wants to get in Jack's pants anyway; he rejects her but then his wife dumps him anyway. I wonder if he ran right to the airport after that hoping the Italian chick still wanted to do it. In the present, Jack returns from his meeting with the Others asking Ana Lucia about building an army. The Others skunk you every time, Jack! Such a bad, bad idea.
s2e12: Fire + Water
Quite simply the worst episode in the show's brief history. I daresay it isn't even close. Charlie goes all nuts even though he isn't on drugs, having weird dreams and kidnapping Claire's baby on multiple occasions. Ultimately, Locke beats the crap out of Charlie, which is only useful in setting up the following episode's final twist. The flashbacks tell us pretty much nothing as well, or at least I got nothing out of them. In the goofy side plot that must adorn all dramatic but not exciting episodes, Hurley hits on Libby for a while, to no avail.
s2e13: The Long Con
Someone apparently tries to kidnap Sun. Jack flips out and tries to get all the guns. Sawyer tells Locke, who moves them. Then it turns out that Sawyer was playing both Jack and Locke and ends up getting all the guns for himself with the help of (dun dun dun!!!!) Charlie, who didn't even do it for the drugs but because he wanted Locke to look stupid. The spur-of-the-moment rainstorm that makes the Sun not-quite-kidnap easier looks kind of odd if the Others with all their mysterious magical ways had nothing to do with it, though. Maybe Vincent and not Walt is the magical one? That would just be weird. The flashbacks in this episode were also so ridiculous. "Teach me how to con, Sawyer!" After she just (thought she) saw right through one of them? Feh. Sawyer's long con was at least cleverly layered, but what a crap setup for it.
s2e14: One of Them
Rousseau captures someone who might be an Other, but he claims to be some dude from Minnesota who crashed on the island in a hot air balloon. Sayid tries to get answers from him, but doesn't obtain anything concrete (though he maintains that any man who actually buried his wife with his bare hands would know more details about the burial, which hardly seems like a slam dunk). The guy does give one of those looks like the bad guys give on CSI when their guilt is revealed, so maybe he is an Other. The Others have shown a notorious resistance to talking about themselves, though, so does it even matter? Sayid's backstory shows where he learned his torture tactics - ironically (or not), it came from the Americans during the first Gulf War (and a pretty bad-ass Clancy Brown). Commentary on America's apparent pro-torture policy in Gulf War II? In this week's "we have to cut the drama with a goofy side plot," Sawyer convinces Hurley to chase a frog with him. Then Sawyer smushes the frog in his hand, which was both nasty and predictable, because every time the writers make Sawyer seem funny and likable for a while, they have to backtrack by reminding us all that he's a total asshole. How about just deciding one way or the other, guys?
Late in the episode we find out what happens when the timer runs out... nothing! Well, actually some weird symbols start showing up. But evidently they don't lock out the reset button, so it's just another clue piling up. I'm still a fan of the show, but I'm hoping that as we hit the stretch run - 8 to 10 more episodes to go this season - we finally start getting some answers, and not just question after question after question. Next week it looks like we might learn more about the Dharma Initiative's presence on the island... but probably it'll just leave more questions without answering much. We'll see.
And we're all caught up! So maybe now I can get back in the regular groove of post-episode posts.
s2e10: The 23rd Psalm
Eko gets even more bad-ass, as his backstory reveals that he used to be a big time gangster who took over for his priest brother - and evidently did the legwork to be a serious priest himself, renouncing his old ways - after the latter was killed while trying to stop Eko from flying a bunch of drugs out of the country. The drugs? Heroin in Virgin Mary statues. Charlie? So busted. Meanwhile, Locke teaches Michael how to shoot a gun, the prelude to the terminally obnoxious Michael leaving the show for a number of weeks. Way to be, Locke!
s2e11: The Hunting Party
Michael goes all nuts and takes off in search of Walt; this is the last time we've seen him up to the present. Jack charges after him with Locke and Sawyer in tow. They run into the Others, who prove both their numbers and their mystery by lighting a bunch of torches. We also confirm that the guys on the boat who took Walt were definitely the Others. Meanwhile, Jack's backstory establishes the breakup of his marriage - essentially, Jack thinks he can help everyone, so he ignores his own wife while trying a risky surgery on an old Italian guy. The guy dies but his daughter wants to get in Jack's pants anyway; he rejects her but then his wife dumps him anyway. I wonder if he ran right to the airport after that hoping the Italian chick still wanted to do it. In the present, Jack returns from his meeting with the Others asking Ana Lucia about building an army. The Others skunk you every time, Jack! Such a bad, bad idea.
s2e12: Fire + Water
Quite simply the worst episode in the show's brief history. I daresay it isn't even close. Charlie goes all nuts even though he isn't on drugs, having weird dreams and kidnapping Claire's baby on multiple occasions. Ultimately, Locke beats the crap out of Charlie, which is only useful in setting up the following episode's final twist. The flashbacks tell us pretty much nothing as well, or at least I got nothing out of them. In the goofy side plot that must adorn all dramatic but not exciting episodes, Hurley hits on Libby for a while, to no avail.
s2e13: The Long Con
Someone apparently tries to kidnap Sun. Jack flips out and tries to get all the guns. Sawyer tells Locke, who moves them. Then it turns out that Sawyer was playing both Jack and Locke and ends up getting all the guns for himself with the help of (dun dun dun!!!!) Charlie, who didn't even do it for the drugs but because he wanted Locke to look stupid. The spur-of-the-moment rainstorm that makes the Sun not-quite-kidnap easier looks kind of odd if the Others with all their mysterious magical ways had nothing to do with it, though. Maybe Vincent and not Walt is the magical one? That would just be weird. The flashbacks in this episode were also so ridiculous. "Teach me how to con, Sawyer!" After she just (thought she) saw right through one of them? Feh. Sawyer's long con was at least cleverly layered, but what a crap setup for it.
s2e14: One of Them
Rousseau captures someone who might be an Other, but he claims to be some dude from Minnesota who crashed on the island in a hot air balloon. Sayid tries to get answers from him, but doesn't obtain anything concrete (though he maintains that any man who actually buried his wife with his bare hands would know more details about the burial, which hardly seems like a slam dunk). The guy does give one of those looks like the bad guys give on CSI when their guilt is revealed, so maybe he is an Other. The Others have shown a notorious resistance to talking about themselves, though, so does it even matter? Sayid's backstory shows where he learned his torture tactics - ironically (or not), it came from the Americans during the first Gulf War (and a pretty bad-ass Clancy Brown). Commentary on America's apparent pro-torture policy in Gulf War II? In this week's "we have to cut the drama with a goofy side plot," Sawyer convinces Hurley to chase a frog with him. Then Sawyer smushes the frog in his hand, which was both nasty and predictable, because every time the writers make Sawyer seem funny and likable for a while, they have to backtrack by reminding us all that he's a total asshole. How about just deciding one way or the other, guys?
Late in the episode we find out what happens when the timer runs out... nothing! Well, actually some weird symbols start showing up. But evidently they don't lock out the reset button, so it's just another clue piling up. I'm still a fan of the show, but I'm hoping that as we hit the stretch run - 8 to 10 more episodes to go this season - we finally start getting some answers, and not just question after question after question. Next week it looks like we might learn more about the Dharma Initiative's presence on the island... but probably it'll just leave more questions without answering much. We'll see.
And we're all caught up! So maybe now I can get back in the regular groove of post-episode posts.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
s2e09: What Kate Did
What Kate did: Blew up her parents' house with her drunken redneck stepdad inside (who, in a bizarre twist, is later revealed to be her real dad).
What Sawyer did: Apparently became possessed briefly by the ghost of Wayne, said redneck dad. Wayne proceeds to later show up as a horse. To say this was weird and random would be understating it.
What Jack did: Had a drink with Ana Lucia. If you don't think they're getting these characters together, you're nuts - but then we already knew this because there wouldn't have been much reason to introduce her when they did (in the first half of last season's finale) if not to set up some eventual relationship. The fact that she instituted herself as the leader of the tail section tribe is only further proof in this direction.
What Locke and Eko did: Spliced together a missing piece of the film in the hatch's apparent post-production studio, while engaging in a bad-ass-off. The film was, well, a bit disappointing. Okay, it got a little more specific, but we certainly could have guessed that "do not attempt to use the computer *blip* Good luck!" meant something more ominous was missing. I'd say the more important part of this discovery is wondering why someone took that part of the film and hid it in a Bible on the other side of the island.
What Michael did: Used the computer for something other than entering the code. Oh noooooo! Where's Walt hiding, anyway? Do the Others have a cybercafe in the jungle somewhere?
What Sawyer did: Apparently became possessed briefly by the ghost of Wayne, said redneck dad. Wayne proceeds to later show up as a horse. To say this was weird and random would be understating it.
What Jack did: Had a drink with Ana Lucia. If you don't think they're getting these characters together, you're nuts - but then we already knew this because there wouldn't have been much reason to introduce her when they did (in the first half of last season's finale) if not to set up some eventual relationship. The fact that she instituted herself as the leader of the tail section tribe is only further proof in this direction.
What Locke and Eko did: Spliced together a missing piece of the film in the hatch's apparent post-production studio, while engaging in a bad-ass-off. The film was, well, a bit disappointing. Okay, it got a little more specific, but we certainly could have guessed that "do not attempt to use the computer *blip* Good luck!" meant something more ominous was missing. I'd say the more important part of this discovery is wondering why someone took that part of the film and hid it in a Bible on the other side of the island.
What Michael did: Used the computer for something other than entering the code. Oh noooooo! Where's Walt hiding, anyway? Do the Others have a cybercafe in the jungle somewhere?
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
s2e08: Collision
Not the worst episode, though a bit of a slog for a while. It happens to be an Ana Lucia episode, meaning we're forced to deal with more of her aggravating behavior in both present time and flashbacks. We at least see why she's so reluctant to trust people and, ultimately, I think she comes off okay, though she's still annoying as all get out.
In other news: Kate likes Sawyer (no kidding), Jack stinks at golf, and everyone reunites. For as rough as the rest of the episode could be to watch at times, I have to admit that I was reduced to tears by the slow-motion reunion scene, particularly between Rose and Bernard. Sure, it was obvious they were going to be reunited from the minute we knew there were other survivors (if not from the very minute that Rose announced that her husband was alive, which was way the hell back in like, s1e04 or something like that), and it almost seems like the only reason Rose's character existed was for a scene like this. But it worked on me.
In other news: Kate likes Sawyer (no kidding), Jack stinks at golf, and everyone reunites. For as rough as the rest of the episode could be to watch at times, I have to admit that I was reduced to tears by the slow-motion reunion scene, particularly between Rose and Bernard. Sure, it was obvious they were going to be reunited from the minute we knew there were other survivors (if not from the very minute that Rose announced that her husband was alive, which was way the hell back in like, s1e04 or something like that), and it almost seems like the only reason Rose's character existed was for a scene like this. But it worked on me.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
s2e07: The Other 48 Days
I realize I'm a little behind on this, but the day after this episode aired, Drew went out of town for a week and a half, so discussion is sort of curtailed. Anyway, quick notes on this one:
1. I liked that we saw a little more of the Others. Goodwin gave them more of a face than Ethan did last season, though not much of one. I got a little bit of a "Left Behind" vibe off him, though - Nathan was not a good person, so he was killed, but other people (notably the children) were simply taken away. Kind of odd. With other concerns cropping up, I wonder how long it will be before we actually hear from the Others again.
2. Finally, a little humanization of Ana Lucia! Granted, it was right after she shot somebody, but you could see in this one why she was so sensitive to people running out of the jungle at her. I still hate her character, though.
3. I liked that they just opened it the way they did, as if it were another pilot, rather than doing some "previously on Lost" thing that explained why you weren't going to see any of the normal characters this week, as I had expected them to. Good on them for not being predictable.
4. That said, the format of the whole episode was a bit lame. The "Day x" screens were silly, and the slow-mo overlap scenes at the end were cringe-inducingly dumb. I know they had to get back to the present somehow, but couldn't they have skipped a little, or at least done a few new shots and given us something we hadn't already seen?
5. Drew needs to get his ass back from Europe so I can watch s2e08.
1. I liked that we saw a little more of the Others. Goodwin gave them more of a face than Ethan did last season, though not much of one. I got a little bit of a "Left Behind" vibe off him, though - Nathan was not a good person, so he was killed, but other people (notably the children) were simply taken away. Kind of odd. With other concerns cropping up, I wonder how long it will be before we actually hear from the Others again.
2. Finally, a little humanization of Ana Lucia! Granted, it was right after she shot somebody, but you could see in this one why she was so sensitive to people running out of the jungle at her. I still hate her character, though.
3. I liked that they just opened it the way they did, as if it were another pilot, rather than doing some "previously on Lost" thing that explained why you weren't going to see any of the normal characters this week, as I had expected them to. Good on them for not being predictable.
4. That said, the format of the whole episode was a bit lame. The "Day x" screens were silly, and the slow-mo overlap scenes at the end were cringe-inducingly dumb. I know they had to get back to the present somehow, but couldn't they have skipped a little, or at least done a few new shots and given us something we hadn't already seen?
5. Drew needs to get his ass back from Europe so I can watch s2e08.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
s2e06: Abandoned
I'm guessing the title of this episode refers to Shannon, post-Boone death (and also in the flashbacks where her evil stepmother steals all her money), which is kind of a curious choice when they were just going to kill her off.
Yes, Shannon dies. It's kind of odd that they would crush that entire angle by killing off both characters, but I guess the case I would make is that the deaths of those characters had larger ramifications on more important ones - Boone's death gave some depth to Locke, and Shannon's looks like it's going to do something major to Sayid. (Something so major they're not even coming right back with it next week, instead spending a whole episode on 1.25 seasons' worth of tail-section survivors' plot.)
What else went down in this episode? Let's break it down in bite-sized form, because you could read a streamlined recap pretty much anywhere:
1. Locke realizes that Charlie knows about the heroin from the plane when Claire mentions that he carries around a Virgin Mary statue. (Though Charlie doesn't appear to actually be using, since he's evidently carrying around an unbroken statue if Claire is anything to go by. Of course, he could just be replenishing his supply constantly. I'm sure we'll find out more about this later.)
2. Fake-out deaths galore, as Sawyer collapses in the jungle and Cindy Lou Whoever vanishes. (When the tail sectioners start calling for Cindy, I muttered to Drew, "That better not be it.")
3. Shannon and Sayid get it on. Then Shannon sees Walt in the tent and freaks out, and gets Vincent to lead her into the jungle. Sayid catches up with her and also sees Walt; Shannon chases after him and gets shot by Ana Lucia. The tail sectioners, along with Jin and Michael, had started hearing the whispers and assumed Shannon running up was the Others.
4. In flashbacks, we learn that Shannon got jerked around by her stepmother after her father died (thanks partially to Jack's decision to operate on Sarah instead; the brief shot of Jack walking past Shannon in the hospital is also all we get of him in this episode). Boone tries to help but she ends up telling him she can manage on her own. (Of course, as we found out last season, this "management" largely involves her tricking Boone into giving money to guys she's sleeping with, so I guess she never really got settled.) On the other hand, what does any of this matter now? They're both dead.
That's about it. It was a pretty good episode; Drew noted that some of the scenes near the end provided more genuine tension than just about any this season; it's hard to disagree with that. Certainly not since the first episode back, I would say.
So... Walt. I think we all assumed that Walt's appearances to Shannon were hallucinations on her part, what with the backwards talking and that he could apparently show up anywhere at any time and then vanish again. (Plus, we've already seen this sort of thing with Jack's dad in S1.) But since Sayid saw Walt, that would seem to confirm that Walt is, in some measure, real.
So how can he move so easily without being detected until he appears in front of your face? A couple possibilities here:
a) He has somehow been drawn into whatever the Others use to move as silently as they do (see s2e05), as a result of his abduction by them.
b) It's some sort of shared hallucination inspired by the island's strange magical powers.
c) The writers are just jerking us around to make Walt's appearances seem more mysterious than they actually are.
I don't buy that last one, largely because there's enough crazy crap going on that I don't think the writers need to turn the pedestrian into the mysterious as well. I like (a) myself. It could also explain the backwards whispering - the suggestion behind Ana Lucia's shout of "Run!" is that the mysterious whispers in the forest signal the presence of the Others. So Walt's ability to walk softly and carry a big backwards-whisper stick could be indicative of a connection to the Others... what, I don't know, but of course we should eventually find out, if that's the case. (I mean, yes, he was presumably abducted by them - not that we know for a fact that the boat people and the Others are really the same people, we just assume - but how exactly would he get these "abilities" from them?)
Shannon's death appears that it may be a turning point in a way that Boone's, frankly, was not. The look on Sayid's face alone suggests that he will never in a million years be able to coexist with Ana Lucia, and possibly by extension no one in that party (certainly no one in the tail section).
I wonder if this coming week we'll see anything current, or if it will all be flashbacks. (I hope they don't use a cheesy "here's what happened" framing device, at least.) Previously on Lost: ker-blooie, there goes the plane... and I guess they'll probably have to throw in a couple scenes like the one in the pit where Michael says to Ana Lucia, "You were in the back?" because otherwise casual viewers will be all, "Why don't I recognize anyone on Lost?" At least I expect that's how it will go. And then come back next time for more important stuff. Because unless there's a big revelation about the Others coming, I'm not sure I care what Ana Lucia and Mistereko and Bernard and Libby have been doing for seven weeks.
Yes, Shannon dies. It's kind of odd that they would crush that entire angle by killing off both characters, but I guess the case I would make is that the deaths of those characters had larger ramifications on more important ones - Boone's death gave some depth to Locke, and Shannon's looks like it's going to do something major to Sayid. (Something so major they're not even coming right back with it next week, instead spending a whole episode on 1.25 seasons' worth of tail-section survivors' plot.)
What else went down in this episode? Let's break it down in bite-sized form, because you could read a streamlined recap pretty much anywhere:
1. Locke realizes that Charlie knows about the heroin from the plane when Claire mentions that he carries around a Virgin Mary statue. (Though Charlie doesn't appear to actually be using, since he's evidently carrying around an unbroken statue if Claire is anything to go by. Of course, he could just be replenishing his supply constantly. I'm sure we'll find out more about this later.)
2. Fake-out deaths galore, as Sawyer collapses in the jungle and Cindy Lou Whoever vanishes. (When the tail sectioners start calling for Cindy, I muttered to Drew, "That better not be it.")
3. Shannon and Sayid get it on. Then Shannon sees Walt in the tent and freaks out, and gets Vincent to lead her into the jungle. Sayid catches up with her and also sees Walt; Shannon chases after him and gets shot by Ana Lucia. The tail sectioners, along with Jin and Michael, had started hearing the whispers and assumed Shannon running up was the Others.
4. In flashbacks, we learn that Shannon got jerked around by her stepmother after her father died (thanks partially to Jack's decision to operate on Sarah instead; the brief shot of Jack walking past Shannon in the hospital is also all we get of him in this episode). Boone tries to help but she ends up telling him she can manage on her own. (Of course, as we found out last season, this "management" largely involves her tricking Boone into giving money to guys she's sleeping with, so I guess she never really got settled.) On the other hand, what does any of this matter now? They're both dead.
That's about it. It was a pretty good episode; Drew noted that some of the scenes near the end provided more genuine tension than just about any this season; it's hard to disagree with that. Certainly not since the first episode back, I would say.
So... Walt. I think we all assumed that Walt's appearances to Shannon were hallucinations on her part, what with the backwards talking and that he could apparently show up anywhere at any time and then vanish again. (Plus, we've already seen this sort of thing with Jack's dad in S1.) But since Sayid saw Walt, that would seem to confirm that Walt is, in some measure, real.
So how can he move so easily without being detected until he appears in front of your face? A couple possibilities here:
a) He has somehow been drawn into whatever the Others use to move as silently as they do (see s2e05), as a result of his abduction by them.
b) It's some sort of shared hallucination inspired by the island's strange magical powers.
c) The writers are just jerking us around to make Walt's appearances seem more mysterious than they actually are.
I don't buy that last one, largely because there's enough crazy crap going on that I don't think the writers need to turn the pedestrian into the mysterious as well. I like (a) myself. It could also explain the backwards whispering - the suggestion behind Ana Lucia's shout of "Run!" is that the mysterious whispers in the forest signal the presence of the Others. So Walt's ability to walk softly and carry a big backwards-whisper stick could be indicative of a connection to the Others... what, I don't know, but of course we should eventually find out, if that's the case. (I mean, yes, he was presumably abducted by them - not that we know for a fact that the boat people and the Others are really the same people, we just assume - but how exactly would he get these "abilities" from them?)
Shannon's death appears that it may be a turning point in a way that Boone's, frankly, was not. The look on Sayid's face alone suggests that he will never in a million years be able to coexist with Ana Lucia, and possibly by extension no one in that party (certainly no one in the tail section).
I wonder if this coming week we'll see anything current, or if it will all be flashbacks. (I hope they don't use a cheesy "here's what happened" framing device, at least.) Previously on Lost: ker-blooie, there goes the plane... and I guess they'll probably have to throw in a couple scenes like the one in the pit where Michael says to Ana Lucia, "You were in the back?" because otherwise casual viewers will be all, "Why don't I recognize anyone on Lost?" At least I expect that's how it will go. And then come back next time for more important stuff. Because unless there's a big revelation about the Others coming, I'm not sure I care what Ana Lucia and Mistereko and Bernard and Libby have been doing for seven weeks.
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