It's been kind of an odd season so far. There are scheduled to be 17 episodes, and yet at the end of Episode 7 - not even halfway through - everyone's back on the island. So what, exactly, was so important about leaving? It's almost like the plot only went that way to help add some depth to the Ben/Widmore dichotomy which, needless to say, got quite a bit more interesting tonight.
So Widmore claims to have formerly been the leader of the Others and then exiled by Ben. He also knew to watch the exit point in Tunisia, although apparently he didn't know to watch it when Ben popped out of it (you'd think Charlotte's discovery of the polar bear skeleton was the major tipoff, and that was certainly before Ben's appearance there, but I guess getting a surveillance camera set up in the middle of the Tunisian desert takes time). Matthew Abaddon is working for Widmore - no surprise there - and drives Locke around to visit Sayid, Walt, Hurley and Kate. None of the O6 agree to go, and Locke doesn't ask Walt (probably because he doesn't have the heart to tell him what happened to Michael). Finally Locke demands to know if Abaddon could locate Helen, his former girlfriend (not seen since Season 2); Abaddon takes him to her grave (both Drew and I found this scene a little suspect, but I have my doubts that there's any trick behind it if only because that's way too much at this point). As they leave the cemetery, Abaddon is gunned down; Locke takes off in the car and ends up in an accident, sending him to the hospital at which a not-yet-fully-bearded Jack is a doctor. Jack is dismissive of Locke until Locke tells him that Christian said to say hi, at which point Jack freaks out a bit. Finally Locke decides to kill himself. It's not clear at this point whether he really believes that's the only way to get everyone back or whether he's simply despondent. At any rate, Ben comes in and stops him from hanging himself, but when Locke reveals that he's supposed to see Ms. Hawking, Ben strangles him to death and sets up a fake suicide. The entire flashback is bookended by scenes on the island, where we see that Locke is alive once more.
So. Who's good and who's bad? Or is it just not that simple at all? It seemed like the mention of Ms. Hawking - on Widmore's bankroll, we might remember - led Ben to kill Locke, perhaps because of the Widmore connection. But then how is Ben able to work with her? And since Christian told Locke to find Ms. Hawking, does that mean that the island "prefers" Widmore's side?
It could be. Consider that Widmore was aware that Ben had tried to kill Locke (by shooting him, recall, in the late S3 episode "The Man Behind the Curtain"). The only people who knew this were Locke, Ben, and Richard (who, we can surmise, guessed it after Ben brusquely informed him only that Locke had an "accident" in "Greatest Hits"). We also know that Richard has been able to leave the island in the past. So if Richard is working with Widmore at this point... is Widmore really the good guy? Did he simply miscalculate with Keamy, trying to find someone who could capture/kill Ben at any cost and looking past his most mercenary tendencies?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
People who want to have Lost episodes spoiled before seeing them
Congratulations! You're all fucking idiots.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
s4e12: There's No Place Like Home, Part 1
We get our earliest flash-forward yet, as it starts with the Oceanic Six on the plane about to land in Hawaii. I'm beginning to suspect (well, maybe not beginning) that the end of this season might do something like connect the "present" to the "flash-forwards" (in other words, could it possibly end with the same scene that this episode started with, or with what happens directly before it?). But as we've seen before, I am horrible at guessing where this show is going next.
Anyway, in flash-forward, we see that Sayid and Nadia get together; Hurley sees the numbers in the odometer of the car his dad fixed and freaks out; Sun somehow gets so much money from Oceanic that she can buy majority control of her dad's company (seriously? I didn't realize Paik Industrial was a lemonade stand), as she blames him for Jin's death; and Jack finally delivers the eulogy at his father's funeral, only to be told by a no-longer-comatose Claire's mom that Claire was/is his sister. I've long wondered how and when they were going to present this news to Jack, and I have to say it went off pretty well. Also have to love the irony they squeeze in there; Claire's mom mentions how Jack would have been a few rows from Claire without ever knowing she was his sister, then compliments Aaron to Kate, of course not realizing that he's really her grandson.
In present times, Jack and Kate go into the jungle after hearing that Keamy is headed for the Orchid. Kate swaps with Sawyer after they run into him (with Aaron and Miles in tow), and Sawyer and Jack make for the chopper. When Frank (cuffed to the chopper by Keamy) tells them that Locke and Hurley are probably going to be killed when Keamy finds Ben, Jack heads for the Orchid.
Meanwhile, Sayid arrives at the beach to get people off the island. When Kate arrives at the beach, she and Sayid head back into the jungle to warn Jack about how dangerous the mercenaries on the helicopter are; Kate leaves Aaron with Sun. In the jungle, Kate and Sayid are ambushed and captured by Richard Alpert and the rest of the Others. (I kind of wonder why those guys still bother to wear those outfits when everyone on the island knows they don't really live in huts or whatever; possibly something necessary due to one of the various mythological island factors?)
In lieu of Sayid, Daniel starts ferrying people back to the boat. Michael has fixed the engines, but due to some interference, the sonar isn't working properly, so the helmsman refuses to move the boat closer to the island (lest it run aground on the reef). When Desmond and Michael look for the source, they find a room full of explosives. Some connection here between this and the device on Keamy's arm?
Ben, Locke and Hurley make their way to the Orchid (Ben has some communication with the other Others by mirror first), which is already surrounded by the mercenaries. After telling Locke what to do to move the island once he's inside the Orchid, Ben surrenders himself, and Keamy hits him in the face with his gun (he apparently really likes doing this).
Two-hour second part of the finale coming on May 29. So what can we expect? Well, someone will probably be dying; the likelihood of Jin's survival in one form or another seems slim at this point, but I think Desmond will survive because of the integral part he has to play in the Ben/Widmore battle. Not sure about Michael; possibly he would sacrifice himself to save everyone else? Will the island actually move? And if so, will it move to the location of "Membata," or are the castaways moved there first, or is that entirely a fish story? With the various members of the Oceanic Six in four different places at the moment - Sun and Aaron on the freighter, Sayid and Kate with the Others, Jack heading for the Orchid, and Hurley at the Orchid - how exactly are they all going to be pulled together and yet no one else will be saved? It's seemed for a while that some sort of deal will be cut by the six who do get off, but why those six, and what kind of deal, and with whom?
Excited.
Anyway, in flash-forward, we see that Sayid and Nadia get together; Hurley sees the numbers in the odometer of the car his dad fixed and freaks out; Sun somehow gets so much money from Oceanic that she can buy majority control of her dad's company (seriously? I didn't realize Paik Industrial was a lemonade stand), as she blames him for Jin's death; and Jack finally delivers the eulogy at his father's funeral, only to be told by a no-longer-comatose Claire's mom that Claire was/is his sister. I've long wondered how and when they were going to present this news to Jack, and I have to say it went off pretty well. Also have to love the irony they squeeze in there; Claire's mom mentions how Jack would have been a few rows from Claire without ever knowing she was his sister, then compliments Aaron to Kate, of course not realizing that he's really her grandson.
In present times, Jack and Kate go into the jungle after hearing that Keamy is headed for the Orchid. Kate swaps with Sawyer after they run into him (with Aaron and Miles in tow), and Sawyer and Jack make for the chopper. When Frank (cuffed to the chopper by Keamy) tells them that Locke and Hurley are probably going to be killed when Keamy finds Ben, Jack heads for the Orchid.
Meanwhile, Sayid arrives at the beach to get people off the island. When Kate arrives at the beach, she and Sayid head back into the jungle to warn Jack about how dangerous the mercenaries on the helicopter are; Kate leaves Aaron with Sun. In the jungle, Kate and Sayid are ambushed and captured by Richard Alpert and the rest of the Others. (I kind of wonder why those guys still bother to wear those outfits when everyone on the island knows they don't really live in huts or whatever; possibly something necessary due to one of the various mythological island factors?)
In lieu of Sayid, Daniel starts ferrying people back to the boat. Michael has fixed the engines, but due to some interference, the sonar isn't working properly, so the helmsman refuses to move the boat closer to the island (lest it run aground on the reef). When Desmond and Michael look for the source, they find a room full of explosives. Some connection here between this and the device on Keamy's arm?
Ben, Locke and Hurley make their way to the Orchid (Ben has some communication with the other Others by mirror first), which is already surrounded by the mercenaries. After telling Locke what to do to move the island once he's inside the Orchid, Ben surrenders himself, and Keamy hits him in the face with his gun (he apparently really likes doing this).
Two-hour second part of the finale coming on May 29. So what can we expect? Well, someone will probably be dying; the likelihood of Jin's survival in one form or another seems slim at this point, but I think Desmond will survive because of the integral part he has to play in the Ben/Widmore battle. Not sure about Michael; possibly he would sacrifice himself to save everyone else? Will the island actually move? And if so, will it move to the location of "Membata," or are the castaways moved there first, or is that entirely a fish story? With the various members of the Oceanic Six in four different places at the moment - Sun and Aaron on the freighter, Sayid and Kate with the Others, Jack heading for the Orchid, and Hurley at the Orchid - how exactly are they all going to be pulled together and yet no one else will be saved? It's seemed for a while that some sort of deal will be cut by the six who do get off, but why those six, and what kind of deal, and with whom?
Excited.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
s4e11: Cabin Fever
A plot: Locke, Hurley and Ben go looking for Jacob's cabin.
This plot really kind of mixed the amusing and the creepy. Just look at the first scene where they're arguing about who's leading the way, or where Hurley splits his Apollo Bar with Ben... then, at the same time, look at, well, the entire scene in the cabin, or Locke's dream sequence where Horace tells him how to find the cabin. (It turns out that Horace built the cabin, apparently.) Oh, and Locke's very literal use of "pit stop" made me smile.
Anyway, Christian (dead) and Claire (not dead?) are inside the cabin, and they tell Locke what he needs to do - move the island. What in the fuck?
B plot: Various confrontations on the boat as Keamy plans to return to the island in force.
A very tense, action-heavy plot. Keamy comes back and confronts Michael for ratting him out to Ben, but the gun misfires when he tries to kill him. (Michael is impervious right now, apparently.) Keamy gets the "secondary protocol," which apparently tells him the only place Ben can go to hide if the island is "torched." Captain Overacting doesn't exactly agree with Keamy's plan and gives Sayid (and Desmond, who elects not to return to the island) a boat. Also, we see the ship receive the Morse code message about Dr. Ecklie, who's still alive and well - and then he's killed and tossed overboard. So clearly there's a big time issue here. In a big confrontation, Captain Overacting is shot by Keamy, and Frank decides to fly them back to the island after initially resisting. Meanwhile, Keamy has had some odd device attached to him, which I'm sure will come into play later.
C plot: In our brief view of the beach, Jack et al. receive the radio/GPS that Frank drops. Aaaand that's about it.
Flashback: In our first full pre-crash flashback since the second-to-last episode of Season Three (Charlie's "Greatest Hits"), we learn significant and confusing information about Locke's long-term ties to the island's mythology.
So Baby Locke was ridiculously premature but he managed to battle off all kinds of infections and survive. Then we see - dum dum DUM! - Richard Alpert, who visits Baby Locke in the hospital and then Kid Locke, giving the latter some sort of Dalai Lama test, as Drew noted. Kid Locke fails, but that's clearly not the end of it, as Mittelos Bioscience tries to recruit Teen Locke, who might have gone for it if he'd been getting laid. Sadly, he's unpopular, and rejects the idea as he has no intention of being more unpopular. Finally, we see Wheelchair Locke during his rehab, where he meets with - dum dum DUM!!!! - Matthew Abaddon, who, we discover, is responsible for planting the idea in Locke's head that he should go on the walkabout.
So the question thus is: did Matthew Abaddon, who appears to be on the Widmore side later, point Locke towards Australia because he knew Locke's plane would crash, ridding the world of the Others' "chosen one?" Or because he knew it would crash in such a way that Locke would get to the island? Either way, how did and could he know? And the whole "when you and me run into each other again, you'll owe me one" - time traveling? Or just knowing the future somehow?
All in all, a pretty strong episode. Now we just have three hours of finale left over the next three weeks (one, off, two). Can you say awesome?
This plot really kind of mixed the amusing and the creepy. Just look at the first scene where they're arguing about who's leading the way, or where Hurley splits his Apollo Bar with Ben... then, at the same time, look at, well, the entire scene in the cabin, or Locke's dream sequence where Horace tells him how to find the cabin. (It turns out that Horace built the cabin, apparently.) Oh, and Locke's very literal use of "pit stop" made me smile.
Anyway, Christian (dead) and Claire (not dead?) are inside the cabin, and they tell Locke what he needs to do - move the island. What in the fuck?
B plot: Various confrontations on the boat as Keamy plans to return to the island in force.
A very tense, action-heavy plot. Keamy comes back and confronts Michael for ratting him out to Ben, but the gun misfires when he tries to kill him. (Michael is impervious right now, apparently.) Keamy gets the "secondary protocol," which apparently tells him the only place Ben can go to hide if the island is "torched." Captain Overacting doesn't exactly agree with Keamy's plan and gives Sayid (and Desmond, who elects not to return to the island) a boat. Also, we see the ship receive the Morse code message about Dr. Ecklie, who's still alive and well - and then he's killed and tossed overboard. So clearly there's a big time issue here. In a big confrontation, Captain Overacting is shot by Keamy, and Frank decides to fly them back to the island after initially resisting. Meanwhile, Keamy has had some odd device attached to him, which I'm sure will come into play later.
C plot: In our brief view of the beach, Jack et al. receive the radio/GPS that Frank drops. Aaaand that's about it.
Flashback: In our first full pre-crash flashback since the second-to-last episode of Season Three (Charlie's "Greatest Hits"), we learn significant and confusing information about Locke's long-term ties to the island's mythology.
So Baby Locke was ridiculously premature but he managed to battle off all kinds of infections and survive. Then we see - dum dum DUM! - Richard Alpert, who visits Baby Locke in the hospital and then Kid Locke, giving the latter some sort of Dalai Lama test, as Drew noted. Kid Locke fails, but that's clearly not the end of it, as Mittelos Bioscience tries to recruit Teen Locke, who might have gone for it if he'd been getting laid. Sadly, he's unpopular, and rejects the idea as he has no intention of being more unpopular. Finally, we see Wheelchair Locke during his rehab, where he meets with - dum dum DUM!!!! - Matthew Abaddon, who, we discover, is responsible for planting the idea in Locke's head that he should go on the walkabout.
So the question thus is: did Matthew Abaddon, who appears to be on the Widmore side later, point Locke towards Australia because he knew Locke's plane would crash, ridding the world of the Others' "chosen one?" Or because he knew it would crash in such a way that Locke would get to the island? Either way, how did and could he know? And the whole "when you and me run into each other again, you'll owe me one" - time traveling? Or just knowing the future somehow?
All in all, a pretty strong episode. Now we just have three hours of finale left over the next three weeks (one, off, two). Can you say awesome?
Friday, May 02, 2008
s4e10: Something Nice Back Home
When you consider the fact that three episodes (though, ultimately, only two hours) had to be dropped from this season, doesn't that make "Something Nice Back Home" feel like kind of a missed opportunity? Let's run down the major plot points of the episode really quick.
A plot: Jack gets appendicitis and Juliet has to perform surgery.
Has there ever been a Lost plot with less inherent tension? We know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jack survives well into the future. So the only thing that we really gleaned from this entire segment came at the end, when Juliet reveals that she knows Jack really loves Kate, in spite of the seemingly blossoming relationship between Jack and Juliet.
B plot: Sawyer, Claire and Miles head back to the beach, run into Frank (and have to hide from a shaken-but-alive Keamy), come across the bodies of Rousseau and Karl, and have Sawyer claim the "overly-protective of Claire, to no benefit" mantle from the late Charlie. Claire winds up vanishing, leaving Aaron behind, having apparently gone off with Christian, who was certainly corporeal but about whom we can't say much else with certainty.
I guess this plot was fine, but the Keamy thing was kind of cheap tension (since it turned out to be window dressing) and the final scene was frustratingly inconclusive even by Lost standards. Miles has calmed down a lot in the few days he's been on the island, though, hasn't he?
C plot: Charlotte turns out to speak Korean, and Jin asks her to make sure Sun gets off the island.
Again, this seemed fairly irrelevant, other than setting up Sun getting off the island while Jin does not - but that's also something we already knew and obviously doesn't even come close to answering the main question about that plotline, which is: Is Jin secretly still alive, and if not, how does he die? We'll probably find that out by the end of the season, one would suspect, but at any rate this added very little to the effort.
FF plot: Overcoming his reservations about Aaron, Jack begins a serious relationship with Kate, eventually proposing to her. But the seeds of the relationship's downfall are sown when Jack goes to see Hurley at the mental hospital, where Hurley passes along a message from Charlie: "You're not supposed to raise him." Jack begins to see his father and eventually starts drinking again, finally confronting Kate about who she's been off to see behind his back. It turns out she's been running errands or something for Sawyer. By the end of the episode it's pretty clear how we got to the point Jack was at in last season's finale.
This was probably the best part of the episode, which is kind of sad because the idea of Jack and Kate being all lovey-dovey in the future - even if the entire scope of their relationship fit into this episode - really sort of bothers me. The scene between Jack and Hurley was really well-shot, though, and the introduction of Sawyer back into the mix was interesting although fairly implausible. (Jack wants to kill himself because he can't find the island, but Sawyer, apparently still there, can just pick up a phone and call Kate whenever he wants? I guess we've established that voice transmissions aren't affected by the island's power while the jamming is off, but it seems odd somehow.) You also wonder what Kate is even doing for Sawyer - something related to his daughter? The end of the flash-forward also all but confirmed what we suspected based on "Eggtown" - that Jack has, at some interim point, found out that Claire is actually his half-sister (as his rant that Kate isn't even related to Aaron was dripping with "While I, on the other hand, am" implication). When he finds that out seems to be up for quite a lot of debate; I would have assumed that Christian would have confirmed this for Jack at some point, but given how shocked he is to see his father off-island in the FF here, I can't believe that he would have spoken to his father (or any avatar thereof) to be able to find that out. Perhaps he finds out from Ben at some point, or perhaps he finds out after getting off the island from some sort of investigation into the lives of people on the plane (done by whoever seems like they might do that and publicize it). I don't really know at this point but it appears it's not Christian.
Next week: do you realize that there is only one episode remaining before the start of the two-part finale on May 15? Of course, the finale is three hours over two nights (two weeks apart, no less), so it's not like we're going to be hurting for Lost over the next month, but we're really coming right up against it here. Hard to believe that episode 11 is going to tread as much water as this one did, with that in mind.
A plot: Jack gets appendicitis and Juliet has to perform surgery.
Has there ever been a Lost plot with less inherent tension? We know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jack survives well into the future. So the only thing that we really gleaned from this entire segment came at the end, when Juliet reveals that she knows Jack really loves Kate, in spite of the seemingly blossoming relationship between Jack and Juliet.
B plot: Sawyer, Claire and Miles head back to the beach, run into Frank (and have to hide from a shaken-but-alive Keamy), come across the bodies of Rousseau and Karl, and have Sawyer claim the "overly-protective of Claire, to no benefit" mantle from the late Charlie. Claire winds up vanishing, leaving Aaron behind, having apparently gone off with Christian, who was certainly corporeal but about whom we can't say much else with certainty.
I guess this plot was fine, but the Keamy thing was kind of cheap tension (since it turned out to be window dressing) and the final scene was frustratingly inconclusive even by Lost standards. Miles has calmed down a lot in the few days he's been on the island, though, hasn't he?
C plot: Charlotte turns out to speak Korean, and Jin asks her to make sure Sun gets off the island.
Again, this seemed fairly irrelevant, other than setting up Sun getting off the island while Jin does not - but that's also something we already knew and obviously doesn't even come close to answering the main question about that plotline, which is: Is Jin secretly still alive, and if not, how does he die? We'll probably find that out by the end of the season, one would suspect, but at any rate this added very little to the effort.
FF plot: Overcoming his reservations about Aaron, Jack begins a serious relationship with Kate, eventually proposing to her. But the seeds of the relationship's downfall are sown when Jack goes to see Hurley at the mental hospital, where Hurley passes along a message from Charlie: "You're not supposed to raise him." Jack begins to see his father and eventually starts drinking again, finally confronting Kate about who she's been off to see behind his back. It turns out she's been running errands or something for Sawyer. By the end of the episode it's pretty clear how we got to the point Jack was at in last season's finale.
This was probably the best part of the episode, which is kind of sad because the idea of Jack and Kate being all lovey-dovey in the future - even if the entire scope of their relationship fit into this episode - really sort of bothers me. The scene between Jack and Hurley was really well-shot, though, and the introduction of Sawyer back into the mix was interesting although fairly implausible. (Jack wants to kill himself because he can't find the island, but Sawyer, apparently still there, can just pick up a phone and call Kate whenever he wants? I guess we've established that voice transmissions aren't affected by the island's power while the jamming is off, but it seems odd somehow.) You also wonder what Kate is even doing for Sawyer - something related to his daughter? The end of the flash-forward also all but confirmed what we suspected based on "Eggtown" - that Jack has, at some interim point, found out that Claire is actually his half-sister (as his rant that Kate isn't even related to Aaron was dripping with "While I, on the other hand, am" implication). When he finds that out seems to be up for quite a lot of debate; I would have assumed that Christian would have confirmed this for Jack at some point, but given how shocked he is to see his father off-island in the FF here, I can't believe that he would have spoken to his father (or any avatar thereof) to be able to find that out. Perhaps he finds out from Ben at some point, or perhaps he finds out after getting off the island from some sort of investigation into the lives of people on the plane (done by whoever seems like they might do that and publicize it). I don't really know at this point but it appears it's not Christian.
Next week: do you realize that there is only one episode remaining before the start of the two-part finale on May 15? Of course, the finale is three hours over two nights (two weeks apart, no less), so it's not like we're going to be hurting for Lost over the next month, but we're really coming right up against it here. Hard to believe that episode 11 is going to tread as much water as this one did, with that in mind.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
s4e09: The Shape of Things to Come
On island, we find out that the people responsible for killing Karl and Rousseau were in fact the team of soldiers on the boat. They drag Alex back to the camp and make her turn off the sonic fence; she uses a special distress code, warning the village of the approach. The soldiers arrive with "shock and awe," as Ben puts it (I suspect this may have been intended as political commentary of some sort), killing several Socks and blowing up Claire's house (miraculously, she is unharmed). The soldiers send Miles in with a walkie-talkie so they can communicate with Ben; he won't come out, so they threaten to kill Alex. When Ben attempts the old "Go ahead, she means nothing to me" ploy, they kill her. A stunned Ben remarks that "He changed the rules" and proceeds to loose Smokey on the soldiers. Everyone else runs into the jungle. Sawyer, Claire and Miles head for the beach; after a confrontation between Locke and Sawyer over who gets Hurley (who is needed to find the cabin, according to Ben), Hurley heads off with Locke and Ben to find Jacob.
On the beach, Dr. Ecklie washes ashore with his throat slit. Daniel repairs the radio enough to send Morse code to the boat, asking what happened to the doctor. The boat replies that the doctor is fine - but Daniel lies, claiming that they've said the helicopters are coming in the morning. Bernard, who conveniently knows Morse code, catches him, and Jack demands to know if there were ever plans to rescue the crash survivors. "No," Daniel says.
In flash forward, Sayid has married Nadia (which is like post-Season 1 fanfiction) only to see her killed. Ben teleports to the Tunisian desert (I think we can safely assume this is what happened; did you notice that he was wearing a jacket that belonged to Dr. Edgar Halliwax, by the way?), then makes his way to Iraq, posing as a member of the press. Sayid notices him taking pictures and attacks him as a "vulture" - clearly life in the public eye has been quite stressful - but Ben reveals that one of Widmore's men killed Nadia. Later, Ben tracks the man responsible as what appears to be a distraction; in other words, he distracts him just long enough for Sayid to kill him. Sayid all but begs Ben to let him be a killer for him, which kind of contradicts Sayid's suggestion in "The Economist" that Ben had virtually blackmailed Sayid into becoming a killer for him. Ben's smile as he walks away makes it clear that this was what he wanted to happen, however, so maybe that's what Sayid was getting at. In the final scene, Ben breaks into Charles Widmore's penthouse suite and tells him that because Widmore "changed the rules" and killed Ben's daughter, Ben is going to kill his daughter - of course, this is Penelope, and I think this means Desmond is getting off the island because you get a lot more potential conflict out of this reveal that way. Widmore says by way of exposition that everything Ben has, he stole from Widmore, including the island - this continues to suggest that Widmore was, decades earlier, Dharma's bankroll. This is also kind of a classic "Who am I supposed to be rooting for?" scene; depending on who you tend to believe in this scene, one or the other of them is really evil.
Quite the upping of the body count, no? If we include the last five minutes of "Meet Kevin Johnson," that's more than a dozen people who have died in just slightly over the last hour of the show - Alex, Karl, Rousseau, the three Socks, Dr. Ecklie, and presumably all six soldiers. And we haven't even been back to the boat - I assume next week we will be.
On the beach, Dr. Ecklie washes ashore with his throat slit. Daniel repairs the radio enough to send Morse code to the boat, asking what happened to the doctor. The boat replies that the doctor is fine - but Daniel lies, claiming that they've said the helicopters are coming in the morning. Bernard, who conveniently knows Morse code, catches him, and Jack demands to know if there were ever plans to rescue the crash survivors. "No," Daniel says.
In flash forward, Sayid has married Nadia (which is like post-Season 1 fanfiction) only to see her killed. Ben teleports to the Tunisian desert (I think we can safely assume this is what happened; did you notice that he was wearing a jacket that belonged to Dr. Edgar Halliwax, by the way?), then makes his way to Iraq, posing as a member of the press. Sayid notices him taking pictures and attacks him as a "vulture" - clearly life in the public eye has been quite stressful - but Ben reveals that one of Widmore's men killed Nadia. Later, Ben tracks the man responsible as what appears to be a distraction; in other words, he distracts him just long enough for Sayid to kill him. Sayid all but begs Ben to let him be a killer for him, which kind of contradicts Sayid's suggestion in "The Economist" that Ben had virtually blackmailed Sayid into becoming a killer for him. Ben's smile as he walks away makes it clear that this was what he wanted to happen, however, so maybe that's what Sayid was getting at. In the final scene, Ben breaks into Charles Widmore's penthouse suite and tells him that because Widmore "changed the rules" and killed Ben's daughter, Ben is going to kill his daughter - of course, this is Penelope, and I think this means Desmond is getting off the island because you get a lot more potential conflict out of this reveal that way. Widmore says by way of exposition that everything Ben has, he stole from Widmore, including the island - this continues to suggest that Widmore was, decades earlier, Dharma's bankroll. This is also kind of a classic "Who am I supposed to be rooting for?" scene; depending on who you tend to believe in this scene, one or the other of them is really evil.
Quite the upping of the body count, no? If we include the last five minutes of "Meet Kevin Johnson," that's more than a dozen people who have died in just slightly over the last hour of the show - Alex, Karl, Rousseau, the three Socks, Dr. Ecklie, and presumably all six soldiers. And we haven't even been back to the boat - I assume next week we will be.
Friday, March 21, 2008
s4e08: Meet Kevin Johnson
Not much beating around the bush this week. Miles reveals to Locke's camp that he's here for Ben, and doesn't exactly deny it when Ben says that if he is captured, the Freighters will kill everyone else, per Widmore's orders. Ben then reveals at Hurley's prompting that Michael is his spy on the boat. It's off to the boat, then, where Sayid forces Michael to tell his story. And tell he does, over most of the rest of the episode.
Michael attempts to kill himself by crashing his car, with a note to Walt pinned to his chest. Walt is now living with Michael's mother and won't speak to his father - it is implied that at some point, Michael had to explain to Walt just what he did to get them off the island. Also, this way we don't have to see clearly-older Malcolm David Kelley for more than a second. Pretty crafty, writers. Michael tries again to kill himself, this time with a gun, until Tom steps out of the shadows. They fight, and Tom eventually points the gun at Michael, who urges Tom to shoot. Tom says that Michael can't die even if he wants to, because the island won't let him. Michael tries to shoot himself again but the trigger just clicks, even though it's fully loaded. After seeing that 815 has been found, Michael runs back to find Tom.
Tom (who is briefly shown to be gay, because why not, I guess) explains that Widmore faked
the Bali crash site so that no one would go looking in the right area and possibly stumble across the island. Naturally this contradicts with the suggestion in the last episode that Ben was behind the fake. Tom's explanation seems a little more convincing - he actually has evidence, and of course it's possible that Widmore would have lied to the freighter's captain - but who ever knows with the Others. At any rate, Tom tells Michael to join the crew of the freighter so that he can kill everyone on board. Michael tries, via bomb, but it's a dud - a little flag goes up saying "Not yet." Ben, pretending to be Walt, calls Michael on the boat (clearly the only way he could call without arousing suspicion) and tells him that the difference between Ben and Widmore is that Ben doesn't kill innocent people. Michael is instead ordered to make a list of the people on the boat, then sabotage the radio and engines.
After hearing the whole story, Sayid drags Michael in front of the captain and reveals that Michael is the saboteur and a spy for Ben. I guess Sayid really wants to get back to the real world, huh? Makes you wonder just how bad things have to get for Sayid to end up killing for Ben himself.
To wind up, Ben sends Alex, Karl and Rousseau towards the Temple, but, fulfilling the teaser's promise that someone would die, Karl and Rousseau are shot by unseen assailants. Alex jumps up and yells that she's Ben's daughter, and we go to Lost logo. The last scene was a little weird; was it perhaps intended to show that in spite of what he may want people to believe, Ben is just that dangerous? He seems to have sent them into a trap that would bump off Alex's boyfriend and biological mother, thus leaving Ben as her only family on the island - as verified by the fact that she leaps back to her connection to him to save herself. Pretty fucking diabolical, no? Kinda makes you wonder if we're supposed to end up rooting for either side in the Ben/Widmore conflict.
April 24: Lost is back. It sounds like it's going to spread over six weeks, with the finale coming in two parts over two weeks thanks to dumb-ass Grey's Anatomy. Should be pretty awesome. By the end of the season we're supposed to at least have some idea how the Oceanic Six get off. Works for me.
Michael attempts to kill himself by crashing his car, with a note to Walt pinned to his chest. Walt is now living with Michael's mother and won't speak to his father - it is implied that at some point, Michael had to explain to Walt just what he did to get them off the island. Also, this way we don't have to see clearly-older Malcolm David Kelley for more than a second. Pretty crafty, writers. Michael tries again to kill himself, this time with a gun, until Tom steps out of the shadows. They fight, and Tom eventually points the gun at Michael, who urges Tom to shoot. Tom says that Michael can't die even if he wants to, because the island won't let him. Michael tries to shoot himself again but the trigger just clicks, even though it's fully loaded. After seeing that 815 has been found, Michael runs back to find Tom.
Tom (who is briefly shown to be gay, because why not, I guess) explains that Widmore faked
the Bali crash site so that no one would go looking in the right area and possibly stumble across the island. Naturally this contradicts with the suggestion in the last episode that Ben was behind the fake. Tom's explanation seems a little more convincing - he actually has evidence, and of course it's possible that Widmore would have lied to the freighter's captain - but who ever knows with the Others. At any rate, Tom tells Michael to join the crew of the freighter so that he can kill everyone on board. Michael tries, via bomb, but it's a dud - a little flag goes up saying "Not yet." Ben, pretending to be Walt, calls Michael on the boat (clearly the only way he could call without arousing suspicion) and tells him that the difference between Ben and Widmore is that Ben doesn't kill innocent people. Michael is instead ordered to make a list of the people on the boat, then sabotage the radio and engines.
After hearing the whole story, Sayid drags Michael in front of the captain and reveals that Michael is the saboteur and a spy for Ben. I guess Sayid really wants to get back to the real world, huh? Makes you wonder just how bad things have to get for Sayid to end up killing for Ben himself.
To wind up, Ben sends Alex, Karl and Rousseau towards the Temple, but, fulfilling the teaser's promise that someone would die, Karl and Rousseau are shot by unseen assailants. Alex jumps up and yells that she's Ben's daughter, and we go to Lost logo. The last scene was a little weird; was it perhaps intended to show that in spite of what he may want people to believe, Ben is just that dangerous? He seems to have sent them into a trap that would bump off Alex's boyfriend and biological mother, thus leaving Ben as her only family on the island - as verified by the fact that she leaps back to her connection to him to save herself. Pretty fucking diabolical, no? Kinda makes you wonder if we're supposed to end up rooting for either side in the Ben/Widmore conflict.
April 24: Lost is back. It sounds like it's going to spread over six weeks, with the finale coming in two parts over two weeks thanks to dumb-ass Grey's Anatomy. Should be pretty awesome. By the end of the season we're supposed to at least have some idea how the Oceanic Six get off. Works for me.
Friday, March 14, 2008
s4e07: Ji Yeon
Well, that was a fucking downer.
In the A plot, Sun decides she wants to go off to Locke's camp, because she doesn't trust the Freighters. Juliet warns her against doing so because it would lead to her death, due to the fact that pregnant women (at least those who conceived on-island) do not survive past the middle of the second trimester or so. Sun notes that Juliet doesn't exactly have the best history of veracity, and starts to head off with Jin anyway. Juliet pulls out all the stops and tells Jin about Sun's affair with Jae Lee, forcing them to stay at the beach. Jin goes off fishing with Bernard and, in a fairly nice scene, Bernard says he believes that staying at the beach is good karma. Jin forgives Sun for the affair, saying he knows that the person he used to be, pre-island, pretty much deserved it, and Sun confirms for him that the baby is his. They decide to stay at the beach, hopeful that they can get off the island soon.
In the B plot, Sayid and Desmond meet the captain of the ship, who shows them the black box from Flight 815 and tells them that Charles Widmore is financing the whole thing. He tells them about the discovery of the plane with all 324 dead bodies aboard, and asks them what it means to them that someone could have gone to the trouble of faking the entire thing - including presumably killing 324 people just to serve as dead bodies. And that, he says, is why Widmore wants Ben. We also see that the crew of the freighter is going nuts due to their proximity to the island, but the captain has been unable to move the ship because a certain someone has sabotaged the engines. As should come as no surprise to anyone, that someone is... Michael, now posing as the ship's janitor under the name Kevin Johnson.
In the flash-forwards, Sun is rushed to the hospital, heavily pregnant, and keeps asking where Jin is. He's in transit, but having some difficulty buying a large stuffed panda. Finally he makes it to the hospital... where we find out we're actually in flashback in his half of the flashes, as he presents the panda to the daughter of the Chinese ambassador on the birth of her new son as a way of helping to curry favor for Sun's dad, Mr. Paik. As Jin leaves the hospital, a nurse mentions that maybe someday he'll be a father too. "Don't rush me," he jokes. "I've only been married two months!"
In the final flash-forward, we find out where Jin was when Sun was calling for him at the hospital - the same place he'd been for a while, presumably, six feet under in a Korean cemetery. Hurley, who has come out to visit, and Sun visit Jin's grave with the baby, which Sun has named Ji Yeon, in accordance with wishes stated by Jin on the island at the start of the episode. Sun cries and tells Jin how much she misses him. I cried a little bit too. Lost logo.
Holy shit. Could that have been any more of a depressing ending? It's interesting that this was how they chose to kill a character - it's certainly in keeping with something William Mapother (aka Ethan) once said, about how he'd made far more appearances on the show after being killed than he ever had while alive. So is Jin one of the Six, and Mr. Paik had him killed for returning to Korea? Is he one of the eight mentioned in Jack's story at Kate's trial, supposedly surviving the crash but dying soon after? Neither? Damon and Carlton said that the Oceanic Six would be cleared up after this episode, but frankly I'm still not sure whether Jin or Aaron is supposed to be the last one. (I really don't think it's anyone else.)
I resented the storytelling a little bit, I have to say. Last year, with the initial flash-forward, there were at least ways to pick it up. The combination flash-forward/flashback seemed like kind of a cheap trick because even though there were, in retrospect, clues that Jin's half was a flashback, they were all negated by other evidence. Jin having large amounts of cash available - well, if he's one of the Oceanic Six, he would, wouldn't he? Jin having short hair again - big deal, maybe he got a haircut. And Sun kept calling for him, a similar trick to Jack mentioning his father in the present tense in last year's finale. Wouldn't it have been just as easy not to show Jin in the flashes at all, rather than having to pull the wool over our eyes like that? It's not that I don't like twists, but unlike last year's, which was amazing, this one just felt like a cheat.
Aside from that, though, it was a pretty strong episode. Like the best of past seasons, it was able to combine some good emotional character moments with other scenes in which information was actually doled out. With the rush being put on the final five episodes, I'm a little worried that some character bits are going to go by the wayside, so at least we got a couple good character episodes in (this one and "The Constant") before the flood of information starts in six weeks or so.
In the A plot, Sun decides she wants to go off to Locke's camp, because she doesn't trust the Freighters. Juliet warns her against doing so because it would lead to her death, due to the fact that pregnant women (at least those who conceived on-island) do not survive past the middle of the second trimester or so. Sun notes that Juliet doesn't exactly have the best history of veracity, and starts to head off with Jin anyway. Juliet pulls out all the stops and tells Jin about Sun's affair with Jae Lee, forcing them to stay at the beach. Jin goes off fishing with Bernard and, in a fairly nice scene, Bernard says he believes that staying at the beach is good karma. Jin forgives Sun for the affair, saying he knows that the person he used to be, pre-island, pretty much deserved it, and Sun confirms for him that the baby is his. They decide to stay at the beach, hopeful that they can get off the island soon.
In the B plot, Sayid and Desmond meet the captain of the ship, who shows them the black box from Flight 815 and tells them that Charles Widmore is financing the whole thing. He tells them about the discovery of the plane with all 324 dead bodies aboard, and asks them what it means to them that someone could have gone to the trouble of faking the entire thing - including presumably killing 324 people just to serve as dead bodies. And that, he says, is why Widmore wants Ben. We also see that the crew of the freighter is going nuts due to their proximity to the island, but the captain has been unable to move the ship because a certain someone has sabotaged the engines. As should come as no surprise to anyone, that someone is... Michael, now posing as the ship's janitor under the name Kevin Johnson.
In the flash-forwards, Sun is rushed to the hospital, heavily pregnant, and keeps asking where Jin is. He's in transit, but having some difficulty buying a large stuffed panda. Finally he makes it to the hospital... where we find out we're actually in flashback in his half of the flashes, as he presents the panda to the daughter of the Chinese ambassador on the birth of her new son as a way of helping to curry favor for Sun's dad, Mr. Paik. As Jin leaves the hospital, a nurse mentions that maybe someday he'll be a father too. "Don't rush me," he jokes. "I've only been married two months!"
In the final flash-forward, we find out where Jin was when Sun was calling for him at the hospital - the same place he'd been for a while, presumably, six feet under in a Korean cemetery. Hurley, who has come out to visit, and Sun visit Jin's grave with the baby, which Sun has named Ji Yeon, in accordance with wishes stated by Jin on the island at the start of the episode. Sun cries and tells Jin how much she misses him. I cried a little bit too. Lost logo.
Holy shit. Could that have been any more of a depressing ending? It's interesting that this was how they chose to kill a character - it's certainly in keeping with something William Mapother (aka Ethan) once said, about how he'd made far more appearances on the show after being killed than he ever had while alive. So is Jin one of the Six, and Mr. Paik had him killed for returning to Korea? Is he one of the eight mentioned in Jack's story at Kate's trial, supposedly surviving the crash but dying soon after? Neither? Damon and Carlton said that the Oceanic Six would be cleared up after this episode, but frankly I'm still not sure whether Jin or Aaron is supposed to be the last one. (I really don't think it's anyone else.)
I resented the storytelling a little bit, I have to say. Last year, with the initial flash-forward, there were at least ways to pick it up. The combination flash-forward/flashback seemed like kind of a cheap trick because even though there were, in retrospect, clues that Jin's half was a flashback, they were all negated by other evidence. Jin having large amounts of cash available - well, if he's one of the Oceanic Six, he would, wouldn't he? Jin having short hair again - big deal, maybe he got a haircut. And Sun kept calling for him, a similar trick to Jack mentioning his father in the present tense in last year's finale. Wouldn't it have been just as easy not to show Jin in the flashes at all, rather than having to pull the wool over our eyes like that? It's not that I don't like twists, but unlike last year's, which was amazing, this one just felt like a cheat.
Aside from that, though, it was a pretty strong episode. Like the best of past seasons, it was able to combine some good emotional character moments with other scenes in which information was actually doled out. With the rush being put on the final five episodes, I'm a little worried that some character bits are going to go by the wayside, so at least we got a couple good character episodes in (this one and "The Constant") before the flood of information starts in six weeks or so.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
s4e06: The Other Woman
Coy start to this one, as it's briefly made to look like Juliet (wearing way too much makeup) has gotten off the island and is now meeting with a therapist. But oh, we tricked you! It's actually a therapist of the Other variety. We're on the island for the whole of the episode, as Charlotte and Daniel make their way to a power station where apparently there is a way to release a toxic gas that would kill everyone on the island - the therapist, Harper, appears to Juliet and tells her that Ben wants Juliet to go after Charlotte and Daniel and kill them if necessary. So that part of the episode is mostly split between walking/talking in the jungle and Juliet's flashbacks, where we see the trajectory of her previously-revealed relationship with Goodwin, who it turns out was married when he and Juliet met. To Harper. B'oh! Ben, who has a big crush on Juliet and is creepily possessive of her, sends Goodwin to his death at Ana Lucia's hands. (How could he have known that, some have asked? I say he just figured it was likely that eventually the Others were discovered. You could also make the case that he was just getting Goodwin away from Juliet, and then once Ethan was killed, not retracting Goodwin was Ben's way of leaving him for dead, when he had to figure Goodwin would also be discovered eventually.) Eventually we get to the Tempest station, where it transpires that Daniel and Charlotte are actually trying to turn the gas mechanisms off, presumably so that they can do their thing on the island without fearing that a loosed Ben could use it on them (we know he hasn't hesitated to gas his enemies in the past). Juliet and Jack kiss again, with Jack telling her that he's willing to take Ben on for her. Drew has said that one thing he didn't like about the flash-forwards from last season is seeing Jack at such a low, depressed point, and I guess I would agree in one sense - we know from the flash-forwards that Jack and Juliet don't end up together (at least not off the island), so the little courtship going on seems like kind of a waste. This episode wasn't "Eggtown" bad, but it did tread a lot of water in the main plot.
But then there was the "B" plot. In this case, B stands for Ben. Ben shows Locke a video with unsurprising master bad guy Charles Widmore, who Ben says has been looking for the island for some time. When Locke asks why, Ben compares the island to a piece of mold shaped like the Virgin Mary that drew 5,000 pilgrims to Gainesville, Florida - he asks Locke if that many people would go to see mold, how many people would come to see Locke, a man healed by the island's mystical properties? Locke has one more question - who is Ben's man on the boat? Ben tells Locke while we have to watch some commercials instead of finding out. Come on, show - we know it's Michael. Ben told Locke he had to sit down - it's not like it's going to be some character we've never met, and no one else got off the island. And we know Michael's coming back, and we know that next episode has a cliffhanger good enough that the episode split was made 7-6 rather than 8-5 even though the first eight episodes were produced. Are you really going to tell me it's not Michael? There's no way it's not. Everyone has suspected this since episode 2. Quit fucking around. Anyway, the episode ends with Sawyer and Hurley seeing Ben out walking around and expressing surprise and anger (at least on Sawyer's part). This combined with Locke's shutdown of Claire when she asked if she could talk to Miles and Ben's question of whether the revolution had started yet might not be so far off.
Next week: a Sun/Jin episode! We learn the last of the Oceanic Six - so, Sun and Jin, right? I mean, presumably Sun and someone. And a face we never expected to see again! Jesus. It's Michael. You are fooling nobody.
But then there was the "B" plot. In this case, B stands for Ben. Ben shows Locke a video with unsurprising master bad guy Charles Widmore, who Ben says has been looking for the island for some time. When Locke asks why, Ben compares the island to a piece of mold shaped like the Virgin Mary that drew 5,000 pilgrims to Gainesville, Florida - he asks Locke if that many people would go to see mold, how many people would come to see Locke, a man healed by the island's mystical properties? Locke has one more question - who is Ben's man on the boat? Ben tells Locke while we have to watch some commercials instead of finding out. Come on, show - we know it's Michael. Ben told Locke he had to sit down - it's not like it's going to be some character we've never met, and no one else got off the island. And we know Michael's coming back, and we know that next episode has a cliffhanger good enough that the episode split was made 7-6 rather than 8-5 even though the first eight episodes were produced. Are you really going to tell me it's not Michael? There's no way it's not. Everyone has suspected this since episode 2. Quit fucking around. Anyway, the episode ends with Sawyer and Hurley seeing Ben out walking around and expressing surprise and anger (at least on Sawyer's part). This combined with Locke's shutdown of Claire when she asked if she could talk to Miles and Ben's question of whether the revolution had started yet might not be so far off.
Next week: a Sun/Jin episode! We learn the last of the Oceanic Six - so, Sun and Jin, right? I mean, presumably Sun and someone. And a face we never expected to see again! Jesus. It's Michael. You are fooling nobody.
Friday, February 29, 2008
s4e05: The Constant
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.
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.
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