I've been turning over the show in my head, especially the last five minutes - really, three seasons have been building to that, haven't they? There's still a ton left to find out about the island itself, but now the question becomes: where is next season going to pick up? It's hardly obvious - the next episode could as easily pick up right where it left off as it could with a Jack eyeball shot on a boat or plane, or for that matter with another flashback or flash-forward - but we can perhaps make a few guesses about the next move based on the events of "Through the Looking Glass."
Jack, Kate, and at least one other person (probably two) get off the island.
I feel safe in assuming that the flash-forwards are somewhat malleable - i.e. they're set at the end of a timeline that the plot is currently following, but Jack may or may not trace his path to that exact point. I would be exceedingly surprised, for example, if the show were to suddenly leap forward and pick up where it left off at the very end of the episode, as opposed to at the end of the "present" time period. Kate's "he" is probably supposed to be Sawyer, since if it's not him it could really be anyone, while the dead guy is most likely either Locke or Ben. (Ben seems unlikely to leave the island voluntarily, but he was tied up.)
Some sort of deal was involved.
Drew first proposed this in a discussion we were having, and it makes sense. Just look at the dialogue - Kate states that "this isn't going to change," while Jack says he is "sick of lying." Well, lying about what?
Remember: there's a plane with bodies in the ocean off Bali, where the real plane would never have ended up. Assuming that the Widmore Corporation is connected with Hanso, has a hugely powerful global reach, and wants to find the island and perhaps has some sense of its history, it makes sense to think that when Widmore heard about the plane crash - tying it in with the electromagnetic anomaly they were apparently looking for - they moved to plant the fake plane to throw rescuers off the scent. Because Widmore/Hanso wanted to find the island again, something they had probably been unable to do since the Purge of the Dharma Initiative, and they didn't want anyone else to stumble across it in the process. Hence why they were so mad about the S1 anomaly being missed, leading to the scramble in the listening station over the S2 anomaly. Penelope probably had gleaned some knowledge of the island from her father's dealings and suspected that Desmond could be found there, hence why she requested that the men in the listening station contact her as well.
This doesn't totally explain why Naomi had Desmond's picture or stated that she was looking for him, of course. Perhaps Widmore knew what his daughter was up to and supplied Naomi with a copy of the photo to throw anyone suspicious of her off the scent.
But okay: fake plane intended to thwart rescuers from getting anywhere near the island so that a Widmore/Hanso team could find it first and perhaps attempt to resume Dharma-like operations (or even something more sinister). Ben does seem truly terrified of the consequences of Jack's phone call; despite many of his actions, it doesn't seem impossible to think that, in many ways, he is going to turn out to be the "good guy" of the story, at least where the island itself is concerned.
So Widmore/Hanso allow people off the island, but perhaps they force them to lie about where they'd been? Ben doesn't want the outside world knowing about the island, so other people aware of its properties could surely feel the same way. Perhaps the freighter could steam over to Bali and pretend to have rescued the Losties there. This would explain Jack's desire to "stop lying," certainly, and Widmore/Hanso holding something over the Losties' heads would explain Kate's vehemence that "this isn't going to change." And of course, it would explain Jack's behavior - perhaps knowing what he allowed Widmore/Hanso to do on or to the island, or to some of the people there, is eating Jack up inside, and certainly his reaction to the death is telling. Could Locke have ended up back in a wheelchair as a result of leaving the island and offed himself, leaving Jack to feel responsible for his death? Could Ben have killed himself (or been killed) after being forcibly removed from the island? The latter seems to fit in a little better with Kate's "Why would I go [to the funeral]?" but it's hardly a given. (There are quite a few people on the island who would be unlikely to have anyone turn up at a viewing for them in LA, after all.)
The biggest question for next year, of course - which means it probably won't be answered until 2009 - is this: What exactly does Jack learn between "Through the Looking Glass"'s present and its future that causes him to feel that leaving the island was a mistake? Why does he want to get back so badly? For that matter, why does Kate "have" to go with him?
Well, there's the thought that, prior to crashing on the island, Jack's life peaked when he saved Sarah and was all downhill from there. On the island, Jack is a hero and a leader; off the island he was a wandering drunk with a failed marriage. That said, his desire to get back seems rooted in a lot more than his own desire to be a hero. They weren't meant to leave? It would be one thing if everyone were suffering off the island, but Kate seems to be doing okay, right? (And, if she's with Sawyer, Sawyer, although I give that a 50/50 shot, really.)
Maybe the bulk of the survivors aren't allowed to leave? (It would create a lot of questions for Widmore/Hanso if they faked the plane crash, claiming everyone was dead, and then more than a handful of people turned up alive, no?) Jack wants to return to what has really become his family - more so than what is left in the real world - while Kate is more willing to cut ties if it means a more normal life? Whoever the other person is who offed himself (assuming that's what happened, but it does seem like the implication) could be having the same remorse/guilt as Jack. This might also explain why it seems like either Kate doesn't want to talk to Jack at all, or why they have been discouraged from contacting each other (which would explain their meeting spot; I kind of got this vibe more so than that Kate herself just didn't want to see Jack).
I may be guilty of overanalysis at this point. But is such a thing really possible with this show? I say no. There's really tons more I could theoretically go over, but I'll hold myself to this for now. It alone may very well keep me occupied for the next eight months. It's funny looking back, because I started this blog having loved the first season on DVD and then feeling pretty disappointed for much of the second season and into the first part of the third season. But the second half of Season 3 is probably as good as television has ever been for me personally. I will be there in 2010, come hell or high water.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
s3e22: Through the Looking Glass
The plan doesn't work quite so dynamite (ha!), and Bernard, Jin and Sayid are taken prisoner by the three Others who aren't killed (Tom, that guy, and then that other guy). Ben catches up with Jack and the rest of the gang and informs him that unless Jack stops trying to make contact with the boat, Ben will have his guys shoot Jack's guys. Jack refuses to give in, so Ben does, except that he really doesn't, which Tom lets us know in the clumsiest bit of dialogue that's ever appeared on this show. Either Ben is not as cold-blooded as he seems or something else odd is going on, not that we're going to find out what anytime soon, if so.
Ben allows Alex to tag along, revealing that he knows she betrayed her. (This is due to Bernard the big fat blabbermouth giving up the details of the plan with Jin held at gunpoint.) After Jack thinks his friends are dead, he beats the hell out of Ben, then drags him back, at which point Ben reveals to Alex that Rousseau is her mother.
Sawyer and Juliet head back to the beach, although not before Juliet gives Jack a big ol' smooch that has only been set up for 22 damn episodes. They're not sure what to do when they get there (good bit of banter: Sawyer: "There's only three of them and four guns!" Juliet: "And there's two of us, and no guns."), until Hurley - previous recipient of the double brush-off for being too fat to help anyone - comes flying in with Roger Linus' van. He runs over one Other, a tied-up Sayid breaks another's neck with his feet - Jesus! - and then Sawyer, in the last we see of him, shoots Tom in virtual cold blood after the latter has surrendered, saying, "That's for taking the kid off the boat." Uh, damn, Sawyer! Weren't you all messed up about killing Locke's dad ten minutes ago?
Hurley radios back to let the Others know what happened, but Jack has the walkie, and everyone hears that our heroes are all alive.
Oh, but then there's Charlie. He's been in the Looking Glass getting his ass kicked. The women there radio Ben, who sends Mikhail over. Mikhail seems kind of perturbed since Ben has been doing a lot of lying. Ben swears that he is not lying now, not to Mikhail, and tells him to kill everyone. Mikhail kills the women, but then Desmond pops out of the back - where he'd been hiding after being forced to swim down when Mikhail first arrived at the beach - and shoots Mikhail with a spear gun. Bonnie, the blonde one, stays alive just long enough to inform Charlie that the code to turn off the jamming device is the tune to "Good Vibrations." Um, okay. Kind of corny there, show, but I guess I'll allow it. Charlie taps out the tune and the light goes off. And then... a transmission comes in! And it's Penelope! And she apparently reveals that she didn't send any boat and that she doesn't know anyone named Naomi. (Although the latter part doesn't necessarily seem odd, since didn't Naomi just say that her company was hired?) And then Mikhail shows up outside the porthole with a grenade. Man, that guy is like Michael Myers! Penny catches that Desmond is there, but then Mikhail blows the window, and Charlie shuts the door to conform to Desmond's flashes, even though he probably could have survived easily. Frankly, I'm a little annoyed with the writers on this one - Charlie was kind of an annoying, crap character for most of three seasons, and then he was suddenly made into a great, noble guy, naturally just long enough to kill him off. I actually liked the Charlie of the last two episodes. Oh well, it probably would have been more annoying if they hadn't done it, and it was a poetic ending to that chapter.
Locke is about to kill himself in the pit when Walt appears to him and tells him that his work isn't done. So motivated, Locke climbs out of the pit, and just as Naomi is about to contact her boat, *spluh*, she takes his hunting knife to the back of the head. Locke threatens to shoot Jack, but Jack uses the phone anyway, and Locke - surprise! - can't pull the trigger, despite Ben's exhortations. Ben continues to claim that Jack is making a mistake and everyone will die if the boat is contacted, but Jack does it anyway. The voice on the other end of the phone tells Jack that the boat is on its way.
And then we cut to the final flashback, where we find out that the episode's flashbacks have actually been flash-forwards. (Drew correctly guessed this fairly early on.) Jack, with a big beard, has read about a death in the LA paper. (Freeze-framing tells us it's a man, found downtown, but no more is given.) Jack is about to jump off a bridge when a car crashes behind him. He saves the woman inside and is lauded as a hero, but Jack has gotten hooked on oxycodone and is all kinds of messed up. He keeps calling someone, though we never hear a voice on the other end. He attends the viewing of the person who died, but no one else has shown up. Finally Jack convinces the person on the phone to meet him at the airport. The low harp string of ominous occurrences informs us of their arrival and... it's Kate. Jack has apparently been bothering her quite a bit, and she doesn't like it. She leaves, saying "he'll wonder" where she went, but not before Jack says that they have to go back. They shouldn't have left the island.
Season.
I mean, great episode. First of all, loved the flash-forward. Second of all, loved they ended it in such a way that there are clearly lots of unanswered questions, but not on a ridiculous cliffhanger that would make me spend the next eight months going "Hurry uuuuuup!" I have no idea where they're going next, and that's not a bad thing.
Things we need to know now:
* If Penny didn't send Naomi, who did? And why were they looking for Desmond? The guys in the listening station last year seemed to suggest that they were working for more than one person ("They're gonna kill us!"), even if we only saw them calling Penelope. The Widmore Corporation, maybe?
* Who is this grave threat to the island? Again, Widmore? The Lost Experience, which I believe is considered canon, drew a connection between Widmore and the Hanso Foundation, which is connected with Dharma... Ben describes the threat as greater than any the island has faced in years, and given Ben's history, Dharma was probably that last threat.
* If Locke really believes, as Ben does, that the island needs to be saved from exterior incursions, why does he just walk away? He was "man enough" to kill Naomi.
* Who died off the island? Could it have been Sawyer, or is Kate supposed to be still with him? Locke? (Jack seems to almost feel responsible for the death, and if he was responsible for getting Locke rescued, and Locke ended up back in a wheelchair and killed himself, I can see why Jack would be so messed up.) Are we likely to see more flash-forwards in Season Four?
* Richard doesn't age and Mikhail doesn't die. Reasons? Also, Jacob is still hanging out there.
* Jack keeps talking like his dad is alive, and certainly no one corrects him when he makes the claim at the hospital, where assumedly they would know. Is this a different timeline? Is Jack just delusional?
* What conclusion does future Jack come to that make him realize they shouldn't have left the island?
Okay, I lied: I can't wait for Season 4. Or 5 or 6. But at least we have a lot to chew on between now and then.
Ben allows Alex to tag along, revealing that he knows she betrayed her. (This is due to Bernard the big fat blabbermouth giving up the details of the plan with Jin held at gunpoint.) After Jack thinks his friends are dead, he beats the hell out of Ben, then drags him back, at which point Ben reveals to Alex that Rousseau is her mother.
Sawyer and Juliet head back to the beach, although not before Juliet gives Jack a big ol' smooch that has only been set up for 22 damn episodes. They're not sure what to do when they get there (good bit of banter: Sawyer: "There's only three of them and four guns!" Juliet: "And there's two of us, and no guns."), until Hurley - previous recipient of the double brush-off for being too fat to help anyone - comes flying in with Roger Linus' van. He runs over one Other, a tied-up Sayid breaks another's neck with his feet - Jesus! - and then Sawyer, in the last we see of him, shoots Tom in virtual cold blood after the latter has surrendered, saying, "That's for taking the kid off the boat." Uh, damn, Sawyer! Weren't you all messed up about killing Locke's dad ten minutes ago?
Hurley radios back to let the Others know what happened, but Jack has the walkie, and everyone hears that our heroes are all alive.
Oh, but then there's Charlie. He's been in the Looking Glass getting his ass kicked. The women there radio Ben, who sends Mikhail over. Mikhail seems kind of perturbed since Ben has been doing a lot of lying. Ben swears that he is not lying now, not to Mikhail, and tells him to kill everyone. Mikhail kills the women, but then Desmond pops out of the back - where he'd been hiding after being forced to swim down when Mikhail first arrived at the beach - and shoots Mikhail with a spear gun. Bonnie, the blonde one, stays alive just long enough to inform Charlie that the code to turn off the jamming device is the tune to "Good Vibrations." Um, okay. Kind of corny there, show, but I guess I'll allow it. Charlie taps out the tune and the light goes off. And then... a transmission comes in! And it's Penelope! And she apparently reveals that she didn't send any boat and that she doesn't know anyone named Naomi. (Although the latter part doesn't necessarily seem odd, since didn't Naomi just say that her company was hired?) And then Mikhail shows up outside the porthole with a grenade. Man, that guy is like Michael Myers! Penny catches that Desmond is there, but then Mikhail blows the window, and Charlie shuts the door to conform to Desmond's flashes, even though he probably could have survived easily. Frankly, I'm a little annoyed with the writers on this one - Charlie was kind of an annoying, crap character for most of three seasons, and then he was suddenly made into a great, noble guy, naturally just long enough to kill him off. I actually liked the Charlie of the last two episodes. Oh well, it probably would have been more annoying if they hadn't done it, and it was a poetic ending to that chapter.
Locke is about to kill himself in the pit when Walt appears to him and tells him that his work isn't done. So motivated, Locke climbs out of the pit, and just as Naomi is about to contact her boat, *spluh*, she takes his hunting knife to the back of the head. Locke threatens to shoot Jack, but Jack uses the phone anyway, and Locke - surprise! - can't pull the trigger, despite Ben's exhortations. Ben continues to claim that Jack is making a mistake and everyone will die if the boat is contacted, but Jack does it anyway. The voice on the other end of the phone tells Jack that the boat is on its way.
And then we cut to the final flashback, where we find out that the episode's flashbacks have actually been flash-forwards. (Drew correctly guessed this fairly early on.) Jack, with a big beard, has read about a death in the LA paper. (Freeze-framing tells us it's a man, found downtown, but no more is given.) Jack is about to jump off a bridge when a car crashes behind him. He saves the woman inside and is lauded as a hero, but Jack has gotten hooked on oxycodone and is all kinds of messed up. He keeps calling someone, though we never hear a voice on the other end. He attends the viewing of the person who died, but no one else has shown up. Finally Jack convinces the person on the phone to meet him at the airport. The low harp string of ominous occurrences informs us of their arrival and... it's Kate. Jack has apparently been bothering her quite a bit, and she doesn't like it. She leaves, saying "he'll wonder" where she went, but not before Jack says that they have to go back. They shouldn't have left the island.
Season.
I mean, great episode. First of all, loved the flash-forward. Second of all, loved they ended it in such a way that there are clearly lots of unanswered questions, but not on a ridiculous cliffhanger that would make me spend the next eight months going "Hurry uuuuuup!" I have no idea where they're going next, and that's not a bad thing.
Things we need to know now:
* If Penny didn't send Naomi, who did? And why were they looking for Desmond? The guys in the listening station last year seemed to suggest that they were working for more than one person ("They're gonna kill us!"), even if we only saw them calling Penelope. The Widmore Corporation, maybe?
* Who is this grave threat to the island? Again, Widmore? The Lost Experience, which I believe is considered canon, drew a connection between Widmore and the Hanso Foundation, which is connected with Dharma... Ben describes the threat as greater than any the island has faced in years, and given Ben's history, Dharma was probably that last threat.
* If Locke really believes, as Ben does, that the island needs to be saved from exterior incursions, why does he just walk away? He was "man enough" to kill Naomi.
* Who died off the island? Could it have been Sawyer, or is Kate supposed to be still with him? Locke? (Jack seems to almost feel responsible for the death, and if he was responsible for getting Locke rescued, and Locke ended up back in a wheelchair and killed himself, I can see why Jack would be so messed up.) Are we likely to see more flash-forwards in Season Four?
* Richard doesn't age and Mikhail doesn't die. Reasons? Also, Jacob is still hanging out there.
* Jack keeps talking like his dad is alive, and certainly no one corrects him when he makes the claim at the hospital, where assumedly they would know. Is this a different timeline? Is Jack just delusional?
* What conclusion does future Jack come to that make him realize they shouldn't have left the island?
Okay, I lied: I can't wait for Season 4. Or 5 or 6. But at least we have a lot to chew on between now and then.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
s3e21: Greatest Hits
I'll be honest: for the penultimate episode of Season Three, I was really hoping for more. This was mostly an hour of setup for the finale, and while I can't totally complain - in some ways it's just a three-hour finale split over two nights - I thought we might get a little more. Instead, we got:
* "Here are the exact specifications of Jack's plan!"
* "Here are the exact specifications of Ben's plan!"
* "Here is a Charlie backstory that serves no purpose other than to convince you he's going to die, even though any reasonable person could have realized that they would never kill him off in so obvious a fashion!"
* "Here are ten seconds of significant interest, just to wet your beaks for next week!"
Really, the last ten seconds weren't even that interesting, by this show's standards. They showed us that the Looking Glass is still staffed. Presumably it's staffed by Others; so what does this tell us? Obviously it's likely to be explained in the finale, but I would assume that there's some kind of "Ben has way the crap more contact with the outside world than he's telling anyone" thing coming. The whole show seems to be trending towards a fall for Ben; there's clearly a faction within the Others that is upset with his leadership and it's not just Juliet, regardless of what was implied by her trial early this season. Whether that's what the "everything will change" tagline means, obviously I don't know, but if I had a couple bucks to put down in Vegas I'd lean that way, especially with Jacob looking to Locke for help. (However, Lindelof and Cuse said on last week's official podcast that Jacob was more of a fourth-season story, so my question becomes: are we even likely to see Locke next week? Maybe near the end of the show? I had read something saying that the season finale would involve a clash between Jack and Locke - which makes sense since Locke doesn't want to leave the island - but that seems less likely now, doesn't it? Unless maybe they run into him on the trek to the radio tower...)
I will say that Charlie's Sydney Carton moment was one of the better single moments for the show in the last two years, so at least there was that. Otherwise, though, this was mostly "an hour that's not the finale." I'm looking forward to those two hours, myself. Let's hope it's better than last year's.
* "Here are the exact specifications of Jack's plan!"
* "Here are the exact specifications of Ben's plan!"
* "Here is a Charlie backstory that serves no purpose other than to convince you he's going to die, even though any reasonable person could have realized that they would never kill him off in so obvious a fashion!"
* "Here are ten seconds of significant interest, just to wet your beaks for next week!"
Really, the last ten seconds weren't even that interesting, by this show's standards. They showed us that the Looking Glass is still staffed. Presumably it's staffed by Others; so what does this tell us? Obviously it's likely to be explained in the finale, but I would assume that there's some kind of "Ben has way the crap more contact with the outside world than he's telling anyone" thing coming. The whole show seems to be trending towards a fall for Ben; there's clearly a faction within the Others that is upset with his leadership and it's not just Juliet, regardless of what was implied by her trial early this season. Whether that's what the "everything will change" tagline means, obviously I don't know, but if I had a couple bucks to put down in Vegas I'd lean that way, especially with Jacob looking to Locke for help. (However, Lindelof and Cuse said on last week's official podcast that Jacob was more of a fourth-season story, so my question becomes: are we even likely to see Locke next week? Maybe near the end of the show? I had read something saying that the season finale would involve a clash between Jack and Locke - which makes sense since Locke doesn't want to leave the island - but that seems less likely now, doesn't it? Unless maybe they run into him on the trek to the radio tower...)
I will say that Charlie's Sydney Carton moment was one of the better single moments for the show in the last two years, so at least there was that. Otherwise, though, this was mostly "an hour that's not the finale." I'm looking forward to those two hours, myself. Let's hope it's better than last year's.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
s3e20: The Man Behind the Curtain
Ben flashback! Ben flashback! Ben has not, in fact, lived on the island all his life. He was born right outside of Portland (hmm hmm hmm hmm), killed his mother in childbirth (the writers do love those fakeout openings, where you assume she's on the island, but then no), and then he and his father - Roger, Work Man of Hurley's van fame - went to the island when he was, I don't know, middle-school-aged, because Roger had gotten a job with the Dharma Initiative, which seems pretty darn cultlike. Roger hates the job and takes it out on his son... who runs off into the jungle after seeing his mother. He ends up running into Richard - buh-wha? - who sure doesn't look any worse for thirty years of wear at this point! Later - at an undisclosed time between 12-year-old Ben and 40-something Ben; he's probably supposed to be in his 30s at this point, though - Ben kills his father just as the "hostiles" kill the other Dharma members. And there's Richard again, looking exactly the same 20+ years later.
In current time, Ben is forced to take Locke to see Jacob - sure he is. Ben never does anything he doesn't want to do, so clearly some larger plan is in the offing. Ben takes Locke to a dark cabin in the jungle and presents... an empty chair. And talks to it! Just when Locke has decided that he's seen enough of the Anthony Perkins impression, he hears a strangled "Help me" from behind him. Locke turns on his flashlight, but Jacob the Unfriendly Ghost doesn't take too kindly to "technology" and tears the room apart. Locke later accuses Ben of putting on a show, so Ben fesses up to being dishonest about at least one thing - he wasn't born on the island like he's been saying. To prove it, he shows Locke the mass grave of the Dharma people, and then shoots Locke in the gut. Locke falls into the pit and tells Ben what Jacob said. Ben says he hopes Jacob will help Locke, and leaves.
In the B plot, Sawyer and Sayid reveal Juliet's deception to everyone, just in time for Jack and Juliet to return and explain that, in fact, Juliet has been working with Jack on a way to thwart the Others, not help them. Okay, Jack, you're forgiven for being annoying. For now.
Next week: the Others are coming, and the castaways are ready. I guess. And Desmond tells Charlie he needs to die this time. Which I'm sure means it won't happen, although according to the producers we're still at least 2-3 deaths short of the promised May total.
Because Lost never opens a window without building three more doors in the house and then shutting all of them, this episode left far more questions than it answered. Below, a small stab at some of them:
1. Um, Richard doesn't age?
We've already established that the island seems to have super freaky healing powers, so presumably it can also greatly extend the lifetimes of its inhabitants? Or at least the lifers? But if that's true, who knows how long they've been on the island - remember, there are also weird old ruins all over the place. But if they have these insane long lives, why would they seem so excited just because Locke's legs started working again?
2. Ben's plan for Locke...
What's the deal here? Does he really want Locke out of the way so badly? If so, why go to all the trouble he did? Because he knew his people were interested in Locke and he needed to get him alone? But if he really wants Locke out of the way, presumably he would have finished the job. He didn't.
3. OMG WTF Jacob
Yeah, I don't even know what to tell you here.
In current time, Ben is forced to take Locke to see Jacob - sure he is. Ben never does anything he doesn't want to do, so clearly some larger plan is in the offing. Ben takes Locke to a dark cabin in the jungle and presents... an empty chair. And talks to it! Just when Locke has decided that he's seen enough of the Anthony Perkins impression, he hears a strangled "Help me" from behind him. Locke turns on his flashlight, but Jacob the Unfriendly Ghost doesn't take too kindly to "technology" and tears the room apart. Locke later accuses Ben of putting on a show, so Ben fesses up to being dishonest about at least one thing - he wasn't born on the island like he's been saying. To prove it, he shows Locke the mass grave of the Dharma people, and then shoots Locke in the gut. Locke falls into the pit and tells Ben what Jacob said. Ben says he hopes Jacob will help Locke, and leaves.
In the B plot, Sawyer and Sayid reveal Juliet's deception to everyone, just in time for Jack and Juliet to return and explain that, in fact, Juliet has been working with Jack on a way to thwart the Others, not help them. Okay, Jack, you're forgiven for being annoying. For now.
Next week: the Others are coming, and the castaways are ready. I guess. And Desmond tells Charlie he needs to die this time. Which I'm sure means it won't happen, although according to the producers we're still at least 2-3 deaths short of the promised May total.
Because Lost never opens a window without building three more doors in the house and then shutting all of them, this episode left far more questions than it answered. Below, a small stab at some of them:
1. Um, Richard doesn't age?
We've already established that the island seems to have super freaky healing powers, so presumably it can also greatly extend the lifetimes of its inhabitants? Or at least the lifers? But if that's true, who knows how long they've been on the island - remember, there are also weird old ruins all over the place. But if they have these insane long lives, why would they seem so excited just because Locke's legs started working again?
2. Ben's plan for Locke...
What's the deal here? Does he really want Locke out of the way so badly? If so, why go to all the trouble he did? Because he knew his people were interested in Locke and he needed to get him alone? But if he really wants Locke out of the way, presumably he would have finished the job. He didn't.
3. OMG WTF Jacob
Yeah, I don't even know what to tell you here.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
s3e19: The Brig
Everyone who could not tell from last week's teaser that Locke had his father tied up and not Ben, raise your hands. No one? That's what I thought. Even when this show is being clever, it's sometimes too good (bad?) about telegraphing its next twist. If you can call that a twist.
The twist I did like - Locke's dad is also Sawyer's con-man namesake. I called it before they laid it all out in painstaking detail - "Why yes, I have been to your childhood hometown and used a literary character's name as my pseudonym, why do you ask?" - right when they went to commercial with Sawyer's "Who the hell are you?" Locke's dad is a con-man, he would have something to say that would make Sawyer want to kill him - it worked. I actually liked this twist; it's a nice departure from the characters having inane, tiny background connections that only serve to make people go "Heeeeeyyy..." Not as moving as the Sawyer/Jack's dad bit from the end of Season One, but fitting.
Locke's dad seems to think they're in hell, although as Drew suggested to me, it seems pretty obvious that this is just typical Others-style "go get 'em" activity. Hit by a car from behind and the paramedic smiles at him? Probably Ethan. The B-plot teases otherwise, what with the whole "They found the plane near Bali" thing, but then that doesn't even make sense, since Bali is in the opposite direction from Sydney that LA is. We really don't learn anything new, except that there's some interference preventing the phone from working, apparently. Also, people on this island are not good at keeping secrets, and Jack continues to be kind of an oblivious dick.
Locke's dad is typical Locke's dad asshole guy and Sawyer ends up killing him. Interesting moment for Sawyer there, since the show had spent the better part of a month trying to make him a really great guy. I suppose having him kill a total asshole (and still being sick about it) doesn't necessarily change that, and he already had killed one guy he merely thought was the con man responsible for his parents' murder-suicide anyway, but it's still interesting. I wonder how this might relate to him being a bigger leadership voice in the camp in the last three episodes (see: teaser).
Locke gives Sawyer some anti-Juliet ammo and then takes off, claiming he's not back to join Ben, but then he slings the body of his father on his back, so yeah, he is. (Side note: Rousseau getting dynamite, throwaway moment or daughter-rescuing payoff later on?)
Next time: Jack's still pretty annoying, as he apparently can't believe why no one would trust him for waltzing around with an Other. Everyone remembers how trustworthy Michael was after he came back, Jack! Of course, Sayid and Kate were held captive by the Others too, but they don't want to fuck one like Jack does. Sawyer plays the tape and Jack gets all huffy and Sawyer calls him on his shit. Locke goes back to Ben and sees some stuff, maybe. And there are only three episodes left and I think they're going to be three real motherfuckers. In other news, swearing is fun!
The twist I did like - Locke's dad is also Sawyer's con-man namesake. I called it before they laid it all out in painstaking detail - "Why yes, I have been to your childhood hometown and used a literary character's name as my pseudonym, why do you ask?" - right when they went to commercial with Sawyer's "Who the hell are you?" Locke's dad is a con-man, he would have something to say that would make Sawyer want to kill him - it worked. I actually liked this twist; it's a nice departure from the characters having inane, tiny background connections that only serve to make people go "Heeeeeyyy..." Not as moving as the Sawyer/Jack's dad bit from the end of Season One, but fitting.
Locke's dad seems to think they're in hell, although as Drew suggested to me, it seems pretty obvious that this is just typical Others-style "go get 'em" activity. Hit by a car from behind and the paramedic smiles at him? Probably Ethan. The B-plot teases otherwise, what with the whole "They found the plane near Bali" thing, but then that doesn't even make sense, since Bali is in the opposite direction from Sydney that LA is. We really don't learn anything new, except that there's some interference preventing the phone from working, apparently. Also, people on this island are not good at keeping secrets, and Jack continues to be kind of an oblivious dick.
Locke's dad is typical Locke's dad asshole guy and Sawyer ends up killing him. Interesting moment for Sawyer there, since the show had spent the better part of a month trying to make him a really great guy. I suppose having him kill a total asshole (and still being sick about it) doesn't necessarily change that, and he already had killed one guy he merely thought was the con man responsible for his parents' murder-suicide anyway, but it's still interesting. I wonder how this might relate to him being a bigger leadership voice in the camp in the last three episodes (see: teaser).
Locke gives Sawyer some anti-Juliet ammo and then takes off, claiming he's not back to join Ben, but then he slings the body of his father on his back, so yeah, he is. (Side note: Rousseau getting dynamite, throwaway moment or daughter-rescuing payoff later on?)
Next time: Jack's still pretty annoying, as he apparently can't believe why no one would trust him for waltzing around with an Other. Everyone remembers how trustworthy Michael was after he came back, Jack! Of course, Sayid and Kate were held captive by the Others too, but they don't want to fuck one like Jack does. Sawyer plays the tape and Jack gets all huffy and Sawyer calls him on his shit. Locke goes back to Ben and sees some stuff, maybe. And there are only three episodes left and I think they're going to be three real motherfuckers. In other news, swearing is fun!
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