This was probably the best episode of the season so far. I might be exaggerating a little when I say this next part, but I think there's a chance that it was the best episode of the past two seasons - at the very least it's top five in that time period. What made it so good?
1. Meaningful backstory.
Backstory was beginning to feel like a tired gambit that continued to be included in every episode just for formality's sake, but finding out how Locke ended up in the wheelchair - something I think we've all been waiting to see for two and a half years now - is pretty darn important. It's a shame that the CGI in that scene had to be so terrible, but then TV CGI usually is. The whole thing also told us more about Locke's motivations than the backstories usually do; generally the connection is superficial and evident, like "Check out Jack having no respect for other societies" or "Sayid doesn't want to kill this guy because he learned about mercy" or something. Benry spells out the connection for us at the end - part of the reason Locke doesn't want to go is because his con man father can't find him here - but it still works better than any backstory since Season One.
2. Good one-on-one scenes.
The Jack/Kate scene in the rec room was solid, although Kate's repetition of "What did they do to you?" got a little annoying. Better still were the scenes between Benry and Locke, with excellent acting jobs from both Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson.
3. Great cliffhanger.
How long has it been since we had a really good cliffhanger? Mid-Season 2? Longer? All I know is, Locke's dad being behind the door was pretty awesome.
So, quick recap: Kate, Locke and Sayid find Jack. Kate goes in but Jack tells her to leave because he's being watched; Kate and Sayid get captured. Locke goes to Benry's room because he wants to blow up the submarine. Benry acts like he doesn't want this to happen, but it turns out that he actually does (which Alex tells us ahead of Benry actually admitting it - this is also a parallel to Locke's dad, whose plan, you may recall, was to make Locke think that giving him the kidney was Locke's idea). Locke blows up the submarine, preventing Jack and Juliet from leaving. Jack had made a deal with Benry that Kate and Sayid would be let go as soon as Jack got off the island. Sorry, Kate and Sayid. Backstory Locke is much less pathetic than usual, confronting his father after the son of his father's new mark gets suspicious and asks Locke for a reference. The son turns up dead; Locke's dad claims no part in it but then knocks Locke out a window, breaking his back. Then at the end Benry shows Locke "what came out of the box" that supposedly will give you anything you ask for: Locke's dad, who looks MAJORLY freaked out to see Locke. And I guess that makes sense. Could this explain Jack's dad and the horse as well?
Next week: someone dies, apparently, and it looks like some nasty jungle bug/spider is involved - thanks a lot, show. My guess is that it's someone inconsequential - Nikki, Paulo, someone even more faceless - and not Charlie, much though we all want it to be. And then the teaser acts like Sun kills Sawyer, which we all know won't be what happens.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
s3e12: Par Avion
So, is the new trend to reveal secrets that have already been revealed, only we get to make sure that they're true? If you saw "Two for the Road" (s2e20), you most likely already suspected that Jack's dad was also Claire's dad, so while this episode confirmed it, that can hardly be considered a major surprise. Also, while the backstories can still be interesting, I can't be the only one who thinks that they have far too little to do with the main stories these days. I guess Claire's backstory reveals why she has this wild mood swings from lovey-dovey to histrionic bitch? Maybe? Whatever, I could absolutely not care less about the Claire/Charlie plot.
I do still wonder if Jack's dad isn't dead. He's just connected in so much in the past - also, if he is dead, then the fact that he's Claire's father really doesn't mean anything, and is just kind of a dopey connection on the part of the writers. Since Claire never gets his name, it's hard to imagine how she and Jack could find out about this - I guess the Others could tell them, since they probably know in that way of theirs, but why would they feel a need to? It's too bad, because when the connections are done right they can be great. The moment late in Season One when Sawyer tells Jack about meeting his dad was, for my money, the single best moment of the entire series. I'm not kidding.
In the much, much more interesting plot, Locke is becoming kind of a shady character, leading up to next week. He "unintentionally" kills Mikhail by tossing him through the "fence," and then it turns out he took some C-4 from the house, not long after claiming he didn't know that it was there. They all climb over the fence, and then freak out because Jack appears to be playing football and having a grand old time in St. Othersburg. The spike of the ball right at the end made me chuckle.
Next week: a mystery worth knowing the answer to! We finally find out how Locke got paralyzed (at a guess, his dad was involved somehow), and then apparently he has some sort of score to settle with Ben, or wants to know the answer to something, or something. We're on kind of a roll right now - tonight's episode wasn't great mostly because it was a Claire/Charlie episode first and foremost, but the rest of it wasn't bad at all and as Claire/Charlie episodes go, it was fine, I guess. I think next week's episode could be one of the best in a while, although it does mean the return of the most pathetic character in TV history, Backstory Locke. We'll see.
I do still wonder if Jack's dad isn't dead. He's just connected in so much in the past - also, if he is dead, then the fact that he's Claire's father really doesn't mean anything, and is just kind of a dopey connection on the part of the writers. Since Claire never gets his name, it's hard to imagine how she and Jack could find out about this - I guess the Others could tell them, since they probably know in that way of theirs, but why would they feel a need to? It's too bad, because when the connections are done right they can be great. The moment late in Season One when Sawyer tells Jack about meeting his dad was, for my money, the single best moment of the entire series. I'm not kidding.
In the much, much more interesting plot, Locke is becoming kind of a shady character, leading up to next week. He "unintentionally" kills Mikhail by tossing him through the "fence," and then it turns out he took some C-4 from the house, not long after claiming he didn't know that it was there. They all climb over the fence, and then freak out because Jack appears to be playing football and having a grand old time in St. Othersburg. The spike of the ball right at the end made me chuckle.
Next week: a mystery worth knowing the answer to! We finally find out how Locke got paralyzed (at a guess, his dad was involved somehow), and then apparently he has some sort of score to settle with Ben, or wants to know the answer to something, or something. We're on kind of a roll right now - tonight's episode wasn't great mostly because it was a Claire/Charlie episode first and foremost, but the rest of it wasn't bad at all and as Claire/Charlie episodes go, it was fine, I guess. I think next week's episode could be one of the best in a while, although it does mean the return of the most pathetic character in TV history, Backstory Locke. We'll see.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
s3e11: Enter 77
All right, an episode that manages to be good without being wacky! Okay, so the "Sawyer gets his ass kicked by Hurley at ping-pong" subplot was wacky, in addition to completely predictable (Sawyer gets his bravado tossed back in his face? No way!), but at least they hustled through it. As did Hurley (see what I did there?).
As usual, Sayid for some reason knows everything. Maybe it's supposed to be the difference between Locke, who seems to think that a few adventure courses make him an expert, and Sayid, who was in the military and actually is an expert. Yet the show has certainly made Locke plenty of a bad-ass at various points in the past. Not so much this one, though.
Sayid, Locke, Kate and Rousseau stumble onto a house while following Locke's compass bearing. Rousseau huffs off, in keeping with her namesake's belief that man's natural goodness is corrupted by contact with others. Oh, Lost, you are so deep. (Little known fact: Anglo-Irish statesman/philosopher Edmund Burke died on July 9, 1797, of injuries sustained after wandering into the street during a conversation with his ex-wife and being run over by a carriage.) Sayid goes up to the house and gets shot for his troubles.
Turns out the guy in the house is Mikhail, the last surviving member of the Dharma Initiative. Just kidding! He's an Other. And the woman who let Hurley go, Bea/Miss Clue/Klugh/whatever, is hiding in his basement, after having recently ridden a horse there. Sayid, of course, knows all this. After a bunch of fights, Mikhail shoots the fluent-in-Russian Bea at her apparent request. Locke beats a computer chess game and gets access to Dr. Marvin Candle (or whatever his name really is), but is unable to use the satellite dish or sonar, so instead he blows up the house by accident. Jesus Christ, Locke, what did you think was going to happen if you said there'd been an incursion by the Hostiles? Superman would swoop in and save everyone? Stop pressing things! Sayid gives Locke an absolutely withering look for his bad judgment and our heroes troop off into the night. Strong work by Naveen Andrews in this one; no wonder he's getting annoyed at his lack of face time.
Meanwhile, Sayid continues to have some of the most interesting backstory, although an entire episode's worth is spent to set up a single decision by Sayid at the end of the episode - not to kill Mikhail - and then the teaser suggests that it's all a moot point next week, as the group stumbles upon yet another weird-ass thing we've never seen before. It would be nice to know what the Others are hiding such that they constantly seem to feel a need to take it to the grave with them, but clearly this is asking way too much. That's more a Season 5 thing, don't you think?
As usual, Sayid for some reason knows everything. Maybe it's supposed to be the difference between Locke, who seems to think that a few adventure courses make him an expert, and Sayid, who was in the military and actually is an expert. Yet the show has certainly made Locke plenty of a bad-ass at various points in the past. Not so much this one, though.
Sayid, Locke, Kate and Rousseau stumble onto a house while following Locke's compass bearing. Rousseau huffs off, in keeping with her namesake's belief that man's natural goodness is corrupted by contact with others. Oh, Lost, you are so deep. (Little known fact: Anglo-Irish statesman/philosopher Edmund Burke died on July 9, 1797, of injuries sustained after wandering into the street during a conversation with his ex-wife and being run over by a carriage.) Sayid goes up to the house and gets shot for his troubles.
Turns out the guy in the house is Mikhail, the last surviving member of the Dharma Initiative. Just kidding! He's an Other. And the woman who let Hurley go, Bea/Miss Clue/Klugh/whatever, is hiding in his basement, after having recently ridden a horse there. Sayid, of course, knows all this. After a bunch of fights, Mikhail shoots the fluent-in-Russian Bea at her apparent request. Locke beats a computer chess game and gets access to Dr. Marvin Candle (or whatever his name really is), but is unable to use the satellite dish or sonar, so instead he blows up the house by accident. Jesus Christ, Locke, what did you think was going to happen if you said there'd been an incursion by the Hostiles? Superman would swoop in and save everyone? Stop pressing things! Sayid gives Locke an absolutely withering look for his bad judgment and our heroes troop off into the night. Strong work by Naveen Andrews in this one; no wonder he's getting annoyed at his lack of face time.
Meanwhile, Sayid continues to have some of the most interesting backstory, although an entire episode's worth is spent to set up a single decision by Sayid at the end of the episode - not to kill Mikhail - and then the teaser suggests that it's all a moot point next week, as the group stumbles upon yet another weird-ass thing we've never seen before. It would be nice to know what the Others are hiding such that they constantly seem to feel a need to take it to the grave with them, but clearly this is asking way too much. That's more a Season 5 thing, don't you think?
s3e10: Tricia Tanaka is Dead
If February sweeps are over, that means it must be time for a wacky midseason episode that's generally fun but tells us nothing. And how better to do that than with a Hurley plot? Hurley finds a car and wants to drive it, and spends the episode bouncing between flashbacks that would make Steven Spielberg proud with their daddy issues and trying to convince Jin, Sawyer and Charlie to help him get the car working. At the end of the episode, they do, and Hurley does some donuts in a field. It was a pleasant episode, and I know not every episode is going to give you many answers, but it seems like this show has left far too many strings hanging to dick around like this, even in midseason. In the first season, when there were fewer questions, character episodes were great. Now they just feel annoying, even when they're good. Aside from the reunion scene, the coda, and the few fleeting references in the middle, this really did feel more like a first-season episode - not that there's anything wrong with that. The first season feels more all the time like the only classic season this show is going to end up generating - it's still interesting from week to week, don't get me wrong, but it's just not the same.
In the only part of the episode that's even remotely relevant to anything else, Kate goes off to find Rousseau (predictable from the moment she strode into the jungle, as if she was going to be off to hunt Cap'n Eyepatch). Rousseau proves just as surly as ever, but mellows out when Kate reveals the "surprise" that the Alex we've been seeing with the Others is the same Alex who's Rousseau's daughter. Oh, really? Thanks for putting that at the end of an episode like it's a shocking cliffhanger, show. I'm more than a little tired of the only mysteries getting answered being the ones that everyone had already guessed the answer to anyway.
The upcoming episode at least looks interesting, but I bet it asks more questions than it answers. Why shouldn't it?
In the only part of the episode that's even remotely relevant to anything else, Kate goes off to find Rousseau (predictable from the moment she strode into the jungle, as if she was going to be off to hunt Cap'n Eyepatch). Rousseau proves just as surly as ever, but mellows out when Kate reveals the "surprise" that the Alex we've been seeing with the Others is the same Alex who's Rousseau's daughter. Oh, really? Thanks for putting that at the end of an episode like it's a shocking cliffhanger, show. I'm more than a little tired of the only mysteries getting answered being the ones that everyone had already guessed the answer to anyway.
The upcoming episode at least looks interesting, but I bet it asks more questions than it answers. Why shouldn't it?
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
s3e09: Stranger in a Strange Land
I really should know better by now than to let the ABC promotions department jerk me around every single time. Of course they're going to say that the next episode features can't-miss surprises! That said, "three of Lost's biggest mysteries will be answered" is just blatant false advertising. Unless the mysteries were as follows:
1. What happened to the people the Others took?
I'm not sure this would rank in my top three questions, but I guess it was something. We still don't really know what happened, per se, just that they're alive and evidently still kicking it on the island (or rather, the second island).
2. Do the Others live on the island?
I had thought this was already reasonably well implied, although the shots of St. Othersburg that led off this season suggested otherwise. Of course, if they don't live on the island as Isabel suggests, doesn't that make St. Othersburg a gaping plot hole? Or is that just where they live when they're on the island? Whatever. We still don't know where they do live, except that it can't be that far away since that's clearly not a seaworthy boat. I don't consider an answer that vague to be an answer.
3. How much more shitty backstory can we get?
This one was definitely answered: a lot! Seriously, though, I can't think of a third thing that was answered and the backstory was asinine. Was it supposed to be showing that Jack doesn't have the appropriate respect for other groups of people? Because I think we could have guessed that. Oh, and his tattoo, conveniently, contains a message that describes both his place in Thailand and his place with the Others! Oh, how droll. Come on, Lost - no one considers "what does Jack's tattoo mean" to be a mystery of the show at all, let alone one of the biggest ones.
In other plot "developments" (ha!), Sawyer and Kate snipe at each other and Sawyer encourages Carl to go back for Alex. Which he maybe does and maybe doesn't. Juliet is being investigated for killing Pickett and trying to kill Benry. Benry's stitches are infected, and Jack decides to play his buddy, apparently to make sure he (and Juliet) can get off the island as Benry suggested. And Backstory Jack rightfully gets the crap kicked out of him by a bunch of Thai guys.
I wouldn't go so far as to say this was the worst episode of the season, but it was certainly the worst of the "nonstop season" so far, though that's only out of three, of course. It just didn't tell us much of anything, after promising it would. That's been kind of the constant letdown with this show - even most of the answers are only kind of half-answers, and that's when they come at all.
Sigh. And now that February sweeps are over, I suppose we're looking at a lot of water-treading over the next 13 episodes. Cool.
1. What happened to the people the Others took?
I'm not sure this would rank in my top three questions, but I guess it was something. We still don't really know what happened, per se, just that they're alive and evidently still kicking it on the island (or rather, the second island).
2. Do the Others live on the island?
I had thought this was already reasonably well implied, although the shots of St. Othersburg that led off this season suggested otherwise. Of course, if they don't live on the island as Isabel suggests, doesn't that make St. Othersburg a gaping plot hole? Or is that just where they live when they're on the island? Whatever. We still don't know where they do live, except that it can't be that far away since that's clearly not a seaworthy boat. I don't consider an answer that vague to be an answer.
3. How much more shitty backstory can we get?
This one was definitely answered: a lot! Seriously, though, I can't think of a third thing that was answered and the backstory was asinine. Was it supposed to be showing that Jack doesn't have the appropriate respect for other groups of people? Because I think we could have guessed that. Oh, and his tattoo, conveniently, contains a message that describes both his place in Thailand and his place with the Others! Oh, how droll. Come on, Lost - no one considers "what does Jack's tattoo mean" to be a mystery of the show at all, let alone one of the biggest ones.
In other plot "developments" (ha!), Sawyer and Kate snipe at each other and Sawyer encourages Carl to go back for Alex. Which he maybe does and maybe doesn't. Juliet is being investigated for killing Pickett and trying to kill Benry. Benry's stitches are infected, and Jack decides to play his buddy, apparently to make sure he (and Juliet) can get off the island as Benry suggested. And Backstory Jack rightfully gets the crap kicked out of him by a bunch of Thai guys.
I wouldn't go so far as to say this was the worst episode of the season, but it was certainly the worst of the "nonstop season" so far, though that's only out of three, of course. It just didn't tell us much of anything, after promising it would. That's been kind of the constant letdown with this show - even most of the answers are only kind of half-answers, and that's when they come at all.
Sigh. And now that February sweeps are over, I suppose we're looking at a lot of water-treading over the next 13 episodes. Cool.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
s3e08: Flashes Before Your Eyes
Because this show now has more characters than it knows what to do with, prepare to completely ignore Jack, Kate and Sawyer for an episode. Oh, but we get to see Locke and Sayid!... just kidding. They're immediately out of the picture as Desmond runs off to the ocean to rescue a drowning Claire, just after Charlie and Hurley (apparently camp bellwethers) are informed of Eko's death.
Charlie earns - sorry, reaffirms - my eternal hatred by flouncing about as Desmond performs CPR, and then having the sheer balls to say "Charlie's here!" as she comes to. Dude, I know she kissed you (for still no reason I can see) in the last season finale, but you are not Claire's husband. Or even boyfriend, really. Maybe she would like you more if you weren't such an overpossessive twit. Case in point: a couple minutes later when Claire sits down next to Desmond - the guy who just saved her life - for about three seconds, and then Charlie huffs over all, "Where have you been? Aaron's starving." I know, TV time and all that, but come on. She just sat down. Back the fuck up, guy.
Charlie and Hurley are suspicious of Desmond's talent for knowing that things will happen, so they get him drunk and then Charlie - ever with a Napoleon complex - bullies Desmond until the latter tackles him. "You don't want to know what happened to me!" Desmond yells, and then we see what happened.
And honestly, I'm not entirely sure what it was. My leading theory would be that Desmond got a very realistic life-flashing-before-eyes moment, but what was with the old lady who wanted to make sure that things happened the same way? If it was just a flashback and she was in fact a sort of conscience figure, why would it matter if he tried to do things differently, really? He already turned the key. If he was actually traveling through time (or leapt Sam Beckett-style into his own body, whatever), why does a hit from a cricket bat send him directly back to the island? More importantly, wasn't someone claiming recently that the show really wasn't very (or at all) supernatural? And yet here we have either time travel or seeing the future, and there's no real way around it. If Desmond knows the future because he's already lived through this timeline - although that makes no sense since turning the key sent him back before he got to this point - then it's time travel, and that's supernatural. If he knows the future because he keeps getting flashes of it, as he states, then that's obviously supernatural. Either way, I think we have our first confirmed plotline that science cannot possibly explain away, although I think most people would tell you that the show was firmly in the realm of the supernatural long before this point.
The point of all this runaround is that what Desmond keeps seeing is Charlie's future, and Charlie keeps dying, so Desmond's been saving him, but he knows he can't do it forever, and predicts that Charlie is going to die. Hooray! The universe hates Charlie as much as I do! Desmond, quit getting in the universe's way!
In miscellaneous plot news, man, Mr. Widmore is an asshole. That whiskey may be expensive but I doubt a single swallow is worth more than Desmond. Think about what you could get for his kidneys alone on the organ black market! Also, apparently the English pub crowd really loves them some Cass Elliott. And why is the angry guy with the cricket bat there immediately as the game ends? Did the bartender promise him the money would show up magically in his wallet if the team won?
Next week: Forget any of this ever happened, it's back to the Jack plot. Where he had the upper hand a week ago, apparently now he's just another prisoner, and the previously taken castaways are "here to watch," whatever that means. The tease promises answers to "three of Lost's biggest mysteries," which, yeah, I'll believe that when I see it.
Charlie earns - sorry, reaffirms - my eternal hatred by flouncing about as Desmond performs CPR, and then having the sheer balls to say "Charlie's here!" as she comes to. Dude, I know she kissed you (for still no reason I can see) in the last season finale, but you are not Claire's husband. Or even boyfriend, really. Maybe she would like you more if you weren't such an overpossessive twit. Case in point: a couple minutes later when Claire sits down next to Desmond - the guy who just saved her life - for about three seconds, and then Charlie huffs over all, "Where have you been? Aaron's starving." I know, TV time and all that, but come on. She just sat down. Back the fuck up, guy.
Charlie and Hurley are suspicious of Desmond's talent for knowing that things will happen, so they get him drunk and then Charlie - ever with a Napoleon complex - bullies Desmond until the latter tackles him. "You don't want to know what happened to me!" Desmond yells, and then we see what happened.
And honestly, I'm not entirely sure what it was. My leading theory would be that Desmond got a very realistic life-flashing-before-eyes moment, but what was with the old lady who wanted to make sure that things happened the same way? If it was just a flashback and she was in fact a sort of conscience figure, why would it matter if he tried to do things differently, really? He already turned the key. If he was actually traveling through time (or leapt Sam Beckett-style into his own body, whatever), why does a hit from a cricket bat send him directly back to the island? More importantly, wasn't someone claiming recently that the show really wasn't very (or at all) supernatural? And yet here we have either time travel or seeing the future, and there's no real way around it. If Desmond knows the future because he's already lived through this timeline - although that makes no sense since turning the key sent him back before he got to this point - then it's time travel, and that's supernatural. If he knows the future because he keeps getting flashes of it, as he states, then that's obviously supernatural. Either way, I think we have our first confirmed plotline that science cannot possibly explain away, although I think most people would tell you that the show was firmly in the realm of the supernatural long before this point.
The point of all this runaround is that what Desmond keeps seeing is Charlie's future, and Charlie keeps dying, so Desmond's been saving him, but he knows he can't do it forever, and predicts that Charlie is going to die. Hooray! The universe hates Charlie as much as I do! Desmond, quit getting in the universe's way!
In miscellaneous plot news, man, Mr. Widmore is an asshole. That whiskey may be expensive but I doubt a single swallow is worth more than Desmond. Think about what you could get for his kidneys alone on the organ black market! Also, apparently the English pub crowd really loves them some Cass Elliott. And why is the angry guy with the cricket bat there immediately as the game ends? Did the bartender promise him the money would show up magically in his wallet if the team won?
Next week: Forget any of this ever happened, it's back to the Jack plot. Where he had the upper hand a week ago, apparently now he's just another prisoner, and the previously taken castaways are "here to watch," whatever that means. The tease promises answers to "three of Lost's biggest mysteries," which, yeah, I'll believe that when I see it.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
s3e07: Not in Portland
After the lame episode that was "I Do," and the massive hiatus that followed, it's about time we got a pretty good episode that didn't rely on jerk-you-around twists to be interesting. I'm not even sure when the last one of those was, frankly; mid-first season?
The flashback centers on Juliet, who it turns out has not been on the island that long. She used to work as a medical researcher in Miami, and then Dharma (I would assume) got wind of what she was doing (Ethan apparently was in town checking her out) and invited her to Portland. And then they were all, "Well, not quite Portland. More like, Mysterious Island Somewhere in the Pacific." This episode's title is one of the most accurate ever, since nothing in it takes place within 3,000 miles of Portland.
Jack continues to huff and puff around the operating room. Juliet calls his bluff about letting Benry Gale die - Jack, these people have reams of research on you! You don't think they know how much you hate when your patients die? - then orders Pickett to chase down the escaped Kate and Sawyer. And then Benry talks to her and she does the opposite - just as we hit the inevitable Pickett/Sawyer showdown, Juliet shows up and blows Pickett away. Which was utterly predictable because you knew one of those two had to die and it wasn't going to be Sawyer. In other Others news, Alex is all rebellious again and Kate and Sawyer help her pull her gomer boyfriend out of some weird torture device out of A Clockwork Orange. Also, Tom reveals himself to be kind of a puss.
Questions:
1) Why is Benry suddenly cool with letting Kate and Sawyer go? Is he worried that Jack really would let him die if he didn't? For that matter, why is he suddenly cool with letting Juliet go? (Assuming that he's actually cool with it, of course.) And why does letting her go depend on her letting other people go? Has Benry had a change of heart and suddenly thinks everyone should fly the coop? Too many episodes left for that, methinks.
2) So Benry is Alex's dad. Do we think this is literal Dad? As in, getting it on with Rousseau? I'm unconvinced. If Benry has lived on the island his whole life, as he told Jack, then either (a) Rousseau has told a whole bunch of lies about her past or (b) Alex was brainwashed as a youth into thinking Benry was her father. If (b) is the case, why is she so rebellious now? I had thought that much of her behavior was predicated on knowing that she was kidnapped as a child, but now I'm not sure.
If he's her literal dad, this opens up many many cans of worms. For example, recall from s2e14 that Rousseau captured Benry and brought him to Jack and co. Well, if Rousseau and Benry know each other... sort of a problem, yes? And that doesn't really reconcile with Rousseau saving Claire from the Others. I don't think this is the way they'll go, but who ever knows with this show?
Jack stitching Benry up thanks to Kate's tearful recollection of his story from the pilot was probably the best moment of the season so far. There, I said it. Let's hope for more of those in the remaining 15 weeks.
The flashback centers on Juliet, who it turns out has not been on the island that long. She used to work as a medical researcher in Miami, and then Dharma (I would assume) got wind of what she was doing (Ethan apparently was in town checking her out) and invited her to Portland. And then they were all, "Well, not quite Portland. More like, Mysterious Island Somewhere in the Pacific." This episode's title is one of the most accurate ever, since nothing in it takes place within 3,000 miles of Portland.
Jack continues to huff and puff around the operating room. Juliet calls his bluff about letting Benry Gale die - Jack, these people have reams of research on you! You don't think they know how much you hate when your patients die? - then orders Pickett to chase down the escaped Kate and Sawyer. And then Benry talks to her and she does the opposite - just as we hit the inevitable Pickett/Sawyer showdown, Juliet shows up and blows Pickett away. Which was utterly predictable because you knew one of those two had to die and it wasn't going to be Sawyer. In other Others news, Alex is all rebellious again and Kate and Sawyer help her pull her gomer boyfriend out of some weird torture device out of A Clockwork Orange. Also, Tom reveals himself to be kind of a puss.
Questions:
1) Why is Benry suddenly cool with letting Kate and Sawyer go? Is he worried that Jack really would let him die if he didn't? For that matter, why is he suddenly cool with letting Juliet go? (Assuming that he's actually cool with it, of course.) And why does letting her go depend on her letting other people go? Has Benry had a change of heart and suddenly thinks everyone should fly the coop? Too many episodes left for that, methinks.
2) So Benry is Alex's dad. Do we think this is literal Dad? As in, getting it on with Rousseau? I'm unconvinced. If Benry has lived on the island his whole life, as he told Jack, then either (a) Rousseau has told a whole bunch of lies about her past or (b) Alex was brainwashed as a youth into thinking Benry was her father. If (b) is the case, why is she so rebellious now? I had thought that much of her behavior was predicated on knowing that she was kidnapped as a child, but now I'm not sure.
If he's her literal dad, this opens up many many cans of worms. For example, recall from s2e14 that Rousseau captured Benry and brought him to Jack and co. Well, if Rousseau and Benry know each other... sort of a problem, yes? And that doesn't really reconcile with Rousseau saving Claire from the Others. I don't think this is the way they'll go, but who ever knows with this show?
Jack stitching Benry up thanks to Kate's tearful recollection of his story from the pilot was probably the best moment of the season so far. There, I said it. Let's hope for more of those in the remaining 15 weeks.
Friday, November 24, 2006
s3e06: I Do
The Attack of the Pointless Backstory continues. Seriously, this gimmick was fun while it lasted, but can we please just admit that it's no longer adding anything to the story? I almost feel like they're only keeping it in just in case the show picks up new viewers and they aren't yet aware that Kate is a fugitive. Nothing else could possibly account for the inclusion of such a lame-ass backstory. I guess it tells us that even when Kate was happy, she couldn't stop running, and now that she isn't running anymore, she can feel free to get it on with Sawyer and not be all scared that her past will catch up with her. But who the hell couldn't have inferred that from oh, I don't know, the entire rest of the series?
Meanwhile, Pickett really wants to kill Sawyer, which continues to annoy me because dude. You totally brough this on yourself. Trace the chain of events back to the beginning: Others kidnap Sawyer (and Jack and Kate); Sayid, Jin, and Sun give chase; Others raid boat; Sun shoots Colleen. Other than that, Sawyer played absolutely no part in it. So you'll forgive me if I'm not quite buying "this is for Colleen." Not that I think the character is supposed to be sympathetic, but jeez. Annoying. It's almost like a token gesture - why doesn't he chase down the person who actually did it? "No, this is easier. And he's one of them so it's basically the same thing." Wuss.
In plot two, Jack uses his doctor skills to hold the Others hostage by inflicting a wound on Ben that will kill him in an hour if Jack doesn't fix it. I wonder just how many of them wanted Ben out of the way, considering the scrambled response to Jack's actions. Then Jack tells Kate to run and that's the episode. Considering we've got three months before the next one, I was expecting a little more of a cliffhanger.
In the barely-touch-on plot three, Eko is buried. Locke sees a line of scripture on Eko's prayer stick that says to look north, and gets that first-season glint back in his eye.
Next time on Lost: well, a whole bunch of stuff, because in three months we get sixteen straight episodes. Question: do you prefer this way, or if they'd gone the way of 24 and just started in January? Two hiatuses is a little annoying.
Meanwhile, Pickett really wants to kill Sawyer, which continues to annoy me because dude. You totally brough this on yourself. Trace the chain of events back to the beginning: Others kidnap Sawyer (and Jack and Kate); Sayid, Jin, and Sun give chase; Others raid boat; Sun shoots Colleen. Other than that, Sawyer played absolutely no part in it. So you'll forgive me if I'm not quite buying "this is for Colleen." Not that I think the character is supposed to be sympathetic, but jeez. Annoying. It's almost like a token gesture - why doesn't he chase down the person who actually did it? "No, this is easier. And he's one of them so it's basically the same thing." Wuss.
In plot two, Jack uses his doctor skills to hold the Others hostage by inflicting a wound on Ben that will kill him in an hour if Jack doesn't fix it. I wonder just how many of them wanted Ben out of the way, considering the scrambled response to Jack's actions. Then Jack tells Kate to run and that's the episode. Considering we've got three months before the next one, I was expecting a little more of a cliffhanger.
In the barely-touch-on plot three, Eko is buried. Locke sees a line of scripture on Eko's prayer stick that says to look north, and gets that first-season glint back in his eye.
Next time on Lost: well, a whole bunch of stuff, because in three months we get sixteen straight episodes. Question: do you prefer this way, or if they'd gone the way of 24 and just started in January? Two hiatuses is a little annoying.
Friday, November 03, 2006
s3e05: The Cost of Living
Maybe it's just me, but I think this episode title is a veiled reference to the moving-violation arrests that preceded the deaths of Ana Lucia, Libby, and now Mistereko. It's like Abrams, Lindelof and Cuse saying to the actors, "You want your character to keep living? Don't do anything off the set that might land you in trouble. No drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car. That's the cost of living, my friends." I guess it actually refers to the "vaccines-for-protection" arrangement from the Eko flashback (by the way, can we officially get suspicious of any future flashback that doesn't feature Jack, Kate, or Sawyer yet? We're now 3-for-3 on characters getting flashback episodes right before dying, with Libby being the only counterexample, but she was also the least fleshed out of the characters to go), but still.
Back in St. Othersburg, Jack tells Benry Gale he knows about the tumor. Benry stonewalls him, but later not only confesses that he has a tumor, but suggests that the entire thing has been a plot to get Jack to do the surgery, as he reveals that he found out about his tumor two days before the plane crash. Benry was trying to set up a scenario to condition Jack to like him and want to do the surgery. And clearly, locking him in a room is the best way to do that. It's revealed that Juliet was chosen to be Jack's minder specifically because she "bears a striking resemblance to [Jack's] ex-wife." A striking yet superficial resemblance? I suppose I can see it a little bit, but then they really had a limited selection, right? Even if she looked nothing like Sarah, she probably would still have done it just because she was blond and a woman. At the end of the episode, Juliet reveals via super-secret video that she and possibly some others in the group (other Others? Ba-dum-pssh!) would like nothing more than for Jack to "accidentally," wink-wink, kill Benry Gale during the surgery. Coup-d'e-freakin'-tat!
Meanwhile, Eko has visions of his brother and wanders into the jungle. Locke, Sayid, Desmond, and a couple of contract players head for the Pearl, so they all end up in the same place. Eko's brother's body has vanished from the plane, and then Eko is seeing very tangible visions of him. In the backstory, we find out that Eko killed some gangsters while posing as a priest, and that the building of the church he was doing was based on something a woman told him, that because he had defiled his brother's church by committing murder inside, he "owe[d] him a church." Why he thought that project was worth abandoning to push the button is never really explained, and now it won't be because after his brother's vision apparently reveals itself as some sort of shape-shifting demon (I have no idea either), the black smoke shows up big-time, forms into a hand, flings Eko around, and EKO FUCKING DIES.
I thought Naveen Andrews was being a bit whiny last year when Shannon was killed off and he huffed about how he thought characters were being killed for no reason, but it seems like we're going that way. What purpose did killing Eko serve? How are we going to learn more about the questions that were raised in this episode? I can't say it makes a ton of sense to me. And he was one of the best characters in the show! Can't they just kill the completely useless Charlie already? Seriously, please. If he makes it to the end of the run while all these other interesting characters get slapped aside, the finale better include a scene of the black smoke wearing headphones and rocking out to a Driveshaft CD.
Oh, and there's some eyepatch-wearing guy in another hatch, although which one or where it is, we don't know. That's the sort of tantalizing clue that's just interesting enough not to be answered for another year and a half. This was at least a pretty well-done episode overall, but it ended with a couple of the most frustrating aspects of the show.
Next week: the fall season finale already. If they have sixteen more episodes to run after this, and they're going to run them in sixteen straight weeks like I heard, that's cool, but on the other hand it means no more Lost until what, late January? Early February? Bring it back for February sweeps and run it straight through May sweeps? That's a long break, even if it means no interruptions for most of the season - I already waited four months for the third season to start, and now after wetting my beak, I have to wait another almost three months for the rest of it? Oof. Anyway, the teaser promises the best episode of the year so far (I'll believe it when I see it). At the very least it'll probably have the best cliffhanger, no? It also has Sawyer's life apparently in danger yet again, a plot involving Benry's tumor, and Kate flashbacks.
Back in St. Othersburg, Jack tells Benry Gale he knows about the tumor. Benry stonewalls him, but later not only confesses that he has a tumor, but suggests that the entire thing has been a plot to get Jack to do the surgery, as he reveals that he found out about his tumor two days before the plane crash. Benry was trying to set up a scenario to condition Jack to like him and want to do the surgery. And clearly, locking him in a room is the best way to do that. It's revealed that Juliet was chosen to be Jack's minder specifically because she "bears a striking resemblance to [Jack's] ex-wife." A striking yet superficial resemblance? I suppose I can see it a little bit, but then they really had a limited selection, right? Even if she looked nothing like Sarah, she probably would still have done it just because she was blond and a woman. At the end of the episode, Juliet reveals via super-secret video that she and possibly some others in the group (other Others? Ba-dum-pssh!) would like nothing more than for Jack to "accidentally," wink-wink, kill Benry Gale during the surgery. Coup-d'e-freakin'-tat!
Meanwhile, Eko has visions of his brother and wanders into the jungle. Locke, Sayid, Desmond, and a couple of contract players head for the Pearl, so they all end up in the same place. Eko's brother's body has vanished from the plane, and then Eko is seeing very tangible visions of him. In the backstory, we find out that Eko killed some gangsters while posing as a priest, and that the building of the church he was doing was based on something a woman told him, that because he had defiled his brother's church by committing murder inside, he "owe[d] him a church." Why he thought that project was worth abandoning to push the button is never really explained, and now it won't be because after his brother's vision apparently reveals itself as some sort of shape-shifting demon (I have no idea either), the black smoke shows up big-time, forms into a hand, flings Eko around, and EKO FUCKING DIES.
I thought Naveen Andrews was being a bit whiny last year when Shannon was killed off and he huffed about how he thought characters were being killed for no reason, but it seems like we're going that way. What purpose did killing Eko serve? How are we going to learn more about the questions that were raised in this episode? I can't say it makes a ton of sense to me. And he was one of the best characters in the show! Can't they just kill the completely useless Charlie already? Seriously, please. If he makes it to the end of the run while all these other interesting characters get slapped aside, the finale better include a scene of the black smoke wearing headphones and rocking out to a Driveshaft CD.
Oh, and there's some eyepatch-wearing guy in another hatch, although which one or where it is, we don't know. That's the sort of tantalizing clue that's just interesting enough not to be answered for another year and a half. This was at least a pretty well-done episode overall, but it ended with a couple of the most frustrating aspects of the show.
Next week: the fall season finale already. If they have sixteen more episodes to run after this, and they're going to run them in sixteen straight weeks like I heard, that's cool, but on the other hand it means no more Lost until what, late January? Early February? Bring it back for February sweeps and run it straight through May sweeps? That's a long break, even if it means no interruptions for most of the season - I already waited four months for the third season to start, and now after wetting my beak, I have to wait another almost three months for the rest of it? Oof. Anyway, the teaser promises the best episode of the year so far (I'll believe it when I see it). At the very least it'll probably have the best cliffhanger, no? It also has Sawyer's life apparently in danger yet again, a plot involving Benry's tumor, and Kate flashbacks.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
s3e04: Every Man for Himself
Operation Humanize the Others begins, as Juliet drags Jack in to save the woman Sun shot, but he can't, so her husband goes berserk and beats the crap out of Sawyer for having a Sun Number of 1. Kate says she loves Sawyer to get him to stop, but later goes back on it - the Sawyer/Kate dance is getting a little ridiculous at this point, isn't it? Just get them together already. Pretending Jack is part of the love triangle isn't fooling anyone.
Jack seems eager enough to play doctor, perhaps just hoping for a return to a sort of normalcy. Then he displays his awesome doctor powers by diagnosing Benry Gale from a single set of X-rays (next week: special guest star Bill Frist!). Benry Gale has a spinal tumor, and Jack is a spinal surgeon, hmm hmm hmm hmm. The question is why they're jerking him around so much first. Wouldn't you want to placate the guy a little bit before you let him operate on your leader? (For the record, that Benry Gale was X-ray tumor guy was only confirmed in next week's teaser, but Drew correctly guessed it before that anyway.)
The Others con Sawyer into thinking they've put a pacemaker in his heart that will kill him if he gets too worked up. Of course they haven't - look at the hack job they did on Colleen, for crying out loud - but Sawyer isn't as aware of their non-medical skills as Jack ends up being. Benry Gale calls Sawyer out on being hot for Kate - ah-durr - and then reveals that they're not even on the same island anymore, but rather the next one over. Which they got to how, exactly? Whatever. Hot-air balloon.
Meanwhile, in the three-scene Desmond plot, he apparently foresees a rainstorm. So did he gain the ability to see the future, or just Doppler radar? He puts up a golf club as a lightning rod. Why? I'm guessing because he can, since no other reason is evident. I'm sure this will pay off somewhere way, way down the road, perhaps when Penny rides in to save everyone in, you know, Season Nine.
I do have to say that Sawyer episodes tend to be among the very best - both of his first season episodes were stellar, in particular, and last season's "The Long Con" was pretty good although its setup was questionable. This one was kind of more of the same - you think Flashback Sawyer is doing one thing but really he's doing another - except that Sawyer does display a little genuine human emotion in setting up a bank account for his apparent daughter. (By the way, is it at all funny that the woman who got conned called the police when she had originally requested that Sawyer teach her how to con? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.) And the scene with Sawyer and Benry looking out at the island was strong.
One other interesting thing: the Others refer to "the sky turning purple," suggesting that they don't know that much about the island themselves - the Dharma people knew about the electromagnetism, after all. But if this is much of a clue, I doubt it will get play again for months.
Next week: Locke and Eko may not be getting along. Some dude with an eyepatch is in one of the hatches observed on Pearl TV. Jack tells Benry he knows about the spinal tumor (this has to be what they're going to be willing to release him for, right? Though knowing Jack, he'll try to haggle them up for more releases). And while it's at best vaguely alluded to, could we finally see a return of the security system? Do you realize we haven't seen it since, unless I'm mistaken, the tenth episode of last season? A little too long, especially considering how much it showed up in the first season.
Jack seems eager enough to play doctor, perhaps just hoping for a return to a sort of normalcy. Then he displays his awesome doctor powers by diagnosing Benry Gale from a single set of X-rays (next week: special guest star Bill Frist!). Benry Gale has a spinal tumor, and Jack is a spinal surgeon, hmm hmm hmm hmm. The question is why they're jerking him around so much first. Wouldn't you want to placate the guy a little bit before you let him operate on your leader? (For the record, that Benry Gale was X-ray tumor guy was only confirmed in next week's teaser, but Drew correctly guessed it before that anyway.)
The Others con Sawyer into thinking they've put a pacemaker in his heart that will kill him if he gets too worked up. Of course they haven't - look at the hack job they did on Colleen, for crying out loud - but Sawyer isn't as aware of their non-medical skills as Jack ends up being. Benry Gale calls Sawyer out on being hot for Kate - ah-durr - and then reveals that they're not even on the same island anymore, but rather the next one over. Which they got to how, exactly? Whatever. Hot-air balloon.
Meanwhile, in the three-scene Desmond plot, he apparently foresees a rainstorm. So did he gain the ability to see the future, or just Doppler radar? He puts up a golf club as a lightning rod. Why? I'm guessing because he can, since no other reason is evident. I'm sure this will pay off somewhere way, way down the road, perhaps when Penny rides in to save everyone in, you know, Season Nine.
I do have to say that Sawyer episodes tend to be among the very best - both of his first season episodes were stellar, in particular, and last season's "The Long Con" was pretty good although its setup was questionable. This one was kind of more of the same - you think Flashback Sawyer is doing one thing but really he's doing another - except that Sawyer does display a little genuine human emotion in setting up a bank account for his apparent daughter. (By the way, is it at all funny that the woman who got conned called the police when she had originally requested that Sawyer teach her how to con? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.) And the scene with Sawyer and Benry looking out at the island was strong.
One other interesting thing: the Others refer to "the sky turning purple," suggesting that they don't know that much about the island themselves - the Dharma people knew about the electromagnetism, after all. But if this is much of a clue, I doubt it will get play again for months.
Next week: Locke and Eko may not be getting along. Some dude with an eyepatch is in one of the hatches observed on Pearl TV. Jack tells Benry he knows about the spinal tumor (this has to be what they're going to be willing to release him for, right? Though knowing Jack, he'll try to haggle them up for more releases). And while it's at best vaguely alluded to, could we finally see a return of the security system? Do you realize we haven't seen it since, unless I'm mistaken, the tenth episode of last season? A little too long, especially considering how much it showed up in the first season.
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