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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Dec 23, 2009 22:41:34 GMT -5
Before I begin, I wanna share this A.V. Club interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse: www.avclub.com/articles/losts-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cuse,14231/ Now, I know it’s dated, but it does reveal some interesting things. For one, I use to think that despite what the writers and showrunners claimed, Lost was being made up as they went along. Now, I’m not so sure. I mean, there is some evidence to my original theory: look at Nikki and Paulo. But, now, I think they do plan out some of the stories in advance, but as time goes on, some of these stories just get dropped for various reasons. For one, the fans just didn’t like it: again, Nikki and Paulo. Another reason may be loss of interest. I’ve pointed out the Black Rock and Rousseau and her team time and time again as an example of this. These were pretty big stories in the first season, but as time went, they pretty much got brushed aside and answered off with just a few scenes to appease fans wondering about them, which lead to some continuity problem. I bring this up because there are a lot of things in Season 2 that have also been brushed aside with no answers, like the mural in the Swan, the Tailies and why they were abducted, and the drug Desmond was taking, which was suppose to make him immune to some disease on the Island that is pretty much non-existant. Now, this bugs me because they haven’t been answered and I wanna know why!? Well, reading that interview and looking as some of the features on this DVD set, I have my answer: the writers and showrunners of Lost are more interested in the characters than in the mythology. Now, this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, them being more interested in the characters has led to some amazing character stories and made the show a lot better than it would have been without the character drama. Honesty, I wouldn’t have even cared about the Others, the Swan, the numbers, the Smoke Monster, the DHARMA Initiative, the polar bears, and pretty all the things that make the Island one weird place if there weren’t interesting characters to run around and figure the whole thing out. However, I just wish there were a few more people on the creative staff who was interested in the mythology and tried to get all the unanswered questions finally answered. It probably wouldn’t make the show any better, but it would make it a lot more satisfactory. Well, enough of that, let’s move on to the reviews: Season 2-Disc 3 9. What Kate Did Director(s): Paul Edwards Writer(s): Steven Maeda & Craig Wright Plot: Kate starts seeing a black horse in the jungle and is scared shitless when Sawyer grabs her neck, thinking her dead stepfather has possessed him. Meanwhile, the castaways hold a funeral for Shannon, and Eko shows Locke a piece of film he found in The Arrow that was taken out of The Swan orientation film. Flashbacks: We finally find out what Kate did that sent her on the lam: she blew up her stepfather’s with him in it. Her mother rats her out, the Marshal arrests her, and she escapes thanks to a crash accident. Then, she goes to her real father, an Army recruiter, to confront about some disturbing news she has learn: it turns out that her stepfather is actually her biological father, which repulses her because of his drunken debauched behavior. Thoughts: My first complaint: the title. It’s pretty generic. I know where it comes from: fans asking “what Kate did?” But still, generic, generic, generic. I would have called it “Wild Horses,” to start a classic rock motif with Kate episodes. The last Kate-centric episode we saw was called “Born To Run.” However, all that’s just a minor complaint. The big complaint I have with this episode is the stuff on the Island. One of the things that’s very noticeable about the first 8 episodes of this season is that the on Island stuff is a lot more interesting that the flashback stuff, which is largely filler. But now, with this episode and the next few that follow it, we’re about to see the opposite: the flashbacks carry the episodes and the on Island action sets up what could be cool but is largely disappointing. For one, Mr. Eko reveals that he found a Bible in The Arrow, which contained the missing parts of the Swan orientation film. This as potential to be exciting and possibly answers some questions, but all we learn is that the people in the Swan are only suppose to use the computer to enter the numbers, which the audience could have pretty much figured out from Dr. Candle saying “Do not attempt to use the computer…” before getting cut off. So glad we got cleared up! I was losing sleep wondering if Dr. Candle would ever get to finish his freaking sentence! Also, we never do find out who cut the part out of the film and why. Another reason the Island stuff isn’t as good the flashbacks: Kate’s search for the ghost of Black Beauty. All it really amounts to is her walking around the Island, crying, and talking to a few people. It’s not terrible; in fact, I really liked her scene with Sayid at the graveyard. But, it’s largely boring. At least, it moves along the Kate/Jack/Sawyer love triangle. Though all that happens is that Kate kisses Jack and runs away, leaving Jack to get out his sexual tension by chopping wood. And, that’s not a euphemism for masturbation; he actually chops some wood with his ax. Though, I do like her scenes with Sawyer, especially where she confesses to “Wayne” about why she killed him and Sawyer’s response to it. There’s some nice playfulness to it. In fact, Sawyer is the reason why I never got this triangle: if I was Kate, I would jump on Sawyer in a heartbeat. Hell, I’d probably jump on Sawyer if I wasn’t Kate. My gay fantasies aside, what I’m saying is that Lilly has better chemistry with Holloway than with Fox. For that reason, I’ve always wanted her to hook up with Sawyer. Well, that and the fact that Jack’s an insufferable douche who doesn’t know what the hell he wants. Now to the flashbacks, which do carry this episode. The best part is the scene where Kate visits her father for what appears to be the last time. It was nice, heartbreaking, and played well by both Lilly and Lindsey Ginter as her father. I like how Kate killed her stepfather. She blew the asshole up! That’s hardcore! I also liked James Horan as Kate’s stepfather. He was only in one scene, but he really nailed the asshole drunk stepfather. It’s a cliché, but he played it well. I also like the added layer of creepiness to his character by having him hit on Kate. That just makes the whole thing icky. I was hoping he’d show up again, but sadly this is the only episode in which we see Kate’s stepfather. That was one of the reasons I never cared for Kate after this episode. The other: the mystery has been solved. Once you’ve learn how the trick is done, it doesn’t seem as magical. Yet, I still enjoy this episode, mainly for the flashbacks and the last scene where it appears that Michael has made contact with Walt via the computer. A nice little cliffhanger for the next episode. 7/10. 10. The 23rd Psalm Director(s): Matt Earl Beesley Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: Mr. Eko sees the Virgin Mary statue that Charlie has been carrying around, smashes it open to reveal the heroin inside (which cause Claire to force Charlie to move out of her tent), and forces Charlie to take him to where he found it. Meanwhile, Locke gives Michael shooting lessons and continues chatting with Walt through the Swan computer. Flashbacks: We find out the origin of the plane, which just so happens to have been Mr. Eko’s. In his flashback, we learn that he is a Nigerian warlord who was recruited by Nigerian guerillas at a young age because he shot a man, which he did so to keep his brother Yemi from being taken. Now, as a warlord, he is given a shipment of heroin from a drug dealer to get out of the country. Eko buys it from him and then kills the man. Then, he goes to his brother Yemi, who is now a priest, wanting him to get a plane; U.N. relief and missionary aircraft are the only private planes allowed to fly out of Nigeria. Yemi refuses, but after some threat, he reluctantly agrees to help Eko out. However, he changes his mind and tries to get Eko to not leave on the plane with the drugs. Just as this happens, the Nigerian military arrives and starts shooting. Yemi is shot, and Eko gets him on the plane; but the pilot stops Eko from getting on and flies off, eventually crashing on the Island. Thoughts: Ah, Mr. Eko. Of all the Tailies, he’s my favorite. Why? Well, he did get the best stories out of all the Tailies. Like with the previous episode, the flashbacks are the best part of “The 23rd Psalm.” They tell a heart-wrenching tale of a boy who killed a man to spare his brother from being taken by Nigerian guerillas but ended up leading a life that would eventually get his brother killed. It was nicely written and acted. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I love Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Great actor! In fact, I would say he’s the fifth best actor on the show (I’m you all know who I think the four best are). It’s amazing how he can go from scary to nice and comforting. It’s easy for him to do scary; he is one bad looking motherfucker. But, I’m amazed how sweet he can be in certain scenes. Like with the scene with Claire and Aaron at the beginning, he’s so charming as he compliments Claire for choosing Aaron’s name, with some nice dialogue about how Aaron was Moses’s better speaking brother. Then, when he sees the Virgin Mary statue, he snaps into scary at the drop of a hat. And, he has such a great delivery; he says his words deliberately so that you will understand just what he means. I also like Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Yemi. He’s also pretty good at switching emotions like gears. And, I really like the subtle disdain he has in the scenes between the two brothers. It adds a whole new layer to the relationship, like Yemi may be grateful for what Eko when they were boys, but he still doesn’t like the man that Eko has become. I also like the twist that Eko wasn’t really a priest and only became one because he got mistaken for his brother by the Nigerian military. The only problem I have with the flashback is how it goes from Yoruba to English. I don’t get why they could be in Yoruba throughout. Why is it that Sun and Jin are the only ones who have gotten to speak Korean all throughout every one of their flashbacks? Also, I don’t understand how a plane taking off from Nigeria ended up on an Island in the South Pacific. (Spoiler for Lost noobs): I suspect it’s because the Island moved closer to Africa when it was moving around and traveling through time during Season 5. Now, I said that the flashbacks in this episode are better than the on Island stuff, and while that is true, I’m not saying that the on Island stuff is terrible. It’s good but doesn’t really hold a candle to the flashbacks. But there is some good Island stuff. Eko and Charlie’s trek to the plane is good, mainly for the interaction between Charlie and Eko. They go through an interesting arc from Charlie not liking Eko to wanting his approval to sympathizing him because of what happened to his brother. That makes some sense since he and Eko are pretty much the only ones on the Island who have brother issues. But, the nougat center of the Charlie/Eko chocolate bar is the Smoke Monster. Yes, this is the first episode in which we get to fully see the Smoke Monster. And, it was a great scene too. The damn thing came charging at Eko and then just stopped right in front of him. They stared for a minute, and then it took off. I remember being disappointed by the scene when I first saw this episode, but now I found it creepy and exciting. Other good stuff from this episode: Charlie singing the Kinks to Jin while they fish, Kate cutting Sawyer’s hair, and the subplot of Michael preparing to go after Walt. Perrineau is pretty good in this episode. He doesn’t exactly act like he’s hiding Michael’s intentions to go after Walt, which I really liked because it’s some imperfection to the character. By not being a good liar, it makes Michael more human and relatable. I really liked the scene where Locke teaches Michael how to shoot; there was some nice interaction between the two. All in all, this is a very good episode. I have to hand it to Cuse & Lindelof; they wrote another great script for myth-light episode. And, Beesley did a good job directing it. I also liked how religious this episode is. I’m not what you would call a religious nut, but you rarely see religion on TV being taken seriously. It’s actually pretty refreshing to see. 8/10. 11. The Hunting Party Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Elizabeth Sarnoff & Christina M. Kim Plot: Michael takes off after Walt, and Jack, Locke, and Sawyer go after him. They don’t find him, but they do run into the Others, who force the guys to give them their guns in exchange for Kate, who followed them against Jack’s wishes, and force an uneasy truce between both groups. Flashbacks: Jack goes flashbackin’ for the second time this season. Here we see him and his father working to remove a tumor from the spine of a rich Italian man. They don’t think that surgery can save the man, but his daughter convinces Jack to perform it anyway, hoping for a miracle. However, the surgery is unsuccessful, and the man dies. To make matters worse, Jack’s marriage to Sarah falls apart when she reveals that she’s having an affair. Thoughts: Meh. This is pretty so-so. The flashback scenes are largely filler, only answering one question: “How did Jack’s marriage fall apart?”; and the on Island stuff infuriating. First the flashback. As I said, we see how Jack’s marriage fell apart, but it’s only really touched upon almost in passing. Yes, there is a nice scene where Sarah tells Jack that she was having an affair, but they could have expanded on this. I mean, it really comes out of left field. Why not do some cool “Unfaithful” stuff from the perspective of the cuckolded husband? You could have Jack suspecting that Sarah’s having an affair, following her, getting suspicious, and whatnot. But, no. They just blurted it out, and in that place we get to see Jack talk with some sexy Italian chick about miracles. Exciting stuff. Dammit, haven’t these writers learned the first rule of writing? Show! Don’t tell! However, I can’t say that I hate Jack’s flashback. I like how his run as the miracle doctor has comes to an end. (Don’t say that I’m wrong and that his miracle streak really ended in “Do No Harm.” Boone basically asked to die, and Jack obeyed his wishes. For all we know, Jack may have been able to save Boone’s live by cutting off his leg.) It’s a nice way of Jack rebelling against his father and trying to prove him wrong. But, the guy dies, and Christian is write once again. Another great thing about the flashbacks: John Terry and Julie Bowen are back! Even though I didn’t like how Sarah just confessed to the affair, Bowen does elevate the scene through her performance. And, Terry is just awesome all around, especially in the scene where he tells Jack to not get his hopes up. I look forward to Jack’s flashbacks mainly for them. It’s amazing how likeable their characters are and Jack is not. I don’t know if it’s the way they’re written or if Bowen and Terry are just better actors than Fox. Most likely it’s a combination of the two. As for the Island stuff, we finally get a meeting between the Others and the castaways. And, what happens? I get pissed off. It doesn’t occur to Jack, Locke, or Sawyer to ask any FUCKING QUESTIONS!!!! No! No one says, “Hey! Mr. Friendly, is it? What the hell’s going on!? What’s up with this Island? And the Smoke Monster? And the polar bears? And the hatch? Did you know that there’s a hatch that led to a bunker with a guy in it who pushed a button every 108 minutes? Also, who the fuck are you people!? Why are you here? Why did you take so many from people from the tail section? Why did you only want Claire? What’s so special about her!? Huh!? Come on! Tell us! WHAT’S GOING ON!?” No. None of that happens. They have a talk, and nothing is learned, other than that there’s gonna be an imaginary line across the Island can’t cross under penalty of death or abduction or whatever. Now, I know Mr. Friendly probably wouldn’t have given them any solid answers, but that’s not the point. They still should have at least asked. That’s what you do when you’re curious: you ask. Even if you don’t get answers, there’s no harm in asking. Hell, you might even learn something. Though, I can’t say that I completely hate that scene. M.C. Gainey is awesome as Mr. Friendly. And, I liked the twist that Kate followed them, and the Others found her. Other on Island stuff I liked: there was a great scene between Jin and Sun where Sun practically begs Jin to not go after Michael. One of Yunjin Kim’s finest scenes in the show. I also liked the scene where Hurley and Charlie tell Sayid what’s going on. Nice little humorous moment that adds some brevity to the episode. Speaking of humor, Holloway’s pretty good in this episode as well. He gets in some nice one-liners throughout. And, the episode ends on a thrilling note as well: Jack talks to Ana-Lucia about forming an army to go after the Others. A nice idea, but you can add this to things that were brought up on Lost and never talked about again. All in all, it’s not a bad episode. Just pretty average and little frustrating. But at least it has Geronimo Jackson. 6/10. 12. Fire + Water Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Plot: Charlie has a weird dream in which he sees Aaron’s crib float into the ocean with Aaron in it. He swims out, catches Aaron, and returns to the beach to see Claire and his mother dressed as angels. Then, he wakes up holding Aaron. Claire frantically runs up to grab her son and slaps Charlie. This leads him to think that Aaron is in some kind of danger and needs to be baptized, but whenever he tries to warn Claire, she thinks he’s crazy and possibly on the heroin again. Locke suspects this as well, follows Charlie to his heroin stash that he’s been hoarding, and takes it. Later, Charlie starts a fire to distract the castaways while he takes Aaron. However, they soon find him and take the baby back. Locke beats Charlie up, and he has now become an outcast. Ironically, this whole adventure scares Claire into getting herself and Aaron baptized by Mr. Eko. Flashbacks: After seeing the rise of Driveshaft in Charlie’s first flashback, we see the fall in this one. Liam’s heroin addiction leads to a disastrous diaper commercial shoot. To make matters worse, Liam’s wife, Karen, has just give birth to their daughter Megan, but that isn’t enough to get Liam off of heroin. Charlie tries to get Liam clean, but to no avail. Eventually, Liam does take some control over his life, but he does so by selling Charlie’s piano, which their mom got him for Christmas when they were young, and moves to Australia, leaving Charlie to fend for himself. Thoughts: Look at that photo up there. Look at it. LOOK AT IT!!!! That is four grown men in diapers, singing “You All Everybutties.” I just have one question: who in the blue hell thought that was a good idea? Was it Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, the two guys credited with this script? Or was one of the other Lost writers? Hell, I don’t even care. All I know is that this was a horrible idea! And, yes, I know that the diapers represent how Driveshaft has fallen. But, it’s still a bad idea. I can’t think of a good idea where men in diapers shaking their butts would entertain anyone. Unless it’s some kind of freaky fetish porno, and I don’t wanna think about that. This scene just plain sucks! Hell, this whole episode sucks! I’d much rather see two dozen Shannon and Boone sex scenes and three dozen scenes of Michael and Sawyer dicking around with the shark. Yes, you know things are bad when you’re longing for “Adrift” and “Hearts And Minds.” For one, a lot of people come off as dicks in this one. There’s Liam, who is a huge asshole for getting his brother addicted to heroin and then leaving him to get clean by himself and raise a family in Australia. Why didn’t he take Charlie with him? I mean, if Liam really cared about Charlie and wanted him to get clean, why wait until he shows up on your doorstep in Australia? Why not go to Charlie and force him to get clean? Also, he sold Charlie’s piano. That’s just a dick move. Though, I am impressed that he was able to restart his life by selling just one old piano. Either Liam’s the greatest salesman of all time, or that piano had heroin it, which I doubt because Liam would have used it himself. Liam just really comes off like a huge asshole in this one. And, I can’t for the life of me figure out whether this was intentional or not. Did the writers really want us to hate Liam? And, if so, was it suppose to be good heat, like with Edge or Chris Jericho (you love to hate them because they’re so good at getting the crowd to boo them), or bad heat, like with Randy Orton (he gets booed because he just sucks)? Locke is also a dick in this one. He has really smug holier-than-thou air around him in this one, acting like he’s better than Charlie because he isn’t a heroin addict and constantly accusing him of relapse, even though we know that ain’t the case. It may work for CM Punk, but it doesn’t work for John Locke. But, the big problem with this episode is that it’s suppose to make us sympathize with Charlie, but he comes off as just as much as a dick as Locke and Liam does. For one, he’s running around like a loon claiming that Aaron needs to be baptize, but all it does is make him look crazy. And, he sounds whiny throughout, screaming about how he’s only trying to protect the baby and that he hasn’t relapsed. It just comes off as some whiny brat yelling, “It’s not my fault!” even though it sounds like it probably is. It’s pretty annoying. And, it all leads to Claire actually doing Charlie wanted all along: getting Aaron baptized. The baptism of both of them is a nice scene, but that whole thing seem telegraphed to me. Amazingly, there are some highlights to this God-awful episode. There was a nice idea in all this Charlie crap: in the first scene, we get some hints that Charlie’s dad disapproved of his musical career and wanted him to be a butcher. Now, that seem like a good idea to revolve this episode around. I like the scenes with Hurley and Libby flirting with each other. The fat guy/hot girl relationship is cliché, but I don’t mind it here because, hell, I like Hurley and Libby. I wanted to see those crazy kids get together. (By the way, Cynthia Watros looks pretty damn good without make-up. In fact, there were a lot of women on this show who looked good with little to no make-up. Either the casting department got lucky in that regard, or Lost has an excellent make-up department.) I also liked Sawyer helping Hurley out and him speculating that Jack and Ana-Lucia may be hitting it to Kate (by the way, I would liked to seen Jack and Ana-Lucia get together as Fox and Rodriguez had good chemistry with each other…well a lot better than Fox and Lilly). Oh, and surprise, surprise! Ana-Lucia ain’t all that annoying in this episode! I guess the writers were too busy making the other characters annoying that they forgot to make her annoying as well. Anyway, those highlights aren’t enough to bring this horrid episode out of the muck. What’s really disappointing is that this episode was directed by Jack Bender. It’s sad to see the best director on the show attached to easily the worst episode of it. But, I guess good directing can’t bring up bad writing. Well, it can but not here. 2/10. Disc 7—Bonus Features. Before I get into the Disc 7 material, I have to point out there are audio commentaries for the episodes “What Kate Did” and “The 23rd Psalm.” Sadly, or happily depending on who you are, there was no audio commentary for “Fire + Water.” But, there was a feature on the episode: as I said yesterday, I saved the Fire + Water: Anatomy Of An Episode feature from Phase 1 for today because I just wanted to see how this abysmal episode was made. Maybe this will somehow explain and/or redeem it. Let’s find out: Okay, this thing pretty much goes through the step-by-step of making a TV episode. First, we see it being written. Basically, the writers come up with the idea for the episode; and one or two people write the script. From what I can tell, they all thought this was a good idea. And, to give them some benefit of the doubt, I’m sure it seemed that way when they come up with it. The execution was just poorly done. Though, I will commended on one thing: putting this huge roadblock in the Charlie/Claire relationship was smart because not every relationship goes smoothly. Also, Jeph Loeb was there! Maybe he came up with Driveshaft in diapers!!!! I wouldn’t put it past him. This is the man who made Ultimate Scarlet Witch and Ultimate Quicksilver lovers even though they’re brother and sister. After it’s written, the script goes to Hawaii for a table read. Then, some people go scouting for locations. Then, the production designers make the sets. All this is pretty boring. It doesn’t get much interesting when we move to costumes and make-up. Then, they show the scenes being filmed. These are little more interesting but not by much. Though, I did learn one thing: the original idea for the diaper commercial was for Driveshaft to recreate the Abbey Road album cover with the band in diapers. But, they had to change it because they couldn’t get permission. I’m not surprised. Maybe they should have listened to the Beatles; they were trying to tell you some, Lost!!!! Anyway, after the scenes are filmed, the film is sent back to L.A. for editing and post-production. All that’s largely boring as well. And, the whole thing ends with Lindelof and Bender saying that they enjoyed this episode. I wonder if they feel the same way now. Well, that’s it for Phase 1. Now onto Phase 2: Conditioning: Here we have featurettes on the flashbacks, deleted scenes, bloopers, sneak peeks, and a Channel 4 promo. The flashback featurette is basically deleted scenes from the flashbacks in “Abandoned” and “Lockdown.” I like the ones for “Abandoned.” There’s a nice tense scene between Shannon and her stepmother after the funeral for Shannon’s dad, played well by both Grace and Lindsay Frost. The other one has Shannon showing up for her au pair job and sharing some intimate looks with the father. It’s okay, but I understand why they left it out. The one from “Lockdown” has Locke talking to a priest about his father at his funeral. Again, okay but I can see why it was deleted. Next is the other deleted scenes from this season: We have Sun asking Shannon about seeing Walt; Charlie trying to wake Locke up and get some answers about the Swan and venting his frustrations at Claire; Sawyer in the Tailies’ pit talking to Libby; the Tailies and the Rafties having supper; the Tailies finding a crate of boomerangs; Libby talking to Sayid after Ana-Lucia has tied him up to the tree; Libby talking Claire about the fact that Claire just so happens to be wearing her shirt; Michael asking Locke about the computer possibly being connected to the other DHARMA stations; Claire asking Sayid if Charlie knew there were drugs in the Virgin Mary statue; Ana-Lucia talking to Eko about Jack’s plan to form an army against the Others; Libby and Hurley talking while they do laundry; Jack and Sayid talking about getting Walt back; Sun talking to Rose about her little squabble with Bernard; and Libby and Hurley jogging and talking about the things they miss from mainland life. Some of these are nice, like the Michael/Locke scene, the Rose/Sun scene, and the Libby/Hurley laundry scene. Some of them, though, don’t have much going on, like the supper scene and the Libby/Hurley jogging scene, which explains why they were deleted. Next, we get some bloopers. They pretty funny, but I think this featurette was shorter that the Season 1 blooper featurette. Moving on, we get the Channel 4 UK promo, directed by David LaChappelle. And, OH MY GOD!!!! What the fuck!? It’s like a bad ecstasy trip as the cast members dance around looking all pretentious. It’s pretty bad. But, better than “Fire + Water.” And, finally the sneak peeks, which I thought was for Lost, but it turns out to be for other DVDs like “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and Desperate Housewives. Well that’s it for tonight. I will have the next four episodes up tomorrow. After that, who knows? We’ll just have to see.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Dec 25, 2009 0:03:14 GMT -5
Season 2-Disc 4 13. The Long Con Director(s): Roxann Dawson Writer(s): Leonard Dick & Steven Maeda Plot: Sun is attacked and nearly dragged off into the jungle, leading everyone to believe that it was one of the Others who did it. Jin wants to go after them, and Jack reluctantly agrees. However, some people, i.e. Kate and Locke, don’t think that’s a good idea, considering that Jack’s comment about wanting to start an army. It doesn’t help matters that it soon looks like one of the other castaways, namely Ana-Lucia, may have attacked Sun. So, Kate has Sawyer to warn Locke that Jack and Jin are coming he does, and Locke relocates all the guns from the storage closet in the Swan. When Jack finds out, he confronts Locke, asking where they are. Then, Sawyer comes out and reveals that he has the guns. It turns out the attack on Sun was the beginning of a con job Sawyer did as revenge for Jack ransacking his tent. Meanwhile, Hurley asks Sayid if he could send out a signal from the radio Bernard found in the Arrow. Flashbacks: In the flashbacks, we see Sawyer trying to con yet another woman, Cassidy. But, she quickly figures the whole thing out. However, she’s not angry with Sawyer. In fact, she’s intrigued and wants Sawyer to show her the ropes of conning people. He agrees and shows her a few scams. Then, just as he’s about to move on to bigger game, it’s revealed that Sawyer is actually conning her all along for an associate, Gordy; Cassidy has some money stashed away. However, Sawyer has fallen in love with Cassidy and can’t seem to bring himself to take her money. So, he confesses to everything and tells her to leave. But, it turns out that Sawyer has made away with her money anyway. Thoughts: One things I’ve always liked about Lost is that you can never really tell who the bad guys are. It’s one of the most morally ambiguous entertainments I’ve seen since Watchmen. This shades of grey theme was sort of implied in Season 1, with Sayid being shown to be heroic despite his past life as a torturer, Sawyer’s con man life being justified by his parent’s death, and Jin to not be the gangster we originally thought him to be. But, this theme got ampted up in Season 2, pretty much starting with this episode. Here you have Sawyer conning Jack and Locke into fighting with each other in order to gain control over all the guns. Not exactly a hard thing to do; Jack and Locke have been at each other’s throats since “Do No Harm,” though you could make a case that it’s been going on since “All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.” Anyway, they aren’t the focus of this episode. It’s Sawyer’s show, and he shines in it. I make no bones about Sawyer being my favorite character, and I really like this episode. Now, I know it’s filler. It doesn’t really add anything to the main plot of the show, other than to show that Sawyer once ate in the diner where Kate’s mom works, that Sawyer now has all the guns, and that the signal Sayid and Hurley picked up from Bernard’s radio was a big band radio. Or, was it just a regular radio station from the 1940s? You never know with this Island. By the way, the subplot could have been dropped from this episode and nothing would have been lost. However, I can’t help but like it. It just has Holloway playing all his strengths: the sarcasm, the funny one-liners, the sexual chemistry with practically any woman around him, etc. He’s just on fire in this episode. Plus, his performance elevates the cliché of an ending the flashback has. And, amazingly, the character comes off a lot cooler at the end of this episode than before. It shows he still has an edge as all the previous episodes have shown him softening up and becoming more inclusive with the group. But, a tiger don’t change his stripes. I also liked the flashback, mainly because one of my favorite character actresses, Kim Dickens, is in it. That woman is just amazing, especially in this one. She also elevates the clichéd flashback ending with her performance. Hell, she could be in every movie and TV show, and I would not complain. Speaking of character actors, another good one is here, too, Kevin Dunn. I enjoy his work, too; but I have no idea why he’s here. Remember back in the “Outlaws” review, when I said that there was a perfect opportunity in Season 2 to explain the Tampa Job, well, here it is! There’s no reason why Kevin Dunn’s character couldn’t have been Hibbs. Don’t get me wrong; I like Dunn, but this would have been an easy way to close up that dangling question. I don’t know why they didn’t take it. Was it because they wanted to have Kate’s mom make cameo in Sawyer’s flashback? Because, that’s a stupid reason. She only brings Sawyer a few beers, and that’s it. I don’t get this incessant need to show that all these castaways are connected, especially since nothing has really come from it! Or, maybe it was because the Tampa Job was sort of built up as this major screw-up, and this would have a pretty lame reveal of that. But, it would have explained the bad blood between Sawyer and Hibbs, with Sawyer transferring his anger at himself over what he did to Hibbs. But, I still enjoy this episode despite that. It’s very well written. I like how the audience is conned along with the castaways. You don’t realize that Sawyer was behind the whole thing until the end. The writers play on your knowledge of Locke and Jack’s rivalry and you expectations of a cool twist on Lost. So, kudos to Dick & Maeda for a nice script. Other nice things about this episode: a nice line in the flashback with Sawyer wanting to buy an island after he learns Cassidy has $600,000. And, the reveal that Charlie helped him out. A nice logical move, what with his hatred of Locke after the events in “Fire + Water.” And, Daniel Dae-Kim’s performance. He’s pretty good in this one. He really translates to the audience what he’s thinking, which is amazing considering there are no subtitles for him. Also, somehow, Ana-Lucia isn’t as annoying as she has been. The Lost writers are really on a role with her. But, I doubt that will last long. Anyway, this was an enjoyable filler episode. It didn’t really add much to the show’s main arc, but it was a nice break from all that mythology. 8/10. 14. One Of Them Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: Rousseau finds a stranger, Henry Gale, in one her traps and tells Sayid. He frees Henry and brings him to the Swan to Jack and Locke. Jack treats Henry of his many injuries, and he explains that he was traveling in a hot air balloon with his wife when it crashed on the Island 4 months ago; his wife later died of the “sickness.” However, Locke and Sayid don’t believe him and decide to do some enhanced interrogation. So, Locke distracts Jack so that Sayid can lock himself in the gun vault and torture him. Jack forces Locke to give him the new combination to the vault (Locke changed it a few episodes ago) by keeping him from entering the numbers. Locke agrees, and Jack lets him go so that he can enter the numbers; and Jack opens the vault to save Henry. Meanwhile, Sawyer is being annoyed by a frog and forces Hurley to help him find it. Flashbacks: Sayid gets another round on the flashback ride. We see him in the first Gulf War being taken prisoner by the U.S. Army. During his time there, two high ranking military officials, Joe Inman and Sam Austen, asks Sayid to be a translator so that they can learn the location of a missing American pilot from one of his superiors. But, when their effort prove fruitless, they ask Sayid to torture the CO. He agrees and learns the pilot has been executed. Thoughts: It’s fitting that after the episode that pretty much ramped up the moral ambiguity of the show, the most morally ambiguous character was introduced: “Henry Gale.” I put Henry in quotation marks because that may not be his name. He claims to be Henry Gale, a man from Minnesota who got a wild hair up his ass to fly a hot air balloon around the world with his wife. But, they crashed on the Island 4 months prior to the Flight 815 crash. And then, she died of that mysterious Island disease. However, we know that there are Others on the Island, and we know that disease pretty much doesn’t exist. So, there’s a good chance that Henry is lying. We’re not sure, not even when Rousseau tells us that he’s one of the Others. She does come out and say bluntly that Henry is one of them, but she doesn’t explain how she knows. Leave it to Lost to have people on the Island who look like they have answers to either A. not actually have answers or B. do have answers but not actually answer anything! Because of this, it leads to Sayid torturing Henry. You know, for a guy who doesn’t like to torture, he sure does seem to be doing it a lot. Though, you can’t really blame him. The woman he loved, Shannon, is dead. He’s angry and is looking to take that anger out on somehow. But, since he’s resolved to not take it out on Ana-Lucia, the woman who actually killed Shannon, he’s gonna take it out on poor Mr. Gale. This makes for an intriguing episode. A lot of moral questions about whether or not it’s okay to torture someone mixed in with a touching story of a man whose lover is dead and looking for a way to express his anger. And, it’s played wonderfully by Andrews. The highlight is the scene where Sayid tortures Henry; you can feel the pain in his voice when he yells “You would remember!” after Henry tells him he doesn’t know how long it took to bury his wife. In fact, this episode may feature his best performance in the whole show. I’ll have to pay a little more attention to the other Sayid-centric episodes before I’m sure. Speaking of good acting, this marks the first episode the last of the four best actors on Lost: Michael Emmerson. Now, I’ve been saying “one of the four best actors” in regards to Terry O’Quinn, Yunkin Kim, and Daniel Dae-Kim because I didn’t really want to rank them. But, I’ve saved it for this episode because, if I had to rank them, it would be: 1. Emmerson 2. O’Quinn 3. Dae-Kim 4. Kim Kim’s at the bottom because the other just slightly edge her out. Dae-Kim is third because while he’s great at acting in Korean, his character hasn’t really been one of the main focuses of the show. Same with Kim. O’Quinn is second because while he’s great, he has a little bit of limit to his range. He’s better at serious dramatic acting than with light, comedic acting. But, Emmerson is the best. The man can do anything. He can be so damn scary and creepy, which is surprising considering that he looks like an accountant. But, at times, he’s been know to get laugh or two. Though, I have to be honest. I wasn’t initially impressed with Emmerson when I first saw this episode. In fact, it wasn’t until a few episodes after his first appearance that I was really sold on him. But, looking back, I have to say that he does do a good job here. He’s not as good as I’ve seen him in future episodes, but he is showing signs of the great acting I know he’s capable. As for the flashbacks, they’re pretty good. For one, no filler! We learn that Sayid met Sam Austen, aka Kate’s dad! There’s another one of those infernal connections, but this one actually makes sense, unlike Sawyer and Kate’s mom in the previous episode! Both are Gulf War veterans, and while it seems highly improbable that these two men would meet, I could see it happening. Also, the flashback introduces Joe Inman (nicely played by Clancy Brown, another character actor), who will show up again in Season 2 in a very surprising way. The flashback story itself is okay. It nicely shows how Sayid became a torturer. And, there’s a good performance from Marc Cassabini as Sayid’s CO Tariq. That guy is good at swarmy. Other nice things about this episode: the smug fest between Jack and Locke isn’t all that smug. In fact, I quite enjoyed the tension between the two as Jack kept Locke from pushing the button. Plus, we got a glimpse of what happens when you don’t push the button: the numbers roll over to some weird symbols. Not much but it was a little cool. Also, there was some pointless subplot with Hurley and Sawyer chasing down a frog that was annoying Sawyer. An obvious rip-off of his boar hunt from “Outlaws” that ended with him killing the animal this time. Totally pointless. And, it brings down the episode a little because you just want it to end so you can get back to the action going on in the Swan. 9/10. 15. Maternity Leave Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Dawn Lambersten Kelly & Matt Ragghianti Plot: Claire becomes alarmed when Aaron gets a rash and a fever and Rousseau shows up and tells her that he’s infected. Jack assures her that Aaron will be fine, but Claire is still unsure. So, she gets Kate to help her find Rousseau and get her to take them to the place the Others took Claire, which she now remembers thanks Libby who helped her recall her memory. They find the DHARMA bunker where Claire was for those two weeks, The Staff, and discover that it has been ransacked. Meanwhile, Jack and Locke try to decide what to do with Henry while trying to keep him hidden from the other castaways. However, Mr. Eko soon finds out about him. Flashbacks: We see what happened to Claire during those two weeks she was missing. Surprisingly, the Others treated her well. However, they did keep her drugged the whole time. Ethan routinely checks on her and assures her that she’s in good company. However, later, a teenage girl, Alex, takes Claire away, saying that the Others plan to remove the baby from her womb via an operation. However, Claire is so delirious from the drugs that she struggles. Alex chloroforms and takes her to the Jungle. Claire wakes up and runs into Rousseau. Then, she hears Ethan shouting for her and calls out for him; but Rousseau knocks Claire out to prevent her from being taken back to The Staff. After remembering all this, Claire realizes that Alex may have been Rousseau’s daughter. Thoughts: Oh my God! A flashback that actually answers some questions! I don’t believe it! I must be dreaming! Seriously though, this is a rare satisfactory episode in Season 2. I mean, even the good episodes from this season are a little frustrating as they bring up questions than answers. But here, none of that. Okay, not exactly “none.” We don’t learn any big answers, like what happens when you don’t push the button and who are the Others. But we do learn what happened to Claire when she disappeared for 2 weeks in Season 1. It turns out the Others had Claire in one of the many DHARMA stations on the Island. This one is the Staff, which appears to be the main medical facility on the Island. And, they were doing some weird tests on her. Why? Well don’t know for sure, but we do find out: (Spoiler for Lost newbies) Women on the Island can’t give birth. The baby almost always dies in childbirth. There have been a few exceptions, but the majority of labors have ended in heartbreak. So, most likely, the Others were doing tests to see if Claire would be able to give birth without losing the baby. And, since they were gonna perform a C-section, it seems she probably would have been yet another tragedy. But, we now know that’s not the case. This episode also leads to another moral ambiguity: the Others don’t seem all that evil in this episode. That’s pretty damn shocking when you think about. So far what we’ve seen from the Others is that they are a pretty threatening and bullying lot. They manipulate and deceive. They kidnap people at random. They’re a pretty damn scary group of people. But here…they’re actually gentle. We see Ethan not only taking good care of Claire but actually being charming around the woman. Hell, they even made a freaking nursery for Claire’s baby. It almost makes you wonder if the Others really are as bad as we been led to believe. But, there is some doubt to that. For one, Ethan keeps drugging Claire throughout. And, they were planning on doing a Caesarian section on her, which I’m guess was gonna be done without her permission. However, we get the impression that not all of them are bad. Claire was saved thanks to Alex letting her go. By the way, a nice touch by having the girl who saved Claire being Rousseau’s daughter. It makes sense since Rousseau has been wary of the Others that her daughter would be the rebel of the group. I also like the reveal that Rousseau saved Claire from being taken again. I think it would have been too cliché to reveal that Rousseau had something to do with Claire’s kidnapping. And, we learn that the Others don’t wear those ratty clothes we always see them thanks to us seeing Mr. Friendly without a beard. Those are just disguises. Why? Who knows!? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Either the Lost writers find poverty to be scary, or they think it’s a nice way to distract us from the twist that they live in modern settlements. Which, by the way, was a horrible twist. Not only does it not make any sense for the Others to hide how well they live but also I saw it coming a mile away. All in all, this is a very good episode. Besides answering some questions, it was nicely written and director (Jack Bender making up for directing “Fire + Water”). There was also some nice acting here, especially from Emily De Ravin. I like the flashback scenes where she’s acting all drugged out better than the present day scenes where she’s all melodramatic (good melodrama by the way). She doesn’t good full tilt into her high. She holds back and makes it seem believable rather than caricature. Nice touch on De Ravin’s part. I also like Mapother in this episode. It’s nice to see him play gentle as appose to the scariness we’ve seen from him. As for the subplot of Eko learning about Henry: meh. It doesn’t really add much, other than a nice scene where Eko confesses his murder of the two Others to Henry. And, I don’t get this need to hide Henry from the other castaways because it seems like they all pretty much find out. Eko found out on his own. I’m sure Ana-Lucia has some suspicions since she led Sayid to Rousseau who then led him to Henry. And, in the previous episode, Sayid told Charlie, who isn’t good at hiding things since everybody knew about his heroin stash. But, other than that and a pretty annoying turn from Kate throughout, damn good episode. And, it ends with a great scene between Henry and Locke, in which Henry plants some seeds of inferiority in Locke’s head. Henry’s starting to become the guy we all know. 9/10. 16. The Whole Truth Director(s): Karen Gaviola Writer(s): Elizabeth Sarnoff & Christina M. Kim Plot: Locke asks Ana-Lucia to talk with Henry. She does and gets him to draw a map to his balloon. Then, she asks Sayid to go with her to find he, which he does with Charlie. Meanwhile, Sun and Jin are fighting again, this time because of Jin’s over-protectiveness towards here after her near abduction. As this goes on, Sun soon starts showing all the signs of pregnancy. She asks Sawyer for a pregnancy test. He makes good with the request. The test comes back positive, but Sun still has doubts. She asks Jack if it could be wrong, but he tells her no. Worried, Sun decides to not tell Jin. However, Sawyer congratulates Jin on the new baby. Confuse, he asks Sun what’s going on, and she finally reveals the good news. Flashbacks: However, we learn in the flashbacks that Jin may not be the father. It turns out that Jin and Sun tried to have a baby in Seoul, but their fertility doctor told them that Sun was barren. It was also around this time that Sun started seeing Jae Lee for English lessons in her plan to leave Jin. As the lessons went on, the spark between them from their earlier relationship returned, and they ended up having an affair. Then, just before Sun went on the trip that would eventually lead her to the Island, she learned from her doctor that she wasn’t barren but that Jin was sterile and he lied fearing that Jin wouldn’t take the news well. So, the baby may be Jae Lee’s. Thoughts: As Season 2 has been winding down, things have gotten better with the introduction of Henry. The mystery surrounding whether or not he’s an Other has really brought the quality of the episodes up. Unfortunately, this new element is so damn intriguing that if the flashbacks in the episode aren’t just as good, then the Henry storyline brings them down because the audience gets more interested in it than in the flashback and the character story. With “One Of Them” and “Maternity Leave,” this wasn’t a problem since Sayid and Claire’s stories were just as interesting was what was going on with Henry. But here, this is a problem. It’s not that the Sun story is bad. In fact, it introduces a lot of good ideas: Jin’s obsession with having a baby as a way to get away from the illegal jobs he does for Sun’s father; Jin’s blow-up after learning they can’t have a baby; Sun learning English from Jae Lee, her previous suitor; Sun having an affair with Lee; the reveal that Sun wasn’t barren and that she may be pregnant with Lee’s baby. That’s good stuff. But, it doesn’t hold a candle to what’s going on in the Swan. Speaking of which, ironically the stuff going on in the Swan ain’t all that good. It’s a lot more interesting than Sun’s story, but it features a lot of Ana-Lucia. She’s not as intense in this episode as she has been in others, but she just gets on my nerves here. I don’t know why, but she just comes off a bratty and whiny, especially when she’s talking to Sayid as they make camp for the night. At least we get to see some more of Henry. In fact, this is where Emerson really sold me on how great he is. It happens in the last scene, where Jack lets Henry out to have some cereal and he reveals that he drew a map to the balloon for Ana-Lucia, which Jack and Locke didn’t know about. He’s just so great at sound like such a manipulative scheme. It’s pretty much his performance that sell the doubt of whether or not he’s an Other. Also, I can’t believe I forgot this was the episode where Ana-Lucia, Charlie, and Sayid went to Henry’s balloon. I don’t know why, I thought it all took place within the next episode. Hell, most of what I remember happening in that episode actually took place here. Oh well. That’s just my bad memory. Anyway, this isn’t a bad episode. It’s got some good acting. Besides Emmerson, Dae-Kim is amazing in this one. I love his emotional outbursts in the garden scene and the doctor’s office scene. And, I love his reaction to Sawyer’s congratulation on Sun being pregnant. Though, I don’t get why Sawyer and Bernard had to have their audio messed with so that we couldn’t understand them. Was that really necessary for us to know that Jin can’t understand them? Couldn’t they have just shown Dae-Kim looking confused? I mean, Dae-Kim does a good job of showing he doesn’t understand anyone. It doesn’t seem all that necessary. Kim is also good in this, too. I especially like the sarcastic line Sun lands at Jin when he accuses her of hiding her infertility from him. As I’ve said before, these two are such great actors that they bring up the quality of their stories through their performances. They may not get the best material, but they give it their all in the material they are given. I was also glad to see Tony Lee back, and I was surprised that he could speak English so well. And, I like Greg Joung Paik as the doctor. But, the acting can’t really save the episode. The Sun story gets overwhelmed by the goings on in the Swan, and that stuff isn’t that great. The acting elevates the episode, but just to “okay.” 6/10. Disc 7—Bonus Features. There is a commentary track for the episode “The Whole Truth” on Disc 4. As for the stuff on Disc 7, we get Phase 3: Conclusion: Here we have “Lost Connections,” “Mysteries, Theories, And Conspiracies,” and “Secrets From The Hatch.” First up, a featurette on all the connections between the characters we’ve seen so far. This is an interactive featurette. First, you get a little introduction, which you have to pay attention to because there’s no rewinding it. After that, there will be a picture of Jack with 10 wires connected to it, each one leading to a different path. For example, one wire will lead you to Ana-Lucia, whom Jack met at the airport before their flight. Then, she’ll lead to Sawyer, both of whom know each other from the Island; who will lead you to Kate’s mom, who will lead to Kate, who will lead to her father, who will lead to Sayid, who will lead to Joe Inman, who will lead to Desmond, who will lead to Libby, who will lead to Eko, who will lead to Richard Malkin, who will lead to Claire, who lead to Arzt, who will lead to Hurley, who will lead to Charlie, who will lead to back to Hurley, who will lead back to Libby, who will lead back to Desmond, who lead to some second on the numbers, which will have six wires that lead to instances of each number being mentioned in the show. It’s basically one big maze. It’s kind of cool but very confuse. Pretty much like Lost. By the way, there will be four buttons under each photo. One (yellow) will replay a video that shows the connection between the people, one (red) will take you to a menu that shows each button does, one (green) will take you back to Jack, and one (blue) will take you back to the Phase 3 menu. By the way, there is a handy little guide to where each connection goes here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Lost_Connections. In case you’re curious enough to want to know where they each go but don’t have the time and patience to do it with the DVD. Next, we have “Mysteries, Theories, And Conspiracies,” which show the creative people behind Lost, the actors, and fans giving their theories on what is going on with the Island. Well, what was going on at the time. There are a lot of theories mentioned here that don’t pan out, like dinosaurs and whatnot. Some of them are pretty interesting. I really like Jorge Garcia’s suggestion: that all the castaways were put on the Island and the crash was set up and all their memories were implanted in them. This is okay, and I do like that they actually showed some of the obsessed Lost fans. And, finally, we have a featurette on the hatch, or as I like to call it, the Swan. This basically shows how they came up with the idea for the Swan and the building of the set. One of the big inspirations for it was Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, basically a building that would look like what people in the 1970s thought the future would look like. That was a nice touch, setting up the DHARMA Initiative as this think tank that wants to change the world. They also explain where certain elements of the Swan, like the mural and hash marks, came from, and how the writers put a Jekyll/Hyde nature to the Swan; it changes people once they get into it, bringing out the worse in people. That’s a nice, creative touch to it. Well, that’s it for the special features. And, we got two discs left. So, I’ll just reveal all the Easter eggs on the Season 2 set. And, I might go back and show the ones for Season 1. Also, expect the next 4 episodes to be up next Tuesday, and I’ll finish Season 2 up on Wednesday and begin Season 3 on Friday of next week.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Dec 29, 2009 21:39:51 GMT -5
Before I begin, a fair warning to any Lost newbies reading these reviews: Here there be spoilers. I hate to give away the endings and big reveals to these episodes, but I’m just gonna have to. They’re just too big. They affect the overall quality of the episodes, and the only way I can fully review them involves talking about them. So, here’s your big warning: Season 2-Disc 5 17. Lockdown Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: After Henry’s scary comments, Jack and Locke argue over whether Henry may have led Ana-Lucia, Sayid, and Charlie to a trap. This leads to Jack leaving The Swan and going off to play poker with Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley. He and Kate later discover a supply drop of goods. Meanwhile, a weird alarm goes off in The Swan, and the blast doors go down, trapping Locke and Henry in the living quarters with the countdown going on. Luckily, Locke managed to get a crowbar under the door leading to the computer room. He and Henry work to pry the blast door over and prop it open with a tool box. However, the tool box gives way as Locke tries to squeeze underneath, crushing his leg. So, he has Henry go through the vents to enter the numbers. After a while, the countdown reaches 1 minute, the lights go out, and Locke sees a map on the blast door. Then, when the lights come back on, the blast door opens up. Henry comes to Locke’s aid, and then Jack enters, thinking Henry may have hurt Locke. However, Locke defends him. Then, Ana-Lucia’s search party returns, having discovered the body of the real Henry Gale, exposing “Henry” as one of the others. Flashbacks: We see what happened to Locke and Helen after the events in “Orientation.” They are living together and enjoying a happy life. However, Locke gets pulled back into Anthony Cooper’s world when he learns that Cooper has died. He and Helen attend the funeral, and after it, Locke is followed by a man in a car, who turns out to be Cooper. Apparently, Cooper ran a retirement con, and the people he conned are looking for him. So, Cooper faked his own death. However, he can’t get to the money he made off the con as it’s in a safety deposit box, and Cooper is legally dead. So, he approaches Locke to get his money for him, since as his son Locke would be legally entitled to the money. He reluctantly agrees, hoping this will be the last time he ever sees his father. However, when Locke drops the money off to Cooper at a motel, Helen follows him and finds out about the whole situation. Locke tries to reconcile with Helen, but she refuses and leaves him. Thoughts: This episode pissed me off when I first saw it. I mean, that whole deal with The Swan locking down, the map on the blast door, and that the numbers may or may not have been entered by Henry, making us wonder if they truly do anything at all. This episode introduced a shitload of questions. And the thing is: we still had unanswered questions!!!! We still didn’t know about Rousseau’s people, the sickness and whether it’s real, the whispers, what the hell the Smoke Monster is, who is Henry Gale and is he with the Others, just who are the Others and what do they want, what did they do with the Tailies, The Swan, the DHARMA Initiative etc. At this point Lost was giving us nothing but questions with few answers. And, this episode just frustrated the living hell out of me. It’s like dating someone. Everything is going great, but then your partner just starts playing all these ridiculous mind games. All you want is a nice quiet night ending with some sex, but instead you’re horny and pissed off. But, looking back, I quite enjoy it. It helps that they quickly answered the question of the blast door map. And, now that we know a lot about the DHARMA Initiative and what led to The Swan being built, and I can watch this episode and not get pissed off. It also helps that this is a well written and directed episode. There is a lot of tension and drama. In fact, some of the questions help it. Like, what happens when you don’t press the button? That question is raised since the blast door separates Locke from the computer keeping him from being able to push it. Also, there is the question of Henry Gale. We still don’t know just how trustworthy the man is, and this episode puts his trust to the test as Locke has to depend on him to enter the numbers and push the button. What really makes the episode great is the big reveal that Henry isn’t the real Henry Gale. And, yes, I know I complained about this episode bringing up more questions when it answered one of the big ones. I was pissed off at the time; I wasn’t thinking straight. Anyway, it was a great twist in that Henry basically proves his trust to Locke by helping Locke to get out and supposedly pushing the button. But, when we learn he isn’t who he says he is, it makes you wonder if he even pushed the button in the first place. It ends on a great cliffhanger, done well by Cuse and Lindelof. They also handle the flashbacks very well. This may be the saddest flashback story I’ve seen. At the very least, it’s the saddest one with Locke. Okay, maybe a tie with “Deus Ex Machina.” Anyway, it was very heartbreaking how Locke’s relationship with Helen ended because he just couldn’t get over what Cooper did to him; it’s also ironic consider Helen basically brought the man back into his life by showing him Cooper’s obituary. The best part is the end, with Locke just standing alone in the motel parking lot with a plane flying overhead. A great shot. Speaking of which, as I said, it’s well directed as well. I know I’ve said that Jack Bender is the best director on the show, and my opinion hasn’t changed on that; but I would have to say that Stephen Williams is a close number 2. He directed some of the best episodes of this season, like “…And Found,” “Collision,” and “One Of Them.” But, he also directed “Adrift” and “The Hunting Party.” Then again, Bender directed “Fire + Water.” Other great things about this episode: Kevin Tighe and Katey Segal return, good as usual. A nice little connection reveal as Locke, who works as a home inspector, does a job for Nadia, Sayid’s first love. As for the subplot, with Sawyer and Jack playing poker, a little unnecessary and sounds like it would be a pretty boring subplot. But, it’s greater than the sum parts of its whole, mainly because of the great pissing contest interaction between Fox and Holloway. They play off of each other so well. There’s also a great line from Kate about Sawyer and Jack’s trash talking: "Should I go get a ruler?" I also liked Jack’s “When I need the guns, I’ll get the guns,” line to Sawyer at the end. It’s a little extra tension to the Sawyer/Jack feud that isn’t as a playful as what we saw in the poker scene. All in all, watching this episode again, I had a much more pleasant experience watching it the second time than the first. However, there are still some infuriating parts to it. For one, that whole lockdown thing. It’s never revealed how or why it happened! Was it just a random thing or did someone initiate it? And, if so, who’s watching The Swan. And, there’s the supply drop. If the DHARMA Initiative is gone, then why would supplies continued to be dropped? Was it just for the people in The Swan? And, why would The Swan be the one DHARMA to be still going on? And, who buried the real Henry Gale? Was it the Others out a sense of decency? Who knows? Well, we do learn a possible reason why The Swan would still be operational: It may have something to do with The Incident in Season 5 . And, Charlie does give a possible answer for the lockdown: to prevent the people in The Swan from seeing the supply drop, though that just raises another question as to why they wouldn’t be allowed to see it. But, the others are still left on unanswered. Despite that, I would give this an 8 out of 10. 18. Dave Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Plot: Libby discovers Hurley’s stash of food and convinces him to destroy it. He does, feeling relieved, but soon all the castaways discover the supply drop Jack and Kate found. As this goes on, Hurley sees a bald man in the jungle, thinking it’s his old friend from the institution Dave. Hurley gives chase and finds Dave, who tells him that he and all the castaways and events that have happened on the Island, and all the events since he left the institution, are just figments of Hurley’s imagination. Hurley believes him and follows Dave to a cliff in order to jump and wake up. However, Libby stops him and convinces Hurley that everything is real. Meanwhile, Ana-Lucia, Sayid, and Locke interrogate Henry, during which Henry tells Locke that he didn’t enter the numbers and that they do nothing. Flashbacks: Hurley goes on the flashback merry-go-round for a second time this season. We see him and Dave in the institution. However, Dave isn’t real. He is a figment of Hurley’s imagination who tells Hurley to be rebellious. When he learns the truth, Hurley tries to escape but realizes that maybe it such a good idea and stays to get better. Thoughts: This episode has a lot in common with “The Whole Truth,” in that we have a pretty good and intriguing flashback/main story that ends up being overshadowed by the whole Henry Gale saga going on in The Swan. With “The Whole Truth,” we had that whole baby drama with Sun wondering if Jin did impregnate her and produce a miracle, which the Island is capable of doing, or if Jae Lee is the father. It’s a nice little story, but with Henry having just been introduced, it didn’t seem like the kind of story that could hold up to Ana-Lucia interrogating Henry and him possibly revealing that he led Ana-Lucia and her search party to a trap. Luckily for the Sun plot in that episode, the Henry plot wasn’t as good as it could have been. So, it didn’t really hurt the Sun plot, though both contributed to an average episode. However, here, what’s going on with Henry is hundred times better and much more interesting than Hurley’s plot. I mean, we just found out that Henry isn’t really Henry Gale as Ana-Lucia, Sayid, and Charlie dug up the grave, revealing it to be Gale in it. So, “Henry” is pretty much one of the Others. And now, you wanna why he’s there and just what can he tell the castaways and the audience about the Others. However, half the time, we’re stuck watching Hurley rip open cereal boxes, eat peanut butter off a leaf, and chase an imaginary friend around. Oh, who gives a crap!? Give me more of Henry, dammit!!!! However, Hurley stuff isn’t all that bad. In fact, it brings up some intriguing ideas, like the Sun pregnancy in “The Whole Truth.” For one, there is the whole theory that everything that happened in Hurley’s life since he stopped talking to Dave in the institution may have just been going on in his head. That has been a possible theory for the whole show: it’s all the fever dreams of a dead and/or crazy person. But, I don’t think so. The writers and creators have said that wouldn’t be the answer to the whole myth of the whole show, and I believe them because of what went down in Season 5. Plus, I’m sure they’re all aware of the backlashes shows like Dallas and St. Elsewhere went through when they did the whole “It’s just a dream” story. I just think this Dave thing is a relapse of Hurley’s insanity. He’s gone through a lot on the Island. It wouldn’t be surprising if he just snapped again. There is also the reveal that Libby was in the same mental hospital that Hurley was. A great reveal by the way. Too bad nothing came of it. That really pisses me off about the Lost creative team. I can deal with them not giving a crap about Rousseau, the Black Rock, and the sickness anymore. But, this one just doesn’t sit right with me. They never gave Libby a full flashback episode, and it seems like they never will. They still have one season left to do this, but I don’t it’s gonna happen. I’ll get more into this later on. Anyway, the Hurley plot just doesn’t hold a candle to what’s going on in The Swan. I mean, you have the great scene with Sayid almost shooting Henry and Ana-Lucia stopping him, Locke’s frustration with having a bum leg again, Henry telling Locke that he didn’t push the button, leading to some serious speculation that the computer does nothing. All great stuff, well written and well acted. Just overshadows the Hurley plot. As you can tell, I didn’t really care for it. The main reason is that it has the typical Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” character. Now, that may have worked for “Cuckoo’s Nest” since that was about much more than the struggle between a tyrannical nurse and a rebellious inmate in a mental hospital; but since then this has been used over and over to show that all those psychologists don’t know nothing man! These crazy people don’t need to be shocked and medicated! They need to live man! THEY NEED TO LIVE !!!! That is stupid. The reason: most of the people in mental institutions have serious psychological problems, and they need treatment and medication. If schizophrenics and people with bipolar disorder don’t take their medication, then they could hurt themselves and/or other people. Being themselves and living isn’t going to help them get better, probably because something went horrible wrong in their lives that brought them to a mental institution in the first place It’s typical Hollywood bullshit about things they can’t possibly understand. Yet, I didn’t fully hate Hurley’s plot or the Dave character. I liked the twist that Dave wasn’t really. It was actually a creative and original take on that rebellious inmate character type. Plus, Evan Handler played the role well. Through his acting alone, he elevated an annoying cliché. Another thing that elevates the Hurley plot are the scenes with Garcia and Bruce Davison, another reliable character actor. I quite enjoyed those as Garcia actually pulled off a damn fine performance. All in all, this is an okay episode. I also enjoyed how Hurley and Libby found out about the supply drop just after he destroyed his hatch and Hurley’s fight with Sawyer. It has a lot of good parts (the scenes in The Swan, Handler, Hurley’s fight with Sawyer; that was so funny), but there are multiple problems (the Libby stuff that went nowhere, the rebellious mental patient cliché, Hurley eating peanut butter off of a leave). Though, if the Lost writers do end up returning to the Libby stuff, but I might enjoy it much better. Until then, here’s my ranking: 6/10. 19. S.O.S. Director(s): Eric Laneuville Writer(s): Steven Maeda & Leonard Dick Plot: Bernard has become fed up with the other castaways as they have pretty much settled on the Island and have given up getting rescued. So, he tries to get a bunch of people together to form a large S.O.S. signal. However, he ends up alienating all of them, and they all run off leaving Bernard to make the signal himself. The reason for Bernard’s persistence on getting rescued is that Rose has cancer. But, she thinks that coming to the Island has healed her, using Locke being able to walk again as proof. So, she talks Bernard out of making the S.O.S. signal for fear that rescue would cause her cancer to come back. Meanwhile, Locke tries to get Henry to tell him whether or not he did enter the numbers and lied about it, but Henry won’t answer, forcing Locke to give up on The Swan; and Jack and Kate go to the border between their encampment and the Others’ to tell them that they have Henry and propose a trade for Walt and end up finding Michael. Flashbacks: We see how Rose and Bernard’s relationship before the Island and ended up on Flight 815. It is here we learn that Rose has cancer; she tells Bernard when he proposes to her. So, Bernard takes her to Australia to meet a faith healer in hopes that he will cure her. He does not, but she decides to lie to Bernard in hopes that he’ll let her die in peace. We also see Rose meeting Locke before the flight, which is how she knew he was paralyzed before coming to the Island. Thoughts: “S.O.S.” is a bit of a time waster. I mean, two episodes ago, we just found out that Henry is an Other. Yet, not only did we have to sit through Hurley’s imaginary world dilemma, but now we have to sit through a flashback of Bernard and Rose’s life before the Island. However, this isn’t a bad time waster. For one, Rose and Bernard’s flashback isn’t filler like most of the flashbacks have been this season. I mean, we’re finally learning about two characters who aren’t exactly tie up into the big things going on with the Island. It’s an answer to one of those questions fans have been asking: what are the other people doing on the Island, and why were they on Flight 815? Now, we know about Rose and Bernard. They have a nice story about falling in love and getting married despite Rose’s cancer. And, Bernard’s constant need to get Rose healthy was touching, especially when it’s revealed that him trying to get rescue might actually end up doing more harm since the Island may have cured Rose. Their story is very well done. Anderson and Caldwell give some good performances. I also have to give props to Dick and Maeda’s script. They told a nice love story in this one and threw in quite a bit of comedy. Those scenes with Bernard and Jin are just hilarious. The amazing thing about “S.O.S.” is that Rose and Bernard’s plot is a lot more interesting than what’s going on with the main characters. And by that I mean Kate and Jack. Oh my God! Are they annoying in this one. Their whole “Will they or won’t they?” escapade in the Jungle is just insufferable. I mean, for the love of God, I’m just sitting here, watching, and thinking, “Just fuck already! I’m sick of dealing with you’re David and Maddie actions. FUCK ALREADY!” But no, they have to be all dramatic about kissing and then pulling away then and Kate being sorry for the kiss and Jack not. Oh my God! Who gives a shit!? Just have sex! It’s not like they got a whole lot going on on this Island. Plus, this shit is really annoying when Jack and Kate are going to the Others to talk about a trade, Walt for Henry. I mean, they’re going to meet the Others! It seems like we’re possibly going to learn more about the Others! But no, we have to deal with Kate and Jack’s relationship and what it’s definition is when we could care less and want some Other action. It appears that the Lost writers are a lot more interesting in Jack and Kate than we are, and if they had written them a little bit better, then we might, too. But, they didn’t. So, we don’t. Luckily, there is some great stuff with Locke in this episode. He is our Man of Faith, but now his faith is being tested. Henry telling Locke that he didn’t enter the numbers and that nothing happened has got Locke questioning whether or not he put he was right to put his faith in the Island as he believes it led him to The Swan and this purpose. It’s some great stuff, and O’Quinn gives a great performance. He plays doubt very well. I also like Emerson’s smile when Locke asks him if he was lying. It’s just so devilish. I also liked the reveal that Rose met Locke before the flight and knew about his condition. It was a nice way to show that the Island may have cured Rose. Though, there is another interesting theory about Rose being cured from Caldwell herself: she suggested that “If she is cured, it's because she's willed it herself.” That’s an interesting idea and seems plausible giving how strong-willed the character is. Now, I bring that up because there is a lot of Caldwell in this episode, and I don’t just mean because it’s about her character. During the first season, Caldwell’s husband died of cancer a year after they were married. This inspired much of the story elements in this episode. I liked how the writers incorporated the actress’s real life into the episode. It’s makes the episode a little more touching and powerful. All in all, this is a very good episode, other than the stuff with Kate and Jack. Though, to be fair, the scene with them in the net was okay. Also, there was something interesting with Isaac, the healer. When he touches Rose and he gets all scared by what he sees, it reminded me of Malkin getting scared when he did Claire’s reading. I wonder if they saw the same thing. 8/10. 20. Two For The Road Director(s): Paul Edwards Writer(s): Elizabeth Sarnoff & Christina M. Kim Plot: Ana-Lucia questions Henry again, but he attacks her. Luckily, Locke saves her. Angered, she goes to Sawyer for a gun. He refuses, but she manages to get one of his guns anyway. Then, Jack and Kate return with Michael. When he wakes up, he tells everyone that he found the Others’ camp, that they are living worse off than the castaways, and that he plans to organize a rescues mission for Walt. Jack and Locke agree to help him. So, they go to Sawyer to get some guns, which is when he discovers that Ana-Lucia stole one. As all this goes on, Hurley and Libby are planning a romantic picnic. Back in The Swan, Michael finds Ana-Lucia about to kill Henry. However, she reveals that she couldn’t do it. So, Michael offers to do it for her. Ana-Lucia gives Michael the gun, and he shoots her. Libby walks in on the scene and scares Michael, causing him to shoot her as well. Then, Michael frees Henry and shoots himself to make it seem that Henry escaped and shot all three. Flashbacks: Ana-Lucia gets her second and last flashback. We learn that she quit the force because she was the prime suspect in the murder of Jason MacCormack, the man who shot her. Eventually, Ana-Lucia runs into Dr. Christian Shepard, who hires her to drive him around Sydney, Australia. She agrees but then quits after quickly getting tired of his drunken antics. Then, she calls her mom, who agrees to meet her in L.A. Thoughts: Here’s the big irony of Ana-Lucia: while the character may be very annoying, the episodes in which she’s the main focus have been really good. Though it was mainly about all of the Tailies, Ana-Lucia was the main focus of “The Other 48 Days,” which is easily the best episode of the season so far. And, “Collision” was pretty damn good despite how irritating she was in it. But, the best Ana-Lucia episode may very well be this one. I still can’t decided if it’s better than “The Other 48 Days” or not, but they are in a dead heat. The thing that makes “Two For The Road” so damn good is how out of nowhere it is. For one, you have Dr. Christian Shepard showing up in her flashback. Who would have thought that she and Jack had a pre-Island connection deeper than just they shared a drink before Flight 815? I totally didn’t expect it, and it was such a pleasant surprise to see John Terry in this one. He’s great here. The thing about Terry is that even while acting like a dick, he’s still pretty damn likable. I can’t say the same Fox. Either Fox is better at playing a dick, but Terry is just so charismatic that you’re mesmerized by him whether he’s good or bad. The other surprise in this episode: Michael shooting Ana-Lucia and Libby. It just comes out of nowhere. There was no suspicion in Perrineau’s performance or any foreshadowing in the scenes leading up to the shooting. It just happens. It was like Vader telling Luke that he was his father. No one saw it coming, and no one suspected that the saga’s main villain would be the father of the saga’s main hero. Same here. Michael isn’t a killer. He’s just a man who suddenly had to take care of the kid he gave up. But, he eventually came to reconnect with his son and was willing do anything to get him back, even if it meant killing two innocent people. And, the scene is shot excellently; props to Paul Edwards for the pauses between Michael’s misdeed and Henry’s release. I also have to give props to Perrineau’s performance. Other than the way he doesn’t telegraph Michael’s betrayal, the look on his face after he kills Ana-Lucia and Libby was fantastic. Though, I can’t say that the deaths of Ana-Lucia and Libby were all that surprising. There was speculation that Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros would be fired because they got arrested DUIs a few months prior to the episode. Then, sure enough, both of their characters are now dead. Do the math. Though, this may not actually be the case. Cuse, Lindelof, and Rodriguez have repeatedly said that Ana-Lucia was only suppose to be on the show for one season (Thank God! I don’t think I could have taken more of her intensity.). As for Libby, her character and her relationship with Hurley were pretty well liked. So, the writers decided, since the people got so emotionally invested in her, to kill her off as it would have a deep impact with them. Which is fine; I understand the need for drama and tension. But, they did it before even giving Libby a flashback episode. Now, the writers did say that they would return to her character’s story; but so far, that has not come to pass. What really sucks is that they had some good opportunities to do it. They could have waited on the Rose/Bernard flashback till Season 3 and done Libby’s story in it’s place. Or, they could have shown what Michael was doing with the Others over the course of the episodes from “The Hunting Party” till this one instead of doing it in “Three Minutes” and given Libby her backstory there as she died. But no. Didn’t happen, and it may not as the sixth season is about to premiere, and it looks like the writers have become more interested in other things. Though, they do have one more season to make up for this. The lack of Libby backstory aside, this is still a great episode. Besides the big surprise, we have Ana-Lucia being not as annoying as usual. In fact, she’s pretty damn likable, especially in the scenes with her and Sawyer. By the way, they get it on! Bow-chika-wow-wow!!!! Though, she only has sex with him to get one of his guns (clever). Also, Hurley’s picnic subplot is pretty sweet. There’s a nice comedic scene between him and Sayid about “Say Anything” and some nice chemistry between Garcia and Watros. It just makes Libby’s death all the more heartbreaking. I also like Emerson in this episode. He’s really starting to show the Ben we all know and love here. Henry choking Ana-Lucia and him telling Locke that he was coming to get Locke because he’s one of the good ones, bring up that question about why the Others took all those Tailies and what makes them the good ones. Still don’t know what the hell was gonna become of that theory. Anyway, that doesn’t really matter or take anything away from the episode. The thing I really liked about this episode: how Ana-Lucia can’t bring herself to kill Henry and her giving Michael to gun to do the deed. It’s great because it shows that Ana-Lucia isn’t such a hard ass, and it’s just another one of the many bad decisions this woman has made. She thought killing the man who took her baby was a good idea, but it just lead her to quit her job and become estranged from her mother. She thought going to Australia with Christian would be a good way to work out all her issues, but it just lead to her being pissed off by a drunk and on a plane that would later crash. She thought Nathan was the Other in the Tailies, but she had the wrong man. She thought tying Sayid up after she killed Shannon was a good idea but no. And, now, she thought giving Michael the gun would be her way out of the violence that seems to surround her life; but it ended up leading to her death. Such a tragic end for a tragic character. 9/10. Bonus Features And Easter Eggs. First off, there is a commentary track on this disc, for the episode “Dave.” Okay now, as I said last time, here are the Easter eggs for DVDs of Seasons 1 and 2: Season 1: • From the Main Menu of Disc 2, choose "Episodes". Then Highlight the "Main Menu" selection. Press right and a dot will appear to the left. Press Enter to listen to the French Woman's distress call iterate from 17294531 to 17294535. • If you stay on the Disc 6 Menu long enough, the plane eventually falls to the ground. • On the main menu of Disc 7, go left from the "Tales from the Island" to "Disc 7" to see the alternate main title sequence. (0.22) • On the "Tales from the Island" page of Disc 7, go right from the "Main Menu" link to watch the filming of Locke's smiling orange sequence. (1:36) • On the Deleted Scenes" page of Disc 7, Choose: "The Climb", press your Select or Play button (Not actually required to see the egg but it will not be as funny without it.). Then choose "The Climb" again, but this time press your Left button to get a dot. Press your Enter button you will see a hilarious alternate version of the end sequence of "The Climb". (0.36) Season 2: • Disc 2: Go to the Main Menu, wait for the Menu to go on a loop four times. Then you will see the Others passing by. The last Other is holding a palm tree leaf to the ground. Maybe to cover their footprints? This feature is missing from region 4 and 2 DVDs. It also appears to be missing from the Blu-ray Disc set. • Disc 4: Register Your Disc (in Set-up), press left until a black vinyl album pops out of the stack, pressing enter on it causes the full cover of the Geronimo Jackson album, Magna Carta, to appear, press "5" on your remote (or in a DVD-ROM, click on the area near the bottom of the album cover) to get a short featurette featuring the two Supervising Producers talking about the history of this band (which is a real band from the 70's and 80's). This feature is missing from region 4 and 2 DVDs. It also appears to be missing from the Blu-ray Disc set. In the region 1 and 4 DVDs distributed in Argentina, this feature can be accessed in the main menu, near lava lamp. In the region 2 DVDs distributed in Germany, this feature can also be accessed in the main menu, near lava lamp • Disc 7, special features disc: • Main Menu: Move the button up while Phase 3 is highlighted, pressing enter after moving up from Phase 3 will play a short clip about making Dharma cookies with Josh Holloway and Moumen El Hajji. • Phase 1: Move the left when "Fire + Water" is highlighted, until the cursor is just to the left of the words "Anatomy of a Episode." This shows a brief clip of Dominic Monaghan from on the set, December 2005, telling members of the crew the now infamous Snowman joke. • Lost On Location: Move the button right 3 times when "Everybody Hates Hugo" is highlighted. This action plays a brief clip about Hurley's sweat. • Move the button right twice, then up once when "S.O.S." is highlighted. This action shows a clip of Sam Anderson filming the scene in which Bernard is stuck in the treetops after the crash. • Move the button left twice, then down once when "What Kate Did" is highlighted. This action shows a clip of Evangeline Lilly with Jade, the baby who plays Aaron. • Phase 2: Move the button left until the button is to the right of 'return' (far left in the region 2 DVD). This action plays a hidden interview with Evangeline Lilly. • Deleted Scenes: In the second page, press the "Right" until nothing is highlighted, and press OK. Shows a brief clip of the Tailies and Goodwin capturing a chicken ("The Other 48 Days") • Move the button left while "seeing Walt" is highlighted, button will then move to the right. This action plays a brief clip of Malcolm David Kelley preparing and shooting his scene in "Man of Science, Man of Faith". • On the last page of Deleted Scenes, go down to "Play All" and press: Left, Up, Up, and Left again. This action will allow you to see a small scene about the rain delays in Lost shooting. • Phase 3: Move the button left while "Secrets of the Hatch" is highlighted. This will show you a photo of Jack Bender and the mural he painted on the wall in the Hatch. Region 2 exclusives: • In the menu "Lost: On Location" (sub-menu of menu 1), highlight "Dave." Press "right" on your remote twice. A white dot appears to the right of the word "Dave", outside the black rectangle; press "play" on your remote. This unlocks a brief clip of Jorge Garcia discussing the sweat on Hurley's clothes. • In the menu "Phase 2: Conditioning", highlight "Lost Bloopers." Press "left" on your remote twice. A white dot appears in the lower left corner of the black rectangle. Press "play" on your remote. This unlocks an interview with Evangeline Lilly named "On the Beach with Evi", where she discusses her preparations for season 2. • In the menu "The Lost Flashbacks" (sub-menu of menu 2), highlight "Return to Phase 2." Press "left" on your remote once. A white dot appears between the vertical grain line in the middle of the screen and the word "Return". Press "play" on your remote. This unlocks a brief clip about the filming of the scene from "The Other 48 Days" where Ana Lucia and Goodwin discover Bernard in a pair of seats perched up in a tree. • In the menu "Deleted Scenes" (sub-menu of menu 2), highlight "Weakness." Press "right" on your remote three times. A white dot appears in the upper right corner of the black rectangle. Press "play" on your remote. This unlocks a brief clip with Evangeline Lilly introducing a baby named Jade, who plays Aaron. • Still in the menu "Deleted Scenes", highlight "Play All". Press "left", "up", "up" and "left" on your remote. A white dot appears between "Play All" and "Return to Phase 2" (to the right of the grain line in the middle of the screen; same position as the Easter egg in the "Lost Flashbacks" menu). Press "play" on your remote. This unlocks a brief clip about heavy rain causing delays in the shooting of Season 2. • In the menu "Phase 3: Conclusion", highlight "Secrets of the Hatch". Press "left" on your remote twice. A white dot appears to the right of "Secrets of the Hatch", outside the black rectangle. Press "play" on your remote. This unlocks a photo of Jack Bender standing next to the mural inside the Swan he painted. Okay, tomorrow, I finish Season 2. And then I’ll move on to Season 3 on Friday. Well, it took me all December to get through Seasons 1 and 2, but I do think that I will be able to finish Seasons 3-5 before the show premieres in February. Luckily for us, Season 4 was so short.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Dec 30, 2009 18:09:43 GMT -5
Before I begin, again much like yesterday, I’m gonna have to do some spoiling today. Also like yesterday, the endings and big reveals are just too big to ignore in the review. So, here’s your big warning: Season 2-Disc 6 21. ? Director(s): Deran Sarafian Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: A dream featuring his brother Yemi and Ana-Lucia tells Eko that he most help Locke find his way by taking him to the question mark. So, he goes to The Swan and discovers like Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Locke before him the aftermath of Michael’s murders and letting Henry go. Eko and Locke decide to go after Henry, while Jack and the rest stay to attend to Libby, who somehow survived the shooting. However, she eventually succumbs to her injuries. Meanwhile, Eko and Locke don’t find Henry but instead discover another DHARMA station, this one The Pearl, which is underground at the place where Eko’s plane landed. Flashbacks: We finally learn what Eko was doing in Australia. It turns out that after his brother’s death, he somehow made his way out of Nigeria and ended up presiding over a church in Sydney. An associate gives Eko a fake passport so that he can leave the country, but before he does, Eko’s monsignor asks him to investigate a possible miracle. A girl who drowned came back to life. When he does, he learns from the girl’s father, Richard Malkin, that they faked it because they resent that his career as a fake psychic. So, he reports that the miracle was fake. However, the girl confronts Eko before he gets on Flight 815 and tells him that Yemi is proud of him. Thoughts: So, we last left off on an exciting cliffhanger. Michael had just shot Ana-Lucia and Libby and released Henry. This would mean that naturally the next episode would be the big reveal of why Michael did that deed. Well, if you thought that, then you would be wrong because this episode has Locke and Eko walking around the jungle to find the question mark. Much like “S.O.S.,” this episode is a time waster. But, also like “S.O.S.,” it’s not a bad episode. For one, we do see the aftermath of Michael’s shooting, and it turns out Libby ain’t dead. This makes things exciting because we don’t know if Libby’s gonna make, and if she does, will she spill the beans? Thrilling stuff, and Perrineau plays it well. He’s really stepped up his game in these last few episodes of Season 2. It’s a shame he won’t be returning for Season 3, but more on that later. I also have to praise Garcia for his acting in this one; this episode pretty much features his best acting performance. He plays the sadness over Libby’s death with some nice subtly…well, except in the crying scene. Anyway, there is one huge problem with this episode: Michael shoots Libby and Ana-Lucia around the same time Jack, Kate, and Locke went to Sawyer to get the guns, which was during the day. However, when the episode begins, we see Jack, Kate, Locke, and Sawyer walking to The Swan at night! You mean to tell me that the walk from the beach to The Swan takes over an hour. Please. It also doesn’t make much sense because Hurley was waiting for Libby. And, when he comes looking for her, it’s day again. So, he waited all night? How did any one making this episode miss this huge continuity error? But, that doesn’t take away from the episode. It’s more of an inconvenience but a big one at that. Anyway, the Eko story isn’t bad. For one, we get a lot of surreal dream, which is one of the things Lost has done well. So, praise to Cuse and Lindelof for their writing here and Sarafian for some nice direction of them. Also, it answers an important question that was raised just a few episodes ago: where does the blast door map lead to? Well, if you follow, you’ll end up at the place where Eko’s plane landed and find an underground DHARMA station, The Pearl. And, we quickly learn the purpose of The Pearl: it monitors the goings ons in The Swan. We also get another orientation film, which has Dr. Marvin Candle, this time calling himself Dr. Mark Wickmund, explaining the purpose of The Pearl, which leads Locke and the audience to believe that The Swan is a psychological experiment to see if two would actually push a button if they believed it did something. Of course, The Pearl could also be the psychological experiment, to see if two people would actually monitor other people doing something if they believed they were really doing the important work. The interesting thing about this revelation is how Eko and Locke react to it. Locke sees the video and thinks that what he’s been doing in The Swan has been fruitless. However, Eko sees the exact same video and gets the impression that he must continue to push the button because it is important. They both saw the same thing, one had his entire belief system shaken to its core, and the other one had it strengthen. Locke and Eko are both men of faith, but Locke has a more cynical approach to it. He believes, but he won’t blindly believe everything he sees or fears and will question his faith if there is evidence to the contrary. Eko, on the other hand, believes everything he sees and does is important and will continue to do it regardless of all the evidence pointing against. It’s the exact same conflict that Locke and Jack have had but with a much more interesting twist to it. It’s very sharply written, so I have to compliment Cuse and Lindelof again for their script and ideas brought up in this episode. As for the flashbacks, they’re okay. We finally learn what Eko was doing in Australia (he was the priest of a church), we get two more connections (the father of the miracle woman was Richard Malkin, the psychic who told Claire to not give up her baby, and Libby made a cameo in the final flashback scene), and there were some nicely acted scenes (I especially liked the scene between Eko and Malkin and the scene between Eko and Charlotte). But, as I said, the flashbacks and the Eko plot are pretty much time wasters. It was really frustrating seeing this back when it premiered. What you really want to see is the explanation for Michael’s actions. Instead, you get Eko and Locke talking about faith in yet another DHARMA station, and you have to wait another week for the explanation. And, it keeps us from seeing Libby’s flashback episode. But, it isn’t a bad episode. As I said, the Eko story was very well written, but they probably could have waited until the week after for it. Nevertheless, I give it a 9 out of 10. 22. Three Minutes Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Leonard Dick Plot: Michael wants to go with a party after the Others, but for some reason, he keeps insisting that the people who go with him be Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley. When Sayid tries to go with them, he protests. And, he has a hard time trying to convince Hurley to go with them. However, Hurley eventually agrees to go with them. Nevertheless, Michael’s strange behavior has Sayid and Jack that something is wrong. Meanwhile, Charlie gives Claire some vaccine he found, decides to build the church after Eko abandons the project, and finds the heroin and throws it into the ocean. Also, Sun spots a boat in the ocean during Libby and Ana-Lucia’s funeral. Flashbacks: We learn what happened to Michael during his time searching for Walt. It turns out he was quickly captured by the Others. They take him back to their camp and tell him that they plan to let Michael have Walt on one condition: they will send Michael back, and he must their captured man, Henry, and bring back Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley. Thoughts: Now, we finally learn what the hell Michael was doing during his missing time on the show. Funnily enough, he gets the centric episode before the season finale; he got the centric episode after the season premiere, a nice coincidental bookmark. However, this isn’t a very satisfactory explanation for what Michael was doing. But, it has nothing to do with Michael and everything to do with the Others. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t get why nor like that the Others so far have been portrayed as savages who live in abject squalor. The only reason I think of is to keep the audience guessing about who the Others are and how they live. But, it’s stupid for two reasons: one, why would the Others want the castaways to think that they’re poor? Wouldn’t it be more frightening to let the castaways know that they are living in better conditions and have access to better resources than them? Or, is it just trap them into a sense of security? The latter seems logical until you take in consideration the other reason the Others in rags makes no sense: the DHARMA stations. We know that the Others have access to these. For one, we’ve seen them using one in “Maternity Leave.” The other: if the Others had come to this Island and knew nothing about the DHARMA Initiative they would have quickly learned since these stations are all over the Island and pretty easily found. I mean, the castaways found three of them thanks to dumb luck and amazingly psychic subconsciouses. I’m pretty sure these Island hicks could have easily found just by walking around to take a shit. Another big problem: the Others wanting Michael to bring Hurley with Kate, Sawyer, and Jack. That makes no sense. Why would the Others want Hurley? I mean, yes, we do learn that they only wanted him to take a message back to the other castaways. But, that is lame. And, the writers attempt to justify him going because he’s so grief stricken over Libby’s death doesn’t feel all that believable to me. It’s a big stretch for me to take because Hurley just isn’t the kind of guy would be all gung ho and full of vengeance if the woman he loved died. He’s more of heartbroken, mopey, and lay around and feel depressed person. Honestly, it shouldn’t have been Hurley who went along; it should have been Charlie. Think about it, Charlie killed Ethan. Wouldn’t they want the man who killed one of them? Plus, it would have added a layer of tension to the episode if Michael had to go around and convince Charlie to come with them. As for Hurley, he could have done what Charlie was doing in the season finale because the real reason Hurley went with them and Charlie did what he did was because they’re two main character who needed something to do. But, Hurley could have easily done Charlie did and vice versa because the other way round was ham-fisted at best. But, all the stuff with the Others isn’t that bad. For one, we get to meet some more of them. Well, just two: Pickett and Ms. Klugh, who quickly became a favorite of mine. April Grace did a great job with this character. She really left me wanting more of her character. SPEAKING OF good performances, M.C. Gainey is back. Man, that guy just nails Mr. Friendly. But, the piece de resistance is Perrineau. He is great in this one. He’s anxiety and frustration to get all the unruly dogs lined up and do what he wants is played perfectly. One of his best parts is the look on his face when he cleans up Ana-Lucia and Libby’s blood off The Swan floor. Such a painfully haunted look on his face. And, it’s floor by a great speech nicely delivered by Akinnuoye-Agbaje about a boy who confessed to killing a dog and being afraid that it would be waiting for him in hell. Props to Dick and Kitsis for that. I also liked their choice of showing the flashback shots after the commercial breaks; that gave the episode some nice structure. I also liked the Charlie subplot in this one. He hasn’t been doing much lately, and here to see him start redeeming himself by giving vaccine to Claire, continuing to build the church without Eko, and throwing away all the heroin was nice. Plus, there was a nice shot between him and Locke that subtly showed them reconciling. I also liked the scene between Sawyer and Jack where they’re loading guns and Sawyer reveals that he had sex with Ana-Lucia to Jack because “Because, you’re the closest thing I got to a friend.” Nicely acted, and a great line to boot. All in all, this is a pretty good episode, but it is very frustrating at parts. However, the frustration soon subsides when it becomes clear that the Others aren’t as impoverished in Season 3. So, I’ll be kind and give it an 8 out of 10. 23. Live Together, Die Alone Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: Jack, Sayid, and Sawyer swim out to the boat and find Desmond. Apparently, he wasn’t able to leave the Island like he hoped. So they bring him and his ashore. Then, he just sits around the beach for a while until Locke approaches him with questions about The Swan. Locke now believes the computer does nothing and wants to wait for the countdown to reach zero to see what happens. However, Eko has now decided to enter the numbers. So, they distract Eko and lock him out with the blast doors. Enraged, Eko tries to get back into the room. As they wait, Desmond soon realizes that maybe the computer does work. However, Locke destroys the computer. Then, when the countdown reaches zero, all hell breaks loose. Luckily, there is a failsafe, and Desmond activates it. Meanwhile, Michael, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley go to rescue Walt. Unbeknownst to Michael, Sayid, Sun, and Jin are sailing along the Island in Desmond’s boat; Sayid and Jack suspect a trap and plan to stop it. However, the Others do manage to capture Michael’s search party, after they learn that Michael did kill Ana-Lucia and Libby. Then, the Others give Michael a boat and Walt and let them go as they take the others away. At the end of the episode, we see two men at a monitoring station. Suddenly, they discover an electromagnetic anomaly and call their boss, Penny Widmore, to tell her that they may have found the Island. Flashbacks: Desmond goes flashbacking for the first time. We learn that he was in prison and planned to hook up with his old girlfriend, Penny, when he got out. However, her father, Charles, puts a stop to that. By convincing him to take part in a sailing race around the world. Desmond agrees and gets a boat, from Libby of all people. However, he runs into a storm and ends up beaching on the Island. He is rescued by Joe Kelvin Inman, who is living in the Swan and pushing the button. They live their for three years of somewhat civility. Then, Desmond discovers that Kelvin has been repairing his boat and planning to escape. This leads to a fight in which Kelvin is killed and Desmond almost doesn’t push the button, resulting the electromagnetic anomaly pulling Oceanic Flight 815 out of the sky. After this, Desmond almost kills himself. However, Locke’s knocking on the hatch door stops him. Thoughts: Warning: bias ahead. This is my favorite episode. So, I may looking at this with rose-colored glasses. Though, the last time I saw it was when it first premiered back in May of 2006. So, maybe time and a little nostalgia is clouding my judgment. Also, the main reason I liked this episode was because it answered a lot of questions; so I wasn’t exactly taking the acting and writing into consideration. Anyway, I doubt my opinion will change much; but this is one of the reasons I wanted to go back and review all these DVDs: to see if these episodes lived up to the first impression they gave me. Anyway, let’s look at all these questions it answered, shall we: Question #1: Who’s boat is it? Answer: Desmond, which answers what happened to him after he left The Swan, so I won’t bother asking that. Also, the boat is used throughout the episode as Sayid plans to sail around the Island to get the drop on the Others before they get the drop on them. Nice plan, but Sayid isn’t a sailor. I don’t know if you know this, but there ain’t a lot of sailboats in Iraq. However, Sun and Jin go along with him because Jin’s a good sailor, Sun needs to translate, and they need something to do in the finale, just like Hurley and Charlie needed something to do, which is why Hurley went with Michael’s rescue party and Charlie was trying to make peace with Locke and Eko in The Swan. I already said my piece about that up in the “Three Minutes” review. But, I do have one more problem with that need to give people something to do in the finale: Claire. She does nothing! Well, other than talk to Desmond, kiss Charlie, and nearly get killed by falling debris; luckily Bernard pulled her out of the way. Did they just forget about her!? What the hell? They gave Sun something to do, but not Claire. Though, I can’t exactly blame because I don’t know what the hell Claire could have done. Question #2: What was Desmond doing in the hatch all those three years? Answer: He was living in The Swan, which we already knew, with Kelvin, AKA Joe Inman, who knew Sayid back in the first Gulf War. Who expected that the happen? Not me. And, it’s a pleasant surprise as Clancy Brown is fantastic in this one. He and Cusick have a great rapport with each other, which makes the flashback scenes nicely done. Though, we also see how Desmond ended up on the Island, which introduces us to two nice recurring characters: Charles Widmore and his daughter Penny. They don’t do much here, but they leave a nice first impression, which leaves us wanting for more. I also liked Libby showing up in Desmond. We get a nice glimpse at her pre-Island life that we’ll never see. Anyway, she was the one who gave Desmond the boat, which was her late husband’s; a nice little scene by the way. The best part was the end of the flashback, when Locke’s pounding on the hatch stopped Desmond from killing himself. Such a great and heartbreaking moment. Question #3: Who painted the blast door map? Answer: Kelvin. In fact, we learn a lot from Kelvin, like the sickness, which pretty doesn’t exists as he walks around without the protective suit we saw him in earlier. He also tells us about the failsafe, which would eliminate the need to push the button. Though, that just makes us wonder why didn’t anyone just use it in the first place. I mean, why stay in The Swan pushing that infernal button when you could just use the failsafe? Is living in The Swan really that nice? Question #4: Do the Others live in such poverty as they appear to or is that just a deception? Answer: No. Kate pretty much reveals that she knows Mr. Friendly’s beard is a fake. So, we won’t have to sit through them in shanty town throughout Season 3. Though, I pretty much knew this before hand because the writers didn’t hide this well. Question #5: Why do the Others want Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley? Answer: Well, we know why they wanted Hurley: to send a message to the other castaways, which I was lame. As for Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, who knows? Maybe they’re the good ones out of the non-Tailies. Question #6: What caused the plane crash? Answer: The electromagnetic anomaly underneath The Swan. It turns out that Desmond and Kelvin were fighting over Kelvin about to leave the Island with Desmond’s boat, and Desmond didn’t get to the computer in time. Though, he was able to enter the numbers, it still brought Flight 815 down, which answers the next question. Question #7: Does The Swan computer do anything? Answer: Yes. It does! The electromagnetic anomaly underneath The Swan builds up, but pushing the button every 108 minutes discharges it from sucking all the metal nearby. Though, nearby is a loose definition as it could pull a plane out of the sky. But, the lead up to that answer was done beautifully. Locke and Eko’s struggle was well acted by O’Quinn and Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Also, Monagham does a good job even though his character is clumsily thrown into those scenes. But, it’s the tension that sells it since we didn’t know if the button did anything at all, which was nicely done in the scene in which Desmond realizes that it’s real. We also learn that The Pearl may have been the real psychological experiment as all the notes the people in The Pearl were being sent to basically a field in the middle of the Island, which Kate discovers. Question #8: What did one snowman say to the other snowman? Answer: Smells like carrots. Other great things about this episode: the tension in the rescue party scenes as Michael begins to suspect that Jack may know that he’s been compromised and when the others find out what Michael did. Though, it does have some problems, like Sawyer’s awkward bits of dialogue that has him wondering just what’s up with The Others. I also have to give props to the location scouts as they picked some very unique looking places for this episode, like where the Others were keeping Michael and the rocks where Desmond accidentally kills Kelvin. Those places were some great looking geography that really made the Island a unique and fully realized place, which helps the audience to fully imagine it. Also, all the new questions raised for Season 3. Now, I know I’ve complained about all these questions Lost has been asking, but it is important here because something needs to happen in Season 3, and here we have some good ones, like: what are the Others gonna do with Kate, Jack, and Sawyer? What’s up with the four-toed statue? Did Desmond, Locke, and Eko survive The Swan explosion? And, will Penny go to the Island? Well, I’ll talk about the first one during my Season 3 review. As for the four-toed statue, we don’t know much. It’s mentioned on and off throughout the series, but we never learn who made, why, how, and why it has four toes. Add it to the ever-growing list of things Lost still hasn’t given us an explanation for. You can also add how Kelvin got to The Island. Though, we do meet his former bunk mate Radzinsky in Season 5. As for the survivors question and the Penny one, they did; and she does, but we’ll see that in Season 4. And, finally, the best thing about “Live Together, Die Alone”: Henry Ian Cusick. He is amazing in this one. He was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor for this episode, which I felt he should have one. I mean, Desmond’s tail was so nicely told that it need a great actor to deliver a great performance for the audience to really feel it. I was so glad he returned in Season 3. So, was this episode as good as I remembered it. Well, yes. I still enjoyed it, and it’s still my favorite. I have to commended Cuse and Lindelof for writing a great season finale. It’s clunking in some parts, but overall it was very satisfactory, more so than Season 1’s. It answered a lot of questions while asking new ones and keeping us wanting to tune in next season. I also have to praise Jack Bender. Once again, the man has delivered, which is why he pretty much does all the show’s season finales. 10/10. Overall, Season 2 was a lot better the second time around than the first. Back then, it was all new, meaning that when I watched, I was being thrown question after question without much answers, which was quite frustrating and distracting from the great acting and writing these episodes churned out. Now, looking back with a lot of those questions answered, I can fully appreciate how well much of these episodes were. Sure, a lot of mysteries remain unsolved, and much of this season was filler and time wasters, but they were still thematically rich and entertaining. And, yes, there were some sub par to bad episodes: “Adrift,” “The Whole Truth,” “Fire + Water.” But, there were a lot of great episodes: “The Other 48 Days,” “Two For The Road,” “?,” “Live Together, Die Alone.” And, the special features on the DVD were okay. Some were the same old making of featurettes that aren’t necessarily bad, but if you’ve seen one, then you’ve seen them all. But, some were actually clever, like that interactive connection featurette. That looks like a fun thing to play with. So, I definitely recommended the Lost Season 2 DVD. It may have been hell watching it back then, but on DVD, it’s quite enjoyable, especially since you can get through it all quicker. Highlight: “Live Together, Die Alone.” Recommended.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Dec 30, 2009 18:23:29 GMT -5
Okay, as I said, I'll begin Season 3 on Friday. Also, good news! I just got the first disc of the Season 4 DVD from Netflix! That's something.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 1, 2010 19:12:57 GMT -5
Main characters: Season 3: Dr. Jack Shephard—Matthew Fox (starting with “Pilot”) Kate Austen—Evangeline Lilly (starting with “Pilot”) Charlie Pace—Dominic Monagham (starting with “Pilot”) James “Sawyer” Ford—Josh Holloway (starting with “Pilot”) John Locke—Terry O’Quinn (starting with “Pilot”) Hugo “Hurley” Reyes—Jorge Garcia (starting with “Pilot”) Sayid Jarrah—Naveen Andrews (starting with “Pilot”) Claire Littleton—Emilie De Ravin (starting with “Pilot”) Michael Dawson—Harold Perrineau (starting with “Pilot,” note: doesn’t appear in Season 3 but returns in Season 4) Walt Lloyd—Malcolm David Kelley(starting with “Pilot,” ending with “Live Together, Die Alone”) Jin-Soo Kwan—Daniel Dae Kim (starting with “Pilot”) Sun-Hwa Kwan—Yunjin Kim (starting with “Pilot”) Desmond Hume—Henry Ian Cusick (starting with “Man Of Science, Man Of Faith”) Ben Linus—Michael Emmerson (starting with “One Of Them”) Juliet Burke—Elizabeth Mitchell (starting with “A Tale Of Two Cities”) Shannon Rutherford—Maggie Grace (starting with “Pilot,” ending with “Abandoned”) Boone Carlyle—Ian Somerhalder (starting with “Pilot,” ending with “Do No Harm”) Ana-Lucia Cortez—Michelle Rodriguez (starting with “Exodus,” ending with “?”) Mr. Eko—Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (starting with “Adrift,” ending with “The Cost of Living”) Libby Smith—Cynthia Watros (starting with “Adrift,” ending with “Live Together, Die Alone”) Paulo—Rodrigo Santoro (starting with “Further Instructions,” ending with “Exposé”) Nikki Fernandez—Kiele Sanchez (starting with “Further Instructions,” ending with “Exposé”) Supporting characters: Rose Henderson—L. Scott Caldwell (recurring, starting with “Pilot”) Bernard Nadler—Sam Anderson (recurring, starting with “Everybody Hates Hugo”) Edward Mars—Fredric Lane (recurring, starting with “Pilot”) Randy Nations—Billy Ray Gallion (recurring, starting with “Walkabout”) Dr. Christian Shephard—John Terry (recurring, starting with “White Rabbit”) Danielle Rousseau—Mira Furlan (recurring, starting with “Solitary”) Ethan Rom—William Mapother (recurring, starting with “Solitary”) Nadia—Andrea Gabriel (recurring, starting with “Solitary”) Carmen Reyes—Lillian Hurst (recurring, starting with “Numbers”) Anthony Cooper—Kevin Tighe (recurring, starting with “Deus Ex Machina”) Sarah Shephard—Julie Bowen (recurring, starting with “Do No Harm”) Diane Janssen—Beth Broderick (recurring, starting with “Born To Run”) Mr. Friendly—M.C. Gainey (recurring, starting with “Exodus”) Dr. Marvin Candle/Dr. Mark Wickmund—François Chau (recurring, starting with “Orientation”) Cindy Chandler—Kimberly Joseph (recurring, starting with “Everybody Hates Hugo” though she was in “Pilot”) Jae Lee—Tony Lee (recurring, starting with “…And Found”) Mrs. Paik—June Kyoko Lu (recurring, starting with “…And Found”) Goodwin Stanhope—Brett Cullen (recurring, starting with “The Other 48 Days”) Cassidy Phillips—Kim Dickens (recurring, starting with “The Long Con”) Alex—Tania Raymonde (recurring, starting with “Maternity Leave”) Charles Widmore—Alan Dale (recurring, starting with “Live Together, Die Alone”) Penny Widmore—Sonya Walger (recurring, starting with “Live Together, Die Alone”) Pickett—Michael Bowen (recurring, starting with “Live Together, Die Alone”) Ms. Klugh—April Grace (recurring, starting with “Live Together, Die Alone”) Karl Martin—Blake Bashoff (recurring, starting with “A Tale Of Two Cities”) Mikhail—Andrew Divoff (recurring, starting with “The Cost Of Living”) Jason—Ariston Green (recurring, starting with “The Cost Of Living”) Ivan—Teddy Wells (recurring, starting with “I Do”) Richard Alpert—Nestor Carbonell (recurring, starting with “Not In Portland”) Eloise Hawkings—Fionnula Flanagan (recurring, starting with “Flashes Before Your Eyes”) David Reyes—Cheech Marin (recurring, starting with “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead”) Naomi Dorrit—Marsha Thomason (recurring, starting with “Catch-22”) Roger Linus—Jon Gries (recurring, starting with “The Man Behind The Curtain”) Horace Goodspeed—Doug Hutchinson (recurring, starting with “The Man Behind The Curtain”) Amelia—Julie Adams (“A Tale Of Two Cities”) Adam—Stephen Semel (“A Tale Of Two Cities”) The moderator—Alexandra Morgan (“A Tale Of Two Cities”) The nurse—Julie Ow (“A Tale Of Two Cities”) The receptionist—Sonya Seng (“A Tale Of Two Cities”) Mrs. Lee—Tomikee Okhee Lee (“…And Found,” “The Glass Ballerina”) Young Sun—Sophie Kim (“The Glass Ballerina”) Colleen Picket—Paula Malcolmson (“The Glass Ballerina”) Luke—Joah Buley (“The Glass Ballerina,” “Through The Looking Glass”) Teddy Wells—Other (“The Glass Ballerina”) Mike—Chris Mulkey (“Further Instructions”) Jan—Virginia Morris (“Further Instructions”) Eddie—Justin Chatwin (“Further Instructions”) The sheriff—Joel Himelhoch (“Further Instructions”) Kim—Dion Donahue (“Further Instructions”) Munson—Ian Gomez (“Every Man For Himself”) Munson’s wife—Christina Simpkins (“Every Man For Himself”) Warden Harris—Bill Duke (“Every Man For Himself”) The corrections officer—Dorian Burns (“Every Man For Himself”) Matthew—Dustin Geiger (“Every Man For Himself,” “Through The Looking Glass”) Jason—Austin Green (“Every Man For Himself,” “Through The Looking Glass”) Prison tough #1—Hunter Quinn (“Every Man For Himself”) Agent Freedman—Peter Ruocco (“Every Man For Himself”) Yemi—Adetokumboh M'Cormack (“The 23rd Psalm,” “?,” “The Cost Of Living”) Young Eko—Kolawole Obileye Jr. (“The 23rd Psalm,” “The Cost Of Living”) Young Yemi—Olekan Obileye (“The 23rd Psalm,” “The Cost Of Living”) Emeka—Hakeem Kae-Kazim (“The Cost Of Living”) Amina—Muna Otaru (“The Cost Of Living”) The nun—Aisha Hinds (“The Cost Of Living”) Daniel—Jermaine “Scooter” Smith (“The Cost Of Living,”) The soldier—Lawrence Jones (“The Cost Of Living”) Trader—Michael A. Robinson (“The Cost Of Living”) Kevin Callis—Nathan Fillion (“I Do”) Suzanne—Eden-Lee Murray (“I Do”) The minister—Mark Dillen Stitham (“I Do”) Big Guy—Michael Vendrell (“I Do”) Edmund Burke—Željko Ivanek (“Not In Portland”) Rachel Carlson—Robin Weigert (“Not In Portland,” “One Of Us”) Aldo—Rob McElhenney (“Not In Portland”) Sherry—Kimberly Estrada (“Not In Portland”) The morgue employee—Steven Labrash (“Not In Portland”) Donovan—Shishir Kurup (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”) The delivery man—Jeremy Colvin (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”) Jimmy Lennon—David Cordell (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”) The receptionist—Katie Doyle (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”) The bartender—Michael Titterton (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”) The photographer—Stephen Quinn (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”) Achara—Bai Ling (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) Isabel—Diana Scarwind (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) Chet—James Huang (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) Thai man—Siwathep Sunapo (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) Thai boy—Shannon Chanthanam (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) Emma—Kiersten Havelock (“The Other 48 Days,” “Stranger In A Strange Land”) Zack—Mickey Graue (“The Other 48 Days,” “Stranger In A Strange Land”) Young Hurley—Caden Waidyatilleka (“Tricia Tanaka Is Dead”) Lynn Karnoff—Suzanne Krull (“Tricia Tanaka Is Dead”) Tricia Tanaka—Sung Hi Lee (“Tricia Tanaka Is Dead”) Amira—Anne Bedian (“Enter 77”) Sami—Shaun Toub (“Enter 77”) Lindsey—Gabrielle Fitzpatrick (“Two For The Road,” “Par Avion”) Carole Littleton—Arlene Newman-Van Asperen (“Par Avion”) Dr. Woodruff—Julian Barnes (“Par Avion”) Officer Barnes—Rhett Biles (“Par Avion”) The head nurse—Anne Elizabeth Logan (“Par Avion”) ER doctor—Danan Pere (“Par Avion”) Ryan Price—Brian Goodman (“The Man From Tallahassee”) The government worker—Cleo King (“The Man From Tallahassee”) Peter Talbot—Patrick J. Adams (“The Man From Tallahassee”) Mrs. Talbot—Barbara Baehler (“The Man From Tallahassee”) Det. Mason—Marlene Forte (“The Man From Tallahassee”) Det. Reed—Don Nahaku (“The Man From Tallahassee”) William Kincaid—Stephen Bishop (“The Man From Tallahassee”) Billy Dee Williams—Billy Dee Williams (“Exposé”) Howard L. Zukerman—Jacob Witkin (“Exposé”) Scott—Dustin Watchman (“The Moth,” “Exposé”) Federal agent—Shawn Lathrop (“Left Behind”) Johnny—Andrew Meader (“Left Behind”) Man—Bill Ogilvie (“Left Behind”) Other dude—Joah Buley (“One Of Us”) Airport guard—Tyrone Howard (“One Of Us”) Brother Campbell—Andrew Connolly (“Catch-22”) Ruth—Joanna Bool (“Catch-22”) Derek—Jack Maxwell (“Catch-22”) Brother Martin—Andrew Trask (“Catch-22”) Mr. Kwon—John Shin (“…In Translation,” “D.O.C.”) Jin’s Mother—Alexis Rhee (“D.O.C.”) Paik’s associate—Esmond Chung (“D.O.C.”) Paik’s secretary—Jean Chung (“D.O.C.”) Olivia Goodspeed—Samantha Mathis (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) Emily Linus—Carrie Preston (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) Young Ben—Sterling Beaumon (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) Annie—Madeline Carroll (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) DHARMA welcomer—Jenn Boneza (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) DHARMA rep. #1—Gregory Suenega (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) DHARMA rep. #2—Diamante Kielo (“The Man Behind The Curtain”) Liam Pace—Neil Hopkins (“The Moth,” “Fire + Water,” “Greatest Hits”) Young Charlie—Jeremy Shada (“Fire + Water,” “Greatest Hits”) Young Liam—Zach Shada (“Fire + Water,” “Greatest Hits”) Ryan Price—Brian Goodman (“The Man From Tallahassee,” “Greatest Hits”) Bonnie—Tracy Middendorf (“Greatest Hits,” “Through The Looking Glass”) Greta—Lana Parrilla (“Greatest Hits,” “Through The Looking Glass”) Roderick—Joshua Hancock (“Greatest Hits”) Dr. Hamill—James Lesure (“Through The Looking Glass”) Diane—Roxanne Day (“Through The Looking Glass”) The E.R. doctor—Kate Connor (“Through The Looking Glass”) The flight attendant—Kathleen M. Darcy (“Through The Looking Glass”) Previously on Lost: Desmond blew up The Swan, and he, Locke, and Eko may be dead. Meanwhile, the Others gave Michael a boat; and he and Walt sailed off the Island. As for Kate, Jack, Sawyer, and Hurley: Hurley was let go, and the others were taken by the Others. Yet, the Others don’t know that Sayid, Sun, and Jin are on a sailboat expecting Michael’s rescue party. So, Season 2 was a lot better the second time around than the first. Will Season 3 be the same? Hopefully, because I hated Season 3 a lot more than I hated Season 2. And, it wasn’t because it was just as frustrating with the schedule and the mysteries. No, you see, Season 3 had a much better schedule: they aired the first 6 episode consecutively, took a three month break, and then aired all the other episodes consecutively. Yes, this was great in that us fans didn’t have to wonder if next week’s episode was gonna be a rerun or not; and it wasn’t gonna be torture for us if the episode ended on a cliffhanger as we only had to wait a week instead of two or three like with Seasons 1 and 2. As for the mysteries, I remember them being pretty light and getting answered pretty quickly. Of course, that was 2-3 years ago, and I have shitty memory. But, no matter how shitty my memory is, it definitely remembers the crap we got in Season 3. A lot of the episodes were bad, the flashbacks were even more fillery here, the infamous couple Nikki and Paulo were clumsily introduced, and the writers basically took their time getting to endgame, just dicking around with the Others dicking Jack, Kate, and Sawyer around. Hell, it got so bad that I stopped watching for a while and missed 4 episodes, though I did later see one of them. Nevertheless, I almost reached my breaking point with this season. However, things did get better near the end. Nevertheless, expect a lot more bad reviews here than in the previous seasons reviews. However, I’ll probably be a lot kinder. I was with Season 2, which I didn’t really like the first time. Also, I wanna bring up that interview I posted in the Season 2 review: www.avclub.com/articles/losts-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cuse,14231/ In it, Cuse and Lindelof explained that a lot of the stuff with the cages in this season was a metaphor for the writers being stuck as Cuse and Lindelof negotiated an end date for the show. They basically couldn’t do anything and were stuck writing filler until they had a deadline to end the show. That’s an interesting way of turning their frustration into something creative. So, that piece of knowledge might lead me to be more lenient to this season. But, then again, I emphasize “MIGHT.”
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 1, 2010 19:20:59 GMT -5
Season 3-Disc 1 1. A Tale Of Two Cities Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof (teleplay), Lindelof (story) Plot: The episode begins with the Flight 815 crash shown from the perspective of the Others, who all live in a very nice village with houses and everything. Then, we find where the Others took Jack, Sawyer, and Kate: Jack is in The Hydra station, being interrogated by Juliet until he tries to escape; Sawyer is in one of the old polar bear cages with a teenager, Karl, in the other; and Kate wakes up in a locker and then is taken to have breakfast with the former Henry Gale, Ben Linus. Flashbacks: We see Jack’s life after his divorce with Sarah. He stalks his ex-wife because he fears she’s dating again. Eventually, he gets a hold of her cellphone, calls every number, and discovers that his dad, Christian, is one of the numbers. So, he confronts Christian at an AA meeting, accusing him of sleeping with Sarah and attacking him. Jack’s arrested, and Sarah bails him out with an unidentified man, who real boyfriend. Thoughts: Good God! Jack is a dick. So much so that I think the writers are purposely making him out to be one. I mean, he’s killed two people in surgery (though those were accidents, and one was originally started by his drunk father); he kissed another woman while married (though she had an affair); he ratted his dad out after finding out that woman they collectively killed was pregnant, starting his downward spiral to death by alcohol poisoning in Australia; and he’s been real cross with his fellow castaways, from flat out ignoring Kate as he went off after Ethan to arguing with Locke about faith practically every chance they get. I think the writers just accidentally wrote his character as an asshole in Seasons 1 and 2 and decided to go full into it with Season 3. That would explain this episode. Here, he’s stalking Sarah, trying to find out who she’s dating now. Eventually, he comes to suspect that it’s his own father, causing Jack to go bursting into an AA meeting and attack him, which definitely added to sending Christian’s downward spiral. Good God, is Jack a dick. But, that doesn’t necessarily make this a bad episode. In fact, it makes the Jack character a little more interesting. Though, not likable. He’s still a dick. But, he is the main hero of the whole show. I mean, there is a lot of moral ambiguity throughout this series, and while “Henry” could say something like “We’re the good guys,” and you wouldn’t necessarily believe him; Jack could say it and you would. Yet, he is a huge asshole. It’s almost like he can’t stand to be the hero, so he rebels against it by being a dick. But, at the same time, he has this incessant need to want to save everyone. It makes Jack a compelling character, but like I said, not a likeable one. And, I can’t fully blame the writers for this; Matthew Fox has jumped deep into the asshole role. I can’t tell if he’s just bad at playing the likeable cad, or if he’s just really good at playing a dick. Either way, he does an okay job here. You know who else does a good job: Julie Bowen. She’s great here, playing Jack’s exasperated ex-wife. She’s pretty much channeling the audience’s collective groan at Jack’s antics. Also, John Terry’s back! Now, there’s a guy good at playing the likable cad. Though, he’s not much of a cad here as Christian gets beat up for nothing. Here he is, just going to AA, trying to get clean and not having an affair with Sarah, yet his asshole of a son beats the crap out him despite all of this. Hell, you actually feel sorry for the man. Though, this little storyline would have been better without Sarah’s revelation that Christian’s fallen off the wagon. Though, the highlight of the episode has nothing to do with Jack’s story. That comes at the beginning, in which we see the Flight 815 crash from the Others’ point of view. This is a great scene as it’s shot like it’s taking place off the Island but it’s quickly revealed to be otherwise. It’s also a great introduction for Juliet, played by the wonderful Elizabeth Mitchell. She’s like Kate, only likable. I especially liked her delivery of the line "Here I am, thinking that free will still exits," which happens right before the Island shakes from Desmond’s button negligence. She said it with a lot of frustration and anger. That and the harsh look she gave Ben at the end of the episode nicely introduces the idea of dissidence among the Others. Also there’s a great shot of the plane breaking up, and it nicely tells us “Henry’s” real name, Ben, which I will now refer to him from now on. In fact, that first scene is so great that it got me excited for the episode as I thought we might see things from the Others’ perspective. And, boy, was I disappointed to see that this was just a Jack episode. I mean, I was hoping for an interesting and informative flashback about the Others spying on the castaways. Yet, we got an informative but not all that interesting (other than the oxymoronic nature of Jack being a dick and a hero) flashback of Jack’s life after his marriage fell apart. As for the other stuff in this episode: Sawyer’s subplot of his near escape was okay: it was a little exciting and introduced us to Karl, the polar bear cages, and the Hydra station. The best part was Sawyer figuring out how to get food from the cage; Holloway plays it with comic brilliance. Plus, I loved the back-and-forth rapport between Holloway and M.C. Gainey. Kate’s stuff wasn’t all that exciting or even necessary other than to show what they did with Kate. Though, it did get Evangeline Lilly in a towel, which is a plus. And, I have to say that humiliated look on her face when Kate gets thrown into the other cage was one of Lilly’s acting highlights on the show. All in all, this is an okay episode. It has some good moments, but it could have much better. I mean, they could have given us an exciting and informative episode that shows the first 48 days from the Others perspective. Instead, we got Jack being a dick. Instead of giving us something we wanna see, they gave us something we couldn’t care to see. But, it ain’t the worst episode in the world. 7/10. 2. The Glass Ballerina Director(s): Paul Edwards Writer(s): Jeff Pinker & Drew Goddard Plot: On the sailboat, Sayid, Sun, and Jin soon realize something is wrong as the rescue party has not rendezvous with them. So, they go searching for them. They find the Others’ dock, come ashore, and build a fire to lure the Others out in a trap. Soon, the Others learn about Sayid’s boat, and Ben sends them to go capture the boat. They do so, avoiding Sayid and Jin. But, they run into a snag as Sun is still on the boat; and she accidentally shoots Colleen. Meanwhile, the Others have Kate and Sawyer digging and moving rocks, and Ben tells Jack that he has access to the outside world. Flashbacks: Sun and Jin go flashbacking here. We learn that Sun did have an affair with Jae Lee and her father found out about it. So, Mr. Paik has Jin go send Lee a “message” meaning he wants Jin to kill Lee. Despite beating him up, Jin can’t do it and warns Lee to leave the country. However, someone else follows Jin and throws Lee out of his penthouse, landing on Jin’s car. Thoughts: Here’s the thing about the first six episodes of Lost’s third season: they weren’t the best in the show’s run. In fact, Lost was losing some viewers. In Season 1, the average number of U.S. viewers of the show was 18.38 million, with the highest being 21.59 million (“Whatever The Case May Be”). In Season 2, the U.S. viewers average was 18.90, with the highest being 23.47 million (“Man Of Science, Man Of Faith”). And, I should point out that there were a lot of 20’s in the beginning of the season, but as it went on, it dropped to 17’s, 16’s, 15’s, and even a 14. By Season 3, the average was 13.74 million, with the highest being 18.82 (“A Tale Of Two Cities”). And while those first six did, in fact getting better ratings than a lot of Season 2 episodes, when the show came back after it’s three month break, there were a lot less viewers, with episodes getting 11-13 million viewers. That’s still a lot, but compare it to those 18-20 million it was getting in Season 1 and early Season 2. Now, this was bad because those first 6 episodes of Season 3 had to be killer. That had to be so good that you would wait for another three months for Lost to comeback. But, they weren’t. Though, they weren’t all bad. “A Tale Of Two Cities” had a lot of good moments. And, the next episode, “The Glass Ballerina” was a vast improvement. In fact, in my opinion, it’s the best of the first 6. And, I’m not just saying that because it’s a Sun and Jin episode, and I’ve gone on record for saying that I love their episodes. Now, don’t get me wrong: it being a Sun and Jin episode is a plus as I’ve also gone on record for saying that Daniel Dae-Kim and Yunjin Kim are like two of the four best actors on the show. The thing that makes them so great is that they can handle melodrama a lot better than most of the actors on this show. And, that’s a good thing, because melodrama was a big problem with these first six episodes…and well, with a lot of Season 3, but more on that later. Anyway, they do a good job here with the story of Sun’s affair. Now, I can see why some fans would have a problem with this episode: the Sun affair is pretty much at the forefront of the episode, and most fans are more concerned with the Others and all that other stuff that goes on with the Island. But, I enjoyed because Kim and Dae-Kim always elevate the material with their performances. And, they happen to get some great actors in the supporting roles, i.e. Tony Lee and Byron Chung. They are very great in their respective roles, especially Chung. He really impressed me in the scene where Paik tells Jin to kill Jae. Another reason most fans probably wouldn’t be interested in the soap opera-ish is that it ain’t all that exciting compared to what’s going on the Island. But, that’s not really the case here. Here, Mr. Paik finds out about Sun’s affair and wants Jin to kill Sun’s lover, Jae Lee. But, he doesn’t tell him why. It adds a great layer of intrigue to the story as Jin can’t bring himself to kill the man who is sleeping with his wife, which makes you wonder if he would had done it if Jin had known. And, I liked the shock of Jae landing on Jin’s car. It’s a shame we won’t see Tony Lee anymore, but I won’t lose sleepover. And, here’s the kicker: Jin and Sun’s flashback scenes and plot are a lot more interesting than what’s going on with the Others and the castaways they captured. Here, you have Sayid, Jin, and Sun in danger because the Others are coming for the boat. And, the twist that they avoid Jin and Sayid and sneak up on Sun in the boat was expected but played nicely. It was all quite exciting. Though, I have to admit that it would have been a little better if Sun had gotten stuck on the boat when the Others took it. That would have added some nice tension throughout the season. Meanwhile, the Others have Sawyer and Kate breaking rocks. Wow. That’s riveting. I can barely hold my excitement.[/sarcasm] For one, why have them break rocks? What’s the point? Second, Sawyer kisses Kate for no real reason, clumsily put in there. And third, it leads to a fight scene in which Sawyer beats up a few of the Others and takes a gun, showing that they aren’t as tough as they been portrayed to be, which I pretty much suspected. The only thing that makes these scenes any good is the interaction between Sawyer and Pickett. It is amazing how Josh Holloway can have chemistry with anyone. Hell, they could have an entire episode dedicated to Sawyer messing around with Vincent, and it would be an entertaining and funny episode. Also, I have to admit that the reveal of Sawyer and Kate being monitored was good, because it shows that while the Others may not be all that great of an army, they still are a few steps ahead of our heroes. But, other than that, I much more enjoyed Jin and Sun’s plot than Sawyer and Kate’s. However, I have to say that the highlight of the episode has nothing to do with Sun and Jin. That would come at the end, where Ben reveals to Jack that the Others have contact to the outside world. It’s great for two reasons: 1. It’s surprisingly funny because Jack doesn’t believe Ben when he says that the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series. Fox and Emerson play that scene well. I especially liked the look of shock on Fox’s face when he sees the footage; I wonder how much of it was shock that Ben was right and how much of it was shock that the Red Sox finally won the World Series. 2. It’s amazing despite the fact that we pretty much knew that the Others had access to the outside world since they knew everything about Jack. The reason for this is Jack’s disbelief. It’s amazing how this man has seen so many incredible things about this Island but still can’t believe anything that he sees. So, all in all, this was a very good episode. There are better episodes of the show, even in this season; but out of these first six of Season 3, this is the best. 8/10. 3. Further Instructions Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Elizabeth Sarnoff Plot: Locke and Desmond wake up in the jungle, Desmond naked and Locke unable to speak. However, Locke manages to build a sweat lodge and get Charlie to guard it for him while he goes on a vision quest. There he sees Boone in an airport who tells him that one of the castaways needs to be saved. Locke comes to the conclusion that it’s Eko and sets out to save him after his vision ends and he regains his voice. As, he and Charlie go to find him, they run into Hurley, who tells them about Kate, Sawyer, and Jack being taken by the Others. Then, he continues to go rescue Eko, who is being attacked by a polar bear. Flashbacks: In Locke’s flashback, we see that he was part of some kind of hippy commune/cult. He picks up a hitchhiker, Eddie, and brings him into the commune. However, Eddie starts questioning some things about the leaders Mike and Jan. Eddie thinks that they are hiding a bomb in their greenhouse, but Locke doesn’t think so. Then, Locke finds Mike and Jan frantically trying to leave the commune in the greenhouse, which is filled with marijuana, and blaming Locke for bringing Eddie into the commune as he’s actually an undercover cop. Locke promises to fix it by killing Eddie. However, Locke can’t bring himself to do it. Thoughts: Remember when I said that there were 4 episodes in Season 3 that I didn’t see when they first aired: this is one of them. Now, I did read the synopsis of “Further Instructions,” and I have to say that I wasn’t impressed. To me, it sounded like nothing but filler mixed with typical dream quest bullshit and some silly looking scenes. But, I haven’t seen it. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. Maybe it played better than what I pictured in my head. So, was I wrong? Well, yes and no. For one, it ain’t as bad as I thought it would be. There are some good parts about it. I got a kick out of Locke and Charlie’s charades scene at the beginning, Locke almost killing Hurley by throwing his knife at what he thinks is a polar bear, and Hurley finding a naked Desmond in the jungle. I also liked how Hurley asked Desmond why he didn’t use the failsafe a lot earlier instead of pushing the button, though Desmond’s answer (he didn’t know what it would do) wasn’t all that satisfactory, but it does add to the insanity of pushing the button over and over again. And, they nicely hinted at Desmond’s psychic powers he gained from the failsafe being triggered. And, I liked that the writers (here Cuse and Sarnoff) didn’t ignore the tension between Charlie and Locke. They even had Charlie just come out and say it, a little clumsily might I add. But, they aptly transitioned it into an uneasy alliance. As for Locke’s flashback’s and plot, well they were a lot better than I imagined, mainly because of Terry O’Quinn. He’s damn good in this episode. His acting really elevates the subpar material he’s given. For one, the lost man struggling to find his place in the world joining a semi-cult: cliché. Did they really have to go this route with Locke? I mean, I get why Locke would join a hippie commune/pseudo-cult: his dad conned him out of a kidney, and his obsession over it cost him to lose Helen. He was a lonely man, looking for a purpose. So, he comes to this commune hoping to find it again; but the rug is pulled out from under Locke yet again as he brings in Eddie, who turns out to be a cop. Though, I didn’t really buy this. I just don’t see Locke as the kind of guy who would join a cult, semi or otherwise. I think it would have been better if we had gone straight to him living in a motel in “The Man From Tallahassee” from “Lockdown.” Though, the hippie commune flashback isn’t all that bad. I did like Justin Chatwin as Eddie and Cuse and Sarnoff didn’t go down the expected path that the cult is planning to blow something up, instead just making them more commune than cult with the marijuana. Plus, this whole story added another nice layer to the huge discrepancies between Locke on the Island and beforehand. On the Island, he is the hero. Well, he’s like the second main hero next to Jack; but he could easily usurp Jack’s status as the main go to guy. And, he’s a lot more likable and sympathetic. But, off the Island, he keeps getting duped over and over, leading him further down a path of lonely patheticness that will end with him losing the use of his legs. It’s just painful the watch. As for the on Island stuff with Locke: silliness defined. I mean, we get another freaking psychic dream/vision quest. Now, don’t get me wrong, Lost does handle the dream sequence well, and Locke’s trip through the airport with Boone was pretty satisfying and amusing, but it’s all freaking corny. For one, Ian Somerhalder plays the whole thing like a robot. It was a pretty disappointing comeback for him. And, honestly, do we need another one of these damn dreams? Lost is starting to dry up this well. They just keep doing it over and over again that’s it’s becoming cliché and passé. It’s about as annoying as them killing off characters: okay, we get it! You do those things because you can. But, because just because you can doesn’t mean you should. And, that stuff with saving Eko from the polar bear! Talk about facepalm inducing. I mean, it just doesn’t come off as exciting because they still haven’t figured out how to make a convincing looking polar bear. It’s either a obvious animatronic or an obvious CGI. All in all, this episode was a waste. The flashback, though nicely done, just told something we already knew: Locke’s a naïve fuckup. And, the Island stuff was just silly. Plus, there were two other problems with it. For one, the introduction of Nikki and Paulo was done clumsily. It gave the impression that these two were there the whole time when we clearly know that ain’t the case. Second, this episode could have been used to show us another character’s backstory. A certain woman who was gunned down by Michael and not named “Ana-Lucia.” Yes, I’m bringing this up again. I know it may seem annoying, but it still pisses me off: this could have been the perfect chance to tell us about Libby! Damon Lindelof kept saying that they would get to her, but it just didn’t happen. They claimed it was because they had difficulty getting Cynthia Watros to comeback to shoot it due to other commitments, but I don’t get that. I mean, why not just get this episode over with? That way it will quickly answer fans’ questions, and you can move on. But, it didn’t happen. Though, one has to wonder just how they could have shown Libby’s backstory since the character is dead. I think they could have focused on Hurley trying to get back to the camp after the Others let him go and start seeing Libby as he makes his way through the jungle. He follows her, and then starts seeing different events in her life, like her husband’s death and her stay in the same mental institution as him. That’s just a suggestion. But, I’m too upset that we have this Locke episode in it’s place. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot better than I thought I would. I mean, it’s as stupid as I thought it would be when I first about it. But, it’s not as bad as I imagined. Still, I can only give this a 6 out of 10. 4. Every Man For Himself Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Plot: The Others bring Colleen back to Juliet, who is a doctor. But, she can’t save her. So, they get Jack to help her. As all this goes on, Sawyer decides to use the situation as a distraction in order to escape. However, the cages are being monitored by security cameras; and Ben stops him as he’s about to carry out his plan. Then, Ben implants Sawyer with a device that will kill him if his heart rate goes up above 140 and threatens to put on in Kate if he tells her. However, Colleen dies; and Pickett, her husband, takes his anger out on Sawyer. Luckily, Kate gets him to stop by claiming that she loves Sawyer. Then, she slips out of her cage and into Sawyer’s to console him. Then, Ben takes Sawyer out of the cage and shows him that the implant wasn’t real and that they aren’t on the main Island but a different one a few miles away. Meanwhile, Desmond builds a lightning rod on Claire’s hut, saving her from a lightning strike that takes places shortly after he does so. Flashbacks: We learn that Sawyer spent some time in prison, not surprising. He’s visited by Cassidy, who tells him that she had a daughter, but he brushes her off. Meanwhile, a fellow inmate, Munson, tells Sawyer that the warden is trying to learn the location of his money and comes to Sawyer for help. He agrees, and Munson tells him the money’s location. Then, Sawyer tells this to the warden in exchange for a reduced sentence and a reward he has put into a bank account for his daughter. Thoughts: Remember earlier when I was talking about melodrama and how it became a problem for the show? “Every Man For Himself” is a good example of it. Here, things get a lot more like a soap opera. In fact, it’s almost like this is a different show. The writers seem more focused on that Sawyer/Kate/Jack love triangle than giving us any useful information about the Others. And, yes, I know these bear cage scenes were the result of Cuse and Lindelof trying to get a date for the end of the show, but it still doesn’t out that well. For one, like I’ve said earlier, I just don’t buy the love triangle because I don’t really buy the Kate/Jack relationship. Why would she want to be with Jack? He’s an asshole who keeps making the wrong decision for God knows why. Sawyer, on the other hand, may be a con man; but he knows what he wants. And, what he wants, he gets and doesn’t let go. Sawyer is the better man in the relationship because he seems to be the more stable and likely to stick around. As for Jack, well, we all know how he is in a marriage. The other reason: Holloway, Lilly, and Fox aren’t that great at melodrama. They’re okay, but they go a little over the top. They can’t balance on the tight rope that is melodrama like Kim and Dae-Kim. Those two have some nice subtle nuances that makes them good for those soap opera-like stories. Holloway, Lilly, and Fox, on the other hand, have a more curious nature to them. They seem to want to go out into danger; in fact, they enjoy it. However, when they have to do soap opera stories, I get the impression that they aren’t all that interested. I mean, when Kate yells to Pickett that he loves Sawyer and when she later says that she only said that to stop Pickett, it doesn’t ring true to me. It’s like Lilly is going through the motions. And, that subplot of Jack and Juliet trying to save Colleen, it comes off like a something from General Hospital. I think they would much rather be fighting Ben and the Smoke Monster than trying to figure out who they love. And, if they aren’t interested in it, then why should the audience? As for Sawyer’s flashback, that’s another problem. It’s not bad; Holloway gives a nice performance there. But, it feels like filler. If the flashbacks in Season 2 felt like extra padding, then these in Season 3 are practically Styrofoam. All we learn is that Sawyer was in prison (as if we needed a flashback to learn that) and that he had to con a guy out of giving up the location of his money in exchange for an early release and a bit of money. All this is not necessary. Though, I have to say that it is to see Bill Duke in here. He’s another of my favorite character actors, but he is a little wasted here. Maybe they could have given him a juicier role that came back throughout. I also like that Cassidy is back. Kim Dickens does well here, the reveal Sawyer has a kid was nice, and him giving the money to his daughter was a little touching. But, nice don’t change the fact that this is all filler. On the Island, besides being all melodramatic with Kate, Sawyer’s been implanted with a device that will give him a heart attack if his heart rate goes above 140. That’s actually pretty interesting and by far the most interesting thing in the whole episode. It adds some great tension to the episode, especially when Colleen dies and Pickett takes out his anger on Sawyer. It was pretty thrilling because I honestly didn’t know if they would kill Sawyer. Hell, I wouldn’t have put it past them to. I mean, they needed to do something during these 6 episodes to keep people to come back for the rest. Though, thinking about it a litter further, it was probably smart that they didn’t because I imagine that killing Sawyer would cause fans to abandon the show in droves. Though, I didn’t like the reveal that it was all just a con. It was okay and a clever way to show that Jack, Kate, and Sawyer aren’t on the main Island. But, it would have been a little more exciting if the whole thing was real. As for the Desmond subplot, it’s okay. It nicely hints at this psychic powers. And, while I didn’t really like the Jack and Juliet subplot, it was a clever way of getting Jack to learn that he was abducted because someone needs surgery and that he’s the only one who can really do it. Also, Michael Emerson is pretty good here. As bad to subpar a lot of the material in Season 3 is, Emerson does make much of the season watchable just by his performance, even if his character is being infuriatingly cryptic. All in all, a pretty average episode with some good parts. 7/10. Disc 7—Bonus Features: Before I get to Disc 7, there is a commentary track on the first disc for “A Tale Of Two Cities.” Now, onto the main course of bonus features. This disc menu is set up like the security monitor in the Hydra station. There are six monitors, but you can only click on four, Monitors 2-5. So, we will be looking at Monitor 2 today, which contains the features “The Lost Book Club,” “Cast In Clay: Creating The Toys of Todd McFarlane,” and “The Next Level: Inside The Video Game.” FYI, when you click on Monitor 2, it will take you to a bear cage and you have to push enter on the food button in order to bring the features up. So, let’s begin: First we have “The Lost Book Club.” During these reviews, I’ve been ignoring one of the most frequent motifs brought up throughout the show: the book references. Why have I ignored this? Well, for two reasons: one, I’ve more focused on the overall quality of the episodes and the whole show to really focus on all the books mentioned. And two, whenever a book is referenced, it’s a given that you have to read it in order to find some clues to the show’s big mystery. Me, I’m down on that because it seems like homework; and I don’t like an entertainment show giving me homework when I know it ain’t gonna do a thing for me academically. I had enough homework in college, and I didn’t need more from a show that usually jerked me around. But, it is an important part of the show and definitely warrants a DVD special feature. Anyway, the books mentioned in the show have been conveniently listed here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Literary_references. Note to all the Lost newbies, some of those books aren’t mentioned until Seasons 4 and 5; so there might be some spoilers there. Anyway, it’s okay. Just has the cast and writers talking about all the books that are mentioned in the show. I did like the end, with Lindelof and Cuse playfully disagreeing about how good the Others are. Though, I was upset with Mr. Lindelof for spoiling the end of “The Third Policeman.” So, if you haven’t read that book, don’t watch this featurette. Next is “Cast In Clay: Creating The Toys of Todd McFarlane.” This basically shows how the actions Todd McFarlane made for the show. It’s not all that interesting, unless you really care about seeing how toys are made. Finally, we have “The Next Level: Inside The Video Game.” This is about the video game based on the show: Lost: Via Domus. You can learn a little more about it here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_via_domus and here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Lost_via_domus. The game features Elliot Maslow, a reporter who wakes up on the Island with amnesia, and as you go along trying to get off the Island, you regain your memory. I never played the game, but it got mixed reviews. As for the featurette, it’s just shows how the game came about with some footage of it being made; and it’s pretty short. Well, that’s all for today. Expect the next four episodes up on Sunday.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 3, 2010 22:58:23 GMT -5
Season 3-Disc 2 5. The Cost Of Living Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Alison Schapker & Monica Breen Plot: Sayid, Jin, and Sun return as the others take care of Eko. But, things go bad when Eko’s hut catches fire. Sayid, Hurley, and Charlie pull Eko from the hut, but he disappears as they put out the fire. As this goes on, Locke and Desmond talk about how to rescue Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. When Desmond mentions that the computer in the Swan could be used to communicate with other computers in other DHARMA stations, Locke decides to go to the Pearl. Then, Sayid tells Locke that Eko has run off, and Locke figures that he’s going to the plane, which just so happens to be near the Pearl. So, Locke, Desmond, and Sayid go off to the Pearl; Nikki and Paulo join them when Locke offers an open invitation to the other castaways. They find Eko and then move on to the Pearl. Eko stays outside while the others go down. In the Pearl, they see a man with an eye patch on the monitors. Outside the Pearl, Eko sees his brother Yemi and follows him. But, Yemi turns out to be the Smoke Monster, who grabs Eko and kills him. Meanwhile, on the Hydra island, Ben invites Jack to Colleen’s memorial service. During it, Jack asks Ben if he needs surgery. Ben denies it but later tells Jack that he does need surgery and that they planned to brainwash Jack into the group and make him want to perform the surgery, but since Jack saw the x-rays and figured it out. Later, Juliet brings Jack a movie with a message to not perform Ben’s surgery. Flashbacks: We see what happened to Eko after his plane left with his brother’s dead body. The soldiers took him back to Yemi’s church, thinking that he is Yemi. He then tells the villagers that he will taking over for Yemi to avoid suspicion. Later, some militiamen lead by Emeka come to the village, threatening everyone for the village’s vaccine shipment, as they get 80% of it. Eko refuses, and Emeka shoots a blind woman. Then, when Emeka comes back for the vaccine, Eko kills him and his men with a machete. Eko soon leaves for London. Thoughts: I’m gonna pimp that AV Club interview again: www.avclub.com/articles/losts-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cuse,14231/ I know that may be getting annoying, but it does explain why Eko had to die here. It did seem weird and frustrating that Eko would die. I mean, just look at the Tailies: most of them were taken by the Others, and Nathan, Libby, Ana-Lucia, and Eko have all died. Bernard is the only Tailie to not have anything bad happen to him. Isn’t that weird? Why introduce a bunch of characters if they’re all just gonna die? Well, they weren’t all suppose to die. Ana-Lucia was, but she was unlikable that the writers decided to kill Libby as well since the fans wouldn’t have cared about Ana-Lucia’s death but would about Libby’s. As for Eko, blame Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Cuse and Lindelof had many plans for Eko, but Akinnuoye-Agbaje just didn’t like filming in Hawaii and asked to leave. So, they killed him. That’s a shame. I liked Eko, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje was a great actor; he played the role well. Plus, now I’m curious as to what the planned for him and how it would have played out in the rest of the show. Also, they didn’t really give Eko a good episode to go out on. The flashbacks are okay, but they don’t really tell us anything. Well, it does resolve what happened to Eko after Yemi died and he got mistaken for him; but was that really an important detailed that needed to be answered. Honesty, I would have liked to seen how he ended up in Australia. But, ironically, I doubt that would have as interesting as the flashback we got. Him killing Emeka and the militiamen to prevent them from taking the vaccine was a good story, and I liked how Amina chastised him for killing those men, even though he did save the village. Though, it was a little clumsily written. By that, she just came out and said that there would be more people like Emeka. I think it would have been better if someone like Emeka had shown up at the end. As for his death scene, it didn’t make much sense. Why would the Smoke Monster kill Eko after it had let him live back in “The 23rd Psalm”? At least it introduces the idea that the Smoke Monster can take on the form of people who have either died on the Island or died elsewhere and their bodies were brought to the Island. This will be important in Season 5. All in all, the Eko stuff just isn’t that interesting compared to the other things going on in this episode. The most interesting plot is Jack and Ben’s. I liked how Jack found out that Ben had a tumor on his spine. It was fun to see the master manipulator being manipulated. The scene where Ben tells Jack what his plan was also nicely done. Plus, it adds a layer of tension to the story now that Ben’s plan is ruined and he has to come up with another to get the most reluctant man on the Island to operate on him. I was also intrigued by the Others’ funeral for Colleen. It just raises so many questions about the Others and their culture. I mean, why do they wear white? Why do they put Colleen’s body on a raft and light it on fire? Hell, why do they follow Ben for that matter? Do they like him or fear him? There’s just so many things about the Others we don’t know. I just wish they had done a few episodes that explain the Others’ culture. Yes, these are more questions that won’t be answered. I also liked Juliet’s message to Jack. There have been hints that there is dissent among the Others, and now that has been fully confirmed by this nice homage to “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” As for the stuff with Locke and the search party, it’s average at best. The introduction of Mikhail was nicely done. But, I didn’t like how Nikki and Paulo got shoehorned into the story. The writers are still trying to shoehorn these two into the story, which just makes it awkward. Now, I don’t hate the characters; but I’m don’t like how the writers handled them. Though, it was kind of funny how Nikki figured out that the monitors in the Pearl aren’t just hooked up to cameras in the Swan. All in all, this is an okay episode. It’s not bad; the stuff with Jack and Ben really elevates it. But, it just badly written concerning Eko’s demise, which really brings down the episode. So, we say good bye to Mr. Eko. It’s a shame we had to see him go so shortly, but he was quite entertaining for the short time he was with us. 6/10. 6. I Do Director(s): Tucker Gates Writer(s): Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse Plot: Jack tells Ben that the tumor on his spine is borderline inoperable and will soon become inoperable. Meanwhile, as Kate and Sawyer are working, Alex attacks the other Others, demanding to know where Karl is. They take her away, and she tells Kate that they will kill her boyfriend just like they killed Karl. Then, Juliet tells Kate that Pickett is going to kill Sawyer, but if she can convince Jack to perform Ben’s surgery, then she can save Sawyer. She agrees and asks Jack. But, he refuses. Then, she escapes her cage and breaks open Sawyer’s cage, trying to get him to escape; but he reveals that they’re on another island. Then, they have sex. As this happens, the Others show Jack what Kate and Sawyer did, which gets him to agree to perform the surgery as long as Ben will let Jack off the Island. As Jack performs the surgery, Pickett goes after Sawyer and Kate. However, he stops when he learns from Tom that Jack has sabotaged the surgery and will kill Ben unless they let Kate and Sawyer go. Meanwhile, on the other Island, Locke tells Sayid, Desmond, Nikki, and Paulo that Eko is dead and that a polar bear killed him. Sayid doesn’t believe him, and Locke tells him that it was the Smoke Monster. Flashbacks: We get another Kate flashback. Here, we learn that she was married to a cop while on the run, but she eventually had to leave him. Thoughts: If “The Glass Ballerina” is the best episode of the first six, then “I Do” is the worst. Hell, it’s up there with “Hearts And Minds” and “Fire + Water” as the worst episode of the show. Or, should I say down there? Where do I even begin? I’ll start with the flashbacks. So, Kate married a cop while she was on the lam. WHAT!!!!? This is SO stupid for several reasons! 1. It’s stupid to marry a cop when you are ON THE LAM!!!! Kate’s a freaking fugitive being hunted a very pissed off U.S. Marshall. Why would she do something so idiotic as marry a cop? I mean, if she wanted to have sex with the guy and then leave him because she found out he was a cop, that would have been fine. But, to marry him!? Good God! That’s also a pretty big dick move. You marry a guy, make him fall in love with you, and then leave him because you’re a fugitive. If you wanna know why many Lost fans hate Kate, then this is the episode to look at. 2. It’s a waste of talent, i.e. Nathan Fillion. This guy is awesome! Firefly. Castle. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. This guy even had a great guest run during the last few Buffy episodes. He is just fantastic. And, what do they do with him? Have him play Kate’s hapless cop husband. UGH!!!! 3. It’s not only a waste of Nathan Fillion. It’s a waste of a plot. You see, there is one little detail about Kate’s backstory that hasn’t really been shown: why she killed her stepfather Wayne. Okay, so it’s not that unknown. They did explain that Wayne was an asshole who beat Kate’s mom. He even tried to get Kate to sleep with him. We only know this from one scene in “What Kate Did” and the rest being told to us. But, we haven’t really seen Wayne in all his asshole glory. So, why not show it to us? Here’s the perfect opportunity to show the fans just how much Kate really hated Wayne. Plus, they could have done something interesting by making Wayne act a lot like Sawyer and showing us that Kate’s falling for a man who’s like her stepfather. But, no. We just get this pointless marriage flashback. The flashback isn’t the only problem with this episode. We got more of that dreaded melodrama. Here, Jack refuses to perform Ben’s operation. So, the Others decide to get Kate to get Jack to do the surgery under the threat that they’ll kill Sawyer. And, I could honestly care less. For one, they’re making it a little too obvious that Kate’s gonna have sex with Sawyer. Sure enough, it happens. Second, killing Sawyer comes off as an empty threat because Sawyer didn’t die in “Every Man For Himself.” If he didn’t die in that episode, I doubt he’ll die here. Also, it all ends with Kate and Sawyer making their escape, which was also obviously gonna happen. I just figured that the writers wouldn’t keep Kate, Sawyer, and Jack with the Others for the whole season. Honestly, I wish they would have. We could have learned more about the Others, and it would have been a great storyline to see the other castaways come for their captured comrades. And, I don’t get why Jack holds Ben hostage. Why did he just kill him like Juliet wanted in her video? Man, he’s an idiot. What really surprised me is that Cuse and Lindelof, the showrunners, wrote this episode. Usually, they give us some good stuff, like “Lockdown,” “The Other 48 Days,” and the season finales. But here, they just don’t give their A-game. I’ve said that Fox, Holloway, and Lilly aren’t great at acting in melodrama. Well, Cuse and Lindelof aren’t very good at writing it. They didn’t really seem all that interested in Kate’s flashback, which is why it was so disappointing; and they couldn’t really give us something really juicy with the on Island stuff. Well, that’s not entirely true, they did give us a nice scene between Sayid and Locke about what killed Eko. I would have liked to hear more about Locke’s theories on the Island. And, I have to say, I liked that sex scene between Kate and Sawyer. What can I say? I’m horny young man. But, those ain’t enough to save this turd of an episode. 2/10. 7. Not In Portland Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Jeff Pinker Plot: Kate and Sawyer make a run for it while Jack holds Ben hostage in surgery. Pickett goes off after them despite what Jack is doing. Luckily for Kate and Sawyer, Juliet makes a deal with Ben to let them escape in exchange for Jack finishing the surgery; and they find Alex, who tells them that she has a boat to get them to the Island. But, they have to save Karl in order to use it. So, they go and save Karl; but Pickett catches them. However, Juliet shoots Pickett, allowing Kate, Sawyer, and Karl to escape. Alex remains. Back in the Hydra, Jack enlists Tom to help him save Ben’s life. Flashbacks: We get our first Other flashback, and it’s Juliet. We learn that she was working in Miami, taking care of her sick sister Rachael and stealing medicine for her from her hospital. But, her ex-husband and boss, Edmund, catches Juliet. He then learns that Juliet is trying to find a way for Rachael to get pregnant and wants in on the research. Then, Juliet gets a job offer from Dr. Richard Alpert, but she turns it down as Edmund wouldn’t allow her to leave. Luckily, her research results in a success as Rachael becomes pregnant. And, Edmund suddenly dies when Juliet tells him. Then, Dr. Alpert shows up again asking Juliet if she still wants the job. Thoughts: Well, the first six are done. And, now we get two of best episodes, not just of the season but of the whole show. First, “Not In Portland.” Here, we see what Juliet did before she became an Other. Now, I was a little disappointed to learn that Juliet hadn’t been on the Island her whole life when I first saw this episode. But now, I like that she didn’t start out as an Other. It’s interesting to see that the Others have been bringing in people off the Island, like the DHARMA Initiative. Also, it’s a nice plot device to introduce the audience the Others’ culture through her eyes. Too bad the writers didn’t really use it. And, I have to say that the way the first scene was shot and written, so that it appears to be on the Island but is actually in Miami, was a great touch. But, the main thing about this episode is how it shows a theme of Lost that hasn’t really been used enough: the differences between a character on and off the Island. Now, most people haven’t changed since coming to the Island, like Jack, Kate, Sayid, etc. But some have. Charlie was a heroin addict, but he’s now gotten clean since coming to the Island. Locke was a perpetual fuck-up in his pre-Island days, but now he’s one of the main players. Sawyer was a me-first loner, but now he’s willing to put himself before others and lay his life on the line. And, since this is a Juliet episode, Juliet wasn’t always the cold-blooded semi-bitch we’ve seen on the Island. Here, we see her as a kind and caring doctor who just wants to help her sister get pregnant before she dies. A nice story, but it comes off as a filler flashback. Luckily, the writers, here Cuse and Pinker, add some drama to it by having Juliet steal medicine from her boss/ex-husband; putting Ethan in it, showing that the Others can get off the Island some how; and introducing Richard Alpert, a central recurring character. These were some nice touches. For one, the ex-husband is played by Željko Ivanek, one of the best character actors working today. He’s pretty good here, but he is a little wasted in that Edmund dies; and we won’t be seeing him again. Though, I have to say that his death scene was pretty shocking and nicely done: Juliet says that she wishes he’d be run over by a bus, and surprisingly it happens It’s so spooky that it makes you wonder if his death was an accident. It wasn’t, though you probably didn’t need a spoiler to tell you that. There are also a lot of neat ideas brought up in this episode, like the Others being able to get off the Island, the fertility issues with the Island (remember Claire being abducted), and Richard Alpert. He’s such an amazing character, but what makes his introduction her so amazing is how unamazing it is. He doesn’t come off as much, which makes the big reveal about what he can do so surprising. But more on that later. As for the on Island action, that’s pretty good too. It’s amazing how tense Cuse and Pinker and Stephen Williams were able to make the Ben surgery scenes so tense given that it was obvious that Ben wasn’t going to die. I mean, they just introduced him; and he quickly became the most interesting character on the show. There was no way they gonna quickly dispose of him. Plus, there was a nice touch of having Mr. Friendly be afraid of blood, especially after we’ve seen him be so fierce. I also liked the introduction of Room 23, which is being used to brainwash Karl. This brings up an interesting point: are these people following Ben because they want to or because they were made to want to? Or, is it just used to get the disobedient Others, like Karl and Alex and Juliet, in line? Who knows? Add this to the list of Lost unsolved mysteries. And, this is one of those mysteries I wish to see get solved, like Libby. I also liked the introduction of Jacob. It started all matter-of-factly, with Danny saying that Jack wasn’t on Jacob’s list in “I Do.” And here, we see it in Karl’s brainwashing video: one of the shots has the message “God loves you as Jacob loves you.” Talk about creepy. I mean, who in the hell is Jacob? And, if he’s the boss of Ben, then just how powerful is this guy? That is, if he’s a guy. All in all, this is a great episode. There’s a lot of great tension. A lot of interesting ideas thrown out. And some great performances, mainly from Elizabeth Mitchell. She shines here, showing that she’s a great addition to the cast. I liked how she was able to easily switch between cold in the Island scenes and heartwarming in the flashback scenes. She has some great chemistry with Robin Weigert; you believe that these two are sisters and deeply care for each other. And, I really loved the cold steel stare she gave Pickett when Juliet shot him. That was a nice twist. So, this was a vast improvement from the previous episodes. It’s just a shame that many fans didn’t come back after the show’s early hiatus. If this episode had been shown with the previous six, along with the next one, I doubt many fans would have turned off Lost so quickly. 9/10. 8. Flashes Before Your Eyes Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Damon Lindelof & Drew Goddard Plot: When Desmond saves Claire’s life again, Charlie begins to suspect if he knows if Claire is going to die. So, he and Hurley get Desmond drunk to see if Charlie’s correct. Flashbacks: We see what happened to Desmond after the Swan blew up. It turns out he was sent back in time to when he was dating Penny but unaware that he has traveled through time. Eventually, déjà vu leads him to figure out what happened. So, Desmond resolves to change history by proposing to Penny instead of dumping her. However, the woman she bought the ring from, Eloise Hawking, tells him that he must break up with Penny because time is fixed and that their relationship is doomed no matter what. So, Desmond breaks up with Penny and returns to the Island. Thoughts: Desmond is my second favorite character on the show, and the reason for that is the episodes about him are usually some of the best of the whole show (even though his episodes are better than Sawyer’s, he will always have my heart…that sounded less gay in my head). His first centric episode, “Live Together, Die Alone,” was a very satisfactory season finale and was very well written, acted, and directed to boot. But, that episode quickly got blown out of the water in quality by “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” This is easily the best episode of the whole season, and if all the episodes of Season 3 had been 10’s, I would still say that. There’s a lot of great stuff going on here. For one, we have the writers messing with the structure of the show. This almost the opposite of “The Other 48 Days,” which focused entirely on the Island. So, that means, most of the episode is happening in the flashback. But, it’s not really a flashback. Well, it is a flashback to what happened to Desmond after the Swan blew up, but it also shows how him and Penny broke up, which involves time travel. It’s pretty confusing, but that’s par for the course with Lost. Also par for the course, despite it being confusing, it’s still a damn good episode. Not surprising considering that Jack Bender is the director and Lindelof is one of the writers; Goddard is his co-writer her. Anyway, these work some great magic here to make a potentially headache inducing episode anything but. I mean, yes, the plot can be confusing when said out loud, but it does work. It is well written; Lindelof and Goddard really nail making Penny and Desmond a believable couple. Though, Cusick and Sonya Walger act the hell out of it. They have some great chemistry, and they really sell the sweet emotion and heartbreak that goes on here. Another great actor here: Alan Dale is back as Charles Widmore. That guy is great at intimidating. Boy, the casting for Lost is great at finding guys who can really play scary fathers well. There were also some nice shots, like Desmond waking up after the Swan implosion covered in red paint, making the audience think it’s blood and all the hints that let him find out that he’s been thrown back in time. One minor problem to the episode: Fionnula Flanagan as Eloise Hawking. She’s kind of annoying, in an “Ana-Lucia/always talking with such intensity” way. But, amazingly, she’s a lot more likeable than Ana-Lucia. But, she does bug me. I mean, her whole “What you do is important” speechifying gets on my nerves as she awfully cryptic about it. And, that’s one thing Lost doesn’t: a character who has answers but won’t reveal them. Though, to be honest, she was pretty good in her first outing. She just got a little more annoying in her later appearances. As for the on-Island action, there isn’t much, what we do have is pretty good. The best part was the reveal that it’s Charlie, not Claire, who Desmond was saving. The way the writers set it up to seem that way was nicely done: remember, Charlie was with Claire when the lightning struck, and Charlie would have gone out to save Claire if Desmond hadn’t done it instead. A very nice touch to this was in the flashback, with Desmond running into Charlie singing “Wonderwall.” There’s a particularly prophetic lyric in the song: “You’re gonna be the one who saves me.” And, yes, this episode does create some more mysteries for fans to figure out, namely: how did Desmond end up traveling back in time? And, just who is this Eloise Hawking, and how does she know so much about Desmond and what happened to him? But, we do find out the answers to these questions, which don’t make the episode retroactively annoying. Besides, the questions aren’t important. This is just a wonderful episode that’s genuinely touching, well acted, well written, well everything. This is as about as close to a perfect episode of Lost as you’re gonna get. 10/10. Disc 7—Bonus Features: First, I should point out that there is a commentary track on one of the episodes on Disc 2: “I Do.” You know, since I went back and viewed “Hearts And Minds” with the commentary track on, I think I’ll do the same for “I Do.” Now, as I mentioned last time, this disc menu is set up like the security monitor in the Hydra station, there are six monitors, only 2-5 can be clicked, and we looked at Monitor 2. So, today, we’ll be looking at Monitor 3, which takes us to a locker with a walkie talkie on top that you have to click on to bring up the featurettes and has the “Lost On Location” featurettes, a “Crew Tribute With Evangeline Lilly,” and “Lost In A Day.” So, let’s dive in: First, we have “Lost On Location,” the behind the scenes featurettes on certain episodes in the season. For Season 3, it’s “The Glass Ballerina,” “Every Man For Himself,” “Not In Portland,” “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead,” “The Man From Tallahassee,” “Exposé,” “The Man Behind The Curtain,” “Greatest Hits,” and “Through The Looking Glass.” It’s the same as the ones on the Seasons 1 and 2 sets: the making of these episodes with some insight into them. Though, they’re a little bit longer here than I remember the ones in other DVD sets. They weren’t all too interesting. There were some funny parts, and during the “Flashes Before Your Eyes” one, the idea of flashforwards was brought up. (Spoilers for Lost newbies reading this: Season 4 would feature flashforwards instead of flashbacks in some episodes. ) And, I was really impressed with how they recreated the plane crash from the pilot for “Exposé.” You see, they didn’t just digitally add Nikki and Paulo into the scene; they reshot so that it would look like they really were there. And, they did a great job of faithfully recreating it. That really gave me a new appreciation for the episode. Next is “Crew Tribute With Evangeline Lilly.” This is basically Lilly introducing us to the crew members who help make the show that we all love, hate, and get confused by. It’s a nice way of recognizing the people who in the hard work to making this show. And finally, we got “Lost In A Day.” This one has a camera crew filming on day in the filming of Lost, which had them filming seven different episodes in various stages of production. It’s pretty interesting, especially considering how they’re filming so many different episodes at one time. I figured they did it one at a time. Silly me. Anyway, it was pretty interesting to see, especially in the writing room to see how the ideas for the episode formulate and which ones make and don’t. For example, Richard Malkin was originally gonna end up on the Island in “The Brig” and be in the scenes with Sawyer and Anthony Cooper. However, that didn’t happen. Also, in the offices of the Lost writing staff is a clock that has the numbers on it replacing the actual numbers that would be on a clock. I want that clock!!!! Well, that’s all for Lost today. I will have the next 4 up on Tuesday, and the 4 after that on Wednesday. See you then.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 4, 2010 0:06:08 GMT -5
By they way, I thought I was sick for trying to watch all 5 seasons of Lost in 2 months, but this guy: twitter.com/whataustindoesThis guy did 5 DAYS!!!! 5 DAYS!!!!
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 5, 2010 1:03:34 GMT -5
Okay, so I watched “I Do” with the commentary track on. Why? Well, yeah, I did think that episode sucked. But, so did “Hearts And Minds,” and re-watched it with commentary track to get some insight on why in the hell they thought Shannon and Boone hooking up was a good idea. Yet, the commentary track was pretty entertaining. So, I figured it might be for “I Do.” Plus, Josh Holloway is on the track (Carlton Cuse and Evangeline Lilly join him)! So, this has gotta be good! Well, it was pretty funny, thanks to Holloway. And, there are some insights onto the making of the episode and how the episode’s plot came to be: apparently it was mentioned that Kate had been married briefly before ending up on the Island. I don’t remember this at all, but that is why we got her marriage story. Honestly, this doesn’t seem like a very important or interesting story to tell; and they could have just skipped it and not lost a thing. I also feel the same way about a certain episode that’s coming up in our next block of episodes. Anyway, the insights are a little boring, but there are some things that do explain things for Lost who may have missed something or just didn’t pick up what was going on in the episode. For example, I had no idea what the hell Kate, Sawyer, and all those other…um…Others(?) were doing with the breaking rocks and clearing a field. Turns out they’re making a runway. Spoiler for Lost noobs: In Season 5, Ajira Flight 316 lands on the Hydra island that that very run way. So, either someone was expecting it, or it was just made for other planes, and Flight 316 just happened to use it. Well, that makes the whole Kate and Sawyer breaking rocks subplot a little better because now I know it actually lead to something. Other highlights: Cuse calling the fans who want Sawyer and Kate to get together “Skaters” and the fans who want Jack and Kate to get together “Jaters,” our commentators suggesting that Jack, Kate, and Sawyer have a three-way (FANFIC!!!!), Holloway pointing out a big continuity error: Sawyer shot a polar bear from far away but couldn’t hit the Marshall’s heart at point blank range (though, the writers did realize this and gave Sawyer eye problems to answer it), Holloway talking about not doing a scene “melodramatic” (if they did not think what they were doing in this episode was melodrama, then I hate to see how the actors would acted if they were being melodramatic), and Holloway revealing that his wife just steals his scripts and reads them in the bathroom before he does (she must be a big fan of the show). All in all, it was okay: a little boring, but there were more funny parts to keep you interested; and the episode is a little better with the commentary than without. Pretty much the same way I felt about the “Hearts And Minds” commentary track.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 6, 2010 1:16:21 GMT -5
Before I begin, I want to share a little piece news I saw on the AV Club about Lost: www.avclub.com/articles/lost-fans-petition-disney-for-their-own-realworld,36741/. Apparently, Lost fans have been petitioning Disney to turn Tom Sawyer Island into the Island from Lost. It would basically be an attraction with famous Lost landmarks like the Pala Ferry docks, the DHARMA barracks, the four-toed statue, the Swan, etc. I think this is an awesome idea and definitely WALK to Disneyland to go visit this place! Anyway, if you wanna sign the petition, do so here: www.petitiononline.com/lostdisn/petition.html. Also, slight correction: that message in the Room 23 video that I thought said “God loves you as Jacob loves you” actually said that “God loves you as He loved Jacob.” Still pretty creepy but I think it’s creepier the other way around. Season 3-Disc 3 9. Stranger In A Strange Land Director(s): Paris Barclay Writer(s): Elizabeth Sarnoff & Christina M. Kim Plot: Jack is thrown into one of the polar bear cages while the Others hold a trial over what to do with Juliet for killing Pickett. He is questioned by Isabel, who claims to be the Others’ sheriff; but he just lies to her to cover for Juliet. He also meets all the Tailies taken by the Others and Alex, who tells him that the Others are planning to execute Juliet. So, Jack asks to see Ben. Alex helps him out of the cage, they go to Ben, and Jack offers to stay with the Others as Ben’s doctor. Ben agrees, and Juliet is spared. Then, they all go back to the main Island. SPEAKING OF going back to the main Island, Kate, Sawyer, and Karl reach the main Island. Kate and Sawyer plan to take Karl back with them, but Sawyer lets Karl go because he’s so heartbroken over being away from Alex. Flashbacks: We learn how Jack got his tattoos, which was during a vacation if Phuket. There, he met Achara, a tattoo artist and began a relationship with her. During their time together, Jack requested some tattoos from her, but she refused as he isn’t a part of her religion and culture. But, Jack is hesitant and basically berates the girl into doing it. She does, and the next day, her brother and his friends beat up Jack and tell him to leave. Thoughts: So, after two great episodes, would Lost get on a roll!? Um…no. We get a bad episode. A very bad episode! How bad? It made me stop watching Lost. Yes, as bad as “Hearts And Minds,” “Fire + Water,” and “I Do” were, “Stranger In A Stranger Land” was the one that broke me! “Hearts And Minds” and “Fire + Water” were bad, but they didn’t get me to stop watching. And, “I Do” was putrid but still was putrid enough to get me to not tune back into Lost after their early hiatus in Season 3. But, this one made be stop watching for three damn episodes! It was that bad and infuriating. Not only did it tell a bad story badly, it also pissed me off by giving us the perfect opportunity to answer some questions but not doing so. It pissed me off so much. In fact, it’s so horrible that I’m gonna take that title of “Worst Lost Episode Ever” from “Fire + Water” and give it to “Stranger In A Strange Land,” because as bad as “Fire + Water” is, at least it didn’t jerk me around that dangling the promise of learning something about the Island in front of me and yank it away like I was a cat. So, what was so bad about it, and what could make me turn off Lost? Jack. Yes, this a Jack episode, and it has Jack at his worst. We’ve seen Jack be an asshole to his family and basically ruin their lives (stalking Sarah, causing his father to lose his job and become an even bigger alcoholic), but now he’s ruining the lives of people he just met. In his flashback, he goes to Phuket, meets a tattoo artist named Achara, and orders her to tattoo him even though it’s not okay for her to do so since he’s an outsider. When she does, Jack gets beat up; and it appears that Achara will be ostracized from her community. Way to go Jack! Good God, this guy either doesn’t get women at all, likes to be a bastard toward them, or both. Also, these flashback scenes are pointless. I mean, I get their answering the questions about how and where Jack got his tattoos, much like “I Do” tied up Kate’s remarks that she was married in “Outlaws.” However, also like Kate’s marriage, who gives a shit? I mean, did people really care that Kate was married or that Jack went to Phuket and got some tattoos? Wasn’t him telling Sawyer that he got the tattoos in Phuket in “Lockdown” enough? It was for me, but apparently the writers felt it was a loose end that needed to be tied up. Yet, they still haven’t done much with the sickness, the Black Rock, Libby, etc. There are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied that are much more interesting that Kate’s marriage and Jack’s tattoos, yet those two things were given an entire episode. I just don’t get why the writers seem so interested in showing ideas that no one could give a shit about while there are a lot of ideas on the show that everyone would love to see addressed more but aren’t. What makes this episode even worse: no Sarah or Christian to somehow save the episode. But, we do get Bai Ling, who’s another pretty famous actor wasted in a one-and-done guest appearance. But, those are just minor annoyances. The real vomit icing on this shit cake is that there is a story 100 times more interesting going on and we don’t see a thing about it. That being Juliet’s trial. Here, we have another chance to learn about the Others’ culture, and do the Lost writers take that opportunity!? NO!!!! We just get a glimpse when Alex delivers Ben’s notes. That’s all! I mean, good God! What is wrong with the Lost writers!? Wasn’t this season suppose to be about the Others!? Season 1 was about introducing the characters and the Island, and while we didn’t learn much about the Island (which is okay since they had the rest of the show to do that), we did learn about the characters and who they are. Season 2 was about the Swan, the button, and whether or not it did something, which learned that it did. Season 3 is about the Others, and you’d think we’d learn a lot about who these people are. Yet, we’ve haven’t learned a Goddamn thing! All we know is that they are using the DHARMA stations, they live on the Island, they work on the Hydra island doing God knows what, and they have this strange culture. But, they’ve been pretty damn cryptic about it. I mean, we’ve gotten more questions than answers, like Room 23, what the hell they do, what their culture is, what the hell are they going to do with the Tailies, etc. And, that ain’t the only infuriating thing about this episode. This one really plays up that annoying Lost tradition: people not asking questions. For one, the Tailies show up, and when Cindy starts talking to Jack, does he asks questions!? No. He just acts like an asshole and tells them to go away. On the other Island, Kate and Sawyer have one of the Others, Karl, who could possibly tell them everything about them. So, do they ask any questions!? NO! Kate just wants to go get Jack back right after they escaped, which is stupid because they just escaped and it would have been easier to go back and get more people like Locke and Sayid. It’s also pretty bitchy. I mean, she just had sex with Sawyer; and now she’s all concerned about Jack. Way to show affection, Kate. Also, Sawyer lets Karl go before asking him anything! Come on, Sawyer! You should be better than this! I expect this from Jack, who probably just doesn’t care about anything going on with this Island, and Kate, who has her priorities tied up with Jack. But, you should be curious and a lot smarter! I mean, in this very episode, he wisely laid down the law and said that is would be better to go back and get help and to hike across the jungle since it would be easier to get access to food and water since he doesn’t know to sail to get back to their beach. Then, he just lets Karl go! What the hell!? He’s an Other! And, he doesn’t seem to be in line with the other Others! He can help you! Give you info! Lead you to their barracks! Jesus Christ! And, his reasoning for letting Karl go, that he’s a target, is stupid because they’re targets, too. Anyone who ain’t an Other is a target to them. Hell, a few of the Others are targets to the Others! This whole not asking any questions has gone from slightly annoying to very annoying to painfully illogical and stupid! But, there are some good touches to this. For one the tattoos do nicely tie in with Juliet being marked at the end. Still, that means they’re only relevant to this episode, and the only way they could become relevant to the whole myth of the show is if Achara shows up again and make the episode retroactively relevant. But, I doubt that’s gonna happen. It’s nicely shot, kudos to first time Lost director Paris Barclay. I also liked the score at the end. I know I haven’t mentioned this much, but I have to say: Lost as some of the best original music on TV. It’s got some good performance: If there’s one thing Fox is good at, it’s playing an asshole. Also, I really like Holloway and Lilly’s arguing here; she plays her fear for Jack painfully obvious, and he plays the hurt at it nicely obvious to her performance. I enjoyed Blake Bashoff’s performance here. He plays the lovesick fool well. And, Bai Ling ain’t that bad here. But, the best performance comes from Diana Scarwind as Isabel. That woman is so goddamn creepy. Hell, she may be the scariest Other I’ve seen. Sadly, this is the only episode of Lost she appears in as she apparently died. Well, that’s what Damon Lindelof said. But, these aren’t enough to elevate this turd. 1/10. 10. Tricia Tanaka Is Dead Director(s): Eric Laneuville Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Leonard Dick Plot: Kate and Sawyer finally make it back to their camp. As this goes on, Vincent brings a human bone to Hurley; and he follows the dog back to where he got it and finds a skeleton with an old DHARMA jumper on it in an old VW camper van. He manages to rope Jin and Sawyer into helping him fix the van up. Meanwhile, Kate tells Sayid what all happened while they were with the Others, and they and Locke go to Rousseau to go get Jack back. Flashbacks: Here, we see Hurley using his lotto winnings to buy the fast food restaurant he use to work at, Mr. Cluck’s; but opening day is ruined when a meteor lands on the place, killing reporter Tricia Tanaka, who was reporting on the event on a slow news day. When he gets home, Hurley discovers that his father, David, has returned after leaving the family when Hurley was a boy. Hurley is reluctant to welcome his father back after all these years, especially since his mother asked him to return to help him get over this curse he believes came with the lottery. Thoughts: Remember when I said that I missed four episodes of Season 3, that “Further Instructions” was one of the four, that “Stranger In A Strange Land” made me tune out for three weeks? Well, here are the other three Lost episodes I missed. Though, I did also say that I later saw one of these three, and that one was “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead.” Now, this one is a bit of a waste, much like “Stranger In A Strange Land.” But, it’s a lot better that previous episode. Now, I know some Lost fans didn’t like this one; but I quite enjoyed it. For one, I saw it on Sci Fi about a year ago. So, when I saw that Hurley had found an old VW van with a skeleton in it, I knew immediately whose skeleton it was and how they ended up there. (Spoiler for Lost newbies: This was answered in “The Man Behind The Curtain.” The skeleton is Roger Linus, Ben’s father, who killed in the Purge. ) So, when I first saw it, I had an immediate reaction of joy. However, I’m sure when it first aired, it didn’t really seem like much: Hurley finds a van, and he, Charlie, Jin, and Sawyer go joyriding. This sounds like this is the episode of a different show. It wasn’t a very relevant episode when it first aired, but it quickly became a little relevant later on in the season. So, at least the writers weren’t just goofing around. But, that’s not to say that goofing around can’t be fun. I mean, that’s the whole point of goofing around: to have fun. But, with Lost, people can get upset with goofing around. Now, I am one of them. If the episode is just jerking me around, like “Stranger In A Strange Land.” But, they aren’t jerking me around here; and it’s nicely acted and written to boot. Jorge Garcia gives probably his best comedic performance to date here. I loved the nervous look on his face as he’s being interviewed by Tricia Tanaka, which is weird since Hurley was pretty comfortable being on camera back in “Numbers” but not that weird since the whole curse thing has transpired. I also loved the scene where he tries to talk everyone into helping him fix up the van he finds. The castaways looks of “Are you crazy, Hurley!?” were great. Another great comedic parts are Sawyer and Jin drinking old beer and Sawyer teaching Jin English. Hell, they could have done a whole episode on that, and I would have been happy. But, the funniest part was Hurley’s mom saying that she has “needs” that only his father can fill. Hurley’s reaction after that revelation he wishes was never revealed: priceless. The idea that Hurley’s father returning and telling Hurley that he has to make his own luck is corny and cliché, but it is a nice sentiment. Hurley’s so goddamn worried about those numbers and the curse that he’s almost making it happen by the way he asks. Maybe he just lived a little stopped worrying about it all, he could have a happy, possibly curse free life. All in all, this was a fun episode. Holloway said on the “Lost On Location” featurette on this episode that this was the one that shows how much fun it is to film this show, and I can really see this. The friendship between the actors really translates well here, which translates well to the audience. Well, at least to me. I can understand why some people wouldn’t like it. I mean, there’s all these mysteries going on, and here all we’re seeing is Hurley driving an old van. But, I don’t really care. I mean, yes, I want answers to; but goddammit! I need a break! I can’t keep getting hit with all these mysteries each and every week! Lost is like that old electromagnetic anomaly under the Swan: it’s exciting and tense, but every 108 minutes it needs to vent. And so do I. I can’t take all this intensity. Lost needs some lighter moments; it makes things a lot better. See: Hurley and the Hot Pocket in Season 5. And, this is what this episode is: just a whole lot of fun. And, it’s a little tense, too, what with Hurley and Charlie’s ride in the VW van down the hill careening toward the rocks and Kate, Locke, and Sayid going to Rousseau. All in all, I just enjoyed it. It wasn’t the most exciting or informative episode of Lost, but it was the most fun and amazing that it ended up being relevant. 7/10. 11. Enter 77 Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: Kate, Sayid, Locke, and Rousseau make it to the Flame, the DHARMA Initiative’s station for communicating with the outside world; the Others use for that very purpose as well. Inside, they (excluding Rousseau, who stays behind in case something happens to those three) find Mikhail, the last surviving member of the DHARMA Initiative. He shoots Sayid but later surrenders when Locke and Kate overpower him and agrees to treat Sayid’s wound. He also tells them that the DHARMA Initiative was wiped out by the Others, whom they called the Hostiles, in an attack called the Purge and that they let him live as long as he stayed near the Flame. However, Sayid thinks that he is actually with the Others and cunningly gets him to admit so by telling him about Colleen’s death. It works, and he attacks Locke and Kate; but the three castaways subdue him. As Kate and Sayid investigate the Flame, Locke watches Mikhail; but he escapes and takes Locke hostage. However, Kate and Sayid find Ms. Klugh and take her hostage. A fight breaks out, and Ms. Klugh dies. Sayid takes Mikhail outside as Locke and Kate gather up useful info for them. Rousseau joins them as Kate and Locke exit the Flame. Suddenly, the Flame blows up, and Sayid asks what happened. Locke tells him that he did what Dr. Marvin Candle said to do on the Flame’s manual overide: enter 7-7 in case of an incursion. Meanwhile, back at the beach, the castaways find the ping-pong table from the Swan; and Hurley and Sawyer play a game of table tennis. Flashbacks: We get another Sayid flashback. Here, he’s working in Paris as a chef when a customer, Sami, offers him a better job at his restaurant. Sayid agrees, but things go sour when Sami and his men hold Sayid hostage because he tortured Sami’s wife, Amira, back in the Republican Guard. Thoughts: Lost Episode I Haven’t Take 2: As much as I enjoyed the fun little van antics with Hurley, it was great to get back into the thick of the action with this tense, myth heavy episode. Even better: IT HAS ANSWERS!!!! Which is amazing in that our castaways are finally asking some goddamn questions! Way to go, Sayid. I knew you wouldn’t let me down in the curious department. Anyway, we learn what happened to the DHARMA Initiative: they were all wiped out in the Purge. And, we learn a little about the Others: they have been on the Island for a very long time. Mikhail, the man with the eye patch from “The Cost Of Living” (another question answered) didn’t say how long, but I’m sure the Black Rock is an indication of how long. All in all, this should have made some Lost fans happy. I kind of wish I had seen this episode when it premiered. I know I would have been easily satisfied with it. But, I don’t really mind since I have learned about everything Mikhail revealed. I did read the synopsis for this episode online, and spoiler for the people who haven’t seen Lost: The Purge was shown in “The Man Behind The Curtain.” The things that I really enjoyed about this episode were all the little details about the Flame, like the chess game that leads to manual override and the C-4 hooked up all around the Flame. There were some nice things about this episode. For one, it’s pretty damn exciting. I love this Mikhail guy. It’s nice to see an Other who’s an actual badass. And, SPEAKING OF Others who are actual badasses, Ms. Klugh is back! YAY!!!! But, this is her last episode as she dies. BOO!!!! Though, I was impressed with April Grace here. She spoke Russian very well, and I love the look of no fear she gives. Like she could go to hell and not be impressed let alone scared. Also, this has probably the best fight scene in the whole series, between Sayid and Mikhail after he confirms that he is lying about being DHAMRA Initiative. It’s short, but very sweet. There are also some very tense moments, like the stand off that led to Ms. Klugh’s death, Candle’s override video, and particularly the scene where Kate and Sawyer act nice with Mikhail and try to figure out if he’s telling the truth. The sweet smiles Andrews and Lilly give were top notch, great touches to it. And, I really enjoyed Locke blowing up the Flame. That was a pretty intense way of introducing the idea that he doesn’t want to get off the Island. But, that’s not all! There’s a flashback here, for Sayid. And, it’s a bit of a gearshift. It starts off like it might be another filler one, when we see Sayid as a chef in Paris being offered a new job from Sami. However, things quickly change when Sami introduces his wife Amira to Sayid. Suddenly, Sayid is being tortured by Sami because Sayid may or may not have tortured his poor wife. I have to be honest: I wasn’t initially impressed by this when I read the synopsis. Like Locke’s flashback in “Further Instructions,” it didn’t sound like much. In fact, it sounded a little stupid to me: the torturer is now being tortured. It’s a neat idea, but we already saw this in “Solitary.” However, unlike Locke’s flashback in “Further Instructions,” it played a lot better that it sounded in my head. For one, we get some great guest performances by Shaun Toub as Sami and Anne Bedian as Amira. Toub is pretty recognizable face-wise as he’s usually typecast in these intense, which he does play well. But, he also subtly adds some hurt into the intensity that makes it a little better than the other tough guy roles he’s played. So, it comes off as he’s not really a tough guy but a man who’s upset that his wife was harmed. As for Bedian, she nicely plays the reluctant participant in Sami’s torture. Now, having the torture victim not want be like the torturer does come off as a little cliché, but it does work, mainly because of Bedian’s performance. So, kudos to the actors for making the flashbacks a lot better. Though, the writers, Cuse and Lindelof, do deserve some credit. One of the best touches is the flashback was to give Amira a cat that looks just like Mikhail’s and naming Mikhail’s cat Nadia. Very clever touches that elevate this episode. As for the subplot of Hurley and Sawyer playing ping-pong, it’s sweet but a little too fluffy and doesn’t hurt the main plot; just adds a nice counterbalance. So, Lost is back to the form. After the hiccup with “Stranger In A Strange Land” and some nice fun with “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead,” we get a very intense that stands up nicely with “Not In Portland” and “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” I just wish I had seen this when it premiered. 9/10. 12. Par Avion Director(s): Paul Edwards Writer(s): Christina M. Kim & Jordan Rosenberg Plot: While on a picnic, Claire and Charlie are interrupted by Desmond, who talks Charlie into going boar hunting. During this, Claire notices birds migrating to the Island and figures that they might be tagged. So, she gets Jin and Sun to help her catch one so that she can put a note on it in hopes of getting rescued. However, Charlie decides to go with Desmond, upsetting Claire. Then, when Desmond scares away the birds and Claire sees he’s alone, she starts to suspect something is going on. She later confronts Charlie. He tries to tell her about Desmond’s visions of him dying but can’t and starts an argument instead. Then, Claire follows Desmond after an argument between him and Charlie and sees that he has captured a bird. He tells her that if Charlie had helped her catch the bird, then Charlie would have die. Claire then reconciles with Charlie, and they release the bird with the note. Meanwhile, Sayid, Kate, Locke, Rousseau, and Mikhail travel through the jungle to the Others’ barracks, running into the cement pylon fence. Sayid believes it’s a security perimeter, and Mikhail confirms this but says that it doesn’t work. So, Locke pushes Mikhail into it to see if he’s telling the truth. He is not and dies. Sayid yells at Locke for killing the one person among them who knew the code, but Kate things they can cross it by climbing the trees above it and making a makeshift bridge. They do this successfully and get to the Others’ barracks. They see Jack but are quickly alarmed when they see him playing football with them. Flashbacks: We get a Claire flashback, her first off Island one since Season 1. It starts with the car accident that leaves her mother in a coma. Claire later meets a visitor she doesn’t know: Dr. Christian Shephard, gets into an argument with her aunt Lindsey, during which it comes out that Christian has been paying for her mother’s medical bills because a one-night stand between him and Claire’s mother years ago produced Claire, making her Christian’s daughter and Jack’s sister. Christian visits Claire over the next few days, asking her to take her mother off of life support, but she refuses. Then, the flashback ends with Claire apologizing to her comatose mother about the accident. Thoughts: Well, my journey into the Land Of The Lost Episodes I Haven’t Seen ends. And, I can’t speak for Marshall, Will, and Holly, but I have to say that I quite enjoyed it. “Further Instructions” was fine but a little disappointing and could have been better. “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” was a fun little hour that went somewhere even it didn’t like it would. “Enter 77” was fantastic. Now, it ends with this Claire episode: “Par Avion.” I didn’t really expect much from it. I mean, the only thing we really wanted to know about her happened on the Island and was revealed in Season 2. Well, okay, it’s not the only thing. There has been some speculation since “Two For The Road” that the woman Dr. Christian Shephard was Claire’s mom, indicating that he may be Claire’s father and Jack’s sister. It seems tenuous at best. I mean, just because Christian was arguing with an Australian woman doesn’t mean that it was Claire’s mom. There are a lot of women in Australia. Then again, there is that big connection motif, and this would seem like one Lost would do. Plus, there were some subtle hints before hand, what with Jack being very protective of Claire. So, now that’s all been confirmed here. Honestly, I wasn’t really surprised. Yes, I did say that woman Christian was arguing with in “Two For The Road” was a pretty weak way to introduce the idea that Christian is Claire’s dad; but it did seem pretty obvious in a Lost. This show is like Vince Russo: they’ve done so many swerves that it’s actually surprising that a swerve doesn’t happen. See: Michael being Ben’s man on the boat. It seemed too obvious that fans thought that it wouldn’t be Michael, and some were upset that it was Michael. As for the episode itself: it’s okay. The flashback is nice but a little cliché, what with the girl who never knew her father finally meeting him and not really wanting anything to do with him. Seen it a thousand times. But, it isn’t bad by any means. It started off strong, showing the car crash from Claire’s point-of-view to make the audience seem just as discombobulated. That’s a nice touch, but I don’t know if it was a director or writer decision. Either way, Edwards and Kim & Rosenberg did a good job with that. Acting wise, De Ravin does a good job here, especially at the end when she apologizes to her comatose mother. I was happy to see John Terry again. (By the way, I think I’m starting to get a man crush on him much like the one I have Josh Holloway.) He was pretty good here, too, showing a slightly different side to him. Usually in the Jack flashbacks, he has a certain charm. But here, it’s more of a pained longing to be around his daughter. Some nice range from the man. Also, there was very interesting idea brought up that has been used before on the show: during Claire’s apology, she makes it clear that she said that wished her mother was dead just before the car crash. As we saw in “Not In Portland,” Juliet wished that her ex-husband would die. Sure enough, that happened. Also back in Season 1 in “Special,” we saw Walt wanting his mom and stepdad’s attention just before a bird flew into the glass door and killed itself. So, we have this nice theme of people getting what they wished for. I can’t remember anymore times of that happening, but it’s a very interesting that I would love to see played up more. As for the subplot, it is a lot more interesting than what’s going on with Claire. Sayid, Kate, Locke, and Rousseau continue on their journey to save Jack. There is some good tension in it brought on by their prisoner Mikhail and Sayid’s suspicions of Locke. Mikhail brings up another good Season 3 mystery: Jacob and his list. Well, he doesn’t say Jacob, but he does mention a “great man” who isn’t Ben and has a list. Plus, Pickett was the one who introduced us to Jacob’s list; so that has to be who Mikhail is talking about. He also says that Sayid, Kate, and Locke weren’t on Jacob’s list, which answers why the Others didn’t take the original castaways. But, why did Jacob want the Tailies more than the first 40 survivors we’ve met? Why are the Tailies considered better than the others? Who knows? It could be a red herring. Spoiler for Lost newbies: In the Season 5 finale, we saw Jacob visiting most of the Flight 815 passengers in various stages of their lives, so maybe the people he didn’t meet were taken and those he did were left alone to throw off his adversary. Either way, this Jacob guy sounds real scary. I mean, Ben is very scary man; and he’s been shown as the leader. However, it appears that someone is above him, and if Ben is scary and has a boss, just how scary is he? As for Locke’s suspicious behavior, it’s getting a lot more clear that he doesn’t want off the Island. Though his killing of Mikhail seemed a little uncharacteristic for him, him taking some C-4 and lying about it and knowing there were explosives in the Flame was a nice touch. And, the best part of the episode: them finding Jack and seeing him playing football with Tom. What a twist! I mean, Jack’s the one guy who’s been adamant that they get off the Island. Now, it seems like he’s been turned. Oooh!!!! Exciting. Even though there are some good stuff, this episode does have it’s problems. Claire’s plan to get rescued by tying a messaged to a bird is nice and very like her but a little silly. The only thing that really helps it is Desmond and Charlie’s strange behavior leading to her finding out that Charlie’s gonna die…maybe. Also, there is a big continuity error in this episode: Christian paying for Claire’s mom’s medical bills. It doesn’t make much sense because Australia has universal health care. The cost of any medical expenses would be borne by CTP, or Medicare. Naturally, any insurance company would seek to limit their exposure to cost, but Medicare is obliged to fund the life threatening medical care of a "public patient", and CTP covers the medical care of any vehicle accident victim. For Christian Shephard to fund this care, either Carole Littleton is not an Australian citizen (unlikely), Carole was taken to a private hospital (a little more likely), or the vehicle was not registered and this implies that Claire is facing criminal charges of driving an unlicensed and uninsured vehicle (the most likely considering she was interviewed by a cop). Other than that, it’s a nice episode. I’d give it a 7 out of 10. Disc 7—Bonus Features: As mentioned earlier: Disc Menu = Security Monitor, 2-5 can only be clicked on, and I’ve done 2 and 3. So, onto Monitor 4, which takes us to a computer that you have to click on to bring up the features and has “The World Of The Others,” “Terry O’Quinn: Throwing From The Handle,” and a blooper reel. So, let’s begin: First, “The World Of The Others,” which is about the Others. I don’t know if you got that from the title. Basically, it has all the cast members and writers talking about the Others and their characteristics. It’s okay and pretty playful but doesn’t really add anything insightful about the Others. Though, this is where it’s revealed that Isabel and many of the insignificant Others died. The best part of the featurette: Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz’s moment of silence for all the Others who’ve died. Next is “Terry O’Quinn: Throwing From The Handle.” This has Terry O’Quinn giving us some lessons on knife throwing. It’s as awesome as it sounds. And, finally we have the blooper reel. This one is longer than the Season 2 one, which is a good thing. And, like the other two, it’s pretty funny. Nothing much else to say about it. So, that ends are Lost journey for today. I will have the next disc up tomorrow…or, well, later today. Hopefully a little earlier than this one. After that…um…who knows?
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 6, 2010 22:00:04 GMT -5
Before I begin, I have to point out that I’m going to have to start revealing major spoilers about the episodes. Even though Season 3 wasn’t the best, it started getting a lot better near the end. So much so that I’m gonna have to spoil the episodes in order to fully review them. If you remember, I did this in the Season 2 review; but it was much later, with only like 7 episodes left. However, I’m gonna have to do this earlier here as Lost got on a real roll starting with “The Man From Tallahassee.” So, for you people who are reading and haven’t seen Lost or missed a few episodes: Season 3-Disc 4 13. The Man From Tallahassee Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Drew Goddard & Jeff Pinker Plot: Now that Kate, Sayid, Locke, and Rousseau have made it to the Barracks, they are shocked to see that Jack is being friendly with the Others. Rousseau slips away, and the others wait until dark to sneak into the camp. Kate finds Jack, but she and Sayid are caught. As for Locke, he sneaks into Ben’s house and asks about the submarine. However, they are interrupted by Alex, whom Locke takes hostage, and Tom, whom Ben tells to go get Richard and the man from Tallahassee. Then, Locke tells Alex to go get Sayid’s pack and take him to the submarine. She complies, and once at the submarine, Locke plants the C-4 he took from the Flame on it. Meanwhile, Jack visits Kate and tells her that he’s gonna leave on the submarine and bring back rescue. However, just as he’s about to board his ride home, Locke blows it up. Afterwards, Ben and Richard take Locke to meet the man from Tallahassee: Anthony Cooper. Flashbacks: We finally learn how Locke got into the wheelchair. He’s living a pathetic life in a pathetic apartment. Then, a man named Peter Talbot comes to him about Adam Seward, the man who is about to marry his mother. However, Peter has learned that Adam is actually Anthony Cooper and that Locke gave him his kidney. He wants to know all about Cooper, but Locke lies and says it was an anonymous donation. After this meeting, Locke follows Cooper and Mrs. Talbot, confronts him, and warns him to call off the wedding. Cooper agrees, but then Peter dies. When Locke finds out, he confronts Cooper, thinking he killed the boy. Cooper lies and says that he had nothing to do with Peter’s death and that Mrs. Talbot called off the wedding because of her sons death. He even asks Locke to call the woman to see if it’s true. Locke does, but then Cooper knocks Locke into a window, causing him to fall 8 stories to the ground. In the hospital, Locke learns that Cooper has fled to Mexico and that he will no longer walk again. Thoughts: As I said back in the “Stranger In A Strange Land” review, that episode got me to stop watching Lost for 3 weeks. So, what brought me back? The promise of ABC’s hype machine that we’d finally find out how Locke ended up in the wheel chair. I don’t know why, but I tuned it. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about finding out how Locke got paralyzed. Hell, I wanted to know very badly. The problem was that the promos for “Stranger In A Strange Land” promised to reveal some answers. It didn’t. I was pissed. I stopped watching. However, those goddamn promos suckered me. Though, to be honest, it wasn’t just the promos; the fact that nothing else worth watching was on at Lost’s airtime, Wednesdays at 9/8 central, was also a big factor for me to tune back in. So, with nothing better on and the memories of disappointment from “Stranger In A Strange Land,” I tuned in not expecting much. What I got was a pretty damn good episode. For one, they got the answer of Jack’s friendly behavior with the Others out of the way. No, he hasn’t been turned. But, he has to be friendly if he wants to get off the Island. Plus, playing football with the Others sounds a lot better than being drugged, beaten, and interrogated by them. Nevertheless, I’m a glad they didn’t go down that route. It just didn’t make sense that Jack, the one guy who’s wanted to get off the Island more than anyone, would suddenly go native. Though, I have to say I’m a little disappointed that Jack wasn’t turned. It would have been interesting to see how the Others would have done that. Maybe we would have found out more about Room 23 and Jacob. Who knows? But, this episode ain’t about Jack. It’s a Locke episode, and the one we’ve been waiting for: the reveal of how he was paralyzed. And, it was pretty shocking. The flashbacks leading up to it weren’t much: just Locke once again getting sucked into Anthony Cooper’s life, this time by a man whose mother has married Cooper and is afraid she’s being conned. Locke’s flashback wasn’t really much until the end, but I think that was the point. The writers, here Goddard and Pinker, wanted it to seem matter-of-factly to make the end seem all the more shocking. It’s an old writing trick, but it works. As for that ending: pushed out of a window! Goddamn! I thought Locke was just shot in the back or hit by a car. But, pushed out of a window!? That was a pretty good one. Kudos to Goddard and Pinker, and the other Lost writers, for coming up with that. As good as the end of Locke’s flashback is, the real meat happens on the Island. As I said with Jack’s supposedly turn, it was played nicely. Goddard and Pinker made it seem like Jack had turned well. Though the actors deserve some credit as well, especially Lilly. Her disbelief that Jack has been seemingly brainwashed and her hurt that Jack doesn’t do anything to help her and Sayid when they’ve been captured was wonderfully played by her. She’s really good when she and Jack speak for the first time since the Hydra island. The heartbreak just pours out of her face like tears, even tough she’s not crying. Also, I have to say that the chemistry between Fox and Lilly is getting a little better. I think that’s because they now know each other so well. Another good performance comes from the obvious candidate: the best actor on the show, Michael Emerson. One of the things I like is how he can go from sarcastic to creepy quite easily. The way he delivered the line “We don't have a code for, 'There's a man in my closet with a gun to my daughter's head'…although we obviously should,” was perfect. I like how Ben adds a little sarcasm to the situation. I don’t know if that was a writers’ decision or Emerson’s, but it was a good one. And, of course, Kevin Tighe gives another great performance as Cooper. That guy was pretty much born to play Locke’s father. Though, the man of the hour is…well…the man of the hour, Terry O’Quinn. I loved the look of despair on his face in the first two flashback scenes. I loved his back and forth with Emerson. And, I loved the look of almost glee after he blows up the submarine. He’s just perfect, especially in the scenes with Emerson. Those to have a great one-up-manship. They perfectly show their disdain for each other. Ben obviously doesn’t like that Locke can walk despite being paralyzed and that Locke thinks he knows the Island better than Ben. And, Locke thinks Ben’s a hypocrite for living on the Island like he’s living on any old town in America. The best exchange: Ben: You’ve been here 80 days, John! I’ve been here my entire life! So how is that you think you know the Island better than I do. Locke: Because, you’re in the wheelchair; and I’m not. They fighting a boxing match with their words, and Locke just landed the knockout punch. Plus, it was nicely called back when Ben said that he wanted to help Locke. This struggle between Locke and Ben makes for some damn entertaining stuff. Besides the acting, it’s very well written. For one, there are all those great lines, like the ones above and Ben’s answer for how the Island has electricity: “There are two giant wheels with hamsters underneath.” I also like the idea of “the box” that can manifest anything people want. I think it’s a bunch of hooey, but the idea of it is still pretty damn interesting. Another interesting idea is the submarine. It’s been presented as the only way on and off the Island; but I don’t think that’s true, and I’m not just saying that because people came here by boat, plane, and balloon. It appears that the writers are subtly saying that there is another way off the Island and that the submarine is just used as tool to keep people in line. Sure enough, it later becomes obvious that Ben wanted the submarine destroyed to keep the Others complacent knowing that there’s no way off. We later do learn that there is another way off the Island, but more on that later. And, there were those big reveals. Yes, the reveal of Locke’s fall wasn’t the only surprise. Cooper showing up at the end was an awesome cliffhanger for this episode. In fact, that was the reason to make be tune in next week. I was disappointed that we got the Nikki and Paulo episode, but I didn’t mind because I knew if I kept watching I’d eventually find off. Yes, this was the episode that restored my faith in Lost. It’s fitting that it was an episode about the man of faith. 8/10. 14. Exposé Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Plot: While playing ping pong, Hurley and Sawyer are shocked to see Nikki running out of the jungle, falling the ground, and saying something like “Paulo lies” before dying. They later find Paulo dead in the jungle with a walkie talkie and some diamonds. Soon, the other castaways try to figure out what happened. Sawyer thinks they were with the Others, but the rest soon think that Sawyer may have killed them for the diamonds because Desmond saw him arguing with Nikki over a gun and because Charlie earlier confessed to Sun that he abducted her as part of Sawyer’s con to get the guns. However, Sawyer denies it and later throws them into Nikki and Paulo’s graves. Flashbacks: We learn how Nikki and Paulo came to the Island. Nikki use to work on a show called Exposé and married the executive producer, Howard L. Zukerman. However, it was just a con she and Paulo, who worked as his chef, to get his diamonds. They kill Zukerman, take the diamonds, and leave for L.A. on Flight 815. Then comes the plane crash, during which they lose the diamonds. After that, they begin to search for them. Dr. Arzt gives Nikki a map that leads to Eko’s plane, but Paulo won’t look for the diamonds there because it looks unsafe. While there, they end up finding the Pearl. Eventually, Paulo finds the diamonds and hides them in The Pearl, overhearing Ben and Juliet talking about Jack while there; they also leave behind a walkie talkie that Paulo takes. Later, Paulo retrieves the diamonds when they go with Locke, Sayid, Desmond, and Eko to the Pearl. However, Nikki finds out about the diamonds and confronts him with a medusa spider that can paralyze anything it bites, which she learned from Dr. Arzt. However, the female spider attracts male spiders, and Nikki is bitten, which leads to her running off and Sawyer and Hurley finding her. Of course, this means that Paulo and Nikki were buried alive. Thoughts: Boy was I disappointed to learn that instead of following up on Anthony Cooper being on the Island, we’d get a Nikki and Paulo episode. I wasn’t surprised. They did this in Season 2, following up Ana-Lucia and Libby’s deaths by Michael in “Two For The Road” with Locke and Eko’s Pearl discovery in “?”. Just disappointed. I imagine most fans were, mainly because of Nikki and Paulo. Ah, Nikki and Paulo. The answer no one wanted. You see, one question that’s been bugging Lost fans is “Why don’t any of the other castaways go on adventures with the main group?” (By the way, I hate this question because it’s obvious that they aren’t part of what’s going on since the creators have chosen to not focus on them; like with Kate’s marriage and Jack’s tattoos, I say, “Who gives a shit?”) To placate this, we got Arzt going with Kate, Locke, Jack, and Hurley to get dynamite from the Black Rock and “S.O.S.,” Rose and Bernard’s only centric episode. But, fans still weren’t pleased. So, the Lost writers created Nikki and Paulo. However, soon these two because more hated than Kate, Jack, and everyone not asking questions. So, they were killed off here. Now, for a confession: I don’t hate Nikki and Paulo. I know that may make a few Lost fans’ blood boil, but I didn’t see what was so bad about them. It wasn’t like they were played by bad actors. Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santiago are okay. Now, don’t get too angry: I didn’t like them. I hate them, but I didn’t care for them either. To me, they were just the writers way of answering a question. And, I think the problem with Nikki and Paulo wasn’t the idea of them but rather execution of said idea. If this had been a one-and-done thing or if they had been introduced on the tail section, I think fans wouldn’t have been so venomous towards them. However, they clumsily integrated them into “Further Instructions” as if they had always been there. They even planned to give Nikki a flashback episode, showing her to be a stripper/crime fighter then revealing that she’s actually an actress on a TV show (a neat idea, I have to say). It was like dumping oil into water and hoping it would mix. Another problem was putting this episode in the middle of the season heating up. In the last episode, Kate, Sayid, and Locke had reached the Others’ barracks, Locke had blown up the submarine, and Anthony Cooper was now on the Island. Things were getting interesting. So, how did Lost follow that up? A stand-alone episode dedicated to two characters the fans could care less about. Not exactly gonna win the Lost writers any favors with the fanbase. I mean, the whole episode comes off as a fanfic story or a tie in novel that shows what’s happening on the Island through the eyes of a castaway we don’t see, like that video game Lost: Via Domus. And, while I was disappointed by this episode, I didn’t hate it for two reasons. One was sympathy for the Lost writing staff. Here, they’ve asked why the other castaways have done anything with the main group. So, they resolved to fix this with Nikki and Paulo. Were the fans appreciative? No! They shit on the idea! That’s gotta be frustrating as hell: giving the fans what they want and still getting spit on! Especially in an “Everything sucks” culture that has become more prevalent with the Internet allowing every one to voice their opinions and those opinions usually being negative (that’s not to say that positive opinions, but let’s face: negativity has always been more vocal than positivity). As Maximus said “Gladiator”: ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!!? The other reason: I was actually pretty entertained by this episode. While I did think Nikki and Paulo’s plot was a little cliché, I thought the episode was an interesting idea: a “Rosencranz & Guildenstern” approach to Lost, seeing the show through the eyes of lesser known characters. There were some nice twists, like Nikki and Paulo stumbling on Eko’s plane and the Pearl long before Locke and Boone found the plane and Eko and Locke found the Pearl and Paulo overhearing Ben and Juliet’s conversation in the Pearl while hiding the diamonds they stole, which answers why Paulo went to the Pearl. It was also nice to see Shannon, Boone, Ethan, and Arzt (yes, I actually liked the guy here) again. I also have to praise the Lost crew again for terrifically recreating the plane crash scenes from the pilot. As I mentioned earlier, in the “Lost On Location” featurette on this episode, they how well they recreated the Flight 815 wreckage; and I have to say all that hard work paid off. It looks great, and it was an excellent idea to reshoot it rather than just CGI Sanchez and Santiago into the pilot because I’m sure the other way would have looked bad and taken the audience out of the moment. I also have to say that Nikki and Paulo’s reunion after the crash was nicely done. Santiago played the relief to see her well, and Sanchez was nice with asking about the diamonds. Also, a cameo from Billy Dee Williams is always appreciated. Another nice thing about the show was the other castaways trying to figure out what happened. Holloway is pretty good here, in top Sawyer form; and Kim does a nice job here as well. And, I liked how the other castaways began to suspect Sawyer killed them, especially after Charlie’s reveals his involvement in Sawyer’s gun con (which was revealed in a little ungainly way). It’s in tune with their characters and his. But, the best touch was the reveal that Nikki and Paulo were being buried alive. Nikki waking up as dirt was being dumped on them was a very clever way of revealing it. It’s a good thing that chose the name “Paulo” since it and “lies” happens to sound a lot like “paralyzed.” But, the amazing thing about this episode is how it follows through on several of Lost’s core themes: the villain's redemption, the perils of mistrust, and the idea of mysteries nesting within mysteries. Also, it could be a clue to the big mystery of Lost: just what in the hell is going on? The answer: it could all be a show within a show. In the first flashback scene, Nikki's character on the striper-crimefighter series Exposé discovers right before her death that the man she thought was her boss and friend (played by Billy Dee Williams) was actually the criminal mastermind she’s been fighting against. So, maybe, just maybe one of the other castaways is behind the whole thing. Maybe the rich Hurley used his money to put his whole thing together? Or, maybe Locke will go back in time and become Jacob? It’s an interesting idea, I doubt that’s gonna be the case. I think they’re just mentioning this idea like they did the “It’s all a dream” theory” in “Dave”: addressing it as a possibility but ultimately dismissing it just by mentioning it. I think this mainly because we did meet Jacob is Season 5. But still, it’s pretty amazing that some of the myth ideas are in this episode that was written just to clear up the writers’ mistake. So, I say kudos to Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz for writing such an entertaining and clever episode. 8/10. 15. Left Behind Director(s): Karen Gaviola Writer(s): Damon Lindelof & Elizabeth Sarnoff Plot: The Others leave the Barracks, and Locke goes with. Before leaving, they gas the place, knocking out Kate, Sayid, and Jack. Kate wakes up in the Jungle handcuffed to Juliet. The two are forced to work together to get back to the Barracks while trying to avoid the Smoke Monster. Meanwhile at the beach, Hurley tells Sawyer that the other castaways are planning to vote whether or not to banish him and that he should make nice to sway the votes. Sawyer does so, giving everyone a nice bar-b-que. However, Sawyer learns from Charlie that no vote was to take place. Sawyer confronts Hurley, who tells him that he tricked Sawyer because the castaways needed a new leader in case Locke, Kate, Sayid, and Jack didn’t make it back. Flashbacks: We get another Kate flashback. Here, we learn that Kate once met Cassidy, the mother of Sawyer’s daughter. Kate asks Cassidy to help her run interference so that she can talk to her mother and find out why she ratted her own daughter out. Thoughts: Well, this is a lot better than the last Kate episode we got. Instead of the melodrama Kate trying to save Jack and Sawyer but betraying the former by having sex with the latter, here’s she running around in the jungle with Juliet trying not to get killed by the Smoke Monster. These two have a very interesting relationship. It’s not quite a friendship but not quite a rivalry. The best way to describe it would that they’re frienemies. There were some great things about their interaction here, like their handcuffed fight that leads to Kate accidentally dislocating Juliet’s shoulder (I got a kick out of that) and Kate popping the shoulder back in after Juliet reveals that Jack saw her and Sawyer have sex. The best part was at the beginning with Kate attacking Juliet, even though she’s just bringing Kate food, and Juliet easily flipping her on the ground. It’s weird that Kate would be so distrustful of Juliet, especially since Juliet helped her and Sawyer escape. But, her distrust is a little justified when it’s revealed that Juliet handcuffed herself to Kate and put her in the jungle and that she did know of the Smoke Monster despite claiming not to earlier. Though it was done to gain Kate’s trust, it’s still a very suspicious thing for Juliet to do. However, the underlining cause for Kate’s distrust of Juliet is jealousy. She saw the way Juliet touched Jack back in “The Man From Tallahassee,” and it’s obvious Kate still has some feelings for Jack. But now, suddenly, there’s a competitor for Jack’s affections. It must unnerving to not only see another woman vie for the attention of the man you like but also to suddenly not be the center of attention, which was shown wonderfully when Kate wakes Jack up and he asks about Juliet after she apologizes for coming to get him and screwing his escape up. Remember, she’s been the meat in the Jack and Sawyer sandwich. However, with Juliet in the picture, Jack’s the meat; and Kate’s just bread. It’s a great way to add an extra layer to Kate and Juliet’s tension. As for the flashbacks, they don’t do much; but they are a huge improvement over Kate’s marriage. For one, we get another connection, funnily enough again it’s to Sawyer. Sawyer having had Kate’s mom as a waitress once was a weak thread. Having her once meet Cassidy was a lot stronger. It’s very out of nowhere, so much so it almost doesn’t make any sense. But, hell! I’ll go with, mainly because Kim Dickens is back! She’s nice in this one and has a friendly chemistry with Lilly. Though, showing that Kate knows Cassidy isn’t the reason for the flashback. That would be to answer why Kate’s mom turned her in, which was because she loved Wayne despite his faults. Now, that didn’t really seem necessary to me. I think it was pretty obvious that was the reason. Also, it wasn’t written very well. It was pretty exposition heavy. Though, I did like Beth Broderick’s performance here. So, it wasn’t all bad. As for the Sawyer’s subplot, it was okay. Like the ping pong subplot in “Enter 77,” it was sweet but a little fluffy. I mean, I like the idea of Sawyer trying to make nice to everyone as it leads to some funny moments. But, the whole reveal that Hurley did it get everyone to like him better since he’s become the de facto leader with Jack, Kate, Locke, and Sayid gone, it’s too sweet from me. Yet, the subplot doesn’t take anything away from the episode. It’s just not all that great compared to Kate and Juliet trying to get along long enough to avoid the Smoke Monster. There is one very interesting moment involving their encounter with Smokey: when he chases them into a tree, it flashes a bunch of bright lights. What’s up with that? Also, we learn that the sonic fence around the Barracks can also keep the Smoke Monster out. That’s…something. All in all, this is a pretty good episode. It has a few problems, but it’s elevated a lot by Lilly and Mitchell’s performances. They have a great interaction here that will become even more interesting as the show progresses. 7/10. 16. One Of Us Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Drew Goddard Plot: Kate, Sayid, Jack, and Juliet make it to the beach. However, the castaways are suspicious of Juliet since she was an Other. To make matters worse, Claire suddenly becomes ill. Luckily, Juliet reveals that she knows what’s wrong with Claire and can help. However, Sawyer and Sayid are distrustful of her and follow her as she goes to retrieve the serum to help her. They try to stop her from giving it to Claire, but Juliet is able to reason with them and give Claire the serum. Claire gets better and everyone starts to become trustful of Juliet. Flashbacks: Juliet goes on the flashback ride again. Here, we learn how and why she came to the Island. After being drugged and put onto the submarine, Juliet wakes up on the Island and meets Ben. Then, she’s told about the mysterious medical condition that affects pregnant women on the Island and that the Others want her to find a way to fix it. This was suppose to take a few months, but after several years and no results, Juliet wants to leave. However, Ben won’t let her and forces her to stay on the promise that Jacob will cure her sister’s cancer. Then, she tells Ben of his tumor, Flight 815 crashes on the Island, and they go to the Flame to see what’s going on. There, Ben shows Juliet a video of her sister, healthy and playing with her daughter. Finally, her flashbacks end with Ben telling Juliet to handcuff herself to Kate, go back with the others, and gain the trust of the castaways by saving Claire. Thoughts: This Island changes people. Jack has gone from dickish cynic to slightly less dickish believer. Locke has gone from a pathetic lonely man who can’t walk into a very important person who is in touch with the Island. Sawyer has gone from loner/con man to a fearless leader. And then, there’s Juliet. She used to be a meek gynecologist. Then, after three years on the Island, she’s become one badass woman. However, unlike Jack, Locke, and Sawyer, we haven’t really seen her change. Theirs progressed as the series went on. Hers has only been indicated in the differences between the flashbacks in which she’s the humble doctor trying to save her sister and the confident semi-bitch who can callously shoot a man. It’s a pretty jarring transformation, but the writers have handled it well. Though, it helps they picked a wonderful actress to play her. Elizabeth Mitchell has played this role to perfection, aptly handling the switch from caring to cold. The thing that really sells it is how she and the writers have kept some of that caring after she’s become an Other. That’s smart because no matter how much things change they always stay the same. Meaning, Jack may now be a believer, but he’s still a bit of dick. Locke may no longer be the weakling he once was, but he’s got that naiveté that’s been present throughout most his life. Sawyer may no longer be a loner, but he’s still sarcastic as hell. And, Juliet is a lot stronger than she was before the Island; but she still has a heart. That’s what makes this episode so interesting: it shows that Juliet may be an Other, but that’s just the outside appearance. She still has her heart, and she desperately wants to leave the Island. Of course, just we, the audience, knows that doesn’t that the other castaways do. This creates a great tension in this episode about whether or not she really has left the Others. To add to that, Cuse and Goddard ended it with the reveal that Ben didn’t drug Juliet in the last episode and had her handcuff herself with Kate in order to gain her trust and go back with them. You know, I wonder if Ben sent the Smoke Monster after them to help Juliet. Anyway, it makes the audience wonder where her allegiance lies and if she’s just using the castaways to get off the Island. All intriguing stuff. It’s amazing how the writers have been able to keep this woman a mystery why still having the audience know that she doesn’t like the Others and wants off the Island. To help matters is the tension between Juliet and Ben. This adds an interesting layer to things as it appears Ben has a possessive relationship with Juliet, almost as if he’s in love with her despite her obvious apathy toward him. There are some myths brought up here as well. For one, there’s Claire getting sick. It appeared like the writers were bring back the sickness, but it all turned out to be a red herring to get the castaways to trust her. However, the sickness could seem to be what happens to pregnant woman: they can’t give birth; the baby and mother almost always dies, which is why Juliet was brought to the Island. This is an interesting idea bring in more questions like: why does this happen? How was Claire able to give birth? Is it because she conceived off the Island? Or is it because Aaron is special? Who knows, but there is a possible answer brought up in Season 5. But, I’ll get to that later. Another mystery is Mittelos Bioscience and Herarat Aviation. Mittelos was first mentioned back in “Not In Portland,” that was the company Richard Alpert said he worked for, and Herarat was brought up here. However, Juliet said that she had done some research and never heard of them. It appears that they’re front companies the Others’ uses to make money or for other purposes. They haven’t been mentioned much since then, but I would like to see a revisit of them. All in all, this is a very good episode. There is a lot of great stuff going on here. Even the title is an awesome callback to the Ben’s first episode “One Of Them.” I didn’t even mind that it didn’t really answer much about the Others even though we could have perfectly learned all about them through Juliet’s eyes. It has a lot of nice touches, like the reunion scene. Sawyer’s hesitation before hugging Jack and Kate was the kicker. But, the real highlight is Elizabeth Mitchell. She is fantastic here. Highlights include Juliet asking Ben to leave after a woman dies, Juliet confronting Ben with his cancerous tumor, Juliet chastising Sawyer and Sayid for being so righteous as she tries to take the serum to Claire, and Juliet seeing her sister on the monitors in the Flame. Emerson is also very good here. He plays overprotection to creepy highs. So, I have to say that Lost is on a roll. Well, it pretty much has been since “Not In Portland.” It just had a few hiccups along the way (“Stranger In A Strange Land” and some would add “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” and “Exposé”). 9/10. Disc 7—Bonus Features: Before I begin, there is a commentary track on this disc, for “Exposé,” and I’m probably gonna look at that with track on and give you all my thoughts on it tomorrow. Now, recap: Disc 7 menu set up like the Hydra monitors, six are shown, but 2-5 only ones you can click on, and have gone through 2-4. Now, onto Monitor 5. When you click on it, it takes you to some audio equipment. Click on the tape deck to bring up the features, which are “The Lost Flashbacks,” deleted scenes, sneak peeks, and “The Orchid Instructional Film.” So, let’s have at it, shall we?: First are “The Lost Flashbacks,” which are deleted scenes from various flashbacks throughout Season 3. These come from “Further Instructions,” “The Glass Ballerina,” and “Exposé.” For “Further Instructions,” we see Locke after he confronts Eddie about being a cop and escaping as the police raid the place. It’s a nice scene, and I like how Eddie just lets Locke go. Honestly, I think that could have been left in the episode. Oh well. Next is “The Glass Ballerina.” Here we see Jae Lee’s mom asking Jin how he knew her son. Like the first one, it was okay and could have been left in. I don’t even know why it was taken out. Couldn’t have been for time because it wasn’t that short. But, what are you gonna do? Finally, for “Exposé,” we have Nikki’s reaction to the Swan implosion and Paulo calming her down. Now, this is nicely acted, but I can see why it was deleted. Next up, the other deleted scenes. Here, we have Jack coming to the rescue of a little girl choking why watching Sarah, why this wasn’t with the other “Lost Flashbacks,” I don’t know; nor do I know why the “Lost Flashbacks” aren’t with the other deleted scenes; Nikki and Paulo’s original introduction, Claire caught them having sex in a tent; Nikki apologizing to Claire about the sex; Sawyer and Kate breaking rocks, which is where we learn that they are indeed making a runway; Alex being taken to Ben after trying to help Kate and Sawyer escape, where she learns that Karl is in Room 23; Hurley trying to see if Locke as psychic powers; Kate finding Charlie cutting wood; Sawyer and Charlie talking to Hurley after their van ride; and Ben taking Locke to Jacob’s cabin. Some of these are pretty funny, like the ones with Claire and Nikki. Some should have stayed in the episodes they were deleted from, like the ones with Ben. Though, the others are nice but obvious as to why they were deleted. Next, the sneak peeks, which are just previews to other DVDs. Nothing to report here. And, finally, we have “The Orchid Instructional Film.” You may have seen this on the Internet. If not, you should. It’s…oh fuck! I’ll just post: OH MY GOD!!!! HOW FUCKING AWESOME WAS THAT!!!!? I’ve seen it several times, and it still scares the shit out of me each time! I mean, the Lost writers managed to make bunnies scary! Fucking BUNNIES!!!! Plus, each time I see it, I discover something new, like the one second flash of Gerard DeGroot, the Narvik, Norway, town hall, and that “God loves you as He loved Jacob” still from the Room 23 video. I also have give props to François Chau for his performance in that piece. He was incredible and really sold the fear. It also brings up a shit load of questions about what the Orchid is. For further reading, check here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Orchid and here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Orchid/Theories and here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Orchid_Orientation_video and here: lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Orchid_Orientation_video/Theories. Well, that’s all for today. I will have the “Exposé” commentary track review up tomorrow. As for the reviews of the remaining episodes, we’ll just have to see. Though, since I usually have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, expect them then. I’ll also have the Season 3 Easter eggs up next time. See you then.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 8, 2010 14:20:43 GMT -5
Okay, here is the review of the “Exposé” commentary track. I would have had it up yesterday, but I just forgot. Anyway, I’m sad to report that none of the actors are on this; just writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Why they didn’t get Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santiago to sit in on it? Was it just because they were let go? I don’t know, but that doesn’t take away from how funny the track is. I loved how they described what digging was, a nice poke at how silly commentary tracks can be. They also explain the ideas behind Exposé, fictional TV show on Lost. It turns out they had the idea for this show since Season 1, and they explain their intentions to have had one episode to show Nikki’s flashbacks as an episode of Exposé but not have that revealed until the end. We also learn that Damon Lindelof came up with Nikki’s catchphrase from Exposé, razzle dazzle. I have to give the man props for that; it’s so stupid that it’s funny and perfectly satirizes stupid catchphrases. I also learn that sometimes the things you see in the show may not be a clue but rather just an homage the writers threw in. By this, I’m talking about the University of Wisconsin sweatshirt Ethan wears when he meets Nikki and Paulo. Since he’s an Other, it may seem like some big clue, maybe about his past or something to do with the Others or the DHARMA Initiative. In reality, Horowitz and Kitsis met at the University of Wisconsin; and that’s why it’s there. It makes you wonder how many other clues on the shows are just wild goose chases. There was also a hilarious gag that didn’t make it in the show: Paulo finding Shannon’s inhaler. It’s funny because, as we’ve seen in this episode, Nikki and Paulo have ended finding about everything before everyone else. I mean, they found Eko’s plane, the Question Mark, the Others, etc. Another thing cut out was Boone and Locke running into Nikki and Paulo; I can see why it got cut because it doesn’t seem all that interesting. I also liked how they revealed that Vincent uncovering the blanket over Nikki and Paulo was the dog trying to show the other castaways that they’re alive. I didn’t catch, but it is clever. Also, it’s a nice reference to the theory that everything that’s going on in the Island is just a dream in the dog’s head. Of course, that’s just a joke theory; I don’t expect it to be the big reveal. Though, I would laugh a little if it was. Anywho, this was a pretty good commentary track. I laughed a little, and I learned a lot. All in all, I have to say that it was an enjoyable experience. Also, there’s no such thing as a medusa spider. So, I can sleep a little better at night.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 9, 2010 23:09:18 GMT -5
Good news, everyone! I’ll be able to finish Season 3 over the weekend. Though, I guess you could tell this by the post. Also, I just got the first of the bonus discs of Season 4. However, it is from Netflix, which means Season 4 is gonna take awhile. But, since Season 4 was so short, hopefully it won’t take that long. Anyway, let’s get Season 3 finished. As I said last time, I’m gonna have to spoil the major plot threads of these episodes in order to fully review them. So, here’s your warning: Season 3-Disc 5 17. Catch-22 Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Jeff Pinker & Brian K. Vaughn Plot: Charlie, Desmond, Jin, and Hurley are walking through the jungle when Charlie accidentally trips one of Rousseau’s traps, sending an arrow into his neck and killing him. However, it’s just one of Desmond’s visions. He also sees someone coming to the Island and the cable that Sayid used to find Rousseau. Desmond frantically runs to Hurley, asking about the cable. After Hurley tells him about the cable, Desmond grabs a first aid kit from Jack; and Hurley takes him to the cable. They get Jin, since he was in the vision; and then Desmond goes to get Charlie, even though he saw Charlie die again. However, Charlie accepts, also knowing that he might die. They go on their journey find the woman who’s gonna parachute on the Island, with Desmond thinking that it might be Penny. But, it appears that in order for him to be reunited with Penny that Charlie has to die. Sure enough, things play out as Desmond saw them, but once again Desmond saves Charlie. Then, they find the parachutist, who turns out to not be Penny. Meanwhile, Kate tells Sawyer that Jack knows about their sexcapade. And then, she ends up having sex with Sawyer again, this time over her jealousy of Jack and Juliet. Flashbacks: We get another Desmond flashback. Here we learn that he was a monk in Scotland, was engaged to a woman named Ruth but left her to join a monastery, eventually left said monastery, and then met Penny. Thoughts: Another Desmond episode. Well, this should be a good one. I mean, “Live Together, Die Alone” and “Flashes Before Your Eyes” were classics. Hopefully, this one should live up to them? That’s what I thought when I first saw this episode. I was disappointed. You see, we’ve gone back into filler as the flashbacks for this episode only lead up to Desmond meeting Penny. If they had just show Desmond meeting Penny and then gone on to something else in Desmond’s life, like how the tension between him and her father Charles started, or if they just shown something else, like Desmond joining the Army, it probably would have been okay. But, all we get is Desmond as a monk, getting drunk and yelled at by his ex-fiancée. It’s not all that interesting. Though, it is nicely acted. I have thoroughly enjoyed Cusick’s performance as Desmond, and here it’s done nicely, especially when he’s drunk. A drunk Desmond is a treat to see. I also liked Joanna Bool as Ruth. She does a nice job of playing Desmond’s jilted lover. You really feel her pain at being abandoned for the cloth. And, I really like the end scene, with Desmond’s first encounter with Penny being split up with Desmond and his crew cutting the parachutist down. It was nicely edited and well acted by Cusick and Sonya Walger But, like I said, this is a filler flashback; and the performances, though good, don’t really elevate it nor make it as classic Desmond’s other episode. The stuff that goes on with Desmond on the Island is much better. For one, this marks the beginning of the road to the season finale, with Naomi parachuting onto the Island. And, she has come from a boat that is a few miles off the Island. So, now we have a goal to get to: there’s a boat out there, and it can lead the castaways to rescue. They’ve just got to get past the Others to do it. So, not only are we gonna get a possible rescue but also the conclusion of the conflict between the castaways and the Others. Great, now we have something to look forward to in the season finale. Secondly, we have another storyline that’s been going on throughout the season: Charlie’s imminent death. As we’ve seen, Desmond has seen that Charlie is going to die and has been trying to prevent it from happening. However, there is a lingering question: will Desmond end up actually leading Charlie to his death? It’s been subtly played throughout, but subtly is now out the window as it becomes obvious to Desmond in his vision that Charlie has to die in order for him and Penny to reunite. Over course, this brings about the moral question: can Desmond just let an innocent man die in order to get back to the woman he loves? It’s an intriguing idea that the writers do well; props to Pinker and Vaughn. However, Desmond does decide to save Charlie yet again as he just can’t bring himself to let him die. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that just because he saved Charlie that Charlie’s death won’t end up leading to Desmond and Penny’s reunion. So, we also get some nice foreshadowing. Also, Jin tells a ghost story in Korean. Whoever thought of this is a genius. As for the subplot, we get another problem that’s plagued Lost: melodrama. Here, Kate tells Sawyer that Jack knows about them having sex, and then Kate has sex with Sawyer again because she sees Jack and Juliet getting cozy. And, quite frankly, it’s all just boring. I mean, who gives a shit? For one, there’s a much more interesting storyline in there with the rest of the group not trusting Jack because of his trust in Juliet and his coziness with the Others back when he was with them. Can’t they play that up some more? Luckily they do in the next few episodes, but it would be nice here. Also, there’s all that relationship shit that I could care less about since the endgame of the season has began. Now, yes, I did say that I liked Kate and Juliet’s tension in “Left Behind,” but that was because it was new. For a while we’ve had Kate/Sawyer/Jack’s love triangle, but the inclusion of Juliet made it a lot more interesting. However, it’s all gone back to Sawyer, and I could care less as I feel Kate and Sawyer are a perfect match whereas Jack and Juliet would make a nice couple. Why should I care about these people trying to figure out who to get with when the coupling seems so obvious? Can’t they just realize who’s perfect for whom? And, if not, then just have a fucking four-way and stop boring me with it. Even though I could care less about this subplot, I do like seeing Jack and Sawyer playing ping-pong. This is also a genius idea. So, in conclusion, good Desmond Island action and acting bring it up, but the flashback and the Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet love rectangle bring it down. I guess I’ll be kind: 6/10. 18. D.O.C. Director(s): Fred Toye Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Plot: When Jack asks Sun some suspicious questions about her pregnancy, Sun goes to Kate to inquire about it. She tells Sun to ask Juliet, who reveals to Sun about the problems pregnant women have on the Island when giving birth. Later, Juliet goes to Sun to offer some help, taking her to the Staff. There, Juliet performs an ultrasound on Sun, so Juliet can calculate the date of conception. If it was off the Island, then Sun might have a chance. Of course, that would mean Jae Lee is the father. But, if it was on the Island, then Sun might be in trouble. However, it would mean that Jin is the father. It turns out to be the latter, and surprisingly Sun is relieved. After the ultrasound, Juliet stays behind to leave a taped message for Ben about Sun’s condition. Meanwhile, out in the jungle, Desmond, Charlie, Hurley, and Jin have found Naomi, the parachutist; but the woman is seriously injured. The group is fearful of moving her out of further injuring her, but it would probably take too long to get Jack out there. However, Mikhail runs out into the jungle, stumbling onto the scene. Jin subdues him. He sees Naomi and offers help, as he was a field medic in the Soviet/Afghanistan War, as long as they let him go. They agree. Mikhail saves Naomi but tries to take Naomi’s satellite phone as he leaves. However, Jin stops him. Yet, Desmond still lets him go. Then, the rest take Naomi back to camp. Flashbacks: Sun goes on the flashback rollercoaster again. Here, she is blackmailed by a woman who claims that Jin is the son of a prostitute and will reveal the secret unless she gets 100,000 dollars. Later, Sun asks Jin about his past, but he just gets angry. So, she goes to his father, who confirms the woman’s story. Then, Sun goes to her father for the money. He refuses at first, but when she says that the money is needed to prevent shame from coming to the family, he relents and gives her the money. Sun meets with the woman again, gives her the money, and reveals that she knows the woman is Jin’s mother. She denies this, but Sun threatens to have her father kill the woman if she doesn’t go with her end of the bargain. Thoughts: Again, more filler. I mean, did we really need to know about Jin’s mother? Was it necessary to reveal this lingering question, like Jack’s tattoos, Kate’s marriage, and Desmond’s monastery life? I don’t think so. I think there are other, more important things to be revealed. Like the culture of the Others. There’s a lot about them that we don’t know, and you’d think that the season all about them that there would be a lot revealed about them. Or how about Jack’s time with the Others? I mean, in the next episode, we’ll learn what Locke was doing with them when he went off with them. Why not do the same for Jack? But, no. We have to learn that Jin’s mom was a prostitute and that she blackmailed Sun over it. Now, it’s not that terrible of a story. For one, they are some intriguing ideas brought up with this story. For one, it’s implied that Sun knows a lot more about her father’s illegal activities than she lets on. Though we’ve known this since “House Of The Rising Sun,” this story takes place before Jin coming home covered in blood. So, perhaps she’s known all along and was just surprised to see that Jin had gotten involved in it. Also, there is the implication that Sun getting the hush money from her father leads to Jin getting more involved in Mr. Paik’s business. That’s also interesting to think that Sun may have indirectly lead to her husband doing things he really regrets. And, finally there’s the idea that Jin’s father may not be his real father, since his mother was a prostitute and Mr. Kwon basically tells Sun that he’s not sure about being Jin’s biological father. Will that ever get revealed as false or not? So far, this is the only place it’s brought up; but we do have one season left. What also elevates Sun’s flashback story is, once again, the acting. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae-Kim almost always bring up the quality of their character’s stories through the power of there performances. They have shown to be much better at melodrama than the rest of the cast, which why I think they’re two of the best actors on the cast. Kim is really good here. She is able to play it sweet, like in the scene between Sun and Mr. Kwon (John Shin does a good job as well) and when she sees her baby on the ultrasound, and then go right to stern, like when Sun’s standing up to Juliet and threatening Jin’s mother. Also, Bryon Chung is back as Mr. Paik. He shows a little range here, going from happy to confused to scare to angry in one scene. And, I’ve noticed that the third season is interestingly enough the first time Kim and Chung have been onscreen together. Amazingly, despite not having acted together for two years, they showed a nice dynamic that made for some great scenes. I wonder if the Lost producers had them act with each other before hand, like when casting Chung, to make sure they would work well together for when they eventually did get on screen together. I also thought Alexis Rhee was okay in her role as Jin’s mom. She’s not as good as the others, but she plays the role well. Now, Kim isn’t the only one who shines here. Elizabeth Mitchell another talent in her acting arsenal: she sounds very credible when doing medical speak, like she’s an actual doctor. Again, I have to say that casting her was an excellent choice. Also, there’s the Naomi subplot, which gets a lot more interesting than just that’s a new person on the Island by having her get injured and bring Mikhail back from the dead. This adds some more meat to the story as we now have a new mystery to solve: how is Mikhail back from the dead? Or, did he even die in the first place? Mikhail did mention that wounds on the Island heal a lot faster, which begs the question: can the Island back from the dead or just the brink of death? As Naomi’s injury, I figured she would survive from it. She’s the link to the boat out there, and the writers just can’t kill her off yet. Also, we another great fight scene: this one between Jin and Mikhail that rivals Mikhail and Sayid’s fight as the best on the show. So, I have to say that while this is a filler episode, it’s still a good one and better than the last one. And, it ends on a great cliffhanger, with Naomi telling Hurley that he can’t be a survivor of Oceanic 815 since it landed in the ocean and everyone died. I’ll talk more about that in the next review. Finally, one last note: an interesting line from Mr. Paik: “We do not live in a world where no questions are asked.” Boy is he wrong about that. 7/10. 19. The Brig Director(s): Eric Laneuville Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: While out in the jungle, Sawyer is approached by Locke. He claims that he has infiltrated the Others, taken Ben hostage, and needs Sawyer’s assistance in taking Ben out. Sawyer agrees, and Locke takes him to the Black Rock, where he claims to have Ben held. However, it soon becomes clear to Sawyer that the man Locke has held in the Black Rock isn’t Ben; it’s actually Anthony Cooper. So, Locke locks him in with Cooper. They talk for a while, and then Sawyer soon discovers that Cooper is the man responsible for his parents’ deaths. In a fit of rage, Sawyer kills him. Locke lets Sawyer out, and Sawyer thanks him and leaves. Meanwhile, back at the beach, Desmond, Charlie, Hurley, and Jin reveal to Sayid that they have Naomi hidden in a tent and that they don’t want to tell Jack due to his closeness with Juliet. However, when Kate finds out, she tells Jack and Juliet, which leads to them revealing that they know about Ben’s plans for the castaways. Flashbacks: We learn what Locke was doing with the Others these past few episodes. It turns out Ben wants Locke to kill Cooper in order to become of one them. But, Locke can’t do it. Then, Locke gets Sawyer’s file from Richard Alpert and learns that the Others are leaving and than Locke can’t come unless he kills Cooper and brings the body with him. Thoughts: This is a Locke episode, but I’m not sure why. I mean, yes, we did need to see what Locke was doing with the Others. But, did it have to be told here in on Island flashbacks? Couldn’t it have been told during the last two episodes? The reason I ask these questions is because while this is a Locke episode, it doesn’t feel like it. To me, it’s more of a Sawyer episode. I mean, Sawyer finally meets the man who is responsible for his parents’ death. He’s finally gotten the revenge he’s wanted all his life. So, shouldn’t we see a point in Sawyer’s life? Like, say…the Tampa Job? Dammit! I wanna know what the hell the Tampa Job was, what went wrong, and why Sawyer’s so mad at Hibbs! I also want Robert Patrick back! That minor annoyance aside, this is a very good episode. Sawyer finally getting his revenge was done so well (with him forcing Cooper to read his letter and then snapping and strangling him when Cooper tells it up) and such a huge contrast to how he began the episode, making lovely with Kate in his tent. He’s gone from a moment of connection to a moment of disconnection as he’s fallen back into his old life. To me, it seems that Sawyer has given up on ever finding that man who ruined his life at an early age and has become a part of this loose group that somehow become a family. But now, he’s gotten his revenge and gone back to his old ways. Plus, there’s a sense of uncertainty in Sawyer. He’s finally achieved his lifelong goal. Now what? So many great ideas going around here, and Holloway plays it amazingly well. I especially liked his scenes with Kevin Tighe, who’s also great here. I really love when he goes on with ideas about how he and everyone on the Island is dead; he thinks this because of Locke being there as he thinks he killed Locke in that fall. This was not only well acted by Tighe but well written, jumping right off from Naomi telling Hurley that everyone on Flight 815 was dead. It nicely mentions one of the main theories on Lost’s solution: that everyone on the Island is dead and in purgatory. It has been a possibility, seeing how those people in the crash survived with hardly a scratch. And, everyone dying on the Island could be actually the dead people going to either Heaven or Hell. However, I don’t think that’s the answer judging by the events in Seasons 4 and 5. I think, like it all being a dream being mentioned in “Dave” and a castaway behind the whole thing in “Exposé,” that it’s only brought up here as a way to mention the theory and ultimately dismiss it. I especially love Holloway’s disbelief over Cooper’s theory. It’s almost as if he’s speaking for the writers. As for the flashback, while they don’t seem necessary to be here, they are great. O’Quinn and Emerson are the best actors on the show, and their scenes together are electric. I just love the tension they bring out of each other. It’s so palpable. Here, you have two guys struggling for control over the Island. Ben obviously doesn’t want to give it up, but Locke may not necessarily want to be the leader of the Other but also doesn’t want to follow Ben. The best part of this tension is Ben wanting Locke to kill Cooper in order to prove himself worthy to be an Other. It’s great because of the way Ben says he has to prove himself: as “a gesture of free will.” Boy, Ben has an interesting definition of “free will.” By the definition of “free will” most people go by, you wouldn’t force someone to do something they normally wouldn’t do to prove that they are masters of their own fate. Also, this leads to Ben humiliating Locke by forcing him to do it in front of everyone and saying that Locke isn’t the person they thought he was. The restrained joy Emerson displayed was a great touch, as was Ben throwing Locke’s “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” line back at him. Though, there is one thing that bothers me: Ben leaves Locke alone with Cooper afterwards and won’t let him back unless he brings Cooper’s dead body. What bugs me is that Ben leaves Locke alone. Why? Wouldn’t he want to see Locke kill Cooper? Didn’t he think that Locke could just go get someone else to do it? Or, was that the test: to see if Locke could get someone else to kill for him? But, why would Ben make that the test? Wouldn’t that prove he’s a leader like Ben? Or, was that test even Ben’s idea? Maybe it was Jacob’s. Now, it bugs me that Ben left alone, but it’s in a good way as it brings up some interesting ideas. There is also a nice subplot with the other castaways keeping Naomi hidden from Jack. It’s nice to see they haven’t ignored the castaways distrust of Jack for his time with the Others and his friendship with Juliet. What really impresses me is how Kate still defends Jack even though she has every right to join the lynch mob as Jack’s getting friendly with another woman. It obviously shows that Kate still has feelings for Jack despite him getting friendly with another woman and her hooking up with Sawyer. Plus, I’m sure she still remembers how Juliet helped her and Sawyer escape despite her jealousy. I also liked how Kate ended up being right, as we’ll later learn that Juliet has told Jack about Ben’s plan. Other nice things about this episode: Marsha Thomason, she gives us a better glimpse at Naomi’s character than being injured with her sarcasm toward Sayid’s callous questions; and Richard giving Locke Sawyer’s file, which is great as he shows the ever growing dissention among the Others. Apparently, they aren’t happy that Ben’s wasting their time with the condition of pregnant women. So, I have to say that this is a nice episode. There are some things that annoy me about it, but Cuse & Lindelof have put together another fine episode. 8/10. 20. The Man Behind The Curtain Director(s): Bobby Roth Writer(s): Elizabeth Sarnoff & Drew Goddard Plot: Locke brings Cooper’s body to the Others’ new camp and then demands that Ben take him to Jacob. Then, Mikhail shows up and tells Ben about Naomi. However, Locke forces Ben to take him to Jacob anyway. Ben does so, taking Locke to a cabin. Ben goes in first, but Locke soon follows and sees Ben talking to no one. Locke thinks Ben is either crazy or making Jacob up. Suddenly, objects fly around the cabin; and Locke briefly sees Jacob. However, Locke still doesn’t believe what happened, thinking Ben put on a show. As they go back, Ben veers off path. Locke follows, and Ben shows him the mass grave with the DHARMA Initiative. Then, Ben shoots Locke and leaves him for dead in the grave. Meanwhile, back at the beach, tension grows as Sawyer has found Juliet’s tape for Ben and Jack and Juliet have gone missing. When they return, the camp confronts Jack and Juliet. However, they reveal that on the other side of the tape is Ben’s plan to come into the camp and take Sun and Kate and that Jack has known about this for sometime. Flashbacks: We see how Ben came to the Island. It turns out he wasn’t born on the Island but rather in the woods near Portland. His parents were on a hike when his mom went into labor. However, Ben’s mom didn’t make it. Years later, Ben and his father Roger joined the DHARMA Initiative. Roger was assigned as a “workman.” As time went on, Roger came to resent Ben because of his mom’s death. This causes Ben to run away. He runs into Roger, which begins his association with the Others. Years later, he helps the Others wipe out the DHARMA Initiative in the Purge. Thoughts: It’s about damn time. Twenty episodes into Season 3, and we are finally getting to Ben’s story. I’m surprised it took this long. As I’ve said, this season has all been about the Others. You’d think there would be more about them. But, they’re still as much of a mystery as they were in the first two seasons. To give the Lost creative staff some leeway, yes, we have learned a lot, like they have been on the Island for a long time and took over the DHARMA Initiative’s compounds after wiping them out in the Purge. But, they are still wrapped in some secrecy, what with their weird customs, their cryptic reasons for taking people and building things, and their need to get women to be able to give birth on the Island. However, the one with the most mysteries is Ben. Just who is this man who’s running the whole show? Well, we have a whole episode to find out, and appropriately with the mysterious nature of Ben and this being a recurring thing with the show, all the answers give us more questions. So, what is Ben’s story? Well, Ben wasn’t born on the Island, but he has lived on it since he was 7. He and his father were a part of DHARMA Initiative. But, his dad has resented Ben all his life because his mom died during labor. So, Ben ran off to join the Hostiles, as the DHARMA Initiative call the Others, and became a mole for them, helping them to rid the Island of the DHARMA Initiative. Well, that does explain why Ben desperately wants to keep pregnant women from dying during child birth: it happened to his mom, and he never wants it to happen again. But, there are still several questions brought up. For one, there’s Annie, the girl Ben developed a crush on. We don’t know what happened to her as the story of Ben and Annie has not been told. Also, Horace Goodspeed brought Roger and Ben to the Island and paid Roger $30,000 just to be a janitor? What!? That doesn’t make much sense. The only answer I can come up with is that Horace did so feeling sorry for Roger; he was the one who found the Linus’s after Emily gave birth. Also, there’s a volcano on the Island! As if there wasn’t enough to kill the people on this Island, the writers had to go add a volcano. However, this is so far the only episode in which the volcano has been brought up. Hopefully, it will play a role in the final season. Also, why would Ben’s mom’s ghost show up on the Island if she died near Portland? Or, was it really Ben’s mom? It could have been the Smoke Monster. Finally, Richard Alpert shows up in Ben’s flashback, only he’s the same age as we’ve seen him throughout Season 3. So, Richard is immortal. Okay, that’s cool, but how? Does the Island play a role in this? Also, just how old is he? And, can he die? He may not have aged, but he was wearing a gas mask when he and the Others walked into the Barracks after the Purge. Is there a way to kill him? So many intriguing questions. A lot of which hasn’t been answered brought up since then. However, despite all these unanswered questions, it’s still a great episode with so much going on. For one, there is Ben turning traitor because of his father. There have been so many people on this Island that have bad relationships with their fathers that it should have been a little annoying to see another, especially with the most interesting character on the show. However, this twist that the father hates the son because he’s so in love with the mother and can’t forgive the son for killing her despite it not being the son’s fault was a new twist on it. What helps it is Jon Griers’s performance. He plays resentment very well. I also have to give props to Sterling Beaumon as the young Benjamin Linus. He’s not quite the manipulative man we all know. He’s an angry, scare little boy who wants to get away from his father and the life he’s basically thrown him into. He shows that he’s capable of becoming the Ben we all know, but he’s not quite there yet. And, the climax of the Purge: good God! It’s pretty gruesome, especially for a network TV show, seeing all those people laying dead on the ground. What was really sickening was Ben watching his father died. It’s pretty heartbreaking as his dad trying to make some amends the crappy life they’ve had, but Ben just callously dismisses him just before releasing the nerve gas. That may be the worst thing Ben has ever done and the most sickening death scenes on the whole show. Also, we get some more great scenes with Locke and Ben. Their little chess game throughout this last half of the season has just been spectacular. Here, it gets better with the other Others letting Locke beat up Mikhail despite Ben’s pleads, Locke claiming the happenings in Jacob’s cabin was just a pony show Ben was putting on, and Ben shooting Locke in the gut and leaving him to die in the mass grave. All great stuff that Emerson and O’Quinn play to perfection. SPEAKING OF the happenings in Jacob’s cabin, there’s another great scene that brings up a lot of questions. There’s the possibility that Ben made Jacob up and is pretending to talk to him, the possibility that Ben’s crazy and thinks he does see Jacob, and the possibility that Jacob’s real all thrown out in one scene. Of course the icing on the cake is the voice that says “Help me,” which sounds a lot like Kelvin Inman, the man who pushed the button with Desmond, and the one frame shot of Jacob. Boy, was that something. And, more questions are raised: was all that real? Did Ben put it on for Locke’s purposes? Is Kelvin Jacob? And, did Jacob look a little like Locke with hair? There’s also a nice subplot with Sawyer bringing back the tape that supposedly confirms Juliet being a mole. However, it turns out that the tape contains Ben’s plan to take the female castaways, which Juliet revealed to Jack, confirming that she’s with them. It was nice, but it ended too damn quickly. It was pretty much over before halfway mark. They should have played it out throughout the episode. And, of course this is where we learn that “Roger Workman,” the skeleton Hurley found in that van is Ben’s father. It’s nice to see that “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” did have a plotline that paid off. Though, as I said, I already knew that since I saw this episode before the other one and realized that when I saw the other one in syndication. Anyway, awesome episode. It shows us a little of what makes Ben tick, justifying some of his actions while still showing just how ruthless he is. Also, it ends on a great cliffhanger, with Ben shooting Locke. It looked for all purposes that Locke was dead, seeing has his story has pretty much been told. Luckily that didn’t happen. But, more on that later. 9/10. Bonus Features And Easter Eggs. Well, there are no more bonus features on Disc 7 to look at. However, there is a commentary track on “The Man Behind The Curtain.” Also, since I showed you all the Easter eggs for the Seasons 1 and 2 set, I may as well show you all Season 3’s: • On disc 3, if you wait in the main menu, Juliet holds a card saying "By the way, your ex-wife is much prettier than me." • On disc 7, multiple Easter eggs can be accessed by performing actions on the bonus menus. This section lists them all: • Monitor #2 • Whilst highlighting "The Lost Book Club", press right and select it to release a fish biscuit and pellets from the machine in the menu's background • Whilst highlighting "The Lost Book Club", press left and then up, then select it to view Josh Holloway talking about the polar bear cages and an explanation of what DHARMA fish biscuits are made of • Whilst highlighting "Cast In Clay: The Toys of Todd McFarlane", press right twice and then select it to view the making of the table tennis scenes • Whilst highlighting "The Next Level - Inside the Video Game", press left three times and then select it to view a clip about the chickens at the Hydra location causing problems for the crew • Monitor #3 • Whilst highlighting "Lost: on location", press left twice and then select it to view a full length widescreen version of the Room 23 brainwashing video • Whilst highlighting "The Glass Ballerina" (in the Lost: on location menu), press left twice and select it to view the making of the Jin/Mikhail fight • Whilst highlighting "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (in the Lost: on location menu), press right twice and then up, and then select it to view a clip of Dominic and Jorge talking about playing scrabble between shoots • Whilst highlighting "The Man From Tallahassee" (in the Lost: on location menu), press left, and then up two times, and then select it to view the making of the Hydra flooding scene with Matthew Fox and Elizabeth Mitchell • Whilst highlighting "Crew Tribute With Evangeline Lilly", press right and then up, and then select it to view Michael Emerson and Jack Bender talking about the Lost crew • Whilst highlighting "Lost in a Day", press left twice and then select it to view a clip about the location of the submarine • Monitor #4 • Whilst highlighting "The World of the Others", press up and select it to make the screen in the menu's background beep and flash • Whilst highlighting "The World of the Others", press left and then up, and then select it to view Dominic Monaghan talking about completing a New York Times friday crossword puzzle with Daniel Dae Kim during the filming of Expose • Whilst highlighting "Blooper Reel", press right three times and then select it to view the making of the make up used on the Nigerian men in The Cost of Living • Monitor #5 • Whilst highlighting "Main Menu" press left and select it to make the phone in the menu's background activate • Whilst highlighting "The Lost Flashbacks", press left and then down, and then select it to view a clip showing crew enjoying shaved ice • Whilst highlighting "Deleted Scenes", press right two times, and then select it to view a clip showing the keepers of the spiders used in Expose • Whilst highlighting "Introducing Nikki and Paulo" (in the Deleted Scenes menu), press right twice and then select it to view the making of the waterfall dive scene used in Expose • Whilst highlighting "Changing Our Luck" (in the Deleted Scenes menu), press right three times to view a clip with Jack Bender and other crew members discussing Lulu, Jack Benders adopted dog Well, that’s all for tonight. I’ll have Season 3 finished tomorrow and then I’ll begin Season 4 on Tuesday.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jan 10, 2010 20:19:07 GMT -5
Before I finish Season 3, I once again give you my spoiler warning: Season 3-Disc 6 21. Greatest Hits Director(s): Stephen Williams Writer(s): Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Plot: Ben tells the Others that he plans to kidnap Sun, Kate, and any other pregnant women from the beach a day earlier. Alex has Karl go warn them. Jack comes up with a plan: to move all the castaways from the camp and ambush the Others with dynamite from Rousseau. Jin, Sayid, and Bernard will stay behind to detonate the explosives. Meanwhile, Desmond has another vision, which will lead to Naomi’s satellite phone being able to finally work. However, it involves Charlie’s death, as he will drown trying to knock out Ben’s block in the Looking Glass. He tells Charlie, who decides to go through with it. Flashbacks: Charlie thinks back to the five greatest days of his life: the first time he heard “You All Everybody” on the radio, his father teaching him how to swim, Liam giving him the “DS” rind at Christmas, him saving Nadia from being mugged, and the night he met Claire. Thoughts: Now, we finally get Charlie’s episode, 21 episodes into the season. Doesn’t that seem weird? Ever since we learned from Desmond that Charlie is going to die, you’d think we’d get a Charlie since then. Well, it’s finally happen; and it’s best episode centered around the character. Not only that, it’s one of the best damn episodes of the show. Charlie’s tale of finally accepting his fate is very touching and heartbreaking. But, while that may sound cliché, the episode isn’t; it’s very creative, especially with the flashbacks. Instead of telling one story in the flashback scenes, we get five different stories, which Charlie remembers as his greatest hits. So, let’s take at each one: 5. The first time he heard “You All Everybody” on the radio: it’s a nice little scene that wonderfully captures the frustration of a struggling rock star. 4. His father teaching him how to swim: this scene was okay but weird. The last time we saw Charlie’s dad was back in “Fire + Water,” and from that I got the impression that he and his dad didn’t really get along because Charlie chose to be a rock star instead of a butcher. However, it did take place when Charlie was a boy; so maybe this was before they had their falling out. 3. Liam giving him the “DS” rind at Christmas: another nice scene that shows a nicer side of Liam than the one we’ve seen in previous episode. It’s also a little funny with Liam thinking that Charlie will have the family in the future and he’ll become an addict, even though it happened the other way around. 2. Him saving Nadia from being mugged: Yes, Nadia, as in Sayid’s girl. There’s another freaking connection. Connection aside, it is a good scene, mainly for the myth applications it has. To me, it seems that Charlie saving Nadia from being mugged was a hero test, which he passed. Was this the moment that fate decided to put Charlie on the road to the Island? Maybe. 1. The night he met Claire: Well, who didn’t see this coming? She’s pretty much the reason why Charlie would even consider dropping heroin and becoming a better man. You know, back when Charlie was singing “Wonderwall” in “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” maybe the one who was gonna save him wasn’t Desmond but Claire. As for the stuff on the Island, I like how Charlie just casually accepts his fate. It’s like he’s just sick and tired of running from it and just wants to get it over with. Plus, he learns from Desmond that his death will lead to everyone being rescued. So, not only is he tired of running but also willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. I especially liked how Desmond decided to go instead and Charlie knocked him out. It shows some great bravery to accept your fate even when you’re given an out. Though, all of this works because Monagham gives a great performance. This is his finest hour on the show. The best part was Charlie being mean to Hurley just before he and Desmond go to the Looking Glass but then running up to Hurley and hugging him. Such a nice tear-jerker moment that Monagham and Garcia play very well. Now, all the touching moments aside, the amazing thing about this episode is how tense and thrilling it is. The opening scene with Jack taking the main people to a hill and having Rousseau detonate the dynamite was a little too dramatic but still nicely done. I think the reason for this was Fox’s performance. He’s pretty good when he sounds dead serious. And, the scenes of the castaways preparing for the Others displayed some fine writing and directing. Props to Kitsis and Horowitz and Williams for creating a great sense of urgency. The real kicker of this episode: Charlie doesn’t die in it. Now, I know it seems obvious that he will in the season finale, but again the writers made it seem like that this would be his swan song. It also ends on a nice cliffhanger, showing us that there are two women in the Looking Glass and that turning off the jamming signal wouldn’t be so easy. All in all, this is an amazing episode that shows why the characters are more important than the myths. Yes, the myths are cool; and I do wanna know what’s going on. However, I wouldn’t give a damn about the myths if I didn’t care about the characters. Showing Charlie look back the best moments of his life as he goes to sacrifice himself to get everyone else home elevates the final showdown between the Others and the castaways. The characters and myths need each other. The myths are the bait to attract the fish, while the characters are the hook and line that pulls them in. 10/10. 22. Through The Looking Glass Director(s): Jack Bender Writer(s): Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof Plot: When Karl warns the castaways of the Others coming, they move their plan up as well. Sayid, Jin, and Bernard stay behind to detonate the dynamite, while Jack and the others go to the radio tower to turn off Rousseau’s signal. Things sort of go as plan; there are two explosions, but there were suppose to be three. Sawyer and Juliet go to see if they can help Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. Hurley tries to go with them, but they turn him down. Meanwhile, Ben intercepts Jack’s party, and they talk. He tells Jack that Naomi isn’t who she says she is, and that her boat will bring destruction onto the Island. Then, he orders Tom to kill Jin, Sayid, and Bernard. However, Tom doesn’t do this. Sawyer and Juliet show up to help, and Hurley suddenly surprises everyone on the scene by driving the van onto the beach. Soon, the remaining Others are taken down. But, Jack doesn’t know any of this and attacks Ben. Meanwhile in the Looking Glass, Charlie is captured by Greta and Bonnie. Ben sends Mikhail to kill all three of them to keep the signal jamming intact. He kills Gretta and Bonnie, but Desmond shows up and shoots Mikhail with a spear gun. Soon, Charlie and Desmond stop the signal jam. Charlie talks to Penny, but she tells him that she isn’t on the boat. Then, Mikhail blows a hole into the Looking Glass, sending water into it. Charlie closes the door of the radio room and tells Desmond that it’s “NOT PENNY’S BOAT” before he dies. Back at the radio tower, Naomi is about to get a signal when suddenly Locke shows up and throws a knife into her back. However, it doesn’t work as the woman was able to get the signal to the boat. Flashbacks: We see Jack at the worst time in his life. He is bearded, addicted to Oxycodone, and an even bigger asshole than he’s ever been. He tries to commit suicide after learning of an acquaintance’s death, but a car crash stops him. He saves the victim and becomes a media hero. However, his addiction and depression gets worse. At the end, he meets with Kate, revealing that what we’re seeing are not flashbacks but flashforwards. Jack and Kate have gotten off the Island. However, Jack now insists that they have to go back. Thoughts: HOLY SHIT!!!! This maybe the best damn twist Lost has ever done! I mean, who in the hell would have thought that we were seeing Jack off the Island instead of a flashback!? I mean, he was asshole throughout! This is why I think the writers purposely made Jack a dick: so that when you saw this episode, you’d think it was just Jack being Jack. Well, it is; but in future instead of the past. I mean, when I first saw it, I actually got annoyed to see another Jack episode where he’s being a dick. Even worse, it looks like he’s at the apex of his asshole-dom. Again, it is; but after leaving the Island instead of before it. However, once I saw Kate at the end and realized that I ain’t looking at the past, my apathy towards the flashback scene soon turned into joy. This was an epic revelation that made the whole episode. There were so many great tricks to keep us from suspecting that this took place after Jack left the Island: saving the woman from an accident in order to have people recognize him but for that instead of being one of the Oceanic 6; playing up his dickish behavior; Jack talking about his father as if he’s still alive; the alcohol, he is the son of alcoholic; the pills, it was nice to see them use Oxycodone rather than Vicodin, which has become cliché a little lately; the beard; and Matthew Fox. He turns in a fine performance as a broken and bitter Jack. You can practically smell booze just looking at him. It may be his bester performance on the show. As for the stuff on the Island, there are a lot of great moments. I loved the opening, where the castaways leave Sayid, Bernard, and Jin to blow the dynamite. I especially liked Bernard and Rose’s good bye (touching and funny) and Jin and Sun’s good bye (a very great moment capped off by Jin saying “We need to get home” in English; again I give my love for Dae-Kim and Kim’s performances). Plus, like the last episode, it manage beautifully blend the touching scenes with the tense ones. This time, I give praise to Jack Bender, who has almost always delivered, especially in the finales. I loved seeing the Others get blown up. It’s amazing how they’ve been set up as the great villains, which makes seeing them get their comeuppance especially satisfactory. But, Cuse and Lindelof wisely didn’t kill all the Others, leaving three to capture Sayid, Bernard, and Jin. It adds some great tension to the proceedings. Though, when Juliet and Sawyer went back for them, it seemed obvious that they would rescue the three men left behind. However, I wasn’t expecting Hurley to plow through with that van he found. I also liked the Juliet/Sawyer scene because, once again Holloway has great chemistry with anyone. It also sets up another coupling in the Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet love rectangle: Juliet and Sawyer. Now, I know it seems unlikely, but it’s so unlikely that it makes sense. Again, “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” comes back to pay off. I also liked Charlie’s scenes in the Looking Glass with Bonnie and Greta. I have to give it up to Tracy Middendorf and Lana Parrilla for giving nice performances and Bonnie and Greta respectively. It’s a shame that this is last time we’ll see them. I would have loved to seen more about them. Throwing Mikhail into the mix was another nice touch to make things juicier, and not just because of him coming to kill them all makes it more tense. Again, Mikhail is seemingly killed but survives. I still think he can’t be killed. And, yes, I know he did blow himself up, but I have a feeling that we’ll probably see Mikhail again and not in a flashback. Though, it might be flashback, but it could also be the present. Of course this all leads to the heartbreaking conclusion of Charlie dying. It was sad but gave us a mystery to chew on in Season 4: it turns out Naomi lied about being hired by Penny; the boat was sent by someone else. It was brilliantly amazing how Cuse and Lindelof managed to incorporate the mystery into Charlie’s final heroic act, closing the door of radio room and writing “NOT PENNY’S BOAT” on his hand before dying. Another great tearjerker moment for Lost. Another thing I like about this episode: Ben’s leadership role falling apart. It’s a nice switch from the confident leader we’ve seen throughout Season 3. I mean, Juliet’s turned traitor, Naomi has parachuted onto the Island, the castaways have found the Looking Glass and taken out 7 of his men. His whole world is falling apart around him, and he’s having difficulty keeping it together. It’s a great switch. I love Emerson’s frustration and stammering throughout. He plays panicky very well. Though, he still shows signs of the Ben we know in the scene where Ben and Jack talk. The coldness in his voice when he tells Tom to execute the three shooters was excellent. It’s also well written, leading the twist that Tom didn’t kill Jin, Sayid, and Bernard. Another fine performance comes from Terry O’Quinn. The desperation he shows in the scene when Locke is about to kill himself was great. Also great about that scene is Walt stopping him from committing suicide. Another unexpected twist that raises more questions about Walt and why he’s special. It’s also funny to see Malcolm David Kelley look two years older. If it wasn’t obvious why the producers had to Kelley go, then watch the end of the first hour of “Through The Looking Glass”; and it will become quite clear. Though Emerson and O’Quinn give good performances, as I said earlier, the day belongs to Fox. However, I have to say that he’s better in the flashbacks than in the Island scenes. I don’t know why. I guess I’ve gotten use to Jack being a dick. You might say that I’ve grown accustomed to his doucheyness. Other nice things about the episode: 1. Julie Bowen makes a cameo as Sarah in a nice scene where she shows up at the E.R. as Jack kept her as his emergency contact. 2. That a musician programmed the code in the Looking Glass, which is “Good Vibrations.” What? Did one of the Beach Boys spend time on the Island? 3. Ben telling Richard to take the other Others away. This is interesting because this group is now mostly comprised of the Tailies. Did Jacob want Ben to take the Tailies as replacement for the Others who died in this episode? 4. The funniest reunion on the show ever: Alex and Rousseau meeting for the first time since Alex was taken and them bonding over tying Ben up. That’s just hilarious to me. 5. Sayid’s badass way of taking out one of the Others. Jesus Christ! Sayid is the man! I also liked Sawyer coldly killing Tom even though he surrendered. Another way of showing how he’s changed so quickly after killing Cooper. 6. And, finally, it brings up great questions for Season 4: If it isn’t Penny’s boat, then whose is it? And, will Penny still be coming to the Island? Why doesn’t Ben want the castaways to get off the Island? Does he know who’s sent the boat and who’s on it? Why doesn’t Locke want anyone to get off the Island as well? What does he have to gain by keeping the castaways there? Jack attended a funeral, but who’s the dead guy? And, who else got off the Island? Who are the Oceanic 6? Was it just 6 people? Did anyone else make it off secretly? And, what happened to the people left behind? All great mysteries to chew on until Lost came back, and all were answered! So, all in all this was a great finale. It had questions that led to answers. It had many touching moments mixed with some great action. It had some great performances. But, best of all, it introduced the flashforwards, a shift in momentum and tone for the show that would lead to an awesome Season 4. 10/10. In conclusion, it’s an okay DVD set. Season 3 may not be the best, but it had some great episodes and set up the best season of the show. And, the special features were pretty cool, especially “The Orchid Instructional Film.” So, I would say that, while there is a lot of Season 3 left to be desired, it does have many excellent moments that are worth buying. Highlight: “The Orchid Instructional Film.” Hey! That’s the first time I’ve picked a featurette over an episode. Though, if had to, I would be a three-way tie among “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” “Greatest Hits,” and “Through The Looking Glass.” I think I’ll give the nod to “Flashes Before Your Eyes” since I like Desmond a little more than Charlie and Jack. Recommended.
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