"Exposé"

DECEMBER 1, 2010

FOCUS: NIKKI AND GODDAMN PAULO
EPISODE: 3.14
AIRED: MARCH 28, 2007

Until I read the Lostpedia article on the episode, I never knew that anyone hated “Exposé”. According to Darlton, it was as polarizing as “Across The Sea”, but with that one I can see why (being one that hated it myself). But “Exposé”? It kills Nikki and Goddamn Paulo in one fell swoop, in a macabre Tales From The Crypt-y way to boot! Plus it’s damn hilarious and features a lot of Hurley/Sawyer interplay – I’d say it was actually one of the best episodes of the season.

It’s even better on a second (or I think fourth, now) viewing, because once you know the real story, it makes Sawyer and Hurley’s “detective” work and random theories (the monster, someone poisoning them, etc) all the more hilarious, almost like a Coen Bros. version of a Lost episode (Burn After Reading/Big Lebowski style Coens, not Fargo/No Country Coens). And I always like when they go back and show things from another perspective – the crash scene in particular, with Boone running around asking for pens, is quite enjoyable.

There’s also a lot of meta-humor, which I guess is why people hate on it. Some of it is pretty obvious, like anything related to the TV show Exposé, which has big secrets and frequently kills its guest stars. But there are some funny, more subtle lines, like when Nikki says “This isn’t Jurassic Park” (the Jurassic Park films were shot in part in Hawaii, where Lost is filmed). And, not AS subtle, but “I hope we don’t end up like them” is wonderfully ironic, but also sort of meta, as they DID end up like Boone and Shannon – annoying characters killed before they got even further on our nerves, and in Shannon’s case, also once we finally learned a bit about their past. Everyone else who died had a flashback episode prior to the one that accompanied their death, but this was (thankfully) the first Nikki and Paulo flashback, most of which occurred on the island anyway.

Another thing that surprises me about folks hating it – it has two interesting reveals! One is Juliet and Ben setting their plans for Jack (and Kate and Sawyer) in action, which is pretty awesome. The other is Charlie confessing to Sun that he and Sawyer were the ones responsible for her “kidnapping”, which is pretty huge. As we know, Charlie’s not long for this world, and it could have very well been something that Sun never knew about, so I like that they tied up this minor loose end, giving him a bit of redemption in the process. And you have to love her response to Sawyer asking if she was going to tell Jin – “No, because then we’d have to dig another grave.” It’s rare to see Sawyer looking ashamed, so this is a pretty big moment, I think.

And come on – how do you NOT love the ending, when you discover that they weren’t dead (well, Nikki wasn’t, at least – we never saw Paulo open his eyes, and he would have woken up earlier than her, before they were buried, no?). It’s such a wonderfully morbid twist, but also hilarious because, well, it’s Nikki and Goddamn Paulo. Also, as much as I hate these two, I DO sort of feel bad for the guy, who was basically killed because he was afraid she was going to leave him once she got the diamonds back. It’s like, maybe if they had given these two some goddamn depth earlier on, we wouldn’t have hated them as much and they wouldn’t have had to kill them off long before they supposedly planned to. Way to save their one redeeming moment for the final scene in their last episode (unlike other dead folks, they were never brought back for flashbacks – nor were they granted admission to Lost Heaven).

Oh well, they’re gone, and now we can get back to normal. And tomorrow – Kate and Juliet mud wrestling! Well, sort of. I’ll take what I can get.

Where are we?