"The Incident"

JANUARY 18, 2011

FOCUS: EVERYONE!
EPISODE: 5.16
AIRED: MAY 13, 2009

It’s over! “The Incident” is a decent finale for a mediocre season, though it sadly suffers from some of the same problems (no Desmond? Still no Claire?) and doesn’t really have any big reveals – apart from explaining why “Marvin Candle” doesn’t have a hand, the big mystery solved is... John Locke is dead. For two years in a row, the finale ends with a camera panning around and revealing Terry O’Quinn in a suit and trying hard not to breathe.

Of course, in the S6 premiere we get the physical/visual reveal that Locke was Smokey, so at least they didn’t drag it out for too long, but still, Jacob’s line about “finding the loophole” made a pretty weak reveal – they should have ended things on the “Sorry you had to see me like that” scene from the next episode (which aired 8 months later) – THAT would be a good cliffhanger. Especially since Ben (who gets a rare good line at Richard’s expense when he questions whether he’s making shit up as he goes along – usually it’s Richard who gets the good lines!) still doesn’t seem to know what’s really going on – it’s a reveal to the audience but not to any of the characters. At the time it aired, it was pretty frustrating, and rather lackluster to boot. And if you missed the opening scene it wouldn’t even have made any sense.

On the other hand, that opening scene is much more enjoyable now that we know more about Jacob and the Man In Black. I always liked seeing Titus Welliver pop up, but knowing their history makes their rather casual conversation quite amusing to me. I also enjoyed knowing that Richard was on the Black Rock, which adds another layer to MiB’s accusation that Jacob “brought it there”. Obviously I’ll talk about it more when the time comes, but I didn’t hate “Across The Sea” – I hated its placement in the season. I would have preferred their story got dished out in little standalone scenes like this one, because it didn’t bother me then and I enjoy the scene even more now.

The highlight of the episode is easily the big Jack/Sawyer fight. While the two have gotten along for the most part over the past 2-3 seasons, the time they spent at each others throats in S1 and 2 never really resulted in a full blown fight like this one; I mean – HOLY SHIT. Sawyer even kicks him in the balls! Even Ben never looked as mangled as Jack does at the end of their brawl. Since Jack only fights Locke’s body, this is pretty much the alpha and omega of “long time coming” fights on the show.

The big climax at the exploding Hatch site is good too. Sucks that established continuity kept us from getting to see Radzinsky suffer (another reason why it was a bad idea to make him such a villain), but at least we get to see Phil, who was even more annoying, meet the business end of some metal rods. Plus I just like seeing shit fly around. Also, both in this and the fight scene, Jack shows remarkable recovery skills. Sawyer’s beating leaves him bloody but running at full capacity (even the kick to the babymakers didn’t seem to phase him), and then he takes a full toolbox to the back of the head, which could kill a man easily, but Jack recovers from it without even a noticeable wound.

Speaking of Jack’s skills, his flashback was one of the best, as we got to see Christian (as Christian!) for the first time in a while, and it showed the “Count to 5” story that we heard in the pilot. It’s odd that it was his father that had to tell him to do this, but I guess he just left that part out in order to sound more awesome to the hot girl cleaning his wound. Some of the other flashbacks aren’t as successful – it seems like he actually caused Nadia to die, which sets off the chain that led to Sayid being brought back to the island – not exactly a heroic thing to do. Seems like there could have been an easier way to do it too. Also, unless Ben was lying, the guy who ran her over meant to do so, so wouldn’t she have gotten killed anyway?

And Jack also manages to shoot a guy this time! It’s kind of weird that Jack would be killing people, but I guess if he figured nothing he was doing that day would ever really happen then it would be OK. However, this produces a plot hole/time travel gaffe thingie in his logic – he sets off the bomb which keeps the plane from crashing, but it was only the result of him crashing on the island that would allow him to bring the bomb there, right? So the bomb wouldn’t go off unless he crashed, which he wouldn’t- ah fuck it. Kate sure is pretty, huh?

Actually, they do answer one other question – where Bernard and Rose (I just noticed that their name makes Bernard Rose, the director of Candyman) have been all this time. As it turns out, they just decided to ignore everyone else and live on the island peacefully (with Vincent!), having grown tired of their nonsense. I love that! Kate tells them Jack has a bomb and Rose replies “Who cares?” So good. I also love “We traveled 30 years through time and you’re still finding ways to shoot each other?” Hahahaha, I love these two. Their little coda with Juliet is also kind of sad, almost like they knew she’d be the one that wouldn’t come back from their adventure.

Oh man, that part. This makes the 3rd time I’ve seen it and I still tear up. As I mentioned a few recaps ago, Sawyer and Juliet made for the most realistic couple that the island “created” (meaning not counting Rose/Bernard, Jin/Sun, Desmond/Penny), and I think their reunion in Lost Heaven was the only one I cried at in the series finale, as well. And to this day I don’t know if she wanted to leave to be on V, or if they decided to kill her off and she booked V to keep on working, but either way it’s the rare death that didn’t seem like the result of something besides their plans for the story (i.e. having to kill Eko off early because the actor wanted to leave, or killing Nikki and Paulo because everyone fucking hated them).

So that’s it for Season 5. It’s an odd season in that the middle episodes were better than the opening/closing ones, and it’s also the one riddled with the most plot holes and unanswered questions, making it the weakest (assuming I don’t like S6 less this time around), but it’s still valid entertainment. And while I didn’t like some of the decisions they made along the way, I appreciate the insular nature of the season as a whole – there were no attempts to make it accessible for newcomers (many episodes didn’t even bother with “Previously...” recaps), or shoehorn in some new characters that would look good on a poster or TV spot (guessing no one wrote up any Phil/Radzinsky slashfic). It was a fans-only affair that some fans didn’t like.

I’m taking tomorrow off, so S6 will start up on Thursday. We’re almost done!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Follow The Leader"

JANUARY 17, 2011

FOCUS: RICHARD (!)
EPISODE: 5.15
AIRED: MAY 6, 2009

It’s about time, a Richard episode! While “Follow The Leader” doesn’t really explain anything about his past, and involves folks doing stuff that doesn’t really concern him directly, he’s the linchpin of the episode, and gets some of the best lines (his response to Jack asking him about carrying the bomb is priceless). So it’s his episode, dammit. And unlike his REAL flashback tale, it doesn’t annoy fans at a crucial period in the storyline by leaving all the main characters on the sideline for a week.

On the contrary, this one has a lot of good moments for our heroes. I particularly enjoy Kate having to point out to Jack that he is starting to sound like Locke, and their conversation re: “misery” is truly heartbreaking – he totally wants to Eternal Sunshine her! That’s some cold shit, especially since now that Sawyer has Juliet, he has her all to himself again. And speaking of those two, I liked their scene in the sub – like Desmond and Penny in the previous episode, it could almost be a good finale for the characters (by this time it was already known that Elizabeth Mitchell would be leaving the show). If not for Kate’s surprise appearance, the sub could have gone off into the sunset and it would be more or less an acceptable conclusion for their characters.

And Hurley’s “faceoff” with Chang! Oh man. Again, they actually pay off a funny throwaway line, where Hurley worries someone will ask him who the president is in 1977, in order to advance the character arcs a bit (as it leads to Chang believing that Miles is indeed his son). But it looks like the actor playing Chang is having fun too, which just makes the scene all the more hilarious. “You’re 46?” And the cutaway to Jin when Hurley says that there was no Korean War is just brilliant. God I miss that dumb, lovable bastard.

Sayid also got to show a bit of his old self again, which was much appreciated. As the character most ruined by the final season, and largely under used this one, it was nice to see him have another strategy discussion with Jack (when this had originally aired, I had long since forgotten that he used to be sort of like Jack’s right hand man – a fact that was easier to recall when watching back to back). I also like how Jack didn’t bother to give Eloise a hand when she surfaced from the pool, but ran over to help Sayid when he popped up a few minutes later. Bros before son-killing hos.

As for the Locke part of the storyline, again it makes a lot more sense now that you know he’s the smoke monster. Richard even mentions that there’s something different about him, which I had originally pegged as sloppy inconsistent writing on the writers’ part. Not sure why he’d still go off and kill boar and such, but for the most part it’s one of those things where I almost feel kind of stupid for not even considering that he might be Smokey.

Richard’s line about watching all of the Dharma folk all die doesn’t make any sense though. By now he should be sort of familiar with Jack and Kate, who never died in any iteration of the story (at least, not yet in Jack’s case), so why does he say that? He couldn’t be referring to the bomb going off, or he would have died too (as far as we know, he’s ageless but not invincible). If there was some scenario where they’d be gunned down by Radzinsky or something, we should have seen it, somehow. My guess is that they had nothing better to go to commercial on so they just threw that in there.

Also I’m getting sick of Sun and Jin repeating that “if there’s a chance my husband (wife) are on this island...” Yeah, we get it. Y’all want to get back together. Take it up with the writers who insanely decided to keep you apart for two seasons and stop torturing us and making me stop liking you.

Tomorrow – the S5 finale! All will be HUH?

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Variable"

JANUARY 16, 2011

FOCUS: DANIEL
EPISODE: 5.14
AIRED: APRIL 29, 2009

Congrats, Lost! You made it to 100 episodes, which was something increasingly rare for a show to do in the age of Tivo and Hulu and all this other shit that puts my job at risk. But given the serial nature of the show, they couldn't really do much to celebrate the occasion in-show, as say Friends or something would do (big guest stars or something). Instead, "The Variable" is definitely a die-hard fans only affair, focusing on one of its strangest characters (one we haven't seen in several episodes to boot) and featuring the clumsiest shootout in action/adventure show history.

Seriously, Jack seemingly can't hit the broad side of a barn when the Dharma assholes start shooting at him (mostly due to Daniel's idiotic decision to carry a gun in his hand like it was a notebook or something that DOESN'T CAUSE PANIC). Now, one could argue that Jack, being a doctor and all, didn't want to just shoot people, but it hasn't stopped Juliet. Plus he seems to be taking his job as a janitor very seriously, and most janitors I've known are never more than a spilled soda or puke puddle away from opening fire. And apart from Dan, the "bad guys" obviously can't hit any of our guys, so we basically have a 2-3 minute shootout of no consequence (that no one else comes to help either side shows how ineffective it was - I like to picture someone looking out the window, seeing these yahoos shoot up everything BUT each other, and figure they had better things to do).

Later, Daniel has one of his best ever scenes, where he explains that none of them were safe since for them it was their "present" (something I hadn't thought of), and then explains what he plans to do - stop the energy from ever being released, which would kick off the chain of events that led to their plane crashing in the first place (something I HAD thought of). It's a bit vague, but we're led to believe that it was his studies at Ann Arbor that allowed him to realize that they COULD change things in the past, unlike what he thought before. This is part of the problem with time travel in rushed TV shows - it took a while for me to wrap my head around the fact that he'd been gone for three years, let alone that it was the time he needed to figure out that he was wrong. So it's clumsy, but I stand corrected: it wasn't inconsistent writing on their part with regards to the "Whatever happened, happened" concept - it was just vague writing for what was kind of an important change in a character's beliefs.

This could have been remedied if they had scenes of him at Ann Arbor in the flashbacks, instead of nonsense about his mom disapproving of his girlfriend (or, since it was the 100th episode, they could have pushed for an extra 10 minutes or something). They also needn't have bothered with the "reveal" that Widmore was his father (hey, that means his "constant" is also his brother-in-law!), because it's not important and just seems like "fan-wanking". We never know why him and Eloise split up (maybe because she shot their time-traveling son?), and until that moment I never even considered that Daniel's father was unknown. You know, I don't know who Sawyer or Charlotte's dads are either, I'm surprised they didn't make up some nonsense for that too. WE DON'T NEED TO KNOW ALL OF THEIR FATHERS.

I quite liked the first scene, of Daniel playing the piano and frustratingly declaring his desire to "make time". As someone whose time is stretched dangerously thin (having an unhealthy obsession with earning Xbox Achievements doesn't help), I really sympathized with him here, and it made me kind of sad that Daniel died at the end of the episode, as I was sort of hoping he would figure it out.

Yesterday I mentioned that this was a "sequel" of sorts to "The Constant", because it dealt with the other side of the equation, but when I said that I had forgotten that this episode had what almost seemed like a send-off for ("Constant" stars) Desmond and Penny. He reiterates his love for her and that he would never leave her again, and we find out that his injuries are not life-threatening. And Ben has apologized and no longer plans to kill Penny (though they don't know that), so it could very easily and acceptably be the last time we see these two (indeed it WAS in season 5), as all of their issues have been resolved and there are no major unanswered questions about them, provided we accept "he was exposed to radiation" as the reason for Desmond's unique time traveling skills. Which we should, since they never explain it any further.

Tomorrow - a Richard episode! That's three "first time" centric episodes in a row!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Some Like It Hoth"

JANUARY 15, 2011

FOCUS: MILES
EPISODE: 5.13
APRIL 15, 2009

It's a shame that Miles (I'm spelling it right now) wasn't introduced earlier in the show, because his chemistry with Jorge Garcia makes for one of the best pairs the show has - I'd go far enough to say they were more amusing than even Hurley and Charlie. Also, if they had more time, perhaps we could get an episode explaining why he had like 39 facial piercings at one point in "Some Like It Hoth", seemingly before he made a living charging folks to tell them what their dead relatives were saying.

The apex of this humor is in this episode, when Miles gets frustrated with Hurley and snatches what he thinks is his journal, but turns out to be his "improved" script for Empire Strikes Back, which is three years away from existing. It's a genius throwaway gag, because it's the sort of shit I'd do (wait, I just called myself a genius. Sorry), though I'd probably write a better Halloween II. When Miles reads some of it aloud I nearly shit myself the first time (especially his pronunciation of "ROARRR"), and I always love the references to Hurley's poor spelling (Jesus Christ dude, BOUNTY HUNTER?).

But what makes the episode work is that it's not just a throwaway bit of humor - Hurley actually uses the film as an example later on, convincing Miles (or at least planting the idea in his head) that talking to his dad might not be such a bad idea. Hurley gets his facts screwed up (says Luke got his hand cut off as a result of freaking out after learning Vader was his father - he got his hand cut off first!), but the point is valid, and I liked that they were able to make something a little more meaningful out of what was a damn funny scene. Also, without that earlier scene, it would have been just another lameass Star Wars reference in the middle of another geek property, so it wasn't annoying either. Well done!

And this is the "Jack does chores" episode I've been waiting for! See, when characters on TV shows are doing something kind of odd, I like to think about the (unseen) process that got them there. Like there's an episode of The Simpsons where Bart finds Homer propping his car up with a wicker basket in order to change the oil - I like to think of Homer realizing he has no jack, figuring out something that was the right size, carrying the basket outside, etc. For some reason it just makes it funnier to me. Likewise, I enjoyed the mental image of Jack waking up in the Dharma Initiative in 1977, getting breakfast, and then figuring he'd do Roger a solid by walking around and cleaning up Dharma classrooms for the guy. Honestly, it probably would have made more sense for Roger to be doing his work normally (while drunk) and then Jack, under the guise of wanting to help, found him and pretended to be his pal but really just trying to figure out what Roger suspected about Kate. Too bad Jack wasn't assigned cleaning up the polar bear poop - we could see how far he'd go to keep up the ruse.

Speaking of the classroom, I never noticed that Dharma uses a different grading system than I'm used to - an A is not anything from 90-100, but 93-100 (and a B is 92-85, a C 84-77, etc). So what would be a B in my school (84) is now a C+? Harsh! I know different countries have different systems, but you'd figure they'd just use the standard North American system since it's a North American show (I suspected it was a Danish system, since Alvar Hanso is from Denmark, but their system is some baffling nonsense that includes negative numbers and the like). So I think it's just a sort of minor "Easter Egg" for careful viewers that alludes to their tougher education system. Kind of funny.

Back to thinking about characters doing stuff we don't see - when did Hurley ever watch the videos to know that Pierre Chang had a "stage name" of Marvin Candle? Was this a mistake? Or did Hurley get bored one day while on button duty in the Hatch and watch them? Speaking of the Hatch, I liked seeing its "origin", but the whole thing about putting numbers on the door by hand was just stupid. Why would a bunch of construction guys give a shit about banging a serial number into an emergency exit door? The whole "the number is smudged" bit was painful too, there only to give Hurley a chance to say the last number. Sometimes their obsession with the numbers got to be a bit too on the nose for my tastes; Hurley could have just as easily spotted them stenciling QUARANTINE on the door (which would have made the reveal a lot more eye-catching, I think - I had actually forgotten that the numbers were on the door and I just watched it 2 months ago! This aired 4 years later!).

One other nitpick/question - what's with folks needing corpses on this show? In "LaFleur", Richard said they needed the body of the Dharma guy that was killed, and in this one Chang has a corpse delivered halfway across the island. It's never explained, and unlike other unexplained nonsense (like Ben's "list" of people that he had Sayid kill), it seemed like there could have been something interesting behind it. Plus I have no logical guesses for it - Ben's list could have just been some associates of Widmore or former "Others" who, like Widmore, had been banished and may be looking to return to the island. But the corpse stuff? I got nothing. Y'all Unitologists?

And Daniel finally returned! Which means tomorrow is the underwhelming "sequel" to "The Constant"!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Dead Is Dead"

JANUARY 14, 2011

FOCUS: BEN
EPISODE: 5.12
AIRED: APRIL 8, 2009

Apparently, "Dead Is Dead" is the lowest-rated episode of Lost ever (per Nielsen ratings), attracting barely more than a third of the audience that tuned in for its highest rated ("Man of Science, Man Of Faith"). That's kind of depressing, but what surprises me is that it suggest there were a lot of folks who watched the show casually. With a show this mythology and character heavy, I would think the ratings would consistently stay even or slide, not go up and down like they do for CSI or Law & Order (shows with little to no continuity - I know for a fact that L&O's three series don't even air episodes in order). Who the hell was like "Maybe I'll watch Lost this week..."?

Anyway, it doesn't deserve its fate, since it's a pretty good episode, especially in retrospect as it deals heavily with the "monster", whom we now know was embodied by Locke. The scene where Locke disappears after Ben falls through the ground in the cave, at first glance, seem to just be bad (convenient) timing on his part - watching for the first time I was probably thinking "Aw shit, if he hadn't gone off he could have seen the monster too!". Now I realize he had to go "change", and it's another strong bit of evidence suggesting that, as rather idiotic as it was, the idea to make Locke the monster was indeed decided long before it was revealed in S6.

There's also another scene where he mysteriously disappears, when Ben "calls" it by, well, whatever it is he does (looks like he's flushing a toilet made out of a hole in the ground). Perhaps Locke just took off in case Ben's actions caused a reaction in his "persona"? Or maybe he went to Alex's grave to get whatever he needed to turn into her later? I forget the specifics, but he can't just shapeshift into whoever he likes, right? Doesn't he need to touch the body or something? Ah, who cares - it's obvious just from Terry O'Quinn's change in how he plays the character that something is amiss, so while I really hated the decision, I'd have to defend it against anyone claiming it was made up in the episode it was revealed.

I also liked how Lost's casting folks once again found a young actor that could pass for the older actor whose role he was inhabiting for a flashback, in this case Widmore. He's way better than the guy we saw in "Jughead", for starters, and he could very easily be a young Alan Dale. Since they have the worst luck in the world when it comes to making its actors look younger (Ben looks completely ridiculous with his longer black hair), it's a good thing Lost has this uncanny knack for finding (presumably local Hawaiian) actors that we can instantly recognize as the younger version of someone we know.

I haven't talked about the music for a while. One thing I've noticed with this marathon "re-viewing" is that I can recognize the various themes for certain characters, Sayid's and Ben's in particular. I mean, I'd recognize the cues in the past, but this is the first time I noticed how they were tied to certain characters (i.e. you never hear those sad strings for Jack or Locke; they BELONG to Sayid). It would be cool if Michael Giacchino released a CD with just the themes for each character, I think. And I say again, few television shows have ever had such consistently great and memorable music, and I hope he continues to have such an impressive career.

Another good thing about this episode is that we finally see Desmond! Not for long; he doesn't even have any real lines beyond things like "Hey!", but it's good to see him all the same - he's been absent for like five episodes. And we finally learn why Ben was all beat up when he got on the Ajira plane - it was from the vicious beating Desmond gave him after he tried to kill him and Penny (but paused when he realized they had a kid - or was just momentarily distracted trying to figure out if "Charlie" was named after Pace or Widmore). And thus Desmond gets to join the club of folks who have smacked Ben around. Let's see, there's Jack, Sayid, Locke, Sawyer, Ana Lucia, Sun, Rousseau (butted him with her gun), Alex roughs him up a bit at the end of this one... hell, even Hurley threw a Hot Pocket at him. Dude's spent 75% of the show with bruise/cut makeup on.

So basically, it's a shame that more people saw "Fire + Water" than this, is what I'm saying.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Whatever Happened, Happened"

JANUARY 13, 2011

FOCUS: KATE
EPISODE: 5.11
AIRED: APRIL 1, 2009

Proving once again that when they stick to their formula, Season 5 works, “Whatever Happened, Happened” is a pretty solid episode for this massively uneven season, and that has nothing to do with the fact that it’s a Kate episode (and/or that she looks GREAT in her 2007 scenes – I say again, she cleans up nice). Finally depicting what led her to decide to join Jack and the others in returning to the island, it’s both an emotional and an “answers” heavy addition to the season.

And not just answers pertaining to Kate. Once again acting as the audience surrogate, Hurley flat out asks how they can be in the past but not remember it, prompting an exasperated Myles (which I guess is “Miles”, with an “i”, but screw it, I like the “y” version better) to simplify it as best as he can. And I do agree it makes sense (though it’s hard to explain with words – I think it’s just one of those things that requires someone to think “fourth dimensionally”, as Doc Brown might put it), until Hurley presents the ringer – why doesn’t Ben remember them, if this stuff always happened? Of course, that’s what the temple is for, which is just a really lame deus ex machina, in my opinion, but at least they covered their bases instead of just saying “ah, fuck it”, like they did with most of the show’s unanswered problems (i.e. the people shooting at the Island group from the outrigger a few episodes back).

But back to my lady, Evangeline does really good work here. The scene where she talks to Claire’s mom is heartbreaking, and even though her actions on the island don’t really jive with her plan (if her primary goal is to find Claire, why hasn’t she even asked Hurley or Myles if they had seen her?), I liked that reveal, and the whole process of coming to realize that she couldn’t be Aaron’s mother (the grocery store scene, for example). Solid writing and acting all around.

I also enjoyed seeing her with Cassidy. I would have liked a moment where Cassidy was like “Holy shit, you know Sawyer too?”, but her theory on why he jumped out of the chopper actually makes sense, and adds another layer to their little triangle. And the scene where Kate tells Sawyer about Clementine (again, why isn’t Sawyer surprised that they had actually known each other?) is quite touching – Holloway’s baffled and sort of puppy dog-ish expressions are wonderfully odd to see on the guy.

Another good confrontation is between Jack and Juliet. First, it’s hilarious that she doesn’t even give him any privacy (nor does she seem too interested when he steps out of the shower, presumably nude – either she’s really pissed or Jack’s got nothing down there), but it’s also one of the few scenes that they’ve had alone together in ages. Considering how much of S3 was built around their growing relationship, it’s a bit odd that they never really had any one-on-one time in S4 (apart from a few conversations about the Freighter Folk), and this is obviously the first time they’ve had a scene to themselves in S5. Wish it went a bit longer, but I love that Jack seems to be admitting to himself for the first time that he doesn’t know what to do.

And while I hate the subplot about Ben being shot, I liked seeing Roger being sympathetic for once. It’s easy to just think of the guy as a jerk, but if you put yourself in his shoes, you’d probably be a mean drunk too. And unlike Phil or Radzinsky (and now Horace) he doesn’t treat our heroes (in this case, Kate) with suspicion when they reveal that they’re not sure what they’re doing there, even though it’s pretty sad that Kate can’t even work a one lever device (she can figure out the difference between Boone and Sawyer’s “tracks” but not how to move a lever up and down?). And I actually feel bad for him when he finds out about Ben – it’s the most dad-like we’ve ever seen him.

So to sum up: an immensely satisfying episode, big on character moments and even answering a few questions without being too retconn-y or confusing. I was wrong through – this isn’t the one where Jack just shrugs and goes around cleaning chalkboards. I guess it’s in the next episode or so. Our hero!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"He's Our You"

JANUARY 12, 2011

FOCUS: SAYID
EPISODE: 5.10
AIRED: MARCH 25, 2009

Well, “He’s Our You” is a minor improvement over “Namaste”, but again, I really hate the whole “young Ben” portion of this season, and this is of course the big moment in the plotline, where Sayid shoots him. Now, if the writers had both the balls and the patience to deal with the repercussions, Ben would have died, never existed in the lives of the Oceanic survivors, and dramatically changed the plot of the show. But since we know they don’t, this whole plot is just a giant waste of time, and I hate it even more in retrospect because of the time they spend on it that could have been used elsewhere.

But there is stuff to like here. The flashback at the beginning is interesting, because it shows that Sayid has always had it in him to kill (the young actor also looks remarkably like Naveen Andrews, and while we’re on the subject, the kid playing young Ben is quite good too). Even better, this seems like it could be setting up yet another goddamn torture story, but the rest of the flashbacks primarily deal with a peaceful Sayid. After he kills the last of Ben’s list of folks who present some unexplained danger to our heroes (I believe that they are just random enemies of Ben, but they’re still unexplained), he joins some sort of Habitat for Humanity group and takes up ironic drinking, where he meets a woman that, for once, he doesn’t get killed or kill himself.

He also gets to explore new territory on the island – laughing! According to Lostpedia this is the 3rd time we’ve seen him laugh, but I don’t even remember those other instances (and really, Lostpedia creeps me out with this sort of ‘trivia’ – there was an episode a few back where they claim it was only the 2nd Jack episode ever where no one mentioned “home” – who the hell cares or even notices this shit?). But this is definitely the biggest showcase for such behavior; after Oldham drugs him up, Andrews has a grand old time, crying from laughing so hard as he tells them he’s from the future and what not. It’s a shame Oldham only made this one appearance, by the way – does he torture folks physically as well?

I also enjoyed the scene where Hurley brings Jack and Kate some breakfast. Not only for the hilarious notion that Hurley has settled in quite amiably to his new role in the Dharma Initiative, but I liked Jack’s “defense” of Kate’s feelings, which was unexpected. Hurley’s rambling about Sawyer hooking up with Juliet, which upsets Kate, and rather than let it continue to pour salt in the sound (which I would do, especially concerning someone I had slept with like 3 nights ago), Jack takes the high road, telling Hurley to zip it so Kate wouldn’t have her heart broken any further. Oh, Jack, you old softy.

But what the fuck is up with Sayid having to kick Jin’s ass? It’s another contrived moment – Sayid tells him that Sawyer let him go, but Jin decides to check? It’s your friend, asshole! You shouldn’t be confirming his freedom. Give him a gun and some Dharma cookies and wish him well, at the very least. It’s also kind of ridiculous when Sayid seemingly gets upset at Ben’s dad slapping him around – you’re the one who wants to SHOOT the little bastard. Just some sloppy writing if you ask me; makes for “exciting” moments but really doesn’t make any sense for the characters to behave this way.

It’s also yet another Desmond-less episode. Apparently (a reader pointed this out), the actor got accused of groping a female crewmember (during the 3rd seasons) and was sued, which may have been why his screentime was so limited, but the lawsuit wasn’t filed until late April of 2009 – when S5 would have already finished shooting. And it certainly didn’t diminish his role in the 4th season – he was in it as much as anyone. So it’s a mystery why they didn’t give him anything to do in this season, and the show definitely suffers from his absence.

Oh well, tomorrow’s a Kate episode at least. And I think it’s the one where we see Jack actually going around doing janitor shit, which kills me.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Namaste"

JANUARY 11, 2011

FOCUS: NO ONE, REALLY
EPISODE: 5.9
AIRED: MARCH 18, 2009

After three quite good episodes, we’re back to typical Season 5 “meh”ness with “Namaste”, which botches what should be emotional reunions of a bunch of characters (though Hurley and Sawyer’s hug is quite “awww”-worthy) and introduces one of the more annoying subplots from the season – Young Ben chilling with our heroes. Daniel’s established rules of time travel are tossed right out the window with this shit (leading to further idiotic ret-conning to try to correct the plot holes).

They also spend too much time on the rather uninteresting B story of Sun, Ben, and Lapidus heading to the main island. After the previous episodes’ interesting revelations (or at least hints) of the nature of Locke’s suddenly “alive” state, he doesn’t even appear in this one, and instead we just see this rather peculiar trio wandering through the jungle, making knowing looks at one another, and finally doing something interesting at the very end, when they meet up with Christian who shows them his version of the ending of The Shining. Well, two of them do; Sun suddenly realizes that she’s one of the few characters who hadn’t beaten up Ben yet and knocks him out cold for reasons I can’t quite recall.

The focus on this part of the story (they should have given it its own episode with Lapidus flashbacks, dammit!) robs the A story of a better pace. For example, Jack and the others seem to buy into the time travel thing quite well – there could at least have been a scene of it being “proven” somehow, or at least expressing SOME disbelief – Sawyer tells them it’s 1977 and then they just go off to meet their new Dharma employers. Christ, does Hurley even say “Dude...”? Jack’s scene with Sawyer also feels rushed – he comes over, Sawyer tells him that he likes to think instead of react, and Jack just sort of looks at him.

Also, he seems offended that he’s a janitor, which makes no sense since it wasn’t HIS aptitude test that got him there. He should be happy it’s remedial work and not something out of his field of expertise – he could have ended up having to be the Dharma priest or something.

And what’s with people not winking at Sayid? Both Jin and Sawyer get up in a very confused Sayid’s face and play their parts, but never give the poor guy any indication that he should play along too or that they aren’t crazy and are still on his side. Also, having TWO suspicious Dharma assholes seems a bit contrived; they should have left Radzinsky out of it, especially when we know he doesn’t die yet. So we have Phil in order to have a villain that can get his comeuppance at the season’s end, because no one’s ever mentioned him before. They should have just combined the two or something.

One thing I liked was seeing Marvin Candle/Pierre Chang interacting with Jack. Up until now he’s been this guy who seemingly existed in another area of the show, seen only in videos or in stand alone scenes. He met Faraday before, but having him deal with Jack, our main star and hero, really cemented him as a true character, and I enjoyed his subplot in subsequent episodes (though the Myles thing was a bit of a stretch).

As with the season premiere, I think the episode falters by not having a main character to focus on. The switching around through time is disorienting enough; it’s worse without a, well, a “constant” to ground us. And as a result the episode doesn’t really tell a story so much as it just moves all of the pieces around and lays groundwork for future adventures, rendering it rather uninteresting, especially on repeat viewings. Oh well.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"LaFleur"

JANUARY 10, 2011

FOCUS: SAWYER
EPISODE: 5.8
AIRED: MARCH 4, 2009

A Sawyer episode! Haven’t had one of those in a while. “LaFleur” is interesting in that it’s REALLY a Sawyer episode – Jack, Kate, etc barely appear, but James is front and center for two equally interesting stories, one telling the story of how he joined the Dharma Initiative, and another showing him in a leadership role, dealing with a minor crisis before the shit hits the fan (i.e. Jack and the others arrive). And it aired on my birthday! Nice gift, eh?

What I like about the episode is that it’s actually the inverse of a traditional Lost tale. Usually the present day stuff is action-based, and the flashback tells a personal story that relates to it in some way. But here, the 1974 tale has the action (shootouts! A hostile breach!), and in 1977, Sawyer’s finally coming around to enjoying a life without Kate. And while I certainly don’t buy that a man could forget what my lady looked like after just three years (I’d say at least 10), the sentiment is quite heartbreaking.

But at the same time, I really enjoyed the scenes depicting his growing relationship with Juliet. Her claim that she’ll continue to have his back (and the look on her face when he asks it again at the end of the 1974 tale) is quite touching, and it’s actually one of the few romances born out of the show that I totally buy. Sayid and Shannon never made any goddamn sense, and Kate’s back and forths with Jack and Sawyer usually sprung from her being pissed at the other - as much as I liked seeing her and Jack together in the present day, the two never really had that sort of bonding (not counting their very first meeting) that we see with Juliet and Sawyer here. Good stuff.

It was also fun to see him in a leadership role, and being respected to boot. Folks looked up to him, and he seemed happy. He barely even got to be funny in the 1977 scenes (though I liked his reference to the “coconut telegraph” – good thing he switched it from “internet”), but he did get to help settle a couple’s minor squabble and give his girlfriend a flower. And he makes it believable – good on Josh Holloway for his performance here. He’s barely ever gotten to play anything but an anti-hero, but here? Shit, he’s bordering on Matthew McConaughey rom-com mode at times. He even has his hair combed! I’m guessing this episode is a favorite amongst his female fans.

Speaking of the couple, the female is none other than Reiko Aylesworth, who was one of the few characters I liked on 24 (so of course, she was killed). And one of the Dharma guys who first sees “the hostiles” at the beginning of the episode is Kevin Rankin, better known as Herc from Friday Night Lights (the best show on TV!). Lost employed a lot of folks from my other favorite shows over the years, and S5 would be a goldmine – in addition to these two, Jacob was played by the guy who played Lucifer on Supernatural (and the Man in Black, aka Titus Welliver, also appeared on that show), and the great William Sanderson from Deadwood (and about a million other things) will be popping up in “He’s Our You”. All they needed was someone from MST3k and I’d probably be able to forget most of the stuff I didn’t like about the season!

Anyway, damn good ep, possibly the best in the season. Can’t remember specifically liking any one episode for the rest of the season (I’ll know for sure in about 10 days I guess).

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham"

JANUARY 9, 2011

FOCUS: LOCKE
EPISODE: 5.7
AIRED: FEBRUARY 25, 2009

When I decided to re-watch the entire run of Lost (and write reactions for the joy of upwards of 23 people), one of the things I was most interested in seeing began with “The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham” – watching Locke now that I know he was the Smoke Monster/Man In Black from the moment the Ajira plane crashed on Hydra Island. Some folks have claimed that this was a nonsense, last minute decision made later, and perhaps they are right, but I definitely see some signs of it being the plan here.

For starters, Locke is definitely different here. He still loves fruit, but he’s oddly calm, and answers questions without being an asshole about it like he usually is. Poor Boone couldn’t even get a straight answer from the guy about the meaning of the word “trebuchet”, but now he’s politely telling strangers that he used to be dead. I also don’t care much for seeing him in a nice shirt; my Locke wears a plain T-shirt, dammit.

I also noticed that it was the second episode in a row to tell a story in linear fashion, bookended by present day stuff. And I had forgotten how much of a bummer it was; practically every scene is a downer, and had Locke not turned into such an unlikable asshole over the last two seasons I probably would have cried a few times, especially when he finds out Helen had died (which seemed to be more of an actor availability decision than one of storytelling, if you ask me). His scene with Jack is also quite depressing, and I wish it was longer – especially in hindsight when you realize it’s actually the last time the two men talk (well, I guess it is – Locke never tells him that anything bad happened on the island, which is what Jack says he told him in one of the previous episodes, so maybe they talked again later and we didn’t see it).

(I also forgot that they DO show what happened to the other folks on the plane, which I mentioned in yesterday’s review. Had anyone been reading I’m sure it would have been pointed out.)

I didn’t care much for the killing of Abaddon. I know he had to get back over to Fringe Division, but it seemed like there was more to this character than they had let on, and I don’t recall if he was ever even mentioned again after this. I know I’ve said it a million times, but on this show they should have just recast characters and dealt with it. Iron Man did it with Terrence Howard/Don Cheadle, didn’t seem to bother anyone as far as box office receipts are concerned. No, instead we just get annual single appearances of Walt, and someone always has to comment on how big he got. Real cute. Nice thing about a great story is that no one would really care about that sort of thing. Was killing off Mr. Eko way earlier than expected and annoying every fan on the planet (and leaving a lot of unanswered questions) worth sparing us the “jarring” sight of someone else playing the role? He died before the series’ halfway point; had the character survived until the series finale he would have been the more prolific Eko!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"316"

JANUARY 8, 2011

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 5.6
AIRED: FEBRUARY 18, 2009

While it wasn't exactly a return to 1st season heights, "316" is one of my favorite episodes of the 5th season, thanks to a minimum of time travel (it only occurs when they transfer from the plane to the island), and more importantly - a focus on one character (Jack) in which the story and his personal demons are linked. You know, like the old days.

The key difference is that it's presented in one long "flashback" (it's technically a flashforward through time), something that only Desmond and Michael have been offered so far. The structure keeps most of the island folk off-screen entirely (only Locke's corpse appears, and Jin at the very end), which is fine by me. No time travel and we get to see Jack doing his Jack-thing for the bulk of the hour? Sign me up!

One nitpick I never really thought of before - this all takes place, what, a week after the season 3 finale, where we saw him as a total wreck? Yet he's totally cleaned up (as is his apartment) and functioning normally. I only noticed because Kate is now the one who's all depressed, spending most of the episode crying or hiding behind sunglasses. Their love scene is so damn depressing; as much as I enjoy seeing my lady engaged in bedroom behavior, it's just uncomfortable - maybe they should have just cuddled? Or, if Jack was still all messed up too, it would have been sort of cathartic. Oh well.

Jack undergoes a pretty big transformation as this season continues (and goes full blown in S6), and it really starts here. First with the shoes practically falling in his lap, and then with the suicide note - you can really see that he's starting to buy into this stuff once and for all. One could argue that he felt that way the moment he read Locke died, but I saw this more as a guy at the end of his rope seeing an opportunity to redeem himself, not as a "holy shit, he was right!" moment. It's just a damned shame that the two men never really had another scene together.

And I have to applaud the writers (Lindelof and Cuse in this case) for sticking with Jack despite what seemed like a lot of action occurring elsewhere. It could have easily been another scattered episode, if they showed why Kate was sad, why Sayid was under arrest, why Ben had been beaten to a pulp for the umpteenth time, but they saved all that stuff for later. It's the rare occasion that it seemed they were withholding information not just to keep us coming back, but also to ensure they were providing a focused and just plain GOOD episode of the show.

It also has two of my all time favorite moments from their respective characters. First is Ben's hilarious response (and Michael Emerson's delivery) when Jack asks what will happen to the other people on the plane. It's not only funny because Ben doesn't care, but it's also a good meta-joke - you know there were some people wondering about it, so it was the writers' way of "explaining" that it doesn't matter. I always mock my wife for caring about the person who dies in the opening scene of a horror movie ("Why do you care if they die? You don't even know their name!"), and this is along the same lines - they're just anonymous blurs, and we only have 30 episodes left. There are more pressing matters! I also love that Hurley used his wealth to keep the body count down by buying every available seat. Good on you, Hugo.

The second A+ moment occurs a few minutes later, when Frank sees everyone on the plane and sighs "We're not going to Guam, are we?" I love that he barely knows these folks and is instantly OK with whatever nonsense they're up to - he could have easily turned the plane around before any shit went down. For whatever problems I may have had with the last two seasons, that Frank was still around (I figured he would be killed after 2-3 episodes, initially) made up for some of them. When Desmond was introduced, I was excited, thinking all new characters would be as interesting. Sadly, most weren't, but Frank bucked the trend - just a shame we never got to know too much about him.

All in all, a solid episode of Lost; the type that, when it aired, would rejuvenate my interest for the following week (when more often than not, something would annoy me and make me wish I could just wait for the DVDs or something).

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"This Place Is Death"

JANUARY 7, 2011

FOCUS: JIN, SUN
EPISODE: 5.5
AIRED: FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Yay, Charlotte’s dead! Of all the main characters, I am pretty sure she is my least favorite – she was cold, uninteresting, and just downright unpleasant most of the time, with a ludicrous (and error-filled) back-story to boot. But her death in “This Place Is Death” serves two purposes; in addition to amusing me, it also raises the stakes on the time travel shit – you can DIE from this crap (just like the ratings! Hey-o!). A common problem with any continuing narrative is making sure that the audience understands how dangerous something is, and we usually just have to take their word for it. Not on Lost! Cast members are barely safer than the average extra.

Or should that be "safer than John Locke’s leg"? For what seems like the 59th time on this show, he falls and hurts his leg again (for a magical healing island that he supposedly has been “chosen” by, it sure injures him a hell of a lot). The first time, it was like “Oh no!”, because a. we still liked Locke and b. didn’t want him to have to be crippled again. But they’ve gone to that well (heh) too many times now, and he’s no longer as sympathetic anyway.

This scene is pretty interesting in retrospect, because Christian (who if I am remembering correctly is the Man in Black/smoke monster at this point, right?) won’t help him walk, when we now know that this being allows Locke to “live” again when he takes his place. The “Locke as smoke monster” shit really annoyed me, but at least there seems to be some evidence that it wasn’t something they pulled out of their ass during season 6.

Speaking of inconsistencies, nothing we see of Danielle’s past matches up with what she has related in the present day, but I guess she didn’t want to tell Sayid or whoever about the Asian guy who would disappear at random (don’t forget – according to Daniel, everything that happened, happened! Jin has ALWAYS met Danielle before she had her baby!). Jin’s plan to “prove” he’s dead also makes little sense – wouldn’t his word be enough for her? He’d have to pry the wedding ring off his dead hand (not to mention bury him without it – harsh) to make it so? And Jin knows Locke isn’t a fan of this plan – he could just as easily use it as proof he was alive (which is exactly what Ben does).

Also, since when does Jin not want to save his friends? He’s risked his life on several occasions to help Michael, Sawyer, etc – if Locke is telling him it’s the only way to keep all of them from getting hurt/killed, why doesn’t he trust him? Guess it’s because it’s only the 2nd time these two have ever spoken. On that note, his reunion with Sawyer is pretty sweet – good bro-hugging and genuine emotion all around! I also loved Ben freaking out on Jack and Sun for talking about wanting to kill him right in front of him – they have a point, but so does he – he HAS been quite protective of the Oceanic Six (he let them leave in the first place, for starters). Makes up for the sad moment where Sayid tells Jack to fuck off – they had been strong allies almost from the first episode, so this bummed me out. Then again, Sayid’s character is completely ruined from the moment he gets on the Ajira plane anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

And can we get a break on the fucking Geronimo Jackson references? It's the dumbest running gag in entertainment history.

Tomorrow – Jack and Kate play Blue Valentine!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Little Prince"

JANUARY 6, 2011

FOCUS: KATE (SORT OF)
EPISODE: 1.4
AIRED: FEBRUARY 4, 2009

Man, what a polarizing episode. On the one hand, Evangeline Lilly has never looked more beautiful than she does in “The Little Prince” – the lady cleans up good. On the other, you have the most annoying scene in the entire series run (including any other scenes I’ve made the same claim for – my memory sucks): when our heroes are getting shot at by the occupants of another outrigger, a group that is never identified in any way. So I’m at a loss.

Actually it doesn't matter, because as a whole it's just a filler episode, with the folks both on and off the island mostly just traveling from one place to another and not really doing much. There’s a really nice moment with Kate and Jack, when he says that Aaron is his family too (dude, if not for the pressing matters, she would have jumped the shit out of the good doctor right then and there). I also like the scene where Sawyer sees Kate delivering Claire’s baby (why he didn’t just ignore Daniel and run over saying “hey don’t believe that Henry dude he’s lying!” or something else of use, I don’t know), and I like how Juliet has seemingly gained power over Sawyer (she tells him to shut up and go away, and he does! Doesn’t even call her anything), but really the entire episode is just a bunch of driving or walking around.

Even the big moment in the show – the reunion of the Oceanic Six – doesn’t actually happen! They leave it as a cliffhanger, which is the rare instance of the show being hurt by watching them back to back. At least when they aired, there was some suspense to the ending, because they seemed to be hinting that Sun was planning to kill them or something, but now we know she doesn’t, so the episode just sort of stops and we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what she does (nothing). And as much as I love fighting and action scenes, I’m pretty goddamn sick of seeing dudes trying and failing to kill Sayid. Like, of all the six, why is he the only one that ever gets assassins after him? Why can’t some dude try to kill Jack at the liquor store or something?

I’ve also (re) had it up to here with the time travel flashes. Maybe if there was some sort of system to them – every hour, or every time someone says “Fluffernutter” – anything but “OK here would be a good spot to flash again, because we’ve written ourselves into a hole” (or a character would have enough time to reveal something that they were trying to hide from us, i.e. when Locke and Richard were talking). The random times don’t make much sense either – they go to the 50s, the 70s, a few days ago, the future... no pattern whatsoever. Daniel compared it to a record skipping, but if the record skips it stays in one spot and has a weird rhythm to it – it doesn’t just go all around the record like some sort of needle-based asshole.

The “resurrection” of Jin is pretty good though. Again, I’m confused why he doesn’t go to the same time periods as everyone else (unless he just slept through all of the previous flashes?). But I like that he is found by Danielle – a nice little twist that I didn’t see coming. I also appreciated that they didn’t try dragging out the “Jin is dead” nonsense for too long; 4 episodes is fine I guess. Especially considering how long they drag out his separation from Sun; it’s actually lightning quick in comparison.

Eh, the season as a whole is just a bunch of hooey until Jack and the rest get back on the island, in my opinion. If you look at the whole series as one movie, this would be the portion where I’d go check my email or make a sandwich or something.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Jughead"

JANUARY 5, 2011

FOCUS: DESMOND
EPISODE: 5.3
AIRED: JANUARY 28, 2009

Leave it to Season 5 to make a Desmond episode that I don’t like. Luckily, my boy isn’t the problem with “Jughead” – it’s the eponymous bomb that Daniel is hellbent on deactivating, a worthless storyline for this episode because a hydrogen bomb exploding is something that is best saved for a season finale. So like last season’s "The Other Woman", the episode is based on preventing something that we know isn’t going to happen; it’s like basing an episode of 24 around the possibility that Jack Bauer would die (oh wait, they did that like a dozen times).

The funny thing about this episode is that if you haven’t been keeping up with the show since Season 2, you not only won’t know what’s going on, you won’t even know who the hell you’re looking at. Not only do Kate and Jack not appear, but neither does pretty much anyone else from Oceanic 815. Sawyer and Locke are the only “classic” characters, the rest of the episode focuses on the Freighter Folk, the Others, and Desmond. Luckily for Lost, they had pretty few casual viewers who would do such a thing; even the big finale didn’t attract a lot of curiosity beyond the folks like me who watched every episode, unlike say Seinfeld or whatever.

Actually it’s not too bad; the Desmond stuff is quite good in fact. I love that they named their kid Charlie – not only is it sweet (and the only time anyone on the show displayed any signs of remembering the poor bastard), but it also made me realize for the first time that the show had two “Charlies” – the other being Widmore, who went by Charles. I would have liked to have seen the awkward moment where one proposed the name to the other. “After Widmore? Are you mad?” “No, Charlie the guy who saved– oh, wow, never thought of that.” And I like that Desmond and Widmore finally saw eye to eye on something; it’s the most respect we’ve ever seen the guy show his son-in-law. His description of “an island” is also pretty sweet – in fact he should have mentioned the monsters before he revealed he was actually talking about England, would have been even funnier.

And while I don’t care much for Charlotte, I loved Daniel’s “reveal” that he was in love with her. The freighter folk had largely been used for exposition and comic relief (in Myles’ case) so it was good to see them have a genuine human moment for once. It makes up for a rather inane character blunder on the part of Richard – this guy doesn’t age, and yet he’s incredulous that someone could be from the future? If I was immortal, I’d give the benefit of the doubt to folks claiming equally fantastical things.

Speaking of inconsistencies – how is it that we are just learning now that Widmore was actually on the island (how/why they were there in the first place is an even bigger mystery)? You’d think Ben would have mentioned this to Locke at least. It’s a fairly stupid plot point to boot – I liked the idea that he was just a greedy man who somehow heard about this place and had to have it. That he was there before Ben makes Ben’s actions and attitude toward him more villainous, if you ask me. They’re going out of their way to make Ben sympathetic and now we reveal Widmore has more of a right to be there than him, if you’re going by seniority?

Oh and I should correct myself from yesterday’s writeup – they hadn’t killed off all of the “socks” yet, I forgot about the two background survivors that got blown up in this one. I swear this show has a higher body count than Murder, She Wrote.

Tomorrow – the most frustrating moment in the show’s history! And yes, I'm including the many TV-PG Evangeline Lilly shower scenes!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Lie"

JANUARY 4, 2011

FOCUS: HURLEY
EPISODE: 5.2
AIRED: JANUARY 21, 2009

I don’t recall this, but I guess “The Lie” aired on the same night as “Because You Left”, which is a good thing since it’s a vast improvement over that mess, so by airing right after it was probably a lot easier to get people to stick around, whereas a week of the bad taste of “Because” would have probably sunk the show’s ratings even more than they already were (indeed, S5’s ratings declined steadily; these were the highest rated episodes of the season).

Most of that can be attributed to two things: a clearer focus and a return to following a central character, in this case Hurley (I now realize that by giving him the first “centric” episodes of both S4 and S5, they may have known his ultimate fate this far in advance after all, as it primed him as a more important character than the first couple seasons had suggested). It’s not a traditional flashback episode or anything, but he is the guy we spend nearly all off-island scenes with, as he tries to get help for Sayid and escape the cops (or ghosts of cops – thanks for bringing back Ana Lucia, guys, we really missed her).

(That was sarcasm.)

It’s also a damned hilarious episode. Hurley’s reaction to Ben with his Hot Pocket is one of the funniest gags in the show’s history (and Michael Emerson’s reaction isn’t too far behind on that list), and I loved his choice of shirt to replace the one with “blood” all over it. And even though it approaches meta/winking/“you can’t mock us if we mock ourselves first” areas that I don’t care for, Hurley’s description of the main plot of the show thus far is pretty funny. And I love that his mom doesn’t say “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard” or something; by believing him, it sort of validated the nonsense for me. Even though it was indeed pretty silly, her having that reaction made me remember that I loved these characters, and even though the story was going into places I didn’t care for (i.e. time travel), I knew I’d stick around to see how they all fared.

Speaking of Hurley’s parents, I love that Cheech (I forget his character name) stood up to Jack in order to protect Hurley. Like all Lost dads, he’s been depicted as kind of shitty thus far, so it’s nice to see ANY of them do something parental for once, let alone a beloved actor who has been largely characterized as kind of a dumbass until this point. It also lets him join the club with the other dads who got to be part of the main story, like Christian and Cooper (and to some extent Mr. Paik).

It’s also a less “busy” episode – Locke doesn’t even appear until the very end, and the writers hilariously pull another massacre off by killing pretty much every background survivor that was left. I laugh at it, but in a way it’s kind of sad – Jack went from a guy who was trying to save 47 other people to a guy who only sort of saved about a half dozen or so. Sounds like a pisspoor captain. It’s worth it to see Frogurt get killed though; he only appeared in two episodes but man that guy was annoying.

My only complaint with the episode is the stuff with Ben, which opens up the story even MORE. See, if you look at the show as one long story, then we’re essentially in the third act (not even at the beginning of it if you go by episode count instead of by seasons) – do we really need to introduce more characters and business at this point? I guess the writers agreed, at least later – we never know what he was putting in his bag, or who “Gabriel” was. I don’t even recall if they ever explained why he was seemingly partnered with a female butcher in Los Angeles.

On the other hand, I am sort of tickled by the fact that Ben and Jack are now calling each other like old pals, due to my endless love of the uneasy truce. When Lost was originally airing, my 2nd favorite show was Prison Break, which was constantly having old enemies team up against common enemies, and I love movies like Assault on Precinct 13 or The Killer that depict this sort of stuff. But again, it just raises the question – why couldn’t Ben have just been friendly toward them in the first place? 90% of the bad things that happened in the first two and a half seasons were the result of the Others being antagonistic toward the Oceanic folk – if they weren’t trying to actually kill them, why not bring some pineapples to the beach camp and invite them over to New Otherton for roast boar? So I take it back, they didn’t plan shit.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Because You Left"

JANUARY 3, 2011

FOCUS: STUPID FUCKING TIME TRAVEL
EPISODE: 5.1
AIRED: JANUARY 21, 2009

Hey, Lost producers – if you’re trying to make us think a character is dead, it’s probably a good idea to remove his name from the opening credits. Jin wouldn’t appear until the 4th or 5th episode of the season, but his name is still there in “Because You Left” and the following episodes, pretty much spoiling what little suspense there was to that subplot (nice try with keeping Daniel Dae Kim off of the most commonly used S5 promotional photo though).

S5 is my least favorite season of Lost, and that is due to the time travel, which is the main focus of this episode (the worst season premiere ever). Maybe some folks dug it, and I can see how they almost had to go to the time travel well in order to make sense out of the stuff in previous seasons (Ben asking what year it was when he arrived on the mainland, for example), but I personally am just not a fan of this concept in anything. Apart from maybe Back to the Future, I can’t think of a single time where a time travel element was used without causing major plot holes, and Lost is no exception. So then we got the temple, which was a deus ex machina introduced to fix all of the problems caused by previous deus ex machinas.

I mean, Christ, the episode has not one but TWO scenes of Daniel trying to explain what’s going on by using a common world example – first a record skipping and then a street. Shouldn’t that be a pretty big indicator that your storytelling has gone off the rails when you need two scenes in under forty minutes where someone has to dumb things down in order for it to make sense? Or keeping a handsome cast member shirtless for half the episode in an (admittedly hilarious) attempt to keep it watchable?

The biggest problem is that there’s no central character to the episode, which just makes it feel aimless (and in hindsight, it's fairly telling – no characters, just story). It seems like they should have gone the way of S3’s early episodes and focused on a different set of folks each episode instead of trying to cram them all into one, because it’s just too busy of an episode. Let’s see, you get Sayid’s crazy action hero antics, Sun’s dealing with Widmore, Jack and Ben plotting their next move, Kate on the run (again?), Locke off on his own and getting shot by Ethan, Sawyer’s quest for a shirt and some answers, Daniel and Desmond’s “exempt” time travel matters... oh and we find out Marvin Candle’s real name is Pierre Chang (I think this is the first time we’ve seen that anyway), and that he has a little son and that Daniel was in the past with him. Christ, I’m surprised they didn’t give Vincent some business of his own or maybe cut to the producers of Expose trying to find an actress that could loop Nikki’s lines for her final episode in her absence.

I was also confused by how the time travel worked. Their camp is gone because “they hadn’t built it yet”. But do the animals on the island go back and forth through time too? It seems not, because it doesn’t even look like Ethan or Richard are “displaced”. But if it’s just our survivors, why are they in two separate time periods (three if you count Jin)? Why would something so niche be so inconsistent?

Guess it’s just best not to think about it. Kind of weird for a show that has been telling you to read obscure Irish novels and the histories of various 17th century philosophers, though.

When are we?

P.S. Richard gets the best moment in the entire episode, when Locke asks him what the compass “does”. “It... points north, John.” Hahahaha, classic Alpert.

PLEASE, GO ON...