"Meet Kevin Johnson"

DECEMBER 23, 2010

FOCUS: MICHAEL
EPISODE: 4.8
AIRED: MARCH 20, 2008

Maybe it's simply BECAUSE they are different, but I tend to really like the episodes of Lost that break the traditional structure of going back and forth between past and present (or present and future, or present and the weirdest version of purgatory ever). Like "The Other 48 Days" and "Flashes Before Your Eyes", the past part of the story in "Meet Kevin Johnson" is told in one long segment, depicting how Michael got to be on the freighter, as well as the fate of Walt.

Michael was never one of my favorite characters, but it's hard not to feel bad for the guy here - he did these horrible things just to save his son, only to end up losing him (it's not really made clear, but the idea is that he told Walt what he did and the kid stopped speaking to him). His mom seems to hate him too, and since it's Christmas that's even more tragic to me. And worse, the island won't even let him kill himself! But he's still a selfish jerk - there's a great moment where Ben (correctly) points out that he won't kill an innocent person, and Michael asks about Ana Lucia and Libby. He actually thinks that's Ben's fault? All he had to do was tell Ana Lucia to go outside while he "killed" Ben. Dumbass.

The scenario also allows us to see Tom again. I would have liked a better showdown between the two - he IS the one that took Walt, but I liked seeing him dress and act like a guy on an all expense paid business trip. M.C. Gainey clearly enjoyed the change of pace too - it's one of his most humorous and showy performances. Good ol' Tom.

The structure keeps the Island stuff to a minimum (neither Jack or Kate even appear - very rare for just one to skip an episode, let alone both). The episode begins with Locke gathering "everyone" to tell them the plan, and by everyone I mean the credited cast members. There are a half dozen or so other survivors who have joined their camp, but they apparently just sit in their houses and do nothing - Locke can't even be bothered to tell them that they're in danger, I guess. Kind of funny.

Most of this stuff focuses on Ben, which leads to my only real problem with the episode - Rousseau's death. Now, she's never been a main cast member, but she has been a presence on the show since early in the first season (she was the first "other" Island resident we met besides Ethan), and her role had been expanded so far this season, now that she was reunited with Alex (who looks exceptionally cute in this episode, I want to point out). So to gun her down so quickly, while a nice shock moment, seems a bit lame to me. Killing Karl like that was already enough of a shock for the scene, did they have to kill her so quickly too? She got shot in the right lower side of her torso, it seems to me she could have lived a few minutes, maybe drag it out to the next episode. And in keeping with the "tradition" of this season, no one ever seems to care she died either.

When this episode aired, it was as a sort of "cliffhanger" because of the writer's strike, which halted production, shortened the season by 2 episodes, and caused a break of about a month or so. I can't recall for sure (I will tomorrow!) but I seem to remember thinking that the NEXT episode would have been a better "mid-season finale", but the specifics why escape me for the moment. At any rate, the strike hurt a lot of shows (24 was off for the entire season as a result), and Lost seemed to be one of the few that weren't effected much for a while (besides the break), but the season finale felt very rushed, which I think is where the strike effect finally took hold. I'll talk about that more in that episode's review next week, but for now I'll just point out that they ended up getting extra episodes in the 5th and 6th seasons, so overall, it evened out. Barring actor availability, since they knew they had 16 episodes per season for 3 seasons (ended up being 14, 17, and 17), it seems to me that they cannot blame the strike for any shortcomings the show had on a narrative level.

Speaking of which, I just remembered/realized that Richard has been absent for this season - that was due to Nestor Carbonell taking a leading role on the show Cane, which was a victim of the strike - it finished up its first batch of episodes, and then the strike happened, CBS had some mid-season shows to launch, and it sort of got left in the dust despite decent ratings (not as good as Lost's however). If memory serves he does make an appearance or two at the end of the season though. Also, if you type out Nestor Carbonell on Google, "Nestor Carbonell Eyeliner" is the first thing that pops up under his name. Poor sod (it's not eyeliner, he just has dark ringed eyes).

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Three Minutes"

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

FOCUS: MICHAEL
EPISODE: 2.22
AIRED: MAY 17, 2006

Lost had a lot of cliffhangers in its run, but I don’t think any got me as worked up as the one in “Three Minutes”, where a boat appears on the horizon just as the episode came to a close. It’s the type of thing that made me (momentarily) consider waiting for DVD, to spare myself the agony of waiting a week to get the next scene. Especially when it actually turned out to be something awesome (Desmond!).

Part of why I got so worked up, I think, is because my emotions were already in overdrive thanks to the funeral scene, which is easily the saddest in the show’s run. Since Hurley is our surrogate, it’s nearly impossible not to choke up when he delivers Libby’s eulogy, and Kate’s motherly affection to him is also quite moving. And when he looks at Michael all pissed off, and for a split second you think he might have figured it out, only to agree to come along on the trip – I mean GODDAMN that’s rich.

Speaking of the trip, I’ve always hated how convenient it was that the exact four people on Michael’s list were the ones in the Hatch at the time all of this went down. Maybe it was due to time constraints and they had to be a little lax, but it seems that they would have complicated the matter somehow by having Locke around or something. Granted Michael has to talk Sayid out of joining, but even that seems to be a “writers’ convenience” move, so Sayid can tip Jack off and also add some drama to the next episode (oh, and piss everyone off for four years with the four toed statue).

It's also rich with great character moments, which is impressive considering how much is going on plotwise. Charlie tossing all of the heroin back into the ocean (and making up with Claire!), Sawyer’s repeated attempts to bond with Jack (guess this one was written post fan reaction to "The Long Con", since Sawyer spends the whole episode going out of his way to be likable, even offering Jack a drink!), Eko’s new-found job as hatch protector... all great stuff. But my favorite moment has to be Eko’s story about the kid being afraid of meeting the dog he killed in hell, which is not only a cool story but also adds a layer to Eko’s character – he obviously knows that Michael is responsible, but, like Rose and Bernard in later seasons, doesn’t want to get involved with all this nonsense.

And nonsense it is – I still don’t get why the Others have the ruse of living in huts and not having clothes and such. I guess it’s just a way for them to psyche out the Survivors, but really? You’re going to walk around an island with no shoes just so you can get the drop on a guy named Hurley? Tom’s fake beard looks a lot better in this episode, however. And speaking of “hero” Others, we meet Pickett in this one, though he’s a bit out of character compared to the way he is in Season 3; he’s actually kind of nice here. I also wish Ms. Klugh was a more prominent character – she seemed a lot more interesting than most of the Others we got to know.

I know I said yesterday that I’d watch “both parts” of the S2 finale back to back, but I notice now that the DVD did that for me. Lostpedia has them listed as separate episodes, and obviously it’s been a while, so I couldn’t remember, but I guess they aired on the same night (as opposed to S1’s “Exodus” parts 1 and 2). So it’ll be just the one, and then we start Season 3 on Wednesday! Juliet!

Where are we?

P.S. This episode reminds me – I need to start using “caught in a net” as a euphemism for sex.

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Adrift"

OCTOBER 26, 2010

FOCUS: MICHAEL
EPISODE: 2.2
AIRED: SEPTEMBER 2005

The weirdest thing about “Adrift” is that it was originally a Sawyer flashback episode, but they changed it to be about Michael during production, likely resulting in having to go back and make sure they had enough held shots of the other actor that would be long enough for the whooooooooooosh sound to play. I can see how it could be an episode from either man’s perspective, since it’s just the two of them on the raft arguing most of the time, but it’s kind of odd all the same, and seems to be the only time in the series’ history that sort of thing happened.

It’s a pretty good episode, though the flashback doesn’t really help advance the plot any, since it just details what we already know – Susan left with Walt, with Michael giving custody rights away. Sure it’s touching and all, but again, we already know this stuff, as his previous episode was pretty much all about how he got screwed out of having a life with his son. I don’t think giving more examples makes his current situation any more or less upsetting. We know he loves the kid and lost him before; why deprive us of Sawyer action just to tell us again? Female fans must have been livid.

The rest of the episode largely deals with showing more of what happened when Locke and Kate went down the Hatch, which I believe is the first time in the show they’ve basically had flashbacks on the island, since the bulk of it takes place before the events we saw in the previous episode. I love Locke in this episode though, he has no concern for the crazy guy with a gun, and just asks him about a million questions (and assumes he is “the guy”, despite not having any clue what Snowmen say to each other). And it’s hilarious when he convinces Desmond to tie up Kate instead of him. “She’s a fugitive!” The “fuck you” look on Kate’s face is priceless.

And we meet the Others! Or so we think. As we now know, the “Others” were just the tail section survivors, but damn that was one intense moment to see Eko and the other folks charging after Jin after Sawyer and Michael washed up on the beach. I also never noticed that save Eko, the other actors were clearly NOT the ones who would actually play those roles (Bernard, Libby, etc), which is the 2nd time the show employed a “temp” actor (Jack’s dad being the other). Also, I notice now – this wouldn’t be the last time Jin washes up on a beach and gets taken prisoner by terrified non-Korean speakers.

The Dharma logo also comes into play more, both in the Hatch and on the shark that menaces Sawyer and Michael (as Walt predicted!). It would get kind of silly over the years, how much stuff Dharma put their logo on (the fish biscuit being the low point), but at the time it was pretty cool, hinting at this corporation. All the great sci-fi properties have evil corporations involved – OCP, Weyland-Yutani, Skynet... we all hoped Dharma would fall in line. Sadly it was mostly just a bunch of hippie scientists, but still, they’re KIND of evil – who has the balls to brand a goddamn shark?

Also, Sawyer’s “We’re home” is one of the most heart-breaking moments on the show ever, in my opinion. You really feel for the poor sap at this moment. Especially after he spent so much of the episode being badass - dude pulled a bullet out with his bare hands! AND out-swam a shark! A hero.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Special"

OCTOBER 4, 2010

FOCUS: MICHAEL, WALT
EPISODE: 1.14
AIRED: JANUARY 19, 2005

I’ve seen “Special” at least four times, and I still cringe at the shot of Michael getting hit by a car in one of his flashbacks. It’s easy to spot the edit where the stuntman replaced him, but still, THAT GUY got hit, right? And there’s no padding on the ground to cushion him. It’s a pretty epic hit. Puts that digital Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black to shame.

This occurs in one of the many flashbacks in this episode. In fact, I’d guess that this one has the closest flashback to island ratio of any season 1 episode, because there’s a lot of story to cover (plus two characters to focus on). Since we’ve learned so little about Michael on the island, it’s up to the flashbacks to reveal his desire to be a dad, the reason he wasn’t, and how he became one again. But we also have to learn that Walt is really special, which will play a major part in-

Oh wait, right. Walt’s abilities and “special”ness never really paid off, did it? The actor got too big and rather than recast him (something they only did with Claire’s mom, and obviously Aaron, throughout the show’s run, which is pretty impressive), they just wrote him out and left pretty much everything about him unresolved. Apparently he’s in the “New Man In Charge” thing that’s on the S6 DVD (I haven’t watched that yet – saving it for my sole “fresh look” review!), but it still leaves a lot of his backstory unanswered. He can make birds kill themselves and appear as a wet ghost – that’s about as much as we ever really learn.

Michael is one of the show’s more polarizing characters – on one hand, we see that he really does have Walt’s best interests at heart (lying to him about why he was taking him, for example), and you can’t help but feel for the guy when he realizes his ex never gave the kid any of his letters. But on the other hand, he’s always up in Locke’s face just for talking to the kid, and he’s a jaywalker. He gets more “villainous” next season, obviously, and I’m not sure his redemption was really full-fledged (since most of the other survivors didn’t even know he was on the boat), but until then it was fun sort of trying to gauge whether or not I liked the guy.

And hey, we get another polar bear attack! It’s a pretty sweet sequence, and the effects aren’t even that bad for a TV show. Plus it allows Michael and Locke to kind of call a truce, which is the sort of thing I always like. Not sure I liked Boone becoming a crazy “guard dog” for Locke though – last week (or, yesterday, in the show’s timeline) he wanted to kill the guy himself. I guess you build up an insanely high loyalty to a guy once he convinces you not to try to nail your sister anymore.

The inception of the raft is also here, though of course it would be the first one that gets destroyed by Walt (because he’s special!), not the real one they actually use. It’s kind of weird that it took almost a month for someone to think of making a goddamn raft while they were on an island, but I guess thinking of it in episode 14 is better than episode 15. And unlike Tom Hanks they didn’t have to wait for a porta-potty to get a move on. Just a shame they didn’t figure out how to open the hatch before they made it, Desmond probably had way better tools.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...